THE TURKS, THE GREEKS, d- THE SLA FOJVS. TRAVELS IN THE SLAVONIC PROVINCES OF TURKEY-IN-EUROPE. By G. MUIR MACKENZIE and A. P. IRBY. Mitlj W^x^s, ;tnb Ilumcrous |Unstr;it:ons bu ^. ilitnitj. LONDON : BELL AND DALDY, FLEET STREET, AND YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1867. T/w Right of Translation is resci~i'ed. / f THE FOLLOWING NOTES OF TRAVEL ARE DEDICATED TO LADY MUIR MACKENZIE (of delvinb) THE DEARLY LOVED MOTHER OF ONE OF THE TRAVELLERS, AND THE REVERED FRIEND OF BOTU, K ISO's sJ 71 ' •Winter fccm Serge jinb auci; Seute. Otrman Prorerb quoted by Stanley in " Lectures on the Eadem Church," p. 3. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE from: volo to sALoisricA 1 CHAPTER II. SALO>T[CA 7 CHAPTER III. BmLGAEIA VIEWED FROM SALO^^ICA. — P.VRT 1 18 CHAPTER IV. BtlXGAEIA VIEWED FEOil SALOJiTICA. — PART II 39 CHAPTER V. TRAVELLING IN TURKEY-IN-EITROPE 47 CHAPTER YI. FROM SALOXrCA TO MONASTIR 56 CHAPTER VII. THE ANCIEXT BULGARIAN CAPIT.AL AND THE MODERN TURKISH TOWN 69 CHAPTER VIII. king's SON MAKKO : HIS CASTLE AND HIS STORY • , . 83 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. PAGE THE BULGAMAN TOWNS OF PRILTP AND VELESA ... 98 CHAPTER X. VISIT TO THE MONASTEEY OF RILO 118 CHAPTER XI. THE CITY OF JUSTINIAN 132 CHAPTER XII. THE STORY OF SERBIA. — PART I. 142 CHAPTER XIII. THE STORY OF SERBIA. — PART II. 163 CHAPTER XIV. KATCHANIK 198 CHAPTER XV. THE BATTLE-FIELD OF k6sSOVO , 213 CHAPTER XVI. THE MONASTERY OF GEATCHANITZA, AND THE TOWN OF PRfSHTINA 225 CHAPTER XVII. STARA SERBIA • • 242 CHAPTER XVIII. FROM PRfSHTINA TO YUCHITERN 262 CHAPTER XIX. VUCHITERN 270 CONTENTS. vii CHAPTER XX. PAGE TEOM ARNAOUTLUK INTO BOSNIA 288 CHAPTER XXL NOVI BAZAAR 301 CHAPTER XXIL THE BOSNIAN BORDERS — NOVI BAZAAR TO TUTIN . . . . 322 CHAPTER XXIII. THE BOSNIAN BORDERS — TUTIN" TO ROSHAl .... 336 CHAPTER XXiy. THE BOSNIAN^ BORDERS — ROSHAl TO IPEK 353 CHAPTER XXy. THE NATIONAL CHTTRCH OF SERBIA 367 CHAPTER XXVI. THE PATRIARCHATE OF IPEK . . . . . . . 387 CHAPTER XXVII. FROM IPEK TO DETCHANI 411 CHAPTER XXVIII. MONASTERY AND CHURCH OF VfSSOKO DETCHANI . . . 418 CHAPTER XXIX. HERMITAGES IN THE GLEN OF DETCHANI . . . . . 430 CHAPTER XXX. DIAKOVO TO PRIZREN 444 CHAPTER XXXI. PRIZREN, THE OLD SERBIAN CZARIGRAD 451 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXII. PAGE MODERN PRIZREN AND ITS INHABITANTS 467 CHAPTER XXXIII. A HIGH ROAD IN NORTHERN ALBANIA— PRIZREN TO SCODRA . . 484 CHAPTER XXXIV. SCUT ARI-IN- ALBANIA, SCODRA, OR SICADAR 519 CHAPTER XXXV. SERBIA ON THE ADRIATIC .... ... 550 CHAPTER XXXVT. CHRISTMAS IN MONTENEGRO 591 APPENDIX. A — SERBIAN AND BULGARIAN CHARACTERISTICS . . . . 664 B — VALLACHIANS IN THRACE 665 C— TITHE FARMING SYSTEM IN TURKEY 666 D — DESCRIPTION OF THE SERBIAN VILLAGE COMMUNITY AS EXISTING IN FREE SERBIA 668 E — ^VENICE ON THE ADRIATIC, AND VINETA ON THE BALTIC . 671 F — CHURCHES OF SAPOTCHANI AND CHERNA RIEKA . . . 672 G — ALBANIAN DISTRICTS AROUND DETCHANI .... 674 H — LES MIRDITES 683 I — SERBIAN RULERS OF THE HOUSE OF NEMANIA, AND THEIR WIVES 684 J — TABLE OF DATES OF LEADING EVENTS IN SERBIAN HISTORY 685 K — TABLE OF DATES OF LEADING EVENTS IN HISTORY OF THE SERBS IN MONTENEGRO, SINCE THE BREAKING-UP OF THE CZARDOM 687 GLOSSARY 688 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. SEEBI-^J^r border guard Frontispiece. MAP OF THE SOUTH SLATON^IG COUNTRIES . . . facing p. XV MAP OF TUEKEY-IN-EUROPE 1 SALONTCA ON THE ^GEAN 5 BUXGARIAN PEASANTS, WITH BULGARIAN MERCHANT AND HIS SON 23 CATHEDRAL OF OCHRIDA 70 BULGARIAN MONASTERY OF RILO 124 PORTAL OF WHITE MARBLE CHURCH OF STUDENITZA, BUILT BY NEMANIA 152 MUSSULMANS AJTD RAYAHS . . ' 179 MAP OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF SERBIA, 186.3 . . . . 195 MAP OF STARA (oLD) SERBIA . . 243 SPECIMEN OF SERBIAN ARCHITECTURE . . . . . . 245 MUSSULMAN BEYS AND CHRISTIAN PRIEST 291 INTERIOR OF SERBIAN CHURCH — MANASSIA . . . ' . 311 SERBIAN PEASANTS AND CITIZENS OF A COUNTRY TOWN . .317 HERZEGOYINIAN RAYAH PAYING TRIBUTE , 350 CHURCH FESTIVAX IN FREE SERBIA 367 CASTLE OF PEIZREN 451 ALBANIANS IN MOUNTAINS ABOVE SCODRA 515 ZABLIAK, CASTLE OF IVAN CERNOIEVITCH, LAST PRINCE OF ZETA AND FIRST OF MONTENEGRO 538 MONTENEGRINS BRINGING TURKISH CANNON TO CETIGNE AFTER THE BATTLE OF GRAHOVO 583 UNDER THE TREE AT CETIGNE 625 BOCCHE DI CATTARO, OPENING ON THE ADRLATIO . . .661, *** The illustrations of this work are from original sketches by F. Kanitz, Author of "Byzantine Monuments in Serbia." The greater portion of the text is contributed by the winter whose name stands first on the Title-page. ' INTEODUCTION. II In the advanced stage of civilisation of the present era, we look with regret at ;the possession by the Moslem of the fairest portions of the world — of countries so favom'ed by climate, and by geographical position, that, in the early days of the earth's history, they were the spots most coveted ; and that such favoured places should, through the Moslem rule, be barred from the advancement that has attended lands less adapted by nature for development. There are no countries of the earth so valuable, or that would occupy so important a place in the family of nations, as Turkey-in-Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt, under a civilised and Christian Government. — Bakek. Exploration of the Nile Sources, Introductory Chapter, p. xxix. The Turk has got to reform three steps for his Christian subjects' one step. The chances are against him in so doing, because he has to reform against the grain of his religion, and does so with difSculty : while they, if not reforming by reason of the ritual and dogmas of their religion, imperfectly connected as these are in their minds with the morality which is its essence, are at least thereby placed in direct unison with the progress and civilisation of "Western Europe. — Loed Steaa'gfoed. Eastern Shores of the Adriatic, p. 365. God knows no people could have been subjected to the Turkish Go- vernment without suflfering great moral deterioration ; but there is this distinguishing feature about the Christian population in Turkey, that they are a progressive people — that they are seeking to catch the light of Western Europe, to enter on a new path of civilisation and progress. — See Mr. Coeden's Speech, Debate on Turkey, May 29, 1863. IT is now several years since we quitted England with the intention of spending a few months in Athens. Our motive in leaving home was to seek a warm yet bracing climate for the winter ; we heard that this was lO be found in Athens, and we were glad of the oppor- tunity to see Greece. On our way through Prague and Vienna we met xiv INTRODUCTION. with some of the leading men of the national party in Bohemia, one among -whom — the venerable historian Palatzkj — has earned an European reputation. No sooner did they hear we were bound for Athens, than they suggested that, after a visit to Greece, we should travel homeward through Turkey-in-Europe. " Thus," said they, " when you return our way, you will be able to tell us something about our brethren of race, the South Slavonic peoples." Previous journeys had led us to make the acquaint- ance of divers nations of the Slavic stock, nevertheless we had to confess to the Czechs that we scarcely knew who their southern brethren were. This profession of ignorance was received with displeasure. " You are not," said our friends, " the first English people who have told us as much; yet those of the South Slavonic countries which form part of the Ottoman empire stand politically under British guarantee, your nation helps to keep them in their present condition, and their future in great measure depends on her policy. Have you never heard of the Christians in Turkey, nor of thei Serbians and Montenegrlnes 1 " " Indeed," said we ; " we have heard and read of them, but we know very little about them for all that ; and among other things we do not know why you call them South Slavonic peoples." The Czechs now went more fully into the sub- ject, and, besides answering our questions them- selves, directed us to maps and books whence we could obtain information. Afterwards w^e got at other books and maps which did not present altogether the same view as theirs, but seldom differed from it as to facts of importance. Of what we thus learnt we propose to give a sketch, in case that others as well as ourselves may find it necessary to ask who the South INTRODUCTION. xv Slavonic peoples are, and what they have to do with the Christians in Turkey. The north of Turkey-in-Europe, and the south of the Austrian empire, together with Montenegro which lies between them, are inhabited by races speaking the Slavonic tongue. Those in Austria inhabit the Slovene country, and the so-called Triune Kingdom of Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia, — besides several districts in Hun- gary ; those in Turkey live between Macedonia and the Danube, and are divided according to their dialects into Bulgarians and Serbs. Altogether they number from ten to twelve millions, and form the southern division of the Slavonic race. Some years ago these peoples made efforts towards a common literary language. The movement was hailed by some of the most enlightened men in Europe as a spark of fresh life, a means of arousing intellectual energy in regions where it had lain dormant so long. Unluckily just then Panslavism was a name of terror, and the Slavonic peoples south of the Danube were accused of Panslavistic tendencies ; in plain terms, of wishing for political union under the leadership of Russia. Need was then felt of some designation to mark a sense of kindred among themselves, and of the distinction from the Russians and other Slavs.* " Illyrian " was the word first tried, but at the time fulfilled its end imperfectly, inasmuch as its Latin asso- ciations rendered it distasteful to the Serbs and Bulga- rians who belong to the Eastern Church. The name South Slavonians (Slav, lugo Slavi, from iug, south) so * A former classification gave the name of South Slavonic only to the Croato-Serbs and Slovenes, the Bulgarians being classed tvith the Russians as East Slavonic. The new classification, grouping together the Slavic peoples south of the Danube, distinguishes them all from the group containins: the Russians. xvi INTRODUCTION. far answers better, being a mere geographical designa- tion, obnoxious neither to religious nor national jealousies. This term has gained a good deal of ground, and is now understood and used by Bulgarians and Serbians, by members of tlie Eastern Church, and even by Mussul- mans, as well as by the Roman Catholic Croatians who invented it. Moreover, it has acquired a political as well as a literary significance ; for in the mouths of peoples forcibly divided and discontented with their present con- dition, a literary phrase expressive of union is apt to represent a political idea. However, the name South Slavonian was not originally put forward by any govern- ment ; and the government of the Principality of Serbia — desirous to avoid representations froniTurkey and Austria — has more than once had to disappoint some impatient spirits by refusing to afficher any name but that of Serb. Such then is the history of the name, now for that of the race to which it refers. The South Slavonic peoples have occupied their pre- sent seats for more than a thousand years. Until the end of the fourteenth century they mostly remained independent, and, in respect of civilisation, stood fairly on a level with neighbouring lands. Then came the Mahometan deluge, wherein those parts of Europe lying nearest Asia had the ill luck to be overflowed, and when, except the rocks of Montenegro, almost every Slavonic district south of the Danube sank under the power of the Turk. Croatia, by alliances with Hun- gary and Austria — Dalmatia being taken by Venice — escaped subjection to Mussulman yoke ; but their development was grievously retarded by the border warfare of which they became the scene. As for their eastern kinsmen, it was not till the beginning of this century that a handful of Serbians dwelhng on the south bank of the Danube succeeded in wringing from the i£ INTRODUCTION. xvii Porte a recognition of their right to govern themselves. At present, their chosen native ruler acknowledges the Sultan as suzerain, and their capital has to tolerate a Turkish garrison, but in other respects their self- government is complete. Hence, they have been able to exchange the law of the Koran for an European code, and to start on a career not inaptly characterised by a well-informed and well-known British writer, as that of the " youngest member of the European family." * But the number of free Serbians scarcely exceeds a million ; the Danubian principality is a fraction of their land. The districts called Old Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the whole of Bulgaria — with a popu- lation of from six to ei^ht millions — are still adminis- tered by Mahometan officials. It w^as for these Turk-ruled provinces that our Czech friends were most anxious to bespeak a visit. Accounts of Monteneiiro or Danubian Serbia need never be want- ing ; the former lies on the shore of the Adriatic, the latter within a day or two of Vienna ; moreover there is no appreciable discomfort or danger attending a journey to either. Both have been frequently and well described, and should they increase in political import- ance, both will see visitors enough. "It is otherwise," said * See " Servia : Youngest Member of the European Family," repub- lished ia " Researches on the Danube and the Adriatic." Having been over most of the ground described by Mr. Paton in his Slavonic tour, we have had much reason to thank liim for the assistance which his works prove to travellers in lands so little known. His last tour in Bulgaria, as correspondent to a newspaper at the time of the Crimean war, is now perhaps less valuable than the rest, being writttn at a time when the Bulgarian regarded an Englishman as an enemy, and took especial care not to admit him to confidence ; but nothing can be truer to life tlian his description of country and people in Serbia and Dalmatia, whi re he was received as a friend : moreover he knows Serbian liistory well enough to appreciate the importance of the national germ contained in the Danubiaii principality. b xviii INTRODUCTION. our friends, " with the inland Mahometan provinces. There the rayah population will tell you, ' tlioy are still behind God's back/ judging of God from their fellow- men, of whom the more happy and powerful have cer- tainly turned their backs on them many a long day. We, in Bohemia, and some other places, feel for them strongl}'- enough, but the veiy tie of race which causes our feeling, exposes us to political suspicion if we show it by word or deed. " The ' isolation of the unfortunate,' resulting in great measure from geographical position, is one of the bits of ill-luck which the Slavonians in Turkey have to endure ; but they labour under others far greater, and under one which may be deemed exceptional. We do not here allude to material hardship, nor even to political oppression ; for of these both have been equalled — the latter is equalled still — under certain governments of Christian Europe. The exceptional misfortune of these conquered nations lies in the character of their conqueror, in the stolid barbarism of the Mahometan Turk, and the tendency of his rule to make barbarians of its subjects. If what we hear from emigrants be true, the Slavonic Christians have now begun rousing themselves to resist this tendency, and are striving to give their children an education that may fit them for a higher stage in civilised life. We should be glad to hear some- thing on this head from witnesses who are not — as the emigrants must be — prejudiced b}^ ties of sect or race. You, as English people, would not be thus biassed ; and this is a subject whereon you could obtain informa- tion — besides learnins; a oood deal from the testimony of 3'our own eyes — without mixing yourself up in any of the political animosities wherewith Turkey-in- Europe is torn. Should you find among the Slavonic Christians real efi'orts at educational self-help, there INTRODUCTION. xix are persons among your countrymen who would be anxious to encourage it. The Americans began work forty years ago, and really advanced education in Modern Greece. They have lately taken Bulgaria in hand, but the field is large, they cannot cover it for a long time ; and when they shall have covered it, the western provinces remain. Why cannot something be done from your country, whose intimate relations with Turkey should lead her to take thought for the im- provement of the population. Perhaps you think that England has already spent both blood and money in behalf of Turkey without any adequate reward ; we agree with you so far as Mahometan Turkey is con- cerned. But, thank God, the future of the magni- ficent country between Macedonia and the Danube, does not depend on the chances of galvanising a Mahometan and Oriental government into a mimicry of civilised life, it depends on rousing and training the- energies of populations who, although undeveloped, are at least Christian and European." At the time when this was first said to us, we knew too little of the subject under discussion either to agree or contradict. In return for much kindness, all we could do was to promise our friends that we would bear their su2;a*estions in mind, and visit the Slavonic rayahs if we could. We then proceeded on our travels, went to Athens and to other parts of Greece, to the Ionian Islands and Crete, to Thessaly and Epirus. We also visited Constantinople, and there made preparations for a tour in the interior. In that journey, and those which succeeded it, we managed to carry out part of the wishes of our Czech friends. We visited the Slavonic parts of Turkey, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Herze- govina, and Old Serbia; besides Free Serbia, Monte- negro, and Northern Albania. Altogether wo had to b 2 XX INTRODUCTION. ride four times across Turkey-in-Europe, and to spend weeks and months at different places in order to learn the Slavonic tongue, and get up history, poetry, and legend belonging to the regions through which we passed. Afterwards we visited Dalmatia, Slavonia, Croatia, and the famous Frusca Gora — to complete previous travels in Austria and Hungary, and make acquaintance witli the Austrian kinsmen of the Sla- vonians in Turkey. We mention these facts merely to show that, so far as in us la}^ we avoided the error of judging the Christians in Turkey fi-om what we might happen to see in a single tour, or to pick up from diplomatic gossip in some capital great or small — in Constanti- nople or Belgrade. We soon became convinced of the impossibility of forming an idea of the interior of a half civilised country by hasty visits to one or other corner of it, or even by a long residence in a town at one of its extremities. Such partial information misleads credulous persons because they take what is accidental to be the rule ; it equally misleads persons who pique themselves on incredulity, and who predetermine what is or is not " likely," because they see only what lies on the surface, and have relations mostly with persons who have acquired a coating of European varnish, or who know what an Englishman expects them to say. Nor did it seem to us that much knowledge of the people is gained even by travellers who get over a great deal of ground, but lodge with official per- sonages, whether governors or prelates. The inte- rest felt by such voyagers in Turkey is indeed chiefly political ; they wish to judge how far the intrigues of some foreign power are