Photo by Frederick Moore 



BUIvGARIAN PE;aSANT GIRL I^EADING AN OX-CART THROUGH THE SUBURBS OF SOElA 



Peasant girls in the Balkans begin to take their share in the rough work of the farm 

 at an age when they should still be playing with their dolls. By the time these girls have 

 reached young womanhood their hands are hard with callous and their backs bowed. These 

 women are as powerful and as enduring as their men, and there is little cause for wonder 

 that the harvests and the plantings were as large during the Balkan wars, when all the men 

 were at the front, as they were before the fighting population had been called away. 



from the pot while one of the girls sings 

 doggerel verse describing a type of man, 

 such as a soldier or a merchant. Then 

 the girl to whom the bouquet belongs will 

 surely marry the class of man described 

 in the verse. Thus Elenka sings : 



"He walks abroad with head held high, 

 Gun on shoulder, sword on thigh. 

 Come, St. Jano; come, St. Jano's bride." 



Then the child pulls Merica's bouquet 

 from the kettle, and all know that Merika 

 will wed a soldier. 



Some girls once told me a pretty story 

 of a group that were trying their fortune, 

 unknowingly observed by a number of 

 admirers hidden in the shrubbery. Teeha 

 was in love with Boris, who was one of 

 the young men observing the game. When 

 her bouquet was drawn from the kettle, 

 little Elenka had just sung: 



"Quickly away from the folk he hies, 

 And bending low his shoe-lace ties. 

 Come, St. Jano; come, St. Jano's bride." 



This is the verse that indicates a rob- 

 ber, and poor, credulous Teeha was bro- 

 ken-hearted. It was bad enough to lose 

 Boris, but to marry a robber — it was too 

 much. But Boris was a man of resource. 

 The girls had just put each a ring into 

 the kettle with water, and were to come 

 back later to take out the rings, when that 

 girl whose ring rolled farthest would be 

 the one who was to marry first. When 

 Teeha's ring did not roll from the kettle 

 at all she was crushed, but her joy returned 

 when Boris showed her the ring he had 

 taken and confessed to being "a robber." 



THE ROSE GARDENS 



Many of the women of Bulgaria work 

 in the rose gardens. These gardens can 



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