il, took possession of the
plateau. Their opponents coming over found the rival clan posted in a
seemingly impregnable position on every point of vantage on that steep
ascent. Though armed with inferior rifles (in those days), they
attacked at once, and by reckless bravery came to hand-to-hand
conflict. Then a terrible encounter ensued, men seized each other and
threw themselves over the cliffs, and to complete the utter
discomfiture of the Hotti, the Kuc came to the assistance of their
neighbours and the Hotti were nearly annihilated. Since then no
questions have been asked, and annually the cattle and sheep of
Zatrijebac graze in peace in Albania.

It was a very similar dispute which has happened so very recently at
Mokra near Andrijevica.[7]

Supper gave us a much needed change of diet. Boiled fowl and
vegetables came as a luxury after days of tough and stringy lamb. We
sat at a table again too, on chairs, and felt quite ashamed of our
recently acquired habits.

The evenings round the kitchen fire were just as delightful as our hut
experiences, and if possible, more novel. Here we had fierce
Albanians, with their half-shaven heads and scalping lock, and a
scholar, a student of philosophy, a man of wonderful ideals, in the
form of the young Franciscan, instead of unkempt shepherds.

[Footnote 7: Since writing the above another tribal disturbance has
taken place between the Zatrijebac and the Hotti. This time it was the
Hotti who drove their flocks, also from time immemorial, to a certain
spot in Zatrijebac, and as the latter tribe have since cultivated the
intervening ground, they felt justly irritated. As the only real
argument is the rifle, they met and argued the point in this fashion
in February, 1902, and many fell on both sides. A notable incident
which is worth recording is, that a man of Hotti fought on the side of
the Zatrijebac against his brethren and was killed. His body was
afterwards handed back and his clan demanded to know if he had fought
as a man. "In the front rank," was the answer. Then they took the body
and gave it an honourable burial and agreed to let the dispute drop.
In this action our friend the monk had his habit riddled with bullets
whilst attending the wounded.]

Round the fire another evening an argument as to the wrongs of
Fatalism, _i.e._ God's Will, led to a characteristic story by the monk
in defence of his views. Dr. S., like many men who lead such lives as
he does, was a rig