Kecskés Péter (szerk.): Upper Tisza region (Regional Units of Open Air Museum. Szentendre, Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum, 1980)

3. THE MUSEUM VILLAGE

Finally, a few words should draw attention to the archaic features of the village street, in which the ditch for water at the edge of the road begins just where the settlement does; also, the villageditch dug around the fences and supported by wattle, with planks laid over to serve as bridges. The impression to be conveyed by the villagescene made it necessary to have the natural surroundings and the flora as similar as possible to those of the original. What is most characteristic of the flora of county Szatmár is that wild and cultivated plants grow together in complete harmony, both in gardens and on the fields. Many plants of wild flora grow in the gardens, such as the oak-tree, typical of swamps, hawthorn, and spindle-tree, whilst in the fields there are orchards of plum and walnut, growing wild, a sign of very early horticulture. Various kinds of fruit may be distinguished, such as walnuts renowned over the country, a kind cultivated around Milota; various apples, thus ,,red-as-a-gypsy" („cigánypiros") apples, „summer apples of Sóvárad"; pears „ripening with the rye", and pears with blood-red flesh; ,,I-do-not-know-what-plums", and „plums of Our Lady" („boldogasszony szilva"). Many houses have seperate gardens in their courtyard, where not only vegetables are grown, but also „herbs" such as were favoured in Medieval cloister gardens — for example, Salvia officinalis, Artemisia abrotanum, Santolina chamaecyparissus; favoured even today are Satureia hortensis and Chartamus tinctorius. There is a little herb-garden on the first plot, its flower-beds arranged in long rows. Many of the gardens of the petty nobles are a mixture of vegetable gardens and flower-gardens keeping to the tradition of Renaissance times. On the third plot, the house of a nobleman, the garden is divided by a vine-bower. On the side closer to the street, flowers are planted: lilies, liles of-the-valley, iris and evergreen; in the part towards the courtyard vegetables are grown, such as parsley and salad. There are pinetrees in this garden, as pines are only planted in front of noblemen's houses or in front of a church. There was never a lawn in either the courtyard or the street, as grass would be trodden down by animals, who would feed on it. There is a well-known Hungarian curse: „may your courtyard turn into a lawn", meaning that the peasant form of farming should cease. The Open Air Museum endeavours to demonstrate peasant homes in a „living" state, and has left the yards of the Upper Tisza peasant houses without any lawns for this very same reason. 78