The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus/Chapter II
CHAPTER II
FROM TIRNAVOS TO SAMARINA
Kānd are z yină prumuveara
S easa Arumânl'i pri la mundzā,
- Lilitshe n'i di pri Maiu!
When it is the season for the spring to come, for the Vlachs to go out on the mountains, my flower of May !
LARGE numbers of the Vlachs from Northern Pindus who pass the winter in the plains of Thessaly or Southern Macedonia arrange their departure for the hills each spring so as to pass through Ghrevena on their way home at the time of the great fair of St Akhillios which begins each year on the Monday that falls between the 16th and the 23rd of May O.S. (May 29th to June 5th N.S.), and lasts four or five days. Several days before the date of the fair we came to Timavos so as to travel up with the Vlach families to Samarina, as we had arranged. We found our muleteer and his family eagerly awaiting our arrival, but some days elapsed before the journey to Samarina began. First there was some uncertainty about the date of the fair, which was proclaimed by the Turkish authorities at Ghrevena, and secondly there was a change of plan as to the route to be followed. The direct route from Tirnavos or any place in Northeastern Thessaly to Ghrevena and the Vlach villages in Northern Pindus leads through the pass of Tirnavos to Kephalovriso leaving Elassona on the right, and then turns westwards to Dhiskata and so by Dhiminitsa and Phili to Ghrevena. This road is that normally used by the Vlachs who are joined as they go by friends and relations from the villages in the valley of the Xerias, the ancient Europos, the district being known as Potamia. In 1910 however the annual disturbance in Albania had begun some what earlier than usual, and all passing into Turkey were liable to be searched rigorously for arms and ammunition. It was considered advisable to avoid the pass of Tirnavos where the Turkish customs officials were reported to be very severe and instead to take a longer route by Trikkala and Kalabaka crossing the frontier at Velemishti. In fairness perhaps to our fellow-travellers it should be said that this change of plan was made in hopes of avoiding the trouble of unpacking all the baggage—no light task where whole families are concerned —and not because on this particular occasion they were engaged in smuggling arms.
The few days in Tirnavos were not on the whole unwelcome. We made the acquaintance of several of the Vlach families who like ourselves were bound for the hills, began to learn a few words of their language, and to get a first glimpse of their life, manners and customs. The Vlach population of Tirnavos consists of over a hundred families, nearly all of which come from Samarina. By profession these Vlachs are muleteers, small tradesmen, cobblers, ironworkers, shepherds and butchers, but most either by leaving their business or else taking it with them manage to spend a part, if not all, of the summer in their homes in Pindus.
Thursday, May 26th, was the day finally fixed for departure. The morning and early afternoon were spent in endless preparations. In view of a long and hot journey leeches were put on the mules’ hocks, and they were all re-shod. A large amount of wool, for the women to work during the summer, besides household goods and chattels, and clothes had to be stowed away in large striped sacks, and made up into bundles of equal weight, and lastly a lamb had to be roasted whole, an essential preparation for a Vlach journey. All at length being ready, the baggage was loaded on the mules and at five o’clock in the afternoon we left Tirnavos. Our own particular party consisted of our two selves, the muleteer, his grandmother, his mother, his aunt with her two little girls, Phota and Aspasia aged about seven and five, a girl relation, several chickens, an ill-tempered kitten and a dog, all of which excepting the last were enthroned on the mules’ pack saddles between the bundles of baggage (Plate II 1). One muleteer can work a team of about six mules and a horse. The average load for a mule is slightly over two hundred pounds, to which must be added the weight of the rider, but in hilly or rough ground all dismount except the old women or small children. The horse which leads the caravan usually has a lighter load, but is always ridden, for no Mach muleteer will walk when he can possibly, ride (Plate II 2). Imnāndălui which literally means on foot, is Vlach slang for being in the gutter. Attached to our party was a muleteer from Smiksi with his five mules, three of which were devoted to carrying an old woman, her daughter and their belongings, and the other two to transporting part of the property of our muleteer’s family. Thus on leaving Tirnavos we had in all a train of ten animals. Owing to the late start the first stage of the journey was soon finished, and at 7.30 p.m. we stopped for the night at a place not far from the ferry over the Peneus at Ghunitsa, where we found several other families already encamped, who had left Tirnavos shortly before us. The mules were soon unladen, the bundles piled up in an orderly row, rugs spread on the ground, and after discussing the roast lamb we turned in for the night, while the muleteers picked up their goat’s-hair capes and went to sleep and watch by their mules. Curiously enough no Vlach muleteer ever tethers or hobbles his mules at night when they are turned loose to graze. Consequently he must watch them as much to prevent straying as theft. Here as on most occasions when the night was clear conversation turned on Hailey’s comet which was then blazing in the western sky. It was pointing towards Macedonia, and was thought to be a sign of war.
The practice of starting late in the day and camping for the night after a journey of two hours or even less is common among Vlach muleteers, although not peculiar to them alone. At first sight there is little to recommend this plan, but in practice it is found to be the only effective means of securing an early and a punctual start on the following day. In summer also and for the greater part of the year a night in the open is preferable to one in a village khan, which is sure to be stuffy and probably also very dirty.
Friday, May 27th.—All were astir long before dawn and at 4 a.m. the mules being laden we moved άολνη to the river bank to await our turn for the ferry boat, which took five mules and seven or eight people each journey. Meanwhile the sun had risen and we could see up the gorge made by the river as it breaks through the bare limestone hills that border the Thessalian plain. The Turkish frontier here crossed the river and recrossing it below Kutsokhiro included a group of hills on the southern bank. These hills to the south of the Peneus were one of the strategic advantages obtained by the Turks after the war of 1897, and were joined to the rest of Turkey by a military bridge, just visible from Ghunitsa ferry. W^ile we waited on the bank the iniquities of a certain khan- keeper, who had best be nameless, came under discussion. A muleteer made a miniature grave mound, put a cross at its head, and formally cursed the khan-keeper with the words, "So-and-so is dead." Within a year he was robbed, abandoned his klian, and fled. A belief in this particular form of magic is probably common amongst both Vlachs and Greeks, but no other example has yet come under our notice. After an hour’s delay all were safely across, and we continued our way over the plain keeping the frontier close on the right. Soon we overtook another family that had made an earlier start on the previous day, and passed the river before nightfall. Their unusual display of energy had met with its own reward, for we found them vainly searching for two mules that had strayed during the night. An hour and a half from Ghunitsa we reached the Trikkala road about seventeen kilometres west of Larissa, and following it crossed the Peneus for the second time by the ferry at Kutsokhiro. The old wooden bridge, that spanned the river here was carried away many years ago by a flood. Preparations were promptly made for a new one : an embankment was made for the road, and piers were built in the river. The work was then abandoned, and has not now been touched for several years. Local opinion is undecided as to who is precisely to blame, and suggests the ferryman or the railway which is supposed to dislike road traffic. We crossed this time with little delay, but two mules jammed their bundles in the ferry boat and broke a bottle containing five okes of the best Tirnavos uzo. Uzo is the North Greek variety of raki ; that made at Tirnavos is justly famous. We followed the road for some distance, and at 10 a.m. halted in a grove of mulberry trees by the roadside just beyond the khian of Zarkos. The village of Zarkos, which lies in a recess in the hills to the north of the road, has a considerable Vlach population mainly from Avdhela.
