Thessaly

“ 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. ”

“ My King, thou needs must gird thee to the worst.
Thou shalt not be the last, nor yet the first,
To lose a noble wife. Be brave, and know
To die is but a debt that all men owe.
Admetus:
I know. It came not without doubts and fears,
This thing. The thought hath poisoned all my years.
Howbeit, I now will make the burial due
To this dead Queen. Be assembled, all of you;
And, after, raise your triumph-song to greet
This pitiless Power that yawns beneath our feet.
Meantime let all in Thessaly who dread
My sceptre join in mourning for the dead
With temples sorrow-shorn and sable weed. ”

“ The history of Thessaly is closely connected with its geography. The fertility of the land offered a temptation to invaders, and was thus the primary cause of the early migrations. It was this motive which first induced the Thessalians to leave their home in Epirus and descend into this district, and from this movement arose the expulsion of the Boeotians from Arne, and their settlement in the country subsequently called Boeotia ”

“ Even a less felicitous phrase-maker than Horace Boyce could have manufactured pleasant small-talk out of such experiences as his had been. The only son of a well-to-do and important man in Thessaly, he had had the further advantage of inheriting some twenty thousand dollars upon attaining his majority, and after finishing his course at college had betaken himself to Europe to pursue more recondite studies there, both in and out of his chosen profession of the law. ”

“ The southern part was occupied by the Dryopes, part of which tribe, after having been expelled from their original seats in the south of Thessaly by the Dorians, migrated to this island, and established themselves in the three cities of Karystos, Dystos and Styra. The population of Euboea at the present day is made up of elements not less various, for many of the Greek inhabitants seem to have immigrated, partly from the mainland, and partly from other islands ”

“ The higher of the villages on Pindus are under snow each winter and each year as soon as summer ends most of the inhabitants move down to the plains with their flocks and herds, taking with them whatever is needed to carry on their trade. Thus for the six winter months there is a large Vlach population living in the plains of Thessaly and Macedonia ”

“ 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. ”

“ In accordance with the provisions of the Berlin treaty, Thessaly was ceded to the Greeks by the Porte in 1881, and became a portion of the Hellenic kingdom. Since that time the prosperity of the province has greatly increased. The port of Volo, which is almost the only outlet of the trade of the whole district, has become an important town of 23,000 inhabitants, and daily communication by steamers now exists between it and Athens. The interior of the country has also been opened up by means of railways. ”

“ On the north side of Thessaly there was an important pass from Petra in Pieria bv the western side of Olympus, debouching on the plain northward of Larissa; it was by this that Xerxes entered, and we learn from Herodotus (vii. 173) that, when the Greeks discovered the existence of this passage, they gave up all thoughts of defending Tempe. On the side of Epirus the main line of communication passed over that part of Pindus which was called Mount Lacmon, and descended the upper valley of the Peneius to Aeginium in the north-west angle of Thessaly. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Tressady looked at her; he saw the moisture in the eyes, the reddening of the cheek, the effort for self-control.
"Why do you let yourself feel it so much?" he said resentfully; "it is not natural, nor right."
"That's our old quarrel, isn't it?" she answered, smiling.
He was staring at the ground again, poking with his stick.
"There are so many things one must feel," he said in a bitter low voice; "one may as well try to take politics calmly." ”

“ When she had spoken, a murmur ran round the hall, and each man, determined in his mind that no mere woman should surpass him in courage and strength. The sons of Thestius, the queen’s brothers, especially looked askance at her, and their hearts were filled with jealousy and wrath; for there seemed no reason why she should not be a match for any man among them, in a trial where swiftness of foot and sureness of eye would avail as much as brute force. ”

“ He recalled the effort and gloom with which she had made her first preparations for Lady Tressady. Yet she had made them. Is there really some mystic power, as the Christians say, in every act of self-sacrifice, however imperfect,—a power that represents at once the impelling and the rewarding God,—that generates, moreover, from its own exercise, the force to repeat itself? ”

“ Every head was bowed: no one saw the strange girl, with hair flung wide about her shoulders, nor the tiny human being resting upon her hands.
Silence fell upon the congregation, and Tessibel commenced her walk down through the sea of faces to the pulpit. She gave no glance toward Teola as she passed, but kept her eyes fixed upon Dominie Graves, who, without noticing her, had turned to the little flight of steps that led to his pulpit. When he reached the Bible stand, and opened his lips to speak, his gaze dropped upon the squatter. At first he thought he was dreaming. ”

“ The thought of the babe in the fisherman's hut sped through her mind, her father's consternation and horror if she should be compelled to tell her secret. But Tessibel stood in her place as mother to the little boy, and had taken an oath that nothing could force her to break. The squatter had been the scapegoat upon which had been heaped the sins of a girl no one had thought capable of doing wrong. Teola, resting in her father's arms, struggled with her conscience, trying to press down the moral weakness that had compelled her to keep the tragedy in the cabin quiet. ”

“ Thessala, who was right wise as regards Love and all his ways, knows and understands by her speech that that which distracts her proceeds from Love—because she calls and names it sweet—it is certain that she loves; for all other ills are bitter save that alone which comes from loving; but Love transmutes its own bitterness into pleasure, and sweetness often turns to its opposite. But Thessala, who well knew the matter, replies to her: "Fear nought, I will tell you well both the nature and the name of your disease. ”

