B17 Village Life
Merab Badalov of Canda, Georgia in Canda, Georgia
As for a game, in our childhood we used to play what was called ⁺baduša. We used to call it ⁺baduša. ⁺Baduša is a sharpened stick. We used to make mud into mortar so that the ⁺baduša would stick in. One of those who were hitting it would stick it in, the other had to make it fall. If you made it fall, you won it. It was yours. Then we would hit another one. Three or four of us would play ⁺badušə. We used to win sticks for keeps and take them home in the winter. We were young children. We also used to play ‘belt.’ We used to place the belt like this in order to make a circle, a circle. Three people are inside and three are outside. You must steal the belt from the circle. If you steal a belt, then you beat with this and drive (the others) away and you must steal another one. Now you steal also that. Then you steal the third one. Now, those who are inside must take the belt from your hand in order to win, either one must win or the other. If they took it, then they go into the circle and the others go outside.
At night, I remember, we used to go to the house of my grandfather and grandmother. They used to have maize. They had a lot of maize. The floor of their house was earth. They had laid there a pile and we used to sit hulling the maize. All of the grandchildren of my grandfather, his daughters-in-law, we used to sit hulling the maize. The old men used to tell us stories while we were hulling the maize. We were helping them. In winter they baked flat breads on (the walls of) the oven. Until a time such as this they baked all day long. They laid them out in the wood, in tens, and we took them to the town. My mother took them to the town and sold them, or she used to buy some food, and also used to buy flour and bring it back so that they could bake again the next day. By this we lived.
Was there a watermill? We had a watermill here. The place of the watermill remains, but it itself is not there. We would take wheat and maize and grind them. Yes, we remember that watermill well. It was a mill (operated by) water. A stream came from above. It had a trough (for carrying water) (šiva). It had (what we call) a trough (šiva) in our language. The trough was made of planks. Underneath there was a wheel. The water would pour on the wheel and it would turn. On an axle on top it had a stone, two stones, one was stationary, the one on top turned. Water made it work. They used to put wheat in it in a …. What was the name of that thing? It was made of planks, where we used to pour the wheat they placed a stick. That stick, that stone when the stick that it was operating, the thing of the wheat, was moving, or (the wheat) had to pour down as one. They used to stop it according to its measure as much as was necessary. If a lot came, the flour was coarse. When the miller stopped it, he would do this with a rope. He turned it and stopped it in its place. Then he checked the flour with his hand (to see) whether the flour was flowing well. It must not come out hot nor must it come out coarse. (As) he ground it, he poured out a sack above in the plank, and a sack of flour flowed down from the stone. Then they would bring it home and sieve it. They would make the coarse flour into mash. Do you know what mash is? They used to make both the flour of wheat and also the flour of maize into mash. The coarse flour they made into mash. They cooked it in boiling water and they put oil in it, oil or milk. The fine flour they would bake into bread. They kneaded it. We used to have (natural) leaven. Now they put yeast or a chemical in it. Formerly we used to have leaven. We used to ask for the leaven from house to house: ‘Give your leaven (for me to take) with me for me to bake. I shall bring it back tomorrow.’ Leaven, sour dough, so that it would leaven the other one. I do not know whether you have learnt (about) leaven? They would knead and cover the dough in order for it to leaven. When it leavened, they would then lay out balls of dough and bake flat breads, loaves, in the oven. In winter this was the work of … mainly women would bake, when men did not have work, right? At that time the women would bake flour and we would take it and sell it. We would buy (things), and bring back food for the children.
How was the harvest? Look, we did not witness the harvest. We did not witness it, since we are too young. I have seen thus, I have heard that they used to harvest, they used make (the produce) into ears of wheat and bring them home. They had a horse or a head of cattle. They used to tie a buffalo to that thing. It would turn it in order to extract the wheat. We have not witnessed that. It was not (in) our time. That was a different age. It was before our (time), (in the time of) our fathers, my grandfather and also my father, it was in their time. Threshing-floor—we did not witness the threshing floor. (When) we arrived, there was a collective farm. When they introduced the collective, they all used to gather there in the collective, they gave work to the people, then they gave them, for their work, they gave them some bags (of produce) in order to pass the winter.
