Romanian Folklore and Its Archaic Heritage A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study Ana R Chelariu All Chapter

Romanian Folklore and its Archaic
Heritage. A cultural and Linguistic

Comparative Study Ana R. Chelariu
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/romanian-folklore-and-its-archaic-heritage-a-cultural-
and-linguistic-comparative-study-ana-r-chelariu/
Romanian Folklore and
its Archaic Heritage
A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study
Ana R. Chelariu
Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage
Ana R. Chelariu
Romanian Folklore
and its Archaic
Heritage
A cultural and Linguistic
Comparative Study
Ana R. Chelariu
Emerson, NJ, USA
ISBN 978-3-031-04050-4 ISBN 978-3-031-04051-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Friptuleac Roman / Alamy Stock Photo
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
“Aion is a child at play, playing draughts; the kingship is a child’s.”
—Heraclitus, Fr. 52
To my mother
Acknowledgements
The completion of my work took many years of research and a lot of

effort to overcome the language barrier, and which could not have been
realised without the encouragement and support of family, friends and
distinguished professors, colleagues from the International Association of
Comparative Mythology, the Institute of Archaeonythology, American
Romanian Academy, and Romanian Universities. I will always cherrish
the memory of Professor Dean Miller, a true friend of Romanian studies,
and Professor Nick Allen, whose Hindu studies were generously made
available to me.
Special thanks and gratitude are due to Professor John Colarusso from
MacMaster University, for his encouragement and guidance over per-
sonal correspondence.
I owe a great deal to Professor Allen Ahsby for helping me in my strug-
gle with the English language.
Professor Stefan Stoenescu’s advise for the Romanian version of this
work is much appreciated. Professor Adrian Poruciuc’s interests in Indo-
European linguistics and Romanian folklore encouraged me in the begin-
ning, and many thanks to Professor Mircea Diaconu from Stefan Cel
Mare University, Suceava, Romania for his interest and reviewings of my
articles.
Appreciation goes to Professor Joshua James Pennington from the
Peerwith, for his help in editing and language corrections.
ix
x Acknowledgements
The many Romanian friends from diaspora, among whom renown

folklorist Coca Eretescu, the poet and literary critic Mirela Roznoveanu,
and the linguist Mihai Vinereanu, deserve special thanks.
Last but not least, this work could not have been completed without
the patience and understanding of my talented husband Serban, painter
and poet in his own right, and my beautiful exceptional daughter, Andrea,
my first and most understanding editor; and her wonderful family, Scott
and my three grandkids, Sean, Claire and Thea, always the joys of my life,
who I hope one day may be able to read this work.
Contents
Part I Getae-Dacians History and Religion in Ancient

Sources 1
1 I ntroduction 3
2 Brief
Overview of Recent Theories on the
Indo-Europeans’ Homeland 9
3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 17
4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 25
5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 29
Part II Comparative Method: Myth, Fairy Tale, Folk Tale 39
6 The Development of the Comparative Method 41
7 The Concept of Myth 45
xi
xii Contents
8 Myth Between Symbol and Metaphor 53
9 M
yth and Fairy Tales 63
10 Mythic Time Versus Fairy Tale Time 69
Part III Traits of Indo-European Mythic Motifs in

Romanian Folk Stories 73
11 The Mythic Motif of Man’s Creation 75
12 C
osmogony: Fârtat and Nefârtat, the Romanian Twins
among the Indo-European Divine Twins 83
13 God
‘Dumnezeu’ and the Creation of Earth, Sky,
Mountains in Romanian Beliefs 97
14 Th
e Romanian Goddess Ileana Simziana: The Sun and
the Moon Marriage109
15 The
Sun and a Mortal Girl Marriage: The Romanian
Song of Cicoarea ‘The Chicory’121
16 The
‘Deer Hunt’ Motif in the Romanian Wedding
Ceremony125
17 R
omanian Feminine Spirits iele, rusalii, șoimane141
18 Th
e Romanian Păcală among the Indo-European
Tricksters145
19 Th
e Hero Slaying the Dragon in the Romanian Song
Iovan Iorgovan153
Contents xiii
20 Youth
Rivalry Fights: From Nart Sagas to the Romanian
Song Mioriţa169
21 Metamorphoses in Myth and Fairy Tales181
22 Metamorphoses in Youth Initiation Rites191
23 The
Romanian Folk Story “The Enchanted Pig”: The
Motif ‘Beauty and the Beast’199
24 Indo-European
Social Structures and Youth Initiation
Rites in Romanian Folk Customs205
25 F
ather Christmas: Romanian Moş Crăciun—A Solar Myth215
26 C
onclusions229
Part IV Daco-Romanian Language Position Among the

Indo-European Languages 235
27 Th
e Daco-Romanian Cultural Vocabulary237
A
ppendix257
B
ibliography389
I ndex411
About the Author
Ana R. Chelariu was born in Bucharest, Romania, on November 19,

1946. Early on, while studying Romanian language and literature at the
University of Bucharest, she began her career writing original fairy tales
for the Radio-TV Romania, and was awarded First Prize for an original
fairy tale, transmitted on the radio broadcasting for children “Inşir-te
mărgăritar.” The interest in fairy tales, particularly the relationship
between myth and fairy tales, was the subject of her Master of Arts gradu-
ation thesis at the University of Bucharest, entitled Nemesis in the folktale
type A-Th 325, the Wizard and his Apprentice.
She has published articles, book reviews, and stories for children in
magazines such as Neue Literatur and Cutezătorii; she worked as a free-
lance editorial advisor for the publishing house ‘Cartea Românească’.
In 1978, she published her first book, a collection of original fairy tales
The Secret of Happiness, Ion Creangă Publishing House, Bucharest.
In January 1979, Ana immigrated to the United States. She continued
her studies, graduating in 1981 from Rutgers University, with a Master in
Library Science. While working as the director of a public library in
Northern Jersey, she continued her studies in mythology, folklore, and
language history.
As a member of the Society of Romanian Studies, she presents her
research studies on the relation between myth and folktale at various
xv
xvi About the Author
conferences organized by the Society, studies published in English in the

Romanian Civilization magazine.
In 2001, she published together with the Romanian writer Nina
Ceranu Libertăţile bufniţei [The Owl Freedoms], Ana@West and Nina@
East, a collection of e-mail correspondence between two writers who
never met in person. The book was reviewed in a few newspapers: Ildico
Achimescu, National Premiere, in Timişoara was published the first episto-
lary novel on the Internet; Ion Arieşanu: Looking through books; Alex.
Stefănescu: Chat on the Internet.
In 2003, Ana Chelariu published in Romanian Metafora metaforei;
studiu de mitologie comparată (The Metaphor of the Metaphor, a Study of
Comparative Mythology), Bucharest, Cartea Românească Publishing
House, book presented at the National Book Fair, Bucharest,
November 2003.
The book was also presented at the ‘Mihai Eminescu’ literary club,
New York City, January, 2004, featured in the magazine Lumină Lină,
and at the Romanian Cultural Institute, New York City, February 2004.
The study was reviewed by Mircea A. Diaconu: “Un teritoriu fascinant şi
recuperat, mitologia comparată [A Fascinating and Retrieved Territory,
Comparative Mythology]”, [Dacia Literară, XV, nr. 55, 4/2004, Iaşi],
Timotei Ursu “Tot despre Crăciun [About Christmas Again]”, in Lumea
Liberă [Free World], New York City, Nr. 798, 22 January, 2004; on line
http://www.romanianvip.com/2009/03/metafora-metaforei-ana-radu/
“Metafora metaforei” de Ana Radu Chelariu, 26 March 2009—
Eugen Evu.
The same year, 2003, she published at the Eubeea Publishing House,
Timişoara, a bilingual children’s story, Romanian-English, Nea Nae
mănâncă luna/Master Nick Eats the Moon.
She published in Balkanistica, vol. 16, 2003 (South East European
Studies Association, University of Mississippi), a book review of The
3000-Year-Old Hat: New Connections with Old Europe: the Thraco-
Phrygian World, by Irina and Nicolas Florov, Vancouver, 2001.
Ana continues to participate in conferences and publish articles on
various topics, particularly on Romanian mythology in relation with
Indo-European language and culture in the Journal of American Romanian
About the Author xvii
Academy, the magazine Origini [Roots], and the Internet publication of

the Romanian language, Conexiuni.
In 2013, she published ‘The Two Pennies Pouch’; a Romanian folktale,
based on ‘Punguța cu doi bani’, by Ion Creangă, Amazon.com., with illus-
trations by Serban Chelariu.
She participates annually with communications at the conferences
organized by the International Association of Comparative Mythology,
such as:
The Role of Metamorphosis in the Initiation Rites: the Flight of
Transformation from Myth to Romanian Folktales, Strasbourg, 2011.
Metaphors and the Mythical Language—Examples from Romanian
Mythology, Tubingen, 2013.
She published Metamorphosis amid Myths, Initiation Rites and
Romanian Folk Tales in Nouvelle Mythologie Comparée/New Comparative
Mythology, Lingva, nr, 3, p. 49, 2016–2017.
She publishes reviews of books for The Journal of Folklore Research
Reviews; Indiana University.
She is a member of the American Romanian Academy, the Society of
Romanian Studies, the South-East European Studies, International
Association of Comparative Mythology, The Institute of
Arhcaeomythology, New Jersey Library Association, and American
Library Association.
Ana lives with her family in New Jersey, United States of America.
Abbreviations
adj. adjective
adv. adverb
Alb Albanian
arch archaic
Arm Armenian
ARom Aromanian
Bret Breton, Celtic
Bulg Bulgarian
Bur Burushaski
Corn Cornish, Celtic
Czech Czech
DEX.RO Dicționarul Explicativ al Limbii Române online
DRom Daco-Romanian
Dutch modern Dutch
f. feminine
Gaul Gaulish
Goth Gothic
Grk Greek
Hit Hitite
Ice Icelandic
IEW Indogermanisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch
Illyr Illyrian
inf. infinitive
xix
xx Abbreviations
Iran Iranian
IstrRom Istro-Romanian
JIES Journal of Indo-European Studies
Lat Latin
Latv Latvian
Lig Ligurian
Lith Lithuanian
Luv Luvian
m. masculine
MA Mallory & Adams
Maced Macedonian
MDutch West Law Germanic
ME Middle English
MglRom Megleno-Romanian
MHG Middle High German
MPers Middle Persi
n. noun
NE modern English
NHG New Hogh German
NIce New Icelandic
Norw Norwegian
NPres New Persian
NWels New Welsh
OCimmr Old Cimmerian
OCS Old Church Slavonic
OE Old English
OIce Old Icelandic
OInd Old Indian
OIr Old Irish
OIran Old Iranian
OLat Old Latin
ON Old Norse
OPers Old Persian
OPrus Old Prussian
ORus Old Russian
Osc Oscan
Oss Ossetic
Phryg Phrygian
Abbreviations xxi
PIE Proto-Indo-European
Pk Pokorny
pl. plural
PN personal name
Pol Polish
PSl Proto Slav
RN river name
Rus Russian
Serb Serbian
sg. singular
Skt Sanskrit
Slovk Slovakian
Slovn Slovenian
Thrac Thracian
Toch A B Tocharian A and B
Trk Turkish
Ukr Ukrainian
Umb Umbrian
v. verb
Part I
Getae-Dacians History and Religion
in Ancient Sources
1
Introduction
By the end of the first millennium BCE, the Carpathian Mountains and
the surrounding hills were populated with people living out of the deep
vast forests and fertile valleys, along fast-moving springs, raising their
families and tending their livestock, all the while transmitting their cul-
tural heritage from one generation to another. The little that we know
about this large group comes mostly from Greek sources, beginning with
Herodotus (Histories 4. 93–96), who groups these people named Getae
into the large tribes of Thracians, sharing the same language, customs,
and religious beliefs (ibid.), all part of the Indo-European group, In his
short depiction, the Greek historian describes them as “the most manly
and law-abiding of the Thracian tribes”, recounting one of the rituals that
gives us a glimpse into the beliefs these people held: According to his
account, every five years one man was selected from their community to
serve as a messenger to god. The messenger would be held by his arms
and legs and swung in the air before being launched over three spikes. If
he was impaled on the spikes and succumbed to his wounds, it was inter-
preted that their god was showing them favor; but if he did not die that
meant the man was wicked, and they had to continue until they appeased
their god with a proper sacrifice, a better man. When thunder and light-
ning occurred, Getae would aim their arrows toward the clouds,
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3

