Chapter IX: Ragusa and Epidaurus (4)

[246] ‘The tax in lieu of military service, which is paid by all non-Mussulmans, weighs very heavily on the poor, who have to pay, equally with the rich, twenty-eight piastres for every male. In the poorest and most miserable family this sum must be paid for the male infant who has first seen the light a few hours before the visit of the tax-gatherer. I have heard the bitterest complaints of the cruelty of this tax on the young children of the rayah.’—Miss Irby, loc. cit. p. 79. In principle this tax (known as _Bédélat Askarié_) is only levied on males between the ages of sixteen and sixty. In practice it is levied on old men of eighty as well as infants in arms, and often amounts to thirty piastres. A round sum is demanded from every village, and the _Knez_, or Mayor, has to divide it as best he may; but the sum demanded by the Government is always out of all proportion to the number of those who are legally called on to pay it.

[247] The tithe or ‘dime’ was converted into an eighth a few years ago, (to pay the expense of the Sultan’s European tour), by the imposition of an extra two-and-a-half per cent., which, by an artifice common to the thimble-rigging financiers of Stamboul, was called ‘a temporary aid.’ Since the revolt this aid has been given up by the _Iradè_ of October 10, 1875.

[248] See on this device of extortion, M. Yriarte’s _Bosnie et Herzégovine, souvenirs de voyage pendant l’insurrection_. Plon, Paris, 1876, p. 199.

[249] To show that these and other tortures are by no means new in Bosnia, I may be allowed to cite a curious passage from a book on Turkish _Manners and Customs_, and having especial reference to the Turkish border-province of Dalmatia, written in the sixteenth century by a citizen of Zara, Messer Luigi Bassano, and entitled _I Costumi et i Modi particolari de la vita de Turchi_. Roma, 1545. Ch. xxxiii. is headed ‘_Modo che usano d’impalare, e d’altre sorti de Morti, e torture che danno_.’ After giving the most ghastly details as to the method of impalement, and instancing the case of a certain Capitan Lazero Albanese, who had been recently captured on the Dalmatian-Herzegovinian frontier, and had suffered in this way, the writer continues:

‘_Usano oltro l’impalare anchora l’inganciare sopra le forche,
dove sono tre ganci fatti à modo d’una falcetta da mietere il
grano, ma grosse tanto che possin sostenere un’huomo, e qui
s’appiccha chi v’è condennato, e vi pende per molti giorne
miserabilmente. Appicchano anchora con una fune sottile e
lunga, tal che l’appiccato tocca quasi terra co piedi, con
tutto che la forcha sia alta. Soglion’ anchora ligare l’huomo
tra due tavole, e con quelle dal capo dividerlo per il mezzo
con una siega. Usano tormentare lardando, hor con pece hor con
lardo, metter celate rouide in testa, metter’i temperatoi sotto
l’ungna, cacciare un’ asciugatoio, di quei che loro usano da
cingersi, bagnato d’aceto giu per la gola e retirarlo poi su
à poco à poco, e questo è un tormento crudelissimo. Sogliono
tal’hora ligare un’huomo per un piede nudo à una colonna,
attorno la quale fanno assai buon fuoco, l’ultimo rimedio, poi
che il ligato è caldo, è di muoversi hor di la, hor di qua,
ma poi che non puo piu, stanco e sforzato mancare, e morire,
arrostito e rosso, com’un Gambero._’

Recent accounts of impalement in Bosnia have been received with incredulity by a portion of the English public, and that although the Turkish denials were absolutely worthless. For my own part I am credulous enough to believe that the impaled figure seen by Canon Liddon and Mr. McColl was not a scarecrow; and further, that Bishop Strossmayer was well-informed in stating that this was by no means an isolated case. The recent instances attested by Miss Irby’s friends now set the matter beyond dispute. Impalement was common in Bosnia during the disturbed times immediately preceding the Crimean war, and the supposition that a time-honoured institution like this should in a few years’ time have died out in the most conservative country in Europe, is, _à priori_, extremely improbable. Barbarities like these are characteristic of a certain stage of society, and need excite no surprise. Many of the tortures still practised in Bosnia are an inheritance from præ-Turkish times, and should be considered in connection with the general survival there of feudalism under a Mahometan guise.