Those who had a vineyard of grapes, vineyard of grapes, in various places within it they used to cultivate beans in its strips. Land at that time was scarce and they did not give much land to people. Our lands were few. They farmed so they would have grapes and would have beans, as much as the land would suffice. We used to cultivate mostly beans in the old days. They would cultivate cabbage, cucumbers, beetroot, what was necessary for winter, for themselves, potatoes. Surely (the word) ⁺k̭ərṱopə is our language, yes?
From the vine we would make wine. (On) a vine there are grapes. How did we make wine? We had a grape-press that was made (for the purpose). My grandfather had a grape-press that was made (for the purpose). Underneath he had placed planks, distant from one another, holes which had strips. We placed the grapes there and we went up barefoot. They used to take us children up, three or four people, and we would squash (the grapes). Underneath it had a small hole, from where the wine came into a pan. They would take it and put it in a barrel, into an earthen jar. Then, when it was becoming sour, and the alcohol of the wine is becoming strong, then they sealed its mouth. They put on a stone and sealed it with gypsum, with yellow earth, and stored it away for winter. After that they opened the jar, cleaned it and took out the wine for drinking.
They used to keep a pig for winter. They had cattle. They made fried meat. This fried meat is ours, of the Assyrians, the meat of a large head of cattle, a cow. They fried it. They put oil on it. They put also this aside for winter. It keeps for a long time without going off, because it is fried in oil. It had (with it) potatoes, it had … we passed the winter slowly.
Arak, we used to make arak from what remained of the wine, the grape must. From this we used to extract arak. We had a pan for arak. We still have it. Have you not shown him? There is a pan for arak. There is a pan for the production of arak. They put the arak in a barrel. It stays until its boiling stops. When it is boiling, it does not produce arak. Its boiling must stop. After its boiling stops, they put it in the pan. This has a lid and they cover it. The lid has a hole. Yes, through this hole they put it into a pipe, into a trough. There is water. The steam that is boiling, the steam goes into the pipe. The steam cools in the water. Yes, it turns into drops. Yes, from the pipe drops flow down into a bottle. We store them (the bottles of arak) for their later use.
The churn was churned by a woman. First they boil the milk. They put in a spoonful of sour starter, yoghurt, in it. It remains until the next morning, it remained from the evening until morning, it becomes yoghurt. They put the yoghurt in the churn. They tie its mouth with … they tie the mouth of the churn and under it they put a bolster. A bolster is round, long like this. They placed it under the churn, under its stomach. They push the churn back and forth, up and down, until it comes, the yoghurt becomes butter. They take off the butter by itself, then what remained was buttermilk. With buttermilk we used to cook stew. You have heard about stew? Stew. They make stew with beetroot, with coriander, celery. This is an Assyrian thing, it is an Assyrian dish. Nobody else knows it. Nobody else knows this stew. They used to melt the butter, make it clarified butter and put it in jars. They made all possible preparation for the winter, because life in winter was difficult. They had to buy for themselves and for their future needs. The churn was like that. Even now we still have a churn, but we do not use it anymore.
Do you have ovens? We have an oven. I myself was baking yesterday, I was baking flat breads. If you had been (here), you would have seen, yes. Yesterday I myself baked, I and my wife. My wife was rolling with the rolling pin. A rolling pin is a round stick like this. Its name is rolling pin in the Assyrian language, yes. There is a board. On the board they put a dough ball. They roll it with a rolling pin. Then they put it on their arms. They spread it out, spread it out. We have a baking cushion. We have a baking cushion like this. You lay it on the baking cushion. The baking cushion has a hole under it. You hold it like this. Yes, with the baking cushion you put the flat bread in the oven. It bakes in one minute. It becomes brown and is ready, fine Assyrian flat bread. When we bake flat bread, (we bake) twenty or thirty of them, then, after flat breads, they bake loaves, a loaf. A loaf has its own baking cushion. The one of a loaf is round. It is a small baking cushion. They put the loaves in the oven. They cover them. They must bake quite a lot, until they are brown. Then they take them out of it. For one week—formerly the old folk used to bake for one month. They laid them out to dry them. Then they put them aside, so that they would not have to bake every day in the winter. Later they would take out the dried bread and moisten it. They rolled it in a damp towel so it would become soft. Yes, they used to eat some of that. Now they bake once every week. Yesterday I baked for one … for it to be sufficient for us for one week, for all the family to eat. It is tasty. The bought bread does not have, has no taste of anything. We light the oven with wood, with wood, yes with wood. An oven is made of yellow clay, which is fired. It is placed like this so that you can stand and put (bread) in it. Formerly our oven was in the ground. The women used to sit on the ground, on a cloth, then they put it (the bread) in it. But later they put the oven on the surface, slightly above, so that you could stand on your feet and bake. They stand on their feet and bake in this way.
