DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0055
CHAP. V.] ALBANIAN COTTAGE. 33
strewed, which in the day-time serve for saddles, and
for couches by night. The fire is employed in boiling
some rice for our repast. On the other side of it
sit two Albanian women twirling their spindles, and
occasionally uttering a few syllables, before they put
between their teeth the flax which is to be wound
on the spindle. Another is engaged in kneading some
cakes which are inserted among the wood-ashes of the
fire, and thus baked. The master of the house stands
at the door, with his scarlet scullnjap on his head, a
belt girding his white cotton tunic, over which he wears
a shorter vest of woollen, thick woollen gaiters, and
sandals consisting merely of a sole of untanned leather
tied with leathern thongs over the instep. About him
are some children, whose necks glitter with gilded
coins strung into a necklace.
On the wall of the cottage hangs a loom (epyw
Xetoj;), which has probably not altered its form since
the contest of Minerva with Arachne: near it are
some bins filled with the acorns of the Balania oak,
which will be exported for dyeing. There are also
lying near them some silk-works {kovkovXio), from
which the silk (uera^i) is soon to be unwound, ahd
some husks of the cotton-plant (bambaki) bursting
with their snow-white contents.
As the night comes on, these objects about us
are only dimly illumined by the light of our fire: no
other light is provided. Ere long, all the children of
the family are laid side by side On one mantle on the
C
strewed, which in the day-time serve for saddles, and
for couches by night. The fire is employed in boiling
some rice for our repast. On the other side of it
sit two Albanian women twirling their spindles, and
occasionally uttering a few syllables, before they put
between their teeth the flax which is to be wound
on the spindle. Another is engaged in kneading some
cakes which are inserted among the wood-ashes of the
fire, and thus baked. The master of the house stands
at the door, with his scarlet scullnjap on his head, a
belt girding his white cotton tunic, over which he wears
a shorter vest of woollen, thick woollen gaiters, and
sandals consisting merely of a sole of untanned leather
tied with leathern thongs over the instep. About him
are some children, whose necks glitter with gilded
coins strung into a necklace.
On the wall of the cottage hangs a loom (epyw
Xetoj;), which has probably not altered its form since
the contest of Minerva with Arachne: near it are
some bins filled with the acorns of the Balania oak,
which will be exported for dyeing. There are also
lying near them some silk-works {kovkovXio), from
which the silk (uera^i) is soon to be unwound, ahd
some husks of the cotton-plant (bambaki) bursting
with their snow-white contents.
As the night comes on, these objects about us
are only dimly illumined by the light of our fire: no
other light is provided. Ere long, all the children of
the family are laid side by side On one mantle on the
C