Through the Land of the Serb

Everyone said I must go to the Shumadia, because it is the "heart of Servia," the centre in which arose her struggle for freedom. So to the Shumadia I went. Having read in a Ger...

Having shown me all over the monastery, the Iguman suggested that Dechani was only three hours' ride, and that, as my pony was fed and refreshed, I could easily ride over in the...

together. The real thorn in the side of a Montenegrin woman, then, is a sister-in-law who does not do her full share of the work. "Is your sister-in-law good?" was a stock quest...

Skodra is the capital of North Albania. In our maps it is usually called Scutari--a name which causes it to be confused with the other and far better known Scutari on the Bospor...

I have on one point, at any rate, a fellow-feeling with the Albanian. Skodra fascinates me. When I am not there--only then, mind you--I am almost prepared to swear with him that...

Smederevo from the Danube is a most impressive sight. A huge brick fortress surrounds the promontory with castellated walls and a long perspective of towers; a grand mediæval bu...

Travelling in Montenegro--in fine weather, be it said--is delightful from start to finish. And to Shan, my Albanian driver, whose care, fidelity, and good nature have added grea...

I have driven the road many a time since, and I have been again to Ostrog, but I shall never forget that day three years ago when I went there for the first time. It was the onl...

We are apt to speak of the Serbs of Servia as "the" Servians, and to forget that modern Servia is a recent state mapped out arbitrarily by the Powers, and that the truest repres...

"The wild ass, whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver."

At Nish the hotel received me on my return with much friendliness, but, though evidently anxious to oblige, was quite unable to give me any information as to East Servia, and pr...

Antivari is not easily reached from Cetinje. You can retreat to Cattaro and then take the weekly steamer. If, however, you have come to Montenegro to see Montenegro, it is bette...

From Belgrade to Nish, down the valley of the Morava, the mark of the Turk is still upon the land, and a minaret tower shoots up from more than one little town by the rail-side....

I do not know where the East proper begins, nor does it greatly matter, but it is somewhere on the farther side of the Adriatic, the island-studded coast which the Venetians onc...

Servia is only some thirty-six hours distant from London by rail, but for England it is an almost undiscovered country. Nor do the other nations flock thither. I gathered this o...

I left Nish, in a chill wet fog, at 4.30 a.m. by the only quick train in the day. It was full of sleeping men, and I stood in the corridor that I might not disturb them. Scarcel...

Upon the eve of the day when Tsar Lazar was to go forth, says the ballad, his wife, Militza the Empress, spoke to him, saying, "O Tsar Lazar, thou golden crown of Servia, to-mor...

A rough jolt over the wide bare plain; a heavy rainstorm blurring the bleak mountains of the Turkish frontier; no living being in sight save an Albanian woman with her few sheep...

Nikshitje is but two hours' drive from the beginning of the Ostrog track, over a mountain pass and down on to a big plain. Nikshitje, says the Prince, is to be his new capital,...

(burgomaster) himself, and that my new friends were extremely angry with him. He was introduced to me and told by whom I was recommended. He looked at me suspiciously, shook han...

MONTENEGRIN WOMEN, CETINJE CEMETERY NEAR CETINJE BAKER'S SHOP, RIJEKA--ALBANIAN AND TWO MONTENEGRINS BULLOCK CART, PODGORITZA UPPER MONASTERY, OSTROG RUINS OF ANTIVARI MOUNTAIN...

"If a man be Gracious and Courteous to Strangers, it shews he is a Citizen of the World and that his Heart is no Island cut off from other Lands, but a Continent that joynes them."

I. CATTARO--NJEGUSHI--CETINJE II. PODGORITZA AND RIJEKA III. OSTROG IV. NIKSHITJE AND DUKLE V. OUR LADY AMONG THE ROCKS VI. ANTIVARI VII. OF THE NORTH ALBANIAN VIII. SKODRA IX....