Twelve years ̕study of the Eastern question in Bulgaria; Being a revised edition of "A residence in Bulgaria." - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ...whether his Papas owns allegiance to a Greek metropolitan, or Bulgarian bishop, or patriarch. Although he is too superstitious to refuse compliance with arbitrary exactions of the priests (which are spoken of at length in another chapter), he undoubtedly feels that the continual abstraction of his lambs, eggs, fowls, pigs, &c., is a grievance; but if he knows of the proposed ecclesiastical change, he has sense enough to see that the priest will not want less mutton or fewer eggs because there is a new Bulgarian Church, and therefore he does not care about the result of the movement. The wishes of the Rayah, when he takes the trouble of wishing, are confined to the removal of a few petty grievances which EXCEPTIONS. 165 At first, the new Bulgarian clergy asked but little, and gained some influence by so doing; but later on they pillaged as hard as they could, and the peasants, being gradually drawn back to the Greek rite, the Bulgarian clergy joined the secret societies in self-defence, and thence the mischief. equally affect his Mussulman fellow-subjects. What his " friends " wish for him is sufficiently well known in England from the newspapers of Russia and one or two other countries, and diplomatic reports. Of course if he is told that such and such a change will improve his condition, he is willing to put his mark to a petition to that effect, and the next day he would do the same for another petition which might be perfectly contrary to and incompatible with the first. He, however, has sense enough to know that he is well off, and excepting when he is told that he is not so much so as he deserves to be, he is contented. These remarks apply only to the genuine peasant, and not to the Bulgarian who has deserted the peaceful and humble...