Chapter 42

The Law Court in Cetinje--The Prince as patriarch--A typical lawsuit--Pleasant hours with murderers--Our hostel--A Babel of tongues--Our sojourn draws to a close--The farewell cup of coffee and apostrophe.

The Law Court in Cetinje is distinctly quaint. All civil cases are conducted in public, and the method of procedure is simplicity itself.[9] Firstly there are no lawyers and no costs, the rival parties conducting their case in person--that is to say, they are present, and are examined and cross-examined by the judge and his six assistants. All the preliminaries have been committed to writing and are read out by the clerk of the court, the only other official present. In a small inclosure sit the plaintiff and defendant and their witnesses; behind a railing, stand and sit the audience of admiring friends and relations.

[Footnote 9: This is all altered now since the end of 1902, when a new code and system was introduced, more up to date.]

The room is long and low. At the further end on a raised dais sits the judge, behind whom is a lifesize reproduction of the Prince's photograph. At a horseshoe-shaped table sit the other judges, three on each side, and in the middle is another table holding the Bible, crucifix, and two candles. The candles are lit when a witness takes the oath.

In the intervening space is a large and comfortable easy-chair, or perhaps it would be more correct and dignified to call it a throne. It is occupied by Prince Nicolas whenever he comes in, as he often does, for an hour or so, for he takes a keen interest in the law cases of his subjects. When he is present the proceedings are in no way altered, but the Prince himself puts now and then a pertinent question to the witnesses. Furthermore, it is here that the Prince every Saturday, when he is in residence in Cetinje, holds public audience and receives petitions and complaints from his lowliest subjects. Every petition must be committed to writing, and in the appointed order each man or woman steps forward while the document is read aloud by the clerk. The Prince puts a question or two to the petitioner and then gives his answer to the request, which is duly noted, and the next person called.

It is all so simple and quick that it is hard to realise the importance of this commendable institution. In the olden days the Prince dispensed justice and favours, seated under the shade of an enormous tree, which has now, however, been destroyed. But in the height of summer, a shady spot in the open air is still found.

We listened to one case, that of a woman who had amassed a large sum of money--for Montenegro--by fetching water from a distance at so much a gallon. Cetinje is almost waterless in summer, and water-carriers can earn small fortunes, particularly if equipped with a donkey or two, as was this woman. Having saved a few hundred guldens, she proceeded to lend it to needy friends--people are foolish in this respect, even in Montenegro. It would have been all right if she had not neglected the simple precaution of insisting on an I.O.U. for each loan. Her money gone, she not unnaturally asked that some of it should be returned, for she had fallen on evil days. But all knowledge of such loans was denied by the ungrateful borrowers.

It was a knotty point to decide. Should the judges believe the woman's word, or the emphatic denials of the debtors that they had ever received a kreutzer? The seven looked hopelessly at each other, and then wisely retired to the seclusion of a private room, awaiting divine inspiration.

As of yore, the little prison, or rather house of detention, had a great attraction for us. Many afternoons we wended our way thither to while away an hour in the genial company of the prisoners and their warders. The handsome young director of prisons usually accompanied us, ostensibly but to bear us company, though doubtless he was acting on higher orders, and had instructions to see that our eccentricities did not go too far.

We organised sports on some occasions, chiefly consisting of putting the weight, _i.e._ a large stone, but they _would_ swindle and invariably overstepped the limit line, declaring that they hadn't afterwards.

But it was their stories that we loved to listen to. They were mostly harmless quarrellers, for we shunned the debased thieving criminal; a man who could steal was vigorously excluded from our circle. There was one exception, however, and he was a Hungarian, a deserter from his regiment. That in itself is not a punishable crime, but he had eased the regimental cash-box of a thousand kronen at the time of his departure, and was awaiting the result of investigations. He maintained that the money was his, and was quite indignant when it was hinted that he must have stolen it; but unluckily he destroyed any belief in his honesty by invariably contradicting himself as to how he came by it. But he was such a good-natured, pleasant-spoken man that we let him sit by our side and prevaricate, till we bade him cease from further blackening his soul.

We gleaned a lot more information from the young director of the prison, and amongst it the method of recapturing escaped prisoners. In the central prison at Podgorica, if a prisoner escapes, the rest of the criminals are sent out to catch him. Very often they find him, and never has a prisoner abused this privilege, all punctually returning by a given date.

