There does not perhaps exist a people labouring under a greater degree of oppression from the effect of despotic power, and more heavily burthened with impositions and taxes, than the peasantry of Wallachia and Moldavia; nor any who would bear half their weight with the same patience and seeming resignation. Accustomed, however, to that state of servitude which to others might appear intolerable, they are unable to form hopes for a better condition; the habitual depression of their minds has become a sort of natural stupor and apathy, which render them equally indifferent to the enjoyments of life, and insensible to happiness, as to the pangs of anguish and affliction.
Hence it is in a great measure inferred that they are a quiet and harmless people. Their mode of living is, indeed, with regard to the intercourse among themselves, an uninterrupted calm. Although the male part are given to drinking, quarrels and fighting are almost unknown among them; and they are so much used to blows and all kinds of ill treatment from their superiors, that they approach with the greatest respect and submission any who bear upon themselves the least external mark of superiority.
Their religious notions, grounded upon the most ridiculous superstition, are extremely singular. They firmly believe in all sorts of witchcraft, in apparitions of the dead, in ghosts, and in all kinds of miracles performed by the images of saints, and by the virtues of the holy water. In illness, they place an image near them, and when they recover, though it were through the assistance of the ablest physician, they attribute their return to health to the good offices of the image alone. Their observance of Lent days is so strict, that the threats of instant death would hardly prevail upon any one to taste of the aliments specified in the endless catalogue of forbidden food. Their other Christian duties, although similar to those of the superior classes of their countrymen, are carried to greater excess. Invoking the Holy Virgin or any saint, is always substituted to regular prayer. Divine Providence is never directly addressed.
The villages throughout the country are principally composed of peasants’ huts, all built in the same style and of the same size. The walls are of clay, and the roofs thatched with straw, neither of which are calculated to protect the lodgers from the inclemency of the bad seasons. The groundfloors are, however, occupied as long as the weather will permit, and in winter they retire to cells under ground, easily kept warm by means of a little fire made of dried dung and some branches of trees; which, at the same time, serves for cooking their scanty food. Each family, however numerous, sleeps in one of these subterraneous habitations, men, women, and children, all heaped up together; and their respective beds consist of one piece of coarse woollen cloth, which serves in the double capacity of matrass and covering.
Their ordinary food is composed of a kind of dough to which they give the name of mammalinga, made of the flour of Indian wheat, sometimes mixed with milk. The first two or three days after a long Lent, they sparingly indulge themselves in meat; but the greater part cannot afford even so great a treat, and content themselves with eggs fried in butter, and the milk to their mammalinga.
They continue the whole day out of doors at work, and they bear with indifference all the extremes of the weather. Their industry, however, is not of a very active kind, and they take frequent rest.
Notwithstanding this mode of life, and the supposed influence of an ungenial climate, the generality of the peasants are a fine race of people. They have no peculiar turn of features which may be called characteristic; from long intercourse with foreign nations, their blood seems to have become a mixture of many. The Eastern black eye and dark hair, the Russian blue eye and light hair, the Greek and Roman nose, and those features which distinguish the Tartars, are equally common amongst all the orders of these two nations.
Both sexes are in the habit of marrying very young. They are not given by inclination to sensual pleasures; but as religion does not teach the women the propriety of virtue, excessive poverty induces them to grant their favours for any pecuniary consideration, frequently with the knowledge and consent of their husbands, or parents.
In the holidays, they spend most of their time in the village wine-houses, where they eat and drink, and sometimes dance. At other times they enjoy the spectacle of bear-dancing, a very common amusement throughout the country, conducted by wandering gypsies, who teach the art to those animals while very young, and gain a living by exhibiting them afterwards.
The dress of the male peasants bears some resemblance to that of the Dacians, as represented in the figures of Trajan’s pillar at Rome. Their feet are covered with sandals made of goat-skin. They wear a kind of loose pantaloon which is fastened to the waist by a tight leather belt, and closes from the knee downwards. The upper part of the garment is composed of a tight waistcoat, and a short jacket over it, of coarse cotton stuff, and in winter is added a white sheep-skin, which is hung over the shoulders in the manner of an hussar’s pelisse. The head is not deprived of any part of its hair, which is twisted round behind, and a cap is used to cover it, also made of sheep-skin, but which in summer is exchanged for a large round hat. The beard is shaved, and the whiskers alone are left to their natural growth.