[250] The Rev. W. Denton, _The Christians in Turkey_, p. 44. Hilferding (_Ruskaja Besiéda_, quoted by M. Yriarte, op. cit.) gives a frightful account of how a Bosnian landlord, a Beg, extorted money from six rayahs by suspending them over a fire of maize-stalks. ‘_Les six raïas ne furent rendus la liberté qu’à moitié asphyxiés, après que la douleur leur eut arraché la promesse de donner tout ce qu’ils possédaient._’ In the forthcoming work of Mr. Stillman, the _Times’_ correspondent, on the ‘Insurrection in the Herzegovina,’ the reader will find (p. 9) an account of horrible instances of judicial torture perpetrated on a rayah family near Trebinje, in the period immediately preceding the revolt. Two were put in long wooden boxes like coffins and rolled down hill: others were stood upright with their heads in a hole in the floor of the prison which allowed them to rest on their shoulders, and splinters of wood were then driven under their finger-nails.

[251] Dervish Pashà has since been removed from the Vilajet of Bosnia.

[252] For the organisation of the Greek Church in Bosnia, see Thoemmel, op. cit. p. 102.

[253] According to the official reports of 1874, there were 576,756 Christians of the Greek Church in the Vilajet of Bosnia (which includes the Herzegovina). The total population was 1,216,846, of whom 442,050 were Bosnian Mussulmans; 185,503 Roman Catholics; 3,000 Jews; 9,537 Gipsies.

[254] Even in Greece, where the state of the Greek Church is said to be somewhat better, the simony is as rampant, and most humiliating disclosures are now (1876) taking place.

[255] For these facts, and some further statistics, I am indebted to Thoemmel. The ordinary price of a cure of souls is from twenty to thirty ducats.

[256] Lest this account of the Fanariote Hierarchy, as it exists in Bosnia should appear incredible to my readers, I may be allowed to appeal to Herr Kanitz’s description of the spiritual rule of these same gentry in Bulgaria, now happily terminated by the resolute action of their Bulgar flock. Herr Kanitz, who is a most candid and impartial observer, and has the advantage of twelve years’ residence in the country, finds no word for them but Spiritual Pashàs. Four thousand ducats (2,000_l._) was a tolerably cheap price for a bishopric in Bulgaria, and the bishops, even of the poorest dioceses, sucked as much as 1,500_l._ a year from their flocks. When the Porte proposed the erection of school-houses for the Christians, the Fanariote Hierarchy stood out against this liberal measure, and embezzled their educational fund to build new churches in their usual swaggering style. ‘What need have you of better schools?’ asked the Archbishop of Nish of his congregation. ‘Do you want your children to become unbelieving heretics?’ True to their Grecizing policy, these Angels of Darkness burnt all the monuments of old Bulgarian literature that they could lay hands on, and imposed Greek services on congregations who could not understand a word. Of their moral influence I will let Herr Kanitz speak—in German:

‘_Die schlimmste Demoralisation wurde in directester Weise in
die Familien hineingetragen. Weder Frauen noch Jungfrauen waren
vor den Gelüsten des höheren Klerus aus dem Fanar sicher. Die
dem Grossvezier im Jahre 1860 vorgebrachten Anklagen in allen
Städten, die er durchzog, überstiegen, was die Abscheulichkeit
und Zahl betrifft, alle Begriffe. Unter vielen Thatsachen sei
hier nur erwähnt, dass der Griechische Bischof von Sarköi
von dem griechischen Arzte dieser Stadt beschuldigt wurde,
13- bis 14-jährige Mädchen der dortigen Schule geschändet
zu haben. Zu diesen Verheerungen in der Unmündigen Jugend
ihrer Sprengel gesellte sich ein anderer, nicht minder
schwerer, sehr häufig gegen die fanariotische Geistlichkeit
erhobener Vorwurf: ihre Begünstigung des Kindesmordes im
Mutterschoosse._’—Donau-Bulgarien und der Balkan, I. Band, p.
129.

Herr Jireček, in his recent _Geschichte der Bulgaren_, corroborates these facts, and adds others even more gross (_see_ p. 513). Brought to bay at last by the sturdy opposition of the Bulgarian people, the Fanariote bishops got rid of some of their principal opponents by poison. See Jireček, op. cit, p. 555.

[257] Both Maurer and Roskiević were able to visit this mosque. For further details I will refer the reader to their descriptions, to which I am indebted.