“ That night the candle burned longer in the Skinner shanty, and an auburn head bent over an open book. A faltering voice spelled out the sufferings of the Nazarene. Once Tess smiled wanly when reading of how the Saviour had borne all the woes of the world—that any one believing could be saved. Her head nodded over the pages, and almost instantly the rapt face dropped upon the open Bible and Tessibel slept. ”

“ Help us do what we were meant to do and teach us how to walk in unknown paths which we are, now, about to enter on. May what is just and right be conquerors in conflicts that will, very soon, be carried on about us. May the souls of those about to leave this world be prepared for the great change from this world to another one, and may we, who are Thy humble servants, do the things that will be pleasing in Thy sight. Bless us, now, and guide us unto Thee. Amen."
When Estrella reached the home of little Tessa, she found her friend about to go somewhere but where she would not say ... ”

“ Tess halted a moment, looking up steadily into the dark eyes of the tall boy.
"Does the Bible talk of Daddy Skinner?" she entreated; "does it tell as how he air comin' home?"
"Indeed, yes," was the student's answer. "There's nothing the Bible doesn't contain. The Saviour was nailed to the Cross bearing his misery to give you a heavenly harp and crown, Tessibel. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you will see it all plainly. You can be happy if you pray and are a good girl while your father is away." ”

“ The first tinge of thinking sorrow comes into a woman's heart at the age of fifteen, and this was the beginning of Tessibel's sorrow, as she lifted her feet over the hot sands and sped onward. Tessibel was what most people would call a careless, worthless jade. ”

“ Ever since his boyhood Tressady had been conscious of intermittent assaults of melancholy, fits of some inner disgust, which hung the world in black, crippled his will, made him hate himself and despise his neighbours. ”

“ Truly it was Tessibel's first day and first night!
"He air to be hanged dead?" she asked, the painful shiftiness of her eyes settling questioningly upon the minister's face. "Aw, he air good, Daddy Skinner air, gooder than ye be, with ye cross and ye crown that ye sing about. Gooder than all ye whole church, if his gun did kill the gamekeeper. We has our rights to live, to eat bread and beans, like ye have, hain't we? If Daddy Skinner air hung, then Tessibel hangs too." ”

“ He looked doubtfully down upon his own hands and remembered the warts which Tessibel had whispered away. Then, trying to drive all thoughts of the fisher-girl and her squatter father from his mind, the minister rose to his feet. Frederick Graves had been watching his father intently and as he saw his effort to rise the boy whitened a little and settled back. Just growing into manhood and beginning to think for himself, the lad blushed with shame at the state of affairs that rose before his eyes this night. ”

“ Lady Tressady in health had never troubled herself in the least as to what the doctors of the soul might have to say, and had generally gaily professed herself a sceptic in religious matters, mostly, as George had often thought, for the sake of escaping all inconvenient restrictions—such as family prayers, or keeping Sunday, or observing Lent—which might have got in the way of her amusements. ”

“ Tressady knew a good many of them by sight—sullen, quick-eyed folk, who buy their "greeners" at the docks, and work them day and night at any time of pressure; whose workshops are still flaring at two o'clock in the morning, and alive again by the winter dawn; who fight and flout the law by a hundred arts, and yet, brutal and shifty as many of them are, have a curious way of winning the Gentile inspector's sympathy, even while he fines and harasses them, so clearly are they and their "hands" alike the victims of a huge world-struggle that does but toss them on its surge. ”

“ THE BED OF PROCRUSTES
A very tall and strong man, dressed in rich garments, came down to meet Theseus. On his arms were golden bracelets, and round his neck a collar of jewels; and he came forward, bowing courteously, and held out both his hands, and spoke:
"Welcome, fair youth, to these mountains; happy am I to have met you! For what greater pleasure to a good man than to entertain strangers? But I see that you are weary. Come up to my castle, and rest yourself awhile."
"I give you thanks," said Theseus; "but I am in haste to go up the valley." ”

“ Graves, peevishly. "Frederick! What's happened to you since your father died? That squatter girl's turned your head. I know it. She's completely spoiled you."
Tessibel and all her girlish sweetness came vividly across the boy's mind. It was ridiculous to blame Tess. Ah, if he were as good as Tess desired him to be, his life would be the most exemplary. ”

“ Frederick Graves appreciated for the first time in his short, shielded life the awful temptations that make these squatter people in their cold and misery take what did not belong to them. He followed Tessibel, with no spoken word; on and on, up past the lighted huts, to the gaping gorge under the trestle. Tessibel knew that the student could not traverse it without her help, and she also knew that to touch his hand would be the sweetest of happiness to her. At any other time her soul would have recoiled from such temerity, but the life and welfare of Daddy's deliverer were at stake. ”

“ The tones of the squatter were eager, her eyes so bright that Teola did not answer for a moment.
"He says that there is no girl as good as you, and that your faith in God is what he would rather have than anything else in the world.... Oh, Tess, if I could only believe, and be sure that soon the baby and I could go to—his father!"
"If ye asks, ye can go," replied Tess solemnly. "The student says what ye asks with faith ye'll get. Ain't that enough to prove it?"
This fell reverently from the lips of the girl. Faith in Frederick rather than faith in God had given birth to her believing soul. ”