undermining the hold of the Turk, and to this end observation is directed to the moves and counter-moves of ambassadors and viziers ; I^'TRODUCTION. xxi or, in a humbler sphere, of consuls and pashas. The Christian inhabitants are regarded as the more or less unwilling subjects of some foreign rule. If they be Slavonic, ignorance of the language usually debars an English traveller from communicating with them ; be- sides, his obvious intimacy witb the Turkish governor or Phanariote bishop would secure him from hear- ing anything save what he might safely repeat. The fact that few persons have time or inclination to travel through Turkey-in-Europe in such a fashion and at such a slow pace, as w^ould admit of their making acquaint- ance with the Slavonic peoples, may partly explain why comparatively little mention is made of these peoples in some of the w^orks wherein their country is described. Of such works there are several ; we shall have to refer to one or two of them in the following pages, and we gratefully acknowledge how much we have been in- debted to them especially for geographical details. Havino; thoui>ht it best to show that we do not presume to w^rite without taking all the pains in our power to know the people of wdiom we are writing, we must add that, after taking all pains, we had to leave off fully aware that much, very much, re- mained to us unknown. Not to speak of what was sadly defective in our own powers of observation as applied to the places we did see, there are many interesting- parts of Turkey-in-Europe which we did not see at all. We had even to resign several journeys after they were planned, and after letters and recommendations had been provided for us all along the road. Health will not always stand proof against Danube fever, or strength hold out against indifferent food and lodging. When health and strength failed us, there was nothing for it but to come home. The consideration how incomplete and uncertain xxii INTRODUCTION. M'ere even sucli materials as we bad been able to collect, gave us a reason (almost as strong as natm^al indolence, ^vbich bad, however, mucb to do with it) for sbirking tbe second part of tbe midertaking laid upon us by our Czech friends — that, namely, of writing some account of tbe people we bad seen. But to tbe per- formance of this task we w^ere exhorted not only by our original prompters, but also by those among our own countrymen who — as the Bohemians expected — proved anxious to lend the Christians in Turkey a helping hand in matters affecting practical improvement. The assis- tance received in our own efforts to this end, the kind interest expressed in fragmentary accounts already published, have encouraged us to prepare the fuller narrative we now offer. Beforehand, however, we would warn our readers — 1st. That in the Slavonic provinces of Turkey it is still hard to arrive at facts, especially statistics, and that those you do arrive at are often unreliable and contradictory. We have done what we could to secure accuracy when possible ; and since our return to England, wherever w^e have found our notes differ from those of other travellers, Ave have written for more precise details to persons on the spot. Doubtless many errors still re- main, and we shall be much obliged to any one who, by pointing them out, may give us an opportunity of correcting them. 2nd. Lack of special knowledge, scientific, commercial, or military, renders us unable to give details which might be easily collected by other travellers on the same ground.* 3rd. In order to * The journey of Dr. Earth, of which an account has since been pub- lished, took place while we were in Turkey. That of the Austrian Consul, Hahn, with the Serbian artillery officer, Zach, occurred some years previously ; and we are indebted to Colonel Zach for correcting our Ethnographical Map with regard to parts of the country that came under his own eye. INTRODUCTION. xxiii give English readers some idea of the past annals and present disposition of little-known peoples, we have had to enter on historical chapters which it would require skill far greater than ours to make generally entertaining. 4th. It is impossible to describe people and things in Turkey without constantly trespassing on political ground. However, in such notices as here and there we may have to give of political theories, we shall usually eliminate those of outsiders, and only repeat what we heard from natives, and from persons intimately and durably connected, not only with the government, but with the people. A political oj)inion of our own, of course we do not offer, being w^ell aware that it must be valueless ; whereas we would fain hope that the narration of such incidents in past history or daily life, as came to our knowledge or under our observation, may, at least, afford materials which others can turn to account. More than once in the course of the following pages we shall have to diverge from the due sequence of dates, in order to describe places and events that came under our eye a year or so earlier. The desultoriness of effect thus produced we recognise as a defect in any work as a whole ; but our w^ork could at any rate make so little claim to completeness or elegance, that we do as we would be done by in preferring a little more in- formation to a little better form. And now, to avoid clogging the following narrative with explanations, we will here state certain points relative to the races which chiefly inhabit the northern provinces of Turkey-in-Europe — the Turks, the Greeks, and the Slavons. Throughout Turkey-in-Europe the name " Turk " is used to express a ]\Iahometan ; the name " Greek " to denote a Christian of the Eastern Church. The idea xxiv INTRODUCTION. that all the Christian population of Turkey is Greek by I'ace, has of late been dissipated by persons careful to insist on the antipathy that really divides Slav from Hellene. Division also exists among the Mahometans. The Osmanlee, or real Turk, is in a very small minority, and is profoundly detested by Albanian and Slavonic Mussulmans, who make no secret of the fact that self- interest alone has ever bound them to his cause, and that should the luck turn against him they would not be sorry to have the opportunity of repaying many a grudge. In Bulgaria there is a good sprinkling of Osmanlee town-residents, but in the western districts — Old iS»rbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina — it is generally- said that they could be emptied of Osmanlees by simply recalling the officials and garrisons of towns. Few positions are so difficult or so false as that of governors among a population whose language they cannot speak, and which detests their sway. No one, we should hope, Avould judge of Germans by the Austrian officials in Hungary, and one certainly would not judge the Turks as a nation from what is to be seen of them scattered here and there as governors of the Slavonic provinces. As the secular governors of the Porte in these pro- vinces are Osmanlees, not Slavonic Mussulmans, so its ecclesiastical governors are Greeks, not Slavonic Chris- tians. It was an eminent Philhellene, and one who cared very little for Slavic " barbarians," who first used to us the phrase " those corrupt Turkish officials, the Greek bishops in Bulgaria." Details that must be given in the following pages will but too strongly corroborate this description ; and if we had known Greeks only among their SliXvic congregations in Turkey, w^e really should not feel that there was much to choose between them and the Osmanlee. The free Greeks have received hard enough measure both from English and French INTRODUCTION. xxv Avi'iters, but in their own country tliej have at least the right to occupy the land ; and those will judge most leni- ently of their imperfections who know how great are their difficulties and temptations. It is otherwise with Greek rulers under Turkish rule, in provinces where the popu- lation is not Hellene ; there, having little or no right to be at all, they exhibit themselves in a doubly odious character, and are at once tyrants and slaves. For "old sakes' sake," one does not like calling them Greeks ; one would rather distinguish them as their free brethren do, by the name of " Phanariotes," taken from the pre- lates' quarter in Stamboul. So much partisanship has crept into every discus- sion and every general description relating to Turkey- in-Europe, that on matters of opinion it is all but im- possible to arrive at any point whereon the opposing champions agree. But when it comes to a citation of bare facts, we have never found any one deny that neglect and disorganisation, want of roads, and absence of security, exist under Turkish civil administration ; nor that superstition, ignorance, and unseemly dissen- sions prevail under Phanariote prelacy.'"" The people who suffer under this state of things (and of whom perhaps the worst one can say is that they do suffer it), are the mass of the inhabitants of the country, by race Slavonic. Respecting them w^e had opportunity to satisfy ourselves of a fact which has more than once been questioned, and remained unanswered for want of information. From the Black Sea to the Adriatic, from the mouth of the Vardar to the Danube, the mass * Oa the subject of material resources one of the last accouuts we have read is Mr. Farley's, which, -while giving the Government of Turkey tlie fullest credit for good intentions, and pointing out how much can be done, describes the actual state of the empire j ust as it is described by Turkey's bitterest foes — a country without roads, canals, or harbours, and of which the resources are wasted by ill-managed taxation. xxvi INTRODUCTION. of the population speaks, as its native language, the Slavonic tongue. To this rule Mahometans in Bosnia, and many of those in Bulgaria, form no exception. Four hundred years ago they gave up their fathers' creed ; they would never give up their fathers' speech. Further, we convinced ourselves that, as the Bohemians had told us, the Slavonic tongue spoken in these regions has only two dialects of which the divergence is at all considerable. These two are the Serbo-Croat and the Bulgarian ; but even in them the difference lies in grammatical construction, their vocabulary being the same. Of course we do not here allude to such differences or resemblances as are appreciable by phi- lologists, but to the practical point, how far what is said or written in either of these South Slavonic dialects is understood by the body of the people ? In short, how far language really is, as they themselves say it is, a bond of unity ? Of this practical resemblance we made some trials : 1st. Having learnt to read the national songs of Serbia, which are in the language of the common people, we tried to read a popular song of Bulgaria, and found that we could make out almost every w^ord. 2nd. It twice happened to us to pass from Bulgarian into Serbian districts with servants who knew no Slavonic tongue except Bulgarian ; on both occasions we found that they conversed freely with the Serbs, alike in the Danubian principality and Montenegro.* That the Slavs of Turkey are now governed by Turks and Greeks, and that they are governed ill, are unfortu- nately obvious facts. That, if delivered from Greeks and Turks, they could govern themselves any better, is a point still open to doubt — even among persons who agree with Mr. Palgrave, that " nationality * For Ami Boue's notice of the characteristics of Serbians and Bulga- rians, see Appendix A. INTRODUCTION. xxvii is a good thing, and foreign rule a bad substi- tute for it." The instance of the principahty of Serbia is often brought for\Yard by the Slavonic rayahs as a sign that they could manage for themselves, at least much better than the Turks manage for them. We are not going to describe the principality of Serbia, so "we may here remark in allusion to this question, that what- ever be the opinion of the general success of the Serbian mode of government, nothing but personal ignorance of the country can make any one deny that the free Serbians have succeeded in introducing certain radical reforms, which the Turks are always talking of, but never carry through. One may sit in Belgrade or Con- stantinople, and infer what one pleases of the state of the interior, but one cannot well travel throughout Serbia and the adjoining Mahometan Provinces, and not find out that life and property are far more secure in the princi- pality than in Turkey. Moreover, roads multiply at a much quicker rate ; public instruction is pushed on by ■ the government ; the great bugbear of official corruption both in church and state has been put down ; the dues of the clergy, of judges, and of civil employes are fixed and sufficient. These are the results of about thirty years' self-government ; and making every allowance for the mistakes and shortcomings of a newly-started regime, one must in fairness admit that they are im- provements which countries far richer and larger than Serbia cannot show.* * "While we were at Adrianople, the country around was so infested by highwaymen, that an American missionary was murdered on the post-road, aad the consul had to travel surrounded with guards. The bombardment of Belgrade had just taken place, and the Turkish authori- ties hinted that within the principality of Serbia the roads would be still more dangerous, and Turkish guards not to be had. It was thought best to telegraph to the British consul-general at Belgrade, and ask what steps could be taken for our protection after we crossed the frontier. The answer came, that in Serbia travclliixj was safe. The promptitude with xxviii INTRODUCTION. Touching general civilisation and material prosperity, it is well to compare the Slavonic parts of Turkey, not only with a province emancipated within the last half- century, and whose capital has lately been bombarded by Turkish guns, but w^ith such adjacent parts of the Austrian empire as once endured a Mussulman occupa- tion, but have had time to recover from its effects. In more than one journey it happened to us to trace the steady advance in civilisation and prosperity of one dis- trict and town after another, according as we receded from the country governed by Mahometans, and towards that which had been lon2;est without seeins; them. Advancing through Croatia and Carinthia towards Vienna, or through the Serbian parts of Hungary towards Buda-Pest, in regions where the Turk had not been seen for more than a century, we heard the same bitter tale of his influence as is still uttered by the rayah which any beginning of brigandage is put down in Serbia, from time to time authorises the Austrian papers to publish that this or that district is under martial law ; in Turkey brigandage is chronic, but martial law is not proclaimed, and no notice is taken abroad. This same thing occurs in regard to other cases of violence ; if they happen in Serbia, they can be quoted against her because punished and recorded : if they happen in Turkey, they frequently elude notice because not brought to justice. In matters relating to education, whenever information is to be had on both sides, the comparison tells to an astonishing degree in favour of the self-governing Christians. In the year 1863, in Free Serbia, besides a civil and a military academy, a theological seminary, two schools of commerce, and higher schools in the chief towns, there were 318 primary and village schools. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the population is of the same race, but governed by Mahometans, one finds here and here ill-provided little schools ; the only large and tolerably good one, hat in the capital of Bosnia, having been founded with help of a grant from Free Serbia. It is to be remarked that in all respects, especially agriculture, comparisons, to be equal, should be made between Serbians governing themselves and Serbians governed by Turks, not between Serbians and Bulgarians, inasmuch as the Bulgarians have a less moun- tainous and more fertile country, and are a less warlike and more labori- ous people. Indeed, the Bulgarians would probably be the most. prosper- ous and contented population in the world under a government that had their prosperity at heait. INTRODUCTION. xxix lie rules. The time he occupied the country is reckoned as so much time lost ; the date of his departure is the date when things began to improve. And this is the language in places where all personal animosity to the Osmanlee has long since died away ; it is held not only by the Slavonian, but by the German and the Magyar. Now far be it from us to dwell on this part of the subject for the mere sake of making out a case against the Turk. There is really no need to do so, for although there are still extant specimens of the class called Otto- maniacs by Lord Carlisle, yet —as Mr. Gladstone declares, " reo'ardino- the history of the Turks from the time of their first appearance in the Western World, he would be a very bold man indeed who was prepared to con- tend that their conquests and dominion have been favour- able to the happiness of mankind, and the progress of civilisation." * We call the attention of others to cer- tain facts to which our own attention was called by the Christians in Turkey, because on a first view of the social and political status of the South Slavonic peoples one would be disposed to infer some inherent weakness in the race that has been unable to maintain a place among the nations of Europe, or bring special oifts to bear on the cause of civihsation. In like manner might one infer that the South Slavonic lands are barren, because up to the present time their yield has been so small in agriculture and trade. But as with the land so with the men. Exposed by geo- graphical position to bear the brunt of the Turkish invasion of Eui-ope, they are still trodden by that Otto- man of whom the proverb says, that " where he plants his foot no blade of grass will grow." Before attempt- ing to estimate the capabilities of the South Slavonic races, one must fully realise the eflects of a Turkish • Debate on Turkey, May 29tli, 1S6;5. XXX INTRODUCTION. occupation of more than four centuries ; and bear in mind the disadvantage of a geographical position which first laid these countries open to the Mussulman in- vader, and still stands in the way of their deliverance. These remarks apply equally to all the Slavonic parts of Turkey, but the contents of this volume only describe one journey through them. The ques- tion which journey this should be, was in great measure decided for us by the traveller to wdiose w^orks we have already referred. We told Mr. Paton that we were hesitating whether to give an account of the route between the Danube and the Adriatic, taking in Danubian Serbia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina ; or of the route between the ^^gean and the Adriatic, passing through southern'Bulgaria, and going round by Northern Albania, Montenegro, Old Serbia. At once he replied, " Tell us about Old Serbia : as much else as you have time for — but above all. Old Serbia. It is a part of the country I have never got at, and is the key to these people's poetry and national history, I envy you hav- ing seen Old Serbia, and I think you are bound to let us hear what you saw there." Mr. Baton's choice commended itself on reflection. Old Serbia is the part of Turkey-in-Europe most identified with Slavonic national traditions ; it is the fountain-head of popular song, the seat of the ancient government of Serbia, the scene of her czardom's fall. The landscape in this district is luxuriant and picturesque, the costumes of its inhabitants are among those which retain most originality and brilliance. And one great interest of Old Serbia lies in this, that amono- its wildernesses lie relics testifvino- that it was once a Christian and civilised land. Amid the savagery of Albanian villages, one comes on the site of a capital and a patriarchate, on large churches of Byzantine INTRODUCTION. xxxi architecture, and frescoes of early Italian art. We invite our readers to travel with us from the ^Egean to the Adriatic, taking Old Serbia on the way. But before starting, we would once for all express due thanks to many persons whom we may not have occasion further to mention, — our own country- men, foreigners, Mahometans, Christians, whose kind- ness smoothed the course of our travels in Turkey, Austria, and Greece. Others — employes of the Turkish government, sometimes common Turkish guards — with whom we only came in contact in the course of assist- ance they were bound to render, have established a claim on our gratitude by the willing and obliging spirit in which their duties were performed. Throughout the East, a European traveller finds that every one goes to work far more slowly than suits his impatience ; that punctuality and promptitude are qualities unknown. "We had often to suffer from this difference between our pace and that of the people among Avhom w^e moYcd, and some of them proved lazy and stubborn enough ; but we cannot say that from first to last any one showed a desire to impede our journey, or to con- tradict our wishes ; as for rudeness, one rarely meets with it in Turkey, or perhaps anywhere, except by some mistake of one's own. Above all who were kind to us, we must instance one whom our thanks can no longer reach. Many besides ourselves are now mourning the loss of tbat noble-hearted Serbian matron of the old school, who loved to call herself our second mother.