MONTENEGRO

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THE

CHRISTIANS OF TURKEY :

THEIR CONDITION UNDER MUSSULMAN RULE.

Third Edition, crown 8vo, 5s.

" Those who are still curious to learn what the status quo actually is in Turkey, will find a variety of data in a popular form in Mr. Denton's book." — Academy.

" The tone of the book is sober. There is no rhetoric and no passion. It is simply a calm statement of facts, based chiefly on official testimony."— Spectator.

" How blue books on the condition of Turkey have been manufactured by way of official answer to former complaints of hideous cruelty, fraud, and oppression, is snown in these pages with a clearness which un- happily can leave no room for doubt."— Daily News.

" Mr. Denton has framed a formidable and unanswer- able indictment. We trust that his book may be widely and carefully studied."— Church Times.

" Mr. Denton does not write from hearsay. He is himself a Servian scholar, he has resided in the country, studied the people and their ways, and in a good deal speaks as an eye-witness. His book is a valuable sum- mary and argument, and should be widely read and pondered." — Nonconformist.

" Mr. Denton has resided in Servia, and is well ac- quainted with the Turkish rule. He knows, therefore, where to find evidence, and what its value is. His book should sting the political conscience of Europe to the very quick.*'— British Quarterly Review.

DALDV, ISBISTER & CO., 56. LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.

MONTENEGRO

ITS PEOPLE AND THEIR HISTORY

By the REV. W. DENTON, M.A.

AUTHOR OF 'SBRVIA AND THE SERVIANS,' * THE CHRISTIANS OF TURKEY,' ETC. ETC-

LONDON DALDY, ISBISTER & CO.

56, LUDGATE HILL 1877

LONDON : FEINTED BY VIBTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY BOAD.

• • « »•

NICHOLAS THE FIKST,

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A BEAVE SOLDIER, A PATRIOT PRINCE,

AND

A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN.

•^92974

PREFACE.

I owe it to the courtesy of the proprietors of the Church Quarterly Review that I have been able to embody in this small volume the greater part of an article on ' Montenegro/ contributed by me, in October last, to that periodical. By the like permis- sion on the part of the publishers of Good Words, I have also made use of two papers written by me a few years since, and printed in that periodical. For the information contained in these papers and in the present volume I am indebted to my own observations made whilst travelling in Montenegro, to replies sent me in answer to inquiries made with a view to publication, and to such books as I believe may be depended upon for their accuracy. The information so obtained I have sought fairly to place before the reader; and that I may enable him to verify any statements made by me, I have cited my authorities

VU1 PREFACE.

throughout. I have made full use of the testimony and the language of others, because I prefer to use their words rather than my own. I have, so far as I could, avoided all questions of momentary political strife, believing that whatever may be thought of the present aspect of the Eastern question, most persons, be their party predilections what they may, will sympathize with the Montenegrins in their heroic struggle for independence and freedom of religious worship. In addition to the description of the physical aspect of the country and the institutions of its people, I have given a brief sketch of the history of Montenegro, which, without possessing any claim to research, will be, I imagine, new to most readers. But though I have sought to avoid all allusion to mere party politics, politics themselves it were impossible to avoid, even if I wished to do so, since politics is only another name for the history of the present.

22, Westbourne Square, May, 1877.

CONTENTS.

tag a Introduction

PART I. COUNTRY AND PEOPLE OF MONTENEGRO.

CHAPTEB

I. — Name — Boundaries — Superficial Extent — Pass

FROM CATTARO 9

II. — Rivers — Mountains — Geology of Montenegro —

Mount Lovchen 21

111. — Climate — Production — Exports and Imports —

Roads 38

IV. — Political Divisions — Cetinje — Niegush — Rjeka

— DlOCLEA — OSTROG 52

V. — Population — Military Forces — Tactics . . 79

VI. — Present Military Organization • . . .93

VII. — Physical Characters — Longevity — Dress — Cot- tages— Home Life 103

VIII. — Moral Characteristics — Position of "Women — Honesty — Chastity — Court of Appeal — Code of Laws — Equality of People . .119

IX. — Occupations — Land Tenure — Offices — Income —

Expenditure 141

X. — Language — Literature — Printing Press . . 151

XI. — Ecclesiastical State — Education . . .161

X CONTENTS.

PART II. HISTORY OF MONTENEGRO.

