Order of the Turks

The money once paid, the community allowed the murderer to return unmolested. It was deemed sufficient if he were reconciled with the family of the party murdered ; and reconciliation under such circumstances was not likely to prove very difficult, since revenge would occasion new losses to the community.

The community which a village formed was a very close one. Jt had the right of electing its own Elders, and President or Euler (Seoski Knes); oflicerswho enjoyed both confidence and authority. The Poresci was a common burden, and its distri-bution was regulated by an equitable agreement amongst the villagers themselves.

As every family had its own tutelar saint, so also had every village; and the anniversary of this saint’s day was kept with religious solemnities. The people assembled in some large open space, on a height near the village, and the clergy consecrated water and oil; then, headed by their priests, the people, bearing crosses and images, went in procession through the fields, and in some places from house to house.

In this manner the clergy supplied the place of churches, which in most villages were prohibited by the. order of the Turks. The want of churches probably was the reason why the priests were far from enjoying that consideration which the lower clergy in the Western Countries so readily obtained. They had no occupation but that of performing baptisms, celebrating marriages, reading the service at funerals, and announcing the festivals from the calendar. The fees received by the priests, for the performance of these parish duties, were not sufficient for their support. Fortunate it was for them if they also possessed some little hereditary property in their village; on which, like their neighbours, they mowed, ploughed, reaped, and cut wood; otherwise they were but badly off. “ My Father,” asked a boy one day of the Priest, “ do you also tend your oxen?” “ My son,” was the answer, “ I would they were mine I tended.”