* * The name of this lady, " Katarina Simitch," will occur iu the follow- ing pages, but applies to another person. In spelling her name and other Slavonic names we have followed the example of the Serbians when coi'- responding with foreigners, i.e., we spell them as we think most likely to give an idea of their pronunciation to (he reader. We have also now and then marked the quantity when difl'eren Ifvom what it would be in xxxii INTRODUCTION. English, Besides the old Glagolitic, there are at present three Slavonic modes of spelling in use among the Southern Slavs. One (in the Cyrillic character) resembles the llussian ; another resembles it only so far as can be made to carry out a phonetic spelling, and in this new Serbian alphabet a constantly recurring sound like our y is represented by a j borrowed from the Latin alphabet. The Latin origin of this letter excited great indigna- tion, especially among the clergy, and for some time the modern translation of the New Testament was tabooed because spelt with the aid of the "Jesu- itical j." A mode of writing Serbian entirely with Latin letters was introduced by the Croatian M. Ljudevit Gaj, and we have been strongly tempted to adopt it for our Slavonic names, to save trouble and secure uniformity. But the sounds assigned to the letters and the meaning of the accents are as yet wholly unknown in AYestern Europe, and the Ser- bians themselves find it inconvenient to use this spelling except in com- munication with their brother Slavs. One letter, z, sounded like the French j, we have retained because it has no equivalent in English. The c and c we have usually rendered alike by ch, — or by tch in places where English readers would be prone to pronounce the ch not as in " church," and in " each,'' but as they do in such un-English words as " Michmash," or " loch," i.e., sometimes like k, sometimes as in the German ich. Pro- perly speaking there is a djAerence of sound between the c and 6, and some few Serbians render the i6 at the end of their names by " its " rather than by " itch." But the difference is one wlierein a difference of foreign spelling is more apt to mislead than to guide aright. The sound " ts " occurring as in " tzar" is rendered in the Croatian by an unaccented c, "car," but in most Slavonic-Latin alphabets by cz, "czar." Hence names like Tsernoievitch, and so many others, beginning with " tserni" (black), are found spelt inditierently, tserni, cerui, and czerni ; indeed, the variety goes still further, for the word is also variously pronounced, "tserni," " tcherni," and " tcharni." The letter given in. the Croatian and phonetic Serbian alphabet as j, we have rendered by y and i ; the j in English and in French having a sound quite different to that assigned to it by the German alphabet, whence it was taken by the Croatians. Altogether we have tried less to follow any special rule than to give a tolerably correct idea of the sound to English readers, who often pass over Slavonic names in despair as " unpronounceable," whereas, at least in Serbian, these names are mostly capable of being pronounced with ease by an English tongue, although it is certainly very difficult to denote their sound by English spelling. They are rendered much better in French; but to im[iort the German spelling of them into English books and maps is the most hopeless plan of all. With regard to names of places, persons, or offices that are already known in diplomacy by an accepted form of spelling, we have not attempted to alter them. Such are Belgrade and Cetigne, Obrenovitch, Czar, &c. Turkish words we spell as we heard them pronounced in the Slavonic provinces, or as we have found usual in consular reports. "We cannot but fear they must often be incorrect. SONJAN JSLAMC5. CHAPTER I. FEOM YOLO TO SALONICA. Touch. When I was at Lome, I was in a better place : but travellers must be content. As Toil Like It, Act ii.. Scene 4. /^LD-SERBIA may be approached with greatest ease ^ and speed in a four days' journey by steamer and railway from London to Belgrade. At Belgrade you hire a light cart, or " kolo,"' and pass to the southern frontier of Danubian Serbia, on the other side of which Old-Serbia begins. So long as you are within the Principality you find carriage-roads and good quarters, with security for person and property ; it is only after crossing to the Turkish side of the boundary that you must put up with bridle-paths, transport your bed and some of your provisions, and travel under the protection of guards. But we did not attain our goal by this route, nor by any so direct and practicable, for we started, not from London but from Athens, and took Thessaly on our way. To give an idea of the line of approach on this side, must be the object of our first few chapters. It was in the last days of May, 1863, that we pre- 2 FROM VOLO TO SALONICA. [chap. i. pared to leave Volo by the Greek steamer for Salonica, and quitted the hospitable roof of the British vice- consul. Volo is a small Turkish seaport. It consists of two parts — the fortress and the town. The fortress is de- fended by a few cannon, rickety walls, and a half-filled- up ditch : within it dwell the descendants of the con- querors, crowded together, sickening of heat and pestilential vapors — but satisfied and proud. At the head of the bay is to be found higher ground, and a healthier site ; but for long the Turks forbade any one to build there, on pretext that this ^vould endanger their doughty keep. At length some consul got the decree revoked ; and a line of buildings has risen on the shore, where it catches such breezes as find their way into this cauldron of sea- water and hills. Here dwell the Ghiaours, materially better off than the Faithful, and moreover progressive and diligent ; nevertheless despised, restless, and full of com- plaints. In Volo luggage is subjected to examination, both on entrance and on export. Arriving from Larissa in the interior of Thessaly, our carriage was stopped by a horde of barefooted Turkish urchins, desiring us to wait until an ofiicial could be hunted up ; with this crew around us we had to sit till rescued by the consul's cavass. When the time came for departing for Salonica, we made experience as follows : — At breakfast the consul said to us : " You must know that we have lately acquired as head of the custom-house a common Turk, alike ignorant and savage, who regards a traveller's baggage simply as a pledge for 'bakshish.' The chances are that at the last moment he will seize your boxes, and cause every article to be turned out. Therefore, as a precaution CHAP. I.] FEOM VOLO TO SALONICA. 3 I have sent to the kaimakam,* letting him know that you have nothing with you but what was seen in this same custom-house a fortnight ago." Two hours later came a knock at our door, and the consul's cavass introduced the savage Turk. He explained. " To avoid opening your luggage at the douane, this gentleman has come to examine it here." All our boxes stood open, and what was not yet packed lay about the room. We invited the officer to look ovei' everything, and when this was accomplished expected him to withdraw. Not at all. He said to the cavass, " Two of these boxes are not yet full, and something I have not examined may be put into them. I must remain here while they are fastened up." The cavass represented that this was out of the question, we should not have done packing for some time, and everything that was to be put in lay now before his eyes. Then he opened the door and bade the Turk go. The boxes were finished, corded, and sent off to the steamer. We were sitting comfortably at luncheon, when in rushed our dragoman, crying : " The custom- house officer has boarded the boat with the luggage. At the very side of the steamer he stopped us, and declares he must unpack such boxes as were fastened up after he left." Great was the displeasure of the consular body, of whom more than one member was present ; but after a short consultation it was settled that we should repair at once to the scene of dispute, accompanied by the British Agent, and see what could be done. We entered our boat, and had nearly reached the steamer, when we met that containing the luggage, which the custom-house officers were carrying off to their den. The consul exclaimed in hopeless indigna- tion : " Let it go, let it go. They will make you late * Governor. 4 FROM YOLO TO SALONICA. [chap. i. for the steamer. I will watch over it, and send it after you." Here we objected. On no account could we leave our thinos : what were we to do at Salonica without our beds, bath, or change of raiment ? So we veered round, and followed in the wake of our goods. For full ten minutes all proceeded in gloomy silence ; when suddenly the caprice of the barbarians changed, and a man jumped from their boat into ours to say that we might have the things, if we pleased. Reason or excuse they proffered none, and it may be believed that we asked for neither. Once more the boats turned about, and the procession ended peacefully in the steamer. At nightfall, the halt of an hour is made at the lovely Greek island of Skiathos. Its little maritime town lies in a sheltered nook of the rocks, with a bower^^ back- ground of low wooded hills. These sea-birds' nests are as yet the most hopeful specimens of Modern Greece. In Athens, it seems almost profane to couple under one name the nation which has just perpetrated the new cathedral, and the nation which raised the Theseum and the Parthenon ; but go to Syra and Hydra, and other island towns, and you recognise the spirit of the old " ploughers of the sea." It makes, too, a vast differ- ence in your judgment of Modern Greece, whether you come to her from Europe, or from the interior of Turkey — whether your first glance contrasts her with countries grown slowly ripe in the culture of Christi- anity — or with that portion of her own soil still trampled by Islam. In the one case, you compare infancy with manhood, in the other 3'ou feel the distinction between growth and decay. Next morning early we reached Salonica, and liad our best view of it from the deck of the steamer. But though cities that rise in amphitheatre round a '/ CHAP. I.] FROM YOLO TO SxVLONICA. 5 bay are always most favourably seen from the sea, a Turkish city has a charm of its own whatever its situation, and looked at from w4iat point you please. True to the pastoral instinct of his ancestors, the Turk ever seeks to absorb the prosaic town into the poetry of nature ; he multiplies spires to atone for roofs, and wherever he builds a house he plants a tree. For the ground indeed he cares not, provided his horse be good, so in roughness his street outdoes a quarry, and in filth exceeds the wallowing-ground of swine. But potent is the magic of outward beauty. After a time one consents that nose and feet should suffer offence ; if only, when the labours of the day are over, one may recline on the cool, flat house-roof, and feast one's eyes on masses of white and green, pierced by taper cypresses and glistening minarets. The British consul and the Presbyterian missionary kindly met us on board the steamer, and conducted us to the house of the former; there we found an English breakfast, and were informed of the arrange- ments for our accommodation. "I wish," said the consul, "that we had a room to offer you here, for the only place that can be called an inn is not such as you could endure. As it happens, all we can do is to beg you will always take your meals with us; but as you carry with you the most necessary furniture, I trust you may be able to make yourselt comfortable in an empty house belonging to my vice- consul, which he places at your disposal." Thus. stated, the arrangement satisfied us thoroughly, for it promised freedom from the gene we must have felt in troubling indulgent hosts. We had no idea what it really involved. An empty house ! We pictured to. ourselves a house emptied of the vice-consul's family ; we never dreamt that it meant one deserted, with 6 FllOM VOLO TO SALONICA. [cnAr. i. bad floors, broken doors and windows, and bare of all furniture save a rickety table and three chairs. The consul kindly sent us a few needful articles ; we set up our beds, spread our carpets, and made believe to do very well. But alas, the insects, the evil odours, the draughts — b}^ day the stifling, by night the chill — the mysterious disappearance of the woman who was to wait on us ; the weariness of doing for ourselves what she was to have done for us. Each night we lay down fearing to wake up with the local intermittent fever : doubt- less too the feverish air had much to do with our extra sensitiveness to discomforts, which we found more intolerable in the great city of Thessalonica than in the roughest districts of the interior. CHAPTER II. SALOXICA. The admirable situation of Thessalonica, and the fertility of the sur- rounding country, watered by several noble rivers, still enables it to nourish a population of upwards of sixty thousand souls. Nature has made it the capital and seaport of a rich and extensive district, and under a good government it could not fail to become one of the largest and most flourishing cities on the shores of the Mediterranean. — FinlA-t's History of the Byzantine Umjjire, p. 317. SALONICA has several points that repay a ride ; among others the fortress of the seven towers, which stands on the site of the ancient Acropohs, and commands a glorious view, bounded by Mount Olympus. But the citadel itself is in a very tumble-down condi- tion, and the dwelling houses within its walls are mostly deserted. The Chaoush monastery stands also on a height above the town, and offers healthy quarters for a traveller. Its monks live in somewhat ignoble com- fort, for their convent was left standing and endowed with privileges as reward for one of its former inha- bitants having betrayed the neighbouring castle to the Turks. The present caloyers are Greeks of that servile type which sets many an Englishman against the whole race ; nothing could be more honied than their flatteries of England, because it was then popu- larly expected that she would transfer her patronage from Turkey to Greece. 8 SALONICA. [chap. ii. As the precious things in the convent were almost all presents from Russia, it was necessary to explain this away ; the monks did so by saying that the Czar had given them in exchange for relics of inestimable worth. For instance, a service of communion plate and a costl}'' book were said to have been received in exchanoe for a gourd out of which our Saviour drank at the Last Supper ; or, as others say, at the Well of Samaria. " Iiook," said the Greek, " they gave us miserable gold or a treasure that kingdoms could not buy ; they re- ceived from us a skin of oil, and in return have sent us a single olive." Finally, it was declared that " if England will only protect us, she may count on our eternal devotion." On the way down the hill we passed through the burying-place of the city. The Franks have secured themselves graves between those of the Turks and the walls. On the other side of the Turks lie the Jews, " that they may be obliged to carry their dead furthest from the town." The whole ground is unenclosed, and desecrated by asses and dogs. Some time ago a violent thunder shower washed the earth from an ancient sarcophagus which was found by the French consul and sent off to Paris. The antiquities of Salonica occupied two days' sight- seeing, and no kinder nor more persevering cicerone can be wished than the Scottish missionary.'"" Almost every street, every fountain shows fragments of coloured marbles and sculptured stones ; and on the Vardar Gate and Arch of Constantino f may still be seen the * There is a good description of Salonica in Murray's " Handbook." The antiquities of Thessalonica, Yodena, and the adjacent countrj^, have been once for all described by Col. Leake. t The Egnatian way, which for many centuries served as the high- road for the communications between Rome and Constantinople, formed a great street passing in a straight line through the centre of the city CHAP. II.] SALONICA. 9 processions of E oman triumph. Among the principal objects of interest we may enumerate the churches of the the Twelve Apostles, of St. Sophia, and of St. Demetri ; the pulpit wherein St. Paul is supposed to have preached ; the so-called Rotunda ; the remnants of a sculptured Bema outside the Rotunda ; and the five figures (called by the Jews Incantadas). which formed the Propyla3um of the Hippodrome. Except the two latter relics, which, though ruined, are not transformed, all that is of the Pagan period has been Byzantinized, and all that was Byzantine has been Mahometanized ; so that while much may be traced to interest the antiquary, there is scarce beauty enough left to delight the unprofes- sional traveller. Perhaps the Christian who spoilt a classic temple in the attempt to render it cruciform, may be deemed as barbarous as the Mussulman who turned the cathedral of St. Demetrius into a mosque ; but the latter achievement has had results so grotesque that we cannot forbear enumerating them. The nave is supported by columns of j)recious marble ; but these the Turk has painted green, and their capitals strawberry and cream colour. Icons and candles he has banished, and in their stead strings up ostrich eggs to ward off the evil eye ; also garlands of little lamps, which look fairy -like by night, but wherein by day the oil floats cold and brown. The altar has been hurled from its site, but thereabouts stands the pulpit of the Imaun, with its narrow stair and extinguisher canopy. A little side chapel is purged of its idolatries, and instead crammed with old mats, rubbish, and tools ; while, in place of all other abominations of the infidel, from its western to its eastern wall. This relic of lloman greatness, with its triumphal arches, still forms a marked feature in the Turkish city; but the moles of the ancient fort have fallen to ruin, and the space between the sea-wall and the water is disfigured by a collection of lilthy huts. — Finlay's Byzantine £iiij)irc, p. 317. 