to receive money; he is
strangely enough not always honest, and the postmaster was again out.
At the end of the hour we returned and paid.

Another time I tendered a gulden in payment of a telegram, and had to
wait a quarter of an hour while a boy was sent into the town to obtain
change.

In matters of business it is well to possess one's soul in patience. A
more unbusinesslike set of people is hard to be found, yet in driving
a bargain they are remarkably shrewd, to put it kindly.

Even in such trivial matters as purchasing a hen no indecent hurry is
shown. Such a transaction may take days. For instance, you wish to buy
a hen, and signify the same to a man, and he will say--

"I have a hen which I can sell thee, but it will break my heart. Such
a hen, and such eggs! I feel I cannot part with her."

"Very well," you say; "don't make yourself miserable; I'll buy one
somewhere else."

"But give me till to-morrow. It is too sudden."

And he goes away. If you are not in a hurry, it does not matter and
you wait. It is amusing.

Next day he will come again and say that he has another hen nearly as
good as the first, but, as he loves you and respects you, he will part
with his beloved hen at a consideration, and names a price far beyond
its worth. You refuse, and state your price for the _good_ hen, the
ordinary market price, which he indignantly refuses and departs. In a
few hours he will come again, bringing a hen which, almost with tears,
he tells you is _the_ hen--his beloved hen.

"Take her," he says, "as a present."

Whereupon you press upon him the market price, which of course he
takes, and the matter is finished.

Such little episodes are trying at first. The Montenegrin loves
money--it is his curse, or rather the curse of every country on the
brink of civilisation--but he also loves to play the gentleman, who
hates sordid money transactions. He will often make you a present and
afterwards send in an extortionate bill.

But, usually, you make him a monetary present _at once_, which he
takes with thanks, at your own price.

If it were not for money, what an ideal race the Montenegrins would
be! But then that is the same with a good many people.

CHAPTER VII

Medun--Voivoda Marko--His life and heroism--His part in Montenegrin
history--Our ride to Medun--His widow--We visit his grave--The death
dirge--Montenegrin customs at death--Target practice--Our critics--The
hermit of Daibabe--We visit Sp