still-life at hermanstadt—a transylvanian cranford.
life at hermanstadt always gave me the impression of living inside one of those exquisitely minute dutch paintings of still-life, in which the anatomy of a lobster or the veins on a vine-leaf are rendered with microscopic fidelity, and where such insignificant objects as half-lemons or mouldy cheese-rinds are exalted to the rank of centre-pieces.
during seven months of the year—from april till november—the idyllic quiet of hermanstadt was certainly not without its charms. so long as the forest was green and the birds were singing, one did not feel the want of other society, and the répertoire of walks and rides furnished variety sufficient for an active body and a contented mind. it has often been remarked of transylvania, that while resembling no other country precisely, it partakes of the character of many, and that within the space of half a dozen miles you may be reminded of as many different lands. thus one day your road will take you through a little piece of dutch scenery, a sluggish stream bordered by squat willow-trees, with at intervals a sprinkling of quaint old flemish figures; another time it savors perhaps of rhineland, as your path, leading upward to the top of a sandy hill, loses itself in a labyrinth of luxuriant vineyards; or else you may deem yourself on the roman campagna, when, issuing forth on the vast tracts of waste-land, you see shaggy buffaloes standing about in attitudes of lazy enjoyment, leisurely cropping the sunburnt grass or voluptuously steeping their bodies in the cooling bath of a green shining morass.
you may ride for hours in the shade of gnarled oak-trees, or, emerging on to an open glade, indulge in a long-stretched gallop over the velvety sward. in spring-time these grassy stretches are crowded thick with scented violets, whose purple heads are crushed by dozens at each stride of your horse; and in autumn, when the grass is close cropped, these meadows become one vast playing-ground for legions of brown field-mice, scampering away from under the horse’s feet, or peeping at us with beady black eyes from out the porticos of their sheltering holes.
but once the winter has fairly set in, when those same frisky brown mice have retired to their strongholds in the bowels of the earth; when the last flower has withered on its stalk, and birds of passage have left the land; when streams have ceased babbling, and mill-wheels, made captive by chains of glittering icicles, are forced to stand still; when parasols have been exchanged for muffs, and the new toll-dog has already been eaten by the wolf—then indeed a season of desperate desolation settles down on the place. what is usually understood by the word amusement does not here exist. there is a theatre, it is true, but this is available in summer only; for as the crazy old tower which has been turned into a temple of the muses{319} cannot be heated, it remains closed till the return of spring brings with the swallows some theatrical company of third or fourth class to delight the population during a space of some weeks. now and then a shabby menagerie or still shabbier circus finds its way to the place; and such minor attractions as an educated seal, a fat lady, or a family of intelligent fleas, offer themselves for the delectation of a distinguished public. i have known persons who paid as many as six visits to the seal and eight to the fat lady during this period of vital stagnation. is not this bare statement wellnigh pathetic in its dreary suggestiveness? what stronger proof can there be of the mournful state of an intellect reduced to seek comfort from seals or fat women?
street at hermanstadt.
had it not been for the resources of the bruckenthal library, life would have hardly been endurable at this saison morte; but after all, even reading has limits, and the question of what next to do was apt to become puzzling to unfortunate mortals whose tastes did not happen to lie in the directions of music, love, or cookery.
about the liveliest thing to be done was to go often to the place on market-days, and watch the endless succession of pictures always to{320} be found there. it is the sort of market-place which would be a perfect godsend to any artist in search of models for his studio. no difficulty here in collecting types of every sort: an amazing display of pretty dark-eyed women in rich oriental costumes; a still greater assortment of shaggy, frowning figures armed with dagger and pistol, representing every possible gradation of the italian bandit or the medi?val bravo. here a sweet-faced young roumanian woman, tenderly pressing a naked sucking-pig to her breast, might sit for a portrait of the madonna; there a saxon matron, prim and puritanical in her stiff old-fashioned dress, is offering cider for sale in a harsh metallic voice; yonder a row of old dames, who sit weaving funeral wreaths out of berries and evergreens, would offer famous models for the parques, or the tricoteuses under the guillotine (it was just about here, by-the-way, that the scaffold used to stand in olden times). dishevelled gypsy women are trying to dispose of coarse wooden spoons, or baskets made out of shavings, no doubt combining their trade with a little profitable pocket-picking; and half-naked gypsy children are searching the mire for scraps of bread or vegetables which no well-bred dog would condescend to regard.