A. R. Chelariu, Romanian Folklore and its Archaic Heritage,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_1
4 A. R. Chelariu
threatening the sky with angry cries. Their supreme god was Zalmoxis, (also
spelt Salmoxis), a Getae who, it is said, was a slave of the Greek Pythagoras,
as Herodotus writes: §1.1.1: 4.94: (1) “I understand from the Greeks who
live beside the Hellespont and Pontus, that this Salmoxis was a man who
was once a slave in Samos, his master being Pythagoras son of Mnesarchus.”
As the historian continues, after being freed and gaining great wealth,
‘Salmoxis’ returned to his country and began teaching the Pythagorean
doctrine of immortality. He built a hall in which people would gather and
listen to his teachings (3) “that neither he nor his guests nor any of their
descendants would ever die, but that they would go to a place where they
would live forever and have all good things” (ibid.). While he was teaching,
he (Zalmoxis) had built an underground chamber where he vanished and
lived for three years (4). The Thracians mourned him for dead, but (5) “in
the fourth year he appeared to the Thracians, and thus they came to believe
what ‘Salmoxis’ had told them” (ibid.). Getae believed in immortality, and
after death they go to Zalmoxis, §1.1.3: 4.96. “who is called also Gebeleizis
by some among them” (ibid.). The Romanian historian Vasile Pârvan in his
extensive work Getica opposes the Greek historians who attributed human
condition to Zalmoxis, in the end agreeing with Herodotus on the Getae’s
beliefs in a god named Zalmoxis. (Pârvan 1982: p. 92)
Centuries later, Strabo (Geography 7. 3. 12) called the tribes living in
the western parts of the Carpathians toward German territories “daoi,
dakoi”, which directs the search to the PIE [Pokorny (1959)
Indogermanisches etymologiscches worterbuch (IEW) 235] *dhau- ‘to press,
squeeze, strangle’ > DRom n. Daci collective ethnonym tribe name, Lat
Dāci; Phryg δάος; other DRom developments dulău n.m. ‘big aggressive
dog, shepherd dog’; dolcă n. f. ‘bitch’, with cognates, as per Pokorny:
“Phryg δάος … ὑπο Υρυγων λύκος Hes. (therefrom the people’s name
Δᾶοι, Dāci), Lyd Καν-δαύλης (κυν-άγχης ‘Indian Hemp, dogbane,
plant poisonous to dogs’), compare Καν-δάων, name of Thrac god of
war, Illyr PN Can-davia; dhaunos ‘wolf ’ as ‘shrike’; Lat Faunus; Grk
θαῦνον θηρίον (Hesykhios); Illyr Daunus therefrom Δαύνιοι, inhabit-
ant of Daunia; compare Thrac Δαύνιον τεῖχος); Gk. Zεὺς Θαύλιος, that
is, ‘shrike’; with ablaut Grk θώς, θω(F)ός ‘jackal’, maybe Alb dac ‘cat’;
Phryg. δάος; Goth af-dauiÞs ‘rended, mangled, afflicted’; OCS davljǫ,
daviti ‘embroider, choke, strangle’, Russ davítь ‘pressure, press, choke,
crush’, dávka ‘crush’”. The Bulgarian linguist V. Georgiev (1960, p. 48)
1 Introduction 5
finds a Dacian plant name δαχινα (Diosc. 4, 16, nv [W. 2, 183]) λυχου
χαρδια ‘wolf heart’ IE *dhău-k-ino adj ‘of wolf ’ < *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > tribe’s
name Δαχοι, IE. *dh ~u-ko—‘wolf ’; older name Δαοι; περσον∋σ ναμε
Dăvos, Daus < IE *dhăwo-s ‘wolf ’ > town Δαουσ-δαυα in Moesia
Inferior, and their close relatives who occupied the eastern parts toward
the Pontic region the “Getae”.
Strabo states that Zamolxis (sic!) preached to his countrymen about
immortality and vegetarianism, based on Pythagorean ideas (Geography
7. 3–5). Zalmoxis’ teachings on immortality are confirmed by Plato
(Charmides 156d–e), who also mentions the highly respected medical
teachings of the prophet.
The Getae-Dacian religious beliefs in a supreme deity, the god,
Zalmoxis in some documents, or Zamolxis in others, must have impressed
the Greeks with his story and preaching, as it is seen in their writings. The
god’s name is subject of endless controversies mainly due to the different
ways in which it was transcribed in many Greek works, varying from
Zalmoxis to Samolxis, to Zamolxis. The Romanian researcher, Popa-
Lisseanu (2007) published translations of Roman and Greek documents
pertaining to the Dacian history, including antique references to the
Dacian god Zamolxis. From his work I extract the following chronologi-
cal list of writers using one or the other of these forms: in Herodotus,
Histories, in fifth century BCE, we find Zalmoxis and Salmoxis (see
above); Porphyry (1920), Life of Pythagoras, third century BCE uses
Zamolxis: “14. Pythagoras had another youthful disciple from Thrace.
Zamolxis was he named because he was born wrapped in a bear’s skin, in
Thracian called Zalmus.” Even though Porphyrios uses the god’s name as
Zamolxis he attempts the first etymology of this name, in a Thracian
form zalmus meaning ‘bear’s skin’. Other ancient writers using the form
Zalmoxis are Diodorus Siculus, first century BCE, Apuleius, second cen-
tury CE, and Jordanes in the sixth century CE.
Among those using the form Zamolxis are: Poseidonios, first century
BCE, a native to Apamea, Syria; Strabo, 64 or 63 BCE–24 CE, geogra-
pher and historian who lived in Asia Minor; Lucian of Samosata, second
century CE. Starting with the third century CE, the form Zamolxis is
more commonly used by authors such as Diogenes Laertios, third century
AD, or the Emperor Julian the Apostate, fourth century CE. Addressing
6 A. R. Chelariu
the stem zamol M. Eliade (1972: 45) brings to attention Matthäus

Prätorius who in his Orbis Gothicus (1688) relates the god’s name with the
notion of zamol ‘earth’, an idea reiterated by Cless (1852) who compares
it with the name of the Lithuanian chthonic god Zameluks, an etymology
later discussed by the Romanian linguist Ioan I. Russu (1967: 128).
Evidently, the use of the two forms of the Getae-Dacian god’s name
generated two pathways of etymological explanations, one starting from
the Thracian form zalmo ‘bear skin, cover, hide’, hence, Zalmoxis, ety-
mology that could imply a relation to the German berserkers, even
though there is no description of such in Herodotus or the other histori-
ans. The Zalmoxis form is considered correct by the majority of linguists
accepting Herodotus as the most ancient source, and based on Thracian
form zalmon and zelmis ‘hide’, a hypothesis that receives credibility on
the account of a Gaete king, Zalmodegikos. But the Thracian language
offers yet another form zamol ‘earth’, leading to the god’s underground
sojourn, both forms having similar semantic connotations, the hiding
and the underground, which may help clarify the coexistence of both
forms. The appellative Gebeleizis or Beleizis, was linked to the same root,
*ǵhem-el- ‘earth’, as presumed base for Zamolxis. The PIE root *ĝhem-el
(*dhǵhom-) for ‘earth’ (IEW 414–416) *ĝhðem-, ĝhðom-, gen. ĝh(ð)m-és
‘earth’ has cognates in Skt kşam, Av za, zam, zme, Grk khthōn, Lat
humus, Lith žēmė, Old Slvic zemlja, Alb dhe, Hit tēkan, Toch A tkam,
forms that send us to the Earth Goddess, found in the Thracian mythol-
ogy as Σεμελη ‘Mother of Earth’ (West, 2007, p. 175), and Semele, διωσ
ξεμελω, mother of Dionysos, in Lithuanian Zemyna ‘Earth Goddess’,
Greek Ξαμ-αι, Ξαμ-υνη, Demeter’s name, and possibly with the Cretan
δηαί, Ionic ζηαί meaning ‘barley’. These forms lead us to relate the well-
established divinity of the Earth with the Dacian male deity Zamolxis,
the god who disappeared (or hid) underground for a number of years, a
connection that could be structural, etymological, or conjectural, due to
an association made by the Greek speakers familiar with Thracian and
Phrygian: ζεμελω ‘earth’.
Around the first century BCE, the Dacian-Getae tribes unified and
formed a powerful state, becoming a threat to the Roman provinces in
the Balkans. According to Strabo (7.3.11, 12), “Boerebistas”, king of the
Getae-Dacian tribes from 82/61 BCE to 45/44 BCE, was the first ruler
1 Introduction 7
to unify their tribes under a state that stretched from the north of the
Carpathians to the Haemus Mountains in the west, from the mountain-
side of the Hercynian Forest to the Black Sea and the Tyregetae region.
After Boerebista’s death the state disintegrated into smaller states, approx-
imately on the same geographic territory as modern-day Romania,
including: Transylvania, Moldova, Maramureș, Banat, Oltenia, and
Muntenia. Following his predecessor, Decebalus unified these tribes yet
again under the Dacian kingdom with its capital at Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Their constant raids south of the Danube River gave the Roman Empire
enough reason to start military campaigns against them. After two bloody
wars, by the year 106 CE the emperor Trajan conquered Dacia, and the
colonization and Romanization process began (Pârvan 1972).
Despite thousands of years of turbulent history in this region, the peo-
ple of Romania withstood the test of times, continuing their traditions
and creating a rich oral culture. Currently, the folkloric materials col-
lected mostly in the nineteenth century are regarded by more and more
researchers as hiding archaic patterns, making a case for the Romanian
songs and stories to be considered as potential sources of information in
searching mythical motifs. Romanian folklore, as well as the folklore of
other European countries, with careful investigation, can be a valuable
resource for shedding new light on the study of European and ultimately
Indo-European mythology. This work is an attempt to identify mythic
traits that endured from the archaic times emerging into the Romanian
oral tradition.
References
Eliade, M. (1972). Zalmoxis, the Vanishing God: Comparative Studies in the
Religions and Folklore of Dacia and Eastern Europe. University of Chicago Press.
Georgiev, V. I. (1960). Raporturile dintre limbile dacă, tracă şi frigiană. Studii
clasice II, Societatea de studii clasice RPR, p. 39.
Herodotus. (1920). Histories (A. D. Godley, Trans.). Harvard University Press.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.0
1.0126;query=chapter%3D%23103;chunk=chapter;layout=;loc=1.102.1
8 A. R. Chelariu
Pârvan, V. ([1937] 1972). Dacia. Civilizaţiile străvechi din regiunile carpato-

danubiene (5th ed.). Editura Stiințifică.
Platon. (1975). Opere. Ediția a II-a; ediție îngrijită de Petre Creția și Constantic
Noica. Editura științifică și enciclopedică.
Pokorny, J. (1959). Indogermanisches etymologiscches worterbuch. A. Francke Verlag.
Popa-Lisseanu, G. (2007). Dacia în autorii clasici; I Autorii latini clasici și post-
clasici; II Autorii greci și bizantini. Vestala.
Porphyry. (1920). Life of Pythagoras (English translation, K. S. Guthrie, Trans.).
https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/porphyry_life_of_pythagoras_02_
text.htm
Russu, I. I. (1967). Limba traco-dacilor. Bucharest Ştiinti̧ficǎ și enciclopedică.
Strabo. The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three vol-
umes, ed. H. C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A (London 1903). http://
www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0239
West, M. L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press.
2
Brief Overview of Recent Theories
on the Indo-Europeans’ Homeland
The Indo-Europeans’ ‘homeland’ and the moment of their dispersal

throughout Europe is a much-debated subject. In recent decades, the
most prominent researchers on this topic modified their view on the
arrival of the Indo-Europeans to Europe from a violent invasion to a
peaceful intrusion. According to the invasion theory, postulated by
Marija Gimbutas (1982, p. 238), the Indo-Europeans disrupted the
lower Danubian long-standing cultures, Hamangia, Gumelnița Karanovo,
Vinča, Tisa, and on the northeast the Cucuteni-Tripolye cultures, for
which she established the term ‘Old Europe’. The populations flourishing
for millennia in these regions prior to the arrival of the Indo-Europeans,
practiced on a limited scale agriculture and herding, advanced ceramic
techniques, and worshipped the Great Goddess. The Indo-European
invaders appeared as a warrior-like nomadic population, essentially patri-
archal, structured in social classes, who worshipped the sky and the sun.
The central position occupied by the feminine deity in the ‘so-called’ Old
Europe culture led to mingling between the worshippers of the goddess
and the newcomers’ religious beliefs, that could explain the confusion
often associated with the feminine deities’ functions in the Greek pan-
theon. For example, the Greek Demeter, as her name stands, is the

