SERVIA, YOUNGEST MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN FAMILY:

 OR, A

 RESIDENCE IN BELGRADE, AND

 TRAVELS IN THE HIGHLANDS AND WOODLANDS OF THE INTERIOR, DURING THE YEARS 1843 AND 1844. 

 BY

 ANDREW ARCHIBALD PATON, ESQ. 

 AUTHOR OF "THE MODERN SYRIANS. "

"Les hommes croient en general connaitre suffisamment l'Empire Ottomanpour peu qu'ils aient lu l'enorme compilation que le savant M. DeHammer a publiee . .. Mais en dehors de ce mouvement central il y a lavie interieure de province, dont le tableau tout entier reste afaire. "

 LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 

 1845. 

PREFACE. 

The narrative and descriptive portion of this work speaks for itself. In the historical part I have consulted with advantage Von Engel's"History of Servia, " Ranke's "Servian Revolution, " Possart's "Servia, "and Ami Boue's "Turquie d'Europe, " but took the precaution ofsubmitting the facts selected to the censorship of those on the spotbest able to test their accuracy. For this service, I owe a debt ofacknowledgment to M. Hadschitch, the framer of the Servian code; M. Marinovitch, Secretary of the Senate; and Professor John Shafarik, whose lectures on Slaavic history, literature, and antiquities, haveobtained unanimous applause. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER 1. 

Leave Beyrout. --Camp afloat. -Rhodes. --The shores of the Mediterraneansuitable for the cultivation of the arts. --A Moslem of the newschool. --American Presbyterian clergyman. --A Mexican senator. --Asermon for sailors. --Smyrna. --Buyukdere. --Sir StratfordCanning. --Embark for Bulgaria. 

CHAPTER II. 

Varna. --Contrast of Northern and Southern provinces ofTurkey. --Roustchouk. --Conversation with Deftendar. --The Danube. --ABulgarian interior. --A dandy of the Lower Danube. --Depart for Widdin. 

CHAPTER III. 

River steaming. --Arrival at Widdin. --Jew. --Comfortless khan. --Wretchedappearance of Widdin. --Hussein Pasha. --M. Petronievitch. --Steamballoon. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Leave Widdin. --The Timok. --Enter Servia. --Brza Palanka. --The IronGates. --Old and New Orsova. --Wallachian Matron. --Semlin. --Aconversation on language. 

CHAPTER V. 

Description of Belgrade. --Fortifications. --Street and streetpopulation. --Cathedral. --Large square. --Coffee-house. --Desertedvilla. --Baths. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Europeanization of Belgrade. --Lighting and paving. --Interior of thefortress. --Turkish Pasha. --Turkish quarter. --Turkishpopulation. --Panorama of Belgrade. --Dinner party given by the prince. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Return to Servia. --The Danube. --Semlin. --Wucics andPetronievitch. --Cathedral solemnity. --Subscription ball. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Holman, the blind traveller. --Milutinovich, the poet. --Bulgarianlegend. --Tableau de genre. --Departure for the interior. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Journey to Shabatz. --Resemblance of manners to those of the middleages. --Palesh. --A Servian bride. --Blindminstrel. --Gipsies. --Macadamized roads. 

CHAPTER X. 

Shabatz. --A provincial chancery. --Servian collector. --Description ofhis house. --Country barber. --Turkish quarter. --Self-taught priest. --Aprovincial dinner. --Native soiree. 

CHAPTER XI. 

Kaimak. --History of a renegade. --A bishop's house. --Progress ofeducation. --Portrait of Milosh. --Bosnia and the Bosnians. --Moslemfanaticism. --Death of the collector. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The banat of Matchva. --Losnitza. --Feuds on the frontier. --Enter theback-woods. --Convent of Tronosha. --Greek festival. --Congregation ofpeasantry. --Rustic finery. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Romantic sylvan scenery. --Patriarchal simplicity ofmanners. --Krupena. --Sokol. --Its extraordinary position. --Wretchedtown. --Alpine scenery. --Cool reception. --Valley of the Rogatschitza. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Drina. --Liubovia. --Quarantine station. --Derlatcha. --A Servianbeauty. --A lunatic priest. --Sorry quarters. --Murder by brigands. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Arrival at Ushitza. --Wretched street. --Excellent khan. --Turkishvayvode. --A Persian dervish. --Relations of Moslems andChristians. --Visit the castle. --Bird's eye view. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Poshega. --The river Morava. --Arrival at Csatsak. --A Viennesedoctor. --Project to ascend the Kopaunik. --Visit the bishop. --Ancientcathedral church. --Greek mass. --Karanovatz. --Emigrant priest. --Albaniandisorders. --Salt mines. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Coronation church of the ancient kings of Servia. --Enter theHighlands. --Valley of the Ybar. --First view of the High Balkan. --Conventof Studenitza. --Byzantine Architecture. --Phlegmatic monk. --Servianfrontier. --New quarantine. --Russian major. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Cross the Bosniac frontier. --Gipsy encampment. --Novibazardescribed. --Rough reception. --Precipitate departure. --Fanaticism. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Ascent of the Kopaunik. --Grand prospect. --Descent of theKopaunik. --Bruss. --Involuntary bigamy. --Conversation on the Serviancharacter. --Krushevatz. --Relics of monarchy. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Formation of the Servian monarchy. --Contest between the Latin and GreekChurches. --Stephen Dushan. --A great warrior. --Results of hisvictories. --Kucs Lasar. --Invasion of Amurath. --Battle of Kossovo. --Deathof Lasar and Amurath. --Fall of the Servian monarchy. --Generalobservations. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A battue missed. --Proceed to Alexinatz. --Foreign-Officecourier. --Bulgarian frontier. --Gipsy Suregee. --Tiupria. --New bridge andmacadamized roads. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Visit to Ravanitza. --Jovial party. --Servian and Austrianjurisdiction. --Convent described. --Eagles reversed. --Bulgarianfestivities. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Manasia. --Has preserved its middle-age character. --RobinsonCrusoe. --Wonderful echo. --Kindness of thepeople. --Svilainitza. --Posharevatz. --Baby giantess. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Rich soil. --Mysterious waters. --Treaty of Passarovitz. --The castle ofSemendria. --Relics of the antique. --The Brankovitchfamily. --Panesova. --Morrison's pills. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Personal appearance of the Servians. --Their moralcharacter. --Peculiarity of manners. --Christmasfestivities. --Easter. --The Dodola. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Town life. --The public offices. --Manners half-orientalhalf-European. --Merchants and tradesmen. --Turkishpopulation. --Porters. --Barbers. --Cafes. --Public writer. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Poetry. --Journalism. --The fine arts. --The Lyceum. --Mineralogicalcabinet. --Museum. --Servian Education. 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Preparations for departure. --Impressions of the East. --PrinceAlexander. --The palace. --Kara Georg. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

A memoir of Kara Georg. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Milosh Obrenovitch. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The prince. --The government. --The senate. --The minister for foreignaffairs. --The minister of the interior. --Courts of justice. --Finances. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Agriculture and commerce. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The foreign agents. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

VIENNA IN 1844. 

Improvements in Vienna. --Palladian style. --Music. --Theatres. --Sir RobertGordon. --Prince Metternich. --Armen ball. --Dancing. --Strauss. --Austrianpolicy. 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Concluding observations on Austria and her prospects. 

SERVIA. 

CHAPTER I. 

Leave Beyrout. --Camp afloat. --Rhodes. --The shores of the Mediterraneansuitable for the cultivation of the arts. --A Moslem of the newschool. --American Presbyterian clergyman. --A Mexican senator. --Asermon for sailors. --Smyrna. --Buyukdere. --Sir StratfordCanning. --Embark for Bulgaria. 

I have been four years in the East, and feel that I have had quiteenough of it for the present. Notwithstanding the azure skies, bubbling fountains, Mosaic pavements, and fragrant _narghiles_, Ibegin to feel symptoms of ennui, and a thirst for European life, sharpair, and a good appetite, a blazing fire, well-lighted rooms, femalesociety, good music, and the piquant vaudevilles of my ancientfriends, Scribe, Bayard, and Melesville. 

At length I stand on the pier of Beyrout, while my luggage is beingembarked for the Austrian steamer lying in the roads, which, in theLevantine slang, has lighted her chibouque, and is polluting yon whitepromontory, clear cut in the azure horizon, with a thick black cloudof Wallsend. 

I bade a hurried adieu to my friends, and went on board. Thequarter-deck, which retained its awning day and night, was dividedinto two compartments, one of which was reserved for the promenade ofthe cabin passengers, the other for the bivouac of the Turks, whoretained their camp habits with amusing minuteness, making thelarboard quarter a vast tent afloat, with its rolled up beds, quilts, counterpanes, washing gear, and all sorts of water-cans, coffee-pots, and chibouques, with stores of bread, cheese, fruit, and otherprovisions for the voyage. In the East, a family cannot move withoutits household paraphernalia, but then it requires a slight addition offurniture and utensils to settle for years in a strange place. Thesettlement of a European family requires a thousand et ceteras andmonths of installation, but then it is set in motion for the new worldwith a few portmanteaus and travelling bags. 

Two days and a half of steaming brought us to Rhodes. 

An enchanter has waved his wand! in reading of the wondrous world ofthe ancients, one feels a desire to get a peep at Rome before itsdestruction by barbarian hordes. A leap backwards of half this periodis what one seems to make at Rhodes, a perfectly preserved city andfortress of the middle ages. Here has been none of the Vandalism ofVauban, Cohorn, and those mechanical-pated fellows, who, with theirDutch dyke-looking parapets, made such havoc of donjons andpicturesque turrets in Europe. Here is every variety of mediaevalbattlement; so perfect is the illusion, that one wonders the waiter'shorn should be mute, and the walls devoid of bowman, knight, andsquire. 

Two more delightful days of steaming among the Greek Islands nowfollowed. The heat was moderate, the motion gentle, the sea was liquidlapis lazuli, and the hundred-tinted islets around us, wrought theiraccustomed spell. Surely there is something in climate which createspermanent abodes of art! The Mediterranean, with its hydrographicalconfiguration, excluding from its great peninsulas the extremes ofheat and cold, seems destined to nourish the most exquisite sentimentof the Beautiful. Those brilliant or softly graduated tints invite thepalette, and the cultivation of the graces of the mind, shining withits aesthetic ray through lineaments thorough-bred from generation togeneration, invites the sculptor to transfer to marble, grace ofcontour and elevation of expression. But let us not envy the balmySouth. The Germanic or northern element, if less susceptible of thebeautiful is more masculine, better balanced, less in extremes. It wasthis element that struck down the Roman empire, that peoples Americaand Australia, and rules India; that exhausted worlds, and thencreated new. 

The most prominent individual of the native division of passengers, was Arif Effendi, a pious Moslem of the new school, who had a greathorror of brandy; first, because it was made from wine; and secondly, because his own favourite beverage was Jamaica rum; for, as PeterParley says, "Of late years, many improvements have taken place amongthe Mussulmans, who show a disposition to adopt the best things oftheir more enlightened neighbours. " We had a great deal ofconversation during the voyage, for he professed to have a greatadmiration of England, and a great dislike of France; probably allowing to the fact of rum coming from Jamaica, and brandy and wine fromCognac and Bordeaux. 

Another individual was a still richer character: an AmericanPresbyterian clergyman, with furi-bond dilated nostril and a terrificfrown. 

"You must lose Canada, " said he to me one day, abruptly, "ay, andBermuda into the bargain. "

"I think you had better round off your acquisitions with a few oddWest India Islands. "

"We have stomach enough for that too. "

"I hear you have been to Jerusalem. "

"Yes; I went to recover my voice, which I lost; for I have one of thelargest congregations in Boston. "

"But, my good friend, you breathe nothing but war and conquest. "

"The fact is, war is as unavoidable as thunder and lightning; theatmosphere must be cleared from time to time. "

"Were you ever a soldier?"

"No; I was in the American navy. Many a day I was after John Bull onthe shores of Newfoundland. "

"After John Bull?"

"Yes, Sir, _sweating_ after him: I delight in energy; give me the manwho will shoulder a millstone, if need be. "

"The capture of Canada, Bermuda, and a few odd West India Islands, would certainly give scope for your energy. This would be taking thebull by the horns. "

"Swinging him by the tail, say I. "

The burlesque vigour of his illustrations sometimes ran toanti-climax. One day, he talked of something (if I recollect right, the electric telegraph), moving with the rapidity of a flash oflightning, with a pair of spurs clapped into it. 

In spite of all this ultra-national bluster, we found him to be a verygood sort of man, having nothing of the bear but the skin, and in thetest of the quarantine arrangements, the least selfish of the party. 

Another passenger was an elderly Mexican senator, who was the essenceof politeness of the good old school. Every morning he stood smiling, hat in hand, while he inquired how each of us had slept. I shall neverforget the cholera-like contortion of horror he displayed, when theclerical militant (poking his fun at him), declared that Texas waswithin the natural boundary of the State, and that some morning theywould make a breakfast of the whole question. 

One day he passed from politics to religion. "I am fond of fun, " saidhe, "I think it is the sign of a clear conscience. My life has beenspent among sailors. I have begun with many a blue jackethail-fellow-well-met in my own rough way, and have ended in weaninghim from wicked courses. None of your gloomy religion for me. When Isee a man whose religion makes him melancholy, and averse from gaiety, I tell him his god must be my devil. "

The originality of this gentleman's intellect and manners, led mesubsequently to make further inquiry; and I find one of his sermonsreported by a recent traveller, who, after stating that his oratorymade a deep impression on the congregation of the Sailors' chapel inBoston, who sat with their eyes, ears, and mouths open, as ifspell-bound in listening to him, thus continues: "He describes a shipat sea, bound for the port of Heaven, when the man at the head sungout, 'Rocks ahead!' 'Port the helm, ' cried the mate. 'Ay, ay, sir, 'was the answer; the ship obeyed, and stood upon a tack. But in twominutes more, the lead indicated a shoal. The man on the out-look sungout, 'Sandbreaks and breakers ahead!' The captain was now called, andthe mate gave his opinion; but sail where they could, the lead andthe eye showed nothing but dangers all around, --sand banks, coralreefs, sunken rocks, and dangerous coasts. The chart showed themclearly enough where the port of Heaven lay; there was no doubt aboutits latitude and longitude: but they all sung out, that it wasimpossible to reach it; there was no fair way to get to it. Myfriends, it was the devil who blew up that sand-bank, and sunk thoserocks, and set the coral insects to work; his object was to preventthat ship from ever getting to Heaven, to wreck it on its way, and tomake prize of the whole crew for slaves for ever. But just as everysoul was seized with consternation, and almost in despair, a tightlittle schooner hove in sight; she was cruizing about, with one Jesus, a pilot, on board. The captain hailed him, and he answered that heknew a fair way to the port in question. He pointed out to them anopening in the rocks, which the largest ship might beat through, witha channel so deep, that the lead could never reach to the bottom, andthe passage was land-locked the whole way, so that the wind might veerround to every point in the compass, and blow hurricanes from themall, and yet it could never raise a dangerous sea in that channel. What did the crew of that distressed ship do, when Jesus showed themhis chart, and gave them all the bearings? They laughed at him, andthrew his chart back in his face. He find a channel where they couldnot! Impossible; and on they sailed in their own course, and everyoneof them perished. "

At Smyrna, I signalized my return to the land of the Franks, byordering a beef-steak, and a bottle of porter, and bespeaking thepaper from a gentleman in drab leggings, who had come from Manchesterto look after the affairs of a commercial house, in which he or hisemployers were involved. He wondered that a hotel in the Ottomanempire should be so unlike one in Europe, and asked me, "If the innsdown in the country were as good as this. "

As for Constantinople, I refer all readers to the industry andaccuracy of Mr. White, who might justly have terminated his volumeswith the Oriental epistolary phrase, "What more can I write?" Mr. White is not a mere sentence balancer, but belongs to the guild ofbona fide Oriental travellers. 

In summer, all Pera is on the Bosphorus: so I jumped into a caique, and rowed up to Buyukdere. On the threshold of the villa of theBritish embassy, I met A----, the prince of attaches, who led me to abeautiful little kiosk, on the extremity of a garden, and thereinstalled me in his fairy abode of four small rooms, which embraced aview like that of Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore; here books, the piano, the _narghile_, and the parterre of flowers, relieved the drudgery ofhis Eastern diplomacy. Lord N----, Mr. H----, and Mr. T----, the otherattaches, lived in a house at the other end of the garden. 

I here spent a week of delightful repose. The mornings were occupied_ad libitum_, the gentlemen of the embassy being overwhelmed withbusiness. At four o'clock dinner was usually served in the airyvestibule of the embassy villa, and with the occasional accession ofother members of the diplomatic corps we usually formed a largeparty. A couple of hours before sunset a caique, which from its sizemight have been the galley of a doge, was in waiting, and Lady C----sometimes took us to a favourite wooded hill or bower-grown creek inthe Paradise-like environs, while a small musical party in the eveningterminated each day. One of the attaches of the Russian embassy, M. F----, is the favorite dilettante of Buyukdere; he has one of thefinest voices I ever heard, and frequently reminded me of the easyhumour and sonorous profundity of Lablache. 

Before embarking the reader on the Black Sea, I cannot forbear asingle remark on the distinguished individual who has so long and soworthily represented Great Britain at the Ottoman Porte. 

Sir. Stratford Canning is certainly unpopular with the extremefanatical party, and with all those economists who are for killing thegoose to get at the golden eggs; but the real interests of the Turkishnation never had a firmer support. 

The chief difficulty in the case of this race is the impossibility offusion with others. While they decrease in number, the Rayahs increasein wealth, in numbers, and in intelligence. 

The Russians are the Orientals of Europe, but St. Petersburg is aGerman town, German industry corrects the old Muscovite sloth andcunning. The immigrant strangers rise to the highest offices, for thecrown employs them as a counterpoise on the old nobility; as burgherincorporations were used by the kings of three centuries ago. 

No similar process is possible with Moslems: one course thereforeremains open for those who wish to see the Ottoman Empire upheld; astrenuous insistance on the Porte treating the Rayah population withjustice and moderation. The interests of humanity, and the real andtrue interests of the Ottoman Empire, are in this case identical. Guided by this sound principle, which completely reconciles the policyof Great Britain with the highest maxims of political morality, Sir. Stratford Canning has pursued his career with an all-siftingintelligence, a vigour of character and judgment, an indifference totemporary repulses, and a sacrifice of personal popularity, which hascalled forth the respect and involuntary admiration of parties themost opposed to his views. 

I embarked on board a steamer, skirted the western coast of the BlackSea, and landed on the following morning in Varna. 

CHAPTER II. 

Varna. --Contrast of Northern And Southern Provinces ofTurkey. --Roustchouk. --Conversation with Deftendar. --The Danube. --ABulgarian interior. --A dandy of the Lower Danube. --Depart for Widdin. 

All hail, Bulgaria! No sooner had I secured my quarters and depositedmy baggage, than I sought the main street, in order to catch thedelightfully keen impression which a new region stamps on the mind. 

How different are the features of Slaavic Turkey, from those of theArabic provinces in which I so long resided. The flat roofs, themeasured pace of the camel, the half-naked negro, the uncouth Bedouin, the cloudless heavens, the tawny earth, and the meagre apology forturf, are exchanged for ricketty wooden houses with coarse tiling, laid in such a way as to eschew the monotony of straight lines;strings of primitive waggons drawn by buffaloes, and driven byBulgarians with black woolly caps, real genuine grass growing on thedowns outside the walls, and a rattling blast from the Black Sea, morewelcome than all the balmy spices of Arabia, for it reminded me that Iwas once more in Europe, and must befit my costume to her ruder airs. This was indeed the north of the Balkan, and I must needs pull out mypea-jacket. How I relished those winds, waves, clouds, and grey skies!They reminded me of English nature and Dutch art. The Nore, the Downs, the Frith of Forth, and sundry dormant Backhuysens, re-awoke to myfancy. 

The moral interest too was different. In Egypt or Syria, where wholecycles of civilization lie entombed, we interrogate the past; here inBulgaria the past is nothing, and we vainly interrogate the future. 

The interior of Varna has a very fair bazaar; not covered as inConstantinople and other large towns, but well furnished. The privatedwellings are generally miserable. The town suffered so severely inthe Russian war of 1828, that it has never recovered its formerprosperity. It has also been twice nearly all burnt since then; sothat, notwithstanding its historical, military, and commercialimportance, it has at present little more than 20, 000 inhabitants. Thewalls of the town underwent a thorough repair in the spring and summerof 1843. 

The majority of the inhabitants are Turks, and even the nativeBulgarians here speak Turkish better than their own language. OneBulgarian here told me that he could not speak the national language. Now in the west of Bulgaria, on the borders of Servia, the Turks speakBulgarian better than Turkish. 

From Varna to Roustchouk is three days' journey, the latter half ofthe road being agreeably diversified with wood, corn, and pasture; andmany of the fields inclosed. Just at sunset, I found myself on theridge of the last undulation of the slope of Bulgaria, and againgreeted the ever-noble valley of the Danube. Roustchouk lay before mehitherward, and beyond the river, the rich flat lands of Wallachiastretched away to the north. 

As I approached the town, I perceived it to be a fortress of vastextent; but as it is commanded from the heights from which I wasdescending, it appeared to want strength if approached from the south. The ramparts were built with great solidity, but rusty, old, dismounted cannon, obliterated embrasures, and palisades rotten fromexposure to the weather, showed that to stand a siege it must undergoa considerable repair. The aspect of the place did not improve as werumbled down the street, lined with houses one story high, and hereand there a little mosque, with a shabby wooden minaret crowned withconical tin tops like the extinguishers of candles. 

I put up at the khan. My room was without furniture; but, being latelywhite-washed, and duly swept out under my own superintendence, and laidwith the best mat in the khan, on which I placed my bed and carpets, the addition of a couple of rush-bottomed chairs and a deal table, made it habitable, which was all I desired, as I intended to stay onlya few days. I was supplied with a most miserable dinner; and, to myhorror, the stewed meat was sprinkled with cinnamon. The wine was bad, and the water still worse, for there are no springs at Roustchouk, andthey use Danube water, filtered through a jar of a porous sandstonefound in the neighbourhood. A jar of this kind stands in every house, but even when filtered in this way it is far from good. 

On hearing that the Deftendar spoke English perfectly, and had longresided in England, I felt a curiosity to see him, and accordinglypresented myself at the Konak, and was shown to the divan of theDeftendar. I pulled aside a pendent curtain, and entered a room oflarge dimensions, faded decorations, and a broad red divan, thecushions of which were considerably the worse for wear. Such was thebureau of the Deftendar Effendi, who sat surrounded with papers, andthe implements of writing. He was a man apparently of fifty-fiveyears of age, slightly inclining to corpulence, with a very shortneck, surmounted by large features, coarsely chiselled; but not devoidof a certain intelligence in his eye, and dignity in general effect. He spoke English with a correct accent, but slowly, occasionallystopping to remember a word; thus showing that his English was notimperfect from want of knowledge, but rusty from want of practice. Hewas an Egyptian Turk, and had been for eight years the commercialagent of Mohammed Ali at Malta, and had, moreover, visited theprincipal countries of Europe. 

I then took a series of short and rapid whiffs of my pipe while Ibethought me of the best manner of treating the subject of my visit, and then said, "that few orientals could draw a distinction betweenpolitics and geography; but that with a man of his calibre andexperience, I was safe from misinterpretation--that I was collectingthe materials for a work on the Danubian provinces, and that for anyinformation which he might give me, consistently with the exigenciesof his official position, I should feel much indebted, as I thought Iwas least likely to be misunderstood by stating clearly the object ofmy journey to the authorities, while information derived from thefountain-head was the most valuable. "

The Deftendar, after commending my openness, said, "I suspect that youwill find very little to remark in the pashalic of Silistria. It is anagricultural country, and the majority of the inhabitants are Turks. The Rayahs are very peaceable, and pay very few taxes, considering theagricultural wealth of the country. You may rest assured that there isnot a province of the Ottoman empire, which is better governed thanthe pashalic of Silistria. Now and then, a rude Turk appropriates tohimself a Bulgarian girl; but the government cannot be responsible forthese individual excesses. We have no malcontents within the province;hut there are a few Hetarist scoundrels at Braila, who wish to disturbthe tranquillity of Bulgaria: but the Wallachian government has takenmeasures to prevent them from carrying their projects into execution. "After some further conversation, on indifferent topics, I took myleave. 

The succeeding days were devoted to a general reconnaissance of theplace; but I must say that Roustchouk, although capital of thepashalic of Silistria, and containing thirty or forty thousandinhabitants, pleased me less than any town of its size that I had seenin the East. The streets are dirty and badly paved, without a singlegood bazaar or cafe to kill time in, or a single respectable edificeof any description to look at. The redeeming resource was thepromenade on the banks of the Danube, which has here attained almostits full volume, and uniting the waters of Alp, Carpathian, andBalkan, rushes impatiently to the Euxine. 

At length the day of departure came. The attendant had just removedthe tumbler of coffee, tossing the fragments of toast into thecourt-yard, an operation which appeared to have a magnetic effect onthe bills of the poultry; and then, with his accustomed impropriety, placed the plate as a basis to my hookah, telling me that F----, aBulgarian Christian, wished to speak with me. 

"Let him walk in, " said I, as I took the first delightful whiff; andF----, darkening the window that looked out on the verandah, gave me afugitive look of recognition, and then entering and making hissalutation in a kindly hearty manner, asked me to eat my mid-day mealwith him. 

"Indeed, " quoth I, "I accept your invitation. I have not gone to paymy visit to the Bey, because I remain here too short a time to needhis good offices; but I am anxious to make the acquaintance of thepeople, --so I am your guest. "

When the hour arrived, I adjusted the tassel of my fez, put on mygreat coat, and proceeded to the Christian quarter; where, aftervarious turnings and windings, I at length arrived at a high woodengateway, new and unpainted. 

An uncouth tuning of fiddles, the odour of savoury fare, and a heartylaugh from within, told me that I had no further to go; for all thesegates are so like each other, one never knows a house till afterclose observation. On entering I passed over a plat of grass, andpiercing a wooden tenement by a dark passage, found myself in athree-sided court, where several persons were sitting on rush-bottomedchairs. 

F---- came forward, took both my hands in his, and then presented meto the company. On being seated, I exchanged salutations, and thenlooked round, and perceived that the three sides of the court werecomposed of rambling wooden tenements; the fourth was a little gardenin which a few flowers were cultivated. 

The elders sat, the youngers stood at a distance;--so respectful isyouth to age in all this eastern world. The first figure in the formergroup was the father of our host; the acrid humours of extreme age hadcrimsoned his eye-lids, and his head shook from side to side, as heattempted to rise to salute me, but I held him to his seat. The wifeof our host was a model of fragile delicate beauty. Her nose, mouth, and chin, were exquisitely chiselled, and her skin was smooth andwhite as alabaster; but the eye-lid drooped; the eye hung fire, andunder each orb the skin was slightly blue, but so blending with thepaleness of the rest of the face, as rather to give distinctness tothe character of beauty, than to detract from the general effect. Hersecond child hung on her left arm, and a certain graceful negligencein the plaits of her hair and the arrangement of her bosom, showedthat the cares of the young mother had superseded the nicety of thecoquette. 

The only other person in the company worthy of remark, was a Frank. His surtout was of cloth of second or third quality, but profuselybraided. His stock appeared to strangle him, and a diamond breast-pinwas stuck in a shirt of texture one degree removed from sail-cloth. His blood, as I afterwards learned, was so crossed by Greek, Tsinsar, and Wallachian varieties, that it would have puzzled the unitedgenealogists of Europe to tell his breed; and his language was amangled subdivision of that dialect which passes for French in thefashionable centres of the Grecaille. 

_Exquisite_. "Quangt etes vous venie, Monsieur?"

_Author_. "Il y a huit jours. "

_Exquisite_ (looking at a large ring on his _fore_ finger). "Ce sontde bons diables dans ce pays-ci; mais tout est un po barbare. "

"Assez barbare, " said I, as I saw that the exquisite's nails were inthe deepest possible mourning. 

_Exquisite_. "Avez vous ete a Boukarest?"

_Author_. "Non--pas encore. "

_Exquisite_. "Ah je wous assire que Boukarest est maintenant commeParis et Londres;"

_Author_. "Avez-vous vu Paris et Londres?"

_Exquisite_. "Non--mais Boukarest vaut cent fois Galatz et Braila. "

During this colloquy, the gipsy music was playing; the first fiddlewas really not bad: and the nonchalant rogue-humour of his countenancedid not belie his alliance to that large family, which has produced"so many blackguards, but never a single blockhead. "

Dinner was now announced. F----'s wife, relieved of her child, actedas first waitress. The fare consisted mostly of varieties of fowl, with a pilaff of rice, in the Turkish manner, all decidedly good; butthe wine rather sweet and muddy. When I asked for a glass of water, itwas handed me in a little bowl of silver, which mine hostess had justdashed into a jar of filtered lymph. Dinner concluded, the party rose, each crossing himself, and reciting a short formula of prayer;meanwhile a youthful relation of the house stood with thewashing-basin and soap turret poised on his left hand, while with theright he poured on my hands water from a slender-spouted tin ewer. Behind him stood the hostess holding a clean towel with a tiny web ofsilver thread running across its extremities, and on my right stoodthe ex-diners with sleeves tucked up, all in a row, waiting their turnat the wash-hand basin. 

After smoking a chibouque, I took my leave; for I had promised tospend the afternoon in the house of a Swiss, who, along with the agentof the steam-boat company and a third individual, made up the sumtotal of the resident Franko-Levantines in Roustchouk. 

A gun fired in the evening warned me that the steamer had arrived;and, anxious to push on for Servia, I embarked forthwith. 

CHAPTER III. 

River Steaming. --Arrival at Widdin--Jew. --Comfortless Khan. --Wretchedappearance of Widdin. --Hussein Pasha. --M. Petronievitch. --SteamBalloon. 

River steaming is, according to my notions, the best of all sorts oflocomotion. Steam at sea makes you sick, and the voyage is generallyover before you have gained your sea legs and your land appetite. Inmail or stage you have no sickness and see the country, but you aresqueezed sideways by helpless corpulence, and in front cooped intouneasiness by two pairs of egotistical knees and toes. As forlocomotives, tunnels, cuts, and viaducts--this is not travelling tosee the country, but arrival without seeing it. This eighth wonder ofthe world, so admirably adapted for business, is the despair ofpicturesque tourists, as well as post-horse, chaise, and gig letters. Our cathedral towns, instead of being distinguished from afar by theircloud-capt towers, are only recognizable at their respective stationsby the pyramids of gooseberry tarts and ham sandwiches being at oneplace at the lower, and at another at the upper, end of an apartmentmarked "refreshment room. " Now in river steaming you walk the deck, ifthe weather and the scenery be good; if the reverse, you lounge below;read, write, or play; and then the meals are arranged with Germanicingenuity for killing time and the digestive organs. 

On the second day the boat arrived at Widdin, and the agent of thesteam packet company, an old Jew, came on board. I stepped across theplank and accompanied him to a large white house opposite thelanding-place. On entering, I saw a group of Israel's children in themidst of a deadly combat of sale and purchase, bawling at the top oftheir voices in most villainous Castilian; all were filthy andshabbily dressed. The agent having mentioned who I was to the group, abroad-lipped young man with a German _mutze_ surmounting his orientalcostume, stepped forward with a confident air, and in a thick gutturalvoice addressed me in an unknown tongue. I looked about for an answer, when the agent told me in Turkish that he spoke English. 

_Jew_. "You English gentleman, sir, and not know English. "

_Author_. "I have to apologize for not recognizing the accents of mynative country. "

_Jew_. "Bring goods wid you, sir?"

_Author_. "No, I am not a merchant. Pray can you get me a lodging?"

_Jew_. "Get you as mush room you like, sir. "

_Author_. "Have you been in England?"

_Jew_. "Been in London, Amsterdam, and Hamburgh. "

We now arrived at the wide folding gates of the khan, which to be surehad abundance of space for travellers, but the misery and filth ofevery apartment disgusted me. One had broken windows, another abroken floor, a third was covered with half an inch of dust, and theweather outside was cold and rainy; so I shrugged up my shoulders andasked to be conducted to another khan. There I was somewhat betteroff, for I got into a new room leading out of a cafe where thecharcoal burned freely and warmed the apartment. When the room waswashed out I thought myself fortunate, so dreary and deserted had theother khan appeared to me. 

I now took a walk through the bazaars, but found the place altogethermiserable, being somewhat less village-like than Roustchouk. Lying sonicely on the bank of the Danube, which here makes such beautifulcurves, and marked on the map with capital letters, it ought (such wasmy notion) to be a place having at least one well-built andwell-stocked bazaar, a handsome seraglio, and some good-lookingmosques. Nothing of the sort. The Konak or palace of the Pasha is anold barrack. The seraglio of the famous Passavan Oglou is in ruins, and the only decent looking house in the place is the new office ofthe Steam Navigation Company, which is on the Danube. 

Being Ramadan, I could not see the pasha during the day; but in theevening, M. Petronievitch, the exiled leader of the Servian Nationalparty, introduced me to Hussein Pasha, the once terrible destroyer ofthe Janissaries. This celebrated character appeared to be verging oneighty, and, afflicted with gout, was sitting in the corner of thedivan at his ease, in the old Turkish ample costume. The white beard, the dress of the pasha, the rich but faded carpet which covered thefloor, the roof of elaborate but dingy wooden arabesque, were all inperfect keeping, and the dubious light of two thick wax candles risingtwo or three feet from the floor, but seemed to bring out the picture, which carried me back, a generation at least, to the pashas of the oldschool. Hussein smoked a narghile of dark red Bohemian cut crystal. M. Petronievitch and myself were supplied with pipes which were moreprofusely mounted with diamonds, than any I had ever before smoked;for Hussein Pasha is beyond all comparison the wealthiest man in theOttoman empire. 

After talking over the last news from Constantinople, he asked me whatI thought of the projected steam balloon, which, from its being of amarvellous nature, appears to have caused a great deal of talk amongthe Turks. I expressed little faith in its success; on which heordered an attendant to bring him a drawing of a locomotive balloonsteered by flags and all sorts of fancies. "Will not thisrevolutionize the globe?" said the pasha; to which I replied, "C'estle premier pas qui coute; there is no doubt of an aėrial voyage toIndia if they get over the first quarter of a mile. "[1]

I returned to sup with M. Petronievitch at his house, and we had agreat deal of conversation relative to the history, laws, manners, customs, and politics of Servia; but as I subsequently obtainedaccurate notions of that country by personal observation, it is notnecessary on the present occasion to return to our conversation. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Hussein Pasha has since retired from Widdin, where hemade the greater part of his fortune, for he was engaged in immenseagricultural and commercial speculations; he was succeeded by MustaphaNourri Pasha, formerly private secretary to Sultan Mahommud, who hasalso made a large fortune, as merchant and ship-owner. ]

CHAPTER IV. 

Leave Widdin. --The Timok. --Enter Servia. --Brza Palanka. --The IronGates. --Old and New Orsova. --Wallachian Matron. --Semlin. --AConversation on Language. 

I left Widdin for the Servian frontier, in a car of the country, witha couple of horses, the ground being gently undulated, but themountains to the south were at a considerable distance. On our right, agreeable glimpses of the Danube presented themselves from time totime. In six hours we arrived at the Timok, the river that separatesServia from Bulgaria. The only habitation in the place was a log-housefor the Turkish custom-house officer. We were more than an hour ingetting our equipage across the ferry, for the long drought had soreduced the water, that the boat was unable to meet the usuallanding-place by at least four feet of steep embankment; in vain didthe horses attempt to mount the acclivity; every spring was followedby a relapse, and at last one horse sunk jammed in between the ferryboat and the bank; so that we were obliged to loose the harness, sendthe horses on shore, and drag the dirty car as we best could up thehalf dried muddy slope. At last we succeeded, and a smart trot alongthe Danube brought us to the Servian lazaretto, which was a newsymmetrical building, the promenade of which, on the Danube, showed anattempt at a sort of pleasure-ground. 

I entered at sunset, and next morning on showing my tongue to thedoctor, and paying a fee of one piastre (twopence) was free, and againput myself in motion. Lofty mountains seemed to rise to the west, andthe cultivated plain now became broken into small ridges, partlycovered with forest trees. The ploughing oxen now became rarer; butherds of swine, grubbing at acorns and the roots of bushes, showedthat I was changing the scene, and making the acquaintance not onlyof a new country, but of a new people. The peasants, instead of havingwoolly caps and frieze clothes as in Bulgaria, all wore the red fez, and were dressed mostly in blue cloth; some of those in the villageswore black glazed caps; and in general the race appeared to bephysically stronger and nobler than that which I had left. TheBulgarians seemed to be a set of silent serfs, deserving (when notroused by some unusual circumstance) rather the name of machines thanof men: these Servian fellows seemed lazier, but all possessed amanliness of address and demeanour, which cannot be discovered in theBulgarian. 

Brza Palanka, at which we now arrived, is the only Danubian port whichthe Servians possess, below the Iron Gates; consequently, the only onewhich is in uninterrupted communication with Galatz and the sea. Asmall Sicilian vessel, laden with salt, passed into the Black Sea, andactually ascended the Danube to this point, which is within a fewhours of the Hungarian frontier. As we approached the Iron Gates, thevalley became a mere gorge, with barely room for the road, andfumbling through a cavernous fortification, we soon came in sight ofthe Austro-Hungarian frontier. 