The midday halt lasted several hours. Fires were lit and enough food cooked to last till the next day, for the camping ground where the night was to be spent was known to be bare of fuel. On the most frequented routes the muleteers have regular camping grounds where wood, water and grass can be found together. The whole journey is often calculated by so many kunăk’i or camps, and the length of each day’s journey depends on the position of these rather than on the distance actually covered. The sun was so hot that those who could not find shade under the mulberries unpacked and set up their tents. As a race the Vlachs seem to feel the heat to an excessive degree, and even in the hills will complain of the sun on a day which most would consider only reasonably warm. A Vlach tent, which is only used for sun or heavy rain, is of a simple and effective type (Plate III 2). It consists of a long, oblong blanket, very thick and made of coarse wool, and in colour white with broad black or dark brown stripes. The narrow ends are pegged to the ground, while the centre is supported by two light poles connected at the top by a thin cross-bar. The baggage heaped up and covered by another blanket forms a back, and so a simple gable tent without a door is made. These tents have two points in their favour, first the sides can be touched without any fear of letting in the rain, and secondly they are very light and portable. The two poles and the cross-bar, hardly thicker than laths, make no appreciable difference to any mule load, and the blanket helps to temper the hardness of a wooden pack saddle. In a more severe climate a Vlach tent might prove insufficient ; a door would be an advantage, and might easily be contrived ; but for Macedonia however they will be found in all ways satisfactory. As to how many each tent holds opinions will differ, for it depends on the state of the weather outside, but on a bad night six or seven can sleep inside with comfort.
Breaking camp at 4 p.m. we start off again towards Trikkala in a long procession increased by several families that had joined us in the course of the morning from Tatar and other villages near Larissa and Tirnavos. The main road to Trikkala here runs along the foot of the hills, in places on a small embankment, and in places cut out of the hill-side to avoid some large pools and marshes fed by springs at the hill foot. This road does not appear on the Austrian staff map, which marks instead a presumably older road, now never used, some distance to the south. At 7.30 p.m. we turned off the road to the north and camped on a small level space between the foot of the hills and the marshes. On a low isolated hill just behind our camp are the ruins of a Hellenic and medieval city, known now as Paleogardhiki. Directly separating this from the main range is a deep hollow in the ground called Zurpapa where local tradition says that a priest who by a trick had obtained his bishop’s permission to commit incest with his daughter, was swallowed up.
Saturday, May 28th.—An early start was made at 3.30 a.m. in order to get beyond Kalabaka by evening. We turned back into the main road, and went straight along it to Trikkala, the first place that merits notice on this day’s journey. Two-thirds at least of the population of this town are Vlachs or of Vlach extraction. Some of the Samarina Vlachs since the cession of Thessaly to Greece in 1881, became permanent residents on Greek soil, and founded a New Samarina in the southern part of Pindus due west of Trikkala above Karvuno-Lepenitsa, to which they go in the summer. But the majority are still faithful to their old homes, and as we passed through the town several families joined us increasing the caravan to over a mile in length. Many more came out to say good-bye, and send messages to friends and relations at Ghrevena and elsewhere.
Beyond Trikkala we set our faces northwards. Here the character of the country changes rapidly ; trees become more common ; the wide, open plain contracts, and beyond Kalabaka gives place to a wooded valley through which the Peneus comes down from Malakasi. Up this valley is the famous route that leads over the Zighos to Metsovo and Yannina and throughout history has been the main road into Thessaly from the west. In the last thirty years since the cession of Thessaly it has fallen into disuse. The creation of a frontier across this route and the high Greek customs tariff have strangled the once flourishing trade, and the villages on it, which are nearly all Vlach, have dwindled in size.
At 10.30 a.m. a halt was made on the banks of the river of Trikkala at the foot of the hill on which stands the monastery of St Theodore. Two views of this encampment showing the rocks of the Metéora in the distance are given on Plate III.
At 4 p.m. we started again, and reaching Kalabaka just before sunset followed the valley northwards. We skirt the foot of the Meteora rocks, pass the village of Kastraki, and going slowly over a rough track that had once been a paved road pass a khan, and then camp for the night at 8.30 p.m. in a field about an hour from Kastraki.
Sunday, May 29th.—There was a long delay in starting. Two mules during the night had strayed into a field of maize, and had been impounded by the watchmen. By the time they had been ransomed and all was ready it was 6 a.m. This late start had its advantages as we had a glimpse up the Peneus valley towards Malakasi and saw the isolated monastery-crowned crags of the Meteora by daylight. From time to time on our way up from Kalabaka we passed under rocks of the same weird formation and saw others standing by the edges of the valleys like grim sentinels. Then we turned off up the bed of the Liurghani river where the plane trees on either side prevented any distant view. At about nine o’clock w'e leave the river bed, and at 10 a.m. camp on the hill-side about an hour from Velemishti. Here we were in the midst of a fine champaign country which was very pleasant to the eyes after the scorched and treeless Thessalian plains. Here were rolling hills, green and grassy, and well covered with trees among which oaks and wild pears were prominent. Water seemed plentiful, and the soil rich. This, if looks go for anything, should be an ideal agricultural and pastoral district. At 4 p.m. we were off again, and passing through the village without stopping reached the frontier station on the top of the ridge about half a mile further on. The Turkish customs officer, an Albanian, did not prove quite so amenable as had been hoped. He ordered all the mules to be unladen, and then satisfied his conscience by making a superficial search or rather by kicking each bundle in turn. This and the examination of passports occupied the time till sunset, so we stopped for the night on a grassy slope on the Turkish side.
