necessary provisions. Indeed the janissaries had no mercy on their
poverty, killing all the poultry and sheep they could find, without
asking to whom they belonged, while the wretched owners durst not put in
their claim for fear of being beaten. When the pashas travel it is yet
worse. These oppressors are not content with eating all that is to be
eaten belonging to the peasants; after they have crammed themselves and
their numerous retinue, they have the impudence to exact what they call
_teeth-money_, a contribution for the use of their teeth, worn with
doing them the honour of devouring their meat."

This is a lively picture of Turkish rule a century and a half ago; it
helps us to understand the saying, "Where the Turk treads, no grass
grows."

The insurrection in Bulgaria had just broken out when I was in Servia: I
cannot say I heard it much talked of; we, none of us, knew then the
significance of the movement. But great uneasiness was felt in reference
to the wide spread of certain communistic doctrines. A disturbance was
stated to have taken place a few days before at Negotin. The foreign
owners of property expressed themselves very seriously alarmed about the
communistic propagandists who were going round the country. No one
seemed certain as to the course events would take.

However--to resume my own simple narrative--after dining in the little
village aforesaid, we set our faces again towards Maidenpek, returning
by another route, which afforded us some very romantic scenery. I
finished the difficulty about the horse by purchasing the one I had
ridden that day. He was smaller than I liked, but he had proved himself
strong and sure footed. I cannot say he was a beauty, but what can one
expect for seventeen ducats--about eight pounds English?

The second day of our stay at Maidenpek was principally devoted to
inspecting some copper mines belonging to an English company. They
appeared to be doing pretty well. We next arranged to ride over to
Kucainia, a place some twenty-five miles off. It was settled that we
were to start at seven o'clock in the morning, but a dense white fog
obliterated the outer world--we might have been on the verge of Nowhere.
It was more than two hours before the fog lifted sufficiently to enable
us to proceed. We went on our way some three miles when a drenching
shower came on, and we took shelter in the cavernous interior of an
enormous, half-ruined oak-tree. Natural decay and the picka