[258] I am indebted to Miss Irby for this fact. Were the Bosnian Jews to return to Spain, we should have a strange illustration of the fable of the ‘Seven Sleepers’!

[259] Maurer, who gives an account of the commercial frauds practised by the Serajevan Jews.

[260] ‘Bosnia in 1875.’ See _Victoria Magazine_ for November, 1875.

[261] _Pretyla_, which means originally fat, is also used for beautiful!—Hilferding.

[262] King, op. cit., connects the abundance of Gnostic remains in the Gothic part of France, with the triumph of the Albigensian and other heresies of the same area. The same may perhaps be true of the Bogomiles of Bosnia.

[263] This stone is now in the garden of the French Consulate. It reads I.O.M.‖TONITRA (T)‖RORI A/R‖MAXIMVS‖VI (?) P. AVGG‖_SALVTI_. The (?) means that an uncertain letter is missed out. The _Saluti_ is doubtful. I saw several Roman coins in the silversmiths’ shops, and in some cases Ragusan coins found with them—another evidence of the way in which the Ragusans may be said to have stepped into the shoes of the Romans in these parts.

[264] _Bosnie et Herzégovine_, p. 241.

[265] Also a thunder-bolt. See King’s _Gnostics and their Remains_.

[266] Ami Boué.

[267] Fritillaria.

[268] Hralimir in the first half of the eleventh century had married the sister of the Bosnian Ban Niklas, his vassal.

[269] Farlato appears to have obtained this from a Vladmirović, a member of the same noble family as the bishop who, in the capacity of secretary, drew up the document for the king.

[270] In pago nostro de Cogniz.

[271] In generali congregatione.

[272] Proceribus.

[273] The Bogomiles are meant.

[274] Sedis Regiæ.

[275] Herzegh Sancti Sabbæ.

[276] Castra.

[277] Aulæ.

[278] It is interesting to observe the Byzantine influence on the Bosnian court and civilization which this charter incidentally reveals. It seems connected with the flourishing state of the Eastern Church in Bosnia at this time, and is further evidenced by the titles of the court officials.

[279] Or Dapifers.

[280] The best stone houses in Turkey are said to be in the Herzegovina.

[281] The little river Rama—which is the first stream in Bosnia, after crossing the frontier from the Herzegovina by the Narenta valley highway—is interesting from having given the name Rama to the whole country before it was known as Bosnia.

[282] As a parallel instance to this, I may mention that in parts of Upper Albania, according to Ami Boué, the Mahometan women are to be seen unveiled.

[283] See p. 96.

[284] This part of the road is known as Klanac, a name used in Bosnia to signify an ‘overhanging place,’ or a road hewn along the side of a precipice. At this point we re-cross the Herzegovinian frontier.

[285] Their height above sea-level is circ. 6,000 feet.

[286] See King’s _Gnostics and their Remains_, who cites Boccaccio.

[287] For the benefit of any future traveller who may wish to _sleep_ at the Casino, I may mention that a sure preservative against certain _fauna_ of the country is to be found amongst its _flora_. Our Consul kindly supplied us with some Herzegovinian flea-plant, by scattering which, previously reduced to chaff, about the bed, a magic circle is formed round the body of the sleeper, which is fatal to every noxious insect that attempts to cross it.

[288] See the report of a _Foreign Consul_ in the _Times_ of December 15, 1875, for a more detailed account of the insurrection and its causes. I must refer my readers to this. _A personage_ who was also in a position to obtain authentic information on this subject, has communicated an interesting account of the origin of the insurrection in the Narenta Valley to the _Pesther Lloyd_; and many details, proving the falsity of these Turkish statements, have been published by the distinguished gentleman who has been acting as the _Times’_ correspondent in the Herzegovina.

[289] See p. 256, &c.

[290] The rayahs in their ‘Appeal’ say of these ‘Giumrukers’:—‘They go in procession from house to house, and from plantation to plantation, and prolong the time as they please, in order to feed gratuitously. But for fear they may have put down too little, the round is repeated twice again, on the pretext of correcting any mistake that may have been made. Then they are in the habit of sending other searchers after the first, on the pretence of finding out any trickery on the part of these, as if they were not all accomplices; and they give themselves airs of patronage, and would make it appear that they are acting with a scrupulous regard for justice and the public welfare. So that the people are ever in the midst of inconceivable injury and abuse of authority.’