CHAPTEB PAGK

XII. — Montenegrin History until the Battle of

Kossova * 179

XIII. — Montenegro an Independent Principality (1389

—1516) 189

XTV. — The Legend of Stanicha 200

XV. — Montenegro under the Pjrince-Bishops : Period the First, Elective Bishops (a.d. 1516 — 1696) . .210

XVI. — Hereditary Prince-Bishops — Danilo Petrovic 225

XVTL— The Vladikas Sava and Vassali (a.d. 1735—1782) 237

XVIII.— Peter I. (1782—1830.) 249

XIX.— Peter II. (1830—1851) 264

XX. — Restoration of the Secular Rule — Danilo II. 274

XXI.— Nicholas I. (1860) 288

INTRODUCTION.

The war which has just broken out between Turkey and Russia, and which may yet involve at least some of the other powers of Europe in the struggle to obtain a better government for the long oppressed Christian subjects of Turkey, has made Montenegro a household word in this country. As this small Principality is but little known to Englishmen, and as it has now acquired an importance wholly incom- mensurate with its size and with the number of its inhabitants, it is my purpose to give, in part from notes made during a short visit to that country, in part from materials collected for this purpose, a brief account of the territory and people of Montenegro, together with an outline of the history of the Prin- cipality.

Apart from its share in the present war with Turkey, Montenegro, however, though the { smallest

' '2' ' ' ' ' Wokte'negro .

among peoples/ * deserves our respect for the suc- cessful efforts it lias made for the preservation of its independence, and may fairly claim a portion of that gratitude which we owe to the memory of John Sobieski and of the conquerors at Lepanto. A larger share, indeed, than they ; since this small handful of mountaineers has struggled for four centuries with hardly any intermission against the Ottoman power, has never submitted to its yoke, has kept alive the hope of freedom in the Serb provinces on the south of the Danube, has beaten back the forces of Turkey even when in the full career of victory, and has thus served, often at the most critical moments of European history, as a breakwater against the inundation which once threatened to sweep away all vestiges of civilisation, of freedom, and of Chris- tianity from the face of Europe. In short, for long years and centuries the whole life of the people of Montenegro was one prolonged fight of Marathon or Morgarten : one long unbroken struggle against the assaults of the most cruel and faithless of enemies, the common foe of the religion and the civilisation of Europe.' f

Another fact in the history of this people is equally deserving of our respect and admiration. Monte-

* Tennyson. t Freeman.

INTRODUCTION. 6

negro has not only offered at all times a ready- asylum to the suffering subjects of the Ottoman Government, without distinction of race or creed, but so sacred is this right of asylum regarded by them, and so great is the confidence of their enemies in their chivalrous character, that during the wars along the frontier Mussulman women and children have frequently sought and found a haven of safety, not at a distance from but in the midst of their foes, and have lived without molestation among the Monte- negrins, whilst these people were engaged in a fierce struggle for their existence with the brothers and husbands of the fugitives.* In striking distinction from the practice of their enemies, female honour and life and the helplessness of childhood have been always respected by them.

To recount our obligation, and the obligation of all Christendom, to this small state is to acknow- ledge the difficulties which lie in the way of any one who may attempt to give even an outline of the history of the Montenegrins. Their life is one

* In the early part of the present war Turkish women and children were received by the Montenegrins, and fed and lodged with the same care as the Christian fugitives from the Herzegovina. In October, 1875, the official returns give a list of fifty-two Turkish women and children who were at that moment receiving shelter within the Princi- pality.

4 MONTENEGRO.

of primitive, and but for the warfare to which they have been compelled of almost arcadian, simplicity. Their history is one long epic, in which the deeds of heroism, wrought out in their mountain home, seems more fitted for the verse of the poet than for the sober pen of the historian. It is, indeed, hardty possible to relate the fortunes of this heroic people without appearing to encroach upon the province of the writers of romance, and thus ' begetting in the mind of the reader a restless suspicion of exaggera- tion and of fable/ * It is impossible that it should be otherwise. The fact that a state which makes but a mere speck on the map of Europe, with a popu- lation at the most of about thirty thousand men, women, and children, f should at the time when the Sultans of Turkey were most powerful and most bent on conquest have been able successfully to maintain its independence, is as marvellous as many of the fables of romance. And yet this is in brief the history of Montenegro.^

* Gladstone.

t The population of Montenegro did not reach thirty thou- sand until the accession of the Berda towards the middle of the last century.