Velemishti is a squalid Hashiot village, which owns several vineyards and some fields of corn and maize, and is wealthy compared with other Hashiot villages. The district called Hashia comprises the hill country between the Peneus and the Haliakmon on both sides of the former Graeco-Turkish frontier. Its western limit may be marked roughly by a line drawn from Ghrevena to Kalabaka, and its eastern limit by a similar line from Serfije through Elassona to Tirnavos. The name seems to imply that the villages in this district are all chiftliks. That is to say that each village instead of being composed of small holdings, is the absolute property of one or more absentee landlords. The inhabitants are thus little better than serfs, for within their own villages they can own nothing. The landlords are represented by resident bailiffs who collect the share of the produce due to the landlord. The landlord’s share is usually a half, if he finds the seed and the cost of ploughing, and a third if the peasant finds them. Often petty acts of tyranny take place. Some will take their third or half before setting aside the seed corn. Others will let the whole of the common pasturage of the village to nomad shepherds, and refuse the peasants any right of pasture without payment. for the usual custom is that a peasant has the right to pasture so many head of sheep, cattle or horses. The houses even when they boast two stories, are built of wattle and daub or of mud-brick, but are as a rule in a most dilapidated and filthy condition. The peasant has no interest in repairing what is not his own, and the landlord is anxious only for his income. The inhabitants, though as might be expected in hill villages, they are often sturdy and healthy in appearance, are probably the lowest type of Greek to be found. They are slow and stupid and excessively dirty. Amongst their neighbours they have a bad reputation, for they are thought to be dishonest and treacherous. In fact the name Hashiot with some is almost a synonym for a dirty and thievish beggar.
The woods in the neighbourhood of Velemishti made it a favourable place for all who wished to cross the frontier unobserved. In the autumn of 1911, when owing to the cholera in Macedonia, the Greek authorities took strict measures to see that all who entered Greece secretly should at least do quarantine, the extent of this traffic was revealed. At Velemishti alone in the space of five days over fifty such persons were found, including a band of five brigands who had spent the summer in Macedonia, and an average of ten a day was considered normal. Absentee landlordism, and the facilities once offered for brigandage by the frontier in the absence of any extradition treaty, seem to be the main reasons for the deplorable state of the Hashiot villages.
Monday, May 30th.—We start at 6 a.m. having first said good-bye to the Albanian customs officer, who is left in a state of blank amazement at two Europeans who travel with Vlachs and prefer a night in the open to one in an aged guard house. Our road leads through country similar to that below Velemishti. To the north-east we see a fine stretch of open undulating country extending as far as Dhiminitsa and the Haliakmon ; to the north-west whither our way lies, we go across rolling hills well covered with oak woods and scrub. An hour after starting we pass Manesi unseen on the left, and shortly after a Turkish gendarmerie station just visible on a wooded ridge to the right. Four gendarmes watching by the roadside were the only sign of life till we reached Pleshia, a miserable Hashiot village. This consists of some half-dozen buildings of wattle and daub looking far less like human habitations than dissipated pigstyes. When we passed through Pleshia in August 1912 it was totally deserted.
The long procession of mules slowly climbs the ridge beyond this village, and here our fellow-travellers obtain their first glimpse of their native land. There to the north west towering over the craggy ridge of Spileo are the great peaks of Pindus, Zmolku and Vasilitsa, still covered with snow, and half hidden in clouds. The first sight of their home naturally caused great excitement amongst young and old.
“Have you mountains in your country ? ”
“Yes, but our mountains are not so high.”
“Our mountains are covered with pines and beeches.”
“In England pines and beeches grow in the plains.”
Chorus of children and others somewhat incredulous,
“They say that they have pines and beeches in the plains, but their mountains are not so high as ours.”
At 10.30 we halt in a clearing by a spring for the usual midday rest, and at 3 p.m. start again so as to reach the scene of the fair before nightfall. The country continues to be thickly wooded until just beyond Eleftherokliori, a Hashiot village, somewhat larger than Pleshia, but equally filthy, where after a sharp descent we reach the banks of the Venetiko river, the most considerable tributary of the Haliakmon in this district. At this point there is a stone bridge over the river, but so broken that the mules had to be led across, which is usually known as the bridge of Ghrevena, though the town lies on another small river an hour to the north. The Vlachs however call the bridge Punyea di Pushanlu, the Bridge of Pushan. As all had to dismount when crossing the bridge, and since there was some excitement over the prospect of reaching the town soon, our caravan unconsciously assumed the order usual when approaching a resting-place. First came a troop of boys of all ages from eight to fourteen hurrying on on foot, and eager to be in first. They were followed by a band of women and girls also on foot, most of whom were carrying their shoes in their hands in order to get over the rough ground more easily. The rear was brought up by the long and slowly moving procession of laden mules (Plate II 1), by side of which walked the muleteers and men urging them on with sticks, stones and curses, and ever on the look out lest a mule should get into rough ground. If a mule gets into uneven ground, the clumsy bundles balanced on its pack saddle, which is never tightly girthed, begin to sway ominously from side to side, and may turn right over to one side saddle and all, and so involve five minutes’ delay while all is unfastened, and reloaded. Also should a mule stumble and fall it cannot get up again unaided ; the load is too hea^ and clumsy. Then when men rush in on either side and lift the bundles to help the mule to rise, the perverse animal as often as not politely declines to do so, and rolls over on its side kicking out in a tangle of ropes, bales, chickens, cooking pots, puppies and any other small items that may have been thrown on top. Between each of the three divisions of the caravan there was a gap, and with the last mounted on the mules was all that could not walk, grandmothers, cats, babies and chickens.
