ns, and their bravery is
proverbial. Further, they are Roman Catholics. The country is most
curious, great slabs of stone lying about in a promiscuous fashion as
if it had once rained them, and the path was certainly the most vile
of the whole trip, which is putting it as strongly as possible.

[Footnote 5: I have since learnt differently.--R.W.]

It was climbing or rather scaling a small rock that my long-expected
fall came. Alat, my horse, floundered badly at an angle of forty-five
degrees and lost his balance completely. The doctor, who was behind,
shouted to me to pull him up, but as I was sliding off his back with a
broken girth at an ever-increasing velocity, I was unable to follow
this very excellent advice. Down I came heavily on the stones, luckily
on the high side of the path, landing on my back with my legs all
mixed up in Alat's. My saddle and saddlebags followed me in quick
succession, and something hit me violently over the head--that was my
carbine. Providentially Alat stood still, and my cartridge belt saved
my back.

I got up when I could sort out my legs, making remarks to Dr. S. about
that girth which he said afterwards were quite artistic. Many, many
years ago the girth may have been good and strong, and it had
undoubtedly seen better days. Next I sought one named Stephan. He had
always assured me that it would last another week. Montenegrins are
careless about such things.

The rest of the way I had to walk, which dried me, as the path was
steep and tiring. At the house of Dr. S. in Podgorica we had met a
young Franciscan monk, a Neapolitan and a great student. He at once
invited us to visit him in Zatrijebac, where he is the spiritual
shepherd, and to spend a few weeks with him. On approaching a roofless
church, in the course of rebuilding, we espied this young monk rushing
to meet us. With all the fervour of his race, he embraced and kissed
us repeatedly, welcoming us to his home. He gave me his bed, and the
other remaining one was put at P.'s disposal, and he would not hear of
our leaving next day or the next.

There are but two other Roman Catholic churches in Montenegro, in
Antivari and Dulcigno,[6] in fact only where the Albanians are in
sufficient evidence.

[Footnote 6: The Austrian Legation in Cetinje has also its own
chapel.]

We had intended to visit Zatrijebac at the beginning of our mountain
tour, but the district was considered unsafe at that time. A quarrel
over the appointm