tch, he was
persuaded by the Natchalnik to attend a peasant festival held at the
monastery of Tronosha, to celebrate the anniversary of its consecration.
The next day, accordingly, he set off with the Natchalnik and his
companions, all gallantly armed and mounted, and in gala dresses covered
with gold embroidery; and, dashing up hill and down dale, through the
majestic forests which covered the ascent of the mountains, they arrived
in due time at Tronosha, "an edifice with strong walls, towers, and
posterns, more like a secluded and fortified manor-house in the
seventeenth century than a convent; for such establishments, in former
times, were often subject to the unwelcome visits of minor marauders."
After returning thanks for their safe arrival, according to custom, in a
chapel with paintings in the old Byzantine style, "crimson-faced saints
looking up to a golden sky," they proceeded to inspect the preparations
for the approaching fete, in a green glade running up to the foot of the
hill on which stood the monastery, and dined with the Igoumen, ([Greek:
Egoumenoz],) or Superior, and the monks, in the refectory. The healths
of the Prince, and of Wuczicz and Petronevich, were given after dinner
as toasts--a laudable custom, which appears to be in orthodox observance
in Servia--after which a song was sung in their honour by one of the
monks, to whom Mr Paton (whose special aversion he seems to have
incurred, for some reason not exactly apparent) applies the epithet of a
"clerical Lumpacivagabundus," which we quote for the benefit of such of
our friends as may chance to be skilled in the unknown tongue. Meanwhile
the assembled peasantry outside were in the full tide of merriment; and,
on the following morning, Mr Paton was roused from slumbers, in which "I
dreamed I know not what absurdities," by a chorus of countless voices,
and, hurrying out, found the peasants he had seen the evening before,
with a large accession to their numbers, on their knees in the avenue
leading to the church, and following "the chant of a noble old hymn. The
whole pit of this theatre of verdure appeared covered with a carpet of
crimson and white; for such were the prevailing colours of the costumes.
The upper tunic of the women was a species of surtout of undyed cloth,
bordered with a design of red cloth of a finer description. The
stockings, in colour and texture, resembled those of Persia (?), but
were generally embroidered at the ankle with gol