Up the steep ascent on the other side of the Venetiko we pushed on ahead with the division of boys, till we came out on to a wide grassy plateau. This was covered with droves of grazing mules and horses, each in charge of a small Vlach boy, and showed that at last the fair was near at hand. In less than an hour the plateau was crossed, and suddenly on reaching its northern edge Ghrevena and the fair of St Akhillios came into view. The shelving slope beneath us was covered with groups of Vlach tents arranged according to villages. Here were the Smiksi families from Potamia, there the Perivoli folk from Velestinos, beyond the Samarina people from Elassona, below the Avdhela families, and so on. At the foot of the slope was the river of Ghrevena, a wide but shallow stream, which flows into the Haliakmon a few miles further east. Directly in front on the further bank was the town with its trees, minarets and clock tower nestling in the valley. Immediately to the east a flat, open common by the river was the actual scene of the fair, thronged with people and dotted with booths. Being late arrivals—the fair had begun that morning—it took us some time to find a vacant space to pitch our tents. This accomplished we spent the last remains of daylight in wandering through the encampment, looking at the busy crowd on the far side of the river and enquiring after the prospects, sights and shows of the morrow.
Ghrevena (Plate IV 1), which the Vlachs call Grebene and the Turks Gerebina, is a long straggling town and of considerable strategic importance as it commands both the roads leading from Northwestern Thessaly into the upper basin of the Haliakmon, and those leading from Yannina and Konitsa towards Salonica through Southwestern Macedonia. For this reason at the beginning of the war of 1897 Greek irregular bands under Davelis with some Garibaldians under Cipriani made a fruitless raid over the frontier with the object of seizing Ghrevena and so cutting the Turkish communications between Epirus and Macedonia. The town is the seat of a Greek orthodox bishop and what we know of its history is principally due to its bishops. Pouqueville says that it is included by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his list of the towns of Macedonia as Γρίβανα, but the Bonn text reads Πρίβανα. The bishopric was one of those subject to the independent Patriarchate of Achrida (the modern Okhridha). It was not one of the original dioceses mentioned in the golden bull of Basil II when he confirmed the privileges of this Bulgarian Patriarchate, but it occurs in two lists of the bishoprics in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Dositheos relates that Leo Archbishop of Achrida, one Saturday ordained a certain Ἰωάννης Κοψόχειρος priest, and the next day, Sunday, consecrated him bishop of Ghrevena. Le Quien thought this referred to Leo II, who lived early in the twelfth century, but it is just possible that it might refer to Leo I who flourished in the eleventh century. Demetrios Chomatianos, Archbishop of Achrida in the first half of the thirteenth century, mentions in one of his letters the death of Theodore, bishop of Ghrevena. We next hear of the bishopric in 1383 and an ecclesiastical document of the Patriarch of Constantinople dated 1395 mentions κύσρον Γρεβενὸν λεγόμενον. From other sources we learn that on December 6th 1422 Neophytos Bishop of Ghrevena died, and that in 1538 the bishop was called Symeon. In lists giving the dioceses under the Patriarch of Achrida and in the synodical acts and other documents of the same Patriarchate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the diocese and its bishops are frequently mentioned. The earliest bishop given is Gregory who was alive in 1668. He was followed by Theophanes who flourished about 1676. This energetic prelate although the synod had already chosen another Patriarch of Achrida, journeyed to Adrianople and obtained the see through the Sublime Porte. He was formally dethroned by the Patriarch of Constantinople. His accusers alleged that though only a monk he had seized the bishopric of Ghrevena and had acted as such without being consecrated. Further he was said to have induced the Patriarch of Achrida, Ignatios a man of no intelligence and ignorant of ecclesiastical law to consecrate him. He was also accused of perjury, adultery, theft and of trying to take from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and bring under his own authority the diocese of Beroea. Other bishops mentioned are Pankratios, Theophanes (this name occurs from 1683 to 1740, so probably there were two of the same name), Seraphim, Makarios and Gabriel.
After the Turkish conquest Ghrevena obtained the position which it held throughout Turkish times, as the capital of a district, first as the seat of a mudir till i860, and then of a kaimmakam till 1912. In the sixteenth century according to Aravandinos, it was made the centre for one of the capitanliks of armatoli, a kind of Christian militia maintained by the Turkish government to guard the roads and keep order. These armatoli were often brigands, who were taken into service on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief. Robbers frequently betrayed one another to the authorities, and if any armatoli and brigands fell in a skirmish, the Turks philosophically considered that it was merely a case of dog eating dog. Ghrevena is often mentioned in the modern Greek klephtic ballads, large numbers of which refer to Vlach or Kupatshar worthies. When the armatoli system fell into disorder this region, like most of Western Macedonia, was put into the strong hand of Ali Pasha. Afterwards it formed part of the independent sanjak of Serfije, which was later attached to the vilayet of Monastir. Some interesting details about the armatoli and brigands of Ghrevena can be gleaned from Aravandinos, Lambridhis and other sources, which we have supplemented by personal enquiries on the spot. One of the most renowned was Dhimitrios Totskas, a native of Olympus, who flourished in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He built a church of Ayia Paraskevi at Alpokhori, and in 1776 at the suggestion of Ayios Kosmas gave forty fonts to forty villages, and in 1779 built a mill at Dhervizhana which produced a yearly income of twenty pounds for the church. This was only one side of his life. Wlien urged by Ayios Kosmas to give up his robber life, he is said to have replied that in the spring his inclinations naturally turned towards brigandage and murder. In 1770 or soon after he in company with Belos the capitan of Metsovo, waylaid and cut to pieces a band of Albanians returning with plunder from the unsuccessful Greek rising in the Peloponnese, which had been instigated by the Russians under Orloff. This exploit is said to have taken place between Smiksi and Philippei, and so probably on the col of Morminde. In 1780 he was bribed by Abdi Pasha to ambush one Tsomanga of Metsovo, but only succeeded in killing his fellow-traveller K. Kaphetsis. He was murdered by the orders of Kurt Pasha in the church yard at Dhervizhana, where he usually wintered. Aravandinos asserts that he flourished under Ali Pasha, was the successor of Yeorghakis Zhakas of Mavronoro as capitan of Ghrevena and was killed at Kipurio in 1809. Yeorghakis Zhakas of IIavronoro was the founder of the best known brigand family. He served under Deli Dhimos whom he succeeded as capitan of Ghrevena, but later is said to have quarrelled with Ali Pasha and joined forces with Vlakliavas who in 1808 made an unsuccessful revolt in Thessaly. Yeorghakis who died in 1814, was succeeded by his two sons Yiannulas and Theodhoros, who by their activity as brigands compelled the authorities to recognise them as armatoli. In 1826 the two brothers were betrayed and attacked in their house at Mavronoro by Mehmed Agha, the energetic Mutesellim of Ghrevena. Yiannulas was killed, but Theodhoros escaped to Greece. Two years later he returned and his first act was to revenge himself on the Makri family who had betrayed him. He is said to have killed them on his brother’s grave. About the same time he conducted a very successful raid against the rich Greek