That mysterious land

I loved my Greek experience so much that I wanted to prolong the Greek flavor I had lingering in my head. So what better way than reading what has to be one of the most well written books on travelling in Greece. Roumeli written by Patrick Leigh Fermor in 1966 is all about his travels over a number of years over a landscape that in his words “is not to be found on maps…Its extent has varied and its position has wandered almost imperceptibly.” How can I resist a book about such a place?
It has covered the area north of Greece from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic Sea and from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth. But it has since shrank to cover only the southern part of this previously great area. And this line stretched from the Ambracian Gulf to the Gulf of Volo. All exotic names and I had to look at the map to be sure to orient myself properly. The author in his years of wandering was able to know to a great extent the proud, fierce and often solitary people of this region. This book is no less an account of his travels than a homage to this lost country.
It is an immensely fascinating read. It reads almost like one of those old fashioned adventure travel tales back in the day when men had the possibility to be larger than life. This is not however to detract from the quality of the writing. The prose is sumptuous and beautiful. It has the power to conjure up images that are so far from our normal experience. More importantly, they are tales and images of a way of life that was fast disappearing when he wrote about them over forty years ago.
His book lets us discover the Sarakatsán, the wild nomads of Roumeli who travelled the hidden ways with their flock of sheep and their caravan of horses loaded with their possessions. They were wild and secretive men with proud customs and Leigh Fermor was one of the lucky few who was able to penetrate, if but fleetingly their closed world. Then we have the villagers of Kravara who were legendary tricksters and masters of the art of begging. Yes, that’s right, the art of begging. And the I was held captive, just as he was with their tales. One of the more memorable of the tales is that of Panos who had mastered the art of appearing dead. He, along with his brother Charis would chose an unsuspecting town whereupon Panos would take on the manner of one who is dying and Charis would moan and lament bitterly. The villagers would inevitably gather upon them and ask what was wrong. And Charis would cry that his poor brother was dying and they were far from home. The villagers whose hearts would have melted by the end of the telling, would take pity on them and take them home. During the night, Panos would die (for he had learned the art of appearing completely dead) and the villagers, following the customs would give the grieving brother enough coins to bury him and then leave him alone to mourn. As soon as the villagers were all gone, Panos would be miraculously revived and off they went to the next victim!
This is a wonderful book that should be savored for the tales it contain and the telling of these tales.