10 SALONICA. [chap. ii. are tolerated the abominations of a colony of bats, "which inhabit the roof above one of the arches,, and encumber its base with an unsavoury heap. As for the name and superscription of St. Demetrius, these must be sought on one of the doorsteps, but the tiny cell con- taining his tomb is respected and ostentatiously shown. This distinction it owes to its miraculous exudations, which attract hosts of Christian pilgrims, and bring to its Mussulman guardian a regular income of bakshish. But the real curiosity of Salonica is its population, that strange medley of antipathetic races. The Therma of ancient history, and the Thessalonica of St. Paul's Epistles, yields at present the curious instance of a city historically Greek, politically Turkish, geographically Bulgarian, and ethnographically Jewish.* Out of about 60,000 inhabitants,! some 40,000 are Hebrews ; and these, the most numerous citizens, are also the most wealthy and considered. They came, like most of the Jews in Turkey, from Spain, whence they were expelled by the Inquisition, and the comjDarative tolerance showed them by the Sultan renders them his good subjects. The Hebrews settled in Salonica are handsome, many of them auburn-haired, and their women often delicate, and even fair. In beauty the latter exceed the Hellene, which now-a-days is not saying so much, for, at least in Europe, the modern Greek woman falls short alike of the softness and fire of the Oriental and the refinement and loftiness of the Western lady. * The number of Jews at Salonica is estimated at 40,000, but with their usual astuteness they contrive to avoid being taxed individually, and the community bribes the Turkish officials to let them pass without scrutiny for no more than 11,500. + Under the Byzantine Empire the population of Thessalonica must have amounted to 220,000. — See Fii^lay's Bijzantine Empire, Book II., Chap. 1. CHAP. II.] SALONICA. II Like most other numerous communities, tlie Salo- nican Jews are divided into three ranks — the tip- top, the middle, and the low. Of these the fore- most by their wealth and luxury absolutely extinguish their Christian neighbours. The French consul, Mar- quis de , told us that for him and his wife society was out of the question. All the richest people are Jews. If they give a dinner, friends and relatives lend each other plate and trappings, so that the pomp is overpowering, and in return one cannot receive them in any way that would not appear mesquin. Then if one gives parties, the Jewish ladies come so apparelled that the Europeans feel (jenees in meeting them : " on finirait par n'avoir que des Juives chez soi." The opinion of the French consul was confirmed by one of our Enghsh acquaintances. She would wilhngly have shown us some of these Hebrew dames, whom she described as accomplished and beautiful ; " but the fact is," said she, " that my new summer gown has not yet come from London ; and though in you, as a traveller, they might excuse a plain dress, I should not dare to go among them otherwise than spick and span." The middle class of Jews are also rich, but less exacting in matters of toilette, so no obstacle existed to our visiting them. The first family we saw was that of a Rabbi, and more interesting than others, as retaining some remnants of traditional habits and costume. The daughters had muslin dresses made in the European style, but their long hair hung loose down their backs. On marriage the hair is cut off, and the matrons wear a small turban fixstened with a black handker- chief, which is passed under the chin and tied on the top of the head. The Rabbi himself appeared in a sort of long loose coat bordered and lined with far. In Salonica, doctors disagree as to the advisability of 12 SALONICA. [CHAP. II. adopting Franldsli fasliions, so we sought to learn the ideas of this good man, who is reputed liberal in his views. We alluded to the Jews of Cracow, to their peculiar dress, and to their unwillingness to change it. " Yes," quoth the Rabbi, " but in Poland the Jews dress differently from us, and are of very different character. We came here from Spain, and at first all Avore black like Spaniards, what we now wear is Turkish, and some of us are beginning to imitate the Franks." " In that case," said we, "you do not connect any religious feeling with your costume." He answered evasively, "every dress has a religious value in the eyes of the people to whom it belongs." He then asked if we had remarked the curious out-door pelisses of the women. These are of scarlet cloth, lined with fur and bordered with gold. Over the head is Avorn a long scarf of the white stuff used for Turkish towels. The Rabbi whom we visited is a merchant, and carried on the conversation in Italian; he is also a rich man. We learned that here most of the Rabbis are merchants, and also rich ; for wealth is one of the most needful qualifications to obtain their office and sustain its influence. Much of their commercial success is owed to their power of association, and their willing- ness to help one another. Herein they and their brethren excel the local Christians, who seldom seem able to trust each other, or work as one. Another distinction of our Rabbi is that he keeps a printing-press. This privilege is not granted to the Greeks, and was lately denied to a Bulgarian book- seller. The request of the latter was supported by the English consul, who regarded it as most desirable that the Slavonic population in the neighbourhood should obtain books in its own language. Of course the excuse was put forward that the press would be used CHAP. II.] SALONICA. 13 to circulate Russian proclamations ; as if tlie lack of a printing-press in their own country were not pre- cisely "what hitherto has forced the Bulgarians to take their books from Russia. The next house we visited was that of a rising coal merchant ; a handsome dwelling, cleanly and cool. We came rather too near the middle of the day, so the lady and her daughters were enjoying a siesta, but they sent a message so earnestly begging us to stay that we sat down patiently to wait. For this we were rewarded by seeing the maid carry three gowns and three " cages " upstairs, through the saloon, and past us into her mistresses' chamber. After the interval necessary for donning them, out came three ladies elegant and smiling. While waiting, our attention was directed to the extraordinary precautions adopted to secure the house against fire. The cause of this is that the Jews here will not touch fire on their Sabbath. Not only do they keep their candles ready lighted from the evening before, and a Gentile servant to do the necessary work ; but should a conflagration break out among their dwellings, they must let it burn on, rather than meddle with it. Jewish servant girls, whose clothes have happened to catch fire on the Sabbath, have been known to run burning to the nearest Christian house before they could obtain assistance. When a Salonican Jew sets up to be " liberal," one of his first symptoms is to smoke a cigar on the Sabbath. Sometimes the Rabbis make an eff"ort to reclaim him, e. g., they bribe the Pasha to put him in prison. Another Jewish observance consists in saying prayers for the departed, a certain amount being sufficient for a good spirit, and a longer time for a wicked one. Hence, while it would be considered undutiful for a son to omit 14 SALONICA. [chap. ii. liaving prayers said for his father's soul, he must take care not to have them said too long, lest he cast a slur on his father's character. We were told that many of the poorer Jews are disposed to think that Sir Moses Montefiore will shortly prove to be their Messiah. The richer are said to be in no such hurry, " inasmuch as the coming of the Messiah would involve their own migration to the Promised Land, and being an exclusively commercial people they have little fancy to become landholders in Judea.^' A good portion of the alms and oblations collected for foreign Missions by the Church of Scotland goes to sending Missionaries to the Eastern Jews. Two of these are stationed respectively at Salonica and Monastir. Their ostensible aim is to proselytize, but this is but rarely feasible, and the converts, even when caught, are not sure. For instance, of two whom they had lately gained, we afterwards heard that one has recanted, on discovering that the Mission will not educate his son as a doctor. At Salonica there is a mission school ; its attendance numbers sixty to seventy pupils — Gentiles being occasionally admitted. Their parents send them to get teaching gratis, and especially stipulate that they learn French, and Italian, and other neces- sary branches for commercial success. Were the Jews of Salonica so poor that they could not provide schools for their own community, such opportunities might not be ill bestowed ; but even then it may be questioned whether the good people of Scotland would be content to furnish funds, with comparatively little result except that of teaching young Israelites accom- plishments likely to advance them in trade. . We cannot attempt to describe the Turkish residents in Salonica, as it happened that we saw nothing of CHAP. II.] SALOmCA. 15 them ; but next in interest to the Hebrew comes the Greek community. Although it cannot vie in number or wealth with the Jews, it counts some rich merchants, who were building fine houses while we were there. Besides these there are certain families which, from intermarriage for generations, are to all intents Greek, yet claim Western descent, and enjoj the protection of foreign Powers ; this, by sheltering them from Turkish interference, gives them great advantage in trade. In some cases the right to such protection is rather doubtful, and should an European agent not prove himself above " bakshish/' great abuses are certain to ensue. It was with consternation that we heard of so- called British subjects stooping to farm taxation for the Turk. For " a man cannot carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned," and a tale was told us of the working of this system, in the particulars of which we would fain hope that there may be some exaggeration. Certain Frankish merchants undertook to farm the pig-tax, and hearing that the Christian peasants of a village were suspected of concealing pigs, they called on the Pasha to put five of their principal men into prison, where at the time typhus fever was raging. Out of the five, four took the fever and died. Among the Greeks of Salonica, as elsewhere in Turkey, prevails the heinous custom of taking up dead bodies, after a year spent in the grave, to look whether they be consumed or no. The scene on these occa- sions was described to us by a native who had often attended, — the horrid curiosity, the superstitious ter- ror, the fearful sight, and still more fearful smell, of which many women sicken on the spot. Should the body be preserved, it is taken as a bad sign, and prayers must be said, for which of course the priest 1 6 SALONICA. [chap. ii. is paid. Then the corpse is re-interred for another year, and, unless decay ensue, the ceremonial may be repeated three times. So tyrannical is conventionality in this particular, that wealthy educated mothers — living in intercourse with Europeans — feel obliged to have their children disinterred. We heard of one in- stance where there was the additional agon}^ of finding the little body in a state which relations and neighbours considered as indicating that the soul was in hell. From these grim revelations, we turn to a quaint anecdote of the late Sultan, Abdul Medjid. He came to Salonica, and was invited to visit the garden of the rich Mr. John . Having walked about for some time, he asked to see "the merchant Jack." The merchant came, and with a profound bow gave utterance to the following oriental compliment : " When I beautified this garden, and planted these flowers, I dared to hope that they might one day be honoured with a visit from your Majesty." The Sultan repHed, with grave sincerity, "This day then God hath an- swered thy prayer." Sight-seeing and visiting being accomplished, we had only to look if there was anything pretty in the shops, and then make preparations for the inland route. The Bazaar of Salonica is the finest in European Turkey, next to that of Constantinople, and is far before the best in the interior, viz., those of Adrianople and Seraievo.* We had seen in Athens a dress made of the silk gauze of Salonica, a material stronger, and less like French gaze-de-soie than the gauze of Broussa. It was for this that we sought first, and then for silver bands to trim it ; but we had to consume no end of time in collecting enough bits of a few yards each, to * Called by the Turks Bosna Serai, or the Palace of Bosnia. This Tsame the Slavonic iuhabitauts have softened into Seraievo. CHAP. 11.] SALONICA. 17 make up the quantity required for a go^Yn. The reason is, that the silk is made in private houses in pieces, each sufficient for a shirt. We saw tailors working at splendid embroidery, and in many shops hung long trusses of what looked like golden straw, — used to mingle with the locks of a bride. One article we had made at Salonica, viz., the cover of a box. Our dragoman assigned the task to Jews, and we, soon after coming into the corridor, were startled to behold two venerable patriarchs, looking as if they had walked bodily out of an old picture Bible. These patriarchs seated themselves on the floor with the large chest between them ; their bare feet extended on each side of it, their hands holding the ends of a long piece of sacking whereof they purposed to make the cover, and which they wound round and round the box by way of taking the measure. CHAPTER III. BULGARIA VIEWED FROM: SALONICA.— Paet I. The entrance of Russia into the political system of the European nations was marked by an attempt to take Constantinople, — a project which it has often revived, and which the progress of Christian civilisation seems to indicate must now be realised at no very distant date, unless the revival of the Bulgarian kingdom to the south of the Danube create a new Slavonian power in the east of Europe capable of arresting its progress. — Fixlax's History of the Byzayitine Empire, p. 223. Some years ago there was a revolt in Bulgaria, and both before that revolt and since, any apparent apathy in the people may be naturally accounted for by the fact that Bulgaria, for the most part, is a plain interspersed with strong Turkish fortresses, consequently the last place to afford a hope of revolutionary success. The mountains of the Balkan, however, are full of patriotic brigands, genuine Robin Hoods, who make war on the Turks, and from time to time take signal ven- geance on rich Christian usurers who are connected with their tyrants. — Dk. Sandwith. As for the Bulgarians, whether they remain yet awhile under Turkish, rule, or free themselves from it in our own time, as they must ultimately do sooner or later, it is in them alone that one can see any really hopeful prospect on taking a broad general view of the probable future of these countries. This is afforded by their numerical preponderance, their utter primitiveness, which has learned nothing and has nothing to unlearn ; their industry and thrift, their obstinacy, and their sobriety of character. — Lokd Sirangfokd. TTTE have said that Salonica is geographically Bul- ' ' garian ; in other words, it is one of the ports of that country, with a Slavonic-speaking population, which stretches from the ^Egean to the Danube. Indeed, Salonica itself forms a point on the ethnogra- phical boundary which, in this part of Turkey-in- CHAP. Ill] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. iq Europe, divides tlie Slavonic population from the Greek. To a certain extent this frontier coincides with the line of the old Roman road between Salonica and the Lake of Ochrida ; nevertheless some miles of country inhabited by Bulgarians stretch south of the Via Egnatia, Greek colonies lie to the north of it ; and in the towns the population is mixed, in part consisting of Osmanlee Turks. The other boundary cities are Mo- nastir, Vodena, and Yenidje^ in all of which dwell few or no Greeks, whereas in Salonica itself there are only about 500 famihes of Slavs. On its south-eastern frontier, it is worthy of notice that the mass of the Slavonic population stops every- where short of the sea, and leaves (or perforates only with stragglers) a coast-strip including part of Thrace, the Chalcidian peninsula, the cities of Constantinople and Salonica. This district is so variously peopled, so important for commercial and strategical purposes, — and it would so ill-suit any one that it should fall into the grip of any one else, — that those Avho look forward to a readjustment of the Slavo-Greek peninsula, take it under their especial care. Among other plans they suo-o-est that it be erected into a neutral territory, and attached to the two great sea-ports, in the same manner as domains are attached to the Free Cities of Germany. These modifiers would give Greece her due in Thes- saly and Epirus, and accord native and Christian self- government, as now exercised by the Principahty of Serbia, to all the Slavonic provinces of Turkey. Without venturing an opinion on this or other poli- tical projects, we may remark that any arrangement which would disincumber the thrifty and well-disposed Bulgarian of the yoke of his present barbarous master, would certainly prove a gain to civilisation, and in one respect especially to ourselves. Its immediate result c 2 20 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. hi. would be the development of the resources of the country, and, among others of its resources, in cotton. The vast desert plain of Salonica is stated to be pecu- liarly adapted for the growth of Sea Island cotton ; and a neighbouring district, not far from the town of Seres, is so favourable to the culture, that a man who planted the third of an acre with cotton realised a profit of 60/. This cultivation is in the hand of Bul- garians ; the Turkish landlord cares only to clutch half the produce, and the farmer of the Turkish revenue is the arch foe of industry.* The labouring, i.e., the Christian Slavonic, population of the country behind Salonica holds land on the fol- lowing tenure : — After a tenth has been paid to the Sultan, seed is put aside for the coming year, and of what produce remains the landlord gets half. As for the taxation : in Turkey, grievances com- mence at the point where in other countries they are supposed to culminate ; so we say nothing of the in- justice to a population of millions that it should have no voice in the disposal of its money. Granted that the Bulgarians be ready to give all the government calls for, and, moreover, to pay for exemption from the army, that is, for being disarmed and held down by Mussulmans ; f still the greatest grievance remains, viz., the waste and iniquity wherewith the revenue is raised. Hitherto the taxes have been paid in kind, a method which alwa3^s gives the gatherer much j)ower to extort bribes, since he can refuse to value the peasant's stand- ing corn until half of it be spoiled. But Turkish tax- * See Appendix for Mr. Farley's account of the tithe-farming system, t Exemption from the army is the name now given to the tribute paid by Christians as such, which formerly was called haratch. The people still use the old word, for to them the tax remains the same, and so does its practical signification — i, «., the Christian continues the disarmed tributary of the Mussulmaa CHAP, iir.