village of Neghadhes in the Zaghori. In 1831 he invaded Ghrevena and burnt many houses both Christian and Turkish. The next year he with two companions was attacked by Mehmed Agha at Spileo, but escaped. In 1832 he took part with other brigand chiefs in the sacking and burning of Kastania in Phthiotis. Up till 1835 he remained in the Zaghori or near Ghrevena as the terror of the country, but in that year he retired into Greece. In 1852 he surrendered to the authorities at Yannina, but quickly returned to his old trade again. In 1854 he joined in the abortive rising in Epirus, Thessaly and Macedonia. He is said to have rescued some Samarina families when attacked in camp by Turkish troops, and was later blockaded by Abdi Pasha in the monastery at Spileo. AVhen Zhakas was actively pursuing his trade as brigand in the Zaghori he made his head-quarters in the Vale Kalda (warm valley) near Baieasa, the great hiding-place at all periods for robbers. To-day a craggy height near Azalea Kaldä is known as Zhakas’ fort and is so marked on the Austrian staff map. In 1878 in his old age he took part in the rising in Thessaly, and on its failure retired to his estate at Akhladhi near Lamia in Greece where he died about 1882 full of years and honour. On the Turkish side Mehmed Agha was the most prominent character at Ghrevena in those stormy times. His grandfather Husseyn Agha was one of three brothers who left Bana Luka in Bosnia in the eighteenth century. One settled at Avlona in Southern Albania, one somewhere in Anatolia, and the third at Ghrevena. His son Veil Agha was ruler of Ghrevena in the days of Ali Pasha, and after the death of the Lion of Yannina is said to have taken part in the siege of Mesolongi. His son Mehmed Agha was for some time at Yannina with Ali Pasha and was smuggled out of the town across the lake in a coffin by Duda, one of the Pasha’s couriers. He then rode for his life to Ghrevena. Afterwards he made Duda’s two sons devrentji’s, one at the Bridge of the Pasha over the Haliakmon on the road between Ghrevena and Shatishta, and the other at Mavranei. Mehmed Agha on his death was succeeded by his son Veli Bey who died in 1880. The latter’s two sons Rif'at and Fu’ad live in their grandfather’s great fortified house in Ghrevena to-day (1912). The house or rather fort (Plate IV 1) stands in the middle of the town and covers an area of between two and three acres. From outside one sees a high loopholed wall built in an oblong space. At each angle is a square tower and in the middle of each of the long sides there is another. The gate is in the middle of the southern short wall facing towards the river of Ghrevena and the two corner towers on this side are larger than the others. The entrance goes obliquely through the thick wall and one is in the midst of a large courtyard in the centre of which a big, strongly built, Turkish house stands like a keep. The whole place was constructed for refuge and defence. Sheep and horses could be pastured within the walls which enclose four springs and a cistern. On the north side of the house was an isolated tower standing in the court, which was the powder magazine. The dates still visible in two places on the outside wall are 1829 and 1830 which show that the dates given in the tales about the career of Mehmed Agha are probably fairly accurate. He was exceedingly active in attempting to suppress brigand¬ age and is frequently mentioned in the klephtic ballads. He was constantly skirmishing with Zhakas and his friends, one of whom Yeorghakis Bisovitis he compelled to surrender and shortly after murdered in the market-place at Ghrevena, according to Aravandinos. In December 1832 he besieged the band of Suleyman Beltsopulos in the church at Subeno, and setting fire to it destroyed both brigands and church together. In 1844 he is said to have abducted a maiden of Ghrevena called Sula, who had refused to become his wife. His grandchildren say that his first wife was a Christian maiden from Phili and that on her death he married her sister Tilidhala by whom he had one son and three daughters. He died in 1864 not far short of eighty years of age. Scanty as our information is it gives us some idea of the state of the district during the first half of the nineteenth century. The Turkish government frightened by the Greek revolution had determined to extinguish the armatoli, between whom and the brigands there was little difference. In Ghrevena was a Turkish garrison and some Albanian irregulars. Their duty was to suppress brigandage, and keep the main roads safe. The brigands would protect their own country against other bands, and support themselves by raiding neighbouring districts, Christian or Turkish. But as we have seen in the case of the brothers Zhakas, there were feuds amongst the brigands themselves. If pursuit was too hot the robbers would retire into Greece, or surrender to the authorities and keep quiet for a time till they found a favourable opportunity to resume their profession.
Ghrevena itself consists of two quarters. One is the town proper called Kasabas, really the Turkish word for town (Qasaba), where are the market, shops, government offices, prison and so on. The other is called Varoshi and lies to the west beyond a small stream. It is an exclusively Christian quarter standing on a low hill, and comprises the bishop’s palace, the metropolis, and some houses clustering round them. In Leake’s day there were twenty, but now there are many more. Pouqueville states that the town was founded by colonists from a place he calls Castron-Bouchalistas, but he does not say where this latter place was. It is possible that it may be the Valakhadhes village of Kastro which lies about three hours west of Ghrevena and contains the ruins of a medieval fort. Locally it is said that the first inhabitants of Ghrevena came from a place called Ghrevian Rakhiotis a ridge on the hill towards the village of Kira Kale about an hour north-west of the town. But with the information at present at our disposal it seems impossible to decide how or when the town was founded. Μeletios, bishop of Athens, who lived from 1661 to 1714, says the town was commonly known as Avles, a statement doubted by Pouqueville. Leake says, "The Turkish makhala (quarter) of Greveno … is the chief place of Grevena, which in the plural number comprehends a great number of small Turkish villages and tjiftliks." Locally it is said that the town was once known as Avles, and that the particular quarter known by this name was inhabited by Christians near the Turkish posting station and stood, where there are now fields, near the centre of the town on the bank of the river. Opposite this on the south side of the river was another quarter called Tshakalia which was the part burnt by Zhakas. This Avles quarter was still in existence about a hundred and thirty years ago and was the Varoshi of those days. After the freedom of Greece Turks from Lala in the Peloponnese unable to live under a Christian government came and settled in Ghrevena and occupied the centre of the town. Then the movement of the Christians to the present Varoshi began. The Metropolis was built about 1837, and is dedicated to St George, St Demetrius and St Akhillios. Before then there was only a small church of St George on the hill top in the midst of a wood, and houses were first built round it about 1780. The principal mosque by the Turkish cemetery on the west of the town was once the church of St Akhillios, and the other mosque to the east the church of Ayia Paraskevi. These were taken over by the Turks from Lala and about the same time they destroyed, so it is said, three other churches in the town, St Demetrius, St Nicholas and St Athanasius. The bishop did not always live at Ghrevena, but at Kipurio, so they say locally, and he used to be known as ὁ Ἆγιος Ἀυλῶν, a name which never occurs in any of the documents relating to the bishopric referred to above. Still the little stream that comes down from Kira Kale and flows through the middle of the town is called Avliotis, and consequently the tale about the name Avles may possibly have some foundation and not be derived merely from a study of Meletios' geography.