_New_ Orsova, one of the few remaining retreats of the Turks inServia, is built on an island, and with its frail houses of yawningrafters looks very _old_. Old Orsova, opposite which we now arrived, looked quite _new_, and bore the true German type of formalwhite-washed houses, and high sharp ridged roofs, which called upforthwith the image of a dining-hall, where, punctually as thevillage-clock strikes the hour of twelve, a fair-haired, fat, red-faced landlord, serves up the soup, the _rindfleisch_, the_zuspeise_, and all the other dishes of the holy Roman empire to thePlatz Major, the Haupt-zoll-amt director, the Kanzlei director, theConcepist, the Protocollist, and _hoc genus omne_. 

After a night passed in the quarantine, I removed to the inn, andpunctually as the clock struck half past twelve, the very party myimagination conjured up, assembled to discuss the _mehlspeise_ in thestencilled parlour of the Hirsch. 

Favoured by the most beautiful weather, I started in a sort of calechefor Dreucova. The excellent new macadamized road was as smooth as abowling-green, and only a lively companion was wanting to complete theexhilaration of my spirits. 

My fair fellow-traveller was an enormously stout Wallachian matron, onher way to Vienna, to see her _daughter_, who was then receiving hereducation at a boarding-school. I spoke no Wallachian, she spokenothing but Wallachian; so our conversation was carried on by myattempting to make myself understood alternately by the Italian, andthe Spanish forms of Latin. 

"_Una bella Campagna_, " said I, as we drove out Orsova. 

"_Bella, bella_?" said the lady, evidently puzzled. 

So I said, "_Hermosa_. "

"_Ah! formosa; formosa prate_, " repeated the lady, evidentlyunderstanding that I meant a fine country. 

"_Deunde venut_?" Whence have you come?

"Constantinopolis;" and so on we went, supposing that we understoodeach other, she supplying me with new forms of bastard Latin words, and adding with a smile, _Romani_, or Wallachian, as the language andpeople of Wallachia are called by themselves. It is worthy of remark, that the Wallachians and a small people in Switzerland, are the onlydescendants of the Romans, that still designate their language as thatof the ancient mistress of the world. 

As I rolled along, the fascinations of nature got the better of mygallantry; the discourse flagged, and then dropped, for I found myselfin the midst of the noblest river scenery I had ever beheld, certainlyfar surpassing that of the Rhine, and Upper Danube. To the gloom andgrandeur of natural portals, formed of lofty precipitous rocks, succeeds the open smiling valley, the verdant meadows, and the distantwooded hills, with all the soft and varied hues of autumn. Here weappear to be driving up the avenues of an English park; yonder, wherethe mountain sinks sheer into the river, the road must find its wayalong an open gallery, with a roof weighing millions of tons, projecting from the mountain above. 

After sunset we arrived at Dreucova, and next morning went on boardthe steamer, which conveyed me up the Danube to Semlin. The lower townof Semlin is, from the exhalations on the banks of the river, frightfully insalubrious, but the cemetery enjoys a high and airysituation. The people in the town die off with great rapidity; but, tocompensate for this, the dead are said to be in a highly satisfactorystate of preservation. The inns here, once so bad, have greatlyimproved; but mine host, zum Golden Lowen, on my recent visits, alwaysmanaged to give a very good dinner, including two sorts of savourygame. I recollect on a former visit, going to another inn, and foundin the dining-room an individual, whose ruddy nose, and good-humourednerveless smile, denoted a fondness for the juice of the grape, andseitel after seitel disappeared with rapidity. By-the-bye, old fatherDanube is as well entitled to be represented with a perriwig of grapesas his brother the Rhine. Hungary in general, has a right merrybacchanalian climate. Schiller or Symian wine is in the same parallelof latitude as Claret, Oedenburger as Burgundy, and a line runwestwards from Tokay would almost touch the vineyards of Champagne. Csaplovich remarks in his quaint way, that the four principal wines ofHungary are cultivated by the four principal nations in it. That is tosay, the Slavonians cultivate the Schiller, Germans the Oedenburgerand Ruster, Magyars and Wallachians the Menesher. Good Schiller is thebest Syrmian wine. But I must return from this digression to the guestof the Adler. On hearing that I was an Englishman, he expressed a wishto hear as much of England as possible, and appeared thunderstruck, when I told him that London had nearly two millions of inhabitants, being four hundred thousand more than the population of the whole ofthe Banat. This individual had of course learned five languages withhis mother's milk, and therefore thought that the inhabitants of sucha country as England must know ten at least. When I told him that themajority of the people in England knew nothing but English, he said, somewhat contemptuously, "O! you told me the fair side of the Englishcharacter: but you did not tell me that the people was so ignorant. "He then good-humouredly warned me against practising on his credulity. I pointed out how unnecessary other languages were for England itself;but that all languages could be learned in London. 

"Can Wallachian be learned in London?"

"I have my doubts about Wallachian, but"--

"Can Magyar be learned in London?"

"I suspect not. "

"Can Servian be learnt in London?"

"I confess, I don't think that any body in London teaches Servian;but"--

"There again, you travellers are always making statements unfounded onfact. I have mentioned three leading languages, and nobody in yourcity knows anything about them. "

CHAPTER V. 

Description of Belgrade. --Fortifications. --Streets and StreetPopulation. --Cathedral. --Large Square. --Coffe-house. --DesertedVilla. --Baths. 

Through the courtesy and attention of Mr. Consul-general Fonblanqueand the numerous friends of M. Petronievitch, I was, in the course ofa few days, as familiar with all the principal objects and individualsin Belgrade, as if I had resided months in the city. 

The fare of a boat from Semlin to Belgrade by Austrian rowers is fivezwanzigers, or about _3s. 6d. _ English; and the time occupied is halfan hour, that is to say, twenty minutes for the descent of the Danube, and about ten minutes for the ascent of the Save. On arrival at thelow point of land at the confluence, we perceived the distinct line ofthe two rivers, the Danube faithfully retaining its brown, muddycharacter, while the Save is much clearer. We now had a much closerview of the fortress opposite. Large embrasures, slightly elevatedabove the water's edge, were intended for guns of great calibre; butabove, a gallimaufry of grass-grown and moss-covered fortificationswere crowned by ricketty, red-tiled houses, and looking very unlikethe magnificent towers in the last scene of the Siege of Belgrade, atDrury Lane. Just within the banks of the Save were some of the largeboats which trade on the river; the new ones as curiously carved, painted, and even gilded, as some of those one sees at Dort andRotterdam. They have no deck--for a ridge of rafters covers the goods, and the boatmen move about on ledges at the gunwale. 

The fortress of Belgrade, jutting out exactly at the point ofconfluence of the rivers, has the town behind it. The Servian, orprincipal quarter, slopes down to the Save; the Turkish quarter tothe Danube. I might compare Belgrade to a sea-turtle, the head ofwhich is represented by the fortress, the back of the neck by theesplanade or Kalai Meidan, the right flank by the Turkish quarter, theleft by the Servian, and the ridge of the back by the street runningfrom the esplanade to the gate of Constantinople. 

We landed at the left side of our imaginary turtle, or at the quay ofthe Servian quarter, which runs along the Save. The sloping bank waspaved with stones; and above was a large edifice with an arcade, oneend of which served as the custom-house, the other as the Austrianconsulate. 

The population was diversified. Shabby old Turks were selling fruit;and boatmen, both Moslem and Christian--the former with turbans, thelatter with short fez's--were waiting for a fare. To the left was aTurkish guard-house, at a gate leading to the esplanade, with as smarta row of burnished muskets as one could expect. All within this gateis under the jurisdiction of the Turkish Pasha of the fortress; allwithout the gate in question, is under the government of the ServianPrefect of Belgrade. 

We now turned into a curious old street, built quite in the Turkishfashion, and composed of rafters knocked carelessly together, andlooking as if the first strong gust of wind would send them smack overthe water into Hungary without the formality of a quarantine; but manyof the shops were smartly garnished with clothes, haberdashery, andtrinkets, mostly from Bohemia and Moravia; and in some I saw largeblocks of rock-salt. 

Notwithstanding the rigmarole construction of the quarter on thewater's edge, (save and except at the custom-house, ) it is the mostbusy quarter in the town: here are the places of business of theprincipal merchants in the place. This class is generally of theTsinsar nation, as the descendants of the Roman colonists in Macedoniaare called; their language is a corrupt Latin, and resembles theWallachian dialect very closely. 

We now ascended by a steep street to the upper town. The mostprominent object in the first open space we came to is the cathedral, a new and large but tasteless structure, with a profusely giltbell-tower, in the Russian manner; and the walls of the interior arecovered with large paintings of no merit. But one must not be toocritical: a kindling of intellectual energy ever seems, in mostcountries, to precede excellence in the imitative arts, which latter, too often survives the ruins of those ruder and nobler qualities whichassure the vigorous existence of states or provinces. 

In the centre of the town is an open square, which forms a sort ofline of demarcation between the crescent and the cross. On the oneside, several large and good houses have been constructed by thewealthiest senators, in the German manner, with flaring new whitewalls and bright green shutter-blinds. On the other side is a mosque, and dead old garden walls, with walnut trees and Levantine roofspeeping up behind them. Look on this picture, and you have the type ofall domestic architecture lying between you and the snow-fenced hutsof Lapland; cast your eyes over the way, and imagination wingslightly to the sweet south with its myrtles, citrons, marbled steepsand fragrance-bearing gales. 

Beside the mosque is the new Turkish coffee-house, which is kept by anArab by nation and a Moslem by religion, but born at Lucknow. One day, in asking for the mullah of the mosque, who had gone to Bosnia, Ientered into conversation with him; but on learning that I was anEnglishman he fought shy, being, like most Indian Moslems whentravelling in Turkey, ashamed of their sovereign being a protectedally of a Frank government. 

I now entered the region of gardens and villas, which, previous to therevolution of Kara Georg, was occupied principally by Turks. Passingdown a shady lane my attention was arrested by a rotten moss-growngarden door, at the sight of which memory leaped backwards for four orfive years. Here I had spent a happy forenoon with Colonel H----, andthe physician of the former Pasha, an old Hanoverian, who, as surgeonto a British regiment had gone through all the fatigues of thePeninsular war. I pushed open the door, and there, completely secludedfrom the bustle of the town, and the view of the stranger, grew thevegetation as luxuriant as ever, relieving with its dark green framethe clear white of the numerous domes and minarets of the Turkishquarter, and the broad-bosomed Danube which filled up the centre ofthe picture; but the house and stable, which had resounded with thegood-humoured laugh of the master, and the neighing of the well-fedlittle stud (for horse-flesh was the weak side of our Esculapius), were tenantless, ruinous, and silent. The doctor had died in theinterval at Widdin, in the service of Hussein Pasha. I mechanicallywithdrew, abstracted from external nature by the "memory of joys thatwere past, pleasant and mournful to the soul. "

I then took a Turkish bath; but the inferiority of those in Belgradeto similar luxuries in Constantinople, Damascus, and Cairo, wasstrikingly apparent on entering. The edifice and the furniture were ofthe commonest description. The floors of the interior of brickinstead of marble, and the plaster and the cement of the walls in amost defective state. The atmosphere in the drying room was so coldfrom the want of proper windows and doors, that I was afraid lest Ishould catch a catarrh. The Oriental bath, when paved with finegrained marbles, and well appointed in the departments of linen, sherbet, and _narghile_, is a great luxury; but the bath at Belgradewas altogether detestable. In the midst of the drying business aviolent dispute broke out between the proprietor and an Arnaout, whomthe former styled a _cokoshary_, or hen-eater, another term for arobber; for when lawless Arnaouts arrive in a village, after eating uphalf the contents of the poultry-yard, they demand a tribute in theshape of _compensation for the wear and tear of their teeth_ whileconsuming the provisions they have forcibly exacted. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Europeanization of Belgrade. --Lighting and Paving. --Interior of theFortress--Turkish Pasha. --Turkish Quarter. --TurkishPopulation. --Panorama of Belgrade--Dinner party given by the Prince. 

The melancholy I experienced in surveying the numerous traces ofdesolation in Turkey was soon effaced at Belgrade. Here all was lifeand activity. It was at the period of my first visit, in 1839, quitean oriental town; but now the haughty parvenu spire of the cathedralthrows into the shade the minarets of the mosques, graceful even indecay. Many of the bazaar-shops have been fronted and glazed. Theoriental dress has become much rarer; and houses several storieshigh, in the German fashion, are springing up everywhere. But in twoimportant particulars Belgrade is as oriental as if it were situatedon the Tigris or Barrada--lighting and paving. It is impossible in wetweather to pay a couple of visits without coming home up to the anklesin mud; and at night all locomotion without a lantern is impossible. Belgrade, from its elevation, could be most easily lighted with gas, and at a very small expense; as even if there be no coal in Servia, there is abundance of it at Moldava, which is on the Danube betweenBelgrade and Orsova; that is to say, considerably above the IronGates. I make this remark, not so much to reproach my Servian friendswith backwardness, but to stimulate them to all easily practicableimprovements. 

One day I accompanied M. De Fonblanque on a visit to the Pasha in thecitadel, which we reached by crossing the glacis or neck of land thatconnects the castle with the town. This place forms the pleasantestevening lounge in the vicinity of Belgrade; for on the one side is anextensive view of the Turkish town, and the Danube wending its waydown to Semendria; on the other is the Save, its steep bank piled withstreet upon street, and the hills beyond them sloping away to theBosniac frontier. 

The ramparts are in good condition; and the first object that strikesa stranger on entering, are six iron spikes, on which, in the time ofthe first revolution, the heads of Servians used to be stuck. Miloshonce saved his own head from this elevation by his characteristicastuteness. During his alliance with the Turks in 1814, (or 1815, ) hehad large pecuniary transactions with the Pasha, for he was the mediumthrough whom the people paid their tribute. Five heads grinned fromfive spikes as he entered the castle, and he comprehended that thesixth was reserved for him; the last head set up being that ofGlavash, a leader, who, like himself, was then supporting thegovernment: so he immediately took care to make the Pasha understandthat he was about to set out on a tour in the country, to raise somemoney for the vizierial strong-box. "Peh eiu, " said Soliman Pasha, thinking to catch him next time, and get the money at the same time;so Milosh was allowed to depart; but knowing that if he returned spikethe sixth would not wait long for its head, he at once raised thedistrict of Rudnick, and ended the terrible war which had been begununder much less favourable auspices, by the more valiant but lessastute Kara Georg. 

We passed a second draw-bridge, and found ourselves in the interior ofthe fortress. A large square was formed by ruinous buildings. Extensive barracks were windowless and tenantless, but the mosque andthe Pasha's Konak were in good order. We were ushered into anaudience-room of great extent, with a low carved roof and someold-fashioned furniture, the divan being in the corner, and thewindows looking over the precipice to the Danube below. Hafiz Pasha, the same who commanded at the battle of Nezib, was about fifty-five, and a gentleman in air and manner, with a grey beard. In course ofconversation he told me that he was a Circassian. He asked me about mytravels: and with reference to Syria said, "Land operations throughKurdistan against Mehemet Ali were absurd. I suggested an attack bysea, while a land force should make a diversion by Antioch, but I wasopposed. " After the usual pipes and coffee we took our leave. 

Hafiz Pasha's political relations are necessarily of a very restrictedcharacter, as he rules only the few Turks remaining in Servia; that isto say, a few thousands in Belgrade and Ushitza, a few hundreds inShabatz Sokol and the island of Orsova. He represents the suzerainetyof the Porte over the Christian population, without having any thingto do with the details of administration. His income, like that ofother mushirs or pashas of three tails, is 8000l. Per annum. HafizPasha, if not a successful general, was at all events a brave andhonourable man, and his character for justice made him highlyrespected. One of his predecessors, who was at Belgrade on my firstvisit there in 1839, was a man of another stamp, --the notoriousYoussouf Pasha, who sold Varna during the Russian war. There-employment of such an individual is a characteristic illustrationof Eastern manners. 

As my first stay at Belgrade extended to between two and three months, I saw a good deal of Hafiz Pasha, who has a great taste for geography, and seemed to be always studying at the maps. He seemed to think thatnothing would be so useful to Turkey as good roads, made to run fromthe principal ports of Asia Minor up to the depots of the interior, soas to connect Sivas, Tokat, Angora, Konieh, Kaiserieh, &c. WithSamsoun, Tersoos, and other ports. He wittily reversed the proverb"_El rafyk som el taryk_" (companionship makes secure roads) bysaying, "_el taryk som el rafyk_" (good roads increase passengertraffic). 

At the Bairam reception, the Pasha wore his great nishau of diamonds. Prince Alexander wore a blue uniform with gold epaulettes, and anaigrette of brilliants in his fez. His predecessor, Michael, on suchoccasions, wore a cocked hat, which used to give offence, as the fezis considered by the Turks indispensable to a recognition of thesuzerainety of the Porte. 

Being Bairam, I was induced to saunter into the Turkish quarter of thetown, where all wore the handsome holyday dresses of the old fashion, being mostly of crimson cloth, edged with gold lace. My cicerone, aServian, pointed out those shops belonging to the sultan, still markedwith the letter f, intended, I suppose, for _mulk_ or imperialproperty. We then turned to the left, and came into a singular lookingstreet, composed of the ruins of ornamented houses in the imposing, but too elaborate style of architecture, which was in vogue in Vienna, during the life of Charles the Sixth, and which was a corruption ofthe style de Louis Quatorze. These buildings were half-way up concealedfrom view by common old bazaar shops. This was the "Lange Gasse, " ormain street of the German town during the Austrian occupation oftwenty-two years, from 1717 to 1739. Most of these houses were builtwith great solidity, and many still have the stucco ornaments thatdistinguish this style. The walls of the palace of Prince Eugene arestill standing complete, but the court-yard is filled up withrubbish, at least six feet high, and what were formerly the rooms ofthe ground-floor have become almost cellars. The edifice is called tothis day, "_Princeps Konak_. " This mixture of the coarse, butpicturesque features of oriental life, with the dilapidatedstateliness of palaces in the style of the full-bottom-wiggedVanbrughs of Austria, has the oddest effect imaginable. 

The Turks remaining in Belgrade have mostly sunk into poverty, andoccupy themselves principally with water-carrying, wood-splitting, &c. The better class latterly kept up their position, by making good salesof houses and shops; for building ground is now in some situationsvery expensive. Mr. Fonblanque pays 100£. Sterling per annum for hisrooms, which is a great deal, compared with the rates of house-rent inHungary just over the water. 

One day, I ascended the spire of the cathedral, in order to have aview of the city and environs. Belgrade, containing only 35, 000inhabitants, cannot boast of looking very like a metropolis; but theenvirons contain the materials of a good panorama. Looking westward, we see the winding its way from the woods of Topshider; the Servianshore is abrupt, the Austrian flat, and subject to inundation; theprospect on the north-west being closed in by the dim dark line of theFrusca Gora, or "Wooded Mountain, " which forms the backbone ofSlavonia, and is the high wooded region between the Save and theDrave. Northwards, are the spires of Semlin, rising up from theDanube, which here resumes its easterly course; while south and eaststretch the Turkish quarter, which I have been describing. 

There are no formal levees or receptions at the palace of PrinceAlexander, except on his own fete day. Once or twice a year heentertains at dinner the Pasha, the ministers, and the foreignconsuls-general. In the winter, the prince gives one or two balls. 

One of the former species of entertainments took place during my stay, and I received the prince's invitation. At the appointed day, I foundthe avenue to the residence thronged with people Who were listening tothe band that played in the court-yard; and on arriving fit the topof the stairs, was led by an officer in a blue uniform, who seemed todirect the ceremonies of the day, into the saloon, in which I had, onmy arrival in Belgrade, paid my respects to the prince, which might bepronounced the fac simile of the drawing-room of a Hungarian nobleman;the parquet was inlaid and polished, the chairs and sofas covered withcrimson and white satin damask, which is an unusual luxury in theseregions, the roof admirably painted in subdued colours, in the bestVienna style. High white porcelain urn-like stoves heated the suite ofrooms. 

The company had that picturesque variety of character and costumewhich every traveller delights in. The prince, a muscular middle sizeddark complexioned man, of about thirty-five, with a serious composedair, wore a plain blue military uniform. The princess and her _damesde compagnie_ wore the graceful native Servian costume. The Pasha worethe Nizam dress, and the Nishan Iftihar; Baron Lieven, the RussianCommissioner, in the uniform of a general, glittered with innumerableorders; Colonel Philippovich, a man of distinguished talents, represented Austria. The archbishop, in his black velvet cap, a largeenamelled cross hanging by a massive gold chain from his neck, sat instately isolation; and the six feet four inches high Garashanin, minister of the interior, conversed with Stojan Simitch, the presidentof the senate, one of the few Servians in high office, who retains hisold Turkish costume, and has a frame that reminds one of the FarneseHercules. Then what a medley of languages; Servian, German, Russian, Turkish, and French, all in full buzz!

We proceeded to the dining-room, where the _cuisine_ was in everyrespect in the German manner. When the dessert appeared, the princerose with a creaming glass of champagne in his hand, and proposed thehealth of the sultan, acknowledged by the pasha; and then, after ashort pause, the health of Czar Nicolay Paulovitch, acknowledged byBaron Lieven; then came the health of other crowned heads. BaronLieven now rose and proposed the health of the Prince. The Pasha andthe Princess were toasted in turn; and then M. Wastchenko, the Russianconsul general rose, and in animated terms, drank to the prosperity ofServia. The entertainment, which commenced at one o'clock, wasprolonged to an advanced period of the afternoon, and closed withcoffee, liqueurs, and chibouques in the drawing-room; the princess andthe ladies having previously withdrawn to the private apartments. 

My time during the rest of the year was taken up with political, statistical, and historical inquiries, the results of which will befound condensed at the termination of the narrative part of this work. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Return to Servia. --The Danube. --Semlin. --Wucics andPetronievitch. --Cathedral Solemnity. --Subscription Ball. 

After an absence of six months in England, I returned to the Danube. Vienna and Pesth offered no attractions in the month of August, and Ifelt impatient to put in execution my long cherished project oftravelling through the most romantic woodlands of Servia. Suppose methen at the first streak of dawn, in the beginning of August, 1844, hurrying after the large wheelbarrow which carries the luggage of thetemporary guests of the Queen of England at Pesth to the steamer lyingjust below the long bridge of boats that connects the quiet sombrebureaucratic Ofen with the noisy, bustling, movement-loving new city, which has sprung up as it were by enchantment on the opposite side ofthe water. I step on board--the signal is given for starting--thelofty and crimson-peaked Bloxberg--the vine-clad hill that producesthe fiery Ofener wine, and the long and graceful quay, form, as itwere, a fine peristrephic panorama, as the vessel wheels round, and, prow downwards, commences her voyage for the vast and curious East, while the Danubian tourist bids a dizzy farewell to this last snuglittle centre of European civilization. We hurry downwards towards thefrontiers of Turkey, but nature smiles not, --We have on our left thedreary steppe of central Hungary, and on our right the low distanthills of Baranya. Alas! this is not the Danube of Passau, and Lintz, and Molk, and Theben. But now the Drave pours her broad waters intothe great artery. The right shore soon becomes somewhat bolder, andagreeably wooded hills enliven the prospect. This little mountainchain is the celebrated Frusca Gora, the stronghold of the Servianlanguage, literature, and nationality on the Austrian aide of theSave. 

A few days after my arrival, Wucics and Petronievitch, the two pillarsof the party of Kara Georgevitch, the reigning prince, and theopponents of the ousted Obrenovitch family, returned from banishmentin consequence of communications that had passed between the Britishand Russian governments. Great preparations were made to receive thepopular favourites. 

One morning I was attracted to the window, and saw an immense flock ofsheep slowly paraded along, their heads being decorated with ribbons, followed by oxen, with large citrons stuck on the tips of their horns. 

One vender of shawls and carpets had covered all the front of his shopwith his gaudy wares, in order to do honour to the patriots, and atthe same time to attract the attention of purchasers. 

The tolling of the cathedral bell announced the approach of theprocession, which was preceded by a long train of rustic cavaliers, noble, vigorous-looking men. Standing at the balcony, we missed thesight of the heroes of the day, who had gone round by other streets. We, therefore, went to the cathedral, where all the principal personsin Servia were assembled. One old man, with grey, filmy, lack-lustreeyes, pendant jaws, and white beard, was pointed out to me as acentenarian witness of this national manifestation. 

The grand screen, which in the Greek churches veils the sanctuary fromthe vulgar gaze, was hung with rich silks, and on a raised platform, covered with carpets, stood the archbishop, a dignifiedhigh-priest-looking figure, with crosier in hand, surrounded by hisdeacons in superbly embroidered robes. The huzzas of the populace grewlouder as the procession approached the cathedral, a loud andprolonged buzz of excited attention accompanied the opening of thegrand central portal, and Wucics and Petronievitch, grey with the dustwith which the immense cavalcade had besprinkled them, came forward, kissed the cross and gospels, which the archbishop presented to them, and, kneeling down, returned thanks for their safe restoration. Onregaining their legs, the archbishop advanced to the edge of theplatform, and began a discourse describing the grief the nation hadexperienced at their departure, the universal joy for their return, and the hope that they would ever keep peace and union in view in allmatters of state, and that in their duties to the state they mustnever forget their responsibility to the Most High. 

Wucics, dressed in the coarse frieze jacket and boots of a Servianpeasant, heard with a reverential inclination of the head theelegantly polished discourse of the gold-bedizened prelate, but noughtrelaxed one single muscle of that adamantine visage; the finer butmore luminous features of Petronievitch were evidently under thecontrol of a less powerful will. At certain passages of the discourse, his intelligent eye was moistened with tears. Two deacons then prayedsuccessively for the Sultan, the Emperor of Russia, and the prince. 

And now uprose from every tongue, and every heart, a hymn for thelongevity of Wucics and Petronievitch. "The solemn song for many days"is the expressive title of this sublime chant. This hymn is so oldthat its origin is lost in the obscure dawn of Christianity in theEast, and so massive, so nobly simple, as to be beyond the ravages oftime, and the caprices of convention. 

The procession then returned, the band playing the Wucics march, tothe houses of the two heroes of the day. 

We dined; and just as dessert appeared the whiz of a rocket announcedthe commencement of fire-works. As most of us had seen the splendidbouquet of rockets, which, during the fetes of July, amuse theParisians, we entertained slender expectations of being pleased withan illumination at Belgrade. On going out, however, the scene provedhighly interesting. In the grand square were two columns _a laVicentina_, covered with lamps. One side of the square was illuminatedwith the word Wucics, and the other with the word Avram in colossalletters. At a later period of the evening the downs were covered withfires roasting innumerable sheep and oxen, a custom which seems in allcountries to accompany popular rejoicing. 

I had never seen a Servian full-dress ball, but the arrival of Wucicsand Petronievitch procured me the opportunity of witnessing anentertainment of this description. The principal apartment in the newKonak, built by prince Michael, was the ball-room, which, by eighto'clock, was filled, as the phrase goes, by all "the rank and fashion"of Belgrade. Senators of the old school, in their benishes andshalwars, and senators of the new school in pantaloons and stiffcravats. As Servia has become, morally speaking, Europe's youngestdaughter, this is all very well: but I must ever think that in thearticle of dress this innovation is not an improvement. I hope thatthe ladies of Servia will never reject their graceful nationalcostume for the shifting modes and compressed waists of Europeancapitals. 

No head-dress, that I have seen in the Levant, is better calculated toset off beauty than that of the ladies of Servia. From a small Greekfez they suspend a gold tassel, which contrasts with the black andglossy hair, which is laid smooth and flat down the temple. Even now, while I write, memory piques me with the graceful toss of the head, and the rustle of the yellow satin gown of the sister of the princess, who was admitted to be the handsomest woman in the room, and with hertunic of crimson velvet embroidered in gold, and faced with sable, would have been, in her strictly indigenous costume, the queen of anyfancy ball in old Europe. 

Wucics and Petronievitch were of course received with shouts andclapping of hands, and took the seats prepared for them at the upperend of the hall. The Servian national dance was then performed, beinga species of cotillion in alternate quick and slow movements. 

I need not repeat the other events of the evening; how forms andfeatures were passed in review; how the jewelled, smooth-skinned, doll-like beauties usurped the admiration of the minute, and how theindefinably sympathetic air of less pretentious belles prolonged theirmagnetic sway to the close of the night. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Holman, the Blind Traveller. --Milutinovich, the Poet. --BulgarianLegend. --Tableau de genre. --Departure for the Interior. 

Belgrade, unlike other towns on the Danube, is much less visited byEuropeans, since the introduction of steam navigation, than it waspreviously. Servia used to be the _porte cochere_ of the East; andmost travellers, both before and since the lively Lady Mary WortleyMontague, took the high road to Constantinople by Belgrade, Sofia, Philippopoli, and Adrianople. No mere tourist would now-a-days thinkof undertaking the fatiguing ride across European Turkey, when he canwhizz past Widdin and Roustchouk, and even cut off the grand tongue atthe mouth of the Danube, by going in an omnibus from Czernovoda toKustendgi; consequently the arrival of an English traveller from theinterior, is a somewhat rare occurrence. 

One day I was going out at the gateway, and saw a strange figure, witha long white beard and a Spanish cap, mounted on a sorry horse, and atonce recognized it to be that of Holman, the blind traveller. 

"How do you do, Mr. Holman?" said I. 

"I know that voice well. "

"I last saw you in Aleppo, " said I; and he at once named me. 

I then got him off his horse, and into quarters. 

This singular individual had just come through the most dangerousparts of Bosnia in perfect safety; a feat which a blind man canperform more easily than one who enjoys the most perfect vision; forall compassionate and assist a fellow-creature in this deplorableplight. 

Next day I took Mr. Holman through the town, and described to him thelions of Belgrade; and taking a walk on the esplanade, I turned hisface to the cardinal points of the compass, successively explainingthe objects lying in each direction, and, after answering a few of hiscross questions, the blind traveller seemed to know as much ofBelgrade as was possible for a person in his condition. 

He related to me, that since our meeting at Aleppo, he had visitedDamascus and other eastern cities; and at length, after sundryadventures, had arrived on the Adriatic, and visited the Vladika ofMontenegro, who had given him a good reception. He then proceededthrough Herzegovina and Bosnia to Seraievo, where he passed threedays, and he informed me that from Seraievo to the frontiers of Serviawas nearly all forest, with here and there the skeletons of robbershung up in chains. 

Mr. Holman subsequently went, as I understood, to Wallachia andTransylvania. 

Having delayed my departure for the interior, in order to witness thenational festivities, nothing remained but the purgatory ofpreparation, the squabbling about the hire of horses, the purchase ofodds and ends for convenience on the road, for no such thing as acanteen is to be had at Belgrade. Some persons recommended my hiring aTurkish Araba; but as this is practicable only on the regularlyconstructed roads, I should have lost the sight of the mostpicturesque regions, or been compelled to take my chance of gettinghorses, and leaving my baggage behind. To avoid this inconvenience, Iresolved to perform the whole journey on horseback. 

The government showed me every attention, and orders were sent by theminister of the interior to all governors, vice-governors, andemployes, enjoining them to furnish me with every assistance, andcommunicate whatever information I might desire; to which, as thereader will see in the sequel, the fullest effect was given by thoseindividuals. 

On the day of departure, a tap was heard at the door, and enter Holmanto bid me good-bye. Another tap at the door, and enter Milutinovich, who is the best of the living poets of Servia, and has been sometimescalled the Ossian of the Balkan. As for his other pseudonyme, "theHomer of a hundred sieges, " that must have been invented by Mr. GeorgeRobins, the Demosthenes of "_one_ hundred rostra. " The reading publicin Servia is not yet large enough to enable a man of letters to livesolely by his works; so our bard has a situation in the ministry ofpublic instruction. One of the most remarkable compositions ofMilutinovich is an address to a young surgeon, who, to relieve thepoet from difficulties, expended in the printing of his poems a sumwhich he had destined for his own support at a university, in order toobtain his degree. 

Now, it may not be generally known that one of the oldest legends ofBulgaria is that of "Poor Lasar, " which runs somewhat thus:--

"The day departed, and the stranger came, as the moon rose on thesilver snow. 'Welcome, ' said the poor Lasar to the stranger;'Luibitza, light the faggot, and prepare the supper. '

"Luibitza answered: 'The forest is wide, and the lighted faggot burnsbright, but where is the supper? Have we not fasted since yesterday?'

"Shame and confusion smote the heart of poor Lasar. 

"'Art thou a Bulgarian, ' said the stranger, 'and settest not foodbefore thy guest?'

"Poor Lasar looked in the cupboard, and looked in the garret, norcrumb, nor onion, were found in either. Shame and confusion smote theheart of poor Lasar. 

"'Here is fat and fair flesh, ' said the stranger, pointing to Janko, the curly-haired boy. Luibitza shrieked and fell. 'Never, ' said Lasar, 'shall it be said that a Bulgarian was wanting to his guest, ' Heseized a hatchet, and Janko was slaughtered as a lamb. Ah, who candescribe the supper of the stranger!

"Lasar fell into a deep sleep, and at midnight he heard the strangercry aloud, 'Arise, Lasar, for I am the Lord thy God; the hospitalityof Bulgaria is untarnished. Thy son Janko is restored to life, and thystores are filled. '

"Long lived the rich Lasar, the fair Luibitza, and the curly-hairedJanko. "

Milutinovich, in his address to the youthful surgeon, compares histranscendent generosity to the sacrifice made by Lasar in the wild anddistasteful legend I have here given. 

I introduced the poet and the traveller to each other, and explainedtheir respective merits and peculiarities. Poor old Milutinovich, wholooked on his own journey to Montenegro as a memorable feat, wasawe-struck when I mentioned the innumerable countries in the fourquarters of the world which had been visited by the blind traveller. He immediately recollected of having read an account of him in theAugsburg Gazette, and with a reverential simplicity begged me toconvey to him his desire to kiss, his beard. Holman consented with asmile, and Milutinovich, advancing as if he were about to worship adeity, lifted the peak of white hairs from the beard of the agedstranger, pressed them to his lips, and prayed aloud that he mightreturn to his home in safety. 

In old Europe, Milutinovich would have been called an actor; but hisdeportment, if it had the originality, had also the childishsimplicity of nature. 

When the hour of departure arrived, I descended to the court yard, which would have furnished good materials for a _tableau de genre_, alofty, well built, German-looking house, rising on three sides, surrounded a most rudely paved court, which was inclosed on the fourthby a stable and hay-loft, not one-third the height of the rest. Various mustachioed _far niente_ looking figures, wrapped _cap-a-pie_in dressing gowns, lolled out of the first floor corridor, and smokedtheir chibouques with unusual activity, while the ground floor wasoccupied by German washer-women and their soap-suds; three of thearcades being festooned with shirts and drawers hung up to dry, andstockings, with apertures at the toes and heels for the freecirculation of the air. Loud exclamations, and the sound of the clickof balls, proceeded from the large archway, on which a cafe opened. Inthe midst of the yard stood our horses, which, with their heavilypadded and high cantelled Turkish saddles, somewhat _a laWouvermans_, were held by Fonblanque's robust Pandour in his crimsonjacket and white fustanella. My man Paul gave a smack of the whip, andoff we cantered for the highlands and woodlands of Servia. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Journey to Shabatz. --Resemblance of Manners to those of the MiddleAges. --Palesh. --A Servian Bride. --BlindMinstrel. --Gypsies. --Macadamized Road. 

The immediate object of my first journey was Shabatz; the second townin Servia, which is situated further up the Save than Belgrade, and isthus close upon the frontier of Bosnia. We consequently had the riveron our right hand all the way. After five hours' travelling, themountains, which hung back as long as we were in the vicinity ofBelgrade, now approached, and draped in forest green, looked down onthe winding Save and the pinguid flats of the Slavonian frontier. Justbefore the sun set, we wound by a circuitous road to an eminencewhich, projected promontory-like into the river's course. Three rudecrosses were planted on a steep, not unworthy the columnar harmony ofGrecian marble. 

When it was quite dark, we arrived at the Colubara, and passed theferry which, during the long Servian revolution, was always considereda post of importance, as commanding a communication between Shabatzand the capital. An old man accompanied us, who was returning to hisnative place on the frontiers of Bosnia, having gone to welcome Wucicsand Petronievitch. He amused me by asking me "if the king of mycountry lived in a strong castle?" I answered, "No, we have a queen, whose strength is in the love of all her subjects. " Indeed, it isimpossible to travel in the interior of Turkey without having the mindperpetually carried back to the middle ages by a thousand quaintremarks and circumstances, inseparable from the moral and politicalconstitution of a half civilized and quasi-federal empire. For, innearly all the mountainous parts of Turkey, the power of thegovernment is almost nominal, and even up to a very recent period theposition of the Dere Beys savoured strongly of feudalism. 

We arrived at Palesh, the khan of which looked like a new coffee-shopin a Turkish bazaar, and I thought that we should have a sorry night'squarters; but mine host, leading the way with a candle up a ladder, and though a trap-door, put us into a clean newly-carpeted room, andin an hour the boy entered with Turkish wash-hand apparatus; and afterablution the khan keeper produced supper, consisting of soup, whichcontained so much lemon juice, that, without a wry face, I couldscarcely eat it--boiled lamb, from which the soup had been made, andthen a stew of the same with Tomata sauce. A bed was then spread outon the floor _a la turque_, which was rather hard; but as the sheetswere snowy white, I reckoned myself very lucky. 

