We have already said that the Roumanian peasant is old-fashioned and slow to move, but he has also excellent qualities.  He possesses great hardihood and endurance, and will work, not very constantly it is true, during the hottest weather from five a.m. to eight p.m. with a couple of hours for meals and rest during the heat of the day.  On the other hand he will face the keenest cold with a bared breast, and is satisfied with mamaliga as his daily food.  As we have already said, the women work harder even than the men, besides doing a great deal of work at home, which only Roumanian women are able to perform.[61] The children work also, beginning often at five years of age, but they attend school during the winter from October to April.  As we shall see presently, the progress of education is slow; for although there is supposed to be a school in every village, many of them are closed, and there is a great want of teachers.  Education is, however, progressing steadily, but it will be a generation or two before every peasant is able to read and write.  As in the town, so in the country, there are a great many fast days, which the peasants do not, however, always observe.  During the week days they are abstemious, but, although they do not get drunk, they spend their Sunday in drinking, and one of the greatest curses of the country has been the substitution of alcohol prepared from grain for the old plum-spirit which was formerly drunk and which was much less injurious in its after-effects.  All things considered, however, the future of the peasant is not dark.  If he is at all industrious, he owns his farm, and by sobriety and diligence his possessions are increasing annually; the gradual spread of elementary and technical instruction, of which the foundations are firmly laid in the country, will open his eyes to the advantages which he enjoys; and soon he will appreciate the fact, already known to all enlightened persons in Roumania, that upon the labours and exertions of the peasantry depend not only their own fortunes, but the future progress and prosperity of the fatherland.[62]

[Footnote 61:  Besides making clothes for their families, and costumes for the ladies of the cities, &c., the Roumanian women make beautiful rugs, mats, and even Carpets of variegated wool.]

[Footnote 62:  Nothing shows the importance of the agricultural interest in Roumania so effectively as an analysis of the occupations of the people.  This is thoroughly trustworthy, as it is computed from the number of taxpayers, and the following is a table condensed from the data supplied to us by the authorities at Bucarest:—­