Ghrevena though situated in the valley and having no good water supply is a pleasant little town, but in summer is very hot. Above the town to the east is a large Turkish school and in a similar position to the west are the barracks. There are Greek and Vlach schools, several mosques, seven Greek churches and a Vlach chapel. A market well attended by the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages is held every Monday. The population cannot be estimated because so much of it is floating. The Christians consist of Greeks from the Hashiot and Kupatshar villages, and Vlachs from Samarina, Smiksi, Perivoli, and Avdhela who are always more numerous in the winter. The Mohammedans consist of Albanians, Valakliadhes, and Turks from here, there and everywhere. Of course since the war of 1912 in which it was partly burnt, Ghrevena has probably changed considerably in every way.
Tuesday, May 31st, the second day of the fair.—Shortly after davm Ave crossed the river on a diminutive donkey hired from a venerable Turk at a halfpenny a journey, and went at once to the fair. The crowd amounted to several thousands, and the majority were Vlachs. Vlach was the language most commonly in use, and no one who has heard the babble of a Vlach crowd can doubt the origin of the name Tsintsar. There were Vlachs from nearly every part of Southern Macedonia, and Thessaly : most were in the national costume. Vlach costume is a complicated and extensive subject, and for a full account of the various garments and their names the reader must turn to a later chapter. Besides Vlachs, there were Greeks mostly Hashiots, a few Turks not counting gendarmes and other officials, some gipsies dressed as usual in gaudy rags, and a number of Valakhadhes, and Kupatshari. The Valakhadlies are a mysterious people, Mohammedan by religion, but Greek by language, who principally inhabit the districts of Ghrevena, and Lapsishta where they occupy many villages. The Vlachs call them Vlāhadzi and say that they are Vlachs who became Mohammedans, deriving the name from Vlach Agha, but this etymology is hardly convincing. According to a more probable tale they are Greeks converted to Islam and are called Valakhadhes because the only Turkish they know is V’allahi, By God. As an analogous case one may perhaps quote the Pomaks or Mohammcdan Bulgarians of the Salonica province who after the Turkish revolution of 1908 were sedulously taught by the Young Turks as part of their programme of Ottomanisation to say V'allahi instead of Boga mi. Nicolaidy who wrote in 1859 says that two hundred years before two Greek boys from a village near Lapsishta were taken as slaves to Constantinople and were there con¬ verted to Islam. Later they returned to their native land and began to preach the doctrines of their new faith. They made many converts among the Christians anxious to escape from their inferior position and to obtain the right to bear arms, and were eventually rewarded with the title of Bey. Pouqueville seems to have thought that they were the descendants of the Vardariot Turks of Byzantine times, a theory which hardly seems possible. Weigand says that their racial type is Greek rather than Slavonic and that they have dark hair and aquiline noses. On the other hand many of those we have seen were tall and fair. But if the name Valakhadhes merely means that they are converts to Mahommedanism, it need have no racial significance.
The Kupatshari are hellenized or semi-hellenized Vlachs. That is to say that through intermarriage and the influence of the church and Greek education they have abandoned their native language. They still however retain the Vlach national costume, and many Vlach words occur in their dialect as well as many non-Greek sounds such as sh, zh, tsh, and dzh. They inhabit the district between Ghrevena and the pure Vlach villages of Pindus. At one of their villages, Labanitsa, which is only half hellenized we obtained some insight as to the process by which denationalisation occurs. In the school and church Greek is the only language used. All the older men in the village know Vlach and so do many of the women. But owing to the fact that the males outnumber the females the men are obliged to take brides from other villages. Pure Vlach villages like Turia and Perivoli are too proud to give their daughters in marriage to Kupatshari and so the bachelors of Labanitsa take brides from villages like Zalovo which are more or less completely hellenized. The children of these mixed marriages talk only Greek, the language they learn from their mothers, and so the younger generation for the most part knows only Greek. The name Kupatshari is derived by the Vlachs from the word kupatshu, oak tree, because the district inhabited by them is covered with oak woods. Lower down in the Haliakmon valley there are no woods, and higher up in the country from Turia to Samarina is the region of pines and beeches. This plausible explanation is rejected by Weigand, who says the word is of Slavonic origin and means digger or agriculturist. This would well apply to these people, for they are a settled folk and till the soil, and do not migrate like the mountain villages. Weigand further says that the Kupatshari district extends as far as Shátishta and into North Thessaly, but we have never heard the name applied to any other district except the lower hill country reaching from Ghrevena to Philippei and Kipurio.