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_2
10 A. R. Chelariu
‘Mother Earth’, a representation of the Old Europe goddesses displaying

a distinct relation with the Olympians.
The violent invasion theory was refuted by Colin Renfrew (1987) who
advanced the hypothesis that the Indo-Europeans came around 6500 BCE
from Anatolia through Greece, as the first farmers that colonized the
middle and lower Danube valleys. According to the author, their arrival
was not a warlike intrusion, but took place rather by demic diffusion, a
gradual penetration by which the ‘conquering’ process was realized
through assimilation.
James Mallory argues that in the millennia following 4500–4000 BCE,
there was a sizeable influx of people from the Pontic region into Europe, laying
“the foundation for the Indo-European languages throughout Southeastern
Europe” (Mallory, 1989/1996, p. 234). Archaeological evidence of the new-
comers in the Romanian area includes the presence of objects typical for the
Pontic Caspian region such as scepters shaped as horseheads found in
Casimcea, Sălcuța, Fedeleseni, and other sites (Mallory, ibid.).
The place of the Indo-European dispersal is the subject of yet another
important study offered by David Anthony (2007). His extensive archae-
ological research concludes that the homeland of the Proto-Indo-
Europeans was north of the Black Sea in the Pontic-Caspian steppes,
reinforcing the previous theories of Gimbutas and Mallory. Analyzing the
archaeological data in conjunction with the linguistic reconstructions,
Anthony reaches the conclusion that the penetration of the Proto-Indo-
European culture and the fall of the Southeast European settlements,
resulted most likely from a combination of several factors: cultural and
economic exchanges, warlike incursions on horseback, and climate con-
ditions resulting in agricultural failure (Anthony, 2007, p. 230). Between
6500 and 5500 BCE, farmers and herders of a non-Indo-European-
speaking group arrived in Europe from Anatolia through Greece and
Macedonia, migrating up north by the Danube Valley. Several new Old
European Neolithic languages may have emerged from a Thessalian par-
ent, a non-Indo-European language that curiously might have preserved
in the Proto-Indo-European the term for bull, *tawro-s ‘bull’, considered
by many linguists borrowed from an Afro-Asiatic super-family that gen-
erated both Egyptian and Semitic in the Near East (Anthony, 2007,
2 Brief Overview of Recent Theories on the Indo-Europeans’… 11
p. 147). According to him, the farmers from Anatolia did not spread into
Europe the Proto-Indo-European language:
PIE must be dated not to the Mesolithic but after the beginning of the
Neolithic era, so after 6500 BCE in Europe, because many Indo-European
(IE) cognate word roots securely assigned to PIE (Mallory & Adams, 2006:
139–172) had meanings related to Neolithic economies (cow, bull, calf,
ewe, ram, lamb, wool, milk products, ard/plow, domesticated grain). The
speakers of the most archaic recoverable form of PIE, preserved in the
Anatolian IE languages, were already familiar with agriculture and domes-
ticated animals—and the pre-Neolithic WHG were not. (Anthony &
Brown, 2017)
At about 5800–5700 BCE the farmers of the Criș culture, developed

along the Criș river on the Carpathian Mountains by farmers from
Anatolia, migrated to the east of the Carpathian Mountains into the Bug-
Dnister areas, coming in contact with its neighbors, the Pontic-Caspian
population of foragers and hunters. They brought with them domesti-
cated sheep and cattle, probably the source of the first domesticated cattle
in the North Pontic region,. They cultivated barley, millet, peas, a variety
of wheat (emmer, einkorn, spelt, barley, millet), peas that were not native
to southeastern Europe, and plum orchards, etc., and yet the European
cultures lacked the vocabulary for ‘seed, sowing, fields, crops’ (Anthony,
2007, p. 138–143). A note should be made here on the difficulty lin-
guists have to reconstruct a PIE root for ‘pea’ (Mallory & Adams, 1997,
2006, p. 416) in spite of its confirmed presence on the continent for
thousands of years. Relevant here is the unexplained Albanian modhullë
and Romanian mazăre, both meaning ‘pea’, to which we have to add the
Dacian form found in Dioscorides’ list of plants mozula, mizela ‘the plant
thyme’, showing phonetic similarity, but semantic difference.
Around 5800–5500 BCE, the archaeological data show that the hunt-
ers and gatherers on the Bug-Dniester valley selectively and on a limited
scale adopted the Criş farmers-herders influence, consisting of small plots
of grain, cattle, and pigs. From 5200 BCE, the lower Danube valley set-
tlements and the Criş culture began to enjoy centuries of peace and pros-
perity, the farming hamlets turned into large settlements and larger
12 A. R. Chelariu
towns, with bigger, sturdier houses, some two-storied, painted in specific

patterns. Remarkably, at some sites, villages continued on the same spot
for many generations, showing signs of a very sedentary type of popula-
tion. The ceramic decorations follow similar patterns, and the numerous
female figurines confirm that the main religious beliefs centered on the
Great Goddess. Beginning with 5200–5000 BCE, the Pontic-Caspian
steppe societies became attracted to the Old European copper trade and
the beautifully decorated ceramics of the Cucuteni-Tripolye cultures
from the northeast Carpathian Mountains.
After a thousand years of prosperous existence, by 4200 BCE the Old
Europe cultures reached their peak. Unfortunately, the lower Danube
valley civilization was hit by a period of terrible winters (Anthony, 2007,
p. 227), which resulted in burned and abandoned settlements. From
4200 to 3800 BCE the shift in climate, with a period of 140–150 years
of terrible winter colds, led to the end of farming activities, and of Old
Europe cultures. This hardship was exacerbated further by the incursions
of the steppe immigrants, a mobile force on horseback looking for Balkan
copper and perhaps forceful accumulation of herds. Some of the inhabit-
ants from the lower Danube valley retreated northwest into the
Transylvanian territory, where they settled and developed other cultural
complexes. Following centuries of very harsh winters and warlike inter-
ventions, by 3700 BCE the milder climate returned to the lower Danube
valley, encouraging the further penetration of steppe settlers. The agricul-
tural type of economy was replaced by the adoption of an Indo-European
pastoral type of economy. Yet, the traditions of Old Europe continued for
a longer period of time in the western part of Romania, in Transylvania
and western Bulgaria, while the northeast Cucuteni-Tripolye cultures
maintained economic and presumably social relations with their steppe
neighbors. Beginning sometime before 4000 BCE, the steppe population
adopted more of the farmers and herders way of life and economy, creat-
ing the conditions for the start of what is accepted as Proto-Indo-
European proper: “The heart of the Proto-Indo-European period probably
fell between 4000 and 3000 BCE, with an early phase that might go back
to 4500 BCE and a late phase that ended by 2500 BCE.” (Anthony,
2007, p. 99) In accord with Gimbutas and Mallory, Anthony (2007,
p. 58) concludes that linguistic reconstruction and archaeological
discoveries lead to the probability that Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was

the language spoken in the Pontic-Caspian steppes between 4500 and
2500 BCE:
By 2500 BCE the language that has been reconstructed as Proto-Indo-

European had evolved into some thing else or, more accurately, into a vari-
ety of things, late dialects such as Pre-Greek and Pre-Indo-Iranian that
continued to diverge in different ways in different places. The Indo-
European languages that evolved after 2500 BCE did not develop from
Proto-Indo-European but from a set of intermediate Indo-European lan-
guages that preserved and passed along aspects of the mother tongue.
According to this model, the PIE language was dead by 2500 BCE.
Moreover, Anthony presents a scenario in which the diffusion of the
Proto-Indo-European language that resulted into the formation of the
Indo-European dialects, occurred in the following sequence (Anthony,
2007, p. 305): the dispersal of Yamnaya horizon began with Afanasievo
culture spreading toward the east around 3700–3500 BCE with Pre-
Tocharian, followed at about 3300 BCE by the diffusion across the
Pontic-Caspian region. The large migration from Western Yamnaya to
Danube valley and Carpathian basin took place from 3100 to 3000 BCE
during the Early Bronze Age, presumably with the Pre-Italic and Pre-
Celtic dialects. Around 2800–2600 BCE, the Yamnaya horizon pene-
trated the Corded Ware cultures northwest of the Pontic region, giving
leeway to Germanic and Balto-Slavic dialects. The last diffusion took
place around 2200–2000 BCE when the late Yamnaya-Poltavka cultures
went east, separating into what are known as the Indo-Iranian speakers.
The core of economic exchanges between the steppe tribes and the
Anatolian settlers in the southeast and eastern part of Romania was mate-
rial culture in nature, including: pottery, copperware, cattle, and textiles.
Anthony argues that the Indo-European infiltration in Europe was suc-
cessful, aside from violence, due to the employment of a specific system
of contractual patron–client relations and guest–host agreements enforced
by lavish public rituals that impressed their neighbors and led to building
of social and economic bonds. The reconstructed Proto-Indo-European
vocabulary hints at the importance of the oath-bound rituals for their
14 A. R. Chelariu
relations with gods, other members of the tribe, and even with people
from different ethnic groups, or other outsiders. Such rituals reflect
archaic European traditional cultures, and are recognized in a well-
documented Romanian custom called judecata la hotare ‘the judgment at
the border’ (Vulcǎnescu, 1972, p. 67), which took place under an old
sacred oak, known in the Indo-European tradition as a sacred tree.
F. Kortlandt in his recent work (Kortlandt, 2018) proposes several
points that highlight the importance of the areas populated by the
Romanians’ ancestors:
When considering the way the Indo-Europeans took to the west, it is

important to realize that mountains, forests and marshlands were prohibi-
tive impediments. Moreover, people need fresh water, all the more so when
traveling with horses. The natural way from the Russian steppe to the west
is therefore along the northern bank of the river Danube. This leads to the
hypothesis that the western Indo-Europeans represent successive waves of
migration along the Danube and its tributaries. The Celts evidently fol-
lowed the Danube all the way into southern Germany. The ancestors of the
Italic tribes, including the Veneti, may have followed river Sava towards
northern Italy. The ancestors of Germanic speakers apparently moved into
Moravia and Bohemia and followed the Elbe into Saxony.
The same route was followed, as Kortlandt argues, by “the ancestors of

speakers of Balkan languages,” who crossed the lower Danube toward the
south. This scenario is in agreement with the generally accepted view of
“the earliest relations between these branches of Indo-European (cf.
Holzer 1989: 165 on Temematic)” (ibid., p. 327).
These researchers’ important contribution regarding the early contacts
of the lower Danube valley and east Carpathian civilizations with the
Indo-European migrants, whether associated with violence or by com-
mercial contracts, shines a bright light on the Romanian culture.
References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Oxford and
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Anthony, D. W., & Brown, D. R. (2017). Molecular Archaeology and Indo-
European Linguistics: Impressions from New Data. https://www.academia.
edu/32927784/Molecular_archaeology_and_Indo_European_linguistics_
Impressions_from_new_data
Dioscorides Pedanius, of Anazarbos. (1934). Greek Herbal of Dioscorides
(J. Goodyer & R. T. Gunther, Eds.). (pdf ). Oxford University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult
Images. University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages # 322. www.
academia.edu
Mallory, J. P. (1989/1996). In Search of the Indo-Europeans, Language, Archaeology
and Myth. London: Thame and Hudson Ltd.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (Eds.). (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European
Culture. London and Chicago. Fitzroy Dearborn.
Mallory, J. P., & Adams, D. Q. (2006). The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-
European and the Proto-Indo-European World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vulcǎnescu, R. (1972). Coloana Ceriului. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române.
3
Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European
Homeland?
In the article Indo-European Expansion Cycles Axel Kristinsson (2012)

offers yet another hypothesis on the intensely disputed problem of the
Indo-European (IE) homeland, suggesting that the most remarkable pre-
historic culture, the Cucuteni-Tripolye (CT) culture, may very well be an
Indo-European creation:
…the evidence for material culture seems to fit best with a classic sedentary
farming culture like the CT culture, rather than a semi-nomadic culture we
would expect on the steppe although the evidence cannot be claimed to be
conclusive. (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 389)
The CT culture appears by the middle of sixth millennium BCE at the

foothills of the East Carpathian Mountains in Romania spreading east-
ward through Bessarabia toward the Dnieper and northward reaching the
area near Kiev. This culture presupposes a large population benefiting
from favorable conditions for developing primitive agriculture, which
flourished in apparent peaceful conditions for two millennia. Kristinsson’s
argument for locating the IE homeland in the CT region is based exactly
on the fact that Cucuteni represents the ideal geographic position for IE