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 2 1 farmers do not confine themselves to such by-paths of cheating. The following is an instance of what con- stantly recurs : — Two men agree to keep a flock between them, the one in summer on the mountains, the other in winter on the plain. The tax-gatherer compels the first to pay for tlie whole, promising that he will ask nothing of the other ; he then goes to the second, and with a similar promise forces him likewise to pay for all. In like manner, the Christian can be compelled to pay twice over for exemption from the army, if the tax- gatherer declare his first receipt forged. The other day a Bulgarian brought his receipt to the British consul, Avho threatened the official to have it sent up for investigation. Immediately the charge was with- drawn. A change of system is being introduced which will supersede payment in kind by payment in money. But it is hard to see how this is to prove beneficial without such means of transport and security of com- munication as would enable the peasant to bring his produce to market. At present, while he must sell it in the neighbourhood wherein it abounds, he is taxed for it at market value. The people declare that the oppression is now worse than before, and that this is one of the many soi-dismit reforms which tell well on paper, while unless followed up by other reforms they prove actually mischievous. We ourselves saw the tax-gatherer swooping down on the villages, accom- panied by harpy-flocks of Albanians armed to the teeth. On occasion of the late cotton famine, the British Government instigated the Porte to encourage the growth of cotton, to give the seed for experiments, and, what is more important, to suspend, in favour of cotton, some of the modes of taxation which chiefly harass 22 BULGARIA YIEWED FEOM SALONICA. [chap. hi. agricultural industry. The Christian Bulgarians have responded to this encouragement in a manner that gives fair promise of their energies, should they ever be entirely free from vexatious interference. The British consul at Thessalonica told us that, between the years 1861 and 1862, exports of cotton had nearly doubled, and in 1863 they increased more than three-fold. But great as would be the access of importance to Salonica, should it become an emporium for the export of cotton, this is little to what it may hope for, should it also be the terminus of a railway uniting the Danube and the iEgean. At present an Austrian steamer keeps up the communication with Syra, but from Salonica across country to Belgrade, there is not (until you cross the Serbian frontier) a single road more than barely " carossable." A riding-post does the journey in 138 hours. Were this line traversed by railroad, it would become our shortest way to Alexandria, and considerably abridge our postal distance from the East. Between Alexan- dria and Trieste there are 1,200 geographical miles, between Alexandria and Salonica only 670. Compared with the Marseilles route it has been calculated that, via Salonica, the Indian mail would take the same time to get from Alexandria to London, that it now takes (by at least every second steamer) to get from Alex- andria to Marseilles. The projected railway would be carried along the plains and valleys of the rivers Mo- rava and Vardar (Axius). The route, as it has been traced, crosses no important elevations, and its only eno-ineerino- obstacles consist in some narrow defiles. The proportion of difficult parts to easy, has been esti- mated as 1 to 9j, and the cost of the line (in Aus- trian money) as nearer 20,000,000 than 30,000,000 ^tf rr;'H''il iL V'-" ^Mihi'- CHAP. III.] BULGARIA YIEWED FROM SALONICA. 23 of guilders, '/. e., nearer 2,000,000/. than 3,000,000/. sterling. Seeing then that at no distant period the interests of Bulgaria may be interwoven with those of British com- merce ; seeing that at this moment it forms part of an empire which England has pledged herself to defend, some persons may care to read a few notes on its inhabitants and history ; those who care not, can pass over the next pages. By Bulgaria we understand, not that insignificant portion of the same termed the Turkish jDrovince of Bulgaria, but the wdiole tract of country peopled by Bulgarians. The population, usually given as four millions, is estimated by the people themselves as from five to six millions, — forming the Eastern division of the South-Slavonic race. The Bulgarians are dis- tinguished in all essentials from their neighbours — the Greek, the Rouman, and the Turk — they differ in a few points of character from their own Western kindred, the Croato-Serbs. The chief of these latter points is a deficiency in what is called esprit-politique, and a corresponding superiority in the notion of material comfort. Unlike the Serb, the Bulgarian does not keep his self-respect alive with memories of national glory, nor even with aspirations of glory to come ; on the other hand, no amount of oppression can render him indifferent to his field, his horse, his flower-garden, nor to the scrupulous neatness of his dwelling. How strongly difference of race can tell under identical conditions of climate, religion, and govern- ment, is exemplified in towns where Greeks have been dwelling side by side with Bulgarians for centuries. The one is commercial, ingenious, and eloquent, but fraudulent, dirty, and immoral ; the other is agricul- 24 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM: SALONICA. [chap. hi. tural, stubborn, and slow-tongued ; but honest, cleanly, and chaste. The latter quality has from early times attracted respect towards the South-Slavonic peoples. Their ancient la\YS visit social immorality with death, and, at present, their opinion, inexorable towards women, does not, like our own, show clemency to men. A lady told us that in the society of Greeks she could not be three weeks without becoming the confidant of a chronique scandaleuse ; among Bulgarians she had lived for months, and never heard a single " story." ^' In Bulgarian towns the Mussulmans are Osmanlee f colonists, who form, as it were, the garrison of the province. The Slavonians who have become Maho- metan mostly live in the country, and continue to speak Slavonic. In their bravery and warlike disposition, the rene- gade Bulgarians evince the character of the nation before it was betrayed and disarmed, and they them- selves adopted Mahometanism only to avoid falling into the position of rayahs. In some parts they are known by the name Pomak (from Pomagam, "I help "), and are supposed to be descended from those Bulgarian troops who served in the Sultan's army as " allies ; " until the Turks o;rew strons; enous-h to force on them the alter- native of surrenderino- their arms or their creed. Among our guards once happened to be a Bulgarian Mussulman, w^ho allowed us to be told in his presence * (The Greek) cannot overcome the Bulgarian, nor lead him, nor in- corporate him. He is of a less numerous and not of a superior race ; his mind is more keen but less solid; roughly speaking, he is to the Bul- garian as the clever Calcutta Baboo to the raw material of the English non-commissioned officer. — Lord Steangfoed in Eastern Shores of the Adriatic, t The decrease of the Mussulman population in the " Province of Bulgaria" so-called (north of the Balkan), is estimated at 100,000 in ' ten years by Lieutenant-Colonel Neale, H.M. Consul in Bulgaria. — Social Science Revieio, February, 1864. CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 25 that he 'was still at heart a Christian ; and in the neighbourhood of Salonica we heard of INIahoraetan Bulgarians Avho excuse their apostacy by the following storj. Being hard pressed, they fixed a certain term during which they would fast and call on Christ, but at the end whereof, if no help appeared, they would sub- mit themselves to Mahomet. Help arrived not, so jMahometans they became. Since then, old hatred of race has caused them to take part against the Greeks in more than one insurrection ; but they equally detest the Turk, and thus sympathise with their own Christian countrymen in their national antipathies, as well as in tenacity of their native tongue. The rural population of Bulgaria is Christian, and hereabouts the rayah has a down-look and a dogged stolidity, which give one the impression that heart and mind have been bullied out of him. Of late ^'■ears, however, he has presented an unflagging resistance to the Porte's imposition of foreign Bishops ; and those who have instructed him, both in his own country and out of it, assured us that he is of excellent iniderstanding, and zealous and aj)t to learn. The Christian Bulgarian is reproached as timid, but at least his is the timidity of shrinking, not of servility ; he hides from those he fears, he does not fawn on them. His country, lying as it does on the road of Turkish armies to the Danube, has been subject to unceasing spoliation, and nothing is more melancholy than the tale told by its desolate highways, and by the carefulness with which villages are withdrawn from the notice of the passers-by. Cross the border into Free-Serbia, and the cotta^re of the peasant re-ajDpears. To give a sketch of Bulgarian history, one must go back to the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth century, when a Slavonic population 26 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. in. south of the Danube is spoken of by Byzantine authors. Under the old East Roman Empire the people of Bulgaria appear both as subjects and as rulers. Jus- tinian's birthplace was, as it still is, a Slavonic vil- lage, in the neighbourhood of Skopia ; and his Latin name is the translation of his Slavonic one, Upravda. The great Belisarius is said to have been the Sla- vonic Velisar ; the Emperor Basil and his line were Slavs.* It "would appear that the first colonists established themselves to the south of the Danube gradually, and recognised the imperial rule ; but in the seventh cen- tury they were joined by tribes of a more warlike character, under whose leadership they rose against Byzance, and overran the greater part of the peninsula. Who these new comers were is still matter of discussion. Most commentators declare them Tartars, who, on adoption of Christianity, amalgamated with the Slavs ; but some Bulgarians will have it that they were brother Slavons emigrating from beyond the Volga ; and consider it impossible that a race of foreign con- querors should have been absorbed so completely and so soon. Whoever they Avere, from them dates the name of * Basil, the Macedonian, or, as Finlay calls him, the Slavonian groom, was the father of the longest line that ever maintained itself upon the throne of Byzance. Gibbon says that his " most solid praise is drawn from the comparison of a ruined and a flourishing monarchy." Basil murdered his drunken predecessor, and was not unstained with the vices of the Lower Empire; but his entrance into Constantinople as a young peasant seeking work — his great stature, strength, and power by gentle- ness over animals ; the use he made of the first gifts of fortune in pur- chasing land near his birthplace, and sending donations to his family — his gratitude when on the throne to the old lady who had befriended him in his poverty, and his bond-of-brotherhood (pobratimstvo) with her son — all are traits of character corresponding to those of the present Slavonic inhabitants of Macedonia and Thrace. CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 27 Bulgaria, and the first dynasty of her sovereigns. Though often at war with the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians profited by its neighbourhood so far as to imbibe a certain amount of civilisation. In the ninth century they fought covered with steel armour ; their disciphne astonished the veterans of the Empire, and they possessed all the military engines then known. Their kings and czars encouraged literature, and were sometimes themselves authors. As almost all accounts of them come from Byzantine sources, there can be little doubt that this portrait is not flattered. Under their more powerful rulers the Bulgarians threatened Constantinople ; ""* under the weaker they acknowledged the Byzantine Emperor as suzerain, and more than once Byzantine armies eff'ected a temporary subjection of their land ; but their monarchy was not finally over- thrown till the end of the fourteenth century, when they were conquered by the Turks. Coins of Bulgaria are to be seen in the Museum of Belgrade, and a curious chronicle of Czar Asen has lately been pub- lished in modern Bulgarian. At the Turkish conquest, 1390, Shishman, the last king of Bulgaria, surrendered himself and his capital to the conqueror's mercy ; but the people submitted only by degrees, and always on the condition that if they paid tribute to the Sultan they should be free to govern themselves. Their soldiers were commanded by their * Romanus I. was compelled to meet the Bulgarian Czar, Simeon, witliout the walls. Romanus, when he approached the ground marked out for the interview, saw the Bulgarian army salute Simeon as an Emperor, with loud shouts and music, while the body-guard of the Bulgarian king, resplendent with silver armour, astonished the people of Constantinople by its splendour, and the veteran soldiers of the Empire by its steady discipline. As early as the eighth and beginning of the ninth centuries, the Bulgarians fought completely armed in steel, and were supplied with every warlike machine discovered by the engineering knowledge of the Romans. — Finlay's Jlistory of the Byzantine Empire, 28 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. in. own Yoivodes,* their taxes were collected, and towns and villages ruled by officers of tlieir own choosing. The Bulgarian Church had native Bishops and a Patri- arch, residing first at Tirnova, then at Ochrida. All this is proved bj firmans and berats accorded to them by numerous Sultans. Those who take the scraps of liberty now-a-days octroyed to the rayah, as evidences of a radical change in the maxims of Turkish rule, should bear in mind that far better terms were accorded by Turks to Christians five centuries ago. Those who put faith in Turkish promises, should inquire how the liberties guaranteed to such Christians as submitted to the o first Sultans came to be trampled under foot so soon as the Turks could call themselves masters of the land. Of the Bulo-arian voivodes the most resolute were cut off, and the rest left to choose between emigration and apostasy. In 1776 the autonomy of the Church was de- stroyed, and, in place of native Bishops of one interest with the people, Greeks were sent from Constantinople, who plundered the peasants, denounced the chief men to Turkish suspicion, set an example of social corrup- tion, and burnt all Slavonic books and MSS. whereon they could lay their hands. The last schools and printing-presses found shelter in the Danubian Prin- cipalities ; when those lands came under Fanariote f government, nothing was left to the Bulgarians save some old convents in the recesses of their hills. Few points are more remarkable in the history of Ottoman rule than the mode in which Turks and Greeks have played into each other's hands. The • In modern parlance, generals ; signification cognate with, the German. Herzog, and Latin Dux — hence also used for duke. f Fanariote, so-called from the Fanar, a quarter of Constantinople where the Greek Patriarch resides. The derivation of Fanar is variously assigned. CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 29 Sultan could never have crushed the heart out of his Christian subjects ^'ithout the aid of a Christian middleman, and the Greek has used the brute force of his Mohammedan employer to complement his own cleverness and guile. Under the later Emperors Greek dominion was unknown in Slavonic and Rouman lands ; whereas under Ottoman Sultans, we find Greek prelates and Fanariote princes ruling the Rouman, the Bulga- rian, and the Serb. That nationahty must be of tough material which gave not way under this double pressure. The first break in the prison wall was made by the re- volution at the beginning of this century. " Free Greece, autonomous Serbia, may not Bulgaria have her turnV' Gradually the wealthier Bulgarians sent their sons for education no longer to Constantinople, but to Russia, Bohemia, France. In the country itself were founded native schools ; and even in districts already half Hellenized the national spirit began to revive. Per- sons who used to write their own language in the Greek character, learned late in life the Slavonic alphabet, and we have ourselves seen parents who spoke Bulga- rian imperfectly, anxiously providing that their children should know it well. It was the obstacle presented by a foreign hierarchy to these efforts at national de- velopment that brought the people to the resolution of freeing their Church from the control of the Fanar. This temper was taken advantage of by the Roman Propagandists, and emissaries were sent all over Bulgaria, promising self-government and services in Slavonic, with no other condition than that a nominal recognition of the Patriarch should be exchanged for that of the Pope."'- This condition cannot be called * The contest between. Constantinople and Rome for the ecclesiastical supremacy of Bulgaria dales as early as the ninth century, on the plea that the Danubiau Provinces were anciently subject to the Archbishopric 30 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. iir. hard, and at its first start the Romanist Propaganda was a success. The number of converts has been hugely exaggerated, yet it doubtless included some persons of influence. But the principal bait to the adoption of Catholicism was the promise of sharing the protection of France ; and when it became evident that this protection could not be unlimited, nor exempt its proteges from payment of taxes, the new-made Romanists recanted in troops. Then, too, their leaders became convinced that the movement could have no other effect than to extend to Bulgaria what had already broken the strength of Bosnia and Albania, i.e., a Latin sect — separated from the other Christians, cowering under foreign protection, selling its assistance to the Turks.* With these views (we give their own version of the story), and not from any religious sentiment or scruple, many to whom the Propaganda owed its first encouragement withdrew their aid and opposed it with all their might. But the indifference wherewith the common people had talked of transferring ecclesiastical allegiance, proved to the thinkers in Bulgaria that the dangers of division might at any moment recur. For the second time in their Church history it was recognised that of Thessalonica, in the times when that Archbishopric was immediately dependent on the Papal See. The Bulgarian Czars seem to have de- ferred their choice between the Greek and Latin Churches until they obtained from Constantinople the recognition of a Patriarch of their own. * Austria is the soi-disant protector of the Latins in Bosnia and Albania, and it must be said that hitherto she has done her utmost to encourage sectarian rivalry. The French government, on the contrary, uses its eflbrts to unite the Christians of different denominations, causing its agents to set a good example to their Catholic co-religionists, by themselves giving assistance and sympathy to the Oriental Christians. The Empress Eugenie has contributed to the support of non-Catholic girls' schools, and we have known Christians of the Oriental Church beg us to repeat cases of oppression rather to the French than to the Russian consul. CHAP. HI.