J ■ In many eyes it must be an ideal land where military service is absolutely universal, where primary instruction is also absolutely universal — I may add, where the ownership of land is universal also. In Montenegro, as in prehistoric

INTRODUCTION. 5

The marvels which run through their history will be better understood after an examination of the physical aspects of the country and a survey of the habits and condition of its people.

Greece, every man goes armed ; every man, dressed in the picturesque costume of his tribe, carries his pistol and yataghan in his girdle. But if he can wield pistol and yataghan, he can also turn either to his spade or to his pen. Here, and perhaps here only in the modern world, we can see the very model of a warrior tribe, a nation of a quarter of a million who have known how to maintain their inde- pendence with their own right hands, and who at the same time are making rapid strides to a higher place among civilised nations than some of the great powers of the world. '—Freeman.

PAET I. COUNTRY AND PEOPLE OF MONTENEGRO.

CHAPTER I.

NAME BOUNDARIES SUPERFICIAL EXTENT PASS

FROM CATTARO.

The reason for one half of the name by which this land of sombre desolate mountains is known in all modern languages has long been matter of dispute. Its cold grey limestone ridges, looking black by contrast with the lighter hue of the Dalmatian hills ; * the masses of dark pines, and of other forest trees, which, it is said, once covered large portions of its mountain heights ; f the terror with which the

* ' Quiconque aura vu le front calcaire, la face grise des cimes du Montenegro sous los sombres nuees qui les enveloppent en un jour d'orage, comprendra aisement qu'on leur ait donne le nom de Montagne Noire, comme sur les confines du pays de Bade on a donne, a une large et profonde pyramide de sapins le nom de Schwarzwald (Forefc Noire).' — Lettres sur VAdriatique et le Montenegro, par M. X. Marmier, t. ii. p. 98. See also Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson's Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. p. 402.

t ' All along the road, and in all that I saw of Monte- negro, the mountains are of that bluish-grey which darkens so curiously in the afternoons and the winter into rich

10 MONTENEGRO.

Montenegrins inspired the Turkish inhabitants of the lowlands who dwelt along their frontiers ; and the name of one of the dynasties which formerly ruled this country* — have been severally assigned by one writer or another as the meaning of part of its name of Montenegro in the Venetian dialect of Italian, of Tzrnagora, in Slavonic, and of Kara- dagh in Turkish.f Be this as it may, there is no doubt as to the remainder of the name by which the country is known. Politically, as well as geo- graphically and historically, Montenegro is pre- eminently a land of mountains. Its strength, in all wars with Turkey, is due as well to the sterility of the country J as to the inaccessible nature of

purple and absolute black, while in the bright daylight it ia only cold grey and at midday almost whitish. But see- ing the rock covered with the dark-leaved dwarf oak and other brushwood, which grows out of every crevice in black masses, the traveller recognises at once the meaning of the name so dear to its inhabitants — the Tzerna-Gora, or Black Mountains.' — Lady Strangford's Eastern Shores of the Adriatic, p. 139.

* Le Montenegro Contemporain, par G. Frilley et Jovan Wlahovitj. Paris, 1876.

+ In pure Italian the name is Montenero, in Greek Mavro Youni, in Albanian Mal-Esija, and in Arabic maps Al- jubal-al-Aswad, all of which have the same meaning, ' the Black Mountain.'

% 'Here a small army is beaten, a large one dies of hunger.' — Paton.

PHYSICAL FEATURES. 11

the retreats, from which swarms of irregular soldiers have issued to defend their homes and liberties, and to repel alike the attacks of fanatical hordes and of veteran armies. Its songs, almost its only literature, are inspired by the mountain breeze. The character of its hardy inhabitants is such as is only found in mountainous countries. And the chaos of limestone, either prolonged in short ridges, serrated and rugged with bluff irregular spurs, or bent in a circle enclosing a small plain of fertile land, as the crater is girdled by the sides of a volcano, is the key to the history of this people, and will account in some measure for the success which has crowned their long struggle to maintain their faith and independence, from the day when at Kossova the Serbian power was broken and its monarchy lost, down to our own time, when the troops of Turkey keep ceaseless watch over its northern, eastern, and southern frontiers.* The chronicles of Montenegro are written for the most part in the popular songs which record feats of individual hero- ism, such as rugged mountain territory alone renders possible, but such as no other highland country can rival.

* * La nature a ete gratuitement elle-meme le Vauban dos Montenegrins. La nature leur a fait un cercle do remparts, une enceinte continue.' — Lenormant, Tares et Montenegrins.