I must say that there is a degree of cleanliness within doors, which Ihad been led to consider as somewhat foreign to the habits of Slaavicpopulations. The lady of the Austrian consul-general in Belgrade toldme that she was struck with the propriety of the dwellings of thepoor, as contrasted with those in Galicia, where she had resided formany years; and every traveller in Germany is struck with thedifference which exists between the villages of Bohemia and those inSaxony, and other adjacent German provinces. 

From Palesh we started with fine weather for Skela, through abeautifully wooded park, some fields being here and there inclosedwith wattling. Skela is a new ferry on the Save, to facilitate thecommunication with Austria. 

Near here are redoubts, where Kara Georg, the father of the reigningprince, held out during the disasters of 1813, until all the women andchildren were transferred in safety to the Austrian territory. Here wemet a very pretty girl, who, in answer to the salute of myfellow-travellers, bent herself almost to the earth. On asking thereason, I was told that she was a bride, whom custom compels, for astated period, to make this humble reverence. 

We then came to the Skela, and seeing a large house within anenclosure, I asked what it was, and was told that it was thereconciliation-house, (_primiritelnj sud_, ) a court of first instance, in which cases are decided by the village elders, without expense tothe litigants, and beyond which suits are seldom carried to the highercourts. There is throughout all the interior of Servia a stoutopposition to the nascent lawyer class in Belgrade. I have been morethan once amused on hearing an advocate, greedy of practice, stylethis laudable economy and patriarchal simplicity--"Avarice andaversion from civilization. " As it began to rain we entered a tavern, and ordered a fowl to be roasted, as the soup and stews of yester-evenwere not to my taste. A booby, with idiocy marked on his countenance, was lounging about the door, and when our mid-day meal was done Iordered the man to give him a glass of _slivovitsa_, as plum brandy iscalled. He then came forward, trembling, as if about to receivesentence of death, and taking off his greasy fez, said, "I drink toour prince Kara Georgovich, and to the progress and enlightenment ofthe nation. " I looked with astonishment at the torn, wretchedhabiliments of this idiot swineherd. He was too stupid to entertainthese sentiments himself; but this trifling circumstance was thefeather which indicated how the wind blew. The Servians are by nomeans a nation of talkers; they are a serious people; and if thedetermination to rise were not in the minds of the people, it wouldnot be on the lips of the baboon-visaged oaf of an insignificanthamlet. 

The rain now began to pour in torrents, so to make the most of it, weordered another magnum of strong red wine, and procured from theneighbourhood a blind fiddler, who had acquired a local reputation. His instrument, the favourite one of Servia, is styled a _goosely_, being a testudo-formed viol; no doubt a relic of the antique, for theServian monarchy derived all its arts from the Greeks of the LowerEmpire. But the musical entertainment, in spite of the magnum of wine, and the jovial challenges of our fellow traveller from the Drina, threw me into a species of melancholy. The voice of the minstrel, andthe tone of the instrument, were soft and melodious, but soprofoundly plaintive as to be painful. The song described thestruggle of Osman Bairactar with Michael, a Servian chief, and, as itwas explained to me, called up successive images of a war ofextermination, with its pyramids of ghastly trunkless heads, andfields of charcoal, to mark the site of some peaceful village, amidthe blaze of which its inhabitants had wandered to an eternal home inthe snows and trackless woods of the Balkan. When I looked out of thetavern window the dense vapours and torrents of rain did not elevatemy spirits; and when I cast my eyes on the minstrel I saw a peasant, whose robust frame might have supported a large family, reduced by theprivation of sight, to waste his best years in strumming on amonotonous viol for a few piastres. 

I flung him a gratuity, and begged him to desist. 

After musing an hour, I again ordered the horses, although it stillrained, and set forth, the road being close to the river, at one partof which a fleet of decked boats were moored. I perceived that theywere all navigated by Bosniac Moslems, one of whom, smoking his pipeunder cover, wore the green turban of a Shereef; they were all loadedwith raw produce, intended for sale at Belgrade or Semlin. 

The rain increasing, we took shelter in a wretched khan, with a mudfloor, and a fire of logs blazing in the centre, the smoke escaping asit best could by the front and back doors. Gipsies and Servianpeasants sat round it in a large circle; the former being at oncerecognizable, not only from their darker skins, but from their traitsbeing finer than those of the Servian peasantry. The gipsies foughtbravely against the Turks under Kara Georg, and are now for the mostpart settled, although politically separated from the rest of thecommunity, and living under their own responsible head; but, as inother countries, they prefer horse dealing and smith's work to othertrades. 

As there was no chance of the storm abating, I resolved to pass thenight here on discovering that there was a separate room, which ourhost said he occasionally unlocked, for the better order oftravellers: but as there was no bed, I had recourse to my carpet andpillow, for the expense of _Uebergewicht_ had deterred me frombringing a canteen and camp bed from England. 

Next morning, on waking, the sweet chirp of a bird, gently echoed inthe adjoining woods, announced that the storm had ceased, and natureresumed her wonted calm. On arising, I went to the door, and theunclouded effulgence of dawn bursting through the dripping boughs andrain-bespangled leaves, seemed to realize the golden tree of thegarden of the Abbassides. The road from this point to Shabatz was onecontinuous avenue of stately oaks--nature's noblest order of sylvanarchitecture; at some places, gently rising to views of the windingSave, with sun, sky, and freshening breeze to quicken the sensations, or falling into the dell, where the stream darkly pellucid, murmuredunder the sombre foliage. 

The road, as we approached Shabatz, proved to be macadamized in acertain fashion: a deep trench was dug on each side; stakes about afoot and a half high, interlaced with wicker-work, were stuck into theground within the trench, and the road was then filled up with gravel. 

CHAPTER X. 

Shabatz. --A Provincial Chancery. --Servian Collector. --Description ofhis House. --Country Barber. --Turkish Quarter. --Self-taught Priest. --AProvincial Dinner. --Native Soiree. 

I entered Shabatz by a wide street, paved in some places with wood. The bazaars are all open, and Shabatz looks like a good town inBulgaria. I saw very few shops with glazed fronts and counters in theEuropean manner. 

I alighted at the principal khan, which had attached to it just such acafe and billiard table as one sees in country towns in Hungary. Howodd! to see the Servians, who here all wear the old Turkish costume, except the turban--immersed in the tactics of _carambolage_, skippingmost gaily and un-orientally around the table, then balancingthemselves on one leg, enveloped in enormous inexpressibles, bendinglow, and cocking the eye to catch the choicest bits. 

Surrendering our horses to the care of the khan keeper, I proceeded tothe konak, or government house, to present my letters. This proved tobe a large building, in the style of Constantinople, which, with itsline of bow windows, and kiosk-fashioned rooms, surmounted withprojecting roofs, might have passed muster on the Bosphorus. 

On entering, I was ushered into the office of the collector, to awaithis arrival, and, at a first glance, might have supposed myself in aformal Austrian kanzley. 

There were the flat desks, the strong boxes, and the shelves of coarsefoolscap; but a pile of long chibouques, and a young man, with aslight Northumbrian burr, and Servian dress, showed that I was on theright bank of the Save. 

The collector now made his appearance, a roundly-built, serious, burgomaster-looking personage, who appeared as if one of VanderHelst's portraits had stepped out of the canvass, so closely does thepresent Servian dress resemble that of Holland, in the seventeenthcentury, in all but the hat. 

Having read the letter, he cleared his throat with a loud hem, andthen said with great deliberation, "Gospody Ilia Garashanin informs methat having seen many countries, you also wish to see Servia, and thatI am to show you whatever you desire to see, and obey whatever youchoose to command; and now you are my guest while you remain here. Goyou, Simo, to the khan, " continued the collector, addressing a tallmomk or pandour, who, armed to the teeth, stood with his hands crossedat the door, "and get the gentleman's baggage taken to my house. --Ihope, " added he, "you will be pleased with Shabatz; but you must notbe critical, for we are still a rude people. "

_Author_. "Childhood must precede manhood; that is the order ofnature. "

_Collector_. "Ay, ay, our birth was slow, and painful; Servia, as yousay, is yet a child. "

_Author_. "Yes, but a stout, chubby, healthy child. "

A gleam of satisfaction produced a thaw of the collector's ice-boundvisage, and, descending to the street, I accompanied him until wearrived at a house two stories high, which we entered by a wide newwooden gate, and then mounting a staircase, scrupulously clean, wereshown into his principal room, which was surrounded by a divan _a laTurque_; but it had no carpet, so we went straight in with our bootson. A German chest of drawers was in one corner; the walls were plainwhite-washed, and so was a stove about six feet high; the onlyornament of the room was a small snake moulding in the centre of theroof. Some oak chairs were ranged along the lower end of the room, anda table stood in the middle, covered with a German linen cloth, representing Pesth and Ofen; the Bloxberg being thrice as lofty as thereality, the genius of the artist having set it in the clouds. Thesteamer had a prow like a Roman galley, a stern like a royal yacht, and even the steam from the chimney described graceful volutes, withacademic observance of the line of beauty. 

"We are still somewhat rude and un-European in Shabatz, " said GospodyNinitch, for such was the name in which the collector rejoiced. 

"Indeed, " quoth I, sitting at my ease on the divan, "there is no roomfor criticism. The Turks now-a-days take some things from Europe; butEurope might do worse than adopt the divan more extensively; for, believe me, to an arriving traveller it is the greatest of allluxuries. "

Here the servants entered with chibouques. "I certainly think, " saidhe, "that no one would smoke a cigar who could smoke a chibouque. "

"And no man would sit on an oak chair who could sit on a divan:" sothe Gospody smiled and transferred his ample person to the stillampler divan. 

The barber now entered; for in the hurry of departure I had forgottenpart of my toilette apparatus: but it was evident that I was the firstFrank who had ever been under his razor; for when his operations werefinished, he seized my comb, and began to comb my whiskers backwards, as if they had formed part of a Mussulman's beard. When I thought Iwas done with him, I resumed the conversation, but was speedilyinterrupted by something like a loud box on the ear, and, turninground my head, perceived that the cause of this sensation was thebarber having, in his finishing touch, stuck an ivory ear-pick againstmy tympanum; but, calling for a wash-hand basin, I begged to berelieved from all further ministrations; so putting half a zwanzigeron the face of the round pocket mirror which he proffered to me, hedeparted with a "_S'Bogom_, " or, "God be with you. "

The collector now accompanied me on a walk through the Servian town, and emerging on a wide space, we discovered the fortress of Shabatz, which is the quarter in which the remaining Turks live, presenting aline of irregular trenches, of battered appearance, scarcely raisedabove the level of the surrounding country. The space between thetown and the fortress is called the Shabatzko Polje, and in the timeof the civil war was the scene of fierce combats. When the Saveoverflows in spring, it is generally under water. 

Crossing a ruinous wooden bridge over a wet ditch, we saw a rustyunserviceable brass cannon, which vain-gloriously assumed theprerogative of commanding the entrance. To the left, a citadel of fourbastions, connected by a curtain, was all but a ruin. 

As we entered, a cafe, with bare walls and a few shabby Turks smokingin it, completed, along with the dirty street, a picturecharacteristic of the fallen fortunes of Islam in Servia. 

"There comes the cadi, " said the collector, and I looked out for atleast one individual with turban of fine texture, decent robes, andvenerable appearance; but a man of gigantic stature, and rude aspect, wearing a grey peasant's turban, welcomed us with undignifiedcordiality. We followed him down the street, and sometimes crossingthe mud on pieces of wood, sometimes "putting one's foot in it, " wereached a savage-looking timber kiosk, and, mounting a ladder, seatedourselves on the window ledge. 

There flowed the Save in all its peaceful smoothness; looking out ofthe window, I perceived that the high rampart, on which the kiosk wasconstructed, was built at a distance of thirty or forty yards from thewater, and that the intervening space was covered with boats, hauledup high and dry, and animated with the process of building andrepairing the barges employed in the river trade. The kiosk, in whichwe were sitting, was a species of cafe, and it being Ramadan time, wewere presented with sherbet by a kahwagi, who, to judge by his look, was a eunuch. I was afterwards told that the Turks remaining in thefortified town are so poor, that they had not a decent room to show meinto. 

A Turk, about fifty years of age, now entered. His habiliments weresomewhere between decent and shabby genteel, and his voice and mannershad that distinguished gentleness which wins--because it feels--itsway. This was the Disdar Aga, the last relic of the wealthy Turks ofthe place: for before the Servian revolution Shabatz had its twentythousand Osmanlis; and a tract of gardens on the other side of the_Polje_, was pointed out as having been covered with the villas of thewealthy, which were subsequently burnt down. 

Our conversation was restricted to a few general observations, asother persons were present, but the Disdar Aga promised to call on meon the following day. I was asked if I had been in Seraievo. [2] Ianswered in the negative, but added, "I have heard so much ofSeraievo, that I desire ardently to see it. But I am afraid of theHaiducks. "[3]

_Cadi_. "And not without reason; for Seraievo, with its deliciousgardens, must be seen in summer. In winter the roads are free fromhaiducks, because they cannot hold out in the snow; but then Seraievo, having lost the verdure and foliage of its environs, ceases to beattractive, except in its bazaars, for they are without an equal. "

_Author_. "I always thought that the finest bazaar of Turkey inEurope, was that of Adrianople. "

_Cadi_. "Ay, but not equal to Seraievo; when you see the Bosniacs, intheir cleanly apparel and splendid arms walking down the bazaar, youmight think yourself in the serai of a sultan; then all the esnafs arein their divisions like regiments of Nizam. "

The Disdar Aga now accompanied me to the gate, and bidding mefarewell, with graceful urbanity, re-entered the bastioned miniaturecitadel in which he lived almost alone. The history of this individualis singular: his family was cut to pieces in the dreadful scenes of1806; and, when a mere boy, he found himself a prisoner in the Serviancamp. Being thus without protectors, he was adopted by LukaLasarevitch, the valiant lieutenant of Kara Georg, and baptized as aChristian with the name of John, but having been reclaimed by theTurks on the re-conquest of Servia in 1813, he returned to the faithof his fathers. 

We now returned into the town, and there sat the same LukaLasarevitch, now a merchant and town councillor, at the door of hiswarehouse, an octogenarian, with thirteen wounds on his body. 

Going home, I asked the collector if the Aga and Luka were stillfriends. "To this very day, " said he, "notwithstanding the differenceof religion, the Aga looks upon Luka as his father, and Luka looksupon the Aga as his son. " To those who have lived in other parts ofTurkey this account must appear very curious. I found that the Aga wasas highly respected by the Christians as by the Turks, for hisstrictly honourable character. 

We now paid a visit to the Arch-priest, Iowan Paulovitch, aself-taught ecclesiastic: the room in which he received us was filledwith books, mostly Servian; but I perceived among them Germantranslations. On asking him if he had heard any thing of Englishliterature, he showed me translations into German of Shakspeare, Young's Night Thoughts, and a novel of Bulwer. The Greek secularclergy marry; and in the course of conversation it came out that hisson was one of the young Servians sent by the government to studymining-engineering, at Schemnitz, in Hungary. The Church of theApostles St. Peter and St. Paul, in which he officiates, was built in1828. I remarked that it had only a wooden bell tower, which had beenafterwards erected in the church yard; no belfry existing in thebuilding itself. The reason of this is, that, up to the periodmentioned, the Servians were unaccustomed to have bells sounded. 

Our host provided most ample fare for supper, preceded by a glass ofslivovitsa. We began with soup, rendered slightly acid with lemonjuice, then came fowl, stewed with turnips and sugar. This wasfollowed by pudding of almonds, raisins, and pancake. Roast caponbrought up the rear. A white wine of the country was served duringsupper, but along with dessert we had a good red wine of Negotin, served in Bohemian coloured glasses. I have been thus minute on thesubject of food, for the dinners I ate at Belgrade I do not count asServian, having been all in the German fashion. 

The wife of the collector sat at dinner, but at the foot of the table;a position characteristic of that of women in Servia--midway betweenthe graceful precedence of Europe and the contemptuous exclusion ofthe East. 

After hand-washing, we returned to the divan, and while pipes andcoffee were handed round, a noise in the court yard denoted a visiter, and a middle-aged man, with embroidered clothes, and silver-mountedpistols in his girdle, entered. This was the Natchalnik, or localgovernor, who had come from his own village, two hours off, to pay hisvisit; he was accompanied by the two captains under his command, oneof whom was a military dandy. His ample girdle was richly embroidered, out of which projected silver-mounted old fashioned pistols. Hiscrimson shaksheers were also richly embroidered, and the corner of agilt flowered cambric pocket handkerchief showed itself at his breast. His companion wore a different aspect, with large features, dusky intint as those of a gipsy, and dressed in plain coarse blue clothes. Hewas presented to me as a man who had grown from boyhood to manhood tothe tune of the whistling bullets of Kara Georg and his Turkishopponents. After the usual salutations, the Natchalnik began--

"We have heard that Gospody Wellington has received from the Englishnation an estate for his distinguished services. "

_Author_. "That is true; but the presentation took place a great manyyears ago. "

_Natch_. "What is the age of Gospody Wellington?"

_Author_. "About seventy-five. He was born in 1769, the year in whichNapoleon and Mohammed Ali first saw the light. "

This seemed to awaken the interest of the party. 

The roughly-clad trooper drew in his chair, and leaning his elbow onhis knees, opened wide a pair of expectant eyes; the Natchalnik, aftera long puff of his pipe, said, with some magisterial decision, "Thatwas a moment when nature had her sleeves tucked up. I think our KaraGeorg must also have been born about that time. "

_Natch_. "Is Gospody Wellington still in service?"

_Author_. "Yes; he is commander-in-chief. "

_Natch_. "Well, God grant that his sons, and his sons' sons, mayrender as great services to the nation. "

Our conversation was prolonged to a late hour in the evening, in whicha variety of anecdotes were related of the ingenious methods employedby Milosh to fill his coffers as rapidly as possible. 

Mine host, taking a candle, then led me to my bedroom, a smallcarpeted apartment, with a German bed; the coverlet was of greensatin, quilted, and the sheets were clean and fragrant; and Iobserved, that they were striped with an alternate fine and coarsewoof. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: The capital of Bosnia, a large and beautiful city, whichis often called the Damascus of the North. ]

[Footnote 3: In this part of Turkey in Europe robbers, as well asrebels, are called Haiducks: like the caterans of the Highlands ofScotland, they were merely held to be persons at war with theauthority: and in the Servian revolution, patriots, rebels, androbbers, were confounded in the common term of Haiducks. ]

CHAPTER XI. 

Kaimak. --History of a Renegade. --A Bishop's house. --Progress ofEducation. --Portrait of Milosh. --Bosnia and the Bosniacs. --MoslemFanaticism. --Death of the Collector. 

The fatigues of travelling procured me a sound sleep. I roserefreshed, and proceeded into the divan. The hostess then cameforward, and before I could perceive, or prevent her object, shekissed my hand. "Kako se spavali; Dobro?"--"How have you slept? I hopeyou are refreshed, " and other kindly inquiries followed on, while shetook from the hand of an attendant a silver salver, on which was aglass of slivovitsa, a plate of rose marmalade, and a large Bohemiancut crystal globular goblet of water, the contents of which, alongwith a chibouque, were the prelude to breakfast, which consisted ofcoffee and toast, and instead of milk we had rich boiled kaimak, asTurkish clotted cream is called. 

I have always been surprised to find that this undoubted luxury, whichis to be found in every town in Turkey, should be unknown throughoutthe greater part of Europe. After comfortably smoking anotherchibouque, and chatting about Shabatz and the Shabatzians, thecollector informed me that the time was come for returning the visitof the Natchalnik, and paying that of the Bishop. 

The Natchalnik received us in the Konak of Gospody Iefrem, the brotherof Milosh, and our interview was in no respect different from a usualTurkish visit. We then descended to the street; the sun an hour beforeits meridian shone brightly, but the centre of the broad street wasvery muddy, from the late rain; so we picked our steps with some care, until we arrived in the vicinity of the bridge, when I perceived theeunuch-looking coffee-keeper navigating the slough, accompanied by aMussulman in a red checked shawl turban. --"Here is a man that wishesto make your acquaintance, " said Eunuch-face. --"I heard you werepaying visits yesterday in the Turkish quarter, " said the strangefigure, saluting me. I returned the salute, and addressed him inArabic; he answered in a strong Egyptian accent. However, as the depthof the surrounding mud, and the glare of the sun, rendered a furthercolloquy somewhat inconvenient, we postponed our meeting until theevening. On our way to the Bishop, I asked the collector what that manwas doing there. 

_Collector_. "His history is a singular one. You yesterday saw a Turk, who was baptized, and then returned to Islamism. This is a Servian, who turned Turk thirty years ago, and now wishes to be a Christianagain. He has passed most of that time in the distant parts of Turkey, and has children grown up and settled there. He has come to mesecretly, and declares his desire to be a Christian again; but he isafraid the Turks will kill him. "

_Author_. "Has he been long here?"

_Collector_. "Two months. He went first into the Turkish town; andhaving incurred their suspicions, he left them, and has now taken uphis quarters in the khan, with a couple of horses and a servant. "

_Author_. "What does he do?"

_Collector_. "He pretends to be a doctor, and cures the people; but hegenerally exacts a considerable sum before prescribing, and he has haddisputes with people who say that they are not healed so quickly asthey expect. "

_Author_. "Do you think he is sincere in wishing to be a Christianagain?"

_Collector_. "God knows. What can one think of a man who has changedhis religion, but that no dependence can be placed on him? The Turksare shy of him. "

We had now arrived at the house of the Bishop, and were shown into awell-carpeted room, in the old Turkish style, with the roof gilded andpainted in dark colours, and an un-artistlike panorama ofConstantinople running round the cornice. I seated myself on anold-fashioned, wide, comfortable divan, with richly embroidered, butsomewhat faded cushions, and, throwing off my shoes, tucked my legscomfortably under me. 

"This house, " said the collector, "is a relic of old Shabatz; most ofthe other houses of this class were burnt down. You see no Germanfurniture here; tell me whether you prefer the Turkish style, or theEuropean. "

_Author_. "In warm weather give me a room of this kind, where the sunis excluded, and where one can loll at ease, and smoke a narghile; butin winter I like to see a blazing fire, and to hear the music of atea-urn. "

The Bishop now entered, and we advanced to the door to meet him. Ibowed low, and the rest of the company kissed his hand; he was amiddle sized man, of about sixty, but frail from long-continued illhealth, dressed in a furred pelisse, a dark blue body robe, and Greekecclesiastical cap of velvet, while from a chain hung round his neckwas suspended the gold cross, distinctive of his rank. The usualrefreshments of coffee, sweetmeats, &c. Were brought in, not byservants, but by ecclesiastical novices. 

_Bishop_. "I think I have seen you before?"

_Author_. "Indeed, you have: I met your reverence at the house ofGospody Ilia in Belgrade. "

_Bishop_. "Ay, ay, " (trying to recollect;) "my memory sometimes failsme since my illness. Did you stay long at Belgrade?"

_Author_. "I remained to witness the cathedral service for the returnof Wucics and Petronievitch. I assure you I was struck with thesolemnity of the scene, and the deportment of the archbishop. As I donot understand enough of Servian, his speech was translated to me wordfor word, and it seems to me that he has the four requisites of anorator, --a commanding presence, a pleasing voice, good thoughts, andgood language. "

We then talked of education, on which the Bishop said, "The civil andecclesiastical authorities go hand in hand in the work. When I was ayoung man, a great proportion of the youth could neither read norwrite: thanks to our system of national education, in a few years thepeasantry will all read. In the towns the sons of those inhabitantswho are in easy circumstances, are all learning German, history, andother branches preparatory to the course of the Gymnasium of Belgrade, which is the germ of a university. "

_Author_. "I hope it will prosper; the Slaavs of the middle ages didmuch for science. "[4]

_Bishop_. "I assure you times are greatly changed with us; the generaldesire for education surprises and delights me. "

We now took our leave of the Bishop, and on our way homewards calledat a house which contained portraits of Kara Georg, Milosh, Michael, Alexander, and other personages who have figured in Servian history. Iwas much amused with that of Milosh, which was painted in oil, altogether without _chiaro scuro_; but his decorations, button holes, and even a large mole on his cheek, were done with the most painfulminuteness. In his left hand he held a scroll, on which was inscribed_Ustav_, or Constitution, his right hand was partly doubled a lafinger post; it pointed significantly to the said scroll, theforefinger being adorned with a large diamond ring. 

On arriving at the collector's house, I found the Aga awaiting me. This man inspired me with great interest. I looked upon him, residingin his lone tower, the last of a once wealthy and powerful race nowsteeped in poverty, as a sort of master of Ravenswood in a Wolf'scrag. At first he was bland and ceremonious; but on learning that Ihad lived long in the interior of society in Damascus and Aleppo, andfinding that the interest with which he inspired me was real and notassumed, he became expansive without lapsing into familiarity, andtold me his sad tale, which I would place at the service of the gentlereader, could I forget the stronger allegiance I owe to theunsolicited confidence of an unfortunate stranger. 

When I spoke of the renegade, he pretended not to know whom I meant;but I saw, by a slight unconscious wink of his eye, that knowing himtoo well, he wished to see and hear no more of him. As he was risingto take leave, a step was heard creaking on the stairs, and on turningin the direction of the door, I saw the red and white checked turbanof the renegade emerging from the banister; but no sooner did heperceive the Aga, than, turning round again, down went the red checkedturban out of sight. 

When the Aga was gone, the collector gave me a significant look, and, knocking the ashes out of his pipe into a plate on the floor, said, "Changed times, changed times, poor fellow; his salary is only 250piastres a month, and his relations used to be little kings inShabatz; but the other fellows in the Turkish quarter, although sowretchedly poor that they have scarcely bread to eat, are as proud andinsolent as ever. "

_Author_. "What is the reason of that?"

_Collector_. "Because they are so near the Bosniac frontier, wherethere is a large Moslem population. The Moslems of Shabatz pay notaxes, either to the Servian government or the sultan, for they areaccounted _Redif_, or Militia, for which they receive a ducat a yearfrom the sultan, as a returning fee. The Christian peasants here arevery rich; some of them have ten and twenty thousand ducats buriedunder the earth; but these impoverished Bosniacs in the fortress areas proud and insolent as ever. "

_Author_. "You say Bosniacs! Are they not Turks?"

_Collector_. "No, the only Turks here are the Aga and the Cadi; allthe rest are Bosniacs, the descendants of men of our own race andlanguage, who on the Turkish invasion accepted Islamism, but retainedthe language, and many Christian customs, such as saints' days, Christian names, and in most cases monogamy. "

_Author_. "That is very curious; then, perhaps, as they are not fullMoslems, they may be more tolerant of Christians. "

_Collector_. "The very reverse. The Bosniac Christians are not half sowell off as the Bulgarians, who have to deal with the real Turks. Thearch-priest will be here to dinner, and he will be able to give yousome account of the Bosniac Christians. But Bosnia is a beautifulcountry; how do you intend to proceed from here?"

_Author_. "I intend to go to Vallievo and Ushitza. "

_Collector_. "He that leaves Servia without seeing Sokol, has seennothing. "

_Author_. "What is to be seen at Sokol?"

_Collector_. "The most wonderful place in the world, a perfect eagle'seyrie. A whole town and castle built on the capital of a column ofrock. "

_Author_. "But I did not contemplate going there; so I must change myroute: I took no letters for that quarter. "

_Collector_. "Leave all that to me; you will first go to Losnitza, onthe banks of the Drina, and I will despatch a messenger to-night, apprising the authorities of your approach. When you have seen Sokol, you will admit that it was worth the journey. "

The renegade having seen the Aga clear off, now came to pay his visit, and the normal good-nature of the collector procured him a tolerantwelcome. When we were left alone, the renegade began by abusing theMoslems in the fortress as a set of scoundrels. "I could not live anhour longer among such rascals, " said he, "and I am now in the khanwith my servant and a couple of horses, where you must come and seeme. I will give you as good a pipe of Djebel tobacco as ever yousmoked. "

_Author_. "You must excuse me, I must set out on my travels to-morrow. You were in Egypt, I believe. "

_Renegade_. "I was long there; my two sons, and a married daughter, are in Cairo to this day. "

_Author_. "What do they do?"

_Renegade_. "My daughter is married, and I taught my sons all I knowof medicine, and they practise it in the old way. "

_Author_. "Where did you study?"

_Renegade_ (tossing his head and smiling). "Here, and there, andeverywhere. I am no Ilekim Bashi; but I have an ointment that healsall bruises and sores in an incredibly short space of time. "

Me gave a most unsatisfactory account of his return to Turkey inEurope; first to Bosnia, or Herzegovina, where he was, or pretended tobe, physician to Husreff Mehmed Pasha, and then to Seraievo. When wespoke of Hafiz Pasha, of Belgrade, he said, "I know him well, but hedoes not know me; I recollect him at Carpout and Diarbecr beforethe battle of Nisib, when he had thirty or forty pashas under him. Hecould shoot at a mark, or ride, with the youngest man in the army. "

The collector now re-entered with the Natchalnik and his captains, andthe renegade took his leave, I regretting that I had not seen more ofhim; for a true recital of his adventures must have made an amusingchapter. 

"Here is the captain, who is to escort you to Ushitza, " said theNatchalnik, pointing to a muscular man at his left. "He will take yousafe and sound. "

_Author_. "I see he is a stout fellow. I would rather have him for afriend than meet him as an enemy. He has the face of an honest man, too. "

_Natchalnik_. "I warrant you as safe in his custody, as if you were inthat of Gospody Wellington. "

_Author_. "You may rest assured that if I were in the custody of theDuke of Wellington, I should not reckon myself very safe. One of hisoffices is to take care of a tower, in which the Queen locks uptraitorous subjects. Did you never hear of the Tower of London?"

_Natchalnik_. "No; all we know of London is the wonderful bridge thatgoes under the water, where an army can pass from one side to theother, while the fleet lies anchored over their heads. "

The Natchalnik now bid me farewell, and I gave my rendezvous to thecaptain for next morning. During the discussion of dinner, thearch-priest gave us an illustration of Bosniac fanaticism: A fewmonths ago a church at Belina was about to be opened, which had been afull year in course of building, by virtue of a Firman of the Sultan;the Moslems murmuring, but doing nothing. When finished, the Bishopwent to consecrate it; but two hours after sunset, an immense mob ofMoslems, armed with pickaxes and shovels, rased it to the ground, having first taken the Cross and Gospels and thrown them into alatrina. The Bishop complained to the Mutsellim, who imprisoned one ortwo of them, exacted a fine, which he put in his own pocket, and letthem out next day; the ruins of the Church remain _in statu quo_. 

The collector now produced some famous wine, that had been elevenyears in bottle. We were unusually merry, and fell into toasts andspeeches. I felt as if I had been his intimate friend for years, forhe had not one atom of Levantine "humbug" in his composition. Poorfellow, little did he think, that in a few short weeks from thisperiod his blood would flow as freely as the wine which he poured intomy cup. 

Next morning, on awaking, all the house was in a bustle: the sun shonebrightly on the green satin coverlet of my bed, and a tap at the doorannounced the collector, who entered in his dressing gown with theapparatus of brandy and sweetmeats, and joined his favourable auguryto mine for the day's journey. 

"You will have a rare journey, " said the collector; "the country is agarden, the weather is clear, and neither hot nor cold. The nearer youget to Bosnia, the more beautiful is the landscape. "

We each drank a thimbleful of slivovitsa, he to my prosperous journey, while I proposed health and long life to him; but, as the sequelshowed, "_l'homme propose, et Dieu dispose_. " After breakfast, I badeMadame Ninitch adieu, and descended to the court-yard, where twocarriages of the collector awaited us, our horses being attachedbehind. 

And now an eternal farewell to the worthy collector. At this time aconspiracy was organized by the Obrenowitch faction, through theemigrants residing in Hungary. They secretly furnished themselveswith thirty-four or thirty-five hussar uniforms at Pesth, boughthorses, and having bribed the Austrian frontier guard, passed the Savewith a trumpeter about a month after this period, and enteringShabatz, stated that a revolution had broken out at Belgrade, thatprince Kara Georgevitch was murdered, and Michael proclaimed, with thesupport of the cabinets of Europe! The affrighted inhabitants knew notwhat to believe, and allowed the detachment to ride through the town. Arrived at the government-house, the collector issued from the porch, to ask what they wanted, and received for answer a pistol-shot, whichstretched him dead on the spot. The soi-disant Austrian hussarssubsequently attempted to raise the country, but, failing in this, were nearly all taken and executed. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: The first University in Europe was that of Prague. It wasestablished some years before the University of Paris, if I recollectright. ]

CHAPTER XII. 

The Banat of Matchva. --Losnitza. --Feuds on the Frontier. --Enter theBack-woods. --Convent of Tronosha. --Greek Festival. --Congregation ofPeasantry. --Rustic Finery. 

Through the richest land, forming part of the ancient banat ofMatchva, which was in the earlier periods of Servian and Hungarianhistory so often a source of conflict and contention, we approacheddistant grey hills, which gradually rose from the horizon, and, losingtheir indistinctness, revealed a chain so charmingly accidented, thatI quickened my pace, as if about to enter a fairy region. Thick turfcovered the pasture lands; the old oak and the tender saplingdiversified the plain. Some clouds hung on the horizon, whosedelicate lilac and fawn tints, forming a harmonizing contrast with thedeep deep blue of the heavens, showed the transparency of theatmosphere, and brought healthful elevation of spirits. Even thebrutes bespoke the harmony of creation; for, singular to say, we sawseveral crows perched on the backs of swine!

Towards evening, we entered a region of cottages among gardensinclosed by bushes, trees, and verdant fences, with the rural quietand cleanliness of an English village in the last century, lighted upby an Italian sunset. Having crossed the little bridge, a pandour, whowas sitting under the willows, rose, came forward, and, touching hishat, presented the Natchalnik's compliments, and said that he wasinstructed to conduct me to his house. Losnitza is situated on thelast undulation of the Gutchevo range, as the mountains we had all daykept in view were called. So leaving the town on our left, we struckinto a secluded path, which wound up the hill, and in ten minutes wedismounted at a house having the air of a Turkish villa, whichoverlooked the surrounding country, and was entered by an enclosedcourt-yard with high walls. 

The Natchalnik of Losnitza was a grey-headed tall gaunt figure, whospoke very little; but as the Bosniac frontier is subject to troubleshe had been selected for his great personal courage, for he had servedunder Kara Georg from 1804. [5]

_Natchalnik_. "It is not an easy matter to keep things straight; thepopulation on this side is all organized, so as to concentrate eightthousand men in a few hours. The Bosniacs are all armed; and as thetwo populations detest each other cordially, and are separated only bythe Drina, the public tranquillity often incurs great danger: butwhenever a crisis is at hand I mount my horse and go to Mahmoud Pashaat Zwornik; and the affair is generally quietly settled with a cup ofcoffee. "

_Author_. "Ay, ay; as the Arabs say, the burning of a little tobaccosaves the burning of a great deal of powder. What is the population ofZwornik?"

_Natchalnik_. "About twelve or fifteen thousand; the place has fallenoff; it had formerly between thirty and forty thousand souls. "

_Author_. "Have you had any disputes lately?"

_Natchalnik_. "Why, yes; Great Zwornik is on the Bosniac side of theDrina; but Little Zwornik on the Servian side is also held by Moslems. Not long ago the men of Little Zwornik wished to extend their domain;but I planted six hundred men in a wood, and then rode down alone andwarned them off. They treated me contemptuously; but as soon as theysaw the six hundred men issuing from the wood they gave up the point:and Mahmoud Pasha admitted I was right; but he had been afraid to riskhis popularity by preventive measures. "

The selamlik of the Natchalnik was comfortably carpeted and fitted up, but no trace of European furniture was to be seen. The rooms of thecollector at Shabatz still smacked of the vicinity to Austria; buthere we were with the natives. Dinner was preceded by cheese, onions, and slivovitsa as a _rinfresco_, and our beds were improvised in theTurkish manner by mattresses, sheets, and coverlets, laid on thedivans. May I never have a worse bed![6]

Next morning, on waking, I went into the kiosk to enjoy the cool freshair, the incipient sunshine, and the noble prospect; the banat ofMatchva which we had yesterday traversed, stretched away to thewestward, an ocean of verdure and ripe yellow fruits. 

"Where is the Drina?" said I to our host. 

"Look downwards, " said he; "you see that line of poplars and willows;there flows the Drina, hid from view: the steep gardens and woodedhills that abruptly rise from the other bank are in Bosnia. "

The town doctor now entered, a middle-aged man, who had been partlyeducated in Dalmatia, and consequently spoke Italian; he told us thathis salary was £40 a year; and that in consequence of the extremecheapness of provisions he managed to live as well in this place as hecould on the Adriatic for treble the sum. 

Other persons, mostly employes, now came to see us, and we descendedto the town. The bazaar was open and paved with stone; but except itsextreme cleanliness, it was not in the least different from those onesees in Bulgaria and other parts of Turkey in Europe. Up to 1835 manyTurks lived in Losnitza; but at that time they all removed to Bosnia;the mosque still remains, and is used as a grain magazine. A mud fortcrowns the eminence, having been thrown up during the wars of KaraGeorg, and might still be serviceable in case of hostile operations. 

Before going to Sokol the Natchalnik persuaded me to take a Highlandramble into the Gutchevo range, and first visit Tronosha, a largeconvent three hours off in the woods, which was to be on the followingday the rendezvous of all the surrounding peasantry, in their holydaydresses, in order to celebrate the festival of consecration. 

