In this part of the Pindus mountains, most of the swallows seem to have left, and the Diochnes are beginning to bloom. The beautiful wild yellow or mauve crocus is telling the menfolk to leave. "Mas diochnoun", say the Zagori villagers, "they're sending us away". The flowers herald the time of the year when the men of the Zagorohoria had to up-sticks, leave their wives, children, mountain villages and stone mansions to return to their occupations as expatriates in far-away lands.
It's a common theme of Epirot folk-songs, the experience of xeniteia. I know how they felt and how they feel. But like the swallows, they always return.
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