12 MONTENEGRO.

Montenegro has the Austrian province of Dalmatia on the south-west, on the other three sides it is bounded by Turkey. The north-eastern frontier of Montenegro, formed by a ridge of the Dinarian Alps, is separated from free Serbia by a strip of broken ground, connecting the provinces of Bosnia and the Herzegovina with the district of Stara Serbia, in the occupation of Turkey. On the north- west it has for its boundary an offset from the same ridge of mountains, running nearly at right angles with the rest of the range, and stretching almost to the Adriatic near Eagusa. Within this line, how- ever, lies the beautiful and fertile vale of Niksic, held by the Turks, although ethnologically, as well as geographically and socially, it is a part of Mon- tenegro, to which indeed it previously belonged. Another mountain ridge, broken by a succession of lofty peaks, of which Mount Yegli Yerch and Mount Lovchen* are the highest, shuts out Montenegro from the sea, and forms its south-western boundary. On the south-east towards Albania the frontier differs in character from those on the other three sides. Here the mountain sinks into the plain, the gorges are wider, the breadth of fertile land greater, and the country depends for its defence rather upon

* The Monte Sella of the Italians.

BOUNDARIES. 13

the valour of its sons than upon any feature of nature. At this point the line of separation be- tween Montenegro and Turkey is made up in part of the easy slopes of various mountain ridges, which, however irregular in their formation, have almost always a south-eastern direction ; in part by the rivers Zeta and Moratcha and by smaller streams.

Two ideas lie at the root of all Slavonic political organizations, the family and the race, not, as with other people, the individual and the territory. Until 1859 no official limits had been defined between Turkey and this Principality,* and Montenegro meant rather the country occupied by the Montenegrins than a district of country with a rigid line of demar- cation, a fact which it is not easy to obliterate from the minds of this people. In 1859, however, a commission appointed by the five chief European powers laid down for the first time with precision the frontier line, which includes the present inde- pendent principality of Montenegro. Unhappily for the preservation of peace, this line was drawn with so little regard to the fair claim of this people and to their means of subsistence, that it has added

* The boundary between Austria and Montenegro had been settled about thirty years before this date.

14 MONTENEGRO.

a fresh perplexity to the relations between the Porte and the Montenegrins.*

In shape Montenegro has been compared to the leaf of a plane-tree, to which it bears a general re- semblance. Perhaps a better idea of its shape may- be obtained by joining two right-angled triangles at the apex of each, allowing one somewhat to over- lap the other. It lies between 42° 10' and 42° 56' of north latitude, and between 18° 41' and 20° 22' of east longitude of Greenwich. f The greatest length of the Principality, which is from east to west, is about fifty-five miles ; its greatest breadth, from north to south, about thirty-eight miles. In the centre, however, the Turkish territory on both sides indents that of Montenegro so considerably, that its northern frontier — that on the side of Herzegovina — is only distant some twelve miles from the first Turkish post in Albania : an arrangement which seriously impairs the defensive power of the country, and is provocative of fresh struggles between the

* ' La delimitation qu'elle resulte du travail de la com- mission international de 1859, ne saurait etra considered comme propre a fixer dans l'avenir les limites definitives de la principaute. Ce n'est en effet que par exception que nous y voyons des confins bien naturels et surtout indiscutables, tels que ceux de la Zeta et de la Sitoritza.' — Le Monte- negro Contemporain, p. 87.

t Or between 16° V and 16' 58' east longitude of Paris.

AREA. 15

Porte and Montenegro. The superficial extent of the Principality is estimated at seventy geographical miles square. The frontier line is, however, so ir- regular, that the traveller who would trace the line of limitation would have to pass over two hundred and eighty miles before reaching the point from which he started.*

It is not easy to compute the area of Monte- negro because of this great irregularity of its frontier; nor, when computed, do the figures give more than an imperfect idea of the quantity of the land that can be brought under cultivation, nor indeed of the real extent of the country, since the sides of the mountains, sterile as they are, are tenanted by peasants who cultivate with the utmost care the smallest patch of ground which has been formed in the hollows and crevices of the mountain slopes by the decay of vegetable matter and by the disintegration of the rocks during long ages. There are few more striking instances of parsimonious industry than that presented to the traveller on his ride from Cattaro to Cetinje— than the small plots, we can scarcely call them fields, of wheat, maize, capsicums, or potatoes lying in the hollows of the rocks. Corn-fields twenty feet by twelve, and

* Le HlonUnigro Contetnporain, p. 90.

