204 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



fully preserved, worked up with coarse straw and stubble, 

 and dried for winter fuel; for over large areas the woods 

 have entirely disappeared, and the poor people have no 

 other resource. The preparation of the winter's supply is 

 especially the duty of the women, and, to quote the words 

 of the veteran missionary Van Lennep : " We have watched 

 them collecting the manure from the track which the cattle 

 follow in going to pasture in the morning, shaping it into 

 round cakes, six or eight inches in diameter, by handling it 

 as they would a lump of dough, and with a skilful twist of 

 their hand suddenly sticking it on the walls of their houses 

 to dry in the sun. They seem to enter upon this duty as a 

 matter of course, and conduct it with an artistic dexterity 

 which proves that it is one of the accomplishments of the 

 good housewife much to be desired." 



As to the distribution of the arable land, we may make 

 the general division into villages and "Chifliks," or farms of 

 considerable extent. The common farmers live in villages 

 for safety. They may own the land around them in common, 

 but generally each man has his own. The commune system 

 is mainly in European Turkey, and is the ancient system of 

 the Slavic race. 



The "Chifliks," or large farms, are usually owned by 

 Turks, and vary in size from several hundred to as many 

 thousand acres. They constitute a village in themselves: 

 the landed proprietor in the centre, usually on an elevated 

 bit of ground, and the huts of his dependents clustered 

 around and below. It is only the old feudal system revived : 

 the lord in his castle, and the hovels of his humble retainers 

 grouped about the walls. These large estates are devoted 

 principally to grazing; but if there is good wheat land you 