there is no great choice of delicacies to be found at this hermanstadt market-place. game is but rare, for reasons that i have mentioned before, and the finer sorts of vegetables are entirely wanting. the beef, veal, pork, and mutton, which form the whole répertoire of the butcher’s stall, cannot be compared to english meat, but have the great advantage of being much cheaper—beef about 4d. and mutton 3d. per lb. eggs and butter are good and plentiful; and as for the milk, let no one pretend to have tasted milk till he has been in transylvania; so thick, so rich, so exquisitely flavored is the milk of those repulsive-looking and ferocious buffaloes, as good almost as cream elsewhere, and for the rest of your life putting you out of conceit of your vaunted alderney or short-horn breeds, and making everything else taste like skim-milk by comparison. some people indeed there are, of superdelicate digestions, who cannot stand buffaloes’ milk, and are deterred by the delicate almond flavor usually considered to be its greatest attraction.
the transylvanian wines have been described and extolled by other authors (liebig, for instance), and deserve to be yet more widely known. there are, of course, many different sorts and gradations, those from the kokel valley being the most highly prized. it is{321} mostly white, and even the common vin du pays is distinguished by its rich amber hue, making one think of liquid topazes, if ever topazes could be melted down and sold at sixpence the gallon.
it is a noticeable and praiseworthy fact that at hermanstadt there are no beggars. it is the pride of the saxons to be absolutely without proletariat of the kind which seems as necessary an ingredient of other town populations as rats and mice. even the roumanians, though poor, are not addicted to begging, and, excepting the gypsies, i do not recollect one single instance of meeting a beggar in or about the town. nor can the gypsies be called beggars by profession; no gypsy will in cold blood set himself to go begging from door to door, though he instinctively holds out his hand to any one who passes his tent.
curious old legends occur to us while picking our way about the streets, and more than one old house is pointed out as being inhabited by ghosts. also, dr. faust, of famous memory, is said to have long resided at hermanstadt, and of him a very old woman who died not long ago used to relate as follows:
“my grandfather was serving as apprentice at the time when dr. faust lived here, and told me many tales of the wonderful things the great doctor used to do. thus one day he played at bowls on the big ring (place) with large round stones, which as they rolled were changed into human heads, and became stones again as soon as they stood still. another time he assumed the shape of the town parson, and as such walked up and down the church roof, finally standing on his head at the top of the steeple, to the terror and amazement of the people below; then when the real parson made his appearance on the ring, he jumped down among the crowd in guise of a large black cat with fiery eyes, which forthwith disappeared.
“once, also, on occasion of a large cattle-fair, there was suddenly heard the sound of military music, and, lo and behold! in place of the sheep, calves, oxen, and horses, there marched past a regiment of soldiers with flying colors and resounding music. the people rubbed their eyes, scarce believing what they saw and heard; then, as still they stared and gaped, the band-master gave a signal, the music turned to a hundredfold bleating and bellowing, and the sheep, cattle, and horses stood there as before.
“at last, as every one knows, dr. faust was carried off to hell. our lord would gladly have saved him from this doom, for the doctor had always a kind heart, and had done much good to the poor;{322} but to save him was impossible, for he had sold himself by contract to the devil, who kept strict watch over him, and never let him out of sight.”
also, as architect dr. faust was renowned throughout transylvania, but he often played tricks on the people, who grew to distrust him and decline his services. the numerous roman roads still to be met with all over the country are attributed to dr. faust, who, it is said, constructed them with the assistance of the evil one.
