The place is
renowned for its pretty Wallack girls, and I certainly can bear witness
that I saw not a few handsome faces. But what struck me most was the
graceful movements of these damsels: their manner of walking was the
very poetry of motion. I daresay it was the more striking to me because
I had recently come from England, where fashion condemns the wearers of
high-heeled shoes to a rickety waddle! Even here, in these wilds,
fashion maintains a despotic rule. I understand black hair is the thing
at present, so every Wallack maiden dyes her hair to the regulation
colour, though Nature, who never makes a mistake, may have matched her
complexion with auburn locks.
The costume is very pretty and peculiar; it consists of a loose chemise,
a short skirt of homespun, with a double apron front and back, formed of
a very deep thick fringe of various colours. This peculiar garment is
called an _obreska_; I think it has no counterpart in female fashions
elsewhere. When the under-garment is white and fresh the effect is very
good; but in the case of the very poor, if there are but scanty rags
beneath, then, to speak mildly, the fringe is an inefficient covering.
But to-day every damsel is in her best; and how jauntily she wears the
coloured scarf twisted round her head, which falls in graceful folds!
The Wallacks generally have their bare feet covered, not with boots, but
with thongs of leather, something in the form of a sandal.
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