At the appointed hour our host appeared, having donned his bestclothes, which were covered with gold embroidery. His sabre andpistols were no less rich and curious, and he mounted a horse worth atleast sixty or seventy pounds sterling. Several other notables ofLosnitza, similarly broidered and accoutred, and mounted on caracolinghorses, accompanied us; and we formed a cavalcade that would haveastonished even Mr. Batty. 

Ascending rapidly, we were soon lost in the woods, catching only nowand then a view of the golden plain through the dark green oaks andpines. For full three hours our brilliant little party dashed up hilland down dale, through the most majestic forests, delightful to thegaze but unrelieved by a patch of cultivation, and miserablyprofitless to the commonwealth, till we came to a height covered withloose rocks and pasture. "There is Tronosha, " said the Natchalnik, pulling up, and pointing to a tapering white spire and slender columnof blue smoke that rose from a _cul-de-sac_ formed by the oppositehills, which, like the woods we had traversed, wore such a shaggy andumbrageous drapery, that with a slight transposition, I could exclaim, "Si lupus essem, nollem alibi quam in _Servia_ lupus esse!" A steepdescent brought us to some meadows on which cows were grazing by theside of a rapid stream, and I felt the open apace a relief after thegloom of the endless forest. 

Crossing the stream, we struck into the sylvan _cul-de-sac_, andarrived in a few minutes at an edifice with strong walls, towers, andposterns, that looked more like a secluded and fortified manor-housein the seventeenth century than a convent; for in more troubled times, such establishments, though tolerated by the old Turkish government, were often subject to the unwelcome visits of minor marauders. 

A fine jolly old monk, with a powerful voice, welcomed the Natchalnikat the gate, and putting his hand on his left breast, said to me, "_Dobro doche Gospody_!" (Welcome, master!)

We then, according to the custom of the country, went into the chapel, and, kneeling down, said our thanksgiving for safe arrival. Iremarked, on taking a turn through the chapel and examining itminutely, that the pictures were all in the old Byzantinestyle--crimson-faced saints looking up to golden skies. 

Crossing the court, I looked about me, and perceived that the cloisterwas a gallery, with wooden beams supporting the roof, running roundthree sides of the building, the basement being built in stone, at onepart of which a hollowed tree shoved in an aperture formed a spout fora stream of clear cool water. The Igoumen, or superior, received us atthe foot of the wooden staircase which ascended to the gallery. He wasa sleek middle-aged man, with a new silk gown, and seemed out of hiswits with delight at my arrival in this secluded spot, and taking meby the hand led me to a sort of seat of honour placed in a prominentpart of the gallery, which seemed to correspond with the _makaa_ ofSaracenic architecture. 

No sooner had the Igoumen gone to superintend the arrangements of theevening, than a shabbily dressed filthy priest, of such sinisteraspect, that, to use a common phrase, "his looks would have hangedhim, " now came up, and in a fulsome eulogy welcomed me to the convent. He related how he had been born in Syrmium, and had been thirteenyears in Bosnia; but I suspected that some screw was loose, and onmaking inquiry found that he had been sent to this retired convent inconsequence of incorrigible drunkenness. The Igoumen now returned, andgave the clerical Lumnacivagabundus such a look that he skulked off onthe instant. 

After coffee, sweetmeats, &c. , we passed through the yard, andpiercing the postern gate, unexpectedly came upon a most animatedscene. A green glade that ran up to the foot of the hill, was coveredwith the preparations for the approaching festivities--wood wassplitting, fires lighting, fifty or sixty sheep were spitted, pyramidsof bread, dishes of all sorts and sizes, and jars of wine in wickerbaskets were mingled with throat-cut fowls, lying on the banks of thestream aide by side with pigs at their last squeak. 

Dinner was served in the refectory to about twenty individuals, including the monks and our party. The Igoumen drank to the health ofthe prince, and then of Wucics and Petronievitch, declaring thatthanks were due to God and those European powers who had brought abouttheir return. The shabby priest, with the gallows look, then sang asong of his own composition, on their return. Not being able tounderstand it, I asked my neighbour what he thought of the song. "Why, " said he, "the lay is worthy of the minstrel--doggrel anddissonance. " Some old national songs were sung, and I again asked myneighbour for a criticism on the poetry. "That last song, " said he, "is like a river that flows easily and naturally from one beautifulvalley to another. "

In the evening we went out, and the countless fires lighting up thelofty oaks had a most pleasing effect. The sheep were by this timecut up, and lying in fragments, around which the supper parties wereseated cross-legged. Other peasants danced slowly, in a circle, to thedrone of the somniferous Servian bagpipe. 

When I went to bed, the assembled peasantry were in the full tide ofmerriment, but without excess. The only person somewhat the worse ofthe bottle was the threadbare priest with the gallows look. 

I fell asleep with a low confused murmur of droning bagpipes, jinglingdrinking cups, occasional laughter, and other noises. I dreamed, Iknow not what absurdities; suddenly a solemn swelling chorus ofcountless voices gently interrupted my slumbers--the room was filledwith light, and the sun on high was beginning to begild an irregularparallelogram in the wainscot, when I started up, and hastily drew onsome clothes. Going out to the _makaa_, I perceived yesterday'sassembly of merry-making peasants quadrupled in number, and alldressed in their holiday costume, thickset on their knees down theavenue to the church, and following a noble old hymn, I sprang out ofthe postern, and, helping myself with the grasp of trunks of trees, and bared roots and bushes, clambered up one of the sides of thehollow, and attaining a clear space, looked down with wonder andpleasure on the singular scene. The whole pit, of this theatre ofverdure appeared covered with a carpet of white and crimson, for suchwere the prevailing colours of the rustic costumes. When I thought ofthe trackless solitude of the sylvan ridges round me, I seemed towitness one of the early communions of Christianity, in those ageswhen incense ascended to the Olympic deities in gorgeous temples, while praise to the true God rose from the haunts of the wolf, thelonely cavern, or the subterranean vault. 

When church service was over I examined the dresses more minutely. Theupper tunic of the women was a species of surtout of undyed cloth, bordered with a design of red cloth of a liner description. Thestockings in colour and texture resembled those of Persia, but weregenerally embroidered at the ankle with gold and silver thread. Afterthe mid-day meal we descended, accompanied by the monks. The latelycrowded court-yard was silent and empty. "What, " said I, "alldispersed already?" The superior smiled, and said nothing. On going outof the gate, I paused in a state of slight emotion. The wholeassembled peasantry were marshalled in two rows, and standinguncovered in solemn silence, so as to make a living avenue to thebridge. 

The Igoumen then publicly expressed the pleasure my visit had given tothe people, and in their name thanked me, and wished me a prosperousjourney, repeating a phrase I had heard before: "God be praised thatServia has at length seen the day that strangers come from afar to seeand know the people!"

I took off my fez, and said, "Do you know, Father Igoumen, what hasgiven me the most pleasure in the course of my visit?"

_Ig_. "I can scarcely guess. "

_Author_. "I have seen a large assembly of peasantry, and not a traceof poverty, vice, or misery; the best proof that both the civil andecclesiastical authorities do their duty. "

The Igoumen, smiling with satisfaction, made a short speech to thepeople. I mounted my horse; the convent bells began to toll as I wavedmy hand to the assembly, and "Sretnj poot!" (a prosperous journey!)burst from a thousand tongues. The scene was so moving that I couldscarcely refrain a tear. Clapping spurs to my horse I cantered overthe bridge and gave him his will of the bridle till the steepness ofthe ascent compelled a slower pace. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Servia is divided into seventeen provinces, each governedby a Natchalnik, whose duty it is to keep order and report to theminister of war and interior. He has of course no control over thelegal courts of law attached to each provincial government; he has aCashier and a Secretary, and each province is divided into Cantons(Sres), over each of which a captain rules. The average population ofa province is 50, 000 souls, and there are generally three Cantons in aprovince, which are governed by captains. ]

[Footnote 6: Whether from the climate or superior cleanliness, thereare certainly much fewer fleas in Servia than in Turkey; and I sawother vermin only once. ]

CHAPTER XIII. 

Romantic sylvan scenery. --Patriarchal simplicity ofmanners. --Krupena, --Sokol. --Its extraordinary position. --Wretchedtown. --Alpine scenery. --Cool reception. --Valley of the Rogatschitza. 

Words fail me to describe the beauty of the road from Tronosha toKrupena. The heights and distances, without being alpine in reality, were sufficiently so to an eye unpractised in measuring scenery of thehighest class; but in all the softer enchantments nature had revelledin prodigality. The gloom of the oak forest was relieved and broken bya hundred plantations of every variety of tree that the climate wouldbear, and every hue, from the sombre evergreen to the early suspicionsof the yellow leaf of autumn. Even the tops of the mountains werefree from sterility, for they were capped with green as bright, withtrees as lofty, and with pasture as rich, as that of the valleysbelow. 

The people, too, were very different from the inhabitants of Belgrade, where political intrigue, and want of the confidence which sincerityinspires, paralyze social intercourse. But the men of the back-woods, neither poor nor barbarous, delighted me by the patriarchal simplicityof their manners, and the poetic originality of their language. Evenin gayer moments I seemed to witness the sweet comedy of nature, inwhich man is ludicrous from his peculiarities, but "is not yetridiculous from the affectations and assumptions of artificial life. "

Half-way to Krupena we reposed at a brook, where the carpets were laidout and we smoked a pipe. A curious illustration occurred here of theabundance of wood in Servia. A boy, after leading a horse into thebrook, tugged the halter and led the unwilling horse out of the streamagain. "Let him drink, let him drink his fill, " said a woman; "ifeverything else must be paid with gold, at least wood and water costnothing. "

Mounting our horses again, we were met by six troopers bearing thecompliments of the captain of Krupena, who was awaiting us withtwenty-two or three irregular cavalry on an eminence. We bothdismounted and-went through the ceremony of public complimenting, bothevidently enjoying the fun; he the visit of an illustrious stranger, and I the formality of a military reception. I perceived in a momentthat this captain, although a good fellow, was fond of a little fuss;so I took him by the hand, made a turn across the grass, cast anonchalant look on his troop, and condescended to express myapprobation of their martial bearing. True it is that they were men ofrude and energetic aspect, very fairly mounted. After patronizing himwith a little further chat and compliment we remounted; and Iperceived Krupena at the distance of about a mile, in the middle of alittle plain surrounded by gardens; but the neighbouring hills werehere and there bare of vegetation. 

Some of the troopers in front sang a sort of chorus, and now and thena fellow to show off his horse, would ride _a la djereed_, and insteadof flinging a dart, would fire his pistols. Others joined us, and ourparty was swelled to a considerable cavalcade as we entered thevillage, where the peasants were drawn up in a row to receive me. 

Their captain then led the way up the stairs of his house to achardak, or wooden balcony, on which was a table laid out withflowers. The elders of the village now came separately, and had someconversation: the priest on entering laid a melon on the table, ausual method of showing civility in this part of the country. One ofthe attendant crowd was a man from Montenegro, who said he was ahouse-painter. He related that he was employed by Mahmoud Pasha, ofZwornik, to paint one of the rooms in his house; when he had halfaccomplished his task, the dispute about the domain of Little Zwornikarose, on which he and his companion, a German, were thrown intoprison, being accused of being a Servian captain in disguise. Theywere subsequently liberated, but shot at; the ball going through theleg of the narrator. This is another instance of the intense hatredthe Servians and the Bosniac Moslems bear to each other. It must beremarked, that the Christians, in relating a tale, usually make themost of it. 

The last dish of our dinner was a roast lamb, served on a largecircular wooden board, the head being split in twain, and laid on thetop of the pyramid of dismembered parts. We had another jovialevening, in which the wine-cup was plied freely, but not to anextravagant excess, and the usual toasts and speeches were drunk andmade. Even in returning to rest, I had not yet done with the pleasingtestimonies of welcome. On entering the bed-chamber, I found manyfresh and fragrant flowers inserted in the chinks of the wainscot. 

Krupena was originally exclusively a Moslem town, and a part of theold bazaar remains. The original inhabitants, who escaped the sword, went either to Sokol or into Bosnia. The hodgia, or Moslemschoolmaster, being on some business at Krupena, came in the morningto see us. His dress was nearly all in white, and his legs bare fromthe knee. He told me that the Vayvode of Sokol had a curious mentalmalady. Having lately lost a son, a daughter, and a grandson, he couldno longer smoke, for when his servant entered with a pipe, he imaginedhe saw his children burning in the tobacco. 

During the whole day we toiled upwards, through woods and wilds of acharacter more rocky than that of the previous day, and on attainingthe ridge of the Gutchevo range, I looked down with astonishment onSokol, which, though lying at our feet, was yet perched on a lonefantastic crag, which exactly suited the description of the collectorof Shabatz, --"a city and castle built on the capital of a column ofrock. " Beyond it was a range of mountains further in Bosnia; furtheron, another outline, and then another, and another. I at once feltthat, as a tourist, I had broken fresh ground, that I was seeingscenes of grandeur unknown to the English public. It was long since Ihad sketched. I instinctively seized my book, but threw it away indespair, and, yielding to the rapture of the moment, allowed my eyesto mount step after step of this enchanted Alpine ladder. 

We now, by a narrow, steep, and winding path cut on the face of aprecipice, descended to Sokol, and passing through a rotting woodenbazaar, entered a wretched khan, and ascending a sort of staircase, were shown into a room with dusty mustabahs; a greasy old cushion, with the flock protruding through its cover, was laid down for me, butI, with polite excuses, preferred the bare board to this odiousflea-hive. The more I declined the cushion, the more pressing becamethe khan-keeper that I should carry away with me some reminiscence ofSokol. Finding that his upholstery was not appreciated, thekhan-keeper went to the other end of the apartment, and began to makea fire for coffee; for this being Ramadan time, all the fires wereout, and most of the people were asleep. Meanwhile the captain sentfor the Disdar Aga. I offered to go into the citadel, and pay him avisit, but the captain said, "You have no idea how sensitive thesepeople are: even now they are forming all sorts of conjectures as tothe object of your visit; we must, therefore, take them quietly intheir own way, and do nothing to alarm them. In a few minutes theDisdar Aga will be here; you can then judge, by the temper he is in, of the length of your stay, and the extent to which you wish to carryyour curiosity. "

I admitted that the captain was speaking sense, and waited patientlytill the Aga made his appearance. 

Footsteps were heard on the staircase, and the Mutsellim entered, --aTurk, about forty-five years of age, who looked cross, as most men arewhen called from a sound sleep. His fez was round as a wool-bag, andlooked as if he had stuffed a shawl into it before putting it on, andhis face and eyes had something of the old Mongol or Tartar look. Hewas accompanied by a Bosniac, who was very proud and insolent in hisdemeanour. After the usual compliments, I said, "I have seen somecountries and cities, but no place so curious as Sokol. I leftBelgrade on a tour through the interior, not knowing of its existence. Otherwise I would have asked letters of Hafiz Pasha to you: for, intending to go to Nish, he gave me a letter to the Pasha there. Butthe people of this country having advised me not to miss the wonder ofServia, I have come, seduced by the account of its beauty, notdoubting of your good reception of strangers:" on which I took out theletter of Hafiz Pasha, the direction of which he read, and then hesaid, in a husky voice which became his cross look, --

"I do not understand your speech; if you have seen Belgrade, you mustfind Sokol contemptible. As for your seeing the citadel, it isimpossible; for the key is with the Disdar Aga, and he is asleep, andeven if you were to get in, there is nothing to be seen. "

After some further conversation, in the course of which I saw that itwould be better not to attempt "to catch the Tartar, " I restrictedmyself to taking a survey of the town. Continuing our walk in the samedirection as that by which we entered, we completed the threading ofthe bazaar, which was truly abominable, and arrived at the gate of thecitadel, which was open; so that the story of the key and theslumbers of the Disdar Aga was all fudge. I looked in, but did notenter. There are no new works, and it is a castle such as those onesees on the Rhine; but its extraordinary position renders itimpregnable in a country impracticable for artillery. Althoughblockaded in the time of the Revolution, and the Moslem garrisonreduced to only seven men, it never was taken by the Servians;although Belgrade, Ushitza, and all the other castles, had fallen intotheir hands. Close to the castle is a mosque in wood, with a minaretof wood, although the finest stone imaginable is in abundance allaround. The Mutsellim opened the door, and showed me the interior, with blank walls and a faded carpet, opposite the Moharrem. He wouldnot allow me to go up the minaret, evidently afraid I would peep overinto the castle. 

Retracing our steps I perceived a needle-shaped rock that overlookedthe abyss under the fortress, so taking off my boots, I scrambled upand attained the pinnacle; but the view was so fearful, that, afraidof getting dizzy, I turned to descend, but found it a much moredangerous affair than the ascent; at length by the assistance of PaulI got down to the Mutsellim, who was sitting impatiently on a piece ofrock, wondering at the unaccountable Englishman. I asked him what hesupposed to be the height of the rock on which the citadel was built, above the level of the valley below. 

"What do I know of engineering?" said he, taking me out of hearing: "Iconfess I do not understand your object. I hear that on the road youhave been making inquiries as to the state of Bosnia: what interestcan England have in raising disturbances in that country?"

"The same interest that she has in producing political disorder in oneof the provinces of the moon. In some semi-barbarous provinces ofHungary, people confound political geography with political intrigue. In Aleppo, too, I recollect standing at the Bab-el-Nasr, attempting tospell out an inscription recording its erection, and I was grosslyinsulted and called a Mehendis (engineer); but you seem a man of moresense and discernment. "

"Well, you are evidently not a _chapkun_. There is nothing more to beseen in Sokol. Had it not been Ramadan we should have treated youbetter, be your intentions good or bad. I wish you a pleasant journey;and if you wish to arrive at Liubovia before night-fall the sooner youset out the better, for the roads are not safe after dark. "

We now descended by paths like staircases cut in the rocks to thevalley below. Paul dismounted in a fright from his horse, and led herdown; but my long practice of riding in the Druse country had given mean easy indifference to roads that would have appalled me before myresidence there. When we got a little way along the valley, I lookedback, and the view from below was, in a different style, as remarkableas that from above. Sokol looked like a little castle of Edinburghplaced in the clouds, and a precipice on the other side of the valleypresented a perpendicular stature of not less than five hundred feet. 

A few hours' travelling through the narrow valley of the Bogatschitzabrought us to the bank of the Drina, where, leaving the up-heavedmonuments of a chaotic world, we bade adieu to the Tremendous, andagain saluted the Beautiful. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Drina. --Liubovia. --Quarantine Station. --Derlatcha. --A Servianbeauty. --A lunatic priest. --Sorry quarters. --Murder by brigands. 

The Save is the largest tributary of the Danube, and the Drina is thelargest tributary of the Save, but it is not navigable; no riverscenery, however, can possibly be prettier than that of the Drina; asin the case of the Upper Danube from Linz to Vienna, the river windsbetween precipitous banks tufted with wood, but it was tame after thethrilling enchantments of Sokol. At one place a Roman causeway ranalong the river, and we were told that a Roman bridge crossed atributary of the Drina in this neighbourhood, which to this day bearsthe name of Latinski Tiupria, or Latin bridge. 

At Liubovia the hills receded, and the valley was about half a milewide, consisting of fine meadow land with thinly scattered oaks, athwart which the evening sun poured its golden floods, suggestingpleasing images of abundance without effort. This part of Servia is awilderness, if you will, so scant is it of inhabitants, so free fromany thing like inclosures, or fields, farms, labourers, gardens, orgardeners; and yet it is, and looks a garden in one place, a trimEnglish lawn and park in another: you almost say to yourself, "The manor house cannot be far off: what lovely and extensive grounds, wherecan the hall or castle be hid?"[7]

Liubovia is the quarantine station on the high road from Belgrade toSeraievo. A line of buildings, parlatorio, magazines, andlodging-houses, faced the river. The director would fain have me passthe night, but the captain of Derlatcha had received notice of ouradvent, and we were obliged to push on, and rested only for coffee andpipes. The director was a Servian from the Austrian side of theDanube, and spoke German. He told me that three thousand individualsper annum performed quarantine, passing from Bosnia to Sokol andBelgrade, and that the principal imports Were hides, chestnuts, zinc, and iron manufactures from the town of Seraievo. On the opposite bankof the river was a wooden Bosniac guard-house. 

Remounting our horses after sunset, we continued along the Drina, nowdubiously illuminated by the chill pallor of the rising moon, whilehill and dale resounded with the songs of our men. No sooner had onefinished an old metrical legend of the days of Stephan the powerfuland Lasar the good, than another began a lay of Kara Georg, the"William Tell" of these mountains. Sometimes when we came to a goodecho the pistols were fired off; at one place the noise had aroused apeasant, who came running across the grass to the road crying out, "Ogood men, the night is advancing: go no further, but tarry with me:the stranger will have a plain supper and a hard couch, but a heartywelcome. " We thanked him for his proffer, but held on. 

At about ten o'clock we entered a thick dark wood, and after an ascentof a quarter of an hour emerged upon a fine open lawn in front of alarge house with lights gleaming in the windows. The ripple of theDrina was no longer audible, but we saw it at some distance below us, like a cuirass of polished steel. As we entered the inclosure we foundthe house in a bustle. The captain, a tall strong corpulent man ofabout forty years of age, came forward and welcomed me. 

"I almost despaired of your coming to-night, " said he; "for on thisticklish frontier it is always safer to terminate one's journey bysunset. The rogues pass so easily from one side of the water to theother, that it is difficult to clear the country of them. "

He then led me into the house, and going through a passage, entered asquare room of larger dimensions than is usual in the rural parts ofServia. A good Turkey carpet covered the upper part of the room, whichwas fenced round by cushions placed against the wall, but not raisedabove the level of the floor. The wall of the lower end of the roomhad a row of strong wooden pegs, on which were hung the hereditary andholyday clothes of the family, for males and females. Furs, velvets, gold embroidery, and silver mounted Bosniac pistols, guns, andcarbines elaborately ornamented. 

The captain, who appeared to be a plain, simple, and somewhat jollysort of man, now presented me to his wife, who came from the Austrianaide of the Save, and spoke German. She seemed, and indeed was, a trimmethodical housewife, as the order of her domestic arrangementsclearly showed. Another female, whom I afterwards learned to be thewife of an individual of the neighbourhood who was absent, attractedmy attention. Her age was about four and twenty, when the lines ofthinking begin to mingle with those of early youth. In fact, from hertint I saw that she would soon be _passata_: her features too were byno means classical or regular, and yet she had unquestionably some ofthat super-human charm which Raphael sometimes infused into his femalefigures, as in the St. Cecilia. As I repeated and prolonged my gaze, I felt that I had seen no eyes in Belgrade like those of the beauty ofthe Drina, who reminded me of the highest characteristic ofexpression--"a spirit scarcely disguised enough in the flesh. " Thepresence of a traveller from an unknown country seemed to fill herwith delight; and her wonder was childish, as if I had come from somedistant constellation in the firmament. 

Next day, the father of the captain made his appearance. The same oldman, whom I had met at Palesh, and who had asked me, "if the king ofmy country lived in a strong castle?" We dined at mid-day by fineweather, the windows of the principal apartments being thrown open, soas to have the view of the valley, which was here nearly as wide as atLiubovia, but with broken ground. For the first time since leavingBelgrade we dined, not at an European table, but squatted round asofra, a foot high, in the Eastern manner, although we ate with knivesand forks. The cookery was excellent; a dish of stewed lamb beingworthy of any table in the world. 

Our host, the captain, never having seen Ushitza, offered toaccompany me thither; so we started early in the afternoon, having theDrina still on our right, and Bosniac villages, from time to timevisible, and pretty to look at, but I should hope somewhat cleanerthan Sokol. On arrival at Bashevitza the elders of the village stoodin a row to receive us close to the house of conciliation. I perceiveda mosque near this place, and asked if it was employed for anypurpose. "No, " said the captain, "it is empty. The Turks prayed in it, after their own fashion, to that God who is theirs and ours; and thehouse of God should not be made a grain magazine, as in many otherTurkish villages scattered throughout Servia. " At this place a numberof wild ducks were visible, perched on rocks in the Drina, but werevery shy; only once did one of our men get within shot, which missed;his gun being an old Turkish one, like most of the arms in thiscountry, which are sometimes as dangerous to the marksman as to themark. 

Towards evening we quitted the lovely Drina, which, a little higherup, is no longer the boundary between Servia and Bosnia, beingentirely within the latter frontier, and entered the vale ofRogatschitza, watered by a river of that name, which was crossed by anancient Servian bridge, with pointed arches of admirable proportions. The village where we passed the night was newly settled, the mainstreet being covered with turf, a sign that few houses or trafficexist here. The khan was a hovel; but while it was swept out, andprepared for us, I sat down with the captain on a shopboard, in thelittle bazaar, where coffee was served. A priest, with an emaciatedvisage, sore eyes, and a distracted look, came up, and wished me goodevening, and began a lengthened tale of grievances. I asked thekhan-keeper who he was, and received for answer that he was a Greekpriest from Bosnia, who had hoarded some money, and had been squeezedby the Moslem tyrant of his village, which drove him mad. Confusedejaculations, mingled with sighs, fell from him, as if he supposed hisstory to be universally known. 

"Sit down, good man, " said I, "and tell me your tale, for I am astranger, and never heard it before. Tell it me, beginning with thebeginning, and ending with the end. "

"Bogami Gospody, " said the priest, wiping the copious tears, "I wasonce the happiest man in Bosnia; the sun never rose without mythanking God for having given me so much peace and happiness: but AliKiahya, where I lived, received information that I had money hid. Oneday his Momkes took me before him. My appeals for mercy and justicewere useless. I was thrown down on my face, and received 617 strokeson my soles, praying for courage to hold out. At the 618th stroke mystrength of mind and body failed, and I yielded up all my money, sevenhundred dollars, to preserve my life. For a whole year I drank not adrop of wine, nothing but brandy, brandy, brandy. "

Here the priest sobbed aloud. My heart was wrung, but I was in nocondition to assist him; so I bade him be of good cheer, and look onhis misfortune as a gloomy avenue to happier and brighter days. 

We slept on hay, put under our carpets and pillows, this being thefirst time since leaving Belgrade that we did not sleep in sheets. Wenext day ascended the Rogatschitza river to its source, and then, bya long ascent through pines and rocks, attained the parting of thewaters. [8]

Leaving the basin of the Drina, we descended to that of the Morava bya steep road, until we came to beautifully rich meadows, which arecalled the Ushitkza Luka, or meadows, which are to this day adebatable ground for the Moslem inhabitants of Ushitza, and theServian villages in the neighbourhood. From here to Ushitza the roadis paved, but by whom we could not learn. The stones were not largeenough to warrant the belief of its being a Roman causeway, and it isprobably a relic of the Servian empire. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: On my return from Servia, I found that the author ofEothen had recorded a similar impression derived from the Tartarjourney on the high road from Belgrade towards Constantinople: but theremark is much more applicable to the sylvan beauty of the interior ofServia. ]

[Footnote 8: After seeing Ushitza, the captain, who accompanied me, returned to his family, at Derlatcha, and, I lament to say, that atthis place he was attacked by the robbers, who, in summer, lurk in thethick woods on the two frontiers. The captain galloped off, but histwo servants were killed on the spot. ]

CHAPTER XV. 

Arrival at Ushitza. --Wretched streets. --Excellent Khan. --TurkishVayvode. --A Persian Dervish. --Relations of Moslems andChristians. --Visit the Castle. --Bird's eye view. 

Before entering Ushitza we had a fair prospect of it from a gentleeminence. A castle, in the style of the middle ages, mosque minarets, and a church spire, rose above other objects; each memorializing thethree distinct periods of Servian history: the old feudal monarchy, the Turkish occupation, and the new principality. We entered thebazaars, which were rotting and ruinous, the air infected with theloathsome vapours of dung-hills, and their putrescent carcases, tanpits with green hides, horns, and offal: here and there a hideousold rat showed its head at some crevice in the boards, to complete thepicture of impurity and desolation. 

Strange to say, after this ordeal we put up at an excellent khan, thebest we had seen in Servia, being a mixture of the German Wirthshaus, and the Italian osteria, kept by a Dalmatian, who had lived twelveyears at Scutari in Albania. His upper room was very neatly furnishedand new carpeted. 

In the afternoon we went to pay a visit to the Vayvode, who livedamong gardens in the upper town, out of the stench of the bazaars. Arrived at the house we mounted a few ruined steps, and passingthrough a little garden fenced with wooden paling, were shown into alittle carpeted kiosk, where coffee and pipes were presented, but notpartaken of by the Turks present, it being still Ramadan. The Vayvodewas an elderly man, with a white turban and a green benish, havingweak eyes, and a alight hesitation in his speech; but civil andgood-natured, without any of the absurd suspicions of the Mutsellim ofSokol. He at once granted me permission to see the castle, with theremark, "Your seeing it can do us no good and no harm, Belgradecastle is like a bazaar, any one can go out and in that likes. " In thecourse of conversation he told us that Ushitza is the principalremaining settlement of the Moslems in Servia; their number hereamounting to three thousand five hundred, while there are only sixhundred Servians, making altogether a population of somewhat more thanfour thousand souls. The Vayvode himself spoke Turkish on thisoccasion; but the usual language at Sokol is Bosniac (the same asServian). 

We now took our leave of the Vayvode, and continued ascending the samestreet, composed of low one-storied houses, covered with irregulartiles, and inclosed with high wooden palings to secure as much privacyas possible for the harems. The palings and gardens ceased; and on aterrace built on an open space stood a mosque, surrounded by a fewtrees; not cypresses, for the climate scarce allows of them, but thoseof the forests we had passed. The portico was shattered to fragments, and remained as it was at the close of the revolution. Close by, is aTurbieh or saint's tomb, but nobody could tell me to whom or at whatperiod it was erected. 

Within a little inclosed garden I espied a strangely dressed figure, adark-coloured Dervish, with long glossy black hair. He proved to be aPersian, who had travelled all over the East. Without the conical hatof his order, the Dervish would have made a fine study for aNeapolitan brigand; but his manners were easy, and his conversationplausible, like those of his countrymen, which form as wide a contrastto the silent hauteur of the Turk, and the rude fanaticism of theBosniac, as can well be imagined. His servant, a witheredbaboon-looking little fellow, in the same dress, now made hisappearance and presented coffee. 

_Author_. "Who would have expected to see a Persian on the borders ofBosnia? You Dervishes are great travellers. "

_Dervish_. "You Ingleez travel a great deal more; not content withFrengistan, you go to Hind, and Sind, and Yemen. [9] The firstEnglishman I ever saw, was at Meshed, (south-east of the Caspian, )and now I meet you in Roumelly. "

_Author_. "Do you intend to go back?"

_Dervish_. "I am in the hands of Allah Talaa. These good Bosniacs herehave built me this house, and given me this garden. They love me, andI love them. "

_Author_. "I am anxious to see the mosque, and mount the minaret if itbe permitted, but I do not know the custom of the place. A Frankenters mosques in Constantinople, Cairo, and Aleppo. "

_Dervish_. "You are mistaken; the mosques of Aleppo are shut toFranks. "

_Author_. "Pardon me; Franks are excluded from the mosque of Zekeriehin Aleppo, but not from the Osmanieh, and the Adelieh. "

_Dervish_. "There is the Muezzin; I dare say he will make nodifficulty. "

The Muezzin, anxious for his backshish, made no scruple; and now someMoslems entered, and kissed the hand of the Dervish. When theconversation became general, one of them told me, in a low tone, thathe gave all that he got in charity, and was much liked. The Dervishcut some flowers, and presented each of us with one. 

The Muezzin now looked at his watch, and gave me a wink, expressive ofthe approach of the time for evening prayer; so I followed him intothe church, which had bare white-washed walls with nothing to remark;and then taking my hand, he led me up the dark and dismal spiralstaircase to the top of the minaret; on emerging on the balcony ofwhich, we had a general view of the town and environs. 

Ushitza lies in a narrow valley surrounded by mountains. The Dietina, a tributary of the Morava, traverses the town, and is crossed by twoelegantly proportioned, but somewhat ruinous, bridges. The principalobject in the landscape is the castle, built on a picturesque jaggedeminence, separated from the precipitous mountains to the south onlyby a deep gully, through which the Dietina struggles into the valley. The stagnation of the art of war in Turkey has preserved it nearly asit must have been some centuries ago. In Europe, feudal castles arecomplete ruins; in a country such as this, where contests are of aguerilla character, they are neglected, but neither destroyed nortotally abandoned. The centre space in the valley is occupied by thetown itself, which shows great gaps; whole streets which stood herebefore the Servian revolution, have been turned into orchards. Thegeneral view is pleasing enough; for the castle, although not sopicturesque as that of Sokol, affords fine materials for a picture;but the white-washed Servian church, the fac simile of everyone inHungary, rather detracts from the external interest of the view. 

In the evening the Vayvode sent a message by his pandour, to say thathe would pay me a visit along with the Agas of the town, who, six innumber, shortly afterwards came. It being now evening, they had noobjection to smoke; and as they sat round the room they relatedwondrous things of Ushitza towards the close of the last century, which being the entre-pot between Servia and Bosnia, had a great trade, and contained then twelve thousand houses, or about sixty thousandinhabitants; so I easily accounted for the gaps in the middle of thetown. The Vayvode complained bitterly of the inconveniencies to whichthe quarantine subjected them in restricting the free communicationwith the neighbouring province; but he admitted that the latesubstitution of a quarantine of twenty-four hours, for one of ten daysas formerly, was a great alleviation; "but even this, " added theVayvode, "is a hindrance: when there was no quarantine, Ushitza wasevery Monday frequented by thousands of Bosniacs, whom eventwenty-four hours' quarantine deter. "

I asked him if the people understood Turkish or Arabic, and ifpreaching was held. He answered, that only he and a few of the Agasunderstood Turkish, --that the Mollah was a deeply-read man, who saidthe prayers in the mosque in Arabic, as is customary everywhere; butthat there was no preaching, since the people only knew their prayersin Arabic, but could not understand a sermon, and spoke nothing butBosniac. I think that somebody told me that Vaaz, or preaching, isheld in the Bosniac language at Seraievo. But my memory fails me incertainty on this point. 

After a pleasant chat of about an hour they went away. Our beds were, as the ingenious Mr. Pepys says, "good, but lousy. "

Next day, the Servian Natchalnik, who, on my arrival, had been absentat Topola with the prince, came to see me; he was a middle-aged man, with most perfect self-possession, polite without familiarity oreffort to please; he had more of the manner of a Moslem grandee, thanof a Christian subject of the Sultan. 

_Natchalnik_. "Believe me, the people are much pleased that men oflearning travel through the country; it is a sign that we are notforgotten in Europe; thank God and the European powers, that we arenow making progress. "

_Author_. "Servia is certainly making progress; there can be nospectacle more delightful to a rightly constituted mind, than that ofa hopeful young nation approaching its puberty. You Servians are in aconsiderable minority here in Ushitza. I hope you live on good termswith the Moslems. "

_Natchalnik_. "Yes, on tolerable terms; but the old ones, who rememberthe former abject position of the Christians, cannot reconcilethemselves to my riding on horseback through the bazaars, and getangry when the Servians sing in the woods, or five off muskets duringa rejoicing. "

The Vayvode now arrived with a large company of Moslems, and weproceeded on foot to see the castle, our road being mostly throughthose gardens, on which the old town stood, and following the side ofthe river, to the spot where the high banks almost close in, so as toform a gorge. We ascended a winding path, and entered the gate, whichformed the outlet of a long, gloomy, and solidly built passage. 

A group of armed militia men received us as we entered, and onregaining the daylight within the walls, we saw nothing but the usualspectacle of crumbling crenellated towers, abandoned houses, rottenplanks, and unserviceable dismounted brass guns. The doujou, or keep, was built on a detached rock, connected by an old wooden bridge. Thegate was strengthened with heavy nails, and closed by a couple ofenormous old fashioned padlocks. The Vayvode gave us a hint not to aska sight of the interior, by stating that it was only opened at theperiod of inspection of the Imperial Commissioner. The bridge whichoverlooked the romantic gorge, --the rocks here rising precipitatelyfrom both sides of the Dietina, --seemed the favourite lounge of thegarrison, for a little kiosk of rude planks had been knocked up;carpets were laid out; the Vayvode invited us to repose a little afterour steep ascent; pipes and coffee were produced. 

I remarked that the castle must have suffered severely in therevolution. 

"This very place, " said the Vayvode, "was the scene of the severestconflict. The Turks had twenty-one guns, and the Servians seven. Somany were killed, that that bank was filled up with dead bodies. "

"I remember it well, " said a toothless, lisping old Turk, with barebrown legs, and large feet stuck in a pair of new red shiningslippers: "that oval tower has not been opened for a long time. If anyone were to go in, his head would be cut off by an invisible hangiar. "I smiled, but was immediately assured by several by-standers that itwas a positive fact! Our party, swelled by fresh additions, all wellarmed, that made us look like a large body of Haiducks going on amarauding expedition, now issued by a gate in the castle, opposite tothat by which I entered, and began to toil up the hill that overlooksUshitza, in order to have a bird's-eye view of the whole town andvalley. On our way up, the Natchalnik told me, that although longresident here, he had never seen the interior of the castle, and thatI was the first Christian to whom its gates had been opened since therevolution. 

The old Vayvode, notwithstanding his cumbrous robes, climbed asbriskly as any of us to the detached fort on the peak of the hill, whence we looked down on Ushitza and all its environs; but I wasdisappointed in the prospect, the objects being too much below thelevel of the eye. The landscape was spotty. Ushitza, instead ofappearing a town, looked like a straggling assemblage of cottages andgardens. The best view is that below the bridge, looking to thecastle. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 9: This is a phrase, and had no relation to the occupationof Sind or Aden. ]

CHAPTER XVI. 

