, [vS]akabenta. But,
although these men of Serbian origin preserve sometimes this or that
peculiarly Serbian custom, yet, as Mr. Tomi['c] says:[32] "Living
together with the Muhammedan Albanians, they have assumed the Albanian
type and become the most savage foes of the Orthodox religion and of
the people from which they are sprung. The popular saying," he adds,
"is right which asserts that: 'A Christian become a Turk is worse than
a real Turk.'" Of course, in order to make it appear that he was a
real Albanian, there was always a tendency for an Albanized Serb to be
preternaturally oppressive. And up to a short time ago it was very
cold comfort for the Serbs to learn that many of these people are of
Serbian ancestry. But, as we shall see further on, the old, mediaeval
friendship between the Serbian and Albanian rulers is extending to the
people, and this--provided that a sinister external pressure can be
warded off--will bear good fruit.

On behalf of the afore-mentioned 30,000 families the Patriarch
negotiated with the Habsburgs and obtained very far-reaching rights,
which permitted the Serbian people to form in Hungary a _corpus
separatum_. A point which to Serbian eyes had extreme importance was
the institution of a National Congress, to sit at Karlovci on the
Danube in Syrmia, and, amongst other functions, to designate the
Patriarch, whose seat was to be (and remains to this day) Karlovci,
where a friendly white village on the rising ground, which anyhow
would make it famous for the red wine and plum brandy, has received in
its midst the marble palace of the Patriarch, a gorgeous church and
various magnificent red and white buildings which look like so many
Government offices but are, in fact, devoted to Church affairs, the
training of theological students and so forth. Their Patriarchate at
Karlovci appeared to the Serbs as the rock of their nationality
outside Serbia. The Constitution granted to them did not make them
precisely a State within a State, but at least it set up a
political-religious unity--for the privileges included those of having
a chief, the voivoda, and of having a certain territory with
autonomous internal organization and exemption from all taxes. Here
the Serbs, forming a separate and distinct group, with their own
religion, calendar and alphabet, and with their own aspirations, would
be able to stretch out their hands--prudently, of course--to their
scattered brothers. So the Serbs began to