Servia and the Servians 1862 William Denton

] 14 SER'JTI.& .&ND THB SERYIA.NS.
the beds of the half-dried streams are ,Imost always
sure to present this scene. As the girls walk to their
daily task in the fields, and the peasant woman plods
along by the side of her husband to share in his labours,
their hands are usually filled with the distaff. In
the winter time, when the rigour of the season prevents
all field-labours, they are to be found busy at
their simple looms ; and in the bright warm days of
spring, as of old,-
" Maids and matrons,
On the banks their yarn and linen bleaching,"
meet for companionship and gossip.
The little W allachian church at this place is so
exact a counterpart of the village church in the mral
districts where this people are settled, that a brief
description of one will serve for that of all the other
W allachian churches which the traveller will find in
the interior of Servia. It is built in the midst of the
cottages of the village, and but for its detached belfry,
and the absence of any litter of domestic furniture
within the enclosure in which it stands, would scarcely
be distinguished from them. The church is thirty-two
feet in length by twenty-one in width, external measure­
~ent, without including the apse at the east end. The
floor is of mud ; the roof is of the same kind of oakshingle
as that which covers all the cottages of the
village, and open in the inside. As the church was
erected before bells were allowed to be used by the
Christians of Servi.a, a detached belfry of woodwork
in frame has been erected since the church was built.
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