sh trousers and cheap, gaudy European blouses. The
contrast between the Sarajevan and the graceful Montenegrin is
positively ludicrous. But of all the costumes, male and female, the
palm must be given to the Montenegrin. They carry themselves with a
princely air, and their picturesque costume is a model of good taste;
for Montenegro is, as Mr. Gladstone has remarked, the beach on which
was thrown up the remnants of Balkan freedom. After the battle of
Kossovo, all the Serb nobility who would not submit to the Turk fled
to Crnagora, and the traces of heredity are easily to be recognised in
their superb carriage.
[Illustration: MONTENEGRIN WOMEN]
It was well after midday when we reached the plateau on which the
lower and modern monastery is situated. We entered through a gate into
a wide path bordered with booths in which crowds of joyful pilgrims
sat refreshing themselves. In spite of the departing crowds that we
had passed, the place was still densely packed, for over twenty
thousand people visit Ostrog. We squeezed into one of the booths and
sat watching the surging mass pass to and fro.
The mixture of costume was even more marked than on the path below. It
was a brilliant kaleidoscope of colour. Nothing but colour--colour.
Very rarely could a man in European clothes (the richer Dalmatians) be
noticed, and he seemed strangely out of place and harmony.
As we sat and gazed, two Bosnian minstrels, from bad memory and an
indifferent ear, began playing on a fiddle and a guitar, and though
their music was atrocious, the wild Turkish songs which they sang gave
the finishing touch to the scene. It was not till they began playing
snatches of music-hall airs, such long-forgotten tunes as "Daisy,"
that we hurriedly moved on.
The Archbishop, Mitrofanban, heard of our arrival soon after, and
immediately sent for us. When we approached, he was sitting on the
steps of a house, surrounded by a brilliant staff of Montenegrin
nobles and many priests, while below a great crowd of pilgrims stood
in a ring, watching the national dance, which was being performed
before His Grace. The dance stopped as we drew near. The Archbishop
received us very kindly--this was our first meeting with him--and
expressed his pleasure to see strangers from such a distant land in
Ostrog. He assigned a room to us in his house, and gave orders for us
to be fed during our stay. Murmuring our thanks, we attempted to
withdraw, but we did not escape before
|