AN EXCURSION
During the meal that followed, the farmer turned to his son with: "You
will have to go to the Convent for me this afternoon. I can't spare the
time myself. And perhaps"--here he turned to Mrs. Popescu--"you and
your son might like the trip. It would give you a chance to see one of
our old-time institutions."
Mrs. Popescu thanked him. "Nothing could be pleasanter," she said.
Soon all three were seated on a rough timber cart with apparently
nothing to hold it together. To the cart were harnessed two moody
looking buffaloes with horns lying almost flat along their necks. The
cart swayed and twisted up the rough road when suddenly Nicolaia gave
an excited exclamation. They were just in the middle of one of the
great swollen streams that flowed everywhere over the mountains.
"What has happened?" asked Mrs. Popescu anxiously, for Nicolaia was
standing up and urging the animals forward.
Nicolaia gave a short, funny laugh. "The buffaloes want to take a
bath," he answered, and again shouted at them. Fortunately, after a
display of much stubbornness on their part, he did persuade them that
neither the time nor the place was suitable for bathing, and they moved
slowly on.
After safely passing through all the ruts and bogs, the creaking cart
at length stopped before what was called the "Guest House" on one side
of an old half-deserted convent. A servant dressed in the national
costume, with a wide hat on his long curling hair, came to meet them
and bid them welcome. Later one of the inmates, an elderly woman in
a loose brown dress, appeared bringing coffee, preserved fruit, and
buffalo milk, which Jonitza thought had a very peculiar flavor.
After they had partaken of this refreshment and expressed their
appreciation of the courtesy, and while Nicolaia was busy with his
errand, Mrs. Popescu and Jonitza visited the church of the Convent
and looked at the crude frescoes of heaven and hell that adorned its
walls. There were many ikons or pictures of saints about, for Roumania
is a Greek Catholic country like Russia. The large size of the Convent
showed that it must have enjoyed great prosperity in former times. Now
a deep quiet reigned everywhere.
Nicolaia grew quite talkative on the way back; he told of the source of
one of the streams that they passed and how difficult it was to get to
it, of a hermit cave in another part of the mountains in which the bats
fly at you when you enter, and finally, of some of his own immediate
plans. He talked at length about a friend called Demetrius, who lived
on the other side of the village and whom he planned to see on the
following day, when his own work was done. "Would you like to visit him
with me?" he asked, turning politely to Jonitza.
"Like!" repeated Jonitza almost rudely. "Of course."
They were passing through the village at the time and Mrs. Popescu
noticed that on certain houses a flower was painted. She pointed this
out. "That," explained Nicolaia, "is to let every one know that a
maiden lives there."
A little further on they met a branch entwined cart. In it sat two
girls gayly talking. One of them called to Nicolaia in passing.
The girls did not look at all alike and Mrs. Popescu wondered if they
were sisters.
"No," said Nicolaia, "they are only _surata_, that is, they have
adopted each other as sisters. Any girls can do that if they love each
other enough. I was at the Church when the ceremony was performed, and
saw their feet chained together in token of the bond. It made them the
same as born sisters. Sometimes a young man adopts another young man
for his brother in the same way. The priest always asks them if they
are sure of their affection, for he says the ceremony makes the new
relationship very binding."