Poshega. --The river Morava. --Arrival at Csatsak. --A VienneseDoctor. --Project to ascend the Kopaunik. --Visit the Bishop. --AncientCathedral Church. --Greek Mass. --Karanovatz. --Emigrant Priest. --AlbaniaDisorders. --Salt Mines. 

On leaving Ushitza, the Natchalnik accompanied me with a cavalcade oftwenty or thirty Christians, a few miles out of the town. Theafternoon was beautiful; the road lay through hilly ground, and aftertwo hours' riding, we saw Poshega in the middle of a wide level plain;after descending to which, we crossed the Scrapesh by an elegantbridge of sixteen arches, and entering the village, put up at amiserable khan, although Poshega is the embryo of a town symmetricallyand geometrically laid out. Twelve years ago a Turk wounded a Servianin the streets of Ushitza, in a quarrel about some trifling matter. The Servian pulled out a pistol, and shot the Turk dead on the spot. Both nations seized their arms, and rushing out of the houses, abloody affray took place, several being left dead on the spot. TheServians, feeling their numerical inferiority, now transplantedthemselves to the little hamlet of Poshega, which is in a finer plainthan that of Ushitza; but the colony does not appear to prosper, formost of the Servians have since returned to Ushitza. 

Poshega, from remnants of a nobler architecture, must have been aRoman colony. At the new church a stone is built into the wall, havingthe fragment of an inscription:--

 A V I A. G E N T I L F L A I I S P R

and various other stones are to be seen, one with a figure sculpturedon it. 

Continuing our way down the rich valley of the Morava, which is hereseveral miles wide, and might contain ten times the presentpopulation, we arrived at Csatsak, which proved to be as symmetricallylaid out as Poshega. Csatsak is old and new, but the old Turkish townhas disappeared, and the new Servian Csatsak is still a foetus. Theplan on which all these new places are constructed, is simple, andconsists of a circular or square market place, with bazaar shops inthe Turkish manner, and straight streets diverging from them. I put upat the khan, and then went to the Natchalnik's house to deliver myletter. Going through green lanes, we at length stopped at a highwooden paling, over-topped with rose and other bushes. Entering, wefound ourselves on a smooth carpet of turf, and opposite a prettyrural cottage, somewhat in the style of a citizen's villa in theenvirons of London. The Natchalnik was not at home, but was gracefullyrepresented by his young wife, a fair specimen of the beauty ofCsatsak; and presently the Deputy and the Judge came to see us. A darkcomplexioned, good-natured looking man, between thirty and forty, nowentered, with an European air, German trowsers and waistcoat, but aTurkish riding cloak. "There comes the doctor, " said the lady, and thefigure with the Turkish riding cloak thus announced himself:--

_Doctor_. "I' bin a' Wiener. "

_Author_. "Gratulire: dass iss a' lustige Stadt. "

_Doctor_. "Glaub'ns mir, lust'ger als Csatsak. "

_Author_. "I' glaub's. "

The Judge, a sedate, elderly, and slightly corpulent man, asked mewhat route I had pursued, and intended to pursue. I informed him ofthe particulars of my journey, and added that I intended to follow thevalley of the Morava to its confluence with the Danube. "The goodfolks of Belgrade do not travel for their pleasure, and could give melittle information; therefore, I have chalked out my route from thestudy of the map. "

"You have gone out of your way to see Sokol, " said he; "you may aswell extend your tour to Novibazaar, and the Kopaunik. You are fond ofmaps: go to the peak of the Kopaunik, and you will see all Serviarolled out before you from Bosnia to Bulgaria, and from the Balkan tothe Danube; not a map, or a copy, but the original. "

"The temptation is irresistible. --My mind is made up to follow youradvice. "

We now went in a body, and paid our visit to the Bishop of Csatsak, who lives in the finest house in the place; a large well-built villa, on a slight eminence within a grassy inclosure. The Bishop received usin an open kiosk, on the first floor, fitted all round with cushions, and commanding a fine view of the hills which inclose the plain of theMorava. The thick woods and the precipitous rocks, which impart ruggedbeauty to the valley of the Drina, are here unknown; the eye wandersover a rich yellow champaign, to hills which were too distant topresent distinct details, but vaguely grey and beautiful in thetransparent atmosphere of a Servian early autumn. 

The Bishop was a fine specimen of the Church militant, --a stout fieryman of sixty, in full-furred robes, and a black velvet cap. Hisenergetic denunciations of the lawless appropriations of Milosh, hadfor many years procured him the enmity of that remarkable individual;but he was now in the full tide of popularity. 

His questions referred principally to the state of parties in England, and I could not help thinking that his philosophy must have beensomething like that of the American parson in the quarantine atSmyrna, who thought that fierce combats and contests were as necessaryto clear the moral atmosphere, as thunder and lightning to purify thevisible heavens. We now took leave of the Bishop, and went homewards, for there had been several candidates for entertaining me; but Idecided for the jovial doctor, who lived in the house that wasformerly occupied by Jovan Obrenovitch, the youngest and favouritebrother of Milosh. 

Next morning, as early as six o'clock, I was aroused by theannouncement that the Natchalnik had returned from the country, andwas waiting to see me. On rising, I found him to be a plain, simpleServian of the old school; he informed me that this being a saint'sday, the Bishop would not commence mass until I was arrived. "What?"thought I to myself, "does the Bishop think that these obstreperousBritons are all of the Greek religion. " The doctor thought that Ishould not go; "for, " said he, "whoever wishes to exercise the virtueof patience may do so in a Greek mass or a Hungarian law-suit!" Butthe Natchalnik decided for going; and I, always ready to conform tothe custom of the country, accompanied him. 

The cathedral church was a most ancient edifice of Byzantinearchitecture, which had been first a church, and then a mosque, andthen a church again. The honeycombs and stalactite ornaments in thecorners, as well as a marble stone in the floor, adorned withgeometrical arabesques, showed its services to Islamism. But thepictures of the Crucifixion, and the figures of the priests, remindedme that I was in a Christian temple. 

The Bishop, in pontificalibus, was dressed in a crimson velvet andwhite satin dress, embroidered in gold, which had cost £300 at Vienna;and as he sat in his chair, with mitre on head, and crosier in hand, looked, with his white bushy beard, an imposing representative ofspiritual authority. Sometimes he softened, and looked bland, as ifit would not have been beneath him to grant absolution to an emperor. 

A priest was consecrated on the occasion; but the service was so long, (full two hours and a half, ) that I was fatigued with the endlessbowings and motions, and thought more than once of the benevolent wishof the doctor, to see me preserved from a Greek mass and a Hungarianlaw-suit; but the singing was good, simple, massive, and antique incolouring. At the close of the service, thin wax tapers were presentedto the congregation, which each of them lighted. After which theyadvanced and kissed the Cross and Gospels, which were covered withmost minute silver and gold filagree work. 

The prolonged service had given me a good appetite; and when Ireturned to the doctor, he smiled, and said, "I am sure you are readyfor your _cafe au lait_. "

"I confess it was rather _langweilig_. "

"Take my advice for the future, and steer clear of a Greek mass, or aHungarian law-suit. "

We now went to take farewell of the Bishop, whom we found, asyesterday, in the kiosk, with a fresh set of fur robes, and lookingas superb as ever, with a large and splendid ring on his forefinger. 

"If you had not come during a fast, " growled he, with as good-humoureda smile as could be expected from so formidable a personage, "I wouldhave given you a dinner. The English, I know, fight well at sea; but Ido not know if they like salt fish. "

A story is related of this Bishop, that on the occasion of some formertraveller rising to depart, he asked, "Are your pistols in goodorder?" On the traveller answering in the affirmative, the Bishoprejoined, "Well, now you may depart with my blessing!"

Csatsak, although the seat of a Bishop and a Natchalnik, is only avillage, and is insignificant when one thinks of the magnificent plainin which it stands. At every step I made in this country I thought ofthe noble field which it offers for a system of colonization congenialto the feelings, and subservient to the interests of the presentoccupants. 

We now journeyed to Karanovatz, where we arrived after sunset, andproceeded in the dark up a paved street, till we saw on our left a_cafe_, with lights gleaming through the windows, and a crowd ofpeople, some inside, some outside, sipping their coffee. Anindividual, who announced himself as the captain of Karanovatz, stepped forward, accompanied by others, and conducted me to his house. Scarcely had I sat down on his divan when two handmaidens entered, oneof them bearing a large basin in her hand. 

"My guest, " said the captain, "you must be fatigued with your ride. This house is your's. Suppose yourself at home in the country beyondthe sea. "

"What, " said I, looking to the handmaidens, "supper already! You havedivined my arrival to a minute. "

"Oh, no; we must put you at your ease before supper time; it is warmwater. "

"Nothing can be more welcome to a traveller. " So the handmaidensadvanced, and while one pulled off my socks, I lolling luxuriously onthe divan, and smoking my pipe, the other washed my feet with water, tepid to a degree, and then dried them. With these agreeablesensations still soothing me, coffee was brought by the lady of thehouse, on a very pretty service; and I could not help admitting thatthere was less roughing in Servian travel than I expected. 

After supper, the pariah priest came in, a middle-aged man. 

_Author_. "Do you remember the Turkish period at Karanovatz?"

_Priest_. "No; I came here only lately. My native place is Wuchitern, on the borders of a large lake in the High Balkan; but, in common withmany of the Christian inhabitants, I was obliged to emigrate lastyear. "

_Author_. "For what reason?"

_Priest_. "A horde of Albanians, from fifteen to twenty thousand innumber, burst from the Pashalic of Scodra upon the peacefulinhabitants of the Pashalic of Vrania, committing the greatesthorrors, burning down villages, and putting the inhabitants to thetorture, in order to get money, and dishonouring all the handsomestwomen. The Porte sent a large force, disarmed the rascals, and sentthe leaders to the galleys; but I and my people find ourselves sowell here that we feel little temptation to return. "

The grand exploit in the life of our host was a caravan journey toSaloniki, where he had the satisfaction of seeing the sea, acircumstance which distinguished him, not only from the good folks ofKaranovatz, but from most of his countrymen in general. 

"People that live near the sea, " said he, "get their salt cheapenough; but that is not the case in Servia. When Baron Herder made hisexploration of the stones and mountains of Servia, he discovered saltin abundance somewhere near the Kopaunik; but Milosh, who at that timehad the monopoly of the importation of Wallachian salt in his ownhands, begged him to keep the place secret, for fear his own profitswould suffer a diminution. Thus we must pay a large price for foreignsalt, when we have plenty of it at our own doors. "[10]

Next day, we walked about Caranovatz. It is symmetrically built likeCsatsak, but better paved and cleaner. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 10: I have since heard that the Servian salt is to beworked. ]

CHAPTER XVII. 

Coronation Church of the ancient Kings of Servia. --Enter theHighlands. --Valley of the Ybar. --First view of the HighBalkan. --Convent of Studenitza. --Byzantine Architecture. --PhlegmaticMonk. --Servian Frontier. --New Quarantine. --Russian Major. 

We again started after mid-day, with the captain and his momkes, and, proceeding through meadows, arrived at Zhitchka Jicha. This is anancient Servian convent, of Byzantine architecture, where seven kingsof Servia were crowned, a door being broken into the wall for theentrance of each sovereign, and built up again on his departure. It issituated on a rising ground, just where the river Ybar enters theplain of Karanovatz. The environs are beautiful. The hills are ofmoderate height, covered with verdure and foliage; only campanileswere wanting to the illusion of my being in Italy, somewhere aboutVerona or Vicenza, where the last picturesque undulations of the Alpsmeet the bountiful alluvia of the Po. Quitting the valley of theMorava, we struck southwards into the highlands. Here the scenechanged; the valley of the Ybar became narrow, the vegetation scanty;and, at evening, we arrived at a tent made of thick matted branches oftrees, which had been strewn for us with fresh hay. The elders ofMagletch, a hamlet an hour off, came with an offer of their services, in case they were wanted. 

The sun set; and a bright crackling fire of withered branches of pine, mingling its light with the rays of the moon in the clear chill of aSeptember evening, threw a wild and unworldly pallor over the sterilescene of our bivouac, and the uncouth figures of the elders. Theyoffered me a supper; but contenting myself with a roasted head ofIndian corn, and rolling my cloak and pea jacket about me, I fellasleep: but felt so cold that, at two o'clock, I roused theencampment, sounded to horse, and, in a few minutes, was againmounting the steep paths that lead to Studenitza. 

Day gradually dawned, and the scene became wilder and wilder; not achalet was to be seen, for the ruined castle of Magletch on its lonecrag, betokened nothing of humanity. Tall cedars replaced the oak andthe beech, the scanty herbage was covered with hoar-frost. The clearbrooks murmured chillingly down the unshaded gullies, and a grand lineof sterile peaks to the South, showed me that I was approaching thebackbone of the Balkan. All on a sadden I found the path overlookinga valley, with a few cocks of hay on a narrow meadow; and another turnof the road showed me the lines of a Byzantine edifice with a gracefuldome, sheltered in a wood from the chilling winter blasts of thishighland region. Descending, and crossing the stream, we now proceededup to the eminence on which the convent was placed, and I perceivedthick walls and stout turrets, which bade a sturdy defiance to allhostile intentions, except such as might be supported by artillery. 

On dismounting and entering the wicket, I found myself in an extensivecourt, one side of which was formed by a newly built crescent-shapedcloister; the other by a line of irregular out-houses with woodenstairs, _chardacks_ and other picturesque but fragile appendages ofTurkish domestic architecture. 

Between these pigeon-holes and the new substantial, but mean-lookingcloister, on the other side rose the church of polished white marble, a splendid specimen of pure Byzantine architecture, if I dare applysuch an adjective to that fantastic middle manner, which succeeded tothe style of the fourth century, and was subsequently re-cast byChristians and Moslems into what are called the Gothic andSaracenic. [11]

A fat, feeble-voiced, lymphatic-faced Superior, leaning on a longstaff, received us; but the conversation was all on one side, for"_Blagodarim_, " (I thank you, ) was all that I could get out of him. After reposing a little in the parlour, I came out to view the churchagain, and expressed my pleasure at seeing so fair an edifice in themidst of such a wilderness. 

The Superior slowly raised his eyebrows, looked first at the church, then at me, and relapsed into a frowning interrogative stupor; atlast, suddenly rekindling as if he had comprehended my meaning, added"_Blagodarim_" (I thank you). A shrewd young man, from a village a fewmiles off, now came forward just as the Superior's courage pricked himon to ask if there were any convents in my country; "Very few, " saidI. 

"But there are, " said the young pert Servian, "a great many schoolsand colleges where useful sciences are taught to the young, andhospitals, where active physicians cure diseases. "

This was meant as a cut to the reverend Farniente. He looked blank, but evidently wanted the boldness and ingenuity to frame an answer tothis redoubtable innovator. At last he gaped at me to help him out ofthe dilemma. 

"I should be sorry, " said I, "if any thing were to happen to thisconvent. It is a most interesting and beautiful monument of theancient kingdom of Servia; I hope it will be preserved and honourablykept up to a late period. "

"_Blagodarim_, (I am obliged to you, )" said the Superior, pleased atthe Gordian knot being loosed, and then relapsed into his atrophy, without moving a muscle of his countenance. 

I now examined the church; the details of the architecture showed thatit had suffered severely from the Turks. The curiously twisted pillarsof the outer door were sadly chipped, while noseless angels, andfearfully mutilated lions guarded the inner portal. Passing through avestibule, we saw the remains of the font, which must have beenmagnificent; and covered with a cupola, the stumps of the white marblecolumns which support it are still visible; high on the wall is apiece of sculpture, supposed to represent St. George. 

Entering the church, I saw on the right the tomb of St. Simeon, thesainted king of Servia; beside it hung his banner with the half-moonon it, the insignium of the South Slavonic nation from the dawn ofheraldry. Near the altar was the body of his son, St. Stephen, thepatron saint of Servia. Those who accompanied us paid little attentionto the architecture of the church, but burst into raptures at thesight of the carved wood of the screen, which had been most minutelyand elaborately cut by Tsinsars, (as the Macedonian Latins are calledto this day). 

Close to the church is a chapel with the following inscription:

"I, Stephen Urosh, servant of God, great grandson of Saint Simeon andson of the great king Urosh, king of all the Servian lands and coasts, built this temple in honour of the holy and just Joachim and Anna, 1314. Whoever destroys this temple of Christ be accursed of God and ofme a sinner. "

Thirty-five churches in this district, mostly in ruins, attest thepiety of the Neman dynasty. The convent of Studenitza was builttowards the end of the twelfth century, by the first of the dynasty. The old cloister of the convent was burnt down by the Turks. The newcloister was built in 1839. In fact it is a wonder that so fine amonument as the church should have been preserved at all. 

There is a total want of arable land in this part of Servia, and thepasture is neither good nor abundant; but the Ybar is the mostcelebrated of all the streams of Servia for large quantities of trout. 

Next day we continued our route direct South, through scenery of thesame rugged and sterile description as that we had passed on the wayhither. How different from the velvet verdure and woodland music ofthe Gutchevo and the Drina! At one place on the bank of the Ybar, there was room for only a led horse, by a passage cut in the rock. This place bears the name of Demir Kapu, or Iron Gate. In the eveningwe arrived at the frontier quarantine, called Raska, which is situatedat two hours' distance from Novibazar. 

In the midst of an amphitheatre of hills destitute of vegetation, which appeared low from the valley, although they must have been highenough above the level of the sea, was such a busy scene as one mayfind in the back settlements of Eastern Russia. Within an extensiveinclosure of high palings was a heterogeneous mass of new buildings, some unfinished, and resounding with the saw, the plane, and thehatchet; others in possession of the employes in their uniforms;others again devoted to the safe keeping of the well-armed caravans, which bring their cordovans, oils, and cottons, from Saloniki, throughMacedonia, and over the Balkan, to the gates of Belgrade. 

On dismounting, the Director, a thin elderly man, with a modest andpleasing manner, told me in German that he was a native of theAustrian side of the Save, and had been attached to the quarantine atSemlin; that he had joined the quarantine service, with the permissionof his government, and after having directed various otherestablishments, was now occupied in organizing this new point. 

The _traiteur_ of the quarantine gave us for dinner a very fairpillaff, as well as roast and boiled fowl; and going outside to ourbench, in front of the finished buildings, I began to smoke. Aslightly built and rather genteel-looking man, with a braided surtout, and a piece of ribbon at his button-hole, was sitting on the step ofthe next door, and wished me good evening in German. I asked him whohe was, and he told me that he was a Pole, and had been a major in theRussian service, but was compelled to quit it in consequence of aduel. 

I asked him if he was content with his present condition; and heanswered, "Indeed, I am not; I am perfectly miserable, and sometimesthink of returning to Russia, _coute qui coute_. --My salary is £20sterling a year, and everything is dear here; for there is novillage, but an artificial settlement; and I have neither books norEuropean society. I can hold out pretty well now, for the weather isfine; but I assure you that in winter, when the snow is on the ground, it exhausts my patience. " We now took a turn down the inclosure to hishouse, which was the ground-floor of the guard-house. Here was a bedon wooden boards, a single chair and table, without any otherfurniture. 

The Director, obliging me, made up a bed for me in his own house, since the only resource at the _traiteur's_ would have been my owncarpet and pillow. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 11: Ingenious treaties have been written on the origin of theGothic and Saracenic styles of architecture; but it seems to meimpossible to contemplate many Byzantine edifices without feelingpersuaded that this manner is the parent of both. Taking the LowerEmpire for the point of departure, the Christian style spread north tothe Baltic and westwards to the Atlantic. Saint Stephen's in Vienna, standing half way between Byzantium and Wisby, has a Byzantine facadeand a Gothic tower. The Saracenic style followed the Moslem conquestsround by the southern coasts of the Mediterranean to Morocco andAndaloss. Thus both the northern and the eastern styles met eachother, first in Sicily and then in Spain, both having started fromConstantinople. ]

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Cross the Bosniac Frontier. --Gipsy Encampment. --Novibazardescribed. --Rough Reception. --Precipitate Departure. --Fanaticism. 

Next day we were all afoot at an early hour, in order to pay a visitto Novibazar. In order to obviate the performance of quarantine on ourreturn, I took an officer of the establishment, and a couple of men, with me, who in the Levant are called Guardiani; but here the Germanword Ueber-reiter, or over-rider, was adopted. 

We continued along the river Raska for about an hour, and thendescried a line of wooden palings going up hill and down dale, atright angles with the course we were holding. This was the frontier ofthe principality of Servia, and here began the direct rule of theSultan and the Pashalic of Bosnia. At the guard-house half a dozenMomkes, with old fashioned Albanian guns, presented arms. 

After half an hour's riding, the valley became wider, and we passedthrough meadow lands, cultivated by Moslem Bosniacs in their whiteturbans; and two hours further, entered a fertile circular plain, about a mile and a half in diameter, surrounded by low hills, whichhad a chalky look, in the midst of which rose the minarets andbastions of the town and castle of Novibazar. Numerous gipsy tentscovered the plain, and at one of them, a withered old gipsy woman, with white dishevelled hair hanging down on each side of her burntumber face, cried out in a rage, "See how the Royal Servian peoplenow-a-days have the audacity to enter Novibazar on horseback, "alluding to the ancient custom of Christians not being permitted toride on horseback in a town. [12]

On entering, I perceived the houses to be of a most forbiddingaspect, being built of mud, with only a base of bricks, extendingabout three feet from the ground. None of the windows were glazed;this being the first town of this part of Turkey in Europe that I hadseen in such a plight. The over-rider stopped at a largestable-looking building, which was the khan of the place. Near thedoor were some bare wooden benches, on which some Moslems, includingthe khan-keeper, were reposing. The horses were foddered at the otherextremity, and a fire burned in the middle of the floor, the smokeescaping by the doors. We now sent our letter to Youssouf Bey, thegovernor, but word was brought back that he was in the harem. 

We now sallied forth to view the town. The castle, which occupies thecentre, is on a slight eminence, and flanked with eight bastions; itcontains no regular troops, but merely some _redif_, or militia. Besides one small well-built stone mosque, there is nothing else toremark in the place. Some of the bazaar shops seemed tolerably wellfurnished; but the place is, on the whole, miserable and filthy inthe extreme. The total number of mosques is seventeen. 

The afternoon being now advanced, I went to call upon the Mutsellim. His konak was situated in a solitary street, close to the fields. Going through an archway, we found ourselves in the court of a houseof two stories. The ground-floor was the prison, with small windowsand grated wooden bars. Above was an open corridor, on which theapartments of the Bey opened. Two rusty, old fashioned cannons were inthe middle of the court. Two wretched-looking men, and a woman, detained for theft, occupied one of the cells. They asked us if weknew where somebody, with an unpronounceable name, had gone. But nothaving had the honour of knowing any body of the light-fingeredprofession, we could give no satisfactory information on the subject. 

The Momke, whom we had asked after the governor, now re-descended therickety steps, and announced that the Bey was still asleep; so Iwalked out, but in the course of our ramble learned that he wasafraid to see us, on account of the fanatics in the town: for, fromthe immediate vicinity of this place to Servia, the inhabitantsentertain a stronger hatred of Christians than is usual in the otherparts of Turkey, where commerce, and the presence of Frank influences, cause appearances to be respected. But the people here recollectedonly of one party of Franks ever visiting the town. [13]

We now sauntered into the fields; and seeing the cemetery, whichpromised from its elevation to afford a good general view of the town, we ascended, and were sorry to see so really pleasing a situationabused by filth, indolence, and barbarism. 

The castle was on the elevated centre of the town; and the townsloping on all aides down to the gardens, was as nearly as possible inthe centre of the plain. When we had sufficiently examined the carvedstone kaouks and turbans on the tomb stones, we re-descended towardsthe town. A savage-looking Bosniac now started up from behind a lowouthouse, and trembling with rage and fanaticism began to abuse us:"Giaours, kafirs, spies! I know what you have come for. Do you expectto see your cross planted some day on the castle?"

The old story, thought I to myself; the fellow takes me for a militaryengineer, exhausting the resources of my art in a plan for thereduction of the redoubtable fortress and city of Novibazar. 

"Take care how you insult an honourable gentleman, " said theover-rider; "we will complain to the Bey. "

"What do we care for the Bey?" said the fellow, laughing in theexuberance of his impudence. I now stopped, looked him full in theface, and asked him coolly what he wanted. 

"I will show you that when you get into the bazaar, " and then hesuddenly bolted down a lane out of sight. 

A Christian, who had been hanging on at a short distance, came up andsaid--

"I advise you to take yourself out of the dust as quickly as possible. The whole town is in a state of alarm; and unless you are prepared forresistance, something serious may happen: for the fellows here areall wild Arnaouts, and do not understand travelling Franks. "

"Your advice is a good one; I am obliged to you for the hint, and Iwill attend to it. "

Had there been a Pasha or consul in the place, I would have got thefellow punished for his insolence: but knowing that our small partywas no match for armed fanatics, and that there was nothing more to beseen in the place, we avoided the bazaar, and went round by a sidestreet, paid our khan bill, [14] and, mounting our horses, trottedrapidly out of the town, for fear of a stray shot; but the over-rideron getting clear of the suburbs instead of relaxing got into a gallop. 

"Halt, " cried I, "we are clear of the rascals, and fairly out oftown;" and coming up to the eminence crowned with the GiurgeveStupovi, on which was a church, said to have been built by StephenDushan the Powerful, I resolved to ascend, and got the over-rider togo so far; but some Bosniacs in a field warned us off with menacinggestures. The over-rider said, "For God's sake let us go straighthome. If I go back to Novibazar my life may be taken. "

Not wishing to bring the poor fellow into trouble, I gave up theproject, and returned to the quarantine. 

Novibazar, which is about ten hours distant from the territory ofMontenegro, and thrice that distance from Scutari, is, politicallyspeaking, in the Pashalic of Bosnia. The Servian or Bosniac languagehere ceases to be the preponderating language, and the Albanian beginsand stretches southward to Epirus. But through all the Pashalic ofScutari, Servian is much spoken. 

Colonel Hodges, her Britannic Majesty's first consul-general inServia, a gentleman of great activity and intelligence, from thelaudable desire to procure the establishment of an entre-pot forBritish manufactures in the interior, got a certain chieftain of aclan Vassoevitch, named British vice-consul at Novibazar. From thisman's influence, there can be no doubt that had he stuck to trade hemight have proved useful; but, inflated with vanity, he irritated thefanaticism of the Bosniacs, by setting himself up as a littleChristian potentate. As a necessary consequence, he was obliged to flyfor his life, and his house was burned to the ground. The Vassoevitchclan have from time immemorial occupied certain mountains nearNovibazar, and pretend, or pretended, to complete independence of thePorte, like the Montenegrines. 

While I returned to the quarantine, and dismounted, the Director, towhom the over-rider related our adventure, came up laughing, and said, "What do you think of the rites of Novibazar hospitality?"

_Author_. "More honoured in the breach than in the observance, as ournational poet would have said. "

_Director_. "I know well enough what you mean. "

_By-stander_. "The cause of the hatred of these fellows to you is, that they fear that some fine day they will be under Christian rule. We are pleased to see the like of you here. Our brethren on the otherside may derive a glimmering hope of liberation from thecircumstance. "

_Author_. "My government is at present on the best terms with thePorte: the readiness with which such hopes arise in the minds of thepeople, is my motive for avoiding political conversations with Rayahson those dangerous topics. "

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 12: Most of the gipsies here profess Islamism. ]

[Footnote 13: I presume Messrs. Boue and party. ]

[Footnote 14: The Austrian zwanziger goes here for only three piastres;in Servia it goes for five. ]

CHAPTER XIX. 

Ascent of the Kopaunik. --Grand Prospect. --Descent of theKopaunik. --Bruss. --Involuntary Bigamy. --Conversation on the Serviancharacter. --Krushevatz. --Relics of the Servian monarchy. 

A middle-aged, showily dressed man, presented himself as the captainwho was to conduct me to the top of the Kopaunik. His clerk was a fat, knock-kneed, lubberly-looking fellow, with a red face, a short neck, alow forehead, and bushy eyebrows and mustachios, as fair as those of aNorwegian; to add to his droll appearance, one of his eyes wasbandaged up. 

"As sure as I am alive, that fellow will go off in an apoplexy. What afigure! I would give something to see that fellow climbing up theladder of a steamer from a boat on a blowy day. "

"Or dancing to the bagpipe, " said Paul. 

The sky was cloudy, and the captain seemed irresolute, whether toadvise me to make the ascent or proceed to Banya. The plethoricone-eyed clerk, with more regard to his own comfort than my pleasure, was secretly persuading the captain that the expedition would end in aducking to the skin, and, turning to me, said, "You, surely, do notintend to go up to day, Sir? Take the advice of those who know thecountry?"

"Nonsense, " said I, "this is mere fog, which will clear away in anhour. If I do not ascend the Kopaunik now, I can never do so again. "

Plethora then went away to get the director to lend his advice on thesame side; and after much whispering he came back, and announced thatmy horse was unshod, and could not ascend the rocks. The director wasamused with the clumsy bustle of this fellow to save himself a littleexercise. I, at length, said to the doubting captain, "My good friend, an Englishman is like a Servian, when he takes a resolution he doesnot change it. Pray order the horses. "

We now crossed the Ybar, and ascending for hours through open pasturelands, arrived at some rocks interspersed with stunted ilex, where alamb was roasting for our dinner. The meridian sun had long ere thispierced the clouds that overhung our departure, and the sight of thelamb completely irradiated the rubicund visage of the plethoric clerk. A low round table was set down on the grass, under the shade of alarge boulder stone. An ilex growing from its interstices seemed tolive on its wits, for not an ounce of soil was visible for itssubsistence. Our ride gave us a sharp appetite, and we did dueexecution on the lamb. The clerk, fixing his eyes steadily on thepiece he had singled out, tucked up his sleeves, as for a surgicaloperation, and bone after bone was picked, and thrown over the rock;and when all were satisfied, the clerk was evidently at theclimacteric of his powers of mastication. After reposing a little, weagain mounted horse. 

A gentle wind skimmed the white straggling clouds from the blue sky. Warmer and warmer grew the sunlit valleys; wider and wider grew theprospect as we ascended. Balkan after Balkan rose on the distanthorizon. Ever and anon I paused and looked round with delight; butbefore reaching the summit I tantalized myself with a few hundredyards of ascent, to treasure the glories in store for the pause, theturn, and the view. When, at length, I stood on the highest peak; theprospect was literally gorgeous. Servia lay rolled out at my feet. There was the field of Kossovo, where Amurath defeated Lasar andentombed the ancient empire of Servia. I mused an instant on thisgreat landmark of European history, and following the finger of an oldpeasant, who accompanied us, I looked eastwards, and saw Deligrad--thescene of one of the bloodiest fights that preceded the resurrection ofServia as a principality. The Morava glistened in its wide valley likea silver thread in a carpet of green, beyond which the dark mountainsof Rudnik rose to the north, while the frontiers of Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria walled in the prospect. 

"_Nogo Svet_. --This is the whole world, " said the peasant, who stoodby me. 

I myself thought, that if an artist wished for a landscape as thescene of Satan taking up our Saviour into a high mountain, he couldfind none more appropriate than this. The Kopaunik is not lofty; notmuch above six thousand English feet above the level of the sea. Butit is so placed in the Servian basin, that the eye embraces the wholebreadth from Bosnia to Bulgaria, and very nearly the whole length fromMacedonia to Hungary. 

I now thanked the captain for his trouble, bade him adieu, and, with aguide, descended the north eastern slope of the mountain. Thedeclivity was rapid, but thick turf assured us a safe footing. Towardsnight-fall we entered a region interspersed with trees, and came to amiserable hamlet of shepherds, where we were fain to put up in a hut. This was the humblest habitation we had entered in Servia. It wasbuilt of logs of wood and wattling. A fire burned in the middle of thefloor, the smoke of which, finding no vent but the door, tried oureyes severely, and had covered the roof with a brilliant jet. 

Hay being laid in a corner, my carpet and pillow were spread out onit; but sleep was impossible from the fleas. At length, the sheerfatigue of combating them threw me towards morning into a slumber; andon awaking, I looked up, and saw a couple of armed men crouching overthe glowing embers of the fire. These were the Bolouk Bashi andPandour, sent by the Natchalnik of Krushevatz, to conduct us to thattown. 

I now rose, and breakfasted on new milk, mingled with brandy andsugar, no bad substitute for better fare, and mounted horse. 

We now descended the Grashevatzka river to Bruss, with low hills oneach side, covered with grass, and partly wooded. Bruss is prettilysituated on a rising ground, at the confluence of two tributaries ofthe Morava. It has a little bazaar opening on a lawn, where thecaptain of Zhupa had come to meet me. After coffee, we again mounted, and proceeded to Zhupa. Here the aspect of the country changed; theverdant hills became chalky, and covered with vineyards, which, before the fall of the empire, were celebrated. To this day traditionpoints out a cedar and some vines, planted by Militza, the consort ofLasar. 

The vine-dressers all stood in a row to receive us. A carpet had beenplaced under an oak, by the side of the river, and a round low tablein the middle of it was soon covered with soup, sheeps' kidneys, and afat capon, roasted to a minute, preceded by onions and cheese, as arinfresco, and followed by choice grapes and clotted cream, as adessert. 

"I think, " said I to the entertainer, as I shook the crumbs out of mynapkin, and took the first whiff of my chibouque, "that if StephanDushan's chief cook were to rise from the grave, he could not give usbetter fare. "

_Captain_. "God sends us good provender, good pasture, good flocks andherds, good corn and fruits, and wood and water. The land is rich; theclimate is excellent; but we are often in political troubles. "

_Author_. "These recent affairs are trifles, and you are too young torecollect the revolution of Kara Georg. "

_Captain_. "Yes, I am; but do you see that Bolouk Bashi whoaccompanied you hither; his history is a droll illustration of pasttimes. Simo Slivovats is a brave soldier, but, although a Servian, hastwo wives. "

_Author_. "Is he a Moslem?"

_Captain_. "Not at all. In the time of Kara Georg he was an activeguerilla fighter, and took prisoner a Turk called Sidi Mengia, whoselife he spared. In the year 1813, when Servia was temporarilyre-conquered by the Turks, the same Sidi Mengia returned to Zhupa, andsaid, 'Where is the brave Servian who saved my life?' The Bolouk Bashibeing found, he said to him, 'My friend, you deserve another wife foryour generosity. ' 'I cannot marry two wives, ' said Simo; 'my religionforbids it. ' But the handsomest woman in the country being sought out, Sidi Mengia sent a message to the priest of the place, ordering him tomarry Simo to the young woman. The priest refused; but Sidi Mengiasent a second threatening message; so the priest married the couple. The two wives live together to this day in the house of Simo atZhupa. The archbishop, since the departure of the Turks, hasrepeatedly called on Simo to repudiate his second wife; but theprincipal obstacle is the first wife, who looks upon the second as asort of sister: under these anomalous circumstances, Simo was under asort of excommunication, until he made a fashion of repudiating thesecond wife, by the first adopting her as a sister. "

The captain, who was an intelligent modest man, would fain have keptme till next day; but I felt anxious to get to Alexinatz; and onarrival at a hill called Vrbnitzkobrdo, the vale of the Morava againopened upon us in all its beauty and fertility, in the midst of whichlay Krushevatz, which was the last metropolis of the Servian empire;and even now scarce can fancy picture to itself a nobler site for aninternal capital. Situated half-way between the source and the mouthof the Morava, the plain has breadth enough for swelling zones ofsuburbs, suburban villas, gardens, fields, and villages. 

It was far in the night when we arrived at Krushevatz. The Natchalnikwas waiting with lanterns, and gave us a hearty welcome. As I wentupstairs his wife kissed my hand, and I in sport wished to kiss her's;but the Natchalnik said, "We still hold to the old national custom, that the wife kisses the hand of a stranger. " Our host was afair-haired man, with small features and person, a brisk manner andsharp intelligence, but tempered by a slight spice of vanity. The_tout ensemble_ reminded me of the Berlin character. 