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 31 tlie South Slavonians would remain in the Eastern Church only on condition of ecclesiastical self-govern- ment. If they are to have foreign Bishops or a foreign head, it is all one to them whether their Pope resides at Constantinople or Rome. At this juncture deputies from Bulgaria made their appearance in Constantinople. They came to demand that in virtue of the hatti humayoun/'- their national Patriarchate, formerly recognised by the Porte, should be restored, or at least that their Church be declared autonomous, with native Archbishop, Bishops, and Synod, and an ecclesiastical seminary at Tirnova. In short, they desire such a system of Church government as succeeds admirably in the Principality of Serbia. It is years since the Bulgarians put in their claim, but the Turk is in no hurry to remove a cause of quarrel between his Christian subjects. With great subtlety he has tried to improve the occasion by hinting to the " Bulgarians that they had better secede from the Eastern Church. They have been told that by the treaty of Adrianople the Greek Patriarch is declared head of all the orthodox communities in Turkey. " Be Catholic," says the Mohammedan judge, " or Protes- tants, or set up a sect of your own, and we will recog- nise you with pleasure ; so long as you call yourselves ' orthodox ' we must know you only as Greeks.^' But the Bulgarians avoided the snare. They replied that their demand affected no religious question, that they had no desire to separate themselves from the orthodox communion. They were perfectly ready to * Art. 2. Tous les privileges et immunites spirituels, accordes ab anti- quo et a des dates posterieures a toutes les cominunautes chretiennes ou a d'autres rites non mussulmans dans mon empire, sous mon egide protectrice, sont confirmes et maintenus. Quoted in the demand of the Bulgarians, as given in one of their own newspapers. 32 BULGARIA VIEWED FHOM SALONICA. [chap. hi. yield the Greek Patriarch recognition as head of the Eastern Church — to be its only Patriarch he had never aspired. His predecessors had acknowledged a Pa- triarch of Bulgaria till within the last ninety years — he himself at the present moment recognised Patriarchs of Jerusalem and Antioch. Besides, the practical settle- ment of the business depends, not on the Patriarch, but on the Padishah. When the Bulgarian patriarchate was abolished, it was by authority of the Sultan ; to this day no prelate throughout the Ottoman Empire can exercise his functions without an Imperial firman ; and such a firman is all that a Bulgarian Primate, already chosen by the people, is waiting for in order to appoint his Bishops, convoke his Synod, and regulate internal affairs. Give him this, and the Greek Patriarch may defer his recognition so long as it suits his own convenience, while without a firman the recognition of the Greek Patriarch would be of no practical effect. This statement places the Ottoman Government in an attitude somewhat different from that which has been claimed for it — for it has been usually represented as striving vainly to reconcile Christians in a religious dis- pute, wherein it may mediate but not interfere. No doubt, however, the Greek Patriarch might have done much to avoid an appeal to Mohammedan authority, and would have best consulted the interests of his own community, by agreeing to accept the prof- fered recognition together with a fixed tribute. But it must ever be remembered that in a post so important as that of the Constantinopolitan Chair, none but a pliant agent is tolerated by the Turk. Certain it is, that the Patriarch then in office behaved equally unworthily and unwisely. Three Bishops (Hilarian, Accentios, and Paissios) had declared themselves ready to resign their sees in Bulgaria, unless confirmed therein by the CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALOXICA. 33 choice of the people ; they might have been used as mediators— on the contrary, they were seized and sent into exile. All such Bulgarians as did not accept the Patriarch's terms were anathematised and declared heretics. By such measures the formidable wrath of a slow stubborn people has been thoroughly roused. The Patriarch who excommunicated them they have renounced; rather than receive his Bishops, commu- nities declare they will remain without any ; should a Greek venture to impose himself upon them, they resist him by every means in their power. A series of scandals took place throughout the pro- vinces. Churches were closed, in order that the Greek Liturgy might not be read therein. When the Greek Bishops returned from their revenue-gathering progresses, they found their palaces locked and were conducted beyond the city walls. If they entered a church to ofl&ciate, no Bulgarian priest would take part in the service ; when they departed, the floor was osten- tatiously swept as if to remove traces of impurity. In Sophia, when a new Bishop was expected, men, women, and children filled the palace and blocked it up, till, unarmed as they were, they had to be expelled by Turkish soldiers. The Bishop then dwelt in isolation, until, on occasion of a burial, he got hold of a Bulga- rian priest, and demanded why he did not come to see him. The priest answered that he must stand by his flock ; that, as it would not acknowledge the Bishop, neither could he. Thereupon the priest's beard was shorn, the fez of the dead man stuck on his head, and he was turned out of the streets as a warning and a sign. Again the unarmed citizens rose ; shops were shut, houses evacuated, thousands of people prepared to leave Sophia. Their elders waited on the Pasha and 34 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. hi. said, " Either the Greek Bishop must go or ivej" The Pasha advised the prelate to withdraw, and as the authorities in Constantinople would not permit the people to elect a new one, Sophia resolved to do without a Bishop at all. At Nish, a town on the Serbian frontier, the Bishops anticipated an inimical demonstration by accusing the elders of the Bulgarian community of a plot to join the Serbs. The elders were called before the Pasha, and without a hearing, without being allowed to say fare- well to their families, or to send home for extra cloth- ing, they were hurried into carriages, and sent off into banishment. This occurred in the depth of winter, and when in the ensuing August we were hospitably received by the family of one of the exiles, they be- sought us to apply to some English Consul to learn if their relatives were yet alive. Meanwhile a variety of evils pressed on Bulgaria. Outbreaks of haidooks, some political outlaws, some highwaymen — influx of Mohammedan Tartars from the Crimea, for whom the Bulgarians were forced to build houses and provide food — emigration of Bulgarians to llussia, succeeded by their destitute return — attempt of other Bulgarians, to get off to Serbia, frustrated by the Turkish authorities — finally, a shoal of Bashi- Bazouks turned loose among the villagers, on pretext of iruardino; the frontier from the Serbs. In the summer of 1862, we were witnesses to this state of things. Another means resorted to for holding down the Bul- garian is the introduction of Mahometan colonists, who replenish the declining Mussulman population, and are kept well supplied with arms, of which the Christian is deprived. Since the Tartars, Circassians have been in- troduced, and the idea has been adopted of planting them along the frontier of Serbia, so as to bar off the Bui- CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 35 garians. The Tartars were only idle, whereas these new immigrants come thirsting to avenge their own suffer- ings on all who bear the Christian name. It is said, however, that the Circassian mountaineers do not thrive on the Bulgarian plains, and are rapidly decreasing in number. In Constantinople we heard a good deal of the Bulgarian question — the Greek side of it from the Patriarch and his secretary, the Slavonic side from the Bulgarian deputies. Each party supported its arguments in pamphlets swarming with protestations of loyalty to the Sultan, and taunting its antagonists as emissaries of Russia. Russia in Turkey plays the part of " cat " in a careless household ; being charged with the doing of all mischief by those who wish to exonerate themselves. As to probably impartial judges, we appealed to the opinion of foreign residents ; these, especially French, British, and American, gave their verdict for the Bulgarians. British Consuls assured us they were astonished to find a population in Turkey so indus- trious, thrifty, moral, and clean. As for the Ame- ricans, in a quiet way they are the best friends the Buloarians have. Their eminent scholar. Dr. Riggs, has rendered the Old Testament from ancient into modern Slavonic, and numerous school- books have been translated from the English ; Ame- rican schools are in the Bulgarian principal towns, and their books are sold by native colporteurs in several parts of the country. During our own travels, wo saw proofs enough that the people are trying to improve, and we were especially struck with their eagerness for education. The moun- tain chains of the Balkan and the Rhodope divide Bulgaria into three sections — northern, central, and D 2 36 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. in. southern. Of the northern district, between the Balkan and the Danube, we cannot speak from eje-witness, as the Turks declared it too disturbed for travellers ; but we say on the authority of persons who have lived there, that those Bulgarians who grow up with the great Avater-way of commerce on one side of them, and their natural mountain fortresses on the other, are more independent and enterprising than their brethren on the inland plains. Here, too, the people maintain numerous schools, of which the best are at Tirnova and Shumla. Tirnova, the ancient capital, is the site pro- posed for an ecclesiastical seminary, and if possible for a printing press, both of which the jealousy of the Porte as yet denies. Central Bulgaria is that which lies between the ranges of the Balkan and the Rhodope. Here we visited the schools of Adrianoj^le, Philippopolis, Sama- koff, Sophia, Nish, — all supported and managed by the Christian communities without pecuniary aid from the Government or Bishops. The school-houses, mostly of good size and airy, are, like everything in Bulgaria, clean. The school-books, gathered from various sources, are eked out with those of the American Board of Mis- sions. To conciliate the Turks, Turkish is frequently taught to a scholar or two, and phrases complimentary to the Sultan have been framed into a sort of school- hymn. True, the same tune has another set of words in honour of him who shall deliver the country from Turkish rule. One or other version is sung before the visitor, according as he is judged to be Christian or Turcophile. We had opportunities of hearing both. At Philippopolis, Samakoff, and Sophia, there are girls' schools. That at Sophia is the best, and was founded by a patriotic citizen. In his own words : "When my wife died, and left me but one son, I CHAP. III.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. 37 resolved not to marry again, but to give all my money and attention to this school." He has brought a female teacher all the way from the Austrian border, for Sla- vonic schoolmistresses are hard to find in Turkey. The missionaries at Eski Sagra have a Bohemian, who keeps their girls' school as full as it will hold. Southern Bulgaria lies, as we have ah-eady indicated, between the Rhodope and the frontiers of Ancient Greece, Such schools as we there visited were smaller and poorer than elsewhere, but we did not see those of Tstib and other towns lying on the more northerly route between Salonica and Skopia. Those on the line of our journey we will notice as we proceed. Throughout the places we have hitherto mentioned^ the Greek Bishop contents himself with ignoring the Bulgarian school, or from time to time expelling an energetic teacher ; but nearer the Gra^co-Slfiv boun- dary, we found Slavonic education positively impeded. In Vodena and Yenidje, a Greek school is founded^ and the community must needs support it ; in case poverty should not be sufficient to deter them from supporting also one of their own, every possible hindrance is thrown in the way. One result of this anti-national policy is, that the Bulgarians, elsewhere so eager to learn, are in these districts listless and dull ; another result is, that being- alienated from their own clergy, they lend an ear to overtures from Home. Some of them calculate on using Latin aid to get rid of the Patriarch, and then find- ing means to get rid of the Pope ; others still fear that the yoke they know not, may prove heavier than the yoke they know. In Monastir the Unionists"''^ have a school, and at Yenidje they are building a church. * The name Unionist is given to communities which retaia the Oriental rite while they acknowledge tlie supremacy of Rome. -^8 BULGARIA TIEWED FROM SALO^'ICA. [chap. iir. Meanwhile, in the neighbourhood of Salonica, awakes a party which bethinks itself that Protestants acknow- ledo-e neither Pope nor Patriarch, and that the protec- tion of England would do as well as that of France. The question is asked whether, supposing they became Protestants, England would take them under her wing. For answer they get an emphatic " No." Still they turn to the Protestant clergyman at Salonica, and beg that he will procure for them books and teachers in their own tongue, duly offering to pay for both. The Mis- sionaries at Salonica and Monastir w^ould no doubt be as o-lad to enliohten the Bukarians as other folk ; but their mission is not to Christians, but to Jews. One trusts the matter may be taken into consideration, for, all idea of proselytism aside, much might be done here (as elsewhere by the Americans) by simply sending colporteurs about the country with those books which the people are anxious to buy. The seed would come up with the rising generation, and it would bear fruit an hundredfold.'' * Since the above was written, the Bible Society has agreed to supply this district with colporteurs carrying useful books in Bulgarian ; while the Scottish Mission to the Jews has deputed its Missionaries at Salonica and Monastir to supply what attention is necessary in the way of super- intendence. CHAPTER IV. BULGARIA VIEWED YRO^L SALONICA.— Part II. The fame Methodios acquired among his contemporaries, as -well as from those in after-times who saw his paintings, may be accepted as a proof that they possessed some touches of nature and truth. — Finlay's Byzantine EtJijnre, vol. i., p. 260. TITE have now worked round to our starting-point, ' ' the various -peopled city of Salonica. At no time were the Bulgarians its masters, yet its name is identified with the one incident in their obscure history which has left a mark in the annals of civilisation. We allude to the Christianisation first of Bulgaria, and then of the whole Slavonic race, through the medium of a translation of the Scriptures in the dialect still called ''Church" Slavonic. That dialect is generally con- sidered to have been the ancient written Language of Bulgaria, and the translators were natives of Salonica. In the ninth century Salonica formed part of the Byzantine empire, and its citizens are without distinc- tion termed Greeks : but many Slfivs had settled there, their language was spoken in its streets, and long afterwards a Slavonic hero, named Doitschin, is cele- brated in the national songs as having delivered the city from the exactions of a robber chief.''' * Even in Constantinople, and as early as the eighth century, the Slavic element was sufficiently predominant for the Slavonian Niketas to till the Patriarchal Cliair, and the Greeks tell aa anecdote showing that 40 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. it. At this period there lived in Salonica the brothers Cyril and Methodios. Cyril, the elder, was learned and studious ; the younger, Methodios, enterprising and energetic. Both Avere inspired to make known the Gospel to the Slavonic population outside the walls, and while at home Cj^ril prepared himself by study and cultivation of the language, Methodios went forth as a missionary. The latter presented himself at the court of Boris, King of the Bulgarians, and — as the legend goes — cauglit the humour of the monarch by offering to paint the walls of a favourite hunting lodge. Boris came to examine the work, expecting to see wolves, bears, and regal huntsmen ; instead he beheld the picture of a Great Day of Judgment, such as are still customary among those peoples where justice is dispensed by the monarch in person. On the throne sat a King, not like Boris, frowning in wild pomp ; but majestic and mild. His courtiers stood around him, but they did not flaunt Bulgarian horsetails, nor flourish bloody weaj)ons ; they had soft waving hair, and gold circlets, and white wings dipped in rainbow hues. The approved servants were being received on the right hand, above them opened a golden gate ; the condemned were dragged off on the left, and beneath them yawned a pit of fire. But the strangest part was, that among the honoured and accepted were to be seen many frail and shrinking forms, the weak, the defenceless, the sick, the blind, and even figures in vile raiment ; while among the reprobated was more than one fierce warrior, not altogether unlike to Boris and he Vras by no means completely Hellenized. One day reading the Gospel of St. Matthew, he pronounced the name yiaredioy, instead of Mardouov. One of his people whispered to him that the vowels of the diphthong were not to be separated. The prelate turned angrily round, and exclaimed, " My soul abhors diphthongs and triphthongs." This story is remarked on by Mr. Finlay. CHAP. IV.] BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. ^i his lords. The King called the artist to give him the interpretation of this picture, and Methodios expounded it thus. " The Great Kins; is the God of the Christians. He made the earth, and for a while dwelt on it in the likeness of man ; but as He took on Him a humble form, and was holy and truthful, wicked men hated Him, and He suffered of them all that the evil still inflict on the truthful and the good. At the 'Last Day ' He shall come again in His glorious majesty and shall judge both the living and the dead. He knows the sufferings of the oppressed, who Himself was once suffering and poor ; He knows the cruel and violent deeds of great men, such men ill-treated Him and crucified Him on a tree." Boris considered the judg- ment throne, the winged messengers, the golden light that played over the throne ; he felt himself in the presence of power and glory, higher, other than his own. Then he considered the dress and countenances of the guilty, and the grisly monsters that were carry- ing them away, and his conscience gave him an uneasy l..inge as to his own mode of treating the weak and defenceless. He turned to Methodios and said, " Canst thou teach me how I and my subjects may escape being sentenced to the pit of fire ? " Methodios answered, " Send to Constantinople, and pray the Emperor that he give thee wise men who can instruct thee, and show thee how to tame thy wild people." One year from this time King Boris and his nobler; bowed their proud heads in Christian baptism, and to this day the Bulgarians attribute their conversion to the picture-sermon of Methodios. Therefore he is represented in their schools and churches with his painting in his hand. [See next pcige.) Some time after the mission to Bulgaria there ap- peared in Constantinople a deputation of strange men 42 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap, iv. f5peaking the Slavonic tongue. They came from the Western Slavic peoples, who were then welding them- selves into that great kingdom of Moravia, which, but for the jealousy of the neighbouring Germans, might have saved Eastern Europe from disunion and barbarism.