the shops at hermanstadt are such as might be expected from its geographical position and the sort of people inhabiting it; in fact, you are agreeably surprised to find here fashions no more ancient than of two years’ date. shopkeepers here still retain the antediluvian habit of eating their dinner as we hear of them doing some hundred years ago. when twelve o’clock strikes every shop is closed, and you would knock in vain against any of the barred-up doors; the streets become suddenly empty, and a stranger arriving at that hour would be prone to imagine himself to have stepped into a sleeping city. there are two fairly good german booksellers, several photographers, and sufficient choice of most other things to satisfy all reasonable wants. yet there were people among our acquaintances who, scarcely more reasonable than children crying for the moon, used to fly into a passion, and consider themselves ill-used, because they had failed to procure some fashionable kind of note-paper, or the newest thing out in studs.
sometimes, it is true, the narrow circle of hermanstadt traffic showed its threadbare surface in the most amusing manner, as, for instance, when in an evil hour i bethought myself of ordering a winter jacket trimmed with otter-skin fur. three skins would suffice for my purpose, as the tailor had calculated; so, accordingly, i went the round of all the fur-selling shops in the place. there were four of these who kept fur among other goods, and by a curious coincidence each of them confessed to possessing one otter only. three out of the four could not show me their skin; they were unable to lay hand on it at that precise moment, it seemed, but if i would step round later in the day it should be produced. returning, therefore, some hours later, i found, indeed, the promised otter in shop no. 2, but nos. 3 and 4 were, for some mysterious reason, unable to keep their word, putting me off again to the following day; and by a strange accident the otter in shop no. 1 had now disappeared. then ensued a wild-goose chase—or, i suppose, i should call it a wild-otter hunt—all round the shops{323} again for several days, having glimpses of an otter now at one shop, now at another, but never by any chance in two shops simultaneously, till at last an energetic summons on my part to confront all four together, led to the melancholy revelation that there existed but one single otter in the whole town of hermanstadt, the poor hard-worked animal alternately figuring among the goods of four different tradesmen.
in olden times, as we are told, the furrier guild of hermanstadt was very illustrious. its members once specially distinguished themselves in a fray with the turks by delivering their comes, in danger of being cut down. since that time the guild enjoyed the distinction of executing the sword-dance on solemn occasions, particularly at the installation of each new comes.
this anecdote occurred to my mind more than once in the course of my otter-hunt; and i sadly reflected that the comes would probably be left to perish to-day, while the sword-dance would be apt to assume somewhat shabby proportions if executed by the four greasy jews, with their solitary otter, which is all that remains of the once famous guild.[73]
other provincial towns as small as or smaller than hermanstadt can always show a certain amount of resident families whose hospitable houses are thrown open to strangers living there for a time. here there is nothing of the sort, the wealthier class being entirely made up of saxon burghers, who have no notions of friendly intercourse with strangers. it is difficult to explain the reason of this ungracious reserve, for they are neither wanting in intelligence nor in learning. their education is unquestionably superior to that of poles or hungarians of the same class of life; but even when well informed in all{324} branches of science, music, and literature, and on the most intimate terms with goethe and schiller, mozart and beethoven, they can rarely be classed as gentlefolk, from their total lack of outward polish and utter incomprehension of the commonest rules of social intercourse. even persons occupying the very highest positions in church and state are constantly giving offence by glaring breaches of every-day etiquette. this proceeds, no doubt, from ignorance, from want of natural tact, rather than from any intentional desire to slight; but the result is unquestionably that strangers, who might certainly derive much advantage from intercourse with some of these people, are deterred from the attempt by the lack of encouragement with which they are met.
i should, however, be ungrateful were i not to acknowledge that among the transylvanian saxons i learned to know several, to whose acquaintance i shall always look back as a pleasant reminiscence. first and foremost among these i should like to mention our worthy physician dr. pildner von steinburg, to whom i am indebted for many interesting details of saxon folk-lore. also, i can count among the people i am glad to have known more than one of the school professors and several village pastors; and i am truly convinced that i might have extended my acquaintance with pleasure and profit considerably had circumstances so permitted. but precisely therein lies the difficulty. the transylvanian saxon burgher is a very hard nut indeed to crack, and in order to get at the sound kernel within, one has to encounter such a very tough outside that few people care to attempt it. no doubt much of the imposed code of etiquette of the civilized world is an empty sham which lofty spirits should be able to dispense with; but unfortunately we are so narrow-minded that we cannot entirely divest ourselves of the prejudices in which we were brought up.
in other parts of transylvania the country-seats of the hungarian nobility offer a pleasant diversion; but here there is nothing of the sort, all the land about the place being in the hands of saxon village communities. social life at hermanstadt was therefore reduced to a few military families, who either might or might not happen to suit one another; and whoever has experience with this class will know that the cases of non-suitability are, alas! by far the most frequent.
