Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 May 1910 — STONE AGE CUSTOMS. [ARTICLE]

STONE AGE CUSTOMS.

Ancient Habits Still Endure Among Natives of Rural Ronmanla. Customs and habits directly traceable back to the end of the stone age are still observed by the inhabitants of the remoter parts of rural Roumania, says Dr. Emil Fischer of Bucharest in the Umschau: The latest statistics show that there are still in Roumani* over 54,000 cave dwellings in existence, in which a quarter of a million peasant folk live. These caves are almost as primitive in their arrangements as the original cave dwellings of the stone age. As recently as in the eighties millet, the oldest Indo-Germanic grain, was stil crushed in Roumania by means of band mills and stored in peculiarly shaped granaries similar to those used by the natives of central Africa. Today the Roumanian peasants still use ancient plows. At funerals a repast named coliba is partaken of consisting of soaked and boiled corn the e*, act way corn was first prepared and eaten by the tribes of Europe. Even to-day -crabapples and wild pears are the only fruit known to the Roumanian peasant, and his vegetables are wild herbs boiled with oil pressed—from sunflower, hemp and gourd seeds. Medical men in rural Roumania are still known among the peasantry as wizards.