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

168 HOME LIFE IN HELLAShome use. Then they rear silkworms. Thereare few districts without mulberry trees.If theydo not spin silk for sale, they spin enough forkerchiefs or sashes, or perhaps a skirt. Somekeep sheep enough to supply them with woolsufficient for their clothes. If they do not, theyobtain the wool from the shepherd in exchangefor grain. There is scarcely a cabin without anolive tree or two and a fig. Thus they buyneither food nor clothes. The luxuries for whichthey have to pay are coffee, sugar, and tobacco,and one necessity, salt. Sugar is excessivelydear in Greece. Honey takes the place it holdswith us in household economy. But honey isnot suitable for sweetening coffee, and thoughGreek peasants are frugal, few deny themselvesthis indulgence. It is not a breakfast beverage,as with us. The far less costly wine, with bread,and perhaps a few cloves of garlic, suffices thehusbandman until sunset. If anything passes hislips meanwhile, it is more bread and a few blackolives. Bread and olives are his staple food.Bread is really the staff of life of the Greekpeasant, and it is made of pure wheaten flour,and varied occasionally by maize cakes. If hekeeps goats he has milk, which he consumesmainly in the form of yaoorti, a word he hasborrowed from the Turks. It means sour curd,and is an exceedingly wholesome viand. If thereis milk to spare, it is made into a cheese, excessivelysalt and hard, and of the appearance