We made our way with some difficulty through the precipitous defile, and were rewarded by a cheerful prospect of a maize-covered height beyond, surmounted by wooden huts and the minaret of a mosque. A short climb brought us to the village, called Zagredzi, hanging on the slope of Mt. Mazulia. Here we thought to get something to eat, for we were half famished; but we certainly were not prepared for the inhospitality of the villagers, who apparently were all Mahometans. As we passed along the street every door was slammed. The women scurried away and hid themselves; even the men fled at our approach; and though we succeeded so far as to parley with one, no entreaties or offers of money could induce him to procure us bread or milk. So there was nothing for it but to proceed on our way and shake the dust of this churlish village from our feet. Just outside we passed what we take to have been an old _karaula_ or watch-tower, of rough masonry, square in shape, with barred windows and an old circular arch now half buried in the ground, surmounted by a plain round moulding. Happily, beyond this we came upon an apple-tree, and, as the ground was strewn with apples, considered ourselves justified in anticipating the vagrant swine. We presently met a party of countrymen, and persuaded one, in return for coin of the realm, to put us into the way to the village of Podove, there to strike the path for the Franciscan monastery of Gučiagora, where we purposed to throw ourselves on monkish hospitality. At Podove we found for the first time some monuments of a kind which we were to meet with again in other parts of Bosnia, and which are scattered over the whole country. [Illustration: Mysterious Sepulchres, Podove.] These are large tombstones, some as much as six feet long by three in height, of a tea-caddy shape, resting on a broader stone platform. The impression they give you is that they are descendants of Roman sarcophagi, and indeed their upper part is exactly similar to some Roman monuments.[188] There is, so far as I have seen, no inscription on them; but occasionally, as on some of those at Podove, they are ornamented with incised arches at the end and side of a quasi-Gothic form, which may be useful in determining their date. The erosion of the stone and mutilated condition of many probably point to considerable antiquity, as also does the fact that I have twice noticed them overturned and blocking up the channel of streams which had undermined their original standing ground. They certainly bear no resemblance to the turbaned columns of Turkish cemeteries, and indeed an examination of those at Podove convinced me that many had been purposely mutilated by the unbeliever.