EXTENT AND POPULATION—MANNERS OF THE WALACHIANS—THE GIPSIES—COSTUMES.
The grand principality of Transylvania, about one-sixth of the extent of Hungary, contains a population of about a million and a half. It presents as great a diversity of nations and religions as Hungary, being inhabited by Hungarians, Germans, Walachians, Greeks, Servians, Armenians, Bulgarians, Poles, Slowaks, Jews, and Gipsies, and containing, besides the four religions established by law, namely, those of the Catholics, Reformed Lutherans, and Unitarians, also disunited Greek Christians and Jews. The Armenians and united Greeks are numbered among the Catholics. It may naturally be supposed that the variety of nations may be perceived in the variety of their peculiar costumes, of which we shall present some specimens.
The Walachians, a great number of whom are spread throughout the Hungarian counties, are the most numerous race of the inhabitants of Transylvania. They may be divided into three classes. To some of them all the rights of nobility have been granted by different kings and princes of the country. They are ranked with the noble Hungarian landholders and enjoy the same rights; and among them are found several families of importance. Others belong to the class of knights who, on account of certain military services entrusted to them at different times, have obtained limited privileges of nobility: but by far the greater part of the Walachians are, like other peasants, bound to the service of the owner of the estate on which they live. Besides these, there are two Walachian frontier regiments, and a third part of the Szekler hussars is formed from this nation.
The Walachians are considered as one of those races which are tolerated in Transylvania, and according to the laws of that country cannot possess the rights of free citizens: but the free families are reckoned among the number of that established nation in whose territory they reside. Their religion is the Greek church, either united or not united, the former being in the proportion of about two to nine of the latter.
The total number of Walachians in the Austrian dominions is calculated at 1,600,000: of whom 900,000 inhabit Transylvania, 550,000 Hungary, 150,000 the Bukowina. The latter are, more correctly speaking, Moldavians, but they differ little in language and manners from the genuine Walachians.
The Walachian is short in stature, but of a compact muscular frame of body. The savage mode of life to which he is accustomed from his earliest infancy enables him to bear hardships with fortitude. Heat and cold, hunger and thirst, make no impression upon him. His features are strong and expressive, his hair dark and bushy. His countenance on the whole is not disagreeable, and both men and women, as well as girls of great beauty, are often seen among these people. They arrive early at maturity, yet frequently live to an advanced age. At seventeen or eighteen the Walachian marries a wife who is seldom above thirteen; before he is thirty he is a grandfather, so that the race multiplies rapidly, and the Walachians are already more numerous than all the other inhabitants of Transylvania.
In regard to character the Walachians are sly, reserved, cunning, revengeful and indolent. With the appearance of the greatest simplicity they well know how to profit by every opportunity of overreaching their neighbours. Indolence is a failing of the men rather than of the women, who perform all the labour of the house, make clothes for the whole family, and frequently afford their husbands much assistance in agriculture: whereas the men, after performing the most indispensable operations of the field and vineyard, pass the remainder of their time in idleness. The natural indolence of the Walachians receives much encouragement from the frequent holidays of the Greek church, which they usually spend in prayer, drinking and sloth. To work on such days would be criminal.
They are much addicted to drink, and the Walachian will frequently consume in wine and brandy in a few hours the produce of the labour of a week. If he is fortunate enough to find a pipe or violin, in addition to a full pitcher, he seldom ceases from revelry till he is quite intoxicated, and is carried home senseless. It rarely happens that many Walachians are assembled under such circumstances without fighting, for they are very quarrelsome when drunk.
The idleness of their disposition is naturally connected with an inclination to plunder; and if the Walachians are not such professed thieves as the gipsies, they never suffer a favourable opportunity to pass, and are particularly dexterous at stealing cattle; so that many laws passed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are directed against them by name, and at the present time the inhabitants of the countries in which they reside take strong precautions to prevent their depredations. When they leave their homes, for fear of punishment or to avoid military service, they often retire to the forests and mountains, where, singly, or in bands, they become the terror of the country. Perfectly acquainted with every hiding-place and every by-path, they are always ready to fall upon passing travellers, or to plunder lonely houses and villages, exercising the most inhuman cruelties: and in spite of the greatest precaution on the part both of the civil and military power, it is generally long before the depredators can be secured or expelled from their haunts, especially as the inhabitants are prevented by fear of a cruel revenge from affording effective assistance.