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.Paton, A. A. (Andrew Archibald)
History
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.
Paton, A. A. (Andrew Archibald)
Serbia -- Description and travel
I asked him if the people understood Turkish or Arabic, and if
preaching was held. He answered, that only he and a few of the Agas
understood Turkish,--that the Mollah was a deeply-read man, who said
the prayers in the mosque in Arabic, as is customary everywhere; but
that there was no preaching, since the people only knew their prayers
in Arabic, but could not understand a sermon, and spoke nothing but
Bosniac. I think that somebody told me that Vaaz, or preaching, is
held in the Bosniac language at Seraievo. But my memory fails me in
certainty 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 absent
at Topola with the prince, came to see me; he was a middle-aged man,
with most perfect self-possession, polite without familiarity or
effort to please; he had more of the manner of a Moslem grandee, than
of a Christian subject of the Sultan.
_Natchalnik_. "Believe me, the people are much pleased that men of
learning travel through the country; it is a sign that we are not
forgotten in Europe; thank God and the European powers, that we are
now making progress."
_Author_. "Servia is certainly making progress; there can be no
spectacle more delightful to a rightly constituted mind, than that of
a hopeful young nation approaching its puberty. You Servians are in a
considerable minority here in Ushitza. I hope you live on good terms
with the Moslems."
_Natchalnik_. "Yes, on tolerable terms; but the old ones, who remember
the former abject position of the Christians, cannot reconcile
themselves to my riding on horseback through the bazaars, and get
angry when the Servians sing in the woods, or five off muskets during
a rejoicing."
The Vayvode now arrived with a large company of Moslems, and we
proceeded on foot to see the castle, our road being mostly through
those gardens, on which the old town stood, and following the side of
the river, to the spot where the high banks almost close in, so as to
form a gorge. We ascended a winding path, and entered the gate, which
formed the outlet of a long, gloomy, and solidly built passage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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