Was there a washing-beater? Yes, formerly they had a washing-beater. They would put the clothes and pummel them with that stick, or with their hands, the big clothing of bedding, that is sheets. How can they? They could not wash them by hand. They did them like this. They wet them and put them with ash. I remember that they washed them with ash. You know ‘ash’? The ash that is in the oven—when there is wood, with that ash, they sieved it, with that ash. In the old days there was no soap. They used to wash clothes with ash. Later soap came, soap like this, big soap, of the Russians, they left soap, a type. Then tubs came out. Formerly they were wooden tubs, tubs were made of planks. Do you know what a tub is? (They put) in it whatever they wash. Then iron ones came out. After the wooden ones, iron ones came out. They also kneaded dough in a wooden tub that we had, called a kneading trough. It was called a kneading trough, where they knead dough, bread dough that they kneaded. It was a trough of wood, it was called a kneading trough. Now it is a basin, it is a basin of iron, of aluminium. Yes, its name was kneading trough. (A basin) of dough was called a kneading trough.
Did you have irrigation channels? Did we have irrigation channels? Yes. There was a channel here in this small street like this. There is the channel. There is a channel. Another is a little over there. Those channels were made like that. A big channel used to come from high up, then it split into the streets. When the water was abundant, it was sufficient. Another time—by turns. Today it is my turn. Then it is his turn. Whoever’s turn it is, he would irrigate. They used to release the channel into kitchen gardens and orchard basins. We made orchard basins (bavay), yes an basin (bava). What is an orchard basin (bava)? We made a basin like this. Around it we would raise the earth. In it you would cultivate onions. A basin has sides, so that the water that you release into it does not spill from the other side, but the basin drinks it. In this way we used to make everything with basins, (in) a kitchen garden. There were basins of beans, basins of cucumbers, basins of onions, garlic, every basin by itself. The name of this is ‘basin’ (bava). Basin, what should I tell you? We used to make it like this, longish, and here we would make a basin-bank, basin-bank. You do not know what a basin-bank is. A basin-bank, like this when you raise the soil, like this, yes? Yes, in this way the basins are separated from one another. In this way the basins (are made) by banks, yes. Yes, in that basin you would release the water, which would go and reach its end, and it would hold it. Then you would release it on the other side and it would flow into the other basin. We would irrigate the kitchen garden for three or four hours. We irrigated it all. Then we released the water, and another person would come, a neighbour, a relative, our neighbour, and would irrigate, those whose turn it was after us to irrigate. Now there are no irrigation channels. They have finished. They have collapsed. Nobody takes care of them. We have no water. Now we irrigate from a well. We irrigate from a well by electricity, a motor, pump, we irrigate everything with a hose. Where does drinking water come from? Drinking water—we have a well. We have a well. There are also some who have water. You must have seen those that come (taps), in these also there is drinking water, which have holes and flow by themselves.
How were houses in Canda in the old days? When they had just arrived, some of the houses, I remember them, were houses of mud. They were made of mud brick, brick. They used to build themselves with mud, with straw. You know what straw is, yes? Straw, dry grass, they mixed it with the mud and made bricks. They dried them in the sun. With these they used to build a house. One, in a single one … four walls, one house. They made for it a large bed, for them all to sleep together, father, mother, children. They all slept in that same bed.
