Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
He is a picturesque fellow as he swaggers about with a
silver-decorated armoury stuck in his waist-belt: and he is truly
faithful to a master. But he has not the barest elements of a national
organisation; and the Austrian Prince of Albania did not find a single
house within all his dominion which would satisfy the housing needs of a
respectable London clerk.
Describing the march across Albania to the Adriatic coast during the
recent war a Serbian officer wrote:
It is only by travelling as we did that real facts can be learned.
We who had only known the Turks by hearsay had a certain respect
for them. At present I feel but contempt and disgust. To think that
they should have held these lands for five hundred years, and kept
them absolutely wild and uncultivated! Prishtina, Jakovitsa, and
Prizrend are in every respect behind Mirigevo [a village some
miles outside Belgrade]. There are neither bridges nor roads, nor
decent dwellings to be met with in the Sanjak. Of the dirt I cannot
trust myself to speak. The "Ujumat" (Prefecture) of Prizrend,
residence of the Mutessarif, is in such a filthy condition that I
could not sit there for more than five minutes together. All around
the sofras (tables) were rags, remnants of food, tufts of dogs'
hair, etc., for these ate and slept with their masters....
The people are humble, cowed, moving out-of-doors rarely, and then
huddled together like a herd of cattle.... The peasants run to kiss
our hands, and bow down to the ground, but they are too frightened
to give a sensible answer to a plain question. They speak Serbian,
it is true, and cross themselves as Christians, but otherwise bear
little resemblance to our peasant folk. They have lived no better
than their masters, for themselves and their pigs share the same
apartment! If the pigs were let loose the Turks were sure to kill
them, so they were hidden indoors. The first use they made of the
liberty we gave them was to hunt the pigs into the open air, and
how the poor beasts enjoyed it! One could not help laughing at
their antics as they chased each other, while the children ran to
keep them from escaping to the woods. But the cows and oxen defy
description. They are like our calves, only the shape is queer. I
saw no vegetables anywhere. The staple diet is maize. From our
frontier to the sea it is the same tale of misery, helplessness,
and dirt. In Prizrend, after every rainfall, the people drink muddy
water in which none of our soldiers would care to wash. When we
boiled it a thick scum came on the top, which we skimmed off! This
is the water used by a town of 40,000 citizens; and really one felt
that authorities like the Turks should not be allowed to live any
longer. Now we feel that it is a disgrace to us to have delayed so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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