_Natchalnik_. "I am afraid that, happy as we are to receive suchstrangers as you, we are not sufficiently acquainted with the properceremonies to be used on the occasion. "

_Author_. "The stranger must conform to the usage of the country, notthe country to the standard of the stranger. I came here to see theServians as they are in their own nature, and not in their imitationsof Europe. In the East there is more ceremony than in the West; and ifyou go to Europe you will be surprised at the absence of ceremoniouscompliments there. "

_Natchalnik_. "The people in the interior are a simple and uncorruptedrace; their only monitor is nature. "

_Author_. "That is true: the European who judges of the Servians bythe intrigues of Belgrade, will form an unfavourable opinion of them;the mass of the nation, in spite of its faults, is sound. Many of themen at the head of affairs, such as Simitch, Garashanin, &c. , are menof integrity; but in the second class at Belgrade, there is a greatmixture of rogues. "

_Natchalnik_. "I know the common people well: they are laborious, grateful, and obedient; they bear ill-usage for a time, but in the endget impatient, and are with difficulty appeased. When I or any othergovernor say to one of the people, 'Brother, this or that must bedone, ' he crosses his hands on his breast, and says, 'It shall bedone;' but he takes particular notice of what I do, and whether Iperform what is due on my part. If I fail, woe betide me. TheObrenovitch party forgot this; hence their fall. "

Next day we went to look at the remains of Servian royalty. Ashattered gateway and ruined walls, are all that now remain of theonce extensive palace of Knes Lasar Czar Serbski; but the chapel is asperfect as it was when it occupied the centre of the imperialquadrangle. It is a curious monument of the period, in a Byzantinesort of style; but not for a moment to be compared in beauty to thechurch of Studenitza. Above one of the doors is carved the doubleeagle, the insignium of empire. The great solidity of this edificerecommended it to the Turks as an arsenal; hence its carefulpreservation. The late Servian governor had the Vandalism to whitewashthe exterior, so that at a distance it looks like a vulgar parishchurch. Within is a great deal of gilding and bad painting; pity thatthe late governor did not whitewash the inside instead of the out. TheNatchalnik told me, that under the whitewash fine bricks were disposedin diamond figures between the stones. This antique principle oftesselation applied by the Byzantines to perpendicular walls, andoccasionally adopted and varied _ad infinitum_ by the Saracens, ismagnificently illustrated in the upper exterior of the ducal palace ofVenice. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Formation of the Servian Monarchy. --Contest between the Latin andGreek Churches. --Stephan Dushan. --A Great Warrior. --Results of hisVictories. --Knes Lasar. --Invasion of Amurath. --Battle ofKossovo. --Death of Lasar and Amurath. --Fall of the ServianMonarchy. --General Observations. 

I cannot present what I have to say on the feudal monarchy of Serviamore appropriately than in connexion with the architectural monumentsof the period. 

The Servians, known in Europe from the seventh century, at whichperiod they migrated from the Carpathians to the Danube, were in thetwelfth century divided into petty states. 

 "Le premier Roi fut un soldat heureux. "

Neman the First, who lived near the present Novibazar, first cementedthese scattered principalities into a united monarchy. He assumed thedouble eagle as the insignium of his dignity, and considered thearchangel Michael as the patron saint of his family. He was brave inbattle, cunning in politics, and the convent of Studenitza is asplendid monument of his love of the arts. Here he died, and wasburied in 1195. 

Servia and Bosnia were, at this remote period, the debatable territorybetween the churches of Rome and Constantinople, so divided wasopinion at that time even in Servia Proper, where now a Roman Catholiccommunity is not to be found, that two out of the three sons of thisprince were inclined to the Latin ritual. 

Stephan, the son of Neman, ultimately held by the Greek Church, andwas crowned by his brother Sava, Greek Archbishop of Servia. TheChronicles of Daniel tell that "he was led to the altar, anointed withoil, clad in purple, and the archbishop, placing the crown on hishead, cried aloud three times, 'Long live Stephan the first crownedKing and Autocrat of Servia, ' on which all the assembled magnates andpeople cried, _'nogo lieto_!' (many years!)"

The Servian kingdom was gradually extended under his successors, andattained its climax under Stephan Dushan, surnamed the Powerful, whowas, according to all contemporary accounts, of tall stature and acommanding kingly presence. He began his reign in the year 1336, andin the course of the four following years, overran nearly the whole ofwhat is now called Turkey in Europe; and having besieged the EmperorAndronicus in Thessalonica, compelled him to cede Albania andMacedonia. Prisrend, in the former province, was selected as thecapital; the pompous honorary charges and frivolous ceremonial of theGreek emperors were introduced at his court, and the short-livednational order of the Knights of St. Stephan was instituted by him in1346. 

He then turned his arms northwards, and defeated Louis of Hungary inseveral engagements. He was preparing to invade Thrace, and attemptthe conquest of Constantinople, in 1356, with eighty thousand men, butdeath cut him off in the midst of his career. 

The brilliant victories of Stephan Dushan were a misfortune toChristendom. They shattered the Greek empire, the last feeble bulwarkof Europe, and paved the way for those ultimate successes of theAsiatic conquerors, which a timely union of strength might haveprevented. Stephan Dushan was the little Napoleon of his day; heconquered, but did not consolidate: and his scourging wars wereinsufficiently balanced by the advantage of the code of laws to whichhe gave his name. 

His son Urosh, being a weak and incapable prince, was murdered by oneof the generals of the army, and thus ended the Neman dynasty, afterhaving subsisted 212 years, and produced eight kings and two emperors. The crown now devolved on Knes, or Prince Lasar, a connexion of thehouse of Neman, who was crowned Czar, but is more generally calledKnes Lasar. Of all the ancient rulers of the country, his memory isheld the dearest by the Servians of the present day. He appears tohave been a pious and generous prince, and at the same time to havebeen a brave but unsuccessful general. 

Amurath, the Ottoman Sultan, who had already taken all Roumelia, south of the Balkan, now resolved to pass these mountains, and invadeServia Proper; but, to make sure of success, secretly offered thecrown to Wuk Brankovich, a Servian chief, as a reward for histreachery to Lasar. 

Wuk caught at the bait, and when the armies were in sight of eachother, accused Milosh Kobilich, the son-in-law of Lasar, of being atraitor. On the night before the battle, Lasar assembled all theknights and nobles to decide the matter between Wuk and Milosh. Lasarthen took a silver cup of wine, handed it over to Milosh, and said, "Take this cup of wine from my hand and drink it. " Milosh drank it, intoken of his fidelity, and said, "Now there is no time for disputing. To-morrow I will prove that my accuser is a calumniator, and that I ama faithful subject of my prince and father-in-law. "

Milosh then embraced the plan of assassinating Amurath in his tent, and taking with him two stout youths, secretly left the Servian camp, and presented himself at the Turkish lines, with his lance reversed, as a sign of desertion. Arrived at the tent of Amurath, he kneltdown, and, pretending to kiss the hand of the Sultan, drew forth hisdagger, and stabbed him in the body, from which wound Amurath died. Hence the usage of the Ottomans not to permit strangers to approachthe Sultan, otherwise than with their arms held by attendants. 

The celebrated battle of Kossovo then took place. The wing commandedby Wuk gave way, he being the first to retreat. The division commandedby Lasar held fast for some time, and, at length, yielded to thesuperior force of the Turks. Lasar himself lost his life in thebattle, and thus ended the Servian monarchy on the 15th of June, 1389. 

The state of Servia, previous to its subjugation by the Turks, appearsto have been strikingly analogous to that of the other feudalmonarchies of Europe; the revenue being derived mostly from crownlands, the military service of the nobles being considered anequivalent for the tenure of their possessions. Society consisted ofecclesiastics, nobles, knights, gentlemen, and peasants. A citizenclass seldom or never figures on the scene. Its merchants wereforeigners, Byzantines, Venetians, or Ragusans, and history speaks ofno Bruges or Augsburg in Servia, Bosnia, or Albania. 

The religion of the state was that of the oriental church; the secularhead of which was not the patriarch of Constantinople; but, as is nowthe case in Russia, the emperor himself, assisted by a synod, at thehead of which was the patriarch of Servia and its dependencies. 

The first article of the code of Stephan Dushan runs thus: "Care mustbe taken of the Christian religion, the holy churches, the convents, and the ecclesiastics. " And elsewhere, with reference to the Latinheresy, as it was called, "the Orthodox Czar" was bound to use themost vigorous means for its extirpation; those who resisted were to beput to death. 

At the death of a noble, his arms belonged by right to the Czar; buthis dresses, gold and silver plate, precious stones, and gilt girdlesfell to his male children, whom failing, to the daughters. If a nobleinsulted another noble, he paid a fine; if a gentleman insulted anoble, he was flogged. 

The laity were called "dressers in white:" hence one must concludethat light coloured dresses were used by the people, and black by theclergy. Beards were worn and held sacred: plucking the beard of anoble was punished by the loss of the right hand. 

Rape was punished with cutting off the nose of the man; the girlreceived at the same time a third of the man's fortune, as acompensation. Seduction, if not followed by marriage, was expiated bya pound of gold, if the party were rich; half a pound of gold, if theparty were in mediocre circumstances; and cutting off the nose if theparty were poor. 

If a woman's husband were absent at the wars, she must wait ten yearsfor his return, or for news of him. If she got sure news of his death, she must wait a year before marrying again. Otherwise a secondmarriage was considered adultery. 

Great protection was afforded to friendly merchants, who were mostlyVenetians. All lords of manors were enjoined to give them hospitality, and were responsible for losses sustained by robbery within theirjurisdiction. The lessees of the gold and silver mines of Servia, aswell as the workmen of the state mint, were also Venetians; and onlooking through Professor Shafarik's collection, I found all the coinsclosely resembling in die those of Venice. Saint Stephan is seengiving to the king of the day the banner of Servia, in the same way asSaint Mark gives the banner of the republic of Venice to the Doge, asseen on the old coins of that state. 

The process of embalming was carried to high perfection, for the mummyof the canonized Knes Lasar is to be seen to this day. I made apilgrimage some years ago to Vrdnik, a retired monastery in the FruscaGora, where his mummy is preserved with the most religious care, inthe church, exposed to the atmosphere. It is, of course, shrunk, shrivelled, and of a dark brown colour, bedecked with an antiqueembroidered mantle, said to be the same worn at the battle of Kossovo. The fingers were covered with the most costly rings, no doubt sinceadded. 

It appears that the Roman practice of burning the dead, (probablypreserved by the Tsinsars, the descendants of the colonists inMacedonia, ) was not uncommon, for any village in which such an acttook place was subject to fine. 

If there be Moslems in secret to this day in Andalusia, and if therewere worshippers of Odin and Thor till lately on the shores of theBaltic, may not some secret votaries of Jupiter and Mars have lingeredamong the recesses of the Balkan, for centuries after Christianity hadshed its light over Europe?

The Servian monarchy having terminated more than half a century beforethe invention of printing, and most of the manuscripts of the periodhaving been destroyed, or dispersed during the long Turkishoccupation, very little is known of the literature of this periodexcept the annals of Servia, by Archbishop Daniel, the originalmanuscript of which is now in the Hiliendar monastery of Mount Athos. The language used was the old Slaavic, now a dead language, but usedto this day as the vehicle of divine service in all Greco-Slaaviccommunities from the Adriatic to the utmost confines of Russia, andthe parent of all the modern varieties of the Southern and EasternSlaavic languages. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A Battue missed. --Proceed to Alexinatz. --Foreign-OfficeCourier. --Bulgarian frontier. --Gipsey Suregee. --Tiupria. --New bridgeand macadamized road. 

The Natchalnik was the Nimrod of his district, and had madearrangements to treat me to a grand hunt of bears and boars on theJastrabatz, with a couple of hundred peasants to beat the woods; butthe rain poured, the wind blew, my sport was spoiled, and I missedglorious materials for a Snyders in print. Thankful was I, however, that the element had spared me during the journey in the hills, andthat we were in snug quarters during the bad weather. A day later Ishould have been caught in the peasant's chimneyless-hut at the footof the Balkan, and then should have roughed it in earnest. 

When the weather settled, I was again in motion, ascending that branchof the Morava which comes from Nissa. There was nothing to remark inthis part of Servia, which proved to be the least interesting part ofour route, being wanting as well in boldness of outline as inluxuriant vegetation. 

On approaching a khan, at a short distance from Alexinatz, I perceivedan individual whom I guessed to be the captain of the place, alongwith a Britannic-looking figure in a Polish frock. This was CaptainW----, a queen's messenger of the new school. 

While we were drinking a cup of coffee, a Turkish Bin Bashi came uponhis way to Belgrade from the army of Roumelia at Kalkendel; he told usthat the Pasha of Nish had gone with all his force to Procupli todisarm the Arnaouts. I very naturally took out the map to learn whereProcupli was; on which the Bin Bashi asked me if I was a militaryengineer! "That boy will be the death of me!"--so nobody but militaryengineers are permitted to look at maps. 

For a month I had seen or heard nothing of Europe and Europeansexcept the doctor at Csatsak, and his sage maxims about Greek massesand Hungarian law-suits. I therefore made prize of the captain, whowas an intelligent man, with an abundance of fresh politicalchit-chat, and odds and ends of scandal from Paddington to the Bank, and from Pall-mall to Parliament-street, brimful of extracts andessences of Athenaeums, United-Services, and other hebdomadals. Formerly Foreign-Office messengers were the cast-off butlers andvalets of secretaries of state. For some time back they have beentaken from the half-pay list and the educated classes. One or two canboast of very fair literary attainments; and a man who once a yearspends a few weeks in all the principal capitals of Europe, fromMadrid to St. Petersburg and Constantinople, necessarily picks up agreat knowledge of the world. The British messengers post out fromLondon to Semlin, where they leave their carriages, ride across toAlexinatz on the Bulgarian frontier, whence the despatches are carriedby a Tartar to Constantinople, via Philippopoli and Adrianople. 

On arriving at Alexinatz, a good English dinner awaited us at thekonak of the queen's messenger. It seemed so odd, and yet was so verycomfortable, to have roast beef, plum pudding, sherry, brown stout, Stilton cheese, and other insular groceries at the foot of the Balkan. There was, moreover, a small library, with which the temporaryoccupants of the konak killed the month's interval between arrival anddeparture. 

Next day I visited the quarantine buildings with the inspector; theyare all new, and erected in the Austrian manner. The number of thosewho purge their quarantine is about fourteen thousand individuals perannum, being mostly Bulgarians who wander into Servia at harvest time, and place at the disposal of the haughty, warlike, and somewhatindolent Servians their more humble and laborious services. A villageof three hundred houses, a church, and a national school, have sprungup within the last few years at this point. The imports from Roumeliaand Bulgaria are mostly Cordovan leather; the exports, Austrianmanufactures, which pass through Servia. 

When the new macadamized road from Belgrade to this point isfinished, there can be no doubt that the trade will increase. Thepossible effect of which is, that the British manufactures, which aresold at the fairs of Transbalkan Bulgaria, may be subject to greatercompetition. After spending a few days at Alexinatz, I started withpost horses for Tiupria, as the horse I had ridden had been soseverely galled, that I was obliged to send him to Belgrade. 

Tiupria, being on the high road across Servia, has a large khan, atwhich I put up. I had observed armed guards at the entrance of thetown, and felt at a loss to account for the cause. The rooms of thekhan being uninhabitable, I sent Paul with my letter of introductionto the Natchalnik, and sat down in the khan kitchen, which was aparlour at the same time; an apartment, with a brick floor, one sideof which was fitted up with a broad wooden bench (the bare boardsbeing in every respect preferable in such cases to cushions, as onehas a better chance of cleanliness). 

The other side of the apartment was like a hedge alehouse in England, with a long table and moveable benches. Several Servians sat heredrinking coffee and smoking; others drinking wine. The Cahwagi wasstanding with his apron on, at a little charcoal furnace, stirring hissmall coffee-pot until the cream came. I ordered some wine for myself, as well as the Suregee, but the latter said, "I do not drink wine. " Inow looked him in the face, and saw that he was of a very darkcomplexion; for I had made the last stage after sunset, and had notremarked him. 

_Author_. "Are you a Chingany (gipsy)?"

_Gipsy_. "Yes. "

_Author_. "Now I recollect most of the gipsies here are Moslems; howdo you show your adherence to Islamism?"

_Gipsy_. "I go regularly to mosque, and say my prayers. "

_Author_. "What language do you speak?"

_Gipsy_. "In business Turkish or Servian; but with my familyChingany. "

I now asked the Cahwagi the cause of the guards being posted in thestreets; and he told me of the attempt at Shabatz, by disguisedhussars, in which the worthy collector met his death. Paul notreturning, I felt impatient, and wondered what had become of him. Atlength he returned, and told me that he had been taken in the streetsas a suspicious character, without a lantern, carried to theguard-house, and then to the house of the Natchalnik, to whom hepresented the letter, and from whom he now returned, with a pandour, and a message to come immediately. 

The Natchalnik met us half-way with the lanterns, and reproached mefor not at once descending at his house. Being now fatigued, I soonwent to bed in an apartment hung round with all sorts of arms. Therewere Albanian guns, Bosniac pistols, Vienna fowling-pieces, and allmanner of Damascus and Khorassan blades. 

Next morning, on awaking, I looked out at my window, and found myselfin a species of kiosk, which hung over the Morava, now no longer amountain stream, but a broad and almost navigable river. The lands onthe opposite side were flat, but well cultivated, and two bridges, anold and a new one, spanned the river. Hence the name Tiupria, from theTurkish _keupri_ (bridge, ) for here the high road from Belgrade toConstantinople crosses the Morava. 

The Natchalnik, a tall, muscular, broad-shouldered man, now entered, and, saluting me like an old friend, asked me how I slept. 

_Author_. "I thank you, never better in my life. My yesterday's ridegave me a sharp exercise, without excessive fatigue. I need not askyou how you are, for you are the picture of health and herculeanstrength. "

_Natchalnik_. "I was strong in my day, but now and then nature tellsme that I am considerably on the wrong side of my climacteric. "

_Author_. "Pray tell me what is the reason of this accumulation ofarms. I never slept with such ample means of defence within myreach, --quite an arsenal. "

_Natchalnik_. "You have no doubt heard of the attempt of theObrenovitch faction at Shabatz. We are under no apprehension of theirdoing any thing here; for they have no partizans: but I am an oldsoldier, and deem it prudent to take precautions, even whenappearances do not seem to demand them very imperiously. I wish therascals would show face in this quarter, just to prevent our arms fromgetting rusty. Our greatest loss is that of Ninitch, the collector. "

_Author_. "Poor follow. I knew him as well as any man can know anotherin a few days. He made a most favourable impression on me: it seems asit were but yesternight that I toasted him in a bumper, and wished himlong life, which, like many other wishes of mine, was not destined tobe fulfilled. How little we think of the frail plank that separates usfrom the ocean of eternity!"

_Natchalnik_. "I was once, myself, very near the other world, havingentered as a volunteer in the Russian army that crossed the Balkan in1828. I burned a mosque in defiance of the orders of Marshal Diebitch;the consequence was that I was tried by a court-martial, and condemnedto be shot: but on putting in a petition, and stating that I had doneso through ignorance, and in accomplishment of a vow of vengeance, myfather and brother having been killed by the Turks in the war ofliberation, seven of our houses[15] having been burned at the sametime, Marshal Diebitch on reading the petition pardoned me. "

The doctor of the place now entered; a very little man with a palecomplexion, and a black braided surtout. He informed me that he hadbeen for many years a Surgeon in the Austrian navy. On my asking himhow he liked that service, he answered, "Very well; for we rarely goout to the Mediterranean; our home-ports, Venice and Trieste, areagreeable, and our usual station in the Levant is Smyrna, which isequally pleasant. The Austrian vessels being generally frigates ofmoderate size, the officers live in a more friendly and comfortableway than if they were of heavier metal. But were I not a surgeon, Ishould prefer the wider sphere of distinction which colonial andtrans-oceanic life and incident opens to the British naval officer;for I, myself, once made a voyage to the Brazils. "

We now went to see the handsome new bridge in course of constructionover the Morava. The architect, a certain Baron Cordon, who had beenbred a military engineer, happened to be there at the time, andobligingly explained the details. At every step I see the immenseadvantages which this country derives from its vicinity to Austria ina material point of view; and yet the Austrian and Servian governmentsseem perpetually involved in the most inexplicable squabbles. A gangof poor fellows who had been compromised in the unsuccessful attemptsof last year by the Obrenovitch party, were working in chains, macadamizing the road. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 15: Houses or horses; my notes having been written withrapidity, the word is indistinct. ]

CHAPTER XXII. 

Visit to Ravanitza. --Jovial party. --Servian and Austrianjurisdiction. --Convent described. --Eagles reversed. --Bulgarianfestivities. 

The Natchalnik having got up a party, we proceeded in light cars ofthe country to Ravanitza, a convent two or three hours off in themountains to the eastward. The country was gently undulating, cultivated, and mostly inclosed, the roads not bad, and the _ensemble_such as English landscapes were represented to be half a century ago. When we approached Ravanitza we were again lost in the forest. Ascending by the side of a mountain-rill, the woods opened, and theconvent rose in an amphitheatre at the foot of an abrupt rockymountain; a pleasing spot, but wanting the grandeur and beauty of thesites on the Bosniac frontier. 

[Illustration: Ravanitza. ]

The superior was a tall, polite, middle-aged man. "I expected you longago, " said he; "the Archbishop advised me of your arrival: but wethought something might have happened, or that you had missed us. "

"I prolonged my tour, " said I, "beyond the limits of my originalproject. The circumstance of this convent having been the burial-placeof Knes Lasar, was a sufficient motive for my on no account missing asight of it. "

The superior now led us into the refectory, where a long table hadbeen laid out for dinner, for with the number of Tiuprians, as well asthe monks of this convent, and some from the neighbouring convent ofManasia, we mustered a very numerous and very gay party. The wine wasexcellent; and I could not help thinking with the jovial Abbot ofQuimper:

 "Quand nos joyeux verres Se font des le matin, Tout le jour, mes freres, Devient un festin. "

By dint of _interlarding_ my discourse with sundry apophthegms of_Bacon_, and stale paradoxes of Rochefoucaud, I passed currentthroughout Servia considerably above my real value; so after the usualtoasts due to the powers that be, the superior proposed my health in avery long harangue. Before I had time to reply, the party broke intothe beautiful hymn for longevity, which I had heard pealing in thecathedral of Belgrade for the return of Wucics and Petronievitch. Iassured them that I was unworthy of such an honour, but could not helpremarking that this hymn "for many years" immediately after thedrinking of a health, was one of the most striking and beautifulcustoms I had noticed in Servia. 

A very curious discussion arose after dinner, relative to thedifferent footing of Servians in Austria, and Austrians in Servia. Theformer when in Austria, are under the Austrian law; the latter inServia, under the jurisdiction of their own consul. Being appealed to, I explained that in former times the Ottoman Sultans easily permittedconsular jurisdiction in Turkey, without stipulating correspondingprivileges for their own subjects; for Christendom, and particularlyAustria, was considered _Dar El Harb_, or perpetually the seat of war, in which it was illegal for subjects of the Sultan to reside. 

In the afternoon we made a survey of the convent and church, whichwere built by Knes Lasar, and surrounded by a wall and seven towers. 

The church, like all the other edifices of this description, isByzantine; but being built of stone, wants the refinement which shonein the sculptures and marbles of Studenitza. I remarked, however, thatthe cupolas were admirably proportioned and most harmoniouslydisposed. Before entering I looked above the door, and perceived thatthe double eagles carved there are reversed. Instead of having body tobody, and wings and beaks pointed outwards, as in the arms of Austriaand Russia, the bodies are separated, and beak looks inward to beak. 

On entering we were shown the different vessels, one of which is asplendid cup, presented by Peter the Great, and several of the samedescription from the empress Catharine, some in gold, silver, andsteel; others in gold, silver, and bronze. 

The body of Knes Lasar, after having been for some time hid, wasburied here in 1394, remained till 1684, at which period it was takenover to Virdnik in Syrmium, where it remains to this day. 

In the cool of the evening the superior took me to a spring of cleardelicious water, gushing from rocks environed with trees. A boy with alarge crystal goblet, dashed it into the clear lymph, and presented itto me. The superior fell into eulogy of his favourite Valclusa, and Idrank not only this but several glasses, with circumstantialcriticisms on its excellence; so that the superior seemed delighted atmy having rendered such ample justice to the water he so loudlypraised, _Entre nous_, --the excellence of his wine, and the toaststhat we had drunk to the health of innumerable loyal and virtuousindividuals, rendered me a greater amateur of water-bibbing thanusual. 

After some time we returned, and saw a lamb roasting for supper in theopen air; a hole being dug in the earth, chopped vine-twigs are burntbelow it, the crimson glow of which soon roasts the lamb, and impartsa particular fragrance to the flesh. After supper we went out in themild dark evening to a mount, where a bonfire blazed and glared on thehigh square tower of the convent, and cushions were laid forchibouques and coffee. The not unpleasing drone of bagpipes resoundedthrough the woods, and a number of Bulgarians executed their nationaldance in a circle, taking hold of each other's girdle, and keepingtime with the greatest exactness. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Manasia--Has preserved its middle-age character. --RobinsonCrusoe. --Wonderful Echo. --Kindness of thepeople. --Svilainitza. --Posharevatz. --Baby Giantess. 

Next day, accompanied by the doctor, and a portion of the party ofyesterday, we proceeded to the convent of Manasia, five hours off; ourjourney being mostly through forests, with the most wretched roads. Sometimes we had to cross streams of considerable depth; at otherplaces the oaks, arching over head, almost excluded the light: atlength, on doubling a precipitous promontory of rock, a wide openvalley burst upon us, at the extremity of which we saw the donjons andcrenellated towers of a perfect feudal castle surrounding and fencingin the domes of an antique church. Again I say, that those who wishto see the castellated monuments of the middle ages just as they wereleft by the builders, must come to this country. With us in oldEurope, they are either modernized or in ruins, and in many of themevery tower and gate reflects the taste of a separate period; someedifices showing a grotesque progress from Gothic to Italian, and fromItalian to Roman _a la Louis Quinze_: a succession which correspondswith the portraits within doors, which begin with coats of mail, orpadded velvet, and end with bag-wigs and shoe-buckles. But here, atManasia, "The battle towers, the donjon keep, The loophole grates, where captives weep. The flanking walls that round it sweep, In yellow lustre shone;"

and we were quietly carried back to the year of our Lord 1400; forthis castle and church were built by Stephan, Despot of Servia, theson of Knes Lasar. Stephan, Instead of being "the Czar of all theServian lands and coasts, " became a mere hospodar, who must do as hewas bid by his masters, the Turks. 

Manasia being entirely secluded from the world, the monasticestablishment was of a humbler and simpler nature than that ofRavanitza, and the monks, good honest men, but mere peasants in cowls. 

After dinner, a strong broad-faced monk, whom I recognized as havingbeen of the company at Ravanitza, called for a bumper, and began in asolemn matter-of-fact way, the following speech: "You are a greattraveller in our eyes; for none of us ever went further than Syrmium. The greatest traveller of your country that we know of was thatwonderful navigator, Robinson Crusoe, of York, who, poor man, met withmany and great difficulties, but at length, by the blessing of God, was restored to his native country, his family, and his friends. Wetrust that the Almighty will guard over you, and that you will never, in the course of your voyages and travels, be thrown like him on adesert island; and now we drink your health, and long life to you. "When the toast was drunk, I thanked the company, but added that fromthe revolutions in locomotion, I ran a far greater chance now-a-daysof being blown out of a steam-boat, or smashed to pieces on arailway. 

From the rocks above Manasia is one of the most remarkable echoes Iever heard; at the distance of sixty or seventy yards from one of thetowers the slightest whisper is rendered with the most amusingexactness. 

From Manasia we went to Miliva, where the peasantry were standing in arow, by the side of a rustic tent, made of branches of trees. Grapes, roast fowl, &c. Were laid out for us; but thanking them for theirproffered hospitality, we passed on. From this place the road toSvilainitza is level, the country fertile, and more populous than wehad seen any where else in Servia. At some places the villagers hadprepared bouquets; at another place a school, of fifty or sixtychildren, was drawn up in the street, and sang a hymn of welcome. 

At Svilainitza the people would not allow me to go any further; and wewere conducted to the chateau of M. Ressavatz, the wealthiest man inServia. This villa is the _fac simile_ of the new ones in the banat ofTemesvav, having the rooms papered, a luxury in Servia, where themost of the rooms, even in good houses, are merely size-coloured. 

Svilainitza is remarkable, as the only place in Servia where silk iscultivated to any extent, the Ressavatz family having paid especialattention to it. In fact, Svilainitza means the place of silk. 

From Svilainitza, we next morning started for Posharevatz, orPassarovitz, by an excellent macadamized road, through a countryrichly cultivated and interspersed with lofty oaks. I arrived atmid-day, and was taken to the house of M. Tutsakovitch, the presidentof the court of appeal, who had expected us on the preceding evening. He was quite a man of the world, having studied jurisprudence in theAustrian Universities. The outer chamber, or hall of his house, wasranged with shining pewter plates in the olden manner, and his bestroom was furnished in the best German style. 

In a few minutes M. Ressavatz, the Natchalnik, came, a serious butfriendly man, with an eye that bespoke an expansive intellect. 

"This part of Servia, " said I, "is _Ressavatz qua_, _Ressavatz la_. We last night slept at your brother's house, at Svilainitza, which isthe only chateau I have seen in Servia; and to-day the rapid andagreeable journey I made hither was due to the macadamized road, which, I am told, you were the means of constructing. "

The Natchalnik bowed, and the president said, "This road originatedentirely with M. Ressavatz, who went through a world of trouble beforehe could get the peasantry of the intervening villages to lend theirassistance. Great was the first opposition to the novelty; but now thepeople are all delighted at being able to drive in winter withoutsinking up to their horses' knees in mud. "

We now proceeded to view the government buildings, which are all new, and in good order, being somewhat more extensive than those elsewhere;for Posharevatz, besides having ninety thousand inhabitants in its own_nahie_, [16] or government, is a sort of judicial capital for EasternServia. 

The principal edifice is a barrack, but the regular troops were atthis time all at Shabatz. The president showed me through the court ofappeal. Most of the apartments were occupied with clerks, and fittedup with shelves for registers. The court of justice was an apartmentlarger than the rest, without a raised bench, having merely a longtable, covered with a green cloth, at one end of which was a crucifixand Gospels, for the taking of oaths, and the seats for the presidentand assessors. 

We then went to the billiard-room with the Natchalnik, and played acouple of games, both of which I lost, although the Natchalnik, fromsheer politeness, played badly; and at sunset we returned to thepresident's house, where a large party was assembled to dinner. Wethen adjourned to the comfortable inner apartment, where, as the chillof autumn was beginning to creep over us, we found a blazing fire; andthe president having made some punch, that showed profoundacquaintance with the jurisprudence of conviviality, the best amateursof Posharevatz sang their best songs, which pleased me somewhat, formy ears had gradually been broken into the habits of the Servian muse. Being pressed myself to sing an English national song, I gratifiedtheir curiosity with "God save the Queen, " and "Rule Britannia, "explaining that these two songs contained the essence of Englishnationality: the one expressive of our unbounded loyalty, the other ofour equally unbounded ocean dominion. 

_President_. "You have been visiting the rocks and mountains ofServia; but there is a natural curiosity in this neighbourhood, whichis much more wonderful. Have you heard of the baby giantess?"

_Author_. "Yes, I have. I was told that a child was six feet high, anda perfect woman. "

_President_. "No, a child of two years and three months is as big asother children of six or seven years, and her womanhood such as isusual in girls of sixteen. "

_Author_. "It is almost incredible. "

_President_. "Well, you may convince yourself with your own eyes, before you leave this blessed town. "

The Natchalnik then called a Momke, and gave orders for the child tobe brought next day. At the appointed hour the father and mother camewith the child. It was indeed a baby giantess, higher than itsbrother, who was six years of age. Its hands were thick and strong, the flesh plump, and the mammae most prominently developed. Seeing theroom filled with people, it began to cry, but its attention beingdiverted by a nodding mandarin of stucco provided for the purpose, thenurse enabled us to verify all the president had said. This phenomenonwas born the 29th of June, 1842, old style, and the lunar influenceswere in operation on the tenth month after birth. I remarked to thepresident, that if the father had more avarice than decency, he mightgo to Europe, and return with his weight in gold. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: _Nahie_ is a Turkish word, and meant "_district_. " Theoriginal word means "_direction_, " and is applied to winds, and thepoint of the compass. ]

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Rich Soil. --Mysterious Waters. --Treaty of Passarovitz. --The Castle ofSemendria--Relics of the Antique. --The BrankovitchFamily. --Pancsova. --Morrison's Pills. 

The soil at Posharevatz is remarkably rich, the greasy humus beingfrom fifteen to twenty-five feet thick, and consequently able tonourish the noblest forest trees. In the Banat, which is the granaryof the Austrian empire, trees grow well for fifteen, twenty, ortwenty-five years, and then die away. The cause of this is, that theearth, although rich, is only from three to six feet thick, with sandor cold clay below; thus as soon as the roots descend to thesubstrata, in which they find no nourishment, rottenness appears onthe top branches, and gradually descends. 

At Kruahevitza, not very far from Pasharevatz, is a cave, which is, Iam told, entered with difficulty, into the basin of which watergradually flows at intervals, and then disappears, as the doctor ofthe place (a Saxon) told me, with an extraordinary noise resemblingthe molar rumble of railway travelling. This spring is calledPotainitza, or the mysterious waters. 

Posharevatz, miscalled Passarowitz, is historically remarkable, as theplace where Prince Eugene, in 1718, after his brilliant victories ofthe previous year, including the capture of Belgrade, signed, with theTurks, the treaty which gave back to the house of Austria not only thewhole of Hungary, but added great part of Servia and Little Wallachia, as far as the Aluta. With this period began the Austrian rule inServia, and at this time the French fashioned Lange Gasse of Belgraderose amid the "swelling domes and pointed minarets of the whiteeagle's nest. "[17]

Several quaint incidents had recalled this period during my tour. Forinstance, at Manasia, I saw rudely engraven on the church wall, --

 Wolfgang Zastoff, Kaiserlicher Forst-Meister im Maidan. Die 1 Aug. 1721. 

Semendria is three hours' ride from Posharevatz; the road crosses theMorava, and everywhere the country is fertile, populous, and wellcultivated. Innumerable massive turrets, mellowed by the sun of aclear autumn, and rising from wide rolling waters, announced myapproach to the shores of the Danube. I seemed entering one of thosefabled strong holds, with which the early Italian artists adornedtheir landscapes. If Semendria be not the most picturesque of theServian castles of the elder period, it is certainly by far the mostextensive of them. Nay, it is colossal. The rampart next the Danubehas been shorn of its fair proportions, so as to make it suit themodern art of war. Looking at Semendria from one of the three landsides, you have a castle of Ercole di Ferrara; looking at it from thewater, you have the boulevard of a Van der Meulen. 

The Natchalnik accompanied me in a visit to the fortress, protectedfrom accident by a couple of soldiers; for the castle of Semendria isstill, like that of Shabatz, in the hands of a few Turkish spahis andtheir families. The news from Shabatz having produced a alightferment, we found several armed Moslems at the gate; but they did notallow the Servians to pass, with the exception of the Natchalnik andanother man. "This is new, " said he; "I never knew them to be so waryand suspicious before. " We now found ourselves within the walls of thefortress. A shabby wooden _cafe_ was opposite to us; a mosque of thesame material rose with its worm-eaten carpentry to our right. Thecadi, a pompous vulgar old man, now met us, and signified that wemight as well repose at his chardak, but from inhospitality orfanaticism, gave us neither pipes nor coffee. His worship was soproud, that he scarcely deigned to speak. The Disdar Aga, a somewhatmore approximative personage, now entered the tottering chardak, (thecarpenters of Semendria seem to have emigrated _en masse_, ) andproffered himself as Cicerone of the castle. 

Mean and abominable huts, with patches of garden ground filled up thespace inclosed by the gorgeous ramparts and massive towers ofSemendria. The further we walked the nobler appeared the last relic ofthe dotage of old feudal Servia. In one of the towers next the Danubeis a sculptured Roman tombstone. One graceful figure points to asarcophagus, close to which a female sits in tears; in a word, aremnant of the antique--of that harmony which dies not away, butswells on the finer organs of perception. 

"_Eski, Eski_. Very old, " said the Disdar Aga, who accompanied me. 

"It is Roman, " said I. 

"_Roumgi_?" said he, thinking I meant _Greek_. 

"No, _Latinski_, " said a third, which is the name usually given to_Roman_ remains. 

As at Sokol and Ushitza, I was not permitted to enter the innercitadel;[18] so, returning to the gate, where we were rejoined by thesoldiers, we went to the fourth tower, on the left of the StamboulKapu, and looking up, we saw inserted and forming part of the wall, alarge stone, on which was cut, in _basso rilievo_, a figure of Europareposing on a bull. Here was no fragile grace, as in the other figure;a few simple lines bespoke the careless hardihood of antique art. 

The castle of Semendria was built in 1432, by the Brankovitch, whosucceeded the family of Knes Lasar as _despots_, or native rulers ofServia, under the Turks; and the construction of this enormous pilewas permitted by their masters, under the pretext of the strengtheningof Servia against the Hungarians. The last of these _despots_ ofServia was George Brankovitch, the historian, who passed over toAustria, was raised to the dignity of a count; and after being keptmany years as a state prisoner, suspected of secret correspondencewith the Turks, died at Eger, in Bohemia, in 1711. The legitimateBrankovitch line is now extinct. [19]

Leaving the fortress, we returned to the Natchalnik's house. I wasstruck with the size, beauty, and flavour of the grapes here; I havenowhere tasted such delicious fruit of this description. "GrojaSmederevsko" are celebrated through all Servia, and ought to makeexcellent wine. 

The road from Semendria to Belgrade skirts the Danube, across whichone sees the plains of the Banat and military frontier. The only placeof any consequence on that side of the river is Pancsova, the sight ofwhich reminded me of a conversation I had there some years ago. 

The major of the town, after swallowing countless boxes of Morrison'spills, died in the belief that he had not begun to take them soonenough. The consumption of these drugs at that time almost surpassedbelief. There was scarcely a sickly or hypochondriac person, from theHill of Presburg to the Iron Gates, who had not taken large quantitiesof them. Being curious to know the cause of this extensiveconsumption, I asked for an explanation. 

