Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1908-10-31


drian. Because they speak Latin
language like Roumanlan, their neigh
bors call them Vlachs (Wallachs).
They are a slight, graceful people, and
in youth, before hardship and oppres-
sion have marked them, beautiful with
the rare spiritual beauty which haunt
ed Pre-raphaelite painters. Their viii
lagos are placed high up on the re-
mote passes and shoulders of the hills.
The women live there in seclusion all
the year round. unseen by strangers;
but the men and boys stay with them
during the winter only, and in summer
leave their homes to wander through
the valleys with their goats, sleeping
among the rocks. When the snow
melts and spring begins, they appear
guiding their flocks down the dry riv-
er beds to browse upon the under
brush, or resting in the shade Of the
plane trees while they beguile the long
heat Of the day with warbling solilo-
quies upon rough pipes made of stems
Of oleander Their dress is all Of thin
white linen, white leggings and fusta-
nella, white shirt and fez; and when a
group of the tall figures is seen out
lined against the blue sky upon some
overhanging rock, these ghostly
clothes and their sensitive faces and
great lustrous eyes make them look so
like lost angels imprisoned in this
burnt-up land that there would be no
surprise in seeing them spread irredes-
cent wings and dart circllng up into
the air. Their ethereal aspect and
shy, melancholy habits give them, in
the eyes of the Turks, an almost sa-
cred position; and for the same char
acteristics the Greeks treat them as
harmless imbeciles. Both nations ac-
cordingly allow them the privileges Of
obscurity, and employ them as car
riers to pass to and fro across the de-
batable land of the border, near which
no Greek or Turk would dare to ven-
ture.
At the Metecra MonasteTies the
traveller says good-by to his Greek
guards, and thence to Yanina he rides
in company with band of them, their
white figures fitting around him as
the way winds into a wilderness Of
sunlit valleys and brown mountain
domes, their musical voice calling to
hidden friends, who answer from above
the hillside The Vlachs are great
lovers of antiphonal song. Their sig
| nal-shouts have traditional forms
which distinguish family from family,
so that when the answering call is
heard to complete the phrase which
the signaler has begun, it is known
that q friend is near. Sometimes The
whole escort catch up the strain and
continue 1t through part Of the long
ballad which is the epic of their ances-
tors The story is always about love
and war. Each voice takes the part
of some character; the lover and his
lady, the wicked Turkish Bey, the cru
el Klepht or Arnaut, the heroic Viach
leader. Perhaps a distant goatAerd
or passing muleteer joins in the quay
ering nasal chant, singing in rivalry
| the exploits of his own relations.
Once at a place where a cool stream
swirled under the hollow of clin a
| Vlach boy scrambled out of the water,
and, throking his sheepskin around
him trotted alongside for mile or
two, chatting to an acquaintance. Dur
ing the midday halt, these two sang to-
gether a long song, rising and falling
interminably in the minor cadences
which sound so strange to western
ears. 1t was the tragedy of two
friends parted by death. Five years"
they sang, ''flve years we walked to-
gether. All winter long the same roof
covered us. All summer long we slept
under the same stars Five years our
enemies beset us in vain'-the tenor
voice stopped, and the treble descend
ed in a wall of hopeless sorroW-"Dut
now, now walk alone"
The route from Meteora to Yanina
runs up the Greek river Alpheus to the
frontier on high pass, and thence in
to Turkish Epirus down deep gorges
cut by the head-waters OF Acheron'
Through these defiles Ali, the leonine
tvrant of Yanina, once made military
road. and paved it with broad flag
stones, and bull bridges for the pas
sage of his canton. Now the paving
ia broken by earthquakes, and the can
non wheels, and the TurkS out OF pol
lev have blown UP the middle span oil
ali his bridges. But the ruins OF the
great road remain to suggest the his
tory of this country; how, by miracles
cruelty and valor, Ali united Albania
and threw off the yoke of the Sultan |;
how, by his personal force, he reigned
forty years at Yanina, allying himself
with Danton and Napoleon and Pitt;
how in his schools ne educated the
Greeks. and thus, and by the blow he
dealt to Turkish influence, set atool
the Gfreek war of independence; and
how. as his strength failed, the nooo
of Turkish power flowed again. anu
he died cruelty, but still lives in the
memory of Albania as the personihca
tion of its wild passion and furious val
or and tameless love of war and lid
erty.
For two days the traveller follows
Ali's road. At sunset on the secono
day he rides out OF the tooIhllls Vi the
Pindus range. and finds himself on the
edge of a great forest of tall, fiowerins
reeds. which join the brown earth tc
the green lake with fringe of less
vivid green and withered brown. A
canal cut through the forest yields
passage for a boat to the open water
beyond. On either side the featherJ
surface Of the reed-bed undulates II
swift waves as the little wind tha
comes at nightfall rushes softly ovel
them. The plash Of oars raises hos
of water fowl, which stream and drit
off clamoring toward the coming twi
light, dove-gray cloud flashing will
CLEANS OF white and scarlet in the lev
ell rays of the sun. And when the boa
reaches the end of the canal, and th'
reeds are left behind, Yanina Is seer