ATTICA. 



145 



is paid 20 paras, women and boys 10 paras each, for a day's labour. 

 The forementioned districts have a Soubashi and Scrivano attached 

 separately to them. The Scrivano is a kind of bailiff who takes an 

 account of what is received or due. The rights of the Vaivode are 

 a tenth of all the corn that is reaped ; the vineyards, the cotton, mad- 

 der, and garden grounds, pay only a composition of eight paras the 

 strema. The strema contains as much ground as is contained within 

 40 square paces. A proprietor purchases so many stremata or mea- 

 sures of land ; he then builds cottages, in which he puts as tenants, 

 industrious peasants. He furnishes them with cattle and seed-corn, 

 and they supply labour. When the harvest is made, the tenth portion 

 is taken by the Soubashi for the Vaivode ; the remainder is divided 

 into three portions, of these the oly.ozu{.o; or proprietor, takes two, 

 and only one goes to the tenant ; but if the latter has cattle and a 

 house of his own, which is frequently the case, he then divides with 

 the proprietor, and takes an equal share. The villages differ much in 

 respect to the number of houses, and the size of the farms ; some 

 farms consist only of a few zevgaria, others of several. Each zevgari 

 contains 350 stremata ; they plough with two oxen. The price of 

 wheat, which was at present high, was five piastres the kilo ; the kilo 

 weighs about 25 okes, and the oke is 400 Greek drachms. The price 

 of wheat is extremely variable; in plentiful years it is sold so low as 

 two piastres the kilo*; and in great scarcity it has been sold at six 

 piastres. But the richest produce of Attica is the oil, of which it is 

 computed that it yields 20,000 measures annually ; the measure is 

 five okes and a half; each measure sells at present at 100 paras. A 

 considerable quantity of madder is cultivated, and some cotton ; the 

 latter was selling in the Bazar at 15 paras the oke. The proprietors 

 of Attica have been extremely oppressed by the tyranny of Hadje-Ali 

 Aga. He has seized, by the most nefarious means, a fifth part of the 



* Eight kiloes and a half make a quarter of w[ieat. ' 



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