They made platforms. A platform (saccunta), a platform (saccun). It is built a metre in width for sleeping, for sleeping, (it belonged to) the old times, the old times. This was not, however, in our time. They put hay under them, hay, hay. When wheat remains, hay, the dried grass, they slept on this. This was a long time ago, yes. Platforms, what is a platform? They build on the side of the wall, with that mud, or they build with those mud bricks, a metre, a little less, a wall, next to the wall, they build another wall, but a low one for sleeping on, for eating on. When they came, there was no wooden bed, they had nothing. When our people first came here, they had nothing. They lived in pits, pit, half of the house was in the earth. Half of it was covered with earth, like this, pit. Pit, that means, half of it was in the earth, half of it on the surface, underneath, so that it would be warm. As for beams, they laid wooden logs. They laid reeds, bunches of reeds, they tied bunches. They put earth on this, so it would be warm. They made it round like this, then they lined up some of those bunches of reeds on it, so that the water would not flow down into it, but would flow down on the edge. It used to happen that when heavy rain fell, it leaked and became wet. The roof? Yes, there were also roofs. (In the singular one says) gara and garə is also correct. That is correct. Was there leaking? There was leaking, yes, so that it would not come from above, they would roll something on it. Did they shovel the snow? Yes, they shovelled the snow. When there was snow, they used to shovel it. They are not, however, able to shovel rain. When rain fell heavily, they were not able to shovel it and then it used to leak. The snow—they used to go up, sweep it and clean it off. They swept it from the roof so that it would not flow down. Two (old) houses remained in my childhood, I have seen them. With what did they sweep? With what did they sweep?—with a broom. They used to make a broom with … there is a grass there where the graves are. There is a broom plant. There is also a broom plant that grows in kitchen gardens. They made the brooms, ready, so they would have them in winter. Now after a month, already the time of the broom will come. We must (tie) a broom. Now too we are tying a broom to sweep the yard, our own broom at home. Were there windows? There was a window. There was an unglazed window, in the houses of mud bricks. Where would they have windows from? At that time there was no glass. Maybe one person had glass. There were unglazed windows. They called it unglazed window (cava).
There was such a time when cattle, a cow, and also people lived together. They brought the cow into the house in the winter. When it wanted to urinate, the head of the house would know about it, he would take a bowl and hold it beneath it, so there would not be a smell. As it urinated, he would hold it before it and it would urinate. He would then take it out and pour it away. Were all the animals in the house? Not all, (only) the cow, together with its young, the cow. A chicken did not have to be in the house. A pig did not have to be in the house. Here in Georgia it is not so cold that they get cold. A pig does not get cold. A pig stays outside. What is the name of the house of pigs?—the nest of a pig. They used to make the pig’s nest like … in the ground, they made a pit in the ground. A pig spends the winter there in a pit. The ground is warm. They would dig the ground like this. They would cover it and put earth on it, so the pig would be warm, poor creature. Chickens had a coop. They called it a chicken coop (ninə), where there are chickens, where they roost, they call it a coop. Yes, the house of chickens is called a coop, coop. They used to lay pieces of wood like this. They used to go up on those pieces of wood and roost. They covered the top so that rain would not come onto them. They used to put a sieve for the eggs, an old sieve, in which they put straw, so that the hen would lay eggs in the sieve. They would make it brood when an excess of its eggs accumulated and when the chicken was clucking, clucking, when it lays a lot of eggs it clucks. Then it produces chicks in that sieve on the grass. They make her brood on the eggs. They put twenty-one eggs under her. It was like that. I do not know why. Now also they do this, twenty-one eggs. Yes. They make her brood (on them) and she produces small chicks, yes, the chicken. Then the chicks grow, so they would have (chickens) in the future. They slaughter the older ones. The younger ones grow and become chickens. The name of the chickens’ nest is coop (ninə).
What is the name of the house of bees? They called it a bees’ nest. They have their own nest, their own box. This has a hole. They go out and come in, making food for themselves. They make food themselves from this tree, from the blossom, this is a hawthorn tree, a hawthorn, a hawthorn. They take most of the honey from this. Well, now, now is the time for the production of honey. I must see, in these days I must produce honey. You produce some for yourself and you leave some for them, because also they indeed in winter cannot find food. From that food of theirs we take half of it for us and half of it for the bees.
There is a willow tree. There is a hawthorn tree. There is a pear tree, apple tree, mulberry tree—‘mulberry’ (tutya) is surely our language—walnut tree, hazelnut tree, plum trees, this is the plum tree. There is the sweet cherry tree. There is the dark cherry tree. What else can I tell you?—black sour plum.
Flowers? Flower—in our language I only know the one name ‘flower’ (varda)—red, white flower, yellow flower. Thus (they are called) by their names, our names are not (given) to them. It is possible (that there are names) of ours, but we do not know. It is possible (there are names) of ours. There is saffron.
