UNDER
THE CARPATHIANS
HOME OF A FORGOTTEN PEOPLE
A Forgotten Spot
| | Face of A Country
| UNDER THE CARPATHIANS HOME OF A FORGOTTEN PEOPLE
A Forgotten Spot | Ivan's Castle | |
One of the most forgotten spots of this forgotten country is the Verchovina - a narrow band of mountains and hills stretching from the Uzok Pass eastwards along more than half the length of the former Polish frontier. Owing to Its isolation it leads an individual life of its own. It is the poorest part of Carpatho Ukraine. The people of the tribe called Boiki live in wooden huts of primitive construction. Some of the huts consist only of a single room where the family and the animals are herded together; others have two rooms, one of them being used as a combined shed and store-room; only a few of the Boiki dwellings have separate outhouses. The windows of the cottages are few and tiny, admitting little light, and chimneys do not exist. The smoke has to find its way out through the door, the windows, or the roof, and there is always a cloud of smoke hanging under the ceiling.
To give the reader an idea of how these backwoods people live and feel and think, we have included an adapted version of a simple local story . . .Ivan's Castle in the Air
East Slovakia Genealogical Research Strategies