16 MONTENEGKO.

potato-grounds less than six feet square, are of frequent occurrence.* Such a spectacle of industry can hardly be seen in any other country in the world. In the valleys on the southern frontier, where the country descends on one side towards Lake Skodra,f and on the other overlooks Budua and Antivari on the Adriatic, the soil is not only more fertile than the rest of Montenegro, but agriculture and horticulture have advanced to a degree of per- fection which would be observable in any country. $ There the hills are terrassed for vineyards, and fig and pomegranate orchards add largely to the exports of the Principality.

Most travellers who visit Montenegro enter the

* ' I saw clearings of so small a size as barely to admit of one potato plant or three of maize, and little fields but one yard in diameter.' — Rambles in Istria, Dalmatia, and Monte- negro, p. 249.

* On a ledge of rock, in a little depression between the rocks, in a niche, in a mere crevice, in short everywhere within possibility, a little field has been made, the stones picked off, the rocks torn out, and, perhaps, earth added artificially ; and behold, a patch of potatoes or of maize ! Nothing else seems grown here, but I declare that I saw many flourishing little crops not a yard square.' — Lady Steangpord's Eastern Shores of the Adriatic.

t The Palus Labeatis of Livy, xliv. 31. Skodra, the Scutari of our maps, is the name of the lake and the city at its southern extremity.

X CYPEIEN Eobeet, Les Slaves de Turquie, t. i. p. 121.

PASS OF CATTARO. 17

country from Cattaro in Dalmatia. Immediately above the small city, which is built on the narrow strip of land interposed between the waters of the Bocche and the mountain rampart of the Princi- pality on that side, lies the pass into Montenegro. Viewed from below the road appears drawn along the face of a cliff almost precipitous. It is only, indeed, by a series of zigzags reaching to the top that any road could have been constructed. For about half- way up this road, or ladder (scala), as it is properly called, is Austrian, and has been made with all the appliances which military science possesses. This part of the way consists of seventy- three zigzags per- fectly well made, smooth, tolerably wide, and guarded at all the angles by a parapet.* For the first three- quarters of an hour the Venetian citadel, which looks very ruinous, hovers above the head of the traveller, and hangs over Cattaro. Passing almost close to this, and by the Morlacco hamlet of Spigliari, the traveller soon quits the territory of Austria and takes leave of the road. From this point the terri- tory of Montenegro begins. The way is left almost in its primitive wildness — a chaos of rocks and water- courses. A pass which no military array could hope to force, and which a handful of such moun-

* Lady Straxgford, p. 134. c

18 MONTENEGRO.

taineers as Montenegro rears might hold against a large army. The top of this pass, which opens upon the plateau of Niegush, is almost five thousand feet above the level of Cattaro. If the traveller chances to mount this scala on a market-day, which appa- rently is almost every day in the week, he will pass files of mules and small ponies laden with the pro- duce of Montenegro, and groups of men and women, the latter nearly as heavily laden as the animal with bundles of firewood or of sumac, with fruit, vege- tables, or flesh, whilst the men, with some exceptions, are unburdened, except with their rifle and long pipe.* In ascending the pass the Montenegrins follow the windings of the road, but in descending these hardy and agile mountaineers usually shorten the distance by leaping from boulder to boulder in a straight descent, where the least false step would lead to almost certain death. After mounting to the top of the pass, if the traveller ascends the adjoining height of the Lovchen, his eye will take in almost

* Misses Mackenzie and Ieby, speaking of their visit to Cetinje by this scala, say expressively, ' Although it was not market-day, the Ladder of Cattaro swarmed with Montenegrins as the ladder of a beehive with bees.' — Travels in South Slavonic Provinces, vol. ii. p. 221, second edition. No image brings back to the mind the lively scene better than this.

PASS OF CATTAKO. 19

the whole of Montenegro proper, the plains of Upper Albania with Lake Skodra, together with the long parallel ridges of the Herzegovina and the Berda, and he will thus be able to trace the long lines of mountainous passes which have enabled the people to maintain their independence, or quickly to recover from any momentary reverses of the fortune of war.

