Macedonia, a plea for the primitive

OWING
CHAPTER VII
INDUSTRIES
to the paucity of manufactured
goods in a country which has never
been sufficiently proHfic in its own
exports to enable it to import in any
large quantities or on an economical basis,
Macedonian domestic arts and crafts have experienced
the stimulus of necessity in no mean
degree. Though naturally simple, being made
with only the roughest kinds of tools and out of
the crude, though wonderful, products of Nature,
the articles used in the home invariably bear
that hall-mark of good workmanship, namely
durability, and, well-seasoned by time, excite
the envy of the connoisseur. Of recent years,
however, there has been an invasion (which the
lover of the antique would deplore) of manufac-
tured goods and labour-saving appliances which
have penetrated even into remote parts. Still
more to be regretted is the eagerness with which
the native welcomed these so-called aids to
existence and the avidity—almost pathetic
with which, during the Alhed occupation of the
country, he seized upon such unornamental
H 97
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