a young man of sixteen,
but married and a proud father. He could well have been mistaken for
twenty-five.

He was working in his field as we drew near, and hurried to meet us.
First of all we went to the Zem, which fifty yards away would be
unnoticed, as it lies between two deep banks, which break off suddenly
and without any indication. This historical little river looked very
peaceful as it flowed through deep basins, hollowed out of the rocky
bed, and splashed over great boulders. How often has it been crossed
by bands of men intent on bloodshed and murder, who often recrossed,
flying and hunted fugitives! What quantities of blood have dyed those
clear and crystal pools! What awful doings of death have they
reflected!

The Turkish soldiers opposite turned out, and viewed our movements
inquisitively. Our Albanian friend hinted that a too lengthy
inspection might be misunderstood, so we withdrew.

The house was a curiosity. One-storied, and solidly built of stone; it
had no windows, but suggestive loopholes. The ground floor was empty.
We looked inside for the staircase, but in vain, and this was scarcely
odd, because there was none. The family lives above, and the only
means of entry to their dwelling is by a ladder. This is drawn up
after the last man, for the night.

As we clambered up the ladder and crawled through the narrow doorway,
the young mother (of fifteen) kissed our hands.

An aged lady, evidently the great-grandmother of one of the young
couple--at least, to judge by her decrepit appearance, she might well
have been that (in reality she was the boy's mother)--sat spinning in
a corner. A weeping and noisy infant lay strapped immovably in a
wooden cradle with no rockers, which a young maiden attempted to
soothe by covering it with a thick cloth and rocking it vigorously.

That Montenegrins survive the ordeal of infancy is a proof of their
iron constitutions. An ordinary healthy English baby would be
suffocated in five minutes under that hermetic pall, or, escaping this
fate, would die of concussion of the brain from violent jarring to and
fro, which we have inadvertently termed "rocking."

A wood fire smouldered in one corner of the room, and the embers were
blown into flames as the little can of water was placed in them to
boil. As the water boils, several spoonfuls of coffee are put in--of
the _good_ coffee, only used for distinguished visitors--and the whole
allowed to boil up three or four time