"You must know, " said an individual, "that the Anglo-mania is nowherestronger than in this part of the world. Whatever comes from England, be it Congreve rockets, or vegetable pills, must needs be perfect. Dr. Morrison is indebted to his high office for the enormous consumptionof his drugs. It is clear that the president of the British Collegemust be a man in the enjoyment of the esteem of the government and thefaculty of medicine; and his title is a passport to his pills inforeign countries. "

I laughed heartily, and explained that the British College of Health, and the College of Physicians, were not identical. 

The road from this point to Belgrade presents no particular interest. Half an hour from the city I crossed the celebrated trenches ofMarshal Laudohn; and rumbling through a long cavernous gateway, calledthe Stamboul Kapousi, or gate of Constantinople, again found myself inBelgrade, thankful for the past, and congratulating myself on thecircumstances of my trip. I had seen a state of patriarchal manners, the prominent features of which will be at no distant time rolled flatand smooth, by the pressure of old Europe, and the salient angles ofwhich will disappear through the agency of the hotel and thestagecoach, with its bevy of tourists, who, with greater facilitiesfor seeing the beauties of nature, will arrive and depart, shroudedfrom the mass of the people, by the mercenaries that hang on thebeaten tracks of the traveller. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 17: In Servian, Belgrade is called Beograd, "whitecity;"--poetically, "white eagle's nest. "]

[Footnote 18: I think that a traveller ought to see all that he can;but, of course, has no right to feel surprised at being excluded fromcitadels. ]

[Footnote 19: One of the representatives of the ancient imperial familyis the Earl of Devon, for Urosh the Great married Helen ofCourtenay. ]

CHAPTER XXV. 

Personal Appearance of the Servians. --Their MoralCharacter. --Peculiarities of Manners. --ChristmasFestivities. --Easter. --The Dodola. 

The Servians are a remarkably tall and robust race of men; in form andfeature they bespeak strength of body and energy of mind: but oneseldom sees that thorough-bred look, which, so frequently found in thepoorest peasants of Italy and Greece, shows that the descendants ofthe most polite of the ancients, although disinherited of dominion, have not lost the corporeal attributes of nobility. But the women ofServia I think very pretty. In body they are not so well shaped as theGreek women; but their complexions are fine, the hair generally blackand glossy, and their head-dress particularly graceful. Not beingaddicted to the bath, like other eastern women, they prolong theirbeauty beyond the average climacteric; and their houses, with roomsopening on a court-yard and small garden, are favourable to health andbeauty. They are not exposed to the elements as the men; nor are theycooped up within four walls, like many eastern women, without asufficient circulation of air. 

Through all the interior of Servia, the female is reckoned an inferiorbeing, and fit only to be the plaything of youth and the nurse of oldage. This peculiarity of manners has not sprung from the fourcenturies of Turkish occupation, but appears to have been inherent inold Slaavic manners, and such as we read of in Russia, a very fewgenerations ago; but as the European standard is now rapidly adoptedat Belgrade, there can be little doubt that it will thence, in thecourse of time, spread over all Servia. 

The character of the Servian closely resembles that of the ScottishHighlander. He is brave in battle, highly hospitable; delights insimple and plaintive music and poetry, his favourite instrumentsbeing the bagpipe and fiddle: but unlike the Greek be shows littleaptitude for trade; and unlike the Bulgarian, he is very lazy inagricultural operations. All this corresponds with the Scottish Celticcharacter; and without absolute dishonesty, a certain low cunning inthe prosecution of his material interests completes the parallel. 

The old customs of Servia are rapidly disappearing under the pressureof laws and European institutions. Many of these could not haveexisted except in a society in which might made right. One of thesewas the vow of eternal brotherhood and friendship between twoindividuals; a treaty offensive and defensive, to assist each other inthe difficult passages of life. This bond is considered sacred andindissoluble. Frequently remarkable instances of it are found in thewars of Kara Georg. But now that regular guarantees for the securityof life and property exist, the custom appears to have fallen intodesuetude. These confederacies in the dual state, as in Servia, ormultiple, as in the clan system of Scotland and Albania, are alwaysstrongest in turbulent times and regions. [20]

Another of the old customs of Servia was sufficiently characteristicof its lawless state. Abduction of females was common. Sometimes ayoung man would collect a party of his companions, break into avillage, and carry off a maiden. To prevent re-capture they generallywent into the woods, where the nuptial knot was tied by a priest_nolens volens_. Then commenced the negotiation for a reconciliationwith the parents, which was generally successful; as in many instancesthe female had been the secret lover of the young man, and the othervillagers used to add their persuasion, in order to bring about apacific solution. But if the relations of the girl mode a legal affairof it, the young woman was asked if it was by her own will that shewas taken away; and if she made the admission then a reconciliationtook place: if not, those concerned in the abduction were fined, KaraGeorg put a stop to this by proclamation, punishing the author of anabduction with death, the priest with dismissal, and the assistantswith the bastinado. 

The Haiducks, or outlawed robbers, who during the first quarter of thepresent century infested the woods of Servia, resembled the Cateransof the Highlands of Scotland, being as much rebels as robbers, andimagined that in setting authority at defiance they were not actingdishonourably, but combating for a principle of independence. Theyrobbed only the rich Moslems, and were often generous to the poor. Thus robbery and rebellion being confounded, the term Haiduck is notconsidered opprobrious; and several old Servians have confessed to methat they had been Haiducks in their youth, I am sure that theadventures of a Servian Rob Roy might form the materials of a stirringRomance. There are many Haiducks still in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and onthe western Balkan; but the race in Servia is extinct, and plunder isthe only object of the few robbers who now infest the woods in thewest of Servia. 

Such are the customs that have just disappeared; but many nationalpeculiarities still remain. At Christmas, for instance, every peasantgoes to the woods, and cuts down a young oak; as soon as he returnshome, which is in the twilight; he says to the assembled family, "Ahappy Christmas eve to the house;" on which a male of the familyscatters a little grain on the ground and answers, "God be gracious toyou, our happy and honoured father. " The housewife then lays the youngoak on the fire, to which are thrown a few nuts and a little straw, and the evening ends in merriment. 

Next day, after divine service, the family assemble around the dinnertable, each bearing a lighted candle; and they say aloud, "Christ isborn: let us honour Christ and his birth. " The usual Christmas drinkis hot wine mixed with honey. They have also the custom of First Foot. This personage is selected beforehand, under the idea that he willbring luck with him for the ensuing year. On entering the First Footsays, "Christ is born!" and receives for answer, "Yes, he is born!"while the First Foot scatters a few grains of corn on the floor. Hethen advances and stirs up the wood on the fire, so that it cracklesand emits sparks; on which the First Foot says, "As many sparks somany cattle, so many horses, so many goats, so many sheep, so manyboars, so many bee hives, and so much luck and prosperity. '" He thenthrows a little money into the ashes, or hangs some hemp on the door;and Christmas ends with presents and festivities. 

At Easter, they amuse themselves with the game of breaking hard-boiledeggs, having first examined those of an opponent to see that they arenot filled with wax. From this time until Ascension day the commonformula of greeting is "Christ has arisen!" to which answer is made, "Yes; he has truly arisen or ascended!" And on the second Monday afterEaster the graves of dead relations are visited. 

One of the most extraordinary customs of Servia is that of the Dodola. When a long drought has taken place, a handsome young woman isstripped, and so dressed up with grass, flowers, cabbage and otherleaves, that her face is scarcely visible; she then, in company withseveral girls of twelve or fifteen years of age, goes from house tohouse singing a song, the burden of which is a wish for rain. It isthen the custom of the mistress of the house at which the Dodola isstopped to throw a little water on her. This custom used also to bekept up in the Servian districts of Hungary; but has been forbidden bythe priests. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 20: The most perfect confederacy of this description is thatof the Druses, which has stood the test of eight centuries, and in itssecret organization is complete beyond any thing attained byfreemasonry. ]

CHAPTER XXVI. 

Town life. --The public offices. --Manners half-Orientalhalf-European. --Merchants and Tradesmen. --Turkishpopulation. --Porters. --Barbers. --Cafes. --Public Writer. 

On passing from the country to the town the politician views withinterest the transitional state of society: but the student of mannersfinds nothing salient, picturesque, or remarkable; everything isverging to German routine. If you meet a young man in any department, and ask what he does; he tells you that he is a Concepist orProtocollist. 

In the public offices, the paper is, as in Germany, atrociouslycoarse, being something like that with which parcels are wrapped up inEngland; and sand is used instead of blotting paper. They commencebusiness early in the morning, at eight o'clock, and go on tilltwelve, at which hour everybody goes to the mid-day meal. Theycommence again at four o'clock, and terminate at seven, which is thehour of supper. The reason of this is, that almost everybody takes asiesta. 

The public offices throughout the interior of Servia are plain houses, with white-washed walls, deal desks, shelves, and presses, but havingbeen recently built, have generally a respectable appearance. TheChancery of State and Senate house are also quite new constructions, close to the palace; but in the country, a Natchalnik transacts agreat deal of business in his own house. 

Servia contains within itself the forms of the East and the West, asseparately and distinctly as possible. See a Natchalnik in the backwoods squatted on his divan, with his enormous trowsers, smoking hispipe, and listening to the contents of a paper, which his secretary, crouching and kneeling on the carpet, reads to him, and you have theBey, the Kaimacam, or the Mutsellim before you. See M. Petronievitchscribbling in his cabinet, and you have the _FurstlicherHaus-Hof-Staats-und Conferenz-Minister_ of the meridian of Saxe orHesse. 

Servia being an agricultural country, and not possessing a sea-port, there does not exist an influential, mercantile, or capitalist class_per se_. Greeks, Jews, and Tsinsars, form a considerable proportionof those engaged in the foreign trade: it is to be remarked that mostof this class are secret adherents of the Obrenovitch party, while thewealthy native Servians support Kara Georgevitch. 

In Belgrade, the best tradesmen are Germans, or Servians, who havelearned their business at Pesth; or Temeswar; but nearly all theretailers are Servians. 

Having treated so fully the aspects and machinery of Oriental life, inmy work on native society in Damascus and Aleppo, it is not necessarythat I should say here any thing of Moslem manners and customs. TheTurks in Belgrade are nearly all of a very poor class, and follow thehumblest occupations. The river navigation causes many hands to beemployed in boating; and it always seemed to me that the proportionof the turbans on the river exceeded that of the Christian short fez. Most of the porters on the quay of Belgrade are Turks in theirturbans, which gives the landing-place, on arrival from Semlin, a moreOriental look than the Moslem population of the town warrants. Fromthe circumstance of trucks being nearly unknown in this country, theseTurkish porters carry weights that would astonish an Englishman, andshow great address in balancing and dividing heavy weights among them. 

Most of the barbers in Belgrade are Turks, and have that superiordexterity which distinguishes their craft in the east. There are alsoChristian barbers; but the Moslems are in greater force. I never sawany Servian shave himself; nearly all resort to the barber. Even theChristian barbers, in imitation of the Oriental fashion, shave thestraggling edges of the eyebrows, and with pincers tug out the smallhairs of the nostrils. 

The native _cafes_ are nearly all kept by Moslems; one, as I havestated elsewhere, by an Arab, born in Oude in India; another by aJew, which is frequented by the children of Israel, and is very dirty. I once went in to smoke a narghile, and see the place, but made myescape forthwith. Several Jews, who spoke Spanish to each other, wereplaying backgammon on a raised bench, and seemed to have in their fursand dresses that "_malproprete profonde et huileuse_" which M. DeCustine tells us characterizes the dirt of the north as contrastedwith that of the southern nations. The _cafe_ of the Indian, on thecontrary, was perfectly clean and new. 

Moslem boatmen, porters, barbers, &c. Serve Christians and all andsundry. But in addition to these, there is a sort of bazaar in theTurkish quarter, occupied by tradespeople, who subsist almostexclusively by the wants of their co-religionists living in thequarter, as well as of the Turkish garrison in the fortress. The onlyone of this class who frequented me, was the public writer, who hadseveral assistants; he was not a native of Belgrade, but a BulgarianTurk from Ternovo. He drew up petitions to the Pasha in due form, and, moreover, engraved seals very neatly. His assistants, when notengaged in either of these occupations, copied Korans for sale. Hisown handwriting was excellent, and he knew all the styles, Arab, Deewanee, Persian, Reka, &c. What keeps him mostly in my mind, was thedelight with which he entered into, and illustrated, the proverbs atthe end of M. Joubert's grammar, which the secretary of the RussianConsul-general had lent him. Some of the proverbs are so applicable toOriental manners, that I hope the reader will excuse the digression. 

"Kiss the hand thou hast not been able to cut. "

"Hide thy friend's name from thine enemy. "

"Eat and drink with thy friend; never buy and sell with him. "

"This is a fast day, said the cat, seeing the liver she could not getat. "

"Of three things one--Power, gold, or quit the town. "

"The candle does not light its base. "

"The orphan cuts his own navel-string, " &c. 

The rural population of Servia must necessarily advance slowly, buteach five years, for a generation to come, will, --I have littledoubt, --alter the aspect of the town population, as much relativelyas the five that are by-gone. Let the lines of railway now in progressfrom Belgium to Hungary be completed, and Belgrade may again become astage in the high road to the East. A line by the valleys of theMorava and the Maritsa, with its large towns, Philippopoli andAdrianople, is certainly not more chimerical and absurd than many thatare now projected. Who can doubt of its _ultimate_ accomplishment, inspite of the alternate precipitancy and prostration of enterprise?Meanwhile imagination loses itself in attempting to picture thealtered face of affairs in these secluded regions, when subjected tothe operation of a revolution, which posterity will pronounce to begreater than those which made the fifteenth century the morning of thejust terminated period of civilization. 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Poetry. --Journalism. --The Fine Arts. --The Lyceum. --Mineralogicalcabinet. --Museum. --Servian Education. 

In the whole range of the Slaavic family there is no nation possessingso extensive a collection of excellent popular poetry. The romanticbeauty of the region which they inhabit, the relics of a wildmythology, which, in its general features, has some resemblance tothat of Greece and Scandinavia, --the adventurous character of thepopulation, the vicissitudes of guerilla warfare, and a hundredpicturesque incidents which are lost to the muses when war is carriedon on a large scale by standing armies, are all given in a dialect, which, for musical sweetness, is to other Slavonic tongues what theItalian is to the languages of Western Europe. [21]

The journalism of Servia began at Vienna; and a certain M. Davidovitchwas for many years the interpreter of Europe to his less enlightenedcountrymen. The journal which he edited is now published at Pesth, andprinted in Cyrillian letters. There were in 1843 two newspapers atBelgrade, the _State Gazette_ and the _Courier_; but the latter hassince been dropped, the editor having vainly attempted to get itscirculation allowed in the Servian districts of Hungary. Many copieswere smuggled over in boats, but it was an unremunerating speculation;and the editor, M. Simonovitch, who was bred a Hungarian advocate, isnow professor of law in the Lyceum. Yankee hyperbole was nothing tothe high flying of this gentleman. In one number, I recollect thepassage, "These are the reasons why all the people of Servia, youngand old, rich and poor, danced and shouted for joy, when the Lord gavethem as a Prince a son of the never-to-be-forgotten Kara Georg. " ACroatian newspaper, containing often very interesting information onBosnia, is published at Agram, the language being the same as theServian, but printed in Roman instead of Cyrillian letters. The _StateGazette_ of Belgrade gives the news of the interior and exterior, butavoids all reflections on the policy of Russia or Austria. An article, which I wrote on Servia for an English publication, was reproduced ina translation minus all the allusions to these two powers; and I thinkthat, considering the dependent position of Servia, abstinence fromsuch discussions is dictated by the soundest policy. 

The "Golubitza, " or Dove, a miscellany in prose and verse, neatly gotup in imitation of the German Taschenbucher, and edited by M. Hadschitch, is the only annual in Servia. In imitation of morepopulous cities, Belgrade has also a "Literary Society, " for theformation of a complete dictionary of the language, and theencouragement of popular literature. I could not help smiling at thethirteenth statute of the society, which determines that the sealshould represent an uncultivated field, with the rising sun shining ona monument, on which the arms of Servia are carved. 

The fine arts are necessarily at a very low ebb in Servia. The usefulbeing so imperfect, the ornamental scarcely exists at all. Thepictures in the churches are mostly in the Byzantine manner, in whichdeep browns and dark reds are relieved with gilding, while thesubjects are characterized by such extravagancies as one sees in thepictures of the early German painters, a school which undoubtedly tookits rise from the importations of Byzantine pictures at Venice, andtheir expedition thence across the Alps. At present everythingartistic in Servia bears a coarse German impress, such as for instancethe pictures in the cathedral of Belgrade. 

Thus has civilization performed one of her great evolutions. The lightthat set on the Thracian Bosphorus rose in the opposite direction fromthe land of the once barbarous Hermans, and now feebly re-illuminesthe modern Servia. 

One of the most hopeful institutions of Belgrade is the Lyceum, orgerm of a university, as they are proud to call it. One day I went tosee it, along with Professor Shafarik, and looked over themineralogical collection made in Servia, by Baron Herder, whichincluded rich specimens of silver, copper, and lead ore, as well asmarble, white as that of Carrara. The Studenitza marble is slightlygrey, but takes a good polish. The coal specimens were imperfectlypetrified, and of bad quality, the progress of ignition being veryslow. Servia is otherwise rich in minerals; but it is lamentable tosee such vast wealth dormant, since none of the mines are worked. 

We then went to an apartment decorated like a little ball-room, whichis what is called the cabinet of antiquities. A noble bronze head, tying on the German stove, in the corner of the room, a handsome Romanlamp and some antique coins, were all that could be shown of theancient Moesia; but there is a fair collection of Byzantine and Serviancoins, the latter struck in the Venetian manner, and resembling oldsequins. 

A parchment document, which extended to twice the length of a man, was now unrolled, and proved to be a patent of Stephan Urosh, thefather of Stephan Dushan, endowing the great convent of Dechani, inAlbania. Another curiosity in the collection is the first banner ofKara Georg, which the Servians consider as a national relic. It is inred silk, and bears the emblem of the cross, with the inscription"Jesus Christ conquers. "

We then went to the professor's room, which was furnished with thenewest Russ, Bohemian, and other Slaavic publications, and after ashort conversation visited the classes then sitting. The end ofeducation in Servia being practical, prominence is given to geometry, natural philosophy, Slaavic history and literature, &c. Latin andGreek are admitted to have been the keys to polite literature, sometwo centuries and a half ago; but so many lofty and noble chambershaving been opened since then, and routine having no existence inServia, her youth are not destined to spend a quarter of a lifetime inthe mere nurseries of humanity. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 21: To those who take an interest in this subject, I havegreat pleasure in recommending a perusal of "Servian Popular Poetry, "(London, 1827, ) translated by Dr. Bowring; but the introductorymatter, having been written nearly twenty years ago, is, of course, far from being abreast of the present state of information on thesubjects of which it treats. ]

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Preparations for Departure. --Impressions of the East. --PrinceAlexander. --The Palace. --Kara Georg. 

The gloom of November now darkens the scene; the yellow leaves sweepround the groves of the Topshider, and an occasional blast from theFrusca Gora, ruffling the Danube with red turbid waves, bids mebegone; so I take up pen to indite my last memoranda, and then forEngland ho!

Some pleasant parties were given by M. Fonblanque, and his colleagues;but although I have freely made Dutch pictures of the "natives, " I donot feel at liberty to be equally circumstantial with theinexhaustible wit and good humour of our hospitable Consul-general. Ihave preserved only a scrap of a conversation which passed at thedinner table of Colonel Danilefsky, the Russian agent, which shows thevarious impressions of Franks in the East. 

A. B. C. D. Discovered. 

_A_. "Of all the places I have seen in the east, I certainly preferConstantinople. Not so much for its beauty; since habit reconciles oneto almost any scene. But because one can there command a greaternumber of those minor European comforts, which make up the aggregateof human happiness. "

_B_. "I am not precisely of your way of thinking. I look back to myresidence at Cairo with pleasure, and would like well enough to spendanother winter there. The Turkish houses here are miserable barracks, cold in winter, and unprotected from the sun in summer. "

_C_. "The word East is certainly more applicable to the Arab than theTurkish countries. "

_D_. "I have seen only Constantinople, and think that it deserves allthat Byron and Anastasius have said of it. "

_C_. "I am afraid that A. Has received his impressions of the Eastfrom Central Asia, which is a somewhat barbarous country. "

_A_. "_Pardonnez-moi_. The valley of the Oxus is well cultivated, butthe houses are none of the best. "

_B_. "I give my voice for Cairo. It is a city full of curious details, as well in its architecture, as in its street population; to saynothing of its other resources--its pleasant promenades, and theoccasional society of men of taste and letters--'_mais il faut aimerla chaleur_. '"

_C_. "Well, then, we will take the winter of Cairo; the spring ofDamascus, and the summer of the Bosphorus. "

M. Petronievitch took me to see the Prince, who has got into his newresidence outside the Constantinople gate, which looks like one of thevillas one sees in the environs of Vienna. In the centre of theparterre is a figure with a trident, which represents the Morava, thenational river of Servia, and is in reality a Roman statue found nearGrotzka. The usual allowance of sentries, sentry-boxes, and stripedpalisades stood at the entrance, and we were shown into an apartment, half in the German, and half in the Oriental style. The divan coverwas embroidered with gold thread. 

The Prince now entered, and received me with an easy self-possessionthat showed no trace of the reserve and timidity which foreigners hadremarked a year before. 

 "New honours . .. Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use. "

_Prince_. "I expected to have seen you at Topola. We had a largeassemblage of the peasantry, and an ecclesiastical festival, such asthey are celebrated in Servia. "

_Author_. "Your highness may rest assured that had I known that, Ishould not have failed to go. At Tronosha I saw a similar festival, and I am firmly convinced that no peasantry in Europe is freer fromwant. "

_Prince_. "Every beginning is difficult; our principle must be, 'Endeavour and Progress. ' Were you pleased with your tour?"

_Author_. "I think that your Highness has one of the most romanticprincipalities in Europe. Without the grandeur of the Alps, Servia hasmore than the beauty of the Apennines. "

_Prince_. "The country is beautiful, but I wish to see agricultureprosper. "

_Author_. "I am happy to hear that: your highness's father had a greatname as a soldier; I hope that your rule will be distinguished byrapid advancement in the arts of civilization; that you will be theKara Georg of peace. "

This led to a conversation relative to the late Kara Georg; and theprince rising, led me into another apartment, where the portrait ofhis father, the duplicate of one painted for the emperor Alexander, hung from the wall. He was represented in the Turkish dress, and worehis pistols in his girdle; the countenance expressed not onlyintelligence but a certain refinement, which one would scarcely expectin a warrior peasant: but all his contemporaries agree in representinghim to have possessed an inherent superiority and nobility of nature, which in any station would have raised him above his equals. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

A Memoir of Kara Georg. 

The Turkish conquest was followed by the gradual dispersion ordisappearance of the native nobility of Servia, the last of whom, theBrankovitch, lived as _despots_ in the castle of Semendria, up to thebeginning of the eighteenth century; so that at this moment scarcely asingle representative of the old stock is to be found. [22]

The nobility of Bosnia, occupying the middle region between the sphereof the Eastern and Western churches, were in a state of religiousindifference, although nominally Catholic; and in order to preservetheir lands and influence, accepted Islamism _en masse_; they and theAlbanians being the only instances, in all the wars of the Moslems, ofa European nobility embracing the Mohamedan faith in a body. Chancemight have given the Bosniacs a leader of energy and military talents. In that case, these men, instead of now wearing turbans in their grimfeudal castles, might, frizzed and perfumed, be waltzing in pumps; andShakespear and Mozart might now be delighting the citizens assembledin the Theatre Royal Seraievo!

The period preceding the second siege of Vienna was the spring-tide ofIslam conquest. After this event, in 1684, began the ebb. Hungary waslost to the Porte, and six years afterwards thirty-seven thousandServian families emigrated into that kingdom; this first led the wayto contact with the civilization of Germany: and in the attendance onthe Austrian schools by the youth of the Servian nation during theeighteenth century, were sown the seeds of the now buddingcivilization of the principality. 

Servia Proper, for a short time wrested from the Porte by thevictories of Prince Eugene, again became a part of the dominions ofthe Sultan. But a turbulent militia overawed the government andtyrannized over the Rayahs. Pasvan Oglou and his bands at Widdin were, at the end of last century, in open revolt against the Porte. Otherchiefs had followed his example; and for the first time the Divanthought of associating Christian Rayahs with the spahis, to put downthese rebels, who had organized a system which savoured more ofbrigandage than of government. They frequently used the holidaydresses of the peasants as horse-cloths, interrupted the divineservice of the Christian Rayahs, and gratified their licentiousappetites unrestrained. 

The Dahis, as these brigand-chiefs were called, resolved to anticipatethe approaching struggle by a massacre of the most influentialChristians. This atrocious massacre was carried out with indescribablehorrors. In the dead of the night a party of Dahis Cavasses wouldsurround a house, drive open gates and doors with sledge-hammers; theawakened and affrighted inmates would rush to the windows, and seeingthe court-yard filled with armed men with dark lanterns, the shrieksof women and children were added to the confusion; and the unhappyfather was often murdered with the half-naked females of his familyclinging to his neck, but unable to save him. The rest of thepopulation looked on with silent stupefaction: but Kara Georg, apeasant, born at Topola about the year 1767, getting timelyinformation that his name was in the list of the doomed, fled into thewoods, and gradually organized a formidable armed force. 

His efforts were everywhere successful. In the name of the Porte hecombated the Dahis, who had usurped local authority, in defiance ofthe Pasha of Belgrade. The Divan, little anticipating the ultimateissue of the struggle in Servia, was at first delighted at the successof Kara Georg; but soon saw with consternation that the rising of theServian peasants grew into a formidable rebellion, and ordered thePashas of Bosnia and Scodra to assemble all their disposable forces, and invade Servia. Between forty and fifty thousand Bosniacs burstinto Servia on the west, in the spring of 1806, cutting to pieces allwho refused to receive Turkish authority. 

Kara Georg undauntedly met the storm; with amazing rapidity he marchedinto the west of Servia, cut up in detail several detached bodies ofTurks, being here much favoured by the broken ground, and put to deathseveral village-elders who had submitted to them. The Turks thenretired to Shabatz; and Kara Georg at the head of only seven thousandfoot and two thousand horse, in all nine thousand men, took up aposition at an hour's distance, and threw up trenches. The followingis the account which Wuk Stephanovitch gives of this engagement. 

"The Turks demanded the delivery of the Servian arms. The Serviansanswered, 'Come and take them. ' On two successive mornings the Turkscame out of Shabatz and stormed the breastwork which the Servians hadthrown up, but without effect. They then sent this message to theServians: 'You have held good for two days; but we will try it againwith all our force, and then see whether we give up the country tothe Drina, or whether we drive you to Semendria. '

"In the night before the decisive battle (August, 1806, ) Kara Georgsent his cavalry round into a wood, with orders to fall on the enemy'sflank as soon as the first shot should be fired. 

"To the infantry within the breastworks he gave orders that theyshould not fire until the Turks were so close that every shot mighttell. By break of day the Seraskier with his whole army poured out ofhis camp at Shabatz, the bravest Beys of Bosnia bearing their bannersin the van. The Servians waited patiently until they came close, andthen opening fire did deadly execution. The standard-bearers fell, confusion ensued, and the Servian cavalry issuing from the wood at thesame time that Kara Georg passed the breastworks at the head of theinfantry, the defence was changed into an attack; and the rout of theTurks was complete. The Seraskier Kullin was killed, as well as SinanPasha, and several other chiefs. The rest of the Turkish army was cutup in the woods, and all the country as far as the Drina evacuated bythem. "

The Porte saw with astonishment the total failure of its schemes forthe re-conquest of Servia, resolved to temporize, and agreed to allowthem a local and national government with a reduction of tribute; butprevious to the ratification of the agreement withdrew its consent tothe fortresses going into the hands of Christian Rayahs; on which KaraGeorg resolved to seize Belgrade by stratagem. 

Before daybreak on the 12th of December, 1806, a Greek Albanian namedKonda, who had been in the Turkish service, and knew Belgrade well, but now fought in the Christian ranks, accompanied by six Servians, passed the ditch and palisades that surrounded the city of Belgrade, at a point between two posts so as not to be seen, and proceeding toone of the gates, fell upon the guard, which defended itself well. Four of the Servians were killed; but the Turks being at lengthoverpowered, Konda and the two remaining Servians broke open the gatewith an axe, on which a corps of Servians rushed in. The Turks beingattracted to this point, Kara Georg passed the ditch at another placewith a large force. 

After a sanguinary engagement in the streets, and the conflagration ofmany houses, the windows of which served as embrasures to the Turks, victory declared for the Christians, and the Turks took refuge in thecitadel. 

The Servians, now in possession of the town, resolved to starve theTurks out of the fortress; and having occupied a flat island at theconfluence of the Save and the Danube, were enabled to intercept theirprovisions; on which the Pasha capitulated and embarked for Widdin. 

The succeeding years were passed in the vicissitudes of a guerillawarfare, neither party obtaining any marked success; and an auxiliarycorps of Russians assisted in preventing the Turks from making there-conquest of Servia. 

Baron, subsequently Marshal Diebitch, on a confidential mission fromthe Russian government in Servia during the years 1810, 1811, writesas follows:[23]

"George Petrovitch, to whom the Turks have given the surname of Karaor Black, is an important character. His countenance shows a greatnessof mind, which is not to be mistaken; and when we take intoconsideration the times, circumstances, and the impossibility of hishaving received an education, we must admit that he has a mind of amasculine and commanding order. The imputation of cruelty andbloodthirstiness appears to be unjust. When the country was withoutthe shadow of a constitution, and when he commanded an unorganized anduncultivated nation, he was compelled to be severe; he dared notvacillate or relax his discipline: but now that there are courts oflaw, and legal forms, he hands every case over to the regulartribunals. "

"He has very little to say for himself, and is rude in his manners;but his judgments in civil affairs are promptly and soundly formed, and to great address he joins unwearied industry. As a soldier, thereis but one opinion of his talents, bravery, and enduring firmness. "

Kara Georg was now a Russian lieutenant-general, and exercised analmost unlimited power in Servia; the revolution, after a struggle ofeight years, appeared to be successful, but the momentous events thenpassing in Europe, completely altered the aspect of affairs. Russia in1812, on the approach of the countless legions of Napoleon, precipitately concluded the treaty of Bucharest, the eighth article ofwhich formally assured a separate administration to the Servians. 

Next year, however, was fatal to Kara Georg. In 1813, the vigour ofthe Ottoman empire, undivided by exertions for the prosecution of theRussian war, was now concentrated on the re-subjugation of Servia. Ageneral panic seemed to seize the nation; and Kara Georg and hiscompanions in arms sought a retreat on the Austrian territory, andthence passed into Wallachia. In 1814, three hundred Christians wereimpaled at Belgrade by the Pasha, and every valley in Servia presentedthe spectacle of infuriated Turkish spahis, avenging on the Serviansthe blood, exile, and confiscation of the ten preceding years. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 22: The last of the Brankovitch line wrote a history ofServia; but the most valuable portion of the matter is to be found inRaitch, a subsequent historical writer. ]

[Footnote 23: The original is now in the possession of the Serviangovernment, and I was permitted to peruse it; but althoughinteresting, it is too long for insertion. ]

CHAPTER XXX. 

Milosh Obrenovitch. 

At this period Milosh Obrenovitch appears prominently on the politicaltapis. He spent his youth in herding the famed swine of Servia; andduring the revolution was employed by Kara Georg to watch the passesof the Balkan, lest the Servians should be taken aback by troops fromAlbania and Bosnia. He now saw that a favourable conjuncture had comefor his advancement from the position of chieftain to that of chief;he therefore lost no time in making terms with the Turks, offering tocollect the tribute, to serve them faithfully, and to aid them in there-subjugation of the people: he was, therefore, loaded with caressesby the Turks as a faithful subject of the Porte. His offers were atonce accepted; and he now displayed singular activity in theextirpation of all the other popular chiefs, who still held out in thewoods and fastnesses, and sent their heads to the Pasha; but thedecapitation of Glavash, who was, like himself, supporting thegovernment, showed that when he had accomplished the ends of SolimanPasha, his own turn would come; he therefore employed the rusedescribed in page 55, made his escape, and, convinced that it wasimpossible ever to come to terms with Soliman Pasha, raised thestandard of open revolt. The people, grown desperate through theill-treatment of the spahis, who had returned, responded to his call, and rose in a body. The scenes of 1804-5-6, were about to be renewed;but the Porte quickly made up its mind to treat with Milosh, whobehaved, during this campaign, with great bravery, and was generallysuccessful. Milosh consequently came to Belgrade, made his submission, in the name of the nation, to Marashly Ali Pasha, the governor ofBelgrade, and was reinstated as tribute-collector for the Porte; andthe war of mutual extermination was ended by the Turks retaining allthe castles, as stipulated in the eighth article of the treaty ofBucharest. 

Many of the chiefs, impatient at the speedy submission of Milosh, wished to fight the matter out, and Kara Georg, in order to giveeffect to their plans, landed in Servia. Milosh pretended to befriendly to his designs, but secretly betrayed his place ofconcealment to the governor, whose men broke into the cottage where heslept, and put him to death. Thus ended the brave and unfortunate KaraGeorg, who was, no doubt, a rebel against his sovereign, the Sultan, and, according to Turkish law, deserving of death; but this base actof treachery, on the part of Milosh, who was not the less a rebel, isjustly considered as a stain on his character. 

M. Boue, who made the acquaintance of Milosh in 1836, gives a shortaccount of him. 

Milosh rose early to the sound of military music, and then went to hisopen gallery, where he smoked a pipe, and entered on the business ofthe day. Although able neither to read, write, nor sign his name, hecould dictate and correct despatches; and in the evening he caused thearticles in the _Journal des Debats_, the _Constitutionnel_, and the_Augsburg Gazette_, to be translated to him. 

The Belgrade chief of police[24] having offended Milosh by the boldnessof his language, and having joined the detractors of the prince at acritical moment, although he owed everything to him, Milosh orderedhis head to be struck off. Fortunately his brother Prince Ievren metthe people charged with the bloody commission; he blamed them, andwished to hinder the deed: and knowing that the police director wasalready on his way to Belgrade from Posharevatz, where he had beenstaying, he asked the momkes to return another way, saying they hadmissed him. The police director thus arrived at Belgrade, wasoverwhelmed with reproaches by Milosh, and pardoned. 

A young man having refused to marry one of his cast-off mistresses, hewas enlisted in the army, but after some months submitted to his fate. 

He used to raise to places, in the Turkish fashion, men who wereunprepared by their studies for them. One of his cooks became acolonel. Another colonel had been a merry-andrew. Having once receiveda good medical advice from his butler, he told him that natureintended him for a doctor, and sent him to study medicine under Dr. Cunibert. 

"When Milosh sent his meat to market, all other sales were stopped, until he had sold off his own at a higher price than that current, onthe ground of the meat being better. "

"The prince considered all land in Servia to belong to him, andperpetually wished to appropriate any property that seemed better thanhis own, fixing his own price, which was sometimes below the value, which the proprietor dared not refuse to take, whatever labour hadbeen bestowed on it. At Kragujevatz, he prevented the completion ofthe house of M. Raditchevitch, because some statues of wood, andornaments, which were not to be found in his own palace, were in theplan. An almanack having been printed, with a portrait of his nieceAuka, he caused all the copies to be given back by the subscribers, and the portraits cut out. "

There can be no doubt, that, after the miserable end of Kara Georg, and the violent revolutionary wars, an unlimited dictatorship was thebest regimen for the restoration of order. Milosh was, therefore, manyyears at the head of affairs of Servia before symptoms of oppositionappeared. Allowances are certainly to be made for him; he had seen nogovernment but the old Turkish regime, and had no notion of any otherway of governing but by decapitation and confiscation. But thissystem, which was all very well for a prince of the fifteenth century, exhausted the patience of the new generation, many of whom were bredat the Austrian universities. Without seeking for democraticinstitutions, for which Servia is totally unfit, they loudly demandedwritten laws, which should remove life and property from the domain ofindividual caprice, and which, without affecting the suzerainty of thePorte, should bring Servia within the sphere of Europeaninstitutions. They murmured at Milosh making a colossal fortune out ofthe administration of the principality, while he rendered no accountof his intromissions, either to the Sultan or to the people, andseized lands and houses merely because he took a fancy to them. [25]Hence arose the _national party_ in Servia, which included nearly allthe opulent and educated classes; which is not surprising, since hisrule was so stringent that he would allow no carriage but his own tobe seen in the streets of Belgrade: and, on his fall, so many orderswere sent to the coach-makers of Pesth, that trade was brisk for allthe summer. 

The details of the debates of the period would exhaust the reader'spatience. I shall, therefore, at once proceed to the summing up. 

1st. In the nine years' revolt of Kara Georg nearly the wholesedentary Turkish population disappeared from Servia, and the Ottomanpower became, according to their own expression, _assassiz_(foundationless). 

2nd. The eighth article of the treaty of Bucharest, concluded byRussia with the Porte, which remained a dead letter, was followed bythe fifth article in the treaty of Akerman, formally securing theServians a separate administration. 

3rd. The consummate skill with which Milosh played his fast and loosegame with the Porte, had the same consequences as the above, andultimately led to

4th. The formal act of the Sultan constituting Servia a tributaryprincipality to the Porte, in a _Hatti Sherif_, of the 22nd November, 1830. 

5th. From this period, up to the end of 1838, was the hard strugglebetween Milosh, seeking for absolute power, supported by the peasantryof Rudnik, his native district, and the "Primates, " as the heads ofthe national party are called, seeking for a habeas-corpus act and alegislative assembly. 

