They’ll clank the time to dance and song.
How all the girls will smile to-night!
WOMAN’S WORK-DAY COSTUME IN KALOCSA
Pieces of metal are put upon the heels of the boots in order to make them clank and attract attention. These top-boots, so valued and well-cared for, are still seen far and wide. It has been said of them by a Hungarian writer, “that they may be taken as the most distinctive feature of Hungarian dress, the ornamentation of which, a veritable flower-garden, embroidered with leather, braid and silk, is a treasure of the Magyars unique of its kind.”
If this treasure was handed on from one generation to another difficulties might occur, as, even in the same family, striking discrepancies in the sizes of feet appear. The Hungarian girl, with her smart top-boots, necessarily wears short skirts to show them off, and if there is one feature which is observable in the peasants’ costumes, in widely-separated districts, it is the sensible short skirt usually reaching just below the knees. Now when some of the girls in the towns are finding it easier and more economical to wear slippers and brilliantly-coloured stockings, leaving the top-boots for special occasions, the shortness of the skirt has been slightly modified, and it sometimes reaches even to the heels. The next point is its voluminousness. It is made immensely full and pleated into the waistband with as many pleats as it can be made to take. The more skirts a girl can put on, one over another, the more is she to be envied and admired of her companions. She sometimes bears a burden of ten or twelve, which, all being trained to stand out as far as possible, give her the appearance of a rather substantial ballet-girl.
It is in some of the towns of the Alföld such as Szeged that the everyday peasant costumes can be seen best. Here slippers are to be observed at every turn, for slipper-making is one of the most popular industries of the busy town.
Imagine the peasant woman then with white sleeves, short sleeveless coat, full skirts and soft top-boots, and you have the outlines. But upon them what a variety of detail! The head may be tied up in a handkerchief, or with a shawl sometimes of sombre colour, but in certain districts certain hues seem to predominate; there is one where a real vivid orange-yellow, the colour of a mandarin’s robe, appears at every turn, here in a simple handkerchief, there in a shawl folded crosswise over the bosom, and even in a pair of long stockings rising in serene contrast from green or purple shoes.
The quaintest costumes of all are to be seen on high days in the little town of Zsdjar, up in the Carpathians, not far from Barlangliglet. The chief feature is a flat plaque of tomato-coloured satin, fastened to the knot of hair at the back, and falling down like a back-board set horizontally. It is fixed into the waist, and below the waist comes out as three streamers hanging down the skirt. It must be very uncomfortable, as, if loose enough to allow the head to bend, it must push it forward when upright, and if tight when the owner is erect, to bend must produce a strain on the already tightly drawn hair, plastered with boiled butter to make it lie flat. The plaque is often fastened by a brooch, and completely conceals all the hair except that enveloping the head like a hood. When a number of girls so clad are seen from the back on an open road, the effect is like a flock of odd flamingoes, especially if the skirts are white. Gold and silver braid and much ornamentation are displayed on the bodices.
At Toroczko in Transylvania some of the most elaborate and expensive costumes are worn. The girls wear white many-pleated skirts bordered with decorations of red and black silk or coloured thread, sometimes embroidered with beads, and they have red top-boots. The men wear white cloth trousers with stripes of red tape, Hungarian top-boots, overcoats of foxskin and black felt hats.