The harvest in August is the period of merriment. All Servian peasants
assist each other in getting in the grain as soon as it is ready,
without fee or reward; the cultivator providing entertainment for his
laborious guests. In the vale of the Lower Morava, where there is less
pasture and more corn, this is not sufficient, and hired Bulgarians
assist.
The innumerable swine which are reared in the vast forests of the
interior, at no expense to the inhabitants, are the great staple of
Servian product and export. In districts where acorns abound, they
fatten to an inconceivable size. They are first pushed swimming across
the Save, as a substitute for quarantine, and then driven to Pesth and
Vienna by easy stages; latterly large quantities have been sent up the
Danube in boats towed by steam.
Another extensive trade in this part of the world is in leeches.
Turkey in Europe, being for the most part uncultivated, is covered
with ponds and marshes, where leeches are found in abundance. In
consequence of the extensive use now made of these reptiles, in
preference to the old practice of the lancet, the price has risen; and
the European source being exhausted, Turkey swarms with Frenchmen
engaged in this traffic.
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