* The words of this deputation are given by old Nestor, the monk of KiefF. " The jMoravian princes, Rastislav, Sviatopolk, and Kotzel, sent to the Emperor Michael and said, ' our land is baptized, but we have no teachers who can instruct us or translate for us the Sacred Books. We do not understand either the Greek or the Latin language ; some teach us one thing, some SS. Methodios and Cyril, t another ; therefore we do not understand the words of the Scriptures, neither their import. Send us teachers who may explain to us the Scriptures.' When the Emperor Michael heard this, he called together his philosophers, and told them the message of the Slavonic princes ; and the philosophers said, ' There is at Thes- * For history of the Great Moravian State, see Palatzkt's History of Bohemia. German Translation. And for a sketch of the same, and of part of its territories, see Across the Carpathians. London: Macraillan & Co. t As sold among the Ratisbon pictures of saints. The Slavonic apostles lived before the split between the Western and Eastern Churches. CHAP. IT.] BULGArJA VIEWED EROM SALONICA. 43 salonica a man named Leon, he has two sons who both know the Slavonic language, and are clever philo- sophers/' On hearing this the Emperor sent to Thessa- lonica, to Leon, saying, ' Send to us thy sons Methodios and Constantino,' which hearing, Leon straightway sent them, and when they came to the Emperor he said to them, ' The Slavonic lands have sent unto me request- ing teachers who may translate for them the Holy Scriptures.' And being persuaded by the Emperor they went into the Slavonic land, to Rastislav, to Sviatopolk, and to Kotzel. Having arrived they began to compose a Slavonic alphabet, and translated the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, whereat the Slavonians rejoiced greatly, hearing the greatness of God in their own language. After which they translated the Psalter and other books." (Nestor's " Annals," original text edition of St. Petersburg, 1767, pp. 20-23.^0 Well says the monk Chrabr, writing in the eleventh century, " Dost thou ask any of the Slavonic authors who invented your characters and who translated ' the Books ' into your tongue 1 They all know and will answer, the holy philosopher Constantino, called Cyril, he and his brother Methodios invented our characters and trans- lated ' the Books ' into our language. But dost thou ask at what time this took place % that also do they know and will tell thee ; in the days of Michael the Greek Emperor, of Boris, the prince of the Bulgarians, * For an account of the mission of Cyril and Methodios among the Western Slavs, see Count Keasinski's admirable work on the Relifjious History of the Slavonic Natioyis. Shafarik gives his decision for the opinion urged by common sense, that the greater part of this trans- lation was prepared before Cyril and his brother left Salonica. The dialects of the Slavs north and south of the Danube must at that time have been sufficiently alike for one written language to be intelligible to both. The son and^uccessor of Boris was himself the writer of several books. 44 BULGARIA YIEWED FROM SALONICA. [chap. it. of Rastislav, prince of the Blatens,''' in the year of the creation of the world 6363 (= 855 a.d.). The strong presumption that the Salonican Apostles ■were not by race Hellene, but Slavonic citizens of a Byzantine city, rests less even on their perfect acquaint- ance with a tongue which the Greeks contemned as barbarous, than on their carefulness to make their mission a means of establishing the Slavonic language, not, as Greeks would have made it, a means of extend- ing Greek. The work of Cyril and Methodios bears date 855, and earlier than this it cannot be certain that the Slavonic was a written tongue. But that it was so is pre- sumed, on the following grounds : — 1st. Because unless the language had attained a certain degree of develop- ment, C^a-il could scarcely have made what he did — a literal translation of part of the Scriptures — without borrowing largely from the Greek ; nor could he have rendered almost all the terms and epithets of the original by Slavonic equivalents.! 2nd. Because the alphabet in which the earliest Slavonic MSS. are written, bears trace of an existence prior to the in- troduction of Christianity, and would seem to have been first cut on sticks in the Runic fashion. This alphabet is called Glagolitic, from a letter named Glagol, which signifies Word. The so-called Cyrillic alphabet is supposed to have been introduced as easier than the original character, both for copyist to write and for foreigner to acquire. * Slavs on the Balaton, Blatcn, or Platten-see, in the south-west of Hungary. t Unlike the translations of the Scriptures in German, French, English, &c., wherein theological terms are borrowed wholesale from Greek and Latin, in the Slavonic they are mostly rendered by equiva- lents. Thus the word theology is translated hogmslovie — orthodox, pro- voslav, &c. CHAP. IV.] BULGARIA A'IE\YED FROM SALOXICA. 45 Some of its signs are modified from the Glagolitic, but those ^vhich Greek and Slavonic have in common are simply taken from the Greek. Tradition calls its inventor St. Cyril, and history proves that it was brought into general use by his pupil Clement, first Bishop of Bulgaria. It is adopted by all the Slavonic peoples belonging to the Eastern Church, and tlms again their version of the Scriptures points back to its Bulo-arian source.* The Greek Christians of Salonica have always been left the use of certain churches and monasteries. Hence we looked for some testimonial to the memory of those missionaries, whom their communion has to thank that, at the present day it is represented in the councils of Europe by the Slavonic power of Russia. But no chapel, no monument, not even a house or a shrine is pointed out as connected with Cyril and Methodios ; and the monks whom we questioned on the sub- ject would not know or hear anything about them. In fact, that Pope, who in 1016, interdicted the Sla- vonic alphabet, and branded as a heretic the very missionary whom his wiser predecessor had conse- crated Archbishop, -f did not bear more emphatic testi- mony to the national character of the ministry of Methodios, than do these Greeks of the nineteenth * There was long debate between Slavic scholars as to the relative antiquity of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets, and it has been but lately decided that tlie former is the oldest. To recommend it to the Court of R,ome, it was said to have been invented by St. Jerome ; and now, to recommend it to the Sliivs of the Oriental communion, the fact is insisted oq that its origiu dates from a period before the split between the Eastern and Western Churches. f To obtain the Pope's permission for the establishment of a Slavonic ritual, Methodios made two journeys to Rome, and was there consecrated Archbishop of Pannouia and Moravia, with full powers to carry out his jilans. Even during his lifetime, however, this authority was qualified, and after his death the Council of Salona (1016) went so far as to brand the Slavonic missionaries as heretics, and the Slavonic alphabet as an 46 BULGARIA VIEWED FROM SALOIS^ICA. [chap. it. century to the national character of the translation of Cyril. It is to the possession of a liturgy and Scriptures in their own tongue that the Slavonic churches owe it, that they never have been utterly denationalised by foreign influence, whether proceeding from Con- stantinople or Rome. Nay, the common possession of these Scriptures and liturgy has proved a link between Slavonic peoples, even when long divided as adherents of Latin or Greek. -In 1862 occurred the thousandth anniversary of the Salonican Apostles ; it it was celebrated by more than eighty millions of Slavonic Christians, without distinction of sect or denomination — from Prague to the Pacific — from the Baltic to Salonica. invention of the devil. It is no small proof of national tenacity that from that day to this the native liturgy should have maintained its ground in a part of Romau Catholic Dalmatia, and, so far from being likely to relinquish it novf, the Croatians are taking measures to sub- stitute it for Latin throughout their churches. In Bohemia the Slavonic Bible has held its ground, through struggles that form a long and important chapter in religious history. CHAPTER V. TRAVELLING IN TURKEY-IN-EUROPE. rPHE chief inconvenience attendant on travelling in -*- the interior of Turkey, is the absence of that class of trained dragomans, which now-a-day provides the necessary assistance for voyagers in Egypt and Syria. In the first place, it is difficult to find a person of this description who is conversant at once with South Slavonic and with any west European tongue ; for the Shlvs do not take kindly to town life or domestic service, and such tolerably respectable lonians and Italians as one may sometimes pick up in a seaport, know little of the dialects inland. As for a servant accustomed to voyaging, and to the requirements of Europeans, there are far too few travellers in Turkey- in-Europe to make it worth any one's while to learn their ways. Except boiling a chicken and making a pilaff, our domestics required to be taught everything ; to pack, set up the bedsteads, arrange the luggage on the horses, choose the horses, and even saddle and bridle them. All they had to acquire, and with at least this good result, that by dint of directing their labours, we learnt to do some of these things ourselves. In a series of journeys throughout Turkey, we made shift with divers attendants in divers combinations. In Bulgaria, the Austrian consul at Philippopolis pro- vided us with a Ilouman who spoke German, Turkish, 48 TRAVELLING IN THREE Y-IN-EUROPE. [chap. v. and Slavonic. This individual liad the convenient quality that, while hating Greeks, Slavs, and Turks equally, so as never to favour either to the prejudice of the rest, he feared all too much to quarrel with any one. In the "Western Provinces, Turkish and Greek are not required, so we had for dragoman a Croat who spoke only German and Slav. The Vizier attached to our party an officer of Nizam, whose presence secured obedience and respect ; and for this part of the journey we had also a Moravian maid who was very useful in cooking, and as interpreter in Bosnian harems. But the responsibility of guarding the health and behaviour of a female servant, is apt to add to the anxiety of these voyages^ more than compensates for her services. The only one of our attendants in Turkey whom we could recommend to others, is the little man who accom- panied us from Salonica in the capacity of dragoman and cook. His name is Christos Bacchos, which we compro- mised into Christo ; and though an original, with his own way and his own time for doing everything, he is un- wearied, quiet, and honest. His birthplace is a village on the spurs of Mount Olympus, with a mixed Greek and Bulgarian population, so he knows a vile dialect of both languages, besides Italian and a smattering of Turkish. Having served for a time in the family of the Scottish missionary, he has some idea of what one wants. He has also acquired a notion of the interest that new scenes and manners are likely to inspire in travellers, and on his departure he told us that he had kept a note-book of which he asj^ired to publish the contents. We started from Salonica with no servant save Christo, but by the time we got to Monastir, owing to the unteachableness of the native Mussulmans, it was necessary to comple- ment his services with those ot an Albanian cavass. CHAP, v.] TRAVELLIXa IN TUIIKEY-IK-EUROPE. 49 Attendants provided, remains the means of loco- motion. The greater part of the highway between Constantinople and the Serbian frontier is barely travers- able in a wheeled vehicle, and the same may be said of a road between the Austrian frontier and the capital of Bosnia, and of the road between Salonica and Monastir. But the Turkish idea of a carnage still alternates be- tween a waggon and a cage. In specimens of the waggon description we were transported over a series of burning plains between Rodosto and Philippopolis. From the lowness of the roof and absence of seats, we were obliged to maintain a reclining posture ; and the sun, from which the awning protected us till midday, poured its afternoon rays through an opening at the back. A far more agreeable mode of transit is riding. Indeed we shall ever look back to the long days spent in moving slowly but freely through the stillness and beauty of mountain landscape, or over cool high plains in the hours before sunset. Gentlemen may enhance this enjoyment by taking with them their own " mounts," but for those who cannot look after horses, or after grooms, the journey Avould be constantly impeded by accidents or false excuses. On the way, you may procure relays of horses in one of the four following methods. Now and then you are lent a good horse, or may get the guards to change theirs with you fof bakshish. Or one may hire post-horses (menzil) from station to station ; but this is only possible when you keep to the post-road, and only advantageous when you have the first pick of the stable. Or one may bargain from one place to another with carriers (kiradgees), and if these bo Christians and your guards Mohammedans there will not at least be hisubordination to complain of. On the 50 TRAVELLING IN TURKEY-IX-EUIIOPE. [chap. v. other hand, Mussidmaii Idradgees, like Mussiihiian rob- bers, are first cousins to the Turkish guards, and being- unrestrained by fear of punishment are liable to become restive on the road. Kirado-ee horses are moreover seldom to be had except on frequented commercial tracks, where their drivers hope to return with bales. All other means faihng, as they often do if you travel on an out-of-the-way route, the last resource is to send 3'our firman to the Turkish governor, and he must provide you with horses at a given price to the boun- dar}^ of the district over which he rules. As this order is always served on the Christian, i.e., on the labouring population, and thus takes horses and men from their work, one is averse to the use of it, 3'et in many parts of the country one must either use it or cease to progress at all.* The third thing needful is an escort, and this is generally taken from among the zapties or rural police. Their protection is necessary sometimes against highwa3nnen, always against refusals to proceed, to sell provisions, &c. Having once or twice travelled with an insufficient number of guards, or when they had not been enjoined to sec us properly served — we w^ould advise no one to run the risk. In quiet districts two zapties are enough, one to accompany your own party, one with the luggage ; but it is as well to have a third, who may be sent ahead to prepare your quarters. In disturbed regions, even on the high- road, when there happens to be a robber band in the neighbourhood, the guards amount to quite a troop. In this case it is necessary to secure that one of them at least be a trustworthy individual and an officer. * Till lately, Government orders for peasant and horses were given in like mancer to private travellers in Hungary. Mr. Paget mentions having travelled with them. CHAP, v.] TllAYELLING IN TURKEY-IN-EUROPE. 51 All testimonies go to prove that a common Turkish escort need never be expected to stand by you in a real attack of brigands : for this they must be regular troops, — or picked men made specially responsible for you,^ — or cavasses in 3'our own service. And as to cavasses, their usefulness* depends to a great extent on their race. Albanians, though the falsest and most fickle of political partizans, will let themselves be cut in pieces in defence of their immediate employer — they will guard his property like watch-dogs — and their promise of " bessa " (truce) is their bond. Bulgarians make ex- cellent retainers, hand}^ faithful, honest, and are the only men in Turkey not slothful. But Serbians, though faithful and affectionate as friends or relatives, whether Mohammedan or Christian, have a great aversion to body service, and seldom attach themselves to a master as such. With them, too, every feeling is underlaid by animosities or affinities of race and creed, and this strong undercurrent may at any moment whirl away the kindliest ties. Servants, horses, and guards being provided, the rest of the preparations are simple enough. A small tent should be taken, but the climate in the higher lands of Turkey renders it better to sleep within walls. Be- sides, where travellers are so few, they can generally be accommodated in native houses ; and this is their best chance for becoming acquainted with the Christians. We had side-saddles, but we found that many ladies preferred to use those of the country, and thought it unsafe in riding on the brink of precipices to have an uneven balance of weight. Necessaries are camp-bedsteads, a bath, culinary' utensils, tea, wine, brandy, medicines (specially against fever and diarrhoea), and a boundless provision of wraps. Our bath was of wood lined with zinc, which we found E 2 52 TRAVELLING IN TURKEY-IN-EUROPE. [chap. v. much more serviceable than one of india-rubber ; in the first place it was less liable to upset, and also during the journey it acted as a box : "when unpacked its lid could be screwed on legs carried inside it, and it became useful as a table. We took plenty of straw mats, and a bright-striped carpet of Serbian fabric^ which quite lit up the \yalls of a khan. It is a great secret of enjoyment to carry a small rug strapped behind the guard's saddle. Then you can do like the Turks, and halt or dine al fresco when the fancy takes you ; i.e., wherever you find a thick shadowing tree, a cool breeze, good water, and a fair view. It may be w^orth noticing that our spoons and forks were of silver (as less likely to become in- jurious under bad cleaning) ; we carried them loose in a basket and left them about in khans, but they were never stolen. The only prize that cannot be resisted is a knife, but then our knives w^ere very tempting, being of the famed Saraievo manufacture, each in a sheath of its own. Those for our special use we slung to the waist from a band, for at dinner time it is something to be assured that, whatever may have been the adventures of the viands, your knife has been touched by no hand but your own. With the tent, our luggage formed a light load for four horses ; half one load consisting in books, wliich we wanted to distribute to schools, and to present to such entertainers as would not accept of other remuneration. From Salonica we took Serb books printed at Belgrade ; also Bulgarian, some bought by ourselves from the store of the Bible Society at Constantinople, others entrusted to our servant by a missionary. The stock comprised New Testaments, parts of the Old Testament, " chi- tankas " (reading-books) of different grades, geography and arithmetic books, maps, and some school histories. CHAP, v.] TRAVELLING IN TUEKEY-IN-EUROPE. 