June 1941 School Magazine

June, 1941

Brisbane Girl•.' Grammar School Magaz'ne

June, 1941

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

THE ROUMANIAN PEASANTRY. I have been asked to tell you something about the Roumanian peasants, and I will try my best to make my little story as in teresting as possible . I begin by saying that I feel very sorry for their sad lot; they were poor and hard working people, but fre e, and now they have lost the little they had; they loved their land which they called "Good Earth" . I lived for the last few years with my parents in a small town called Cernauti, the capital of Bukovina, which is on the Roumanian-Polish border and belonged before the great war to Austria. It was situated on a small mountain about 500 me tres above sea level, and the view all round was wonderful ; my parents a lways compared it to Switzerland, so I suppose Switzerland was also beau- tiful. Its name comes from the word "Buchenland", now "Bukovina", the land of beech trees, and indeed it has the best wood in Europe. The population was abou t 150,000. The working people all spoke German, Roumanian, Ukranian and Russ ian, as small v illages belonged be- fore to Ukraine and Russia. We were surrounded on all sides by viHages and so could 'learn the lives of the peasants more closely. · The peasants worked very hard, about 20 hours a day, and used to get up in the morning long before the dawn of day. I remember once I made an excursion with my parents by car, and returned home about 12 o'clock at night. Just before coming into town the car had a punc- ture, and we were forced to break our journey, and sit on the grass in the fields . Suddenly we heard voices, and saw dark figures moving about; when they came near, we saw that they were peasants, mowing the hemp. They are simply fed, though they had plenty of every- thing. Their national dish is "rriamaliza", which is made of the flour of Indian Corn, as this is their principal crop. This they eat three times a day. They always take their meals sitting ~:m the ground and eat from earthen plates . with wooden spoons, for a farLand knife they use their fingers. They also eat a kind of sour soup called "bors"' which is also a national dish. Their greeting to each o ther is "Noroc bun" whicn means good luck. They are always very friendly to

strangers, and often entertain travellers very h ospitably, and when you leave they give you all kinds of presents, their products. In general, the feelings of a ll the people were very friendly, especially to the British. Their houses are small, something like huts, the walls are made of cow dung and wood, which keeps the cold out; the floors are bare earth, but when the peasant is rich you will see matting on the ground . The roofs a re covered with straw which keeps the sun away in summer a nd the cold in winter. They have no electric lights, and water must be carried in buckets from the nearest well. Inside, the house is very bare, their furniture is very simple, and their beds consist of wooden boards on two wood en legs, with a straw mattress. Then they have wooden tables, with stools. The walls are decorated with different kinds of old fashioned photographs, and carpets near the beds . At the w indows are fl ower pots with flowers.

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