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_3
18 A. R. Chelariu
cultural development: It is situated at the junction between the forest and

the steppe areas, thus satisfying the IE main linguistic requirements.
In Kristinsson’s opinion, the large spread of the Indo-Europeans should
be regarded not as a problem but rather as evidence of a migration phe-
nomenon that started probably at the beginning of the fourth millen-
nium BCE (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 388). As a macro-historian, the author
had studied the cyclic expansions of many societies, reaching conclusions
that he considers applicable to the IE expansion. Thus, careful examina-
tion of massive movement of populations from the history of Europe
could offer a better solution for solving the IE spread. He gives examples
of the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, and Vikings migrations throughout the
history of Europe, not to mention the populating of the Americas.
The author argues that large movements function on a common mech-
anism that works inside these cycles. According to Kristinsson, there are
two varieties of expansions capable of working separately or together: The
simplest model of expansion is by colonizing, occupying new lands for
agriculture needed to sustain the growth of families. In this kind of
expansion by colonization, the population density is essential; even if the
indigenous population from the occupied territories is practicing agricul-
ture the large number of newcomers becomes dominant, thus generating
a process of ‘democratization’, with the elites of the occupied minority
disappearing in time (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 378).
The second model of expansion called an ‘expansion system’ is based
on competition: The cultures in which this type of expansion could be
observed are more conformist and belong to the same linguistic group.
Within this system, culture–society competition springs between divided
political groups and constant in-fighting for political and military power.
Gradually, the military elites need more soldiers and start recruiting from
among the farmers, who request new lands as compensation. Over time,
the intense use of existing lands and population growth leads to the
expansion into new territories through military force. Kristinsson claims
that such processes could ostensibly explain the IE expansion problem.
Moreover, Kristinsson (2012, p. 417) argues (against the Kurgan
hypothesis) that the elite invasion and domination does not imply lan-
guage replacement as history demonstrates, with one example from
recent European history being the Norman elite in medieval England.
Another argument that Kristinsson brings against the elite groups’ infu-
sion is that the warriors on horse carts are recorded around 2000 BCE,
and the IE dispersal begins around the fourth millennium.
Expansions of such large scale can generate language changes particu-
larly in the agricultural societies lacking a powerful organized state. Thus,
Kristinsson argues that the beginning of the IE expansion was the result
of a large growth of populations on the west side of the CT culture region,
which created the need for new land, determining the gradual spread
toward the eastern steppe. Additional consequence of the growth in pop-
ulation density was the intensifying of the internecine fights among tribes
shown in the increased number of arrowheads discovered around the CT
sites, which could be the result of competition among groups within the
society.
Another aspect brought into the discussion by the author is that
around the fourth millennium some important agricultural technology
advancements were made, including the plough and the wheel, the use of
oxen for traction vehicles, the presence of a new breed of sheep richer in
wool, together with an increase in farmers’ production and use of milk
and dairy in Europe and West Asia. All these innovations had a conse-
quence in terms of population growth, causing pressure within the CT
society that led to successive invasions eastwards beginning with 3500
BCE, culminating in the colonization of the steppe lands. As a result, the
CT culture started to break up, and Corded Ware cultures emerged in
northern Europe, characterized by a semi-nomadic lifestyle. The Yamna
culture emerged in the East adapting to the new conditions; but both
cultures retained identifiable characteristics of the CT culture from which
they descended. Kristinsson’s argument is that in the process of coloniza-
tion of the steppe regions the newcomers changed their way of life, adapt-
ing to the new environmental conditions. The big differences in the
quality of the CT ceramic and the ceramics of Corded Ware or Yamna
cultures are due, as the author believes, to the fact that the production of
ceramic was in general a women’s occupation, while population move-
ment was preponderantly male-oriented: Men supposedly formed new
families with local women that were not acquainted with the style and
quality of the CT ceramic culture.
20 A. R. Chelariu
Beginning circa 3100 BCE, elements of Yamna culture, including

probably speakers of IE western dialects, for example, ancient Greek and
Phrygian, could be observed moving along the Danube toward the
Balkans, inducing the Pre-Anatolian local population movements across
the Bosporus into Anatolia. Populations speaking Indo-European west-
ern dialects, pre-Greek and Phrygian from the Carpathian region may
have had contact with speakers of north IE dialects, Italic or Celtic, form-
ing a Schprachbund of linguistic influences. By 2800 BCE the CT culture
separated into two branches that gradually merged or disappeared into
other cultures. Interestingly, while the CT culture is known through its
settlements, the following cultures are visible by their graves.
The dispersal of IE language over the European continent is a unique
phenomenon. Kristinsson’s hypothesis is based on the idea that for a lan-
guage to become dominant a massive migration of democratized non-
elitist populations of farmers using a common language for communication
was necessary: “Under such circumstances, an indigenous language can
be displaced even if the population didn’t change much as happened in
parts of the Roman Empire, in Ireland under British rule or in large parts
of Latin America under Spanish rule” (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 373).
These two hypotheses, the colonization and the expansion system
working in conjunction, could be applied to Dacian history: a country
conquered by the Roman centralized state in expansion, where the local
rural population did not suffer major changes as a consequence of the
war, but received an infusion of colonists during and after the Roman
military administration left. The prolonged intensive assault on the
Dacian territories, first by Emperor Domitian between 84 and 89 BCE,
followed by even a greater force organized by Trajan in two waves
(101–102 and 105–106 BCE), that resulted in a total occupaton of the
country, and the influx of a large number of colonists, attracted by the
richness of the newly conquered territory, famous for its gold and salt
mines. The Roman citizens and army veteran colonizers in search of
riches were speaking a lingua franca, known as Latina Vulgata, spoken all
over the territories of the empire already Romanized.
The economic and social relations established primarily through trans-
humance between the population from conquered Dacia and the people
speaking the same Romance language from the south and west of the
Danube, favored the formation of a Schprachbund of a common vocabu-

lary specialized for the economic needs. Transhumance, as it survived for
centuries on Romanian lands, did not involve the movement of entire
families, but only bands of shepherds caring for large flocks of sheep. The
rest of the family stayed in their villages, leaving only when danger struck.
Getting back to the Kristinsson’s hypotheses, the Bulgaro-Slavic inva-
sion consisted of a nonelitist group of people, driven mainly by economic
not military reasons, which resulted in language imposition in the areas
with a weak organizational system, an area stretching from Poland to
Macedonia. It did not prevail, however, in regions with a more stable
social structure such as Dacia Romana.
The author’s hypothesis seems to offer a solution for the IE problem;
the possibility of Cucuteni-Tripolye culture as the homeland from where
the IE diffusion began: the first division to the west side—Cucuteni to
west and north of Europe, and Tripolye—toward the east, “similar to the
classic but depreciated centum-satem split” (Kristinsson, 2012, p. 423)
but probably predating by a millennium the actual formation of the two
branches. Most importantly, this hypothesis brings a new light to the
Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, hopefully initiating a more in-depth research
of this relatively less studied culture.
One note should be added here: in disagreement to Kristinsson’s opin-
ion, that the comparative mythology should not be regarded as a valid
source in the IE discussions, one should consider the several mythic pat-
terns observable in most of the IE cultures, such as the dragon fighter,
creation and foundation myths—primeval man, or the theft of fire.
Certainly, a great deal of caution should be applied, and if linguists could
agree on a common IE religious vocabulary then by default we could
accept the existence of a common religious ideology. The existence of a
number of mythical patterns in most of the IE cultures could very well be
considered as expression of a common mythology, detectable by the
researcher through the process of comparison and elimination.
Some of the main characteristics of the Cucuteni ceramics, besides the
beautiful graphic designs, are the presumptive symbols that are repre-
sented on the statuettes of the feminine character, the Great Goddess or
ancestress of the group as the reproductive organs represented by trian-
gles, ovals, circles; figurative animal suggesting bovine horns, deer, pig,
22 A. R. Chelariu
dog, snake, ram; or, the vegetation, trees, leaves, or the water as the wavy
lines, all designs so well detailed and analyzed by Marija Gimbutas (1982,
p. 169) in her monumental work on this subject.
Even though the symbolic designs offer information of the CT peo-
ples’ beliefs, all the efforts that the Romanian archaeologists made to
decipher in more detail messages regarding the socioeconomic structures
among the CT populations, encountered serious difficulties. The absence
of cemeteries among the thousands of villages raises many questions of
what they were doing with their dead. There are a few cases revealing
human bones deposited under house floors, but these are inconclusive.
The themes on the Cucuteni ceramics that may be considered mythical
expressions do not seem explicitly related to the IE culture, the most
identifiable being the two pair figures, believed to represent either a god-
dess with her consort, or a mother and daughter pair, which plausibly
could be linked to the Demeter-Persephone Greek myth, a relation that
may not be representative of IE mythology.
The importance of fire in the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture, is exemplified
particularly by the practice of complete burning of settlements every
75–80 years, together with the ritual breaking of the ceramics and crema-
tion. Such practices could be considered sufficient grounds to speculate
on a hypothetical relation between these practices and the cult of light
and fire in the IE culture.
On the linguistic level, the DRom language retained a few essential IE
concepts related to fire; DRom n. scrum (with prothetic s- crum, frequent
in language) ‘singe, cinder, ash’ < PIE (IEW 571 *k(e)r-em-) *kr-em-
‘burn’, with cognates in Latin cremō, −üre ‘burn’, Umbr. Krematra, pl
*crematra ‘kind of vessel for frying meat’ (Orel, 1998: Albanian shk-
rumb, pl shkrumba ‘black ashes’; PAlb iš-krum). Another example is
DRom n. jar ‘glowing coal, ember’, Dacian Γέρμαζα (Germaza),
Γερμἰζερα (Germizera) < *gwhermós PIE MA 1. *g(e)ulo- ‘fire, glowing
coal’; 2. *gwher- ‘warm’, *gh’ermós adj. ‘hot’, with cognates in OIr gūal
‘coal’; NE coal; Alb zjarr|i ‘fire’, Alb zjarm, Arm Jě rm Jě r; Latv. gařme,
Gr. θερμὀς, ´fire, heat´; OCS goreti ‘burn’; or, DRom n. văpaie ‘flame,
shooting flame’ < PIE MA *u̯ep- ‘throw, throw out’, IEW 1149–1150
*uēp-: uǝp- (*suekʷ-) ‘to blow; to soar, with cognates in Skt vàpati ‘throw
out, scatter’, vàpra ‘earthen wall’, vaprā ‘fireplace’; Av vafra, OIran vafr,
Iran bafr ‘snowdrift?’, OInd causative vāpayati ‘makes blow’; Lat vapor
(old vapōs) ‘vapor, heat’; Alb vapë ‘summer heat’; DRom n. dogoare
‘blaze, heat, summer heat’, v. dogori ‘to emanate heat, blaze’ < IEW
240–241 *dhegʷh- ‘to burn, *day *dhōgwho- ‘summer heat’, (*dhogʷh-
lo-lā) *dhegwh- ‘burn, be hot,’ with cognates in OIr doghaim ‘burn’, daig
‘flame’; Lat foveō ‘heat, cherish’; Lith degù ‘burn’; dāgas ‘summer heat’;
OCS žegǫ ‘burn’; Alb djeg ‘burn’, ndez ‘kindle’; Grk tephra ‘ash’; Av
dažati ‘burns’; Skt dagdhá-ḥ (= Lith. dègtas), Kaus. dăhayati; dăha-ḥ
‘blaze, heat’, niduăgha-ḥ ‘heat, summer’, Pers. dăɣ ‘burn brand’; Av.
daxša- m. ‘blaze” dáhati ‘burns’; Toch tsäk- ‘burn’
Yet, if the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture was the result of the IE group, it
will be a challenge to prove it, and, for that matter, an investigation of the
Romanian heritage could help resolve this impasse.
References
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kristinsson, A. (2012). Indo-European Expansion Cycles. Journal of Indo-European
Studies, 40(3–4), Fall/Winter. Institute for the Studies of Man.
Orel, V. (1998). Albanian Etymological Dictionary. Leiden. Boston Kohl: Brill.
4
Some Recent Genetic
and Archaeological Conclusions
The advancement of genetic research opened up new perspectives into

the understanding of population migrations in ancient Europe. Studies
on this subject performed by renowned scientists such as David Reich
(2018), Nick Patterson, and Iosif Lazaridis from the Harvard laboratory
reached surprising conclusions regarding the population migrations in
the large Eurasian region. The people inhabiting this area were formed of
a large mixture of people genetically related to the ancestors of ancient
European hunter-gatherers, which is, in some measure, carried by the
present-day Europeans. The European ancestral hunter-gatherers were
preceded by migrations of farmers from the Near East circa 9000 years
ago, supporting the earlier theory proposed by Colin Renfrew (1987).
One millennium later, from 6000 bce, the Carpathians, the Balkans, and
Greece were the most culturally advanced European societies. The devel-
opment of these societies was associated with a new large migration wave,
probably between 4200 bce and 3900 bce, formed mainly of pastoralists
who probably spoke the Indo-European languages. This second wave
came from an area stretching between the north of the Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea, which archaeologists called the Yamnaya culture, or pit cul-
ture, of cattle herders equipped with horse-drawn wagons that crossed

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_4
26 A. R. Chelariu
the Dniester which apparently annihilated the cultures in Eastern