53 As for dress. The only addition to a toilette suitable for rough riding, is a jacket lined with fur, which, together with a waterjDroof, should be carried behind one's own saddle, in order to be instantly at hand. Showers pelt down without fair warning ; the passage from the open level to a glen is attended by a deadly chill ; and on the higher plains, even when the sun was at full glare, we found it wise to copy the inhabitants and wear a fur vestment under a thin one of light hue. In winter, riders are recommended to adopt the long- woollen sashes made in the country, which should be worn at full breadth, and wound round and round the body. As for the inns, khans, or, as they are also called, mehannas, we found them very different in different parts of Turkey, except in certain characteristics which are invariable. No furniture, except carpets — which must instantly be expelled ; while the floors should be swept and if possible washed some hours before one arrives. Occasionally the windows have glass or pajDor panes, but usually only wooden shutters. Almost always there is a stove like a beehive, or what is better, an open fire-place ; in Bosnia some rooms contain both, and a laro-e one will have three stoves to accommodate o different parties of travellers. On the high roads of Bulgaria and Bosnia, the khan has always several rooms — we never had to share ours with others, and our maid also got one to herself. One comes to know that this is secured by the zaptie who is sent on to order quarters turning out prior occupants, but there is no use asking questions, for you would be as- sured in each instance that all former tenants had gone of their own choice. In Albania the khans are generally wretched — on the same spot you may find three, i.e., one rickety and two in ruins, corresponding to the 54 TRAVELLING IX TURKEY-IN-EUROPE. [chap. v. adjacent bridge "svliich serves only to mark where it is customary to ford the stream. On the road — say rather on the " Hne of scramble " — between Prizren and Scutari, khans are the most convenient trysts for ban- ditti. They also consist merely of a stable, so here a small tent is of first necessity. In the Slavonic provinces of Turkey we always tried to carry with us letters of introduction from one Christian to another — in Bosnia also from Slavonic Mussulmans. When quartered in a house such a letter puts you in the position of a guest rather than that of a billeted traveller, and when staying several days in a place, it may introduce you to some degree of con- fidence. We may conclude this chapter on Turkish travelling by saying that the possession of a firman* ensures the person who carries it all sorts of privileges and civilities ; usually a visit from the Turkish Governor? and sometimes also a grand welcome according to the customs of the district. A simple buyourdi merely entitles you to pass unimpeded and obtain what you require. Whether you have a firman or not, it is well to procure from each Pasha a buyourdi for his own district, and thus provided you need only show your firman if some extra is required. We seldom * Turkish passports are of three classes — the Jirman, the buyourdi, and the Teskere. The first can only he granted hy the Sultan, or by a Pasha of high rank. It is procured at Constantinople, by the aid of the Embassy or Consulate. But a huyourdi and teskere will generally answer the purpose required, and can be granted by all Pashas and Governors of Provinces. The teskere is the pron'ncial passport for the traveller and his attendants; and the hwjoiirdl is a general order of recommendation to officials of every class. Fortified with these docu- ments the traveller has a right to require lodgings at the houses of the Christians in every town and village of Turkey, and to be furnished by the Menzil, or Government Post, with horses at the same price as is paid by the Imperial couriers. See 3Iarrai/s Handhouk. CiiAr. v.] TRAVELLING IN TUKKEY-IN-EUllOPE. 55 presented ours except in the places where it was abso- lutely necessary, and for this reason, that any appear- ance of cultivating the government agents is an obstacle to hearing stories that raay not be repeated to them. If your aim be comfort, do not go to the Slavonic parts of Turkey ; and if you go there seek not comfort and flattery, but to make acquaintance with the people. The country mudirs are sometimes rough and original specimens ; but as to those who have had intercourse with Europeans, after a few interviews 'one knows beforehand what they are going to say. Do you desire to hear professions of goodwill to all men and of especial benevolence towards the rayah, give but the slightest hint, and the proper speech Avill bo made. On the other hand, if you wish to obtain from a Turkish governor's own lips the blackest possible picture of the countr}^ he governs, propose to visit some place where it would give trouble to send you, or where the Pasha w^ould rather you did not go. Note. — Expenses of TpvAviillixg. Menzil horses, frjiu three to four piastres an hour (piastre about 2(L). Horses obtained by order, two and a-half piastres per hour. For kiradgee horses, or for a carriage, a bargain must be made, diifer- irg in various parts of the country. Common zaptie from eight to twelve piastres per day. This is sup- posed to be only for keep of horse and man, bakshish for good behaviour being given at the end of the journe}'. Guard of a superior rank expects more. Fowls, and eggs, and milk, may be had everywhere at low prices, and, in summer, generally lamb or kid. All extras must be taken. Tolerable bread to be had in the towns. CHAPTER VI. FROM SALONICA TO MONASTIR. • THE inland tour we had in view, comprehended a visit to the towns of Vodena and Monastir, with the lake district of Castoria and Ochrida. In virtue of dearly- bought experience we would herev^'ith advise all travel- lers having similar intentions to take a carriage from Salonica to Monastir, and thence to make out their tour of the lakes. We, being ignorant of the country and ill-advised, acted on a different plan, and resolved to go from Salonica only as far as Vodena, and thence straight to Castoria and the lakes ; farther, having received a bad account of the road, we determined to make the whole journey on horseback. In the last particular we were influenced by our former knowledge of Turkish travelling, which was to the effect that no road is to be traversed in a carriage without a dee;ree of shakino; that amounts to torture. For- merly too we had found our buyourdi sufficient to supply at a given price horses and guards. In general the horses had been tolerably good, the guards uni- formly subordinate and civil. But we had 3^et to learn that it is not in the wilds, but in the quasi-civilised districts of Turkey that most inconveniences are to be feared. In Bosnia and Northern Albania the Frankish voyager is a prince in disguise, and Britons are still respected as the countrymen of the Great Elchie ; but CHAP. Yi.] FROM SALOXICA TO MOXASTTR. 57 in the neighbourhood of the coast a non-official traveller is commonly set down as a silk merchant, while the indolent Turkish officials show themselves fully aware that " vous n'avez plus Lord Stratford." * Our visit to Salonica happened in June, when the real silk merchants were scouring tlie country, taking up all decent horses, and over-paying the Turkish guards. The Pasha, with so many buyourdis on his hands, ne- glected to send ours till late on the evening before we started ; moreover he gave our escort no instructions to behave properly, and took no pains to secure us good steeds. Consequently the guards showed themselves generally disaffected, and refused obedience to various directions ; the horses brought were so miserable that we had to send them away, and at the last moment sit down to wait for others. We did not Q:et off till lonjr after sunrise ; and let no one attempt to ride over the plain of Salonica in the sun. The first stage is Yenidje, a town near the site of ancient Pella, about nine hours from Salonica and as many from Vodena. The whole way thither passes over the plain, which is for the most part desert, and here and there marked with hitherto unexplained tumuli. Through it runs the new road "Imperial," a ras- cally performance in the fullest sense of the term- In the first place it is badly made, and full of ruts ; in summer it is as hard as stone, and in winter a slough of despond. Furthermore, it was made by fraud. The Pasha raised an extra tax from the country people, on plea that all their work on the road would bo paid for, but having once got the money he put it in his own pocket, and made the road by forced labour. Families upon families were ruined by the double process. * All the events recorded in these travels took place previous to the appointment of the present ambassador, Lord Lyons. 58 FROM SALONICA TO MONASTIR. [chap. vi. The road Imperial crosses the Varclar, and to this end a bridge is in process of erection. Considering ^vhen it was begun, one might have expected it to have been finished long ago ; but this did not suit the private views of the workmen. They began at each end, and worked till near the middle ; then, where the stream runs deepest, they stopped, and bridged over the chasm by planks removeable at pleasure. When a traveller appeared these planks were taken up until he paid what the workmen required, and then they were put down for him to pass over. At length the Pasha made an end of this system of black mail ; never- theless, when we traversed the bridge, it was in a very imperfect state. On the other side of the river stands a large new khan with several separate cells. Here we took shelter for our mid-day meal, and the great heat kept us within doors till well on in the afternoon. Even then we could not help envying the buffaloes that lay cooling in the shallow river — their heads and humps alone visible above water, and their muzzles just suffi- ciently approached to enhance felicity by companion- ship. These huge beasts are the only creatures on the plain of the Vardar that do not show signs of ill-treatment ; slow and stubborn in disposition, they are too strong to be bullied, and too useful to be neglected. The eye, turning from their repose, falls on the trains of patient horses, carrying iron from Cardiff and cotton from Manchester to the markets of inland towns. It was sunset when we reached the slightly elevated field which marks the site of ancient Pella. A large cis- tern lies between the rising ground and the road, on the other side of which is a khan with trees. Tlie siiilit of carved stones in the walls of this khan attracted CHAP. Ti.] FROM SALONICA TO MOXASTIE. 5g the British Consul at Salonica, and he obtained per- mission to dig for further remains. His workmen had just begun, and we found the hole excavated by them at the foot of a rude fragment of Turkish wall. Leaving our horses we descended into it, and carried off a sherd of ancient pottery. From the site of Pella it is scarcely two hours to Yenidje, for which place we had been provided Avitli a letter to a principal Bulgarian. We sent it on by one of the zapties, and desired him to meet us outside the town, and conduct us to our quarters for the night. No one showino;, we were obliged to follow the other zaptie to the khan, whence his fellow issued, and dehberately stated that he had left the letter with the Bulgarian, and had desired him to meet us. Then lazily giving some insufficient directions as to the whereabouts of the house, he returned to his rest. His comrade, gruffiy murmuring, led us about and around Yenidje, now stumbling ftver ill-paved alleys, now stoop- ing under the boughs of enormous planes. The night had fallen, and after nine hours' ride in the heat, the chills struck us throuoh and throuo;h. At last we gained the door of a court which proved to be our hoped-for " Konak." * Here the master of the house received us, and explained in consternation that he had been to meet us, but that we had missed him by entering by another gate. This he spoke in Greek, but the mistress welcomed us with the Slavonic " Dobro doshle.^t The room to which we were con- ducted was ujostairs, large, and well-carpeted, — one side * A Turkish word used hereabouts to express either the residence of a governor or one's night quarters. It is one of those that has passed into use among the Slavs : even in Croatia, konatchiti signifies to pass the night. t "Dobro doshle" (f. pi.), lit. "You are well come." To which greeting the response is " 13oli6 vas uashli," " Better we have found you." 6o FROM SALONICA TO MONASTIR. [chap. yi. all windows, mostly ungiazed. We seated ourselves on the divan, waiting for our luggage, and here happened the greatest breach of respect we ever met with in Turkey. Our principal guard entered the room, threw himself down on the opposite end of the divan, and roared out"Voda" (water). We instantly rose and left the chamber, and on being followed to know what was amiss, we pointed without a word to the zaptie on the divan. He dared not remain, and the master of the house was diffidently following him out of the room, when we called the latter back, requested him to be seated, and bade the woman shut the door, leaving the Turk in the dark outside. The luggage had missed the road ; it seemed ages before it came, and again ages till our beds were put up, our tea made, and chicken and rice ready. Overtired, our sleep was not refreshing. But the worst part was yet to come. Next morning the horses did not appear, and we saw wfth dismay the cool hours shortening, while messenger after messenger went to summon them. Then came one of the zapties to inform us that, before proceeding, the kiradgees wished to be paid for their last day's work. Perceiving that the zaptie himself supported their requirement, we immediately exclaimed, " Surel}"" these kiradgees are Turks I " It proved but too true, and now we knew what we had to expect. The message being interpreted, meant that the kiradgees wanted to turn back. We answered, *' If they turn back here, we do not give them a single piastre. The zapties must go instantly with the dragoman, show our buyourdi to the mudir of Yenidje, and demand horses in place of these." When the kiradgees heard this they asked only for half their pay. We required obedience, and would listen to no CHAP. Ti.] FROM SALOXICxl TO MO]S'ASTIK. 6l terms. Next it was alleired that one of the horses was ill. " Then begone all of you with your horses ; as we have said, we will get fresh ones." ]\Iore than once the dragoman actually left the court to go to the mudir, and was each time called back by promises of obedience. At length, all excuses being exhausted, they began to bungle over and mislead the luggage. We saw that our poor dragoman, unsupported by the zapties, could do nothing; while his not wearing the European dress further detracted from his influence. The sun always getting higher and higher. Yet we would not go without a word with the master of the house ; so when luggage and Turks were at last packed off, we called in the Bulgarian for a talk. He gave us nottiiuch fresh intelligence, but confirmation of what we had heard from the most trustworthy sources at Salonica. Yenidje numbers about 6000 houses, half Bulga- rian, half Turks ; the Mussulmans being all Osmanlees. The Christians here, as in the country around, are Slavonic, the only Greeks being the bishop and the schoolmaster. The principal men speak Greek, for commercial purposes, but none of the women know it. As for the papal movement, at present two Bulgarian United priests celebrate a Slavonic service in a room — • but a new church is being built. Converts once num- bered fifty to sixty families, at present not more than thirty-five ; their number having declined because they were deceived as to exemption from paying the taxes. They will, however, increase again should the new church turn out exactly like those to which they are accustomed, for " they will then be persuaded that the Pope does 7iot want to Latinise them — only to supersede the Patriarch." Aware of this, the Greek Bishop is doing his utmost to prevent the completion of the build- 62 TROM SALONICA TO MONASTIR. [chap. vr. ing; and sliould this be impossible, he hopes to obtain a mandate forbidding the Roman Cathohcs to imitate the Orthodox style, decoration, and service. Some Buloarians re2;ard the Unionists as deceivers, but our informant was evidently not quite decided as to his opinion of them. For himself, he felt an objection to do anvthino; that would be considered a desertion of his father's faith ; but at the same time entertained reasonable doubt that an}'- real blame could attach to a person for substituting in his prayers the name of the Pope, whom he did not know, for that of the Patriarch, whom he could not bear. '•' What we want," said he, "is protection, and some help to start with. We are not rich enough to build a second school, and since the Bishop forces us to keep up the Greek one, all we now ask is that his teacher should also know Bulgarian. But if we had the protection of some foreign power we could get on, and if a school with a Bulgarian teacher were once founded, it is to it that we w^ould send our children. Should we agree to go over to the Romanists, they promise us both church services and school teaching in our own tongue ; and thouoh we w^ould rather 2:et these benefits in some other manner, it is better to get them thus, than not at all." From Yenidje we had but six hours to Vodena, but, starting late, the first part of the ride was, as yesterday, in the burning sun. We halted at the khan of the little village of St. Georgio, inhabited by Bulgarians, ]3ut having a Greek school. This khan has no separate room, but the heat was too great to remain out of doors, so we had to dine in the stable, on a sort of plat- form raised round the poles that support the roof. By the time we again started a cloud had come over the sun, and the last three hours of this day's ride proved delicious. We reached the Karasmak (the CHAP, vi.] FRO:\I SALOXICA TO MONASTIR. 63 ancient Lydias), its banks clotted with grazing herds ; and this boundary passed over, every step brought us nearer to the glen of Vodena, where the weary level of the treeless plain melts into mountain shadow, bowery verdure, and overflowing streams. It was evening when we entered the glen ; in the mulberry gardens that frinfre the road the ni^-htino-ales were sin2:ino; their serenade, while a light breeze shook the scarlet bells of pomegranate bushes in full bloom. Presently we came on a meeting of waters over- shaded by mighty planes, and there halted to take in the scene. We found ourselves at the foot of a pre- cipice wherewith the upper glen suddenly breaks ofi' from the mountains on either side. Over this precipice breaks the river, not in one sheet, but in five large cas- cades, while countless little watercourses flash out from the green on the height, and run races in the valle^^ below — a glorious confusion of verdure and foam. Above, on the rock, at the head of the cascades — its glittering, minarets seeming to rise besprayed out of the river, stands Vodena, the Bulgarian "city of w^aters," once Macedonian Edessa.''' In Vodena we were most fortunate in being accom- modated in the house of a Swiss silk merchant. The family was absent, but, unlike our hosts of Salonica, had left their furniture behind. The manager of the fac- tory, a Bulgarian, educated in Vienna, had been indi- cated to us as a person of intelligence ; and besides the introduction from his master, we brought him a letter from a Bulgarian friend. Hence he received us with great cordiality. We were soon at supper in a * Voda, slav. water. There is a sketch of the Vodena cascades in Mr. Lear's work, but the frroen is not given. The place is prettily