Page:Christian Greece and Living Greek.djvu/187

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THE GREEKS UNDER TURKISH BONDAGE. 1 65 Austria or Russia, and who after a long absence have returned with the fruits of their industry to their native towns, which they thus enrich and in some degree civilize. But they seldom return for permanent residence till late in life, being satisfied in the interval with two or three short visits. The middle classes pursue a similar course ; but, as their traffic seldom carries them as far from home as the higher order of mer- chants, they return more frequently, and many of them spend a part of every summer in their native place. At Siatista, in Macedonia, Bikelas narrates, there could hardly be said to be a single family some member of which was not established in Italy, in Hungary, in Austria, or in Germany. Among the old men in the town, there were very few who had not lived abroad for ten or twelve years. Among the mountain villages near Volo, in Thessaly, the same activity was attended with the same results. It is to these merchants, while either still living in some for- eign land or when returned to their native coun- try, that Hellas owes that wonderful revival of popular education which preceded her political resurrection. Such men were Zosimai, the Ma- routsoi, the Kaplanai, and so many other benefac-