The land beyond the forest; facts, figures, and fancies from Transylvania . ay to their homes and famil-ies. The great speciality of these Bulgarian far-mers is onions, of which they contrive to rear vastcrops far superior in size and quality to thosegrown by the natives. A Bulgarian onion-field iseasily distinguished from a Saxon one by its trimorderly appearance, the perfect regularity withwhich the rows are planted, and the ingeniousarrangements for providing wTater in time ofdrought. Of the numerous Saxon villages which dot theplain around Hermanstadt, I shall only here at-tempt to mention
The land beyond the forest; facts, figures, and fancies from Transylvania . ay to their homes and famil-ies. The great speciality of these Bulgarian far-mers is onions, of which they contrive to rear vastcrops far superior in size and quality to thosegrown by the natives. A Bulgarian onion-field iseasily distinguished from a Saxon one by its trimorderly appearance, the perfect regularity withwhich the rows are planted, and the ingeniousarrangements for providing wTater in time ofdrought. Of the numerous Saxon villages which dot theplain around Hermanstadt, I shall only here at-tempt to mention two or three of those wdth wrhichI have the most intimate acquaintance, as havingformed the object of many a walk and ride. First,there is Heltau—which, however, has rather thecharacter of a market-towTn than a village—lyingin a deep hollow at the foot of the hills south ofHermanstadt, and with nothing either rural orpicturesque about it. Yet whoever chances first tobehold Heltau, as I did, on a fine evening in Maywhen the fruit-trees are in full blossom, will carry. OLD TOWN GATE AT THE HELTAN SIDE. HOTOGHAPHED BY MAOAME KAMIILA ASBOTH, HERMANSTADT. SAXCXN VILLAGES. 77 away an impression not easily forgotten. Fromthe road, which leads down in serpentine curves,the village bursts on our eyes literally framed ina thick garland of blossom, snowy white and deli-cate peach colour combining to cast a fictitiousglamour over what is in reality a very unattractiveplace. The inhabitants of Heltau, nearly all cloth-makers by trade, fabricate that rough white cloth,somewhat akin to flannel, of which the Kouma-nians hose is made. It is also largely exportedto different parts of the empire, and Polish Jewsare often seen to hover about the place. Such,in fact, is the attraction exercised by this whitewoollen tissue, that a colony of the children ofIsrael would have been formed here Ions; as;o,had not the wary Saxons strenuously opposed suchencroachment. Once riding past h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookpublisheredinb, bookyear1888