The main business of the fair was concerned with the buying and selling of mules. These are brought from all parts, but the best according to experts are those from Kassándra and Xánthi. A young Kassandra mule half broken and not in condition to carry a heavy load for several months was selling at anything between eighteen and twenty-two Turkish pounds, a price slightly dearer than the year before. Mules that had already been worked were also being sold, and had branches stuck in the pack saddles to indicate that they were for sale. Horses were less in evidence. A few animals, small according to English ideas, but useful enough, were being cantered recklessly through the crowd, and shewn off to some Turkish beys and a group of gendarmes looking for fresh mounts. Each sale had to be confirmed by a document giving the description and price of the animal sold, which was written out and stamped by a local official. The rows of booths filled a large space: food stalls where bread, wine, and lamb in all forms were on sale did the greatest trade, and after them came saddlemakers, and the sweet shops. At one end of the fair was an open court with small stone built shops around it, where jewellery, knives. cottons, silks, woollen goods, and watches and clocks were sold. But all except the jewellery, which was mostly silver filigree work, some of the watches, and the knives, were of European manufacture. In another part Gipsy coppersmiths squatting on the ground were offering for sale water pots and jugs of all shapes and sizes. Near them were many Vlach women with cast-off clothes which were finding a ready market with Hashiots, and cloaks and heavy woollen rugs and blankets of their own manufacture.
Shortly after midday it began to rain in Pindus, and late in the afternoon the storm reached Ghrevena. The fair quickly became a scene of confusion, and there was a rush from all sides to cross the river to regain the shelter of the tents. Only a few had crossed when a bore was seen coming rapidly down, and what a few minutes before had been a clear stream of not more than a foot deep, was quickly turned into a muddy, impassable torrent. Some seeing what was happening ran down stream, and cutting off a corner owing to a bend in the river crossed just in front of the flood. Most however cut off from their tents had to wait in the rain and mud till an hour later when the river regained its normal size. Our tent was pitched on the hill side, and the rain soon began to trickle in at the bottom, and flow in streams across the floor. No trench that could be dug with a baltaki, that typical Balkan weapon, which is used for all things and does nothing well, proved of the slightest use. A baltaki in shape is like a broad bladed adze on a short haft, but in use is a cross between a hammer, a chisel, a spade, a carving knife and a can-opener. When bed-time came the women went out and cut branches from the thorn bushes round about. These they strewed on the ground and covered with rugs, and so made a couch which, if not absolutely dry, was not wet enough to be noticed.
These sudden storms and floods are a common feature in certain parts of Northwestern Greece, and Macedonia, and at times do considerable damage as happened at Trikkala in June 1907 when many houses were destroyed. In most generalisations on Greek climate the year is divided into a dry season, summer, and a wet season, winter. But this is by no means always the case. In 1910 there was practically no winter at all, except on the hills, until March, when snow fell in the Thessalian plain. In 1911 there was severe cold in January and February, and as late as the beginning of May snow fell on the lower hills. Throughout the summer violent thunderstorms are not uncommon in the Samarina district, and the Thessalian hills. They begin usually shortly after noon and last only for an hour or two, and Leake records the same phenomena as existing also in Aetolia and Epirus. The fact is that there are two separate climates in Greece, and the southern part of the Balkan peninsula. In the plains towards the east and south from Seres as far as Messenia there is a dry, warm southern climate. In the hills to the north-west and in Upper Macedonia there is a climate which may be called Central European, with short summers and winters, but with long springs and autumns. The effect of this on the country is most important, for it enables what may be conventionally called a northern race to flourish to some extent in latitudes suitable to mediterranean man. A careful examination of the flora and fauna of the regions referred to would possibly lead to the same conclusion.
Wednesday, June 1st.—Though we awoke soon after sunrise, several hours elapsed beforè the mules were collected, and it was 9 a.m. when we started from Ghrevena in a long line that was a good four miles from end to end. Our own party had been increased by the addition of a new mule, a purchase at the fair, which was said to be nervous, and had an uncertain temper. Just beyond the outskirts of Ghrevena we left the metalled road that goes towards Yannina, and turned up a muddy track over low hills covered with thick woods of stunted oaks towards Mavronoro. Mavronoro is a Kupatshar village, and to judge by appearances prosperous. The houses are strongly built of stone, and have few windows on the ground floor 30 as to be capable of defence. Round the village are vineyards, and orchards of plums, pears, apples, cherries and walnuts. The inhabitants live by agriculture or in bad seasons brigandage, though of late the younger men have begun to emigrate to America mainly owing to the conscription of Christians for the army instituted by the constitutional regime in Turkey. Passing through the middle of this village we soon after reached Vriashteno, a village of a similar type, but dirtier and inhabited by Valakhadhes. Thence we descended to the river of Vriashteno as the highter waters of the Venetiko are commonly called. Owing to the recent rain the river was well above its normal height, and even at the ford the water was up to the girths. The mules that were being ridden gave little or no trouble. But it was a different matter vith the others which were laden only with baggage, or rather with baggage plus a few children tied round their middles or chickens tied by the legs. These mules, waiting till they were about half-way across, would then begin to wander aimlessly up stream, stumbling and slipping over the smooth round boulders in the bed of the river. The baggage would roll from side to side, first one pack and then the other would dip in the water, and the whole would threaten to fall. This had to be avoided at all costs, since if a laden mule falls in a river there is some danger of its being drowned. Sticks, stones and curses hurled indiscriminately from both banks had little effect. Finally several muleteers waded into the river and forming a line across the ford drove the stubborn animals through with their furtutire, which are light poles with a fork at the top. They are used as their name implies (furtusesku, I load, from Gk. φορτώνω) in loading mules to support the baggage already on one side and so prevent the pack saddle from turning over while the muleteer loads up the other side. All however crossed safely, except two which fell in midstream, but as they had no livestock on board no damage was done. At 2 p.m. we stopped in a grassy meadow on the further bank for a short rest and a meal. The sun had now come out and dried our rugs and coats wet with the drizzling rain that had been falling all the morning. Three hours later a start was made up a long gradual ascent broken by a few steep pitches, all now being on foot except a few old women and the smallest children. In parts the track was wellnigh impassable owing to the mud which in places was almost knee deep. Mules slipped and fell in all directions; there were frequently two on the ground at the same time. Grandmothers crossed themselves with fervour, and muttered in Vlach: muleteers loudly made reflections on the parentage of their much tried animals, and Andíhriste, “Antichrist,” became the common form of address. Andíhristu