Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

DOMESTIC LIFE 167head of the family, a copy of some stiff Byzantinemodel with long straight nose and eyes devoid ofexpression. On holidays it is decked with flowers,and in case of removal to another dwelling thegreatest precautions are taken lest its lamp shouldbe extinguished. There is no abode, howeverhumble, without this tutelary deity, the palladiumof the household. A touch of colour is given tothis interior by the strings of purple onions andgerbes of golden maize that hang from the roof.Men, women, and children live together in common—often three generations. When bedtime comesand it comes early—the mattresses are unrolled,and the members of the family enjoy a reposewhich would not be ours, under the circumstances.At dawn they rise—a simple process, for it is nottheir custom to undress—at most they throw offtheir outer clothes in summer—and the men go tothe fields. The women, if there is no field workfor them, spin or weave. This is all done out ofdoors. In fact the house is never used except atnight or in bad weather. The women will lollagainst their doorways, or against a tree, and spinfor hour after hour, or seated at their loom inthe shade, they weave through a summer day.The dye for their homespun is either brownobtained from the sap of the plane tree, or redfrom the prickly oak—a disease of the leaf,calledprinakokes—the kermes of the Arabs, from whichwe have our word crimson. Most peasants havea small vineyard, enough to make wine for