We stayed at Reinwein's inn, an unpretentious building, both as regards the exterior and interior, but as Reinwein himself is a Viennese, and has been for twelve years in the service of the Prince, acting often as cook, it is quite safe to say that at his house the best cooking in the whole of Montenegro is to be found. Coming into the country this would not be so noticeable, but after months in other Montenegrin towns the cooking is most appreciable. We spent very happy evenings in his bare little dining-room, with a decidedly cosmopolitan gathering. The most noticeable feature was the number of languages in use. Even Dalmatia, Bosnia, and the Hercegovina, where a three-languaged man is the rule, paled into insignificance. There was a Turkish official staying at Reinwein's, transacting business for his Government, and every evening men came to see him; that man was to be heard--he was a Neapolitan by birth--conversing fluently in Turkish, Albanian, Serb, Greek, Italian, and French, alternately. One evening I was trying to follow the conversation, which began in Italian, then he wandered off into other tongues, explaining, evidently, a letter written in Turkish. I got interested and went over to his table, and, afterwards, he told me which languages he had been using. Besides this little list, Reinwein spoke Russian with another man, German largely with us, and P. and I passed remarks to each other in English, which was the only unknown language. One evening two Hungarian tourists arrived, and then we fled from that Babel, fearing for our reason.

An affable old Turk, seedy in appearance, but extremely entertaining, owned to six languages, not counting others of which he had only a smattering. Serb he didn't count as he said he could only talk on easy subjects in that tongue. It is very humiliating, that sort of thing, it is liable to lower the opinion of one's own intelligence. We kept late hours, too, at Reinwein's, we couldn't help it.

But all good things must come to an end, and at last the day of our departure arrived. Cetinje itself was quite a different place to us than when we knew it formerly. Representative of the land in a certain sense it rightly is, but then a fairly full knowledge of the country must be acquired first to understand in what respects it represents the life and customs of the people beyond. To the stranger who extends his visit for only a week, it is sure to give manifold false impressions, for though Montenegro is quiet and peaceable enough, the appearance of Cetinje is rather too assuring. For here there is little trace of vendetta and quarrelling, which, however, under the powerful hand of the present Prince Nicolas, are surely dying out through all the land. When the fact is taken into consideration that the Montenegro of forty years ago was a rough and dangerous country, inhabited by a people who knew nothing of the outside world, and lived simply for themselves in their own land, it will be seen what miraculous progress has been made in the path of civilisation during the present reign. Peace and order have been established to a wonderful degree, and the State reorganised and set on a surer basis. With a powerful hand and not too much external help the Prince has carried through his reforms, and, like David in his final exhortation to Solomon, leaves the way ready for still greater progress to be made in the future. And the comparison holds good in more respects than one.

We drank our last little cup of coffee, oddly enough, in the historical monastery of Ivan Beg in the company of the Vladika, to whom we were paying our farewell respects, and half an hour later were whirling down to Bajice under the shadow of the mighty Lovcen.

As the grand Bocche di Cattaro again burst on our view and the first black and yellow sign-post of Austria was passed, we turned again for a last look at those seemingly forbidding and inhospitable mountains; but only forbidding and inhospitable to the enemy of the brave little race beyond. To the stranger, fresh from the comforts and improvements of civilisation, it is a revelation of how men live, knowing nothing of the luxuries of the outer world, and keep themselves untarnished in honour; honest and God-fearing where a man is judged by his deeds and not by his words. Where men do not steal or lie, and where the humble peasant looks his Prince in the face and says--

"Lord, I am a man like thyself."

They have their faults and failings, many of their customs seem barbaric to our eyes: but may they long be preserved from the evils of civilisation!

Later, as the ship ploughed her way through the waves, and the mountains of Crnagora became ever more and more faint and indistinct, we thought of Tennyson's words:--

"They rose to where their sov'ran eagle sails, They kept their faith, their freedom, on the height, Chaste, frugal, savage, armed by day and night Against the Turk; whose inroad nowhere scales Their headlong passes, but his footstep fails, And red with blood the Crescent reels from fight Before their dauntless hundreds in prone flight By thousands down the crags and through the vales.

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O smallest among peoples! rough rock-throne Of Freedom! warriors beating back the swarm Of Turkish Islam for five hundred years, Great Crnagora! never since thine own Black ridges drew the cloud and broke the storm Has breathed a race of mightier mountaineers."

