Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 — John Shaqi
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
At the end of the year, Mr Paton returned to England; and after an
absence of six months, returned in August 1844 to the banks of the Save,
reaching Belgrade at the moment when preparations were being made for
the triumphal reception of the patriot ministers Wuczicz and
Petronevich, who had at length been restored to their country by the
tardy intervention of England. The day of their arrival was celebrated
by a universal jubilee. Surrounded by an immense cavalcade, the exiles
paraded the streets, amid the rapturous acclamations of the multitude,
to the great portal of the cathedral, where they were received by the
Archbishop and clergy:--"They kissed the cross and the gospels, which
the Archbishop presented to them, and, kneeling down, returned thanks
for their safe restoration. The Archbishop then advanced to the edge of
the platform and began a discourse, describing the grief the nation had
experienced at their departure, the universal joy for their return, and
the hope that they would ever keep peace and union in view in all
matters of state, and that in their duties to the state they must never
forget their responsibility to the Most High. Wuczicz, dressed in the
coarse frieze jacket and boots of a Servian peasant, heard, with a
reverential inclination of the head, the discourse of the prelate, but
nought relaxed one muscle of that adamantine visage: the finer but more
luminous features of Petronevich were under the control of a less
powerful will. At certain passages his intelligent eye was moistened
with tears. Two deacons then prayed successively for the Sultan, the
Emperor of Russia, and the Prince,--and now uprose from every tongue,
and every heart, a hymn for the longevity of Wuczicz and Petronevich.
'The Solemn Song for Many Days' is the title of this sublime chant,
which is so old that its origin is lost in the obscure dawn of
Christianity in the East, and so massive, so nobly simple, as to be
beyond the ravages of time, and the caprices of convention." The town
was illuminated in the evening; and a ball was given at the new Konak or
palace, built by the exiled Prince Michael, which was attended "by all
the rank and fashion of Belgrade--senators of the old school, in their
benishes and shalwars, and senators of the new school, in pantaloons and
stiff cravats," which we agree with Mr Paton in considering as no
improvement on the graceful costume of the East. The Servian ladies,
however, have in general the good taste to retain the old national
costume; and "no head-dress that I have seen in the Levant is better
calculated to set off beauty. From a small Greek fez they suspend a gold
tassel, which contrasts with the black and glossy hair, which is laid
smooth and flat down the temple. The sister of the Princess, who was
admitted to be the handsomest woman in the room, with her tunic of
crimson velvet, embroidered in gold, and faced with sable, would have
been, in her strictly indigenous costume, the queen of any fancy ball in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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