d by their protector, either Turk, child,
or fond mother. The fathers invariably showed the most distressed
concern. It was a comical sight; outside the rails a motley crowd of
interested spectators and waiting children, and in the inclosure the
doctor pricking his patients one after the other in a most indifferent
manner. His clerk noted the names, and we, with some of the local
grandees, drank tiny cups of coffee and looked on.

The Albanian or Turkish element is very strong in Dulcigno, and they
are the only Montenegrin subjects exempt from compulsory military
service. The Montenegrin authorities told us that they were very
peaceable and industrious, giving no trouble whatever. It is, after
Podgorica, the largest town in Montenegro, and does a lot of trade in
small sailing-boats down the coast. As many as seventy-five per cent
of the men are usually away at sea, carrying the Montenegrin flag as
far as Constantinople. It is quite cut off from the rest of
Montenegro, except by a mule track connecting it over a difficult
mountain path with Antivari and the rest of the country. By sea it is
connected by the Austrian-Lloyd weekly Albanian Line, and by one or
two smaller steamers which occasionally call there, with Cattaro and
the Albanian coast towns.

CHAPTER X

We ride to Scutari--The Albanian Customs officials--We suffer much
from Turkish saddles--Arrival at Scutari, and again pass the
Customs--"Buon arrivato"--Scutari and its religious troubles--The town
and bazaar--A slight misunderstanding, Yes and No--We return to Rijeka
by steamer--The beauties of the trip--Wrong change--The prodigal son's
return, when the fatted calf is _not_ killed.

Before we left Dulcigno it was necessary to have our passports vised
by the Turkish Consul, as we intended returning to Podgorica _via_
Scutari. We had to go through a lot of tedious formality, though the
Consul was a most pleasant man, and laughed at the precautions which
his orders forced him to take. But as he supplied us with horses and
an escort--for the path is considered somewhat dangerous--we resigned
ourselves to the inevitable with a good grace. Our guns and carbines
we were forced to send back to Podgorica with Stephan, as the law is
very strict against the introduction of firearms into Albania, where,
however, even the poorest peasant goes fully armed. But as strangers
our weapons would have been confiscated on the border. Verily the ways
of the Turk are pas