sing strange.

We made a start at four o'clock one morning just as the sun was
appearing above the hills, and the day promised to be extremely hot.
Our horses were fairly good, and the man who constituted our guard, an
Albanian, seemed a pleasant fellow, which much belied his appearance.
A more villainous-looking face, with half his teeth missing, could
hardly be imagined. However, the whole way he rolled us cigarettes
most industriously, rarely taking one from us. Our saddles were
Turkish, and were our first experience of them, and, it is to be
hoped, the last.

The high road, or rather path, to Scutari, is considered good for
Montenegro. In reality it is a mere track, in places paved with
cobblestones atrociously laid. It is odd that many important districts
in this country are entirely unconnected by roads with the
neighbouring towns, and consequently such things as carriages do not
exist. As an instance, the whole of the country lying beyond Rijeka
towards the sea, containing two important towns, and in size about an
eighth of Montenegro, possesses one short road--from Virpazar to
Antivari--and one carriage.

Our path lay for the first three hours through a richly vegetated
country, and the scenery at times was quite English, owing to the
amount of oak trees which overhang the path. But at nearly every open
space was a Turkish graveyard. The indiscriminate way in which the
Turks bury their dead is most extraordinary.

We reached the River Bojana, and rode along the bank some time before
we came to the ferry. It is a broad and swiftly flowing river of quite
imposing size. The heat was now getting tremendous, and a friendly
Albanian picking apricots on the roadside gave us many handfuls, which
proved very acceptable.

Two Albanians came across in a large barge in answer to our hail, and
we and our horses--the latter, by the way, stepping into the barge
most unconcernedly--were piloted across. Here we entered Albania, and
were examined by a fierce-looking Customs official. He turned our
baggage out on to a mat, and evidently meant to overhaul it
thoroughly, when a few _Daily Graphics_ caught his eye. After that he
dismissed the remainder of our things with a wave of the hand, which
our men promptly repacked, and retired into the papers. A lot of other
men came up, and we were pleased to afford so much delight with our
illustrated journals.

As we were drinking coffee in the very primitive inn, a heavy
thunders