Vlachs: Possible earliest settlers in Romania, now nomadic shepherds; an entire culture;

The Vlachs are an ancient people that are in many eastern European countries. This site reports that it was the Vlachs who originally founded Romania, as the indigenous people when the Romans came. See the Romania section at mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/misc/europe.htm#Mong.

See Vlach history at www.columbia.edu/cu/romanian/articles/aromani. We have found them in Greece and Croatia, for example, see more about "Aromanian Vlachs: The Vanishing Tribe," at www.vlachophiles.net/. There are supposed to be some Vlachs in Texas - the site is at some other post here. The mother of the Hungarian hero, Janos Hunyadi (governor of Transylvania in the 15th century, castle at Hundoara, Romania) was said to be Vlach. The Vanishing Tribe site says that Vlachs set up Wallachia.

Update - from our 2007 trip to Poland. Some Vlachs migrated to Poland - see the Magurski National Park site at www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/pnp/magu.htm. There, the people were called "Lemks," and lived in the Low Beskid region, with only a few survivors now. There are vestiges of their culture, and later orthodox religion there, and in roadway shrines. The article says they were deported in 1947 for political reasons. See populations post at Poland Road Ways.

The Vlachs remain distinct, have their own ways, and predate the Romans, I understand, as do the Dacians, also of Romania. More Vlach history: www.friesian.com/decdenc2, and at www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaHistory/vlach-south.

This shepherd was the only one herding all those sheep, among 18-wheelers, and those of us in cars, through the village. Their dogs are indispensable. See more on the Romanian shepherd dogs at romdogs.tripod.com/ogar/romshdog.

He leaped across the road, carrying all the possessions he needed; and was gone. Stragglers caught up. Someone described that kind of sight as a cloud of sheep. Exactly.

Vlachs - Once there is an awareness of something new, all sorts of other information comes out - now we find Vlach references in many places and contexts. More at a Vlach site, bastian.freeyellow.com/index.

The fun part here was the good humor of the truckers -- no anger, no fingers, just open the window, lean out and chat and laugh as, when all seemed to be past, somebody went under the truck to coax out the last straggler. To an outsider, it looked like respect for someone else's assets and way of life. Room for many. What's the rush. I seldom saw any kind of road kill.