LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

240 John nandriŞ
to the pindus, which was vividly described in the nineteenth century by
pouqueville 11 , the French Consul in the epirus. this was a mechanism
not merely of seasonality but of social definition. participation ensured an
annual reinforcement of the social being of the Aromâni, a behavioural
component in the identity of their culture, reaching back into prehistoric
exploitation of the highland zone.
young man’s black-on-black costume. Aminciu 1977.
Costas could recollect how during his lifetime the train of mounted
Vlahs with their sheep and dogs still rode from thessaly up into the pindus
during the spring, singing as they went. this took a couple of weeks at the
pace of the flocks and mules, camping by the fires at night and guarding the
sheep en route. If they were escorting a bride into the pindus she rode with
them, richly and uncomfortably dressed. Formerly the Aromâni had tents
made of strips of dense goat-hair fabric 12 woven on a narrow loom, like
those of the ancient near eastern and the Bedouin pastoral technocomplex
[of which their culture represents a clear extension into temperate europe];
or even sometimes made of leather like the tents of roman legionaries.
Costas himself was capable of sleeping out on the mountain in any
weather, wrapped in his kappa, the hooded woollen cloak made by his wife.
11 pouqueVIlle, F. C. h. l., Voyage de la Grèce. VI Vols. (paris, 1820 [1826]).
12 Illus. eg., KouKouDIS, A., Oi Mitropoleis kai hi disapora ton Vlachon
(thessaloniki, 1999) p. 141.