ughters, and where such decision is at variance with the young
lady's views, elopement is resorted to. Of the amount of resistance
encountered by the bridegrooms on these occasions, I regret that I am
not in a position to hazard an opinion. Polygamy is almost unknown, a
second wife being seldom taken during the lifetime of the first. Since
it is to the expense attendant upon this luxury that such abstinence is
probably to be attributed, it really reflects great credit upon the
Bosnian Benedicts that the meal-sack has been so seldom brought into
play,--that ancient and most expeditious Court of Probate and Divorce in
matrimonial cases. After marriage, the women conceal themselves more
strictly than in most other parts of Turkey. Perhaps in this the
husbands act upon the homoeopathic principle, that prevention is better
than cure; for divorces are unheard of, and are considered most
disgraceful. Marriages are contracted at a much earlier age by the
Christian than by the Mahommedan women, and it is no uncommon thing to
find wives of from twelve to fourteen years of age. This abominable
custom is encouraged by the Roman Catholic clergy, whose revenues are
thereby increased.

[Footnote E: Krasinski.]

[Footnote F: See Sir G. Wilkinson's 'Dalmatia,' Napier's 'Florentine
History,' and Sismondi's 'Literature du Midi de l'Europe.']

[Footnote G: Sismondi.]

[Footnote H: Gibbon.]

CHAPTER V.

Agricultural Products--Cereals--Misapplication of
Soil--Tobacco--Current Prices--Vine Disease--Natural Capabilities
of Land--Price of Labour--Dalmatian _Scutors_--Other
Products--Manufactures--Commerce--Relations with Bosnia--Able
Administration of Omer Pacha--Austria takes Alarm--Trade
Statistics--Imports--Exports--Frontier
Duties--Mal-administration--Intended Reforms.

The agricultural products of the Herzegovina are wheat, barley, rice,
linseed, millet, tobacco, and grapes. Of the cereals, Indian corn is
most cultivated, and forms the staple article of consumption, as is also
the case in Servia and the Danubian principalities. The little wheat
that is grown is found in the northern and eastern parts of the
province, where the soil is better adapted for it; but nowhere is it
either abundant or of good quality. The best which is sold in the towns
is imported from Bosnia. Barley is more extensively grown, and horses
are fed upon it here and throughout Turkey generally. Linseed is only
grow