Romania and Bulgaria. The DNA analysis conducted by Iosif Lazaridis
from Reich laboratory showed that the Yamnaya population comprised a
combination of lineages that did not exist previously in central Europe.
Traversed and populated by many migrations, settlements, and reset-
tlements, the European continent is veiled in mysteries that are yet to be
uncovered, among which include the Yamnaya culture from Eurasia.
Reich studies prove that Yamnaya invaders “were the missing ingredient,
carrying exactly the type of ancestry that needed to be added to early
European farmers and hunter-gatherers to produce populations with the
mixture of ancestries observed in Europe today” (Reich, 2018, p. 108),
supporting the previous theories of Marija Gimbutas (1982, p. 238). The
invaders, strongly comprised of the patriarchal Indo-European elite, were
almost exclusively R1b on the paternal side. However, they were absorbed
in high proportion by a non-Indo-European maternal to lineage; they
were using horses, oxen, and transportation on wheels, and produced
rudimentary ceramics. Reich finds through his studies of ancient DNA
that the Yamnaya culture was a male-dominant society. They buried their
dead under mounds called kurgans, mostly displaying male skeletons
placed at the center, with metal daggers and axes, many showing evidence
of violent injuries. Even though the Cucuteni-Tripolye DNA results are
missing, the decline of ‘Old Europe’, the relatively peaceful civilization
analyzed by Marija Gimbutas, coincided with the kurgan invasion.
David Reich, Nick Patterson, and Iosif Lazaridis, observed that data
from the Corded Ware burials revealed that a large part of their ancestry
related to the Yamnaya and concluded that “the makers of the Corded
Ware culture were, at least in a genetic sense, a westward extension of the
Yamnaya” (ibid., p. 110). The relations between Yamnaya and Corded
Ware complexes, a long-standing debate among researchers, can be con-
sidered settled now with the genetic data results. The two complexes had
many striking parallels, such as the construction of large burial mounds,
the intensive exploitation of horses and herding, combined with a strik-
ingly male-centered culture celebrating combat and violence, as reflected
by the large maces (or hammer-axes) buried in some graves. Even though
other researchers have stated that the Yamnaya culture did not expand to
the north of the Tisza River, Reich agrees that “only later, during the
4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 27
contemporaneous Corded Ware and Yamna migration waves were direct

contacts possibly between Yamna and Corded Ware herders on the upper
Dniester region (Anthony, 2007; Gimbutas, 1977)” (ibid., p. 110).
Furthermore, Reich reveals that aDNA analysis has shown traces of a
plague disease linked to the Eurasian steppe that could have determined
the Corded Ware culture expansion over vast areas in east-central Europe.
Such unprecedentedly empirically grounded revelations demonstrate the
importance of the advanced genetic technology for understanding human
history.
The thousands of years of the so-called Old Europe’s peaceful civiliza-
tion was disrupted, as Gimbutas (1982, p. 238) eloquently demonstrates,
by a male-centered society of elite dominance and warfare, as evidenced
now in Reich’s book with the spread of Y chromosomes of the Yamnaya
or their close relatives into Europe and India. The male-dominated Indo-
European culture, revealed in the Greek, Norse, and Hindu mythologies,
indicative of the Indo-European class structure society, centered on a
male figure, god or hero, naturally arising as a reflex of the social behavior
of conquering men with social power overwhelming women from the
conquered group.
The genetic admixture that resulted from these migrations still charac-
terizes modern European populations, just as it is very likely that prede-
cessors of one or several Indo-European languages spoken in Europe
today, were carried by these migrants. (Kristiansen et al., 2020) From
these new studies the conclusions point to the populating by IE speakers
of a large area spreading from north-central Europe through the Pontic
steppe area to the Caspian Sea. The invasion of the Indo-Europeans into
southeastern Europe passing through the territories of present-day
Romania to the Balkans, Greece, and Anatolia, and into the western part
of Europe, changed the local civilizations, their social order and language.
These facts must be taken into account, in spite of all the difficulties in
proving a dialectal continuum, akin to that of the Daco-Romanian lan-
guage. Even though it may be hard to accept that a Proto-Indo-European
reconstructed root can be detected in certain lexeme without written
ancient documentation, the fact that neighboring languages, including
Albanian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, and Balto-Slavic, exhibit the same base
correspondences, the same correspondences must have been sensed to an
28 A. R. Chelariu
even greater extent by the speakers during economic and social contacts,
transhumance, ceramic and metal commerce, especially if we consider
that these contacts were at a time when the Indo-European languages
were less differentiated. As Kortlandt (2018, p. 228) notes, “the linguistic
evidence takes precedence over archaeological and genetic data, which
give no information about the languages spoken and can only support
the linguistic evidence”. Language studies together with comparative
analysis of the mythological traits may help us form a better picture of the
archaic societies of Southeast Europe.
References
Anthony, D. W. (2007). The Horse the Wheel and the Language. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Gimbutas, M. (1977). The First Wave of Eurasian Steppe Pastoralists into Copper
Age Europe. Washington DC: JIES, 5: 277–338. Institute for the Study of Man.
Gimbutas, M. (1982). The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe; Myths and Cult
Images. Berkeley Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Kortlandt, F. (2018). The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages. # 322.
www.academia.edu
Kristiansen, K., et al. (2020). Kinship and Social Organization in Copper Age
Europe. Across-Disciplinary Analysis of Archaeology, DNA, Isotopes, and
Anthropology from Two Bell Beaker Cemeteries. Sjo¨gren K.-G., Olalde, I.,
Carver, S., Allentoft, M. E., Knowles, T., Kroonen, G., Kristiansen, K., et al.
PLoS ONE 15(11): e0241278. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0241278
Reich, D. (2018). Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New
Science of the Human Past. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Renfrew, C. (1987). Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European
Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5
Daco-Romanian Language: An
Indo-European Branch
At this juncture, I should add a few lines addressing the history of the
language spoken by the population of today’s Romania, known in antiq-
uity as Dacian, which was classified by linguists as an Indo-European
language. Some researchers consider Dacian an independent language,
some a close relative of the Thracian language, some closer to Illyrian.
There are also those who claim that the Pre-Indo-European language/
languages, spoken in this area before the Indo-European arrival, should
be considered when analyzing the modern language, even though such
attempt would address a society dissipated into the deep darkness of times.
The first information on the Getae-Dacian and Thracian relation is
found in the Histories of the Greek writer Herodotus (4. 94) who states
that “the Getae are the bravest and the most law-abiding of all Thracians”.
The geographer Strabo places the Getae along the Danube on the moun-
tain side of Hercynian Forest:
As for the southern part of Germany beyond the Albis, the portion which
is just contiguous to that river is occupied by the Suevi; then immediately
adjoining this is the land of the Getae, which, though narrow at first,
stretching as it does along the Ister on its southern side and on the opposite

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04051-1_5
30 A. R. Chelariu
side along the mountain-side of the Hercynian Forest (for the land of the
Getae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out
towards the north as far as the Tyregetae; but I cannot tell the precise
boundaries. (7.3.10; 7.3.12)
He also writes that the Dacians, Getae, and Thracians spoke the same
language, information reaffirmed in documents of Cassius Dio and Pliny
the Elder.
The Romanian linguist I. I. Russu (1967, p. 33) proceeded in his lin-
guistic research on the assumption that the Getae-Dacian language was
closely related to Thracian. This close relation between Dacian and
Thracian languages came under scrutiny from the Bulgarian linguist
Vladimir I. Georgiev (1960, p. 45) whose objections were made on the
ground of the Dacian name of 47 towns ending in δαυα of which 28 are
on the Romanian territory, and the Thracian form παρα of which 37 (41)
are found only in Thrace; these arguments show that Dacian and Thracian
may have been, at least in some respects, two different languages, part of
the large group of common Indo-European. Unfortunately, no Dacian
language inscriptions have been discovered, and the limited direct testi-
mony of written documents from these languages are mostly toponyms,
hydronyms, and proper names, coming to us through Greek and Latin
alphabets, which makes it quite difficult to reach definite conclusions.
These languages, whether dialectal formations or independent, were cer-
tainly part of an Indo-European linguistic group, situated in close prox-
imity from southern Pannonia region, to the Carpathian and Balkan
Mountains to the Black Sea. As a result of the geographic proximity, the
economic exchanges and pastoralism, the Dacian-Getae together with
Mysian, Thracian, Dardanian, Illyrian, Macedonian, and Greeks were a
large group in close contact, forming alliances or fighting among them-
selves, sharing specialized vocabulary for commercial exchanges, in the
end, becoming the main substrata that underline the Balkan peoples of
today. As Mallory and Adams state: “Some uniform proto-language may
have been spoken over a geographically compact area at the same time
when their neighbors had already differentiated into different language
groups…” (Mallory & Adams, 2006, p. 445).
5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 31
Following the Greek influence in the region, the Roman conquest of

the Balkan Peninsula resulted in a gradual Romanization of the popula-
tions. The economic relations between North and South of the Danube
must have been influenced by this linguistic development. When the
Dacian territory succumbed to the Roman army led by the Emperor
Trajan between 101 AD and 106 AD, the official Romanization process
began, facilitated by the geographic proximity and the permanent con-
tact with the already Romanized Southern population. The lack of infor-
mation regarding a state form of administration is compensated by
intense pastoral transhumance and economic activities the formerly
Dacian population practiced in the new conditions, developing a homog-
enized language. The economic relations between North and South of the
Danube, especially the pastoral movements, continued uninterrupted for
centuries, forming a key component in the process of language develop-
ment. Even today we find among the Greek and Slavic speakers South of
the Danube the word vlachos with the meaning ‘shepherd’ affirming the
influence of the Vlach shepherds that lived in the Balkans, part of the
large group of Latin speakers akin to the Romanians North of the
Danube. The language spoken by the habitants of this large area formed
the four Daco-Romance dialects: Aromanian, spoken in some areas of
Albania and Macedonia, Megleno-Romanian spoken in areas from
Macedonia and Greece, Istro-Romanian located on the peninsula of
Istria, and Daco-Romanian (DRom) in today’s Romania. The Vlacho-
Romanian shepherds carried the practice of transhumance along the high
pastures of the entire Carpathian mountains, following archaic mountain
paths, spreading their technology and terminology from Northern
Yugoslavia, through Rhaetia, Hungary, to Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, all
to the Southern Poland, as demonstrated by John G. Nandris in a presen-
tation on pastoralism in Southern Europe (1999, p. 111). The author
brings to attention a North-South line of villages in the Czech region,
incorporating ‘Vlach’ in their names, such as Vlachovice, that indicates
settlements of Vlach shepherds from around the fifteenth century in
Moravia, and marking the probable western penetration of the Vlachs.
He also notes that in these Slavic speaking villages the counting system of
sheep is easily recognizable of Romanian (Latin) origin: doua ‘two’ , patru
‘four’: “Doua, patrzt, shase, opt, zeci …”, and continues with “deset-doua,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
fool’s pointed cap—these men are called “shahtirs;” then grooms
mounted, leading the handsomest horses of the prince’s stud with
gold and jewelled harness and a Cashmere shawl spread over each
saddle; then the “mir-achor” (literally, lord of the manger), or master
of the horse—a coarse, heavy fellow, the prince’s maternal uncle (his
mother, they say, was a peasant girl who struck the king’s eye while
washing linen at a village stream)—the mir-achor riding a big and
valuable animal; then the prince himself, on a handsome iron-grey,
the tail of which is dyed red (a royal custom permitted only to the
sons of the king besides the Shah himself), clad in his best—a
handsome shawl-coat of great value and trimmed with sable, an
under dress of blue satin embroidered in silver, gold, and coloured
thread, a gold belt having a rosette of diamonds with a huge central
emerald, the thing being four inches in diameter, and wearing his
various decorations and the portrait of the Shah set in brilliants. His
black cloth hat is fiercely cocked, and he smiles at the acclamations
of the people, and is evidently delighted at his apparent popularity.
After him come the two rival magnates of Shiraz, the Kawam and
Muschir (the minister of the young prince); then the two secretaries,
the hakim-bashi, and myself; then the principal people of Shiraz and
the prince’s attendants, all on horseback; then some merchants on
mules; then a shouting crowd which follows the procession. Soldiers
lined the road, and a battery of artillery is drawn up to fire one
hundred and one guns when the royal dress of honour is donned.
We ride to about a mile and a half from the town on the Ispahan
road. Half-a-dozen horsemen station themselves at distances of one
hundred yards along the post-road in the direction whence the king’s
messenger must come. In a few moments a gun is fired by one of
these, then another as he perceives the messenger’s arrival, and we
see three men, one bearing a bundle, advancing at full gallop. A
letter is handed to the prince, it is the royal firman; he raises it to his
head and hands it to the Muschir, the principal official present; the
messenger rides at the prince’s side, who asks him the news of
Teheran.
We all ride slowly back towards the town, and so enter the “Bagh-
i-No” (new garden), a Government garden where the dress of honour
is to be publicly put on.
The prince invites me into an inner room, and I am given coffee.
He then tells me that he has requested the Order of the Lion and
Sun to be conferred on me, for which I express my gratitude; and the
hakim-bashi, who is also to get it, does the same.
The doctor and I enter the big open verandah, or talár, and are
given a prominent place among the grandees there, a few priests
and officials also being honoured with places, as are the chief
merchant and some others. Vases of roses and common flowers are
placed at intervals along the front of the talár, beyond this is the big
tank, round which are crowded the merchants, tradesmen, and
populace of Shiraz, an orderly crowd. The Muschir who presides is
affable, and regales us with sweetmeats, pipes, and sherbet.
The prince enters, followed by the bearer of the kalāat. We all
stand up, the royal firman or order is read by the Muschir. The
kalāat, a Cashmere shawl-coat worth some eighty pounds, and
trimmed with rich furs, having a string of big pearls and a bored but
uncut emerald attached to the top button, is put on by the prince
amid acclamations, being handed to him by the bearer. Then a
jewelled wand or rod of office some four feet long is handed by the
Muschir to the Kawam, or mayor of Shiraz; he bows, more
acclamations—this is his kalāat. Then the star (having a centre
enamelled on gold of the Lion and Sun) is affixed to the breasts of
the hakim-bashi and myself; and now we all rush for our horses, and
the mob rush for the flower-vases, which are mostly smashed in the
struggle.
We return to the town in procession as we came. On nearing the
bridge, the Jews, as is customary, behead a little ox at the feet of the
prince, and their chief man runs with the bleeding head by the
prince’s side till driven off by the farrashes or stick-men; then glass
jars of sweetmeats were smashed by the tradesmen under the feet
of the royal horse, and amidst shouts, dust, and the reports of the
cannon, we enter the town, and I, popping my star in my pocket,
canter off to my own house. I have never worn it since, but I could
not refuse it, as it was meant in kindness, and I did not wish to
offend.
CHAPTER XXIV.
I FALL INTO THE HANDS OF BRIGANDS.
A call to a patient—Start on post-horses—No horses—I carry a lantern—The