The impression which this prospect is calculated to make on a traveller is thus described in a private letter now before me : ' After nearly three hours of toil, partly on foot and partly on horseback, I reached the top of the pass, and was able to look down upon everything within sight. The view was one which will not be soon forgotten. Below me lay the Bocche di Cattaro, smooth as glass, reflecting as clearly as in a mirror the towers and white- fronted houses which rise far above the margin of the sea. Every mountain and ravine, every path- way winding to the top of the ridge opposite to me, every village or town, every vineyard and oliveyard, was sharply defined in the clear atmosphere, and the whole tract of country seemed more like a raised map than solid earth and deep sea. Turning from the road which I had passed over, I was now able to look inland towards Bosnia and Albania, and the

20 MONTENEGRO.

sio-ht in this direction, though totally different from that behind me, was not less striking. I seemed to be looking out upon a turbulent sea of grey limestone, an ocean of rolling boulders and petrified breakers.'

CHAPTER II.

RIVERS — MOUNTAINS— GEOLOGY OF MONTENEGRO — MOUNT LOVCHEN.

Though springs of water gush from the sides of the loftiest mountains, there is5 if we except the time when on the melting of the snows they are furrowed for awhile by torrents, a singular absence of an}r- thing resembling a cascade in the whole country, and streams which rise here to the dignity of rivers would elsewhere be considered unimportant. Of these the Zeta, or Zenta, which gave its name to the whole country formerly ruled by the Princes of Montenegro, of which the present Principality is but a fragment, rises in the southern declivity of the mountain range to the west of the town of Niksic, and marks for a short distance the boun- dary between Montenegro and the Herzegovina ; it is then lost in the earth, and pursues a subterranean course until it reaches the neighbourhood of Ostrog,

22 MONTENEGRO.

when bursting forth again it flows through the beautiful valley of Bielopavolic, and falls into the Moratcha, between Spouj and Podgoritza, near the ruins of Dioclea. The extreme length of this river, including its subterranean course, is about seventeen miles. i

The Ejeka, or rather the Tzrnovichi-rjeka,* rises near the little town or village of the same name, and though possessing a larger volume of water than the Zeta, has a shorter course than that river, its length being less than ten miles. | It is, how- ever, navigable for large boats or barges almost to its source. It is a characteristic of several of the rivers on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic that they burst from their source in a full volume of water. Thus the Rjeka rushes out of a deep arched gloomy cavern, which has been compared to the vast portal of a Gothic cathedral, and after turning the flank of the mountains in which it has its source broadens into a wide sheet of water near the little arsenal of Obod, and having at length hollowed out for itself a deep bed, flows under the arches of a pic- turesque bridge, and past the village or small town to which it gives its own name, Rjeka. The waters

* This river, because of its importance to Montenegro, is known generally by the name of ' The River ' (rjeka).

THE KJEKA. 23

of this river, after being joined by those of a smaller stream, the Karatuna, near Jablac, fall into the Lake of Skodra. Viewed either from the rocks above or from its surface, this stream is one of rare beauty. Its borders are fringed with the Eaketa (Salix caprea, Lin.), with pomegranate bushes and fig-trees, and through a great part of the year are gay with the purple blossoms of the former shrilb, or afire with the scarlet blossoms of the pomegranate. Except ir. the character of its vegetation, the Rjeka resembles a highland river, and widens throughout its course into lake -like reaches, which appear to be closed in on all sides by the grey sterile rocks rising from its bed. The eifect of this breadth of water is, however, in a great measure, lost, in consequence of the fields of rushes and water-lilies, white and yellow, which cover the whole surface of the water except in the centre of the stream. These form a cover for gulls and other aquatic birds, and shelter numerous families of coots, water-hens, and dab-chicks, or dive-dappers.* The mouths of the ravines which open upon this river give the traveller glimpses of white-gabled cot- tagcs, peeping out of clusters of walnut, cornel, and

* ' Dive-dapper,' the old poetic name of the dab-chick.

' Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave.'

ShakspebB, Venus and Adonis.

