stry every few months." None of them
seemed to think it counted. And none seemed to see the point of all
working for a common cause. Whether they were pro- or anti-Petrovitch,
they took it for granted Montenegro was to be the head of Great
Serbia. For Austria they had nothing but contempt, and said
pleasantly that all Austrian officers looked as if about to bear
twins. You had only to run in a bayonet and the beer would run out.
They had, however, no right to talk of drink, for the pilgrimage was
an orgy of rakia, beer and wine.

From Plevlje I rode to Prijepolje, the furthest military outpost of
Austria. There were but one hundred Christian houses in it.
Nevertheless there was a schoolmaster industriously teaching "Great
Serbia" and "patriotism." The Turkish Government was powerless to
prevent this revolutionary work, as any interference would have
brought protests from the Powers about "persecuting Christians."

The whole of the Sanjak from Mitrovitza to the Austrian frontier was
inhabited almost entirely by Serb-speaking Slavs, the bulk of whom
were Moslem. Large numbers were descendants of those evicted from
Montenegro or Serbia in 1878, and were therefore not well disposed
to either land. Krsto was not at all pleased to find that they had
changed their habitat for the better and settled in land more
fertile than that from which they had been driven. He naively told
me he had hoped they had all starved.

Returning to Plevlje I found great excitement about me, as the
Austrian authorities had hitherto believed that Plevlje could be
reached only by Austrian post cart from the Austrian frontier,
accompanied by an armed escort. An Austrian officer and the Consul
hurried to interview me. They were polite and friendly, but
cross-examined me severely as to the purpose of my visit, and were
obviously displeased that an unarmed tourist could come straight
across country and wander round without their leave or knowledge.
The Consul was a Croat and vehemently anti-Serb. He told me that the
Montenegrins had been guilty of starting the recent fighting near
Bijelopolje, and that it had been led by a Montenegrin officer.

The Montenegrin version was that the Moslem Albanians drove some
sheep on to a Christian grazing-ground; that the Christians drove
them off again and so the fight began; that all the Christians there
wore Montenegrin caps, and so the tale of the officer was untrue.
The Moslems swore to the truth of the office