Fliiito liy lU-tcr ll..nal.lMin Jenkins 



DOING he;r part to help hur country 



A Bulgarian graduate of Constantinople College who left 

 her husband and child in the north to serve as a sister in the 

 military hospital in Sofia. "I learned recently of the excellent 

 nursing given to the wounded soldiers in the hospitals and of 

 how even wounded Turks were taken care of by these Bul- 

 garian women nurses. The Turks, entirely unaccustomed to 

 the ministrations of women and charmed with the pretty 

 nurses who tended them, evidently fancied they had been 

 killed in the war and were receiving the reward of service 

 by houris, for they were heard to exclaim in delight, 'It is 

 already the Paradise'" (see text, page 400). 



swinging of feet, clasped hands, skipping, 

 and leaping — all mirthful, and much of 

 it very pretty. This dance is a little like 

 the English Morris dance and noticeably 

 different from the Eastern body dances 

 or the Russian dances of pursuit, retreat, 



and final capture. It sug- 

 gests health and abounding 

 spirits and good fellowship, 

 without the sensuality that 

 so often marks the Oriental 

 dance. Here again one 

 seems to feel the kinship of 

 the Bulgarian of the South 

 to the energetic peasant of 

 the North. The music may 

 be furnished by singing and 

 clapping of hands or by 

 some instrument. 



Occasionally the sedanka 

 ends in a dramatic fashion. 

 Some brawny fellow who 

 has been courting his Darka 

 assiduously will seize her in 

 his arms and carry her to 

 his home. The next day 

 this "marriage by capture" 

 is given legal and religious 

 sanction by the blessing of 

 the Orthodox priest. I once 

 asked Zarafinka what would 

 happen if two men wanted 

 the same girl. She replied 

 simply : "The stronger 

 would get her." "And if 

 she preferred the other?" 

 "Ah ! if she were very 

 clever she could help the 

 weaker to take her, but usu- 

 ally she preferred the 

 stronger. Generally the girl 

 who was carried off was 

 prepared for the capture 

 and quite willing." 



I^OLK-LORE AND SUPIvRSTI- 

 TION 



Of course, the Bulgarian 

 peasant is full of supersti- 

 tion, and a good many 

 quaint beliefs cling around 

 fortune - telling, and how 

 maidens may discover their 

 future husbands. The best 

 time for such divination is 

 not All Hallow Eve, as with 

 us, but early in the morning 

 of St. John's Day, in June. 

 One device for revealing the future is the 

 "fortune kettle." A little girl is seated 

 by the kettle, into which each of the 

 larger girls has dropped a bouquet. 

 Looking not into the kettle, but into a 

 little mirror, she must take a bouquet 



390 