is the Vlach substitute for the Greek κερατάς, and like it has an endless variety of meanings depending on the facial expression at the time. Finally we emerged from the muddy track in the oak woods, on to the bare top of the ridge near the little chapel of Ayia Paraskevi. Below us about twenty minutes to our left was the Kupatshar village of Vodhendzko, and beyond rose the craggy ridge of Spileo with the villages of Sharganei, Lavdha and Tishta nestling at its foot. To our right to the north in a rift in the ridge on which we were, lay the little hamlet of Tuzhi. Here for a short space the track was drier, but soon after night and rain began to fall, and the path became rapidly worse. The climax came when we slid for about half an hour down a muddy slope in the dark. The long procession was thrown into confusion, and on reaching the bottom where we were to camp, several families had become mixed up, and some units were separated from their main body. Our own party, more by luck than skill, arrived at the bottom together, and we had little to do but collect the mules and unload them, and then struggle to put up the tent in the wind and rain, first choosing a patch of ground that seemed less wet than the average. Leaving the women to make things straight we strolled over to another family that had arrived before nightfall and succeeded in lighting a fire. Comforted by the warmth we crept into our own tent, and after a hasty meal of bread, cheese and wine got to sleep as best we could. Other families fared far worse than ourselves, many were unable to erect their tents, others were separated into two or three little parties and had to spend the night in the open with next to nothing to eat, and only a rug to cover them. When we awoke the next morning in this spot which is known as La Valkó we seemed to be in another country. The night before we had been amongst low hills covered with oak woods, but now we were in mountain country sprinkled with pines, and still rather bleak in appearance, for here spring had only just begun. This small valley is a most picturesque spot. On either side rise steep pine-clad hills, and down the centre runs a small stream that rises immediately below the Morminde ridge, of which more anon, joins another flowing from Smiksi, and hurries down to the river of Vriashteno. Just below the meadow where we camped this valley comes to an abrupt end and the stream pours forth between two huge crags that stand on either side like sentinels. There another road from Ghrevena to Samarina, known as the Kutsokale (The Lame Road), passes over the shoulder of the northernmost of the Doauă K'etri, The Two Rocks, as these two crags are called. But this involves a steep ascent over rough ground in order to reach Valko, and so is impossible when travelUng with families. Pouqueville refers to these two crags as “Les Deux Frères” : this name soimds possible, but we have not heard it used.
Thursday, June 2nd.—The morning, when we started soon after 6 a.m., was damp and chilly. We immediately cross the river opposite the small hamlet of Tshuriaka, and follow up the river westwards. After about half an hour we pass the khan of Philippei, where the Smiksi families turn off up a small valley to the left. Philippei which stands on the hill side about half an hour above the khan is a Kupatshar village, and in costume the inhabitants approach nearer to Samarina than the other Kupatshar villages. The principal occupation is sheep rearing. Proceeding up the valley we pass a small wayside chapel in a clump of trees in the river bed, and some clusters of wild plum trees, which in early autumn are yellow with their pleasantly acrid fruit. Another hour or more brings us to a long zigzag ascent up to the ridge of Morminde, which marks the eastern boundary of Samarina territory. We pass the Pade Mushată (Fair Mead), a favourite place for families to encamp, and in days gone by the scene of more than one brigandage, of which more is said in a later chapter. The Pade Mushată deserves its name ; it is a fine level space on the mountain slope, cut through here and there by rivulets of icy cold water, carpeted with good green turf, and in spring and early summer bright with flowers, primroses, cowslips, meadowsweet, gentian and cypripedium. Arriving at the top we find ourselves on a small saddle that joins Ghumara, a large conical mountain covered with pine and beech on our left, to the Morminde proper, a long, grassy ridge also partially wooded. Immediately before us is Gorgul'u, a fine, rocky arête, still covered with patches of snow, and wooded on its lower slopes. Behind Gorgul'u and half hidden in cloud is the triple massif of Zmolku, of which only two peaks, Zmolku and Moasha (The Old Woman), are visible. Directly in front of us deep down in the valley under the summit of Gorgul'u is the junction of two small streams, one rising at our feet on the Morminde and separating that from Ghumara, the other rising on the col called La Greklu near the village of Furka, on the direct road leading from Ghrevena to Konitsa, and separating the western extension of the Morminde from Gorgul'u. Just above this confluence and on the slope below the pine woods of Gorgul'u is Samarina itself (Plate V). All eyes were at once turned towards the village. Our field glasses were hastily requisitioned, as all wanted to see the famous church on which grows a pine tree, and also their own homes, the more so since several houses collapse every year owing to the heavy snows, and the infiltration of water under the foundations. The small col of Morminde marks the watershed of North Pindus, for the stream by the khan of Philippei flows into the Venetiko, and so in time joins the Haliakmon which empties into the gulf of Salonica. The river of Samarina formed by the two streams just mentioned joins the Aous a few miles further down, and eventually reaches the Adriatic. Half an hour beyond the col we camp for a short time, and make a hasty lunch. But rain coming on again we hurry on over a cobbled track, made by the inhabitants of Samarina from their boundary by the wayside shrine on the col of Morminde into the village. Here almost every stone and clump of trees has its name, for instance a small ravine where there is a saw mill is known as La Skordhei, further on below the road is a boulder called K'atra N'agră (The Black Stone), one in the river bed is K'atra a Buflui (The Owl’s Stone), and a riven mass of stone on the hill side is known as K'atra Asparta (The Riven Stone). We soon pass a small shrine with a heap of horse-shoes by it, where the pious leave coins, and then crossing a bridge over the stream from the Greklu ridge, now a torrent in full flood, enter Samarina in a deluge of rain.
A crowd of those who had come up earlier (few families had stayed through the winter) came out to meet the new arrivals, to hear the latest news from below, and to escort relations to their various homes. The house belonging to our temporarily adopted family had stood the winter well, so we found a shelter waiting for us. Others were less fortunate, and one family had to dwell in a house that had only three walls left. That evening female relatives of the family with whom we were living, brought in as gifts to welcome their relations home several pite, a Vlach speciality of which more below. The next morning we made our way to the misohori or village square, where the market is held, and the village meets and talks.
Such was our journey with Vlach families from Thessaly up to their homes in Macedonia. In Samarina alone there are each summer over eight hundred families, which with few exceptions spend the winter elsewhere, and though all do not go so far afield as Tirnavos, still some go yet further, and most if not all twice every year in spring and autumn, set out with all their belongings on a journey of several days. This semi-nomadic life has its effect on the national character, and there are some Vlach customs which can be attributed directly to it. One minor result which is of practical use, is that it has taught the Vlachs, alone of Balkan races, that absolute independence in travelling is synonymous with absolute comfort.