THE END

INDEX

Alarm, 87, 187 Albanian costume, 139 " custom house, 133 " mass, 231 Andrijevica, 65, 183 Antivari, 113, 270 Army, 26, 27, 46 Austria, 8, 13, 137

Babel, 295 Bajice, 281 Balsic, 17 Band of Good Hope, 155 Barracks, 46 Bella Vista, 55, 143 Billard, 43 Bogetic, 250 Bojana, 121, 132 Brda, 2, 145 Budua, 22 Business methods, 77

Cardplaying, 169 Carina, 206 Catherine II., 21 Cattaro, 22, 34 " Bocche di, 33 Caxton, 19 Cetinje, 18, 40, 42, 280 Church, 13 " militant, 137 Conversation, 285 Crimean War, 22 Crnagora, 15, 17, 297 Crna Zemlja, 74, 271 Curzola, 33

Daibabe, 89 Danilo, Crown Prince, 7, 30, 114, 156 Danilo II., 22 Danilovgrad, 69, 249 Death dirge, 85 Dinos, 234, 236 Dukla, 93 Dulcigno (Ulcinj), 24, 117, 270

Easter, 66, 74 Edward VII., 166

Fatalism, 228 Fishing, 105 Food, 3, 107, 170, 196 Fundina, 83, 233

Gambling, 7, 265 Gjolic, 208 Grahovo, 23 Gravosa, 33 Gugga, 265 Gusinje, 25, 187, 197, 205, 216 Guslar, 39

Heraclius, 16 Hildebrand, 16 Hospital, 46, 287 Hospitality, 60 Hotti, 227

Imperfect valleys, 2

Karst, 2 Katunska, 2 Keco, 233 Kiuprili Pasha, 20 Klementi, 20, 271 Kohl, 5 Kolasin, 65, 153 Kolo, 157 Kom, Kucki, 211 " Vasojevicki, 199 Konjuhe, 205 Korito, 222 Kostice, 223 Krivosejans, 23 Krusevac, 62, 72 Kuc, 20, 79, 206, 227

Lakic Voivodic, 183 Law, 28, 290 Lesina (Hvar), 33 Lijeva Rijeka, 150 Lim, 183 Ljubotin, 143 Lovcen, 28, 103, 265 Lunatic Asylum, 69

Mala, 148 Market, 73 Marko Ivankovic, 118 Martinovic, 154 Medun, 83 Memorial stones, 214, 221 Michael Dozic, 164 Militia, 171 Mirko (father to the reigning Prince), 23, 249 Mokra, 182, 228 Moraca, 101, 147 " monastery, 162 Morina, 198

Nicolas, Prince, 4, 5, 9, 43, 115, 177, 261 Niksic, 24, 250, 259 Njegusi, 38

Obod, 19, 59 Ostrog, 160, 248

Pannonia, 32 Perusica, 204 Peter, St., 21 Peter II., 21 Petri, 265 Petrovic, 20 Pilgrims, 251 Plavnica, 110 Podgorica, 15, 28, 56, 66, 241, 263 Pola, 32 Popovic, Simeon, 89 Prison, 28, 47, 69, 292 Procletia, 216, 226 Prstan, 113

Quagmires, 152

Radonic, 20 Ragusa, 33 Raskrsnica, 175 Reinwein, 294 Revolvers, 37 Rijeka, 56, 58, 142 Rikavac, 218 Risano, 34, 260 Roads, 29, 36, 65, 132, 146 Roman Catholics, 13, 223, 225 Rumija, 56, 103

Samuel, Czar, 16 Sandjak of Novipazar, 1, 14 Scutari, 15, 135 Shooting, 57, 88, 90,103, 198, 217 Skenderbeg, 17, 265 Sokol Baco, 100 Spalato, 32 Spizza, 22 Spuz, 89, 249 Stature, 6 Stefan Crnoievic, 17 Stefan Duzan, 16 Stefan Mali, 21 Stefan Nemanja, 16, 160 Sutorman Pass, 112

Tara, 152 Terpetlis, 205 Teuta, 15 Theatre, 46 Tobacco, 105 Topolica, 111 Trieste, 31 Tusi, 234

Uiko, Achmet, 96, 120, 244

Vaccination, 129 Velika, 195 Vendetta, 75, 205, 225, 239, 240, 247, 281 Venice, 19 Virpazar, 110 Vizier Bridge, 62 Vladika, 43 " Mitrofanban, 44, 253, 296 Voivoda Marko, 79, 233 " of the Zeta, 18, 62 Vranjina, 103, 110 Vucipotok, 213

Wake, Montenegrin, 281 Women, 5, 71, 243 Wurmbrand, 31

Yussuf Mucic, 81

Zabljak, 17, 102 Zara, 32 Zatrijebac, 223 Zem, 226, 241, 272 Zeta, 1, 249

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