Milosh was in 1838 forcibly expelled from Servia; and his son Michaelhaving been likewise set aside in 1842, and the son of Kara Georgselected by the sublime Porte and the people of Servia, against theviews of Russia, the long-debated "Servian Question" arose, whichreceived a satisfactory solution by the return of Wucics andPetronievitch, the exiled supports of Kara Georgevitch, through themediation of the Earl of Aberdeen. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 24: M, Boue, in giving this anecdote, calls him "NewspaperEditor:" this is a mistake. ]

[Footnote 25: It is very true that the present Prince of Servia doesnot possess anything like the power which Milosh wielded; he cannothang a man up at the first pear-tree: but it is a mistake on the partof the liberals of France and England, to suppose that the revolutionswhich expelled Milosh and Michael were democratic. There has been noturning upside down of the social pyramid; and in the absence of ahereditary aristocracy, the wealthiest and most influential persons inServia, such as Ressavatz, Simitch, Garashanin, &c. Support AlexanderKara Georgevitch. ]

CHAPTER XXXI. 

The Prince. --The Government. --The Senate. --The Minister for ForeignAffairs. --The Minister of the Interior. --Courts of Justice. --Finances. 

Kara Georgevitch means son of Kara Georg, his father's name havingbeen Georg Petrovitch, or son of Peter; this manner of naming beingcommon to all the southern Slaaves, except the Croats and Dalmatians. This is the opposite of the Arabic custom, which confers on a fatherthe title of parent of his eldest son, as Abou-Selim, Abou-Hassan, &c. While his own name is dropped by his friends and family. 

The Prince's household appointments are about £20, 000 sterling, and, making allowance for the difference of provisions, servants' wages, horse keep, &c. Is equal to about £50, 000 sterling in England, whichis not a large sum for a principality of the size of Servia. 

The senate consists of twenty-one individuals, four of whom areministers. The senators are not elected by the people, but are namedby the prince, and form an oligarchy composed of the wealthiest andmost influential persons. They hold their offices for life; they mustbe at least thirty-five years, and possess landed property. 

The presidency of the senate is an imaginary dignity; the duties ofvice-president being performed by M. Stojan Simitch, the herculeanfigure I have described on my first visit to Belgrade; and it isallowed that he performs his duties with great sagacity, tact, andimpartiality. He is a Servian of the old school, speaks Servian andTurkish, but no European language. The revolutions of this countryhave brought to power many men, like M. Simitch, of good naturaltalents, and defective education. The rising generation has moreinstruction, and has entered the career of material improvements; butI doubt if the present red tape routine will produce a race havingthe shrewdness of their fathers. If these forms--the unavoidableaccompaniments of a more advanced stage of society, --circumscribe thesphere of individual exertion, they possess, on the other hand, theadvantage of rendering the recurrence of military dictatorshipimpossible. 

M. Petronievitch, the present minister for foreign affairs, anddirector of the private chancery of the Prince, is unquestionably themost remarkable public character now in Servia. He passed some time ina commercial house at Trieste, which gave him a knowledge of Italian;and the bustle of a sea-port first enlarged his views. Nine years ofhis life were passed at Constantinople as a hostage for the Serviannation, guaranteeing the non-renewal of the revolt; no slight act ofdevotion, when one considers that the obligations of the contractingparties reposed rather on expediency than on moral principles. Here hemade the acquaintance of all the leading personages at the OttomanPorte, and learned colloquial Turkish in perfection. Petronievitch isastute by education and position, but he has a good heart and acapacious intellect, and his defects belong not to the man, but tothe man's education and circumstances. Although placable in hisresentments, he is without the usual baser counterpart of such pliantcharacters, and has never shown himself deficient in moral courage. Most travellers trace in his countenance a resemblance to the bustsand portraits of Fox. His moral character bears a miniatureresemblance to that which history has ascribed to Macchiavelli. 

In the course of a very tortuous political career, he has kept theadvancement and civilization of Servia steadily in view, and hasalways shown himself regardless of sordid gain. He is one of the veryfew public men in Servia, in whom the Christian and Western love of_community_ has triumphed over the Oriental allegiance to _self_, andthis disinterestedness is, in spite of his defects, the secret of hispopularity. 

The commander of the military force is M. Wucics, who is also ministerof the interior, a man of great personal courage; and althoughunacquainted with the tactics of European warfare, said to possesshigh capacity for the command of an irregular force. He possessesgreat energy of character, and is free from the taint of venality;but he is at the same time somewhat proud and vindictive. Hispredecessor in the ministry of the interior was M. Ilia Garashanin, the rising man in Servia. Sound practical sense, and unimpeachableintegrity, without a shade of intrigue, distinguish this senator. MayServia have many Garashanins!

The standing army is a mere skeleton. The reason of this is obvious. Servia forms part of one great empire, and adjoins two others;therefore, the largest disciplined force that she might bring into thefield, in the event of hostilities, could make no impression foroffensive objects; while for defensive purposes, the countlessriflemen, taking advantage of the difficult nature of the country, areamply sufficient. 

Let the Servians thank their stars that their army is a skeleton. Letall Europe rejoice that the pen is rapidly superseding the sword; thatthere now exists a council-board, to which strong and weak are equallyamenable. May this diplomarchy ultimately compass the ends of theearth, and every war be reckoned a civil war, an arch-high-treasonagainst confederate hemispheres!

The portfolios of justice and finance are usually in the hands of menof business-habits, who mix little in politics. 

The courts of law have something of the promptitude of orientaljustice, without its flagrant venality. The salaries of the judges aresmall: for instance, the president of the appeal court at Belgrade hasthe miserable sum of £300 sterling per annum. M. Hadschitch, whoframed the code of laws, has £700 sterling per annum. 

The criminal code is founded on that of Austria. The civil code is alocalized modification of the _Code Napoleon_. The first translationof the latter code was almost literal, and made without reference tothe manners and historical antecedents of Servia: some of the blundersin it were laughable:--_Hypotheque_ was translated as if it had been_Apotheke_, and made out to be a _depot of drugs_! When the translatorwas asked for the reason of this extraordinary prominence of the drugdepot subject, he accounted for it by the consummate skill attainedby France in medicine and surgery!

A small lawyer party is beginning in Belgrade, but they are dislikedby the people, who prefer short _viva voce_ procedure, and dislikedocuments. It is remarked, that when a man is supposed to be in theright, he wishes to carry on his own suit; when he has a bad case, heresorts to a lawyer. 

The ecclesiastical affairs of this department occupy a considerableportion of the minister's attention. 

In consequence of the wars which Stephan Dushan, the Servian emperor, carried on against the Greeks in the fourteenth century, he made thearchbishop of Servia independent of the patriarch of Constantinople, who, in turn, excommunicated Stephan and his nominee. Thisindependence continued up to the year 1765, at which period, inconsequence of the repeated encouragement given by the patriarchs ofServia to revolts against the Turkish authority, the nation was againsubjected to the immediate spiritual jurisdiction of Constantinople. Wuk Stephanovitch gives the following anecdote, illustrative of theabuses which existed in the selection of the superior clergy from thistime, and up to the Servian revolution, all the charges being sold tothe highest bidder, or given to courtiers, destitute of religion, andoften of common morality. 

In 1797, a Greek priest came to Orsova, complaining that he had notfunds sufficient to enable him to arrive at his destination. Acollection was made for him; but instead of going to the place hepretended to be bound for, he passed over to the island of New Orsova, and entered, in a military capacity, the service of the localgovernor, and became a petty chief of irregular Turkish troops. Hethen became a salt inspector; and the commandant wishing to get rid ofhim, asked what he could do for him; on which he begged to be madeArchbishop of Belgrade! This modest request not being complied with, the Turkish commandant sent him to Sofia, with a recommendation to theGrand Vizier to appoint him to that see; but the vacancy had alreadybeen filled up by a priest of Nissa, who had been interpreter to theVizier, and who no sooner seated himself, than he commenced a systemof the most odious exactions. 

In the time of Kara Georg, the Patriarchate of Constantinople was notrecognized, and the Archbishop of Carlovitz in Hungary was looked upto as the spiritual head of the nation; but after the treaty ofAdrianople, the Servian government, on paying a peppercorn tribute tothe Patriarch of Constantinople, was admitted to have the exclusivedirection of its ecclesiastical affairs. The Archbishop's salary is800_l_. Per annum, and that of his three Bishops about half as much. 

The finances of Servia are in good condition. The income, according toa return made to me from the finance department, is in round numbers, eight hundred and eighty-seven thousand dollars, and the expenditureeight hundred and thirty thousand. The greater part of the revenuebeing produced by the _poresa_, which is paid by all heads offamilies, from the time of their marriage to their sixtieth year, andin fact, includes nearly all the adult population; for, as is the casein most eastern countries, nearly every man marries early. Thebachelors pay a separate tax. Some of the other items in the budgetare curious: under the head of "Interest of a hundred thousand ducatslent by the government to the people at six per cent. " we find a sumof fourteen thousand four hundred dollars. Not only has Servia nopublic debt, but she lends money. Interest is high in Servia; notbecause there is a want of capital, but because there are no means ofinvestment. The consequence is that the immense savings of thepeasantry are hoarded in the earth. A father of a family dies, or _inextremis_ is speechless, and unable to reveal the spot; thus largesums are annually lost to Servia. The favourite speculation in thecapital is the building of houses. 

The largest gipsy colonies are to be found on this part of the Danube, in Servia, in Wallachia, and in the Banat. The tax on the gipsies inServia amounts to more than six thousand dollars. They are under aseparate jurisdiction, but have the choice of remaining nomade, orsettling; in the latter case they are fiscally classed with theServians. Some settled gipsies are peasants, but for the most partsmiths. Both settled and nomade gipsies, are alike remarkable fortheir musical talents. Having fought with great bravery during the warof emancipation, they are not so despised in Servia as in some othercountries. 

For produce of the state forests, appears the very insignificant sumof one hundred and twenty-five dollars. The interior of Servia beingso thickly wooded, every Servian is allowed to cut as much timber ashe likes. The last item in the budget sounds singularly enough: twothousand three hundred and forty-one dollars are set down as theproduce of sales of stray cattle, which are first delivered up to thecaptain of the district, who makes the seizure publicly, and thenhands them over to the judge for sale, if there be no claimant withina given time. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Agriculture and Commerce. 

Upon the whole, it must be admitted, that the peasantry of Servia havedrawn a high prize in the lottery of existence. Abject want andpauperism is nearly unknown. In fact, from the great abundance ofexcellent land, every man with ordinary industry can support his wifeand family, and have a large surplus. The peasant has no landlord butthe Sultan, who receives a fixed tribute from the Servian government, and does not interfere with the internal administration. The father ofa family, after having contributed a _maximum_ tax of six dollars perannum, is sole master of the surplus; so that in fact the taxes arealmost nominal, and the rent a mere peppercorn; the whole amountingon an average to about four shillings and sixpence per caput perannum. 

A very small proportion of the whole soil of Servia is cultivated. Some say only one sixth, others only one eighth; and even the presentmode of cultivation scarcely differs from that which prevails in otherparts of Turkey. The reason is obvious: if the present production ofServia became insufficient for the subsistence of the population, theyhave only to take in waste lands; and improved processes ofagriculture will remain unheeded, until the population begins to presson the limits of the means of subsistence; a consummation not likelyto be brought about for many generations to come. 

Although situated to the south of Hungary, the climate and productionsare altogether northern. I never saw an olive-tree in Servia, althoughplentiful in the corresponding latitudes of France and Italy (43°--44°50'); but both sorts of melons are abundant, although from want ofcultivation not nearly so good as those of Hungary. The same may besaid of all other fruits except the grapes of Semendria, which Ibelieve are equal to any in the world. The Servians seem to have ingeneral very little taste for gardening, much less in fact than theTurks, in consequence perhaps of the unsurpassed beauty and luxurianceof nature. The fruit-tree which seems to be the most common in Serviais the plum, from which the ordinary brandy of the country is made. Almost every village has a plantation of this tree in its vicinity. Vegetables are tolerably abundant in some parts of the interior ofServia, but Belgrade is very badly supplied. There seems to be nokitchen gardens in the environs; at least I saw none. Most of thevegetables as well as milk come from Semlin. 

The harvest in August is the period of merriment. All Servian peasantsassist each other in getting in the grain as soon as it is ready, without fee or reward; the cultivator providing entertainment for hislaborious guests. In the vale of the Lower Morava, where there is lesspasture and more corn, this is not sufficient, and hired Bulgariansassist. 

The innumerable swine which are reared in the vast forests of theinterior, at no expense to the inhabitants, are the great staple ofServian product and export. In districts where acorns abound, theyfatten to an inconceivable size. They are first pushed swimming acrossthe Save, as a substitute for quarantine, and then driven to Pesth andVienna by easy stages; latterly large quantities have been sent up theDanube in boats towed by steam. 

Another extensive trade in this part of the world is in leeches. Turkey in Europe, being for the most part uncultivated, is coveredwith ponds and marshes, where leeches are found in abundance. Inconsequence of the extensive use now made of these reptiles, inpreference to the old practice of the lancet, the price has risen; andthe European source being exhausted, Turkey swarms with Frenchmenengaged in this traffic. Semlin and Belgrade are the entrepots of thistrade. They have a singular phraseology; and it is amusing to hearthem talk of their "marchandises mortes. " One company had establisheda series of relays and reservoirs, into which the leeches weredeposited, refreshed, and again put in motion; as the journey for agreat distance, without such refreshment, usually proves fatal. 

The steam navigation on the Danube has been of incalculable benefit toServia; it renders the principality accessible to the rest of Europe, and Europe easily accessible to Servia. The steam navigation of theSave has likewise given a degree of animation to these lower regions, which was little dreamt of a few years ago. The Save is the greatestof all the tributaries of the Danube, and is uninterruptedly navigablefor steamers a distance of two hundred miles. This river is thenatural canal for the connexion of Servia and the Banat with theAdriatic. It also offers to our summer tourists, on the completion ofthe Lombard-Venetian railway, an entirely new and agreeable route tothe East. By railroad, from Milan to Venice; by steamer from thence toTrieste; by land to Sissek; and the rest of the way by the rapiddescent of the Save and the Danube. By the latter route very fewturnings and windings are necessary; for a straight line drawn fromMilan to Kustendji on the Black Sea, the point of embarkation forConstantinople, almost touches Venice, Trieste, Belgrade, and theDanube. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Foreign Agents. 

So much for the native government. The foreign agents in Belgrade arefew in number. The most prominent individual during my stay there wasBaron Lieven, a Russian general, who had been sent there on a specialmission by the emperor, to steer the policy of Russia out of theshoals of the Servian question. 

On calling there with Mr. Fonblanque, I found a tall military-lookingman, between forty and forty-five years of age. He entered at once, and without mystery, into the subject of his mission, and concluded bysaying that "Servia owed her political existence solely to Russia, which gave the latter a moral right of intervention over and above thestipulations of treaties, to which no other power could pretend. " Asthe public is already familiar with the arguments pro and contra onthis question, it is at present unnecessary to recur to them. 

Baron Lieven had in the posture of affairs at that time a difficultpart to play, inasmuch as a powerful party sought to throw off theprotectorate of Russia. The baron, without possessing an intellect ofthe highest order, was a man of good sound judgment, and in hisproceedings showed a great deal of frankness and military decision, qualities which attained his ends in all probability with greatersuccess than if he had been endowed with that profound astutenesswhich we usually attribute to Russians. This was his fifth missioninto the Turkish dominions; so that, although not possessing thelanguage, he was yet well acquainted with the Turkish character andEastern affairs in general. His previous mission had for its object toannounce to the Sultan that, in accordance with the stipulations ofthe treaty of the 15th of July, 1840, the military and naval forces ofthe Emperor of Russia were at the service of his Highness. 

Baron Lieven was accompanied to Servia by his lady, a highly talentedperson, who spoke English admirably; and the evenings spent in hishospitable house were among the most agreeable reminiscences of myresidence at Belgrade. 

The stationary Russian consul-general was M. Wastchenko, a stoutmiddle-aged gentleman, with the look of a well-conditioned alderman. M. Wastchenko had been originally in a commercial establishment atOdessa; but having acquired a knowledge of the Turkish language he wasattached to the embassy at Constantinople, and subsequently nominatedRussian consul at Belgrade, under the consul-general for theprincipalities of Wallachia and Moldavia; but his services having beenhighly approved by Count Nesselrode, he was advanced to the rank andpay of consul-general. M. Wastchenko possesses in an eminent degreewhat Swift calls the aldermanly, but never to be over estimatedquality, Discretion; he was considered generally a very safe man. Infact, a sort of man who is a favourite with all chanceries; thequality of such a mind being rather to avoid complications than toexcite admiration by activity in the pen or the tongue. M. Wastchenkowas most thoroughly acquainted with everything, and every man, inServia. He spoke the language fluently, and lived familiarly with theprincipal persons in Belgrade. He had never travelled in Europe, and, strange to say, had never been in St. Petersburg. 

The present Russian consul-general in Servia is Colonel Danilefsky, whodistinguished himself, when a mere youth, by high scientific attainmentsin military colleges of Russia, rose rapidly to a colonelcy, and wassent out on a mission to the khan of Khiva; the success of which ensuredhis promotion to the Servian consulate-general, an important position asregards the interests of Russia. 

From the circumstance of there being three thousand Austrian subjectsin Belgrade, the consul-general of that power has a mass of realconsular business to transact, while the functions of the other agentsare solely political. France has generally an agent of good capacityin Servia, in consequence of the influence that the march of affairsin the principality might have on the general destinies of Turkey inEurope. Great Britain was represented by Mr. Consul-generalFonblanque, a gentleman whose conduct has been sharply criticized bythose who suppose that the tactics of party in the East are like thosein England, all fair and above-board: but let those gentlemen that sitat home at ease, experience a few of the rude tempestuous blasts whichfall to the lot of individuals who speak and write truths unpalatableto those who will descend to any device to compass a political object, and they would sing another song. 

I now take leave of Servia, wishing her Prince and her people everyprosperity, and entertaining the hope that she will wisely limit allher future efforts to the cultivation of the arts of peace andcivilization. From Belgrade I crossed to Semlin, whence I proceeded bysteam to Vienna. 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

VIENNA IN 1844[26]

Improvements in Vienna. --Palladian style--Music. --Theatres. --SirRobert Gordon. --Prince Metternich. --ArmenBall. --Dancing. --Strauss. --Austrian Policy. 

Vienna has been more improved and embellished within the last fewyears than during the previous quarter of a century. The Graben andthe Kohlmarket have been joined, and many old projecting houses havebeen taken down, and replaced by new tenements, with the facades putback, so as to facilitate the thoroughfare. Until very lately, almostevery public building and private palace in Vienna was in theFrenchified style of the last century, when each petty prince inGermany wished to have a miniature Versailles in his village capital. All the new edifices are in the Palladian style; which is suitable, not only to the climate, but to the narrow streets, where Greekarchitecture would be lost for want of space, and where the greatheight of the houses gives mass to this (the Palladian) style, withoutthe necessity of any considerable perspective. The circumstance ofmany of the architects here being Italian, may probably, in somemeasure, account for the general adoption of this style. It issingular, that although Vienna possesses in St. Stephen's one of themost beautiful specimens of Gothic architecture, not a single edificein this taste of recent date is to be seen, although a revival of itis noticeable in several other parts of Germany. 

Music is one of the necessaries of existence in Vienna, and theinternal consumption is apparently as great as ever: there isnow-a-days no Mozart or Haydn to supply imperishable fabrics for themarkets of the world; but the orchestras are as good as ever. TheSinfonia-Eroica of Beethoven catching my eye in a programme, I failednot to renew my homage to this prince of sweet and glorious sounds, and was loyally indignant on hearing a fellow-countryman say, that, though rich in harmony, he was poor in melody. No; Beethoven's wealthis boundless; his riches embarrass him; he is the sultan of melody:while others dally with their beauties to satiety, he wanders fromgrace to grace, scarce pausing to enjoy. Is it possible to hear hissymphonies without recognizing in them the germs of innumerable modernmelodies, the precious metal which others beat out, wherewith to platetheir baser compositions, --exhaustless materials for the use of hissuccessors, like those noble temples which antiquity has raised in theEast, to become, in the sequel, the quarries from which whole citiesof lowlier dwellings are constructed?

At the Karnthner Thor I heard the Huguenots admirably performed. Decorations excepted, I really thought it better done than at theAcademie Royale. Meyerbeer's brilliant and original conceptions, inturning the chorus into an oral orchestra, are better realized. AFrench vaudeville company performed on the alternate nights. Carl, therich Jew manager of the Wieden, and proprietor of the Leopold-StadtTheatre, is adding largely to his fortune, thanks to the rich and racydrolleries of Nestroz and Schulz, who are the Matthews and Liston ofVienna. The former of these excellent actors is certainly the mostsuccessful farce-writer in Germany. Without any of Raimund'ssentimental-humorous dialogue, he has a far happier eye for character, and only the untranslatable dialect of Vienna has preserved him fromforeign play-wrights. 

Sir Robert Gordon, her Majesty's ambassador, whose unbounded and trulysumptuous hospitalities are worthy of his high position, did me thehonour to take me to one of Princess Metternich's receptions, in theapartments of the chancery of state, one side of which is devoted tobusiness, the other to the private residence of the minister. Afterpassing through a vestibule on the first floor, paved with marble, weentered a well-lighted saloon of palatial altitude, at the furtherend of which sat the youthful and fascinating princess, inconversation with M. Bailli de Tatischeff ex-ambassador of Russia. 

There, almost blind and bent double with the weight of eighty years, sat the whilom profoundly sagacious diplomatist, whose accomplishedmanners and quick perception of character have procured him a Europeanreputation. He quitted public business some years ago, but even inretirement Vienna had its attractions for him. There is anunaccountable fascination in a residence in this capital; those wholive long in it become _ipsis Vindobonensibus Vindobonensiores_. 

Prince Metternich, who was busy when we entered with a group, examining some views of Venice, received me with that quaker-likesimplicity which forms the last polish of the perfect gentleman andman of the world; "_les extremes se touchent_, " in manners as inliterature: but for the riband of the Golden Fleece, which crossed hisbreast, there was nothing to remind me that I was conversing with thestatesman, who, after the armistice of Plesswitz, held the destiniesof all Europe in his hands. After some conversation, the prince askedme to call upon him on a certain forenoon. 

Most of the diplomatic corps were present, one of whom was the amiableand well-known Marshal Saldanha, who, a few years ago, played soprominent a part in the affairs of Portugal. The usual resources ofwhist and the tea-buffet changed the conversational circle, and atmidnight there was a general movement to the Kleine Redouten Saal, where the Armen Ball had attracted so crowded an assemblage, that morethan one archduchess had her share of elbowing. Strauss was in all hisglory; the long-drawn impassioned breathings of Lanner having ceasedfor ever, the dulcet hilarity of his rival now reigns supreme; and hismusic, when directed by himself, still abounds in those exquisitelittle touches, that inspire _hope_ like the breath of a May morning. Strange to say, the intoxicating waltz is gone out of vogue with thehumbler classes of Vienna, --its natal soil. Quadrilles, mazurkas, andother exotics, are now danced by every "Stubenmad'l" in Lerchenfeld, to the exclusion of the national dance. 

On the third day after this, at the appointed hour, I waited upon PrinceMetternich. In the outer antechamber an elderly well-conditionedred-faced usher, in loosely made clothes of fine black cloth, rose froma table, and on my announcing myself, said, "If you will go into thatapartment, and take a seat, his Excellency will be disengaged in a shorttime. " I now entered a large apartment, looking out on the little gardenof the bastion: an officer, in a fresh new white Austrian uniform, stoodmotionless and pensive at one of the windows, waiting his turn with amost formidable roll of papers. The other individual in the room was aHungarian, who moved about, sat down, and rose up, with the mostrestless impatience, twirled his mustachios, and kept up a most livelyconversation with a caged parrot which stood on the table. 

Two large pictures, hanging from the wall opposite the windows, were afull length portrait of the emperor in his robes, the other a pictureof St. John Nepomuck, the patron saint of Bohemia, holding an olivebranch in his hand. The apartment, although large, was very simplyfurnished, but admirably decorated in subdued colours, in the Italianmanner. A great improvement has lately taken place in internaldecoration in Vienna, which corresponds with that of externalarchitecture. A few years ago, most large apartments were fitted up inthe style of Louis XV. , which was worthy of the degenerate nobles andcrapulous financiers for whom it was invented, and was, in fact, asort of Byzantine of the boudoir, which succeeded the nobler andsimpler manner of the age of Louis XIV. , and tormenting every straightline into meretricious curves, ended with over-loading caricatureitself. 

I found Prince Metternich in his cabinet, surrounded with book-cases, filled mostly with works on history, statistics, and geography, and Ihope I am not committing any indiscretion in saying that hisconversation savoured more of the abstractions of history andpolitical philosophy than that of any other practical statesman I hadseen. I do not think that I am passing a dubious compliment, since M. Guizot, the most eminently practical of the statesmen of France, is atthe same time the man who has most successfully illustrated theeffects of modifications of political institutions on the main currentof human happiness. 

It must be admitted that Prince Metternich has a profound acquaintancewith the minutest sympathies and antipathies of all the Europeanraces; and this is the quality most needed in the direction of anempire which comprises not a nation, but a congregation of nations;not cohering through sympathy with each other, but kept together bythe arts of statesmanship, and the bond of loyalty to the reigninghouse. The ethnographical map of Europe is as clear in his mind's eyeas the boot of Italy, the hand of the Morea, and the shield of theSpanish peninsula in those of a physical geographer. It is notaffirming too much to say that in many difficult questions in whichthe _mezzo termine_ proposed by Austria has been acceded to by theother powers, the solution has been due as much to the sagacity of theindividual, as to the less ambitious policy which generallycharacterizes Austria. 

The last time I saw this distinguished individual was in the month ofNovember following, on my way to England, I venture to give a scrap ofthe conversation. 

_Mett_. "The idea of Charlemagne was the formation of a vast state, comprising heterogeneous nations united under one head; but with allhis genius he was unequal to the task of its accomplishment. Napoleonentertained the same plan with his confederation of the Rhine; but allsuch systems are ephemeral when power is centralized, and the minorstates are looked upon as instruments, and not as principals. Austriais the only empire on record that has succeeded under thosecircumstances. The cabinet of Austria, when it seeks the solution ofany internal question, invariably reverses the positions, andhypothetically puts itself in the position of the provincial interestunder consideration. That is the secret of the prosperity of Austria. "

_Author_. "I certainly have been often struck with the historicalfact, that 1830 produced revolutions then and subsequently in France, Belgium, Poland, Spain, and innumerable smaller states; while inAustria, with all its reputed combustible elements, not a single townor village revolted. "

_Mett_. "That tangible fact speaks for itself. "

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 26: This chapter was written in Vienna in the beginning of1844; but I did not wish to break the current of my observations onServia by the record of my intervening journey to England. ]

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Concluding Observations on Austria and her Prospects. 

The heterogeneousness of the inhabitants of London and Paris is fromthe influx of foreigners; but the odd mixture of German, Italian, Slaavic, and I know not how many other races in Vienna, is almost allgenerated within the limits of the monarchy. Masses, rubbing againsteach other, get their asperities smoothed in the contact; but thecharacteristics of various nationalities remain in Vienna inconsiderable strength, and do not seem likely soon to disappear by anyprocess of attrition. There goes the German--honest, good-natured, andlaborious; the Hungarian--proud, insolent, lazy, hospitable, generous, and sincere; and the plausible Slaav--his eye, twinkling with theprospect of seizing, by a knowledge of human nature, what othersattain by slower means. 

How curious again, is the meeting of nations that labour and enjoy! InParis, the Germans and the English are more numerous than any otherforeigners. The former toil, drudge, save their littles to make ameikle. The latter, whatever they may be at home, are, in Paris, generally loungers and consumers of the fruits of the earth. TheHungarian's errand in Vienna is to spend money: the Italian's to makeit. The Hungarian, A. B. , is one of the squirearchy of his country, whose name is legion, or a military man, whiling away his furloughamid the excitements of a gay capital. The Italian, C. D. , is apainter, a sculptor, a musician, or an employe; and there is scarcelyto be found an idle man among the twenty thousand of hisfellow-countrymen, who inhabit the metropolis. 

The Hungarian nobility, of the higher class, are, in appearance andhabits, completely identified with their German brethren; but it is inthe middle nobility that we recognize the swarthy complexion, thehaughty air and features, more or less of a Mongolian cast. TheHungarians and native Germans are mutually proud of each other, andmutually dislike each other. I never knew a Hungarian who was not inhis heart pleased with the idea, that the King of Hungary was also anemperor, whose lands, broad and wide, occupied so large a space in themap of Europe; and I never knew an Austrian proper, who was not proudof Hungary and the Hungarians, in spite of all their defects. TheHungarian of the above description herds with his fellow-countrymen, and preserves, to the end of his stay, his character of foreigner;visits assiduously places of public resort, preferring the theatre andball-room to the museum or picture-gallery. 

Of all men living in Vienna, the Bohemians carry off the palm foracuteness and ingenuity. The relation of Bohemia to the Austrianempire has some resemblance to that of Scotland to the colonies ofBritain, in the supply of mariners to the vessel of state. Thepopulation of Bohemia is a ninth part of that of the whole empire; butI dare say that a fourth of the bureaucracy of Austria is Bohemian. To account for this, we must take into consideration the great numberof men of sharp intellect, good education, and scanty fortune, thatannually leave that country. 

The population of Scotland is about a ninth of that of the UnitedKingdom. The Scot is well educated. He has less loose cash than hisbrother John Bull, and consequently prefers the sweets of office tothe costly incense of the hustings and the senate. How few, comparatively speaking, of those who have made themselves illustriousin the imperial Parliament, from the Union to our own time, came fromthe north of the Tweed; but how the Malcolms, the Elphinstones, theMunros, and the Burns, crowd the records of Indian statesmanship!

The power that controls the political tendencies of Austria is that ofthe _mass_ of the bureaucracy; consequently, looking at the proportionof Bohemian to other employes in the departments of public service, the influence exercised by this singularly sagacious people, over thedestinies of the monarchy, may be duly appreciated. Count Kollowrath, the minister of the interior, and Baron Kubeck, the minister offinance, are both Bohemians, and thus, next to the Chancellor ofState, occupy the most important offices in the empire. 

The Bohemians of the middling and poorer classes, have certainly lesssincerity and straight-forwardness than their neighbours. An anecdoteis related illustrative of the slyness of the Bohemians, compared withthe simple honesty of the German, and the candid unscrupulousness ofthe Hungarian: "During the late war, three soldiers, of each of thesethree nations, met in the parlour of a French inn, over thechimney-piece of which hung a watch. When they had gone, the Germansaid, 'That is a good watch; I wish I had bought it. ' 'I am sorry Idid not take it, ' said the Hungarian. 'I have it in my pocket, ' saidthe Bohemian. "

The rising man in the empire is the Bohemian Baron Kubeck, who isthoroughly acquainted with every detail in the economical condition ofAustria. The great object of this able financier is to cut down theexpenses of the empire. No doubt that it would be unwise for Austria, an inland state, to reduce her military expenses; but the_viel-schreiberei_ might be diminished, and the pruning-hook mightsafety be applied to the bureaucracy; but a powerful under-currentplaces this region beyond the power of Baron Kubeck. He is also afree-trader; but here again he meets with a powerful opposition: nosooner does he propose a modification of the tariff, than the saloonsof the Archdukes are filled with manufacturers and monopolists, whodraw such a terrific picture of the ruin which they pretend is tooverwhelm them, that the government, true to its tradition of neverdoing any thing unpopular, of always avoiding collision with publicopinion, and of protecting vested interests, even to the detriment ofthe real interest of the public, draws back; and the old jog-trot ismaintained. 

The mass of the aristocracy continues as usual without the slightestpolitical influence, or the slightest taste for state affairs. TheCount or Prince of thirty or forty thousand a year, is as contentedwith his chamberlain's key embroidered on his coat-skirt, as if hecontrolled the avenues to real power; but the silent operation of animportant change is visible in all the departments of the internalgovernment of Austria. The national reforms of the Emperor Joseph weretoo abrupt and sweeping to be salutary. By good luck the reactionwhich they produced being co-incident with the first FrenchRevolution, the firebrands which that great explosion scattered overall monarchical Europe, fell innocuous in Austria. The second Frenchrevolution rather retarded than accelerated useful reforms. Now thatthe fear of democracy recedes, an inclination for salutary changesshows itself everywhere. A desire for incorporations becomesstronger, and the government shows none of its quondam anxiety aboutpublic companies and institutions. The censorship has been greatlyrelaxed, and many liberal newspapers and periodicals, formerlyexcluded, are now frequently admitted. Any one who knew Austria someyears ago, would be surprised to see the "Examiner, " and"Constitutionnel" lying on the tables of the Clubs. 

A desire for the revival of the provincial estates (Landstande), isentertained by many influential persons. These provincial parliamentsexisted up to the time of the Emperor Joseph, who, with his rage fornovelty, and his desire for despotic and centralized power, abolishedthem. The section of the aristocracy desirous for this revival iscertainly small, but intelligent, and impatient for a sphere ofactivity. They have neither radical nor democratic principles; theyadmit that Austria, from the heterogeneous nature of her population, is not adapted for constitutional government; but maintain that therevival of municipal institutions is quite compatible with the presentelements of the monarchy, and that the difficulties presented by theantagonist nationalities are best solved by allowing a development ofprovincial public life, restricted to the control of local affairs, and leaving the central government quite unfettered in its generalforeign and domestic policy. 

St. Marc Girardin remarks, with no less piquancy of language thanaccuracy of observation, that "no country is judged with less favourthan Austria; and none troubles herself less about misrepresentation. Austria carries her repugnance to publicity so far as even to dislikeeulogium. Praise often offends her as much as blame; for he thatapplauds to-day may condemn to-morrow; to set one's self up forpraise, is to set one's self up for discussion. Austria will have noneof it, for her political worship is the religion of silence, and herworship of _that_ goes almost to excess. Her schools are worthy of thehighest admiration; we hear nothing about them. She is, after England, the first country in Europe for railways; and we hear nothing of them, except by a stray paragraph in the Augsburg Gazette. "

The national railroad scheme of Austria is certainly the most splendideffort of the _tout pour le peuple--rien par le peuple_ system thathas been hitherto seen; the scheme is the first of its class: but itsclass is not the first, not the best in the abstract, but the best inan absolute country, where the spirit of association is scarcely inembryo. From Vienna to Cracow is now but a step. Prague and Dresdenwill shake hands with Vienna next year. If we look southwards, lineupon line interpose themselves between Vienna and the Adriatic, butthe great Sommering has been pierced. The line to Trieste is openbeyond Gratz, the Styrian capital. The Lombard-Venetian line proceedsrapidly, and is to be joined to that of Trieste. In 1847, thetraveller may go, without fail, from Milan to Stettin on the Baltic. But the most interesting line for us is that of Gallicia, in connexionwith that of Silesia. If prolonged from Czernowitz to Galatz, alongthe dead flat of Moldavia, the Black Sea and the German Ocean will bejoined; _Samsoun and the Tigris will thus be, in all probability, atno distant day, on the high road to our Indian empire_. 

But to return to Austria; this spectacle of rapid materialimprovement, without popular commotion, and without the trumpets andalarm-bells of praise and blame, is satisfactory: but when we look tothe reverse of the picture, and see the cumbrous debt, the frequentdeficits, and the endless borrowing, we think the time has come forgreat financial reforms, --as Schiller hath it:--

 "Warum denn nicht mit einem grossen Schritte anfangen, Da sie mit einem grossen Schritte doch enden mussen?"

THE END. 

MR. PATON'S WORK ON SYRIA, Post 8vo, price 10_s_. 6_d_. 

THE MODERN SYRIANS;

OR, NATIVE SOCIETY IN DAMASCUS, ALEPPO, AND THE MOUNTAINS OF THE DRUSES. 

"Lebanon and its inhabitants, particularly the Druses, Damascus, andAleppo, are his leading subjects. His statements, under the first ofthose heads, form by far the most valuable portion of the work, affording, as it does, information not elsewhere to be foundrespecting the social condition, the politics, and the state ofreligion in a highly interesting region, our knowledge of which hashitherto been of the slightest description. Next to this, in interest, is the account of Aleppo, which has been less visited by Englishtravellers than Damascus; but even at Damascus, the information ofthis writer has considerable novelty, and embraces many points ofinterest arising from his leisurely sojourn, from his mixing more thanother travellers with the native population, and from his ability toconverse with them in their own language. Hence we have pictures moredistinct in their outlines, facts more positive, and information morereal than the passing traveller, ignorant of the local language, canbe reasonably expected to exhibit . .. Makes larger additions to thecommon stock of information concerning Syria, than any work whichcould easily be named since 'Burckhardt's Travels in Syria'appeared. "--_Eclectic Review_. 

"Remarkably clever and entertaining. "--_Times_. 

"In many of the conversations and reports in this volume, there seemsto us a _reality_, which European writing and discourse oftenwant. "--_Spectator_. 

"I willingly testify to the fact of your having enjoyed facilitiesover all our modern travellers, for accurately describing the manners, customs, and statistics of Syria. "--_Letter of Mr. Consul-GeneralBarker_. 

For a detailed analysis, see _Athenaeum_, 24th Aug. 1844. 

LONDON: LONGMAN & CO. , PATERNOSTER-ROW.