“small towns are so much nicer—don’t you think so?” i heard a gushing creature remark to a gentleman she was endeavoring to captivate. “one gets to know people so much better than in large towns. isn’t it true?” “very true,” he replied, dryly; “one gets to know and to dislike people so much more thoroughly than in a large town.”
of course there were exceptions; but even if you do succeed in finding one or two friends whose society you care to cultivate, the case is not really much better—for whose feelings, what affection could stand the test of meeting their best friend six times a day in every possible combination of weather, locality, and costume?—in church, on the promenade, at the confectioner’s, and in every second shop, till you have long exhausted your whole répertoire of smiles, nods, and ejaculatory salutations. what galvanized attempts were made at gayety only served to bring out the social barrenness into stronger relief; for how was it possible to get up interest in a ball when you knew exactly beforehand what every woman would wear, what each man would say, and which of them would dance together?
none of the military families then stationed at hermanstadt happening to have grown-up daughters, the absence of girls from most social reunions gave them much of the effect of a third-class provincial theatre, where the part of soubrette is performed by a respectable matron of fifty, and where juliets and ophelias are apt to be passée and wrinkled. we hear so much about the corruption of large towns; but for a good, steady, infallible underminer of morals, commend me to the life of a dull little country town. people here began to flirt out of very ennui and desolation of spirit; beardless boys at a loss to dispose of their soft green hearts, desperately offered them to women twice their age; couples who had lived happily together in the whirl of a dissipated capital now drifted asunder under the deadening influence of this idyllic tête-à-tête, each seeking distraction in another direction—the result of all this being an amount of middle-aged flirtation exceedingly nauseous to behold. each evening-party was thus broken up into duets of these elderly lovers, while by daytime every man walked with his neighbor’s wife beneath the bare elm-trees which shaded the only dry walk near the town.
this is, perhaps, what balzac means by saying that life in the provinces is far more intense than in a capital—so intense, indeed, as frequently to be entirely made up of unnatural dislikes and equally unnatural likings; while that serene indifference which, after all, is the only really comfortable feeling in life, has here no place.
cranford-like, we all walked to and from the social meetings, which{326} took place at alternate houses. the distances were so short as not to make it worth while getting in and out of a carriage, and people who loved their horses did not care to drive them on a cold, dark night over the slippery and uneven pavement of the town. every party, therefore, terminated by a cinderella-like transformation scene—thick wadded hoods, heavy fur cloaks, and monstrous clogs reducing us one and all to shapeless bundles, as we walked home in the starlight over the crisp, crunching snow.
as the winter advances the social gloom deepens, and the liveliest spirits fall a prey to a sense of mild desperation. i began to realize the possibility of paying endless visits to the seal or the fat lady, and only wondered why no one had as yet hit upon the bright expedient of buying the one or marrying the other, merely by way of bringing some variety into his existence. some women changed their cooks, and others their lovers, merely for change’s sake; and as there was far greater choice of the latter than of the former article—there being many men, but of cooks very few—any woman known to be capable of roasting a hen or making a plain rice-pudding became the centre of a dozen intrigues woven round her greasy person. a single roe-deer appearing in the market infallibly gave birth to three or four evening-parties within the week. you were invited to sup on its saddle at the general’s, to partake of the right haunch at the colonel’s house, and the left at the major’s, and might deem yourself exceptionally lucky indeed if not further compelled to study its anatomy at some other house or houses—everywhere accompanied by the identical brown sauce, the same slices of lemon, the self-same dresses, cards, and conversation!
oh, roebuck, roebuck! why did you not remain in your own native forest? much better would it have been for yourself—and for us!