24 MONTENEGEO.

pomegranate trees. A third river, the Tzrnitza, has its source in the mountains of Triroga, overhanging the Bay of Spizza, near the junction of the Turkish, Aus- trian, and Montenegrin frontiers. This river is the shortest of any of the streams which rise in Monte- negro. It falls, like all the others, into the Lake of Skodra, at the north-western corner. It is navigable for boats only for a short distance above Yir-bazar at its mouth. The Moratcha, the most considerable of these rivers, though it rises within Montenegro, near the foot of Mount Dormitor, on the north- eastern angle of the Principality, flows through the Berda in a general south-western direction, loses the character of a Montenegrin river for a great part of its course, and runs exclusively through the Turkish territory of Albania, where, augmented by the waters of the Zeta, it passes the town of Podgoritza, and falls into the Lake of Skodra. This river is navi- gable from its mouth up to Podgoritza, but ceases to be so where it runs through Montenegrin terri- tory. In addition to these rivers there are also some small rivulets, which acquire importance in the general deficiency of water in large districts of this country.* The Mala rjeka, the Brestica,

* The Eibnitza (Jish-river) rises at the foot of the moun- tains on the frontier of the Koutchi nahia, and falls into the

ASPECT OF COUNTRY. 25

the Matica, and Sitanica, which fall into the Mo-

ratcha — these, though full of water in the winter

and spring, are almost dry, and hardly to be traced,

in the summer and autumn months. The peculiar

surface, combined with the absorbent nature of

the limestone rocks, prevents the accumulation of

water into rivulets and streams. Even wells are

extremely rare. The inhabitants are therefore

obliged to collect rain-water in cisterns for their

household use and for their cattle.*

The principality of Montenegro is divided into

Montenegro proper, on the west, and the Berda, on

the east. The former is for the most part a rocky,

irregular plateau, rising on the north upwards of four

thousand feet above the level of the sea, but falling

in a rapid descent towards the south,f basin-shaped

depressions like enormous craters; and valleys or

gorges resembling deep chasms occur throughout

the broken table-land ; whilst from the rocky plateau

itself solitary peaks and short irregular ridges of

mountains rise to a great height above the rough

Moratcha near Podgoritza. It belongs, however, to Albania rather than to Montenegro.

* Paper of Count Karaczay on Albania in Journal 0/ Royal Geographical Society, vol. xii. p. 48.

f ■ Entre Cettigne et le lac de Scutari, la difference de niveau est d'environ 1,200 metres pour uno distance do 24 kilometres.' — Delakue, Le MonUnegro, p. 19.

26 MONTENEGRO.

"base from which they spring, looking at a distance like the waves of a storm-tossed sea suddenly turned into stone.* This great plateau, Montenegro proper, terminates eastward at the valley of Bielopavolic and the banks of the'Zeta. The Berda,f though a great part of it is, like the western part of the Prin- cipality, an irregular plain of mountain country rather than a land of mountain ranges, is here and there broken by a succession of wild irregular val- leys, and partakes more than "Western Montenegro of the general character of mountainous countries, a land of steep precipitous ridges rising directly from the plain. Though these peaks and broken ridges lie for the most part in the interior of the country and on the northern or Herzegovinian frontier, yet Yegli Yerch, a little to the north of Risano, rises considerably above the average height of the rest of the mountains; whilst Mount Lovchen, which towers above Cattaro, is one of the three most con- siderable of the mountain heights of the Tzrnagora.

* ' Suivant une legende, Dieu, lorsqu'il crea le monde, disposant les vallees et les Montagnes, portait dans un sac les pierres necessaires a. son ceuvre. Le sac, use par un long service, se dechira et les rochers tombant formerent ce chaos de pierres nomme plus tard Monte- negro.'— Delabue.

t ' Berda,' plural of ' berdo,' a mountain.

MOUNTAINS. 27

Mount Korm, or Kom,* on the south-east angle of Montenegro, which projects like a bastion into the frontier of Albania, rises in two peaks to an estimated height of from seven thousand five hundred to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, and is covered with snow during greater part of the year. The other mountains attain an elevation at the most of five thousand feet. Mount Dormitor, on the north-east angle of Montenegro, and overlooking Bosnia and the Herzegovina, is estimated to be of equal height to Mount Korm.f Montenegro, how- ever, it must be borne in mind, is not so much a mountainous country as a mountain mass, hollowed by fissures and penetrated by occasional gorges, which open occasionally into valleys of moderate width.

The valleys throughout the Principality are seldom more than three or four miles long, nor wider than one mile. The valley of the Zeta, however, is an

Kum, the Arabic l mountain,' the cumulus of the Latins, is the name given to some mountains in Turkey, generally such as are isolated. This is the name given to a mountain islet in the Lake Skodra, near the Montenegrin frontier.

t 'La hauteur de ces trois montagnes est a peu pres la meme, et peut s'evaluer a 2,500 metres au-desous du niveau de la mer. Dans l'interieur du pays aucun sommet n'atteint cette altitude, et les cretes sont escarpees plutot qu'elevees." — Lexormant, Turcs et [MonUnSgrw*.

