The Bessarabian of the lower class is by nature a husbandman; he very rarely plies a trade. To know his real worth he must be seen in the interior of the country, far from the towns. The Moldavian peasant is brave, gay, and hospitable; he delights to welcome the stranger, and generally would be ashamed to receive the slightest present from him. The Russians accuse him of excessive sloth, but the charge appears unfounded. The Moldavian peasant seldom, indeed, thinks of accumulating money, but he always works with zeal until he has attained the position he had aspired to, the amount of comfort he had set his heart on; and, in reality, it is not until after the fulfilment of his desires that he becomes lazy, and that his efforts are generally limited to procuring his family the few sacks of maize necessary for its subsistence. But increase his wants, make him understand that there are other enjoyments than those in which he indulges so cheaply, and you will infallibly see him shake off his natural apathy, and rise to the level of the new ideas he has adopted.
The most charming thing in the Moldavian villages is the extreme cleanliness of the houses, which are generally surrounded by gardens and thriving orchards. Enter the forest dwelling, and you will almost always find a small room perfectly clean, furnished with a bed, and broad wooden divans covered with thick woollen stuffs. Bright parti-coloured carpets, piles of cushions, with open work embroideries, long red and blue napkins, often interwoven with gold and silver thread, are essential requisites in every household, and form a principal portion of the dowery of young women.
In general, the women take little part in field labours, but they are exceedingly industrious housewives. They are all clever weavers, and display great art and taste in making carpets, articles of dress, and linen. The great object of emulation among the women of every village, is to have the neatest and most comfortable house, and the best supplied with linen and household utensils.
Such was Bessarabia, when I visited it in detail, on my return from my long journeys in the steppes of the Caspian. I visited it a second time when about to quit Russia for the principalities of the Danube; and when I crossed the Pruth, I could not help reiterating my earnest prayers that the inexhaustible resources of this province may at last be duly appreciated, and that effectual measures may be taken to put an end to that languor and depression in which it has been sunk for so many years.
FOOTNOTES:
[85] Bessarabia now includes nine districts, the capitals of which, beginning from the south, are Ismael, Ackerman, Kahoul, Bender, Kichinev, Orgeiev, Beltz, Soroka, and Khotin. Kichinev is the capital of the government; it was formerly a poor borough on the Bouik, a little river that falls into the Dniestr; the preference was given it on account of its central position. Its population is now 42,636, of whom from 15,000 to 18,000 are Jews. It is to the administration of Lieutenant-general Fœderof that the town owes the numerous embellishments, and the principal public edifices it presents to the traveller's view.
[86] The Bulgarian colonies, the most prosperous of all those that have been established in the Boudjiak, numbered in 1840, 10,153 families, comprising 32,916 males, and 29,314 females. The surface of their lands has been estimated at 585,463 hectares, of which 527,590 are fit for tillage and hay crops, and 57,873 are waste. The Bulgarian colonists pay the crown 50 rubles per family. The corn harvest amounted, in 1839, to 211,337 tchetverts. They have contrived to preserve among them the breed of zigai sheep, the long strong wool of which is in demand in the East, and formed, previously to the Russian occupation, the chief wealth of the Bessarabians: they now possess about 343,479.
[87] The German colonies include nineteen villages and 1736 families. They are in a very backward condition.
[88] After the destruction of the celebrated Setcha of Dniepr, the Zaporogue Cossacks withdrew in great numbers beyond the Danube, and settled with the permission of the Turks on that secondary branch of the Balkan which runs between Isaktchy and Toultcha. During the wars of 1828 and 1829, the Russian government contrived to gain the allegiance of many of the descendants of these Zaporogues who served it as spies. Their number was so considerable that after the campaign Russia formed them into military colonies in the Boudjiak. These colonies increased greatly in consequence of the asylum they afforded to all the refugees and vagabonds of Russia, and presented, in 1840, an effective of two regiments of cavalry of 600 men each, with a total population of 3000 families, having eight villages and 50,000 hectares of land.
[89] We have no exact data respecting these villages, the situation of which is wretched enough. Their population consists entirely of fugitives, to whom the government had for many years granted an asylum in Bessarabia to the detriment of the neighbouring government.