Bakhtiaris—Fall among thieves—They strip me—And march me off—Mode of
disguise of thieves—Attacked by footmen—Division of spoils—Fate of a priest
—Valuing my kit—Ignorance of my captors—A welcome sight—My escape—I
get a horse—Reach Yezdikhast—Old women get thorns out of my feet—Want
of hospitality of head-man of Yezdikhast—Arrive at Kūmishah—Kindness of a
postmaster—More robbers—Avoid them—Am repaid for my lost kit—Fate of
my robbers.
The roads are not safe, and at night are dangerous; but with a
man ill at the one end of the division, two hundred and fifty miles off,
and the doctor at the other, the only thing for the doctor to do is to go
to his patient as fast as possible.
Had I been going to march, I should have applied to the Persian
authorities for a strong guard, and it would have been provided, but
in posting this is impossible. It was the height of the famine time; in
place of six or eight horses in each post-house, all well up to their
work, two or three was the maximum, and these mere living
skeletons, and I knew that at some stages all had died. I had never
been looted, and, trusting to my luck, I sent for horses; but I felt that
looting was likely. I took no gold watch, but only an aluminium one,
and as little money as possible. Beyond my clothes I had nothing
valuable save a case of instruments belonging to Government, that I
required at Ispahan.
By this time I had begun to pique myself on the rate I could get
over the ground “en chuppar;” and I had established a rule in my
own mind that there were two ways of posting, and two only: going
when there was light; and going as long as horses were to be had,
day and night. Anything else was of little use, as one could not go
faster than the latter mode, and if one wanted to go more slowly than
the former, one might as well march. In the famine time nothing but
water and firing was to be got, and so the journey was naturally a
thing to be got over as soon as possible: also in this particular
instance I was going to see a patient, and so was bound to be smart.
Off I went about noon from Shiraz at a sharp canter, preceded by
my servant and followed by the guide, for one has to separate them
or they lose time in chattering. The servant yelled, whipped, jobbled
his horse with his sharp native stirrups, and generally behaved as a
lunatic. On emerging from the town he exhorted me frequently to
come on, and took as much out of himself and his horse as possible.
When we got to Zergūn, six farsakhs, we had done it, over the good
road on the plain, under the two hours and a half. The next stage to
Seidoon is over a sandy plain, which, in wet weather, is a very bad
road indeed, and rough causeways have to be gone over to keep out
of the morasses. But we had had no rain for two years, and all the
way it was good going. We reached Seidoon half-an-hour after
sunset, and here my man began to suggest that we should stop to
sleep. I made him understand that as long as I could find horses I
was bound to go on; but he seemed to fail to see that that rule
applied to him.
On we went still, having kept to our two farsakhs (or eight miles)
an hour, including stoppages, and reached Kawamabad at nine at
night; here the road was less level, and my man would lag behind.
The moon was high, and the scenery is very pretty—long
stretches of what in other times is turf and plenty of big trees.
At about six a.m. we got to Moorghāb. Here we had to feed the
horses, which caused a delay of an hour and a half, and it was
eleven before we reached Dehbeed, having done very badly thirty
farsakhs in twenty-three hours. These two severe stages on
famished animals had destroyed all chance of a quick journey. We
had walked the greater part of the last stage, which, with the one we
had done before it, are two of the longest in this part of Persia, being
each a good twenty-seven miles, though called six farsakhs. From
Dehbeed we cantered over an undulating plain to Khonakhora; the
going was good, but the poor beasts constantly fell from weakness,
and I could not spare them. Again at Khonakhora there were no
horses, and I had to stop two hours to rest the old ones, not getting
to Sūrmeh till two hours after midnight, and having to walk and drive
the wretched beasts the greater part of the way. Here my man was
unable to go any further, the walking of the last stage had been too
much for him: there was nothing for it but to leave him to come on as
he pleased, and that thoroughly suited him.
At dawn I reached Abadeh, the parting with the servant and
consequent wrangle having taken up nearly an hour. I hardly knew
the place; generally the approach to Abadeh is through smiling
gardens and vineyards, and heavy crops are grown in the
neighbourhood; now nothing. The people besieged me in the
chupperkhana for money. I was able to get two broken-down horses;
my own fell seven times in the first hour from weakness, and the
distance to Shūrgistan—over, happily, a good and level road—is six
farsakhs, a good twenty-four miles; it was two in the afternoon before
I could leave Shūrgistan, and, as usual, there were no horses.
I was told at this place that the road was very dangerous, but
confident in my being a European, and being also armed, I did not
think there was much to fear. We crawled into Yezdikhast over an
undulating fairly good road at sunset, the horses both lying down on
entering the courtyard; they had come the thirteen farsakhs in twelve
hours, but were so weak that I doubted being able to start before
morning, but the information I had at Abadeh by wire made me
desirous of pushing on; my patient’s state was critical, and at eleven
p.m., finding that the horses could stand, I started.
Yezdikhast is situated in a valley through which runs a small river,
and on each side are precipitous cliffs and a bad road, unpleasant to
scramble up or down by day, and dangerous on a dark night. The
town itself is built on a perpendicular island-like cliff, which stands in
the middle of the deep ravine thus formed; it presents a sufficiently
striking appearance as viewed from either the cliffs or the valley,
impregnable to attack save from artillery; the perpendicular cliff on
which it is perched shows up a bright yellow, against what is
generally a verdant valley, teeming with corn and grass, though just
at the time I was travelling quite bare, save just by the river. There is
only one small entrance to the town at one end of the razor-backed
cliff; this is a doorway just big enough to admit a horseman stooping
in his saddle, or a loaded mule. This doorway is reached by a small
bridge of a few poles, which can be knocked away at once: the cliff,
which appears to be of sandstone, is honeycombed with
underground granaries and shelters for sheep and goats, as are the
cliffs on either side. On one side of the town, in the ravine, is the
caravanserai; on the other the chupperkhana or post-house.
The night was pitch dark, the guide couldn’t even see the road,
and I had to light my road lantern to enable us to get out of the
ravine up the rocky track that leads to the high-road; when we did
get on the road it was so dark, that I was unfortunately still obliged to
keep my light burning, to enable us to keep on the track. And to this I
suppose I owe my subsequent misfortunes.
I was coming now to a notorious “doz-gah,” or robbing place,
Aminabad. Here is a magnificent caravanserai; but no one can live
here, for, being the frontier of two provinces, one ruled by the
Governor of Shiraz, the other by that of Ispahan, it was a sort of
debatable land. A few hours’ march, too, brings one to the Bakhtiari
country, governed by Houssein Kūli Khan,[22] who ruled with a rod of
iron the turbulent tribes of these wild men. All wanderers, they are a
brave and untamable people, their customs quite different from the
inhabitants of the towns, upon whom they look with contempt. They
are practically independent, merely furnishing a large contingent of
irregular cavalry. The illustration gives a good idea of the tent-life of
the wandering tribes of Persia. The tents are very portable,
impervious to rain, wind, and sun, and are woven by the women from
the hair of the black goats. They are very durable.
The Shah is here of little authority, the whole government being
vested in Houssein Kūli Khan, whose eldest son remains with the
king in honourable captivity in Teheran as hostage for his father’s
good conduct.
Several times have villagers been placed in the Aminabad
caravanserai, that the place might not be without inhabitants; but it is
always looted, the ryots beaten or murdered; even in peaceful times
the muleteers hurry past the caravanserai, and make the best of
their way to Yezdikhast.
TENT LIFE.—WANDERING TRIBES.
The country here on the least pretext becomes disturbed, and

