



Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at http://www.freeliterature.org
(Images generously made available by the Internet Archive)





THROUGH THE LANDS OF THE SERB

By

MARY E. DURHAM

LONDON

EDWARD ARNOLD

1904


DEDICATED

TO

MY MOTHER


[Illustration: MONTENEGRIN WOMEN, CETINJE.]



CONTENTS

PART I

MONTENEGRO AND THE WAY THERE

    I. CATTARO--NJEGUSHI--CETINJE
   II. PODGORITZA AND RIJEKA
  III. OSTROG
   IV. NIKSHITJE AND DUKLE
    V. OUR LADY AMONG THE ROCKS
   VI. ANTIVARI
  VII. OF THE NORTH ALBANIAN
 VIII. SKODRA
   IX. SKODRA TO DULCIGNO

PART II

OF SERVIA

    X. BELGRADE
   XI. SMEDEREVO--SHABATZ--VALJEVO--UB--OBRENOVATZ
  XII. NISH
 XIII. PIROT
  XIV. EAST SERVIA
   XV. THE SHUMADIA AND SOUTH-WEST SERVIA
  XVI. KRUSHEVATZ

PART III

MONTENEGRO AND OLD SERVIA

1903

 XVII. KOLASHIN--ANDRIJEVITZA--BERANI--PECH
XVIII. TO DECHANI AND BACK TO PODGORITZA

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

    MONTENEGRIN WOMEN, CETINJE
    CEMETERY NEAR CETINJE
    BAKER'S SHOP, RIJEKA--ALBANIAN AND TWO
    MONTENEGRINS
    BULLOCK CART, PODGORITZA
    UPPER MONASTERY, OSTROG
    RUINS OF ANTIVARI
    MOUNTAIN ALBANIANS IN MARKET, PODGORITZA
    STREET IN BAZAAR, SKODRA
    SKODRA
    MOSQUE, SKODRA
    SHOP IN BAZAAR, SKODRA
    MONTENEGRIN PLOUGH
    SERVIAN PEASANT
    TRAVELLING GIPSIES, RIJEKA, MONTENEGRO
    SOLDIERS' MONUMENTS
    CHURCH, STUDENITZA--WEST DOOR.
    CORONATION CHURCH, KRALJEVO
    TSAR LAZAR'S CASTLE
    CHURCH, KRUSHEVATZ--SIDE WINDOW OF APSE
    THE PATRIARCHIA, IPEK (PECH)
    PODGORITZA
    MAP OF THE LANDS OF THE SERB


    PUBLISHER'S NOTE

          In the spelling of proper names the
          system adopted in the _Times Atlas_ has
          been followed as nearly as possible.
          Owing to the absence of Miss Durham in
          Macedonia, the following pages have not
          had the advantage of her revision in
          going through the press.



PART I

MONTENEGRO AND THE WAY THERE

     "What land is this?"
     "This is Illyria, lady."
                     _Twelfth Night._




THROUGH THE LANDS OF THE SERB


CHAPTER I

CATTARO--NJEGUSHI--CETINJE


I do not know where the East proper begins, nor does it greatly matter,
but it is somewhere on the farther side of the Adriatic, the
island-studded coast which the Venetians once held. At any rate, as soon
as you leave Trieste you touch the bubbling edge of the ever-simmering
Eastern Question, and the unpopularity of the ruling German element is
very obvious. "I--do--not--speak--German," said a young officer
laboriously, "I am Bocchese"; and as we approached the Bocche he
emphasised the fact that he was a Slav returning to a Slav land. Party
politics run high even on the steamboat.

We awoke one morning to find the second-class saloon turned into a
Herzegovinian camp, piled with gay saddle-bags and rugs upon which
squatted, cross-legged, a couple of families in full native costume, and
the air was thick with the highly scented tobacco which the whole party
smoked incessantly. The friendly steward, a Dalmatian Italian,
whispered hastily, "This is a Herzegovinian family, signorin'. Do you
like the Herzegovinese?" Rather taken aback, and not knowing what his
politics were, I replied, stupidly enough, "I find their costume very
interesting," This frivolous remark hurt the steward deeply.
"Signorin'," he said very gravely, "these are some of the bravest men in
the world. Each one of these that you see would fight till he died."
Then in a mysterious undertone, "They cannot live without freedom...
they are leaving their own land... it has been taken, as you know, by
the Austrian.... They are going to Montenegro, to a free country. They
have taken with them all their possessions, and they go to find
freedom."

I looked at them with a curious sense of pity. Though they knew it not,
they were the survivors of an old, old world, the old world which still
lingers in out-of-the-way corners, and it was from the twentieth century
quite as much as from the Teuton they were endeavouring to flee. All
these parti- saddle-bags and little bundles tied up in cotton
handkerchiefs represented the worldly goods of three generations, who
had left the land of their forebears and were upon a quest as mystical
as any conceived by mediaeval knight--they were seeking the shrine of
Liberty. "Of old sat Freedom on the heights"; let us hope they found her
there! I never saw them again.

On the other hand, in a boat with Austrian sympathies, the tale is very
different. "I am a Viennese, Fraeulein. Imagine what it is to me to have
to travel in this dreary place! The people?--they are a rough,
discontented set. Very ignorant. Very bad. No, I should not advise you to
go to Montenegro--a most mischievous race." "And what about Bosnia and
the Herzegovina?" "Oh, you will be quite safe there; _we_ govern that.
They are a bad lot, though! But we don't stand any nonsense."

Thus either party seizes upon the stranger and tries to prevent his
views being "prejudiced." He seldom has need to complain that he has
heard one side only; but there is a Catholic side, an Orthodox side, a
Mohammedan side, there are German, Slav, Italian, Turkish, and Albanian
sides; and when he has heard them all he feels far less capable of
forming an opinion on the Eastern Question than he did before.

Dalmatia has its charms, but tourists swarm there, and the picturesque
corners are being rapidly pulled down to provide suitable accommodation
for them. Let us pass on, then, nor pause till we have wound our way
through that wonderful maze of fiords, the Bocche, and landed