Through the Land of the SerbDurham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
History
Through the Land of the Serb
Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
Montenegro -- Description and travel; Serbia -- Description and travel
We left for Andrijevitza early next morning, Radovan once more a happy
man in a Montenegrin cap. As we passed the guard-house Yakoub flew out
for a final farewell, and discovered, for the first time, that Radovan
was a Montenegrin. This he considered a splendid joke; he slapped his
thigh and shouted with laughter, and we parted very good friends.
Frontier life contains many mysteries which I am unable to unravel.
Radovan was much relieved when we had crossed the Montenegrin border,
and I too felt that I had come home again. The vague, indescribable,
ever-present dread of "something"; the sense of general insecurity that
leads people to shut the window before speaking, to glance mechanically
round to see who is within earshot; the general sense of oppression
hanging like a cloud over all things, rolled away. We were in a land
which is wild and rough, if you will, but safe and free.
I have no space to tell of all the fun I had on my return. Andrijevitza
was pleased with me, and was lavishly hospitable. Time was flying, and I
was due home. The herdsmen had driven their flocks to the summer
pasturage, and I arranged that Radovan should pilot me over the
mountains on the first fine day. We had a final grand night with the
gusle, and then, having kissed the ladies and drunk stirrup-cups with
the men, I tore myself away with extreme reluctance, and started up Kom
of the Vassoievich shortly after the "white" dawn, with the knowledge
that I might wander many leagues over the face of the earth before I met
a set of kinder friends than the fighting frontiersmen of Montenegro.
Proud, self-respecting, fiercely unyielding by long inheritance of
temper, they are outwardly very gentle and courteous, so courteous that
it is only on very rare occasions that a certain grim tightening of a
strong, square jaw, a gleam of very white teeth, and a sudden leap of
lightning to the eye reveal in a flash their possibilities as foes. With
an extraordinary lot of strength in their physique, they have very
little knowledge how to apply it and hardly any enterprise. This is due
mainly to entire ignorance of how to set about things. In the one branch
of industry they understand, "junashtvo," they are certainly not
deficient in energy. They are very pious, and never say they are going
to do anything without adding, "God willing." If you forget to say this,
someone generally puts it in for you very seriously. They are very
honest, and their standard of morality is high. And they are
extraordinarily visionary, and dream dreams of the great Servian empire
that is to be, where everyone will be free and happy. Exceedingly poor,
they are also exceedingly hospitable, and will share with a friend as
long as they have anything to share. It is true that they have the
defects of their qualities, but their qualities are such that there are
many more civilised places that would be the better for a leavening of
them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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