robberies and murders in disturbed times are frequent. The last time
I passed it, in 1878, I was riding on in front of the caravan, and
looked into the huge courtyard out of curiosity; and though the
country was very peaceful indeed, there lay the festering body of a
murdered man. A few mud walls run along the road, making
convenient ambush, and a ruined watch-tower marks the exact
frontier line.
My lighted lantern had doubtless put the robbers of the
neighbourhood on the qui vive, but I could not have got out of the
Yezdikhast valley without it, and I hoped by travelling at an unusual
hour (midnight) in the pitchy darkness to slip by unperceived. I had
reckoned without my host. As I passed at a slow amble, making as
little noise as possible, and flattering myself that no one could see
us, I was challenged.
“Who are you?”
I promptly replied: “Be off; I am a European.”
“Stand!” said a voice; and I saw a black object in the shadow of
the wall. I drew my revolver and placed it on full cock; I stuck my
spurs into my wretched horse; but the presence of other beasts was
enough for him; he merely swayed with weakness, but did not
budge. The black object now rapidly approached, and resolved itself
into five horsemen, who surrounded me, and, prodding me with the
muzzles of their guns, ordered me to dismount in a series of hoarse
whispers.
My thieves were well mounted and well armed; the odds were too
great for a fight. I couldn’t run away, and the guide had disappeared,
having slipped off his horse and run. I used strong language and
tried to brazen it out, but it was of no use.
I was lugged off my horse, and several blows were struck at my
head, but my topi[23] kept them off. My assailants now stripped me
so rapidly as to show they were adepts in the matter. They were
evidently in a great hurry. I put my revolver on half-cock and dropped
it, thinking that I should be stripped and left; but I had reckoned
again without my host. When they had stripped me to my breeches
and shirt, one fellow seized the pocket in which was my money, and
with one slash of his knife removed it, slitting the leg of my pants to
the knee. As another man was dragging off my shirt, he remarked
that it was silk, the fineness of the linen deceiving his touch. I was
now ordered to come along, and there being no option, did so; but I
felt the cold to my naked back, and asked them for a covering,
purposely in broken Persian, thinking that if they did not know I was
au fait at the language, I might the better get at their intentions. One
man, the chief, ordered one of the village felt greatcoats to be flung
to me. I gladly wrapped myself in it, and picking up my revolver,
concealed it in the sleeve, trusting to have a chance of perhaps
selling my life dearly, or ending it if any indignity were offered me. I
had not gone many yards, when the thorns began to enter my feet,
and render walking painful. I now requested to be put on a horse, but
the only reply was an order to come on at once, which was repeated,
and a gun put to my head. But I was desperate. I foresaw that if I
walked I should be lamed for months, and certainly in no condition to
escape. The chief now rode up, and I appealed to him in very broken
Persian. He ordered me to be put on one of the post-horses, and to
come on at once, adding significantly, “If you don’t, we shall kill you
here.” I felt that there would be no chance to escape at present, but
that I might possibly have a future opportunity. We now left the road,
and pushed on in the direction of the Bakhtiari country. I was glad to
see that the two post-horses lagged considerably and delayed us
much. I found, too, that there was a mule loaded with grain that
these gentry had stolen, which was driven by two men armed with
iron-headed bludgeons. Our party was now nine—the five horsemen,
well armed and mounted; the two footmen; the guide, who had been
secured, and whose hands were tied behind his back; and myself.
By this time I calculated that it was about two a.m. I could see better,
now we were on the open plain.
The head of our captors was addressed as Lutf Ali Khan. He kept
ahead, and avoided all intercourse with me. His head and face were
carefully covered with a long strip of calico, which was wound round
and round his head as a disguise. What little I could see of his face
was blackened with charcoal.
As dawn approached I was able to make out these details, and to
take my bearings to find the road again should I succeed in getting
away. The robbers were all well mounted, and their horses were fat
and in good condition. I noted the particulars of each man, but the
chief gave me no chance to recognize him.
At dawn, as we passed under a high cliff, we heard shots fired,
and bullets began to fly about our heads. The horsemen returned the
fire, which came from some twenty footmen who were perched in
coigns of vantage and under shelter, on the top and face of the cliff.
It was now daylight, and the pleasures of being shot at were not
increased when I saw that the practice was good, for one of the
horsemen now lost a finger. A good deal of shouting took place, but
as it was in Turkish, I could not make out its purport. At last they
seemed to come to some sort of understanding, for the firing ceased,
and the footmen came down from the cliff into the plain. These men
were evidently also Bakhtiaris, and were led by a small old man clad
in white; he wore zangāl, a kind of leather legging, and had a long,
red-dyed beard, and a tall felt hat. From what I overheard, I found
out that the second party had outnumbered the first, and that my
spoils were to be divided. The difficulty seemed to be about myself.
The head of the footmen said: “You have looted this Feringhi; with
this we have nothing to do. We loot not him, but you.”
The man who had lost his finger now came to have it dressed,
which I did as well as I could for him. Instead of being grateful, he
merely, in most expressive pantomime, drew his finger across his
throat. Upon the principle that dead men tell no tales, it was
undoubtedly their intention to put me out of the way. And had we not
met the second gang, it would have probably been done where we
were, a lonely place, safe from all interruption; but there were now
too many witnesses to the fact of my having been carried off. We
continued our march, accompanied by the footmen, about thirty men,
including ourselves. I found out afterwards that the men who had
looted me had only the day before robbed a Syud, or descendant of
the prophet, a moollah (or priest), and after stripping him, as he was
a holy man, and they did not like to kill him in cold blood, they laid
him on the ground, piled big stones on him so that he could not stir,
and left him to die in the desert of hunger and thirst. His body was
found half eaten by jackals, and the men confessed the fact when
they had no further reason for denying it. So had there been no
second party arriving, I should have fared ill. At about nine a.m. we
halted. I was placed in charge of the two footmen armed with iron-
headed staves; and the guide, whose hands had remained bound,
with the two post-horses and the load of grain, remained guarded by
them. The rest of the horsemen and the footmen retired to some
three hundred yards off, and commenced to unpack my saddle-bags.
I was now quite unarmed, for when the reinforcement came up, I felt
that to get away by any act of violence was impossible; and as the
finding of the revolver on me would probably cost me my life, I
dropped it when I had an opportunity of doing so unperceived.
Several times men came to me from the anxious throng that
surrounded my kit and asked me the value or use of the divers
objects. To the latter I did not attempt to respond, but I satisfied them
as to the former by putting high values on everything, thinking
thereby to increase my own importance. I told them my aluminium
watch was worth forty pounds, and, as it was very massive, they
believed it. My guards insisted on cutting off the brass buttons from
my riding breeches, saying to each other that they were gold. The
thieves argued and shouted a good deal over the spoil, and one of
my guards joined the excited circle formed round my kit, while the
other manifested the greatest interest in their proceedings.
The post-boy by a nod now drew my attention to the distant ridges,
and, to my delight, I saw a large party of horsemen pricking across
the plain in our direction. On they came, but slowly, apparently not
seeing us. They got within some five hundred yards undetected by
the robbers or my guard, who were intent on the booty; and then,
instead of making a charge and taking the robbers unawares, they
commenced firing. This, of course, disclosed their presence, and my
delight was great when I saw that they were irregular cavalry. The
robbers, however, showed no sign of retreating; they returned the
fire briskly, and the rescuers were much more in fear of them than
they were of the cavalry.
“Bring along the Feringhi,” shouted several, and firing became
brisk and promiscuous.
“Help me up with the load of grain on to the mule,” shouted my
sole remaining guard in choice Persian, which till now he had not
used: the other fellow had joined the rest of the robbers.
I pretended to comply, and affected to be unable to even move it.
With a curse he drew his knife and cut the bonds of the post-boy,
and ordered him to assist him, placing his iron-headed stick on the
ground. They struggled with the load, and I did a not very brave
thing, but it was my only means of getting away—I seized the
bludgeon and stunned my guard with it, and then the guide and I ran,
under a brisk fire, for the cavalry. These men were now in retreat,
and I was adjured by them to come along; but I could run no more,
my stockinged feet being my only protection against the thorns; my
feet were full of them, and I was now dead lame.
“Give me a horse,” I said.
“Run, sahib, they are on us,” said they.
I could not, however, and I replied, “I’m going back to the robbers,”
and sat down. This was too much, and one of them dismounted and
gave me his horse, running by my side. I now saw that we were
rapidly moving off, pursued by the robbers; vague shooting out of all
range was going on in every direction; and also as far as the eye
could reach, isolated footmen with guns and sticks could be seen
making the best of their way to the fight. Fortunately, we were
mounted, for I could see two hundred men at least—they were
Bakhtiaris. Discretion was decidedly the better part of valour. After
some three hours’ cantering, we reached Yezdikhast at noon, and I
was carried from my horse into a house; my feet, full of thorns, I was
unable to put to the ground; my head, used to the protection of a
sola topi, was covered only by a small pot hat of nammad, to the
edge of which, when he gave it me, finding it did not fit, a friendly
highwayman had given a gash with his knife, which enabled me to
get it on. As he handed it to me, he made a significant gesture with
his knife across his throat—a cheerful joke these men were prone to.
I felt really ill after the excitement and exposure; for, though the
nights were cold, the sun in the morning was very strong, and my
feet were very painful and swollen; I could not walk.
Two old women now busied themselves in extracting the thorns
from my feet, and they had three hours’ work. My feet were not right
for a couple of months, and many thorns remained in. There were no
horses in the post-house. I had no clothes and no money, and I was
anxious to get on. A nice position!
And now came a curious episode of want of hospitality on the part
of the khedkhoda (head-man of the village). Although he had led the
horsemen who rescued me, and might naturally expect a handsome
present, he would not lend or sell me a rag, nor would he give me
any refreshment, though he knew me perfectly well, and was quite
aware of my solvency. Neither could I get any food from him. So
there was nothing for it but to have myself carried to the
chupperkhana, and get what I could from the postmaster, a poor
villager. I did get some clothes from him, but they were not over-
clean, and I then persuaded him to give me credit for a dinner and
my horse hire, and succeeded, after some wrangle, in a promise of
both.
At a couple of hours after sunset, the khedkhoda sent me by a boy
the leg of a fowl and a little rice; this I sent away, saying that he knew
that was not the way to send me a dinner, and that I should report
his conduct. I got some fried eggs and bread from the postmaster,
and a few moments after a handsome Persian dinner was sent by
the khedkhoda, who had become alarmed. He arrived himself, and
smilingly motioned me to set to. I was so enraged at his treatment,
that I emptied the dinner—rice, fowls, roast lamb, and melted grease
—into his face, and threw the big copper tray after him, and he
retreated humbled.
At dawn I started, accompanied by six guards, and passed the
spot where I was looted thirty hours before. My guards did not leave
me till I got to Maxsūd Beg, which is out of the dangerous part of the
country, and I got to Kūmishah, where my patient was, without
further adventure, in the afternoon; but I was compelled to ride with
my feet out of the stirrup-irons, as I could not bear them to be
touched, and they were much swollen. Here I was able to attend to
my patient, who was in a sufficiently critical condition; however, I was
in time, and he recovered.
In contradistinction to my treatment at Yezdikhast, the post-house
keeper at Kūmishah lent me a brand-new suit of clothes, and
provided me with food during my stay in Kūmishah; my patient was
too ill for me to be his guest, and his servants had deserted him; this
postmaster lent me also four pounds in silver. My friends in Ispahan
sent me clothes, and on my patient’s convalescence I rode in there
after five days.
As I came near Marg and approached a narrow pass called the
Orcheeni, the gholam of the telegraph with whom I was riding
pointed out, on the face of the cliff at the part where the road
narrows, some dozen men with guns, crouched behind boulders and
rocks.
“They are stopping the way, sahib; there are probably more in the
pass, and if once we go in we shall be caught.”
Vacuus viator is all very well, but even though I had nothing left to
be looted of, if I sang, I preferred not to do so coram latrone, so we
turned off to the right by a camel road that also leads to Marg,
keeping on quietly till we were detected, for at first the thieves could
not see that we had left the road; but as soon as they did, they
rushed out to cut us off; the distance was the same for both, but we
were mounted, and we screwed a canter out of our steeds and got
safely away. I met with no further adventure on that journey to
Ispahan, but my experience of Oriental brigands is not a pleasant
one. Of course it is much pleasanter to pose as a hero; but with my
revolver, had I fired on being surrounded, I should have been blown
out of my saddle.
Captain Pierson, then acting director, wished to send in a claim for
compensation to the Persian Government, but this was not done.
Had I been a Russian subject it would have been otherwise. The
value of all my kit was, however, repaid to me.
Nothing more at the time was heard of the robbers; no effort was
made to arrest them. The country was at that time demoralised by
the terrible famine, but afterwards four of my thieves fell into the
hands of the king’s uncle, the present Governor of Shiraz; he is a
severe man, and they (including Lutf Ali) were built up alive in brick
pillars on the high-road just outside Abadeh, and left to die gradually,
perishing as their victim the Syud did. The pillars and bones may be
seen on the roadside, and, like our old gibbets, are a terror to evil-
doers.
CHAPTER XXV.
SHIRAZ.
The Muschir—His policy and wealth—His struggle with the king’s uncle—He is
bastinadoed—His banishment to Kerbela—The Kawam—Mirza Naim—Siege
of Zinjan—Cruelties to Mirza Naim—Reply to an author’s statement—
Cashmere shawls—Anecdote—Garden of Dilgoosha—Warm spring—“Sau-
Sau-Rac”—The Well of Death—Execution—Wife-killing—Tomb of Rich—
Tomb of Hafiz—Tomb of Saadi—A moral tale—Omens—Incident at tomb of
Hafiz.
The two principal men of Shiraz are the Kawam,[24] the calamter
or mayor of the town, in whose family the dignity has been for some
generations hereditary; and the Muschir,[25] an aged official who has
held all the offices of the province of Fars: he has farmed the
customs, collected the revenue, been the minister (really responsible
Governor) of the young prince during his nonage, he has even been
Governor himself; rising from a small official, Abol Hassan Khan has
succeeded in enriching himself and at the same time making many
friends and dependants; his rivals have generally gradually
succumbed to his vigorous policy, and the free system of bribery at
Teheran adopted by the Muschir has generally removed them from
his path; when that has failed he has not scrupled to have recourse
to other measures. Careful to allow himself to be looted, at times
nearly ruined, by the powerful king’s uncle, the Hissam-u-Sultaneh,
he has always thus secured a friend at court, and while feathering
his own nest during the governorship of the Zil-es-Sultan, he has
always satisfied the young prince by large subsidies. Having several
daughters, all ladies of mature age and all married save the favourite
child—for whom he obtained the title of Lika-ul-Molk—on the
Muschir’s death, the Governor of Shiraz, whoever he may happen to
be, will have a gigantic prize. After fifty years of successful official life
the savings of the old man must be enormous; besides his own
estates, which are very large, he inherited the entire property of his
brother, a very wealthy man, and much of that of his son-in-law, the
late Governor of Fussa. In 1879 and 1880, however, came an evil
day for him. Khosro Mirza, the Motummad-ul-Molk and uncle of the
king, was made Governor of Fars. This powerful and politic prince
had on a previous occasion been compelled to leave Shiraz, and
was subsequently deprived of his governorship by the successful
intrigues of the Muschir, whose son-in-law, specially kept at Teheran
for the purpose of having access to the royal ear, had administered
on the Muschir’s behalf bribes to the king, to such an amount as to
induce the Shah to deprive his uncle of his governorship, and to
appoint a man of straw, thus giving the real power into the hands of
the Muschir. And now came the day of reckoning. The Muschir
became, as it were, a prisoner in his own house. The Kawam, his
wealthy and ancient rival, was at once taken into the Governor’s
favour, and titles of honour and local governorships conferred on his
son, a youth long supposed to be an idiot, but who now showed a
capacity for Persian political life which astonished even his own
people. The hungry sons of the Motummad, despatched into the
richest governorships of the province, proceeded to fleece the
dependants of the Muschir. And to be a dependant, friend, or
adherent of the old man became a crime.
Mirza Mahomoud, the secretary of the Muschir, was arrested, his
house and property arbitrarily confiscated, and his accumulations
wrung from him as the price of his life. And at last the Governor
seized the Muschir himself, and actually administered a severe
bastinado to his enemy, now an old man of seventy-five: the
Muschir’s life was also attempted by poison. All that could be
confiscated was taken, the ready cash and jewels to an enormous
amount became the property of the Motummad-ul-Molk (the king’s
uncle) and his sons, while claims were made against the Muschir for
great amounts.
But though Khosro Mirza hungered for the old man’s life, he had
yet influence sufficient at the capital to preserve it, and an order
came that the Muschir should retire to Kerbela (in Turkey), the shrine
of the prophets Houssein and Hassan, there to end his life in prayer
and repentance. But the Muschir may yet prove a thorn in the side of
his enemies; he is now back in Shiraz and apparently inactive.
The Kawam (grandson of the celebrated Hadji Kawam of Shiraz,
executed by boiling to death), after being for some years in the
shade, through the successful intrigues of the Muschir, is now in the
full blaze of power. His son has his foot in the stirrup of success, and
he is the only local man in real power in the province of Fars. Rather
boorish in manner, the Kawam is kind and honest, liberal and true to
his adherents in adversity; it remains to be seen whether he will
show the politic moderation of the Muschir, who never made an
enemy unless he was able to remove him. The system of the Kawam
has been to strengthen his local influence by marriages of the
various members of his family, and his open and honest, if at times
obstinate, policy has made him many personal friends, more
valuable than those of the Muschir, whose adherents were either
mercenary or those who for their safety assumed the name.
The policy of the Governors of Fars has invariably been to play off
the Kawam against the Muschir, so taking bribes from both, but
never destroying either. However, one thing is quite certain, the
Kawam is an old and honoured citizen of Shiraz without a personal
enemy save the Muschir, while the latter does not possess a real
friend, and being heirless may fall a victim to some unscrupulous
Governor, who may take his life on some pretext, secretly or openly,
for the sake of the pickings from his still gigantic estates.
Another grandee of Shiraz was Mirza Naim, the paymaster of the
forces of Fars, a military officer of high rank and great age. (He was
the general who in the time of the Baabi revolt besieged the walled
city of Zinjan, the capital of a province of Persia held by those
fanatics; the place was obstinately defended, the women even
appearing on the walls, and fighting and dying for the sake of their
ridiculous creed. On the taking of the city by assault, a kuttl-i-aum, or
general massacre, was ordered, and the atrocities committed were
too horrible to mention.) The Governor of Fars (at that time, 1870-5),
the Zil-es-Sultan, wishing to wring a large fine, and a considerable
sum of money supposed to have been appropriated by the
paymaster-general, after numerous indignities placed Mirza Naim in
a snow-chair—the man was seventy-five years of age—compelled
him to drink water-melon juice, to produce the well-known diuretic
effect, and while the sufferer was frozen to the snow-seat, caused a
dog to be placed on his lap, thus insulting his aged co-religionist.
Although the man had borne these horrible tortures for some hours,
he now consented to pay the sum demanded. Of course the result to
his aged frame was not long in doubt; he soon succumbed to the
effects of the injuries he received.
I am particular in describing his treatment from the Zil-es-Sultan,
as it shows the improbability of the story told by a radical politician
who recently travelled through Persia, and among other marvellous
tales inserted the groundless calumny, seen at page 15, volume ii.,
of Mr. Arthur Arnold’s ‘Through Persia by Caravan,’ in which he says,
“A European doctor, to his shame be it said, talking one day with the
Zil-i-Sultan [sic] upon the interesting topic of torture, suggested an
ancient method which, we were told, at once struck the prince as
applicable to the snowy regions of Ispahan. To draw the teeth of
Jews who refused gifts to the Government was the practice in days
when the civilisation of England was no more advanced than that of
Persia; but I never heard before of stuffing a man’s trousers with
snow and ice as an efficient way of combating his refusal to pay a
large demand in the season when the thermometer stands—as it
does in Central Persia—for months below zero.” Now, as possibly I
may be alluded to under the vague title of “A European doctor,” not
many of whom exist in Persia to speak to the Zil-es-Sultan, and the
story is glibly told by this author, yet I fancy that it will not be credited,
even on the statement of the retailer of scandals, said to be heard,
through interpreters, from Orientals; when it is considered that it was
hardly needful to apprise the Zil-es-Sultan of a means of cruelty,
since he was so ingenious as to use the very same old method on a
general of over seventy-five, some years before—I being in Shiraz at
the time, as the prince well knew—and the supposed refinement of
cruelty no new thing to the prince.[26] When an author swallows and
repeats such yarns, as that one of our sergeants shot an unoffending
Armenian, etc.—the unoffending Armenian and the shooting being
alike myths (see vol. ii. p. 167, etc.)—one can only suppose that the
capacity for swallowing such tough stories is equalled by the
pleasure found in retailing them. Whoever the cap fits—and I do not
believe it fits any one—it does not fit me, and I will not wear it. One
can only pity a man who travels through a country, mostly by night in
a closed litter, with his eyes very tightly shut and his ears very widely
open, all whose facts are hearsay, and most of whose deductions
are mistaken.
One of the means of making presents used by the great in Persia
is the giving of Cashmere shawls; the gift of a shawl is supposed to
be an honour as well as a money payment to the recipient. Among
other presents made to me by the Persians in my professional
capacity was a pair of handsome shawls; as it is not expected that
these should be retained, and as they were useless to me as dress-
stuffs, for which they are used by the upper classes in Persia of both
sexes, I disposed of one for eighteen pounds in the bazaar to a
merchant, and retained the other as a present to my mother. On
taking it to England I was astonished to find that it was
unappreciated, and still more surprised to learn that, as it was made
in several strips, as are all the real Cashmere shawls that go to
Persia, and fringeless, it was nearly absolutely valueless; in fact, one
of the large West End drapers offered as a favour to give me thirty
shillings for it. I took it back to Persia, as my mother said it was
useless to her, and sold it for twenty pounds, my servant probably
making a five pound commission on the transaction.
Under the hills, some mile and a half from Shiraz, is the garden of
the Dilgooshah, or “Heartsease,” the property of the Kawam; in the
middle is a large and solid brick building, having a small tank in the
centre, the water flowing into which is warm, about 70° Fahrenheit.
Above the tank is a dome, once decorated with a large picture of a
battle; this was painted on plaster, but all, save a few pieces, has
crumbled away. The garden is planted with orange-trees, and is very
large.
Above the garden is the “Sau-sau-rac,” or sliding-place; here for
centuries the young of both sexes were accustomed to resort; the
rocks slope sharply down, and generations of sliders have polished
the stones till they have become like glass. After a breakfast at
Dilgooshah, whenever there are children or young people, the whole
party adjourn to the “Sau-sau-rac,” and the juveniles, and not
unfrequently the elders, run up the edge and, squatting at the top,
slide rapidly down in strings, the whole tumbling over pell-mell at the
bottom; the more adventurous slide down on their stomachs head
downwards, but they generally squat and go down in strings for
mutual safety; all, however, thus conduce to the polishing of the
“Sau-sau-rac.”
A difficult climb of three-quarters of an hour brought one to the
Chah Ali Bunder, a well cut in the surface of the living rock; a huge
square aperture yawns in the surface. The well was probably
originally constructed to supply a mountain fastness with water
(which was, I think, never reached); the shaft is of great depth, and is
popularly supposed to be without bottom. I have attempted to
measure it by dropping a stone, but the echoes thus produced
render it impossible. One hears no sound of water on throwing
objects into it, and I have lowered six hundred yards of string, and
the cord has remained still taut.[27]
There are no ruins round it, and this points to an unsuccessful
boring for water. Such a position in the times previous to artillery—
and it is only of very modern introduction in Persia—would have
been, if supplied with water, almost, if not quite, impregnable, for the
road up is very steep, and could easily be rendered quite
impassable.
The use to which the Chah Ali Bunder is now put reminds one of
the ‘Arabian Nights’; it is the place of execution of faithless women. I
am not sure whether it has been used within the last ten years for
that purpose, I believe it has. But some seventeen years ago a friend
of mine was present at such an execution. The woman was paraded
through the town bareheaded, with her hair cut off, on an ass, her
face being to the tail. She was preceded by the lutis or buffoons of
the town singing and dancing, while the Jewish musicians were
forced to play upon their instruments and join in the procession. All
the rabble of the town of course thronged around the wretched
woman. The ass was led by the executioner, and it was not till nearly
dusk that the place of punishment was reached. The victim had been

