Besides these words and phrases derived from the Latin and barbarian languages, there are others relating to ecclesiastical matters imported from the Greek; indeed, an examination of the language is itself an interesting historical study, and if now we turn to the arts and customs of the Roumanians, we find the same interesting relations with her past history.

Of the music of the Laoutari we have already spoken.  It is weird and plaintive, and no one who has listened attentively to the airs played by some of those bands can have failed to be struck with their ‘telling’ character, how they give vent alternately to feelings of joy and sorrow, of mourning and rejoicing, and, like the music of Poland, &c., call to mind the conquered condition of the people in the past.  As with the music, so with the dances.  A writer, to whom we shall refer later on, M. Opitz, described the ‘Hora,’ the national dance of the Roumanians, as being illustrative of their conquered condition, and a recent acute observer has left us his impressions on the same subject.

’I remember one dance (says he) of which I forget the name, but which pleased me exceedingly.  After the dancers had gone one or two paces in pairs in a circle, the men separated from the women.  The latter moved singly round the men, as though they were seeking some object dear to them.  The men then drew together and moved their feet like marching soldiers; next using their long sticks, they made irregular springs and uttered loud cries, as though they were engaged in battle.  The women wandered about like shadows.  At last the men with joyful gestures rushed towards them as though they had found them after great danger, led them back into the circle, and danced with joy and animation.  Here we see how mighty is tradition.  This dance is a complete poem!  Who knows of what long-forgotten incursion of the barbarians it is a reminiscence?’[69]

[Illustration:  THE ‘HORA,’ NATIONAL DANCE OF ROUMANIA.]

From those few illustrations it will be seen how the language and customs of Roumania are interwoven with her past history.  We have but touched the fringe of the subject; but that it is a fertile source of interesting study and research we are convinced, and therefore recommend those who are able to follow it up to give it their attention.[70]

[Footnote 67:  It may be interesting to philologists to consider the derivations of the English names of these common things, and compare them with the Roumanian; the preponderance of the Anglo-Saxon element in the one and the Latin in the other is very apparent.]

[Footnote 68:  Das Magyarische im Romaenischen, Roesler, Appendix, p. 346.  We have been compelled to translate Roesler’s German into English for the significations, and the sense may thus have been changed or lost; he is therefore not responsible for such errors.  The words marked with an asterisk are the most striking for our purpose, and they are in constant use in Roumania.]