For winter we used to make for the cattle, we make also now, we harvest grass, we dry it and make a stack. We harvest stalks of maize (pučečə). I do not know if pučečə is our language. Maize, when maize dries, you take off the head of maize. You make the maize that you harvest into a bundle. We arrange these bundles on top of each other, so that the rain does not flow down into them, so that they do not rot. In winter we feed them a bundle of maize stalks and we put an armful of grass in the stable. In the morning we get up and they clean under them. They milk them. They put food down for them. They bring them in and give them water to drink when it is cold. When there is some warmth, they go outside, they drink water. They feed them. They bring them back, and put them again in the stable. They put—they have mangers, their name is ‘mangers.’ Mangers are made of a plank. They put grass in the mangers, so they do not scatter it under their feet, for winter grass, also maize stalks. Maize stalks, when the maize plants are cut, when the maize plants are dry, when their root dries, this is called ‘maize stalk’ (pučeča). We make this into bundles. We also harvest grass with a scythe in the countryside. We bring it home and put in a heap, and in winter we take some of this and feed them.
What did you used to do for winter? We fried preserved fried meat (k̭alya). They stored potatoes, potatoes by themselves, cabbages. They made pickles. You know what pickles are, right?—pickles of chilli, of cabbage, of tomatoes. They had beans, two or three bags of beans. I tell you they used to slaughter a pig. They used to put it in salt water so that it would not rot. They took it out, they washed it, and made dolma, they preserved leaves, leaves of the vine. Vine leaves—this dolma is an Assyrian leaf, dolma consisting of leaves with white cheese, with garlic. We make them now also. They used to cook harisa, harisa. Have you heard of harisa? harisa—they used to cook wheat. They put meat in it. Formerly they more often put goose in harisa. Now they make it with chicken. Well, they used to have maize flour and they used to make mash. They slowly passed the winter.
Was there snow? In the time of my childhood there was a lot of snow. I remember when I was young my grandmother used to open up a path in the courtyard with a shovel. It was a metre or more than a metre high. At that time good produce was available. Now there is drought, and produce is not available. When the snow came, it filled the trees, the fruit. Now less snow comes. It is colder. The freeze is intense. The roads were very bad. The roads—they used to go with effort with carts, with buffaloes from here, from this street. Over there, I live over there, there was a channel there. There a cart used to sink (and get stuck)—you know a ‘cart,’ right? It has two wheels. They tie a buffalo to it with wood. A cart would get stuck, I remember in my childhood, the carts that used to get stuck, they tied two yokes to them, two yokes, that is, one that was tied to it was not sufficiently strong and they added another, in order to pull the cart out. A yoke was made of wood, sitting on the neck of a buffalo. They would tie it (the buffalo) from underneath with ropes so that it could pull the cart. The cart had two shafts, as they call them, shafts. It was made with these shafts—shaft, shaft. A shaft consists of two pieces of wood. On these shafts they fixed planks, this was for the placing of something on it. In front, where the shafts were there was again a yoke, which they made, so that they could place the yoke on the neck of the buffalo, and they tied it with ropes, with the result that it applies force with its neck and pulls with its shoulders. But when it happened that it did not have the strength, with the shafts of another cart they tied another buffalo at the front with ropes so that this also would help to pull it. I remember that. Yes, I remember that, fifty years ago, fifty years ago. The place that was before our door. The worst place was before our door. There was a lot of mud there. Later, gradually, they brought and laid some stones and so forth and they fixed it.
How did they heat houses? Before the time when stoves came in, there was a fire in the middle of the house. Their house was one room, it was one room. Indeed I am saying, in one corner there were cattle, animals. On the other side they had a bed for themselves, for sleeping. In the middle they had what they called a central fire. Above there was a hole, a window light was left (open). A window light was left in the ceiling above so that the smoke could escape. They used to light the fire in the middle of the house. They lit the fire and they warmed themselves with that fire. The cooking pot was hung over the fire. They made something with wire, on which the pan was tied. They cooked in their pot there, on the fire. Later, as I remember, this was not there anymore, there was a stove, a stove made of iron. Now also we have installed stoves. Yes, we have installed stoves, we warm ourselves with wood. Now some have gas, we warm ourselves with gas. Where did the women cook? On the fire. They had a copper pan. The stirring spoon was wood, but they had a pan. They cooked everything in that. Anybody who had two or three—they used to live rather well. Yes, they called it a copper pan. Copper and something were also mixed together, aluminium. Those pans are still in use. There are some who still have some in the basement, who have old ones, but they do not use them anymore. Yes, in that copper pan, suspended on the fire, they used to cook. in the yard?—In the summer in the yard, in the winter on the central fire. In the winter the fire burned in the house to give warmth. Also their pot was suspended on a wire, and they cook with this. They put everything in one vessel and ate with their hands. This was not very long ago, something like seventy or eighty years ago.