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Show fr K 7 C p N GREECE today coun-'j coun-'j T try life refers almost ex-? ex-? clusively to the peasan- -SsS try- Tne modern edu-cated edu-cated Greek is essential-3)1 essential-3)1 ly a townsman, and though some few of the wealthy classes have seats in the vicinity of Athens, rustic pursuits have little attraction for him. There is but little, also, of what we should term provincial life, for Athens is the one city of any pretensions to culture, and in it is centered the whole J social life of the nation. The majority of well-to-do Greeks make their money abroad in Egypt, Smyrna and other parts of the Levant, as well as in western west-ern Europe returning periodically to Athens to spend the fruits of their toil. Rural Greece, nevertheless, presents pre-sents many interesting aspects. The scenery, in most parts possessed of a splendour entirely its own, is made the more romantic by the great historical his-torical traditions associated with almost al-most every name upon the map; against such a background the peasant peas-ant physically and, perhaps, morally by far the finer half of the modern Greek race makes a picturesque figure. fig-ure. The currant fields at least in the Peloponnesus, are the most, characteristic character-istic scene of rustic labors. But great and important as the currant industry is, the vines are curiously local in their distribution, and it is only a relatively rel-atively small portion of the country which can be thus cultivated. Elsewhere Else-where the crops are of a more universal uni-versal kind, and in essence the occupations occu-pations of the peasantry are familiar, however peculiar the details which arise out of local conditions may appear. ap-pear. The Greek peasant has much ado, thanks to the general poverty of the soil, to wring a bare living out of agriculture. His indutsry is prodigious, pro-digious, especially in the mountainous regions where the traveler's admiration admira-tion is extorted by the diligence with pMRY LIFE ! 'iNGREECKMf, f & ft - y which small patches of ground, stolen as it were from the barren slopes, are cul-tivated cul-tivated and the peasant works with implement im-plement of the most primitive kind witness, for example, the plow seen in one- of the ac-companying ac-companying photogr aphs, which consists of little more than an iron-shod iron-shod spike, yoked to a pair o f undersized cattle. No doubt fr-4 vfvt ; the said spike efficiently achieves all that is necessary the soil is so shallow shal-low that it will bear little more than a mere scratching! Naturally, in a country with the physical charcteristics of Greece, the activities of much of rural population are pastoral. Tha goatherd is a familar figure everywhere; every-where; the shepherd also, but to a less degree. The goat, indeed, is the Greek peasant's cow, providing him " with milk, cheese, and flesh. It is interesting in-teresting to note that the herdsmen still retain that .'knack' of throwing the voice from height to height across the intervening valleys, which in classic times made possible the transmission trans-mission of news at a speed that almost al-most rivalled the modern telegraph. The national costume (which is, strictly, Albanian in origin) is dying out in Greece, but is , still worn by many peasants, though donned in fullest glory only on festal occasions. Usually the working garb is a pair of shoddy trousers in place of the snowy fustanella, or kilt, and a flimsy cotton blouse (generally of a greyish drab color and a check pattern) , which has very full skirts, and thus appears to end in a quaint abbreviated petticoat. petti-coat. In Thessaly, where reminiscences of Turkish rule, survive, not only in the mosques and other buildings, but in the habits and appearance of the people, peo-ple, the fez is not unusual, and garments gar-ments in the Turkish mode of baggy breeches and a sash round the middle are often seen. It was from the great plain of Thessaly that the ancient fjrepks nhtAinpd their finest, horses (of the type seen in the Parthenoi frieze), and in this northern part of Greek territory ter-ritory horse-breeding is still an important import-ant pursuit. The windmills of Greece perhaps deserve de-serve a word of notice. In place of the cumbrous great arms which a similar structure in this country carries, car-ries, the Greek windmill carries sails of canvas which can be spread to greater or less extent, as circumstances circum-stances require, upon the spider's weblike web-like arrangement of spokes to which they are attached. The wells also or, at least, their machinery for drawing draw-ing the water are often of a very curious pattern. It is no uncommon thing to see a blindfold , donkey patiently perambulating a circle and supplying motive power, through the beam to which he is harnessed, to an arrangement of clumsy wooden cogwheels cog-wheels actuating an endless chain of earthen pots, which automatically empty themselves of the fluid hoisted from the depths. But Greek peasant activities are by no means entirely agricultural and pastoral. In addition to currants and vines, are orange groves at Kalamata yielding superb fruit scarcely inferior to that of Jaffa, and tobacco is grown in various districts. The mineral resources re-sources of the country are considerable, consider-able, and large numbers of workers find employment in the lead mines ol Lavrion, in the marble quarries ol Pentelicon and elsewhere. Among the accompanying photographs will be found a picture taken at the mag-aesite mag-aesite quarries of Limme, in Euboea, which are worked by a British com-pany com-pany under a concession from the monks at Galatake, near by. 1 A. E. JOHNSON. |