Romanian Folklore and Its Archaic Heritage A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study Ana R Chelariu All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

You might also like

Romanian Folklore and Its Archaic Heritage A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study Ana R Chelariu All Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Romanian Folklore and Its Archaic Heritage A Cultural and Linguistic Comparative Study Ana R Chelariu All Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Romanian Folklore and its Archaic

Heritage. A cultural and Linguistic

ISBN 978-3-031-04050-4 ISBN 978-3-031-04051-1 (eBook)

Cover illustration: Friptuleac Roman / Alamy Stock Photo

The completion of my work took many years of research and a lot of

The many Romanian friends from diaspora, among whom renown

Part I Getae-Dacians History and Religion in Ancient

3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 17

4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 25

5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 29

Part II Comparative Method: Myth, Fairy Tale, Folk Tale 39

6 The Development of the Comparative Method 41

7 The Concept of Myth 45

8 Myth Between Symbol and Metaphor 53

10 Mythic Time Versus Fairy Tale Time 69

Part III Traits of Indo-European Mythic Motifs in

11 The Mythic Motif of Man’s Creation 75

21 Metamorphoses in Myth and Fairy Tales181

22 Metamorphoses in Youth Initiation Rites191

Part IV Daco-Romanian Language Position Among the

Ana R. Chelariu was born in Bucharest, Romania, on November 19,

conferences organized by the Society, studies published in English in the

Academy, the magazine Origini [Roots], and the Internet publication of

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 3

the stem zamol M. Eliade (1972: 45) brings to attention Matthäus

Pârvan, V. ([1937] 1972). Dacia. Civilizaţiile străvechi din regiunile carpato-­

The Indo-Europeans’ ‘homeland’ and the moment of their dispersal

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 9

‘Mother Earth’, a representation of the Old Europe goddesses displaying

At about 5800–5700 BCE the farmers of the Criș culture, developed

towns, with bigger, sturdier houses, some two-storied, painted in specific

discoveries lead to the probability that Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was

By 2500 BCE the language that has been reconstructed as Proto-Indo-­

When considering the way the Indo-Europeans took to the west, it is

The same route was followed, as Kortlandt argues, by “the ancestors of

In the article Indo-European Expansion Cycles Axel Kristinsson (2012)

The CT culture appears by the middle of sixth millennium BCE at the

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 17

cultural development: It is situated at the junction between the forest and

Beginning circa 3100 BCE, elements of Yamna culture, including

Danube, favored the formation of a Schprachbund of a common vocabu-

The advancement of genetic research opened up new perspectives into

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 25

the Dniester which apparently annihilated the cultures in Eastern

contemporaneous Corded Ware and Yamna migration waves were direct

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 29

Following the Greek influence in the region, the Roman conquest of

A call to a patient—Start on post-horses—No horses—I carry a lantern—The

TENT LIFE.—WANDERING TRIBES.

The country here on the least pretext becomes disturbed, and

You might also like

Part I Getae-Dacians History and Religion in Ancient

3 Cucuteni-Tripolye: The Indo-European Homeland? 17

4 Some Recent Genetic and Archaeological Conclusions 25

5 Daco-Romanian Language: An Indo-European Branch 29

Part II Comparative Method: Myth, Fairy Tale, Folk Tale 39

6 The Development of the Comparative Method 41

7 The Concept of Myth 45

8 Myth Between Symbol and Metaphor 53

10 Mythic Time Versus Fairy Tale Time 69

Part III Traits of Indo-European Mythic Motifs in

11 The Mythic Motif of Man’s Creation 75

21 Metamorphoses in Myth and Fairy Tales181

22 Metamorphoses in Youth Initiation Rites191

Part IV Daco-Romanian Language Position Among the

Pârvan, V. ([1937] 1972). Dacia. Civilizaţiile străvechi din regiunile carpato-

By 2500 BCE the language that has been reconstructed as Proto-Indo-