28 MONTEXEGRO.

exception to this. It is in some parts nearly six miles wide, and is cultivated to a distance of nearly three miles on each side of the river.* In this valley occur almost the only hedgerows found in Montenegro.

The geological formation of the Principality is for the most part compact grey limestone, passing in some places into marble, with occasional instances of dolomite. The plains in the south are of the same character as those of North Albania, which they join : a coarse conglomerate, so coarse, indeed, as to be scarcely distinguished from the ruins of Eoman masonry, which abound in all directions on the fron- tier of Montenegro. On the opposite side of the country, overlooking the vale of Niksic, the tra- veller will meet with singular deposits of small pebbles thrown up in heaps as on a sea-beach, and almost as difficult to walk over as the loose stones of a sea-shore. Lignite is found near the banks of the Rjeka ; and it has been satisfactorily ascertained that there are, in the province of Tzrnitza, near Lake Skodra, deposits of anthracite coal of considerable extent, though, so far as experiments have tested its qualities, apparently but of small value. Of the value, however, of such coal it is impossible to speak

* Journal of Geographical Society, vol. xii. (1842), p. 51.

THE LOVCHEN. 29

with any certainty, since the geology of Montenegro has never been investigated.* Probably, when the country has been carefully explored by scientific travellers, the limestone ridges will be found of greater importance than they seem at present. As yet the chief value of these ridges is in the supply of stone for the purpose of building. The hardness of this stone and the polish which it takes render it well adapted for this; and it supplies the only material of which palace and churches, monasteries and peasants' cabins, alike are built.

As one of the great objects of attraction in Mon- tenegro is the summit of the Lovchen mountain, and as I have not seen it elsewhere described, I ex- tract from my note-book the account of a day spent there a few years since. To the lover of the pic- turesque the view from the top is the finest, as it is also the most extensive, in the whole Principality. To the Montenegrin it has another charm ; it is the burial-place of the late Vladika, Peter the Second,

* Dr. Barth, the celebrated African traveller, contemplated making a careful geological survey of Montenegro. This project, however, was frustrated by his early death. The best geological survey of Montenegro, so far as I know, is the Aper^u GSologique de Montenegro, by COLONEL KovALEVOKY, in the Annates de la Geologic Paris, 1842-43.

30 MCWTENEGKO.

great-uncle to the reigning Prince, and the last bishop who united in his person the civil and eccle- siastical power over Montenegro. Having arranged over night to visit this shrine, I rose at five o'clock in the morning, and by half-past five was in the saddle and on my way to the Lovchen, accompanied by M. Yaclic, the secretary of the Prince, and Cap- tain Zegar, of the Austrian army. For the first half-hour of the journey our way lay across the sandy plain of Cetinje ; at the end of that time we began to mount by a road which was a perfect chaos of stones, along which I left it to my horse to pick his way as he chose, satisfied that my reason was not equal to his sagacity in this matter. A road cer- tainly there was, but one on which no constructive skill had ever been exerted. When I looked at it, the thought flashed across my mind that the couplet of the Irish road-overseer in the Highlands was after all very sensible. The appropriateness of the words was so great that I could not drive the jingle out of my head: —

"If you'd seen these roads before they were made, You'd have held up your hands and have bless'd General Wade."

Here certainly were the roads, but as yet wholly un- made ; so that another generation of Montenegrins

THE LOVCHEN. 31

may have reason, like their brother mountaineers, to bless some future road-maker who will do for them what the luckless Hanoverian general did for the Highlands of Scotland.

After about three hours' scramble over the boulders which were strewed along our path, past hazel hedges and through beech scrub and fern brake, up precipitous heights, along dangerously narrow ridges of rock, and down into sunless ravines, we at length reached the foot of the moun- tain which we were to climb. Our path now was across a limestone ledge, which at a distance looked as though it had been turned up by some gigantic plough, probably in the prehistoric age. A preci- pitous descent on one side and a sharp slope on the other, without vegetation of any kind, compelled us to be cautious. At length we dismounted at the base of the lofty height in which the moun- tain terminates. Rude stairs, partly worn by the course of time, and in part cut for this purpose, lead to the top of the ascent on which stands the small mortuary chapel which is the object of so many pilgrimages by the people of