The Herzegovinian rayahs have such a good cause that it is a pity that a tone of undignified vituperation should run through the greater part of their appeal to the civilized Powers. Indeed, I should have supposed that the document in question had been drawn up by an old woman, did I not find internal evidence of a monkish pen! The passage quoted above is comparatively moderate.

[291] The _Metayer_ system is mostly in vogue. In general the tiller of the soil has to furnish the implements of agriculture. See on this M. de Sainte Marie (who was for some time French Consul at Mostar), _L’Herzégovine, étude géographique, historique et statistique_, p. 102, &c.

[292] M. Yriarte, who visited Bosnia and the Herzegovinian frontier shortly after our return, with the object of reporting on the causes and progress of the insurrection, estimates the total number of the insurgents in Bosnia and the Herzegovina at about 15,000 men, of which 2,000 were auxiliaries of kindred race from beyond the frontier. Of these he sets down 1,000 as Montenegrines, who had come in defiance of their own Government, and divides the rest among the Sclaves of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, and the Free Principality of Serbia; to which he adds a few Italians, and an infinitesimal contingent of Poles, Russians and Frenchmen.—_Bosnie et Herzégovine, souvenirs de voyage pendant l’insurrection_, p. 277. I am indebted to M. Yriarte for an account of the organization of the _Čotas_ in Herzegovina.

[293] Captured shortly after this was written by Austro-Hungarian authorities on _Turkish_ soil, and now (1876) languishing, not in a Turkish, but an _Austrian_ dungeon! Ljubibratić, however, was born in Lower Herzegovina.

[294] Though, since this was written, many of the Roman Catholics have deserted the national cause. According to the consular report quoted, the sole wish of the Franciscan monks all along was to make a display of the extent, and consequent value, of their influence among the Latin population.

[295] The lines in which Claudian (_In Ruf._ lib. ii. v. 45, &c.) describes the sufferings of the inhabitants of these lands (_plaga Pannoniæ miserandaque mœnia Thracum, arvaque Mysorum_) subject to the annual incursions of the barbarians, are hardly less applicable now than they were then! Claudian’s lines may, perhaps, be translated:—

The devastating course each year renews,
Each year his ravaged fields the peasant views,
Nor weeps he, now, the havoc of the foe—
Long use has stolen e’en the sense of woe!

[296] This movement of Dervish Pashà may, however, have been not such a matter of his own discretion as he wished to make out. Its announcement synchronizes suspiciously with his removal from the Governor-generalship of Bosnia by the Porte, and this account may have been devised to conceal his discomfiture from the consular body.

[297] Since writing this I observe that the derivation of Mt. Porim had also struck M. de St. Marie.

[298] Though authorities differ as to whether it is the ancient Andetrium (otherwise Mandertium), Saloniana or Sarsenterum. By the Sclaves it was originally called Vitrinica.

[299] The coins I saw were silver and brass. There were one or two Greek of Dyrrhachium, and besides Consular and Imperial Roman denarii, there were many third-brass coins dating from the time of Gallienus to that of Constantius II., but the series broke off so abruptly with Constantius, that one would think that the Roman settlement must have been destroyed about the middle of the fourth century. At Siscia, on the other hand, Roman coins were common till the time of Honorius.

[300] I take this measurement from Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who visited Mostar about thirty years ago, and then took accurate plans of the bridge. See _Dalmatia_, vol. ii. p. 58, &c. On the piers of the abutment at the east end of the bridge Sir Gardner deciphered two Turkish inscriptions, one of them bearing the date 1087 A.H. (1650 A.D.), the second year of Sultan Mahomet, probably referring to repairs made in his reign.

[301] ‘VIRTUS ROMANA QUID NON DOMAN? SUB JUGUM, ECCE, RAPITUR ET DANUVIUS,’ was the inscription on Trajan’s bridge over the Danube.

[302] _Most_ = bridge; _Star_ = old.

[303] Though it is probably hardly true to say that he founded Mostar.

[304] Cokorilo. His account was originally published in Russian, and has since been translated into German in the Bautzen series entitled _Türkische Zustände_.

[305] A village of Herzegovina, not _the Cerna Gora_ or Montenegro.

[306] This word is applied by the Mahometan Sclaves of the Herzegovina to the rayahs. For its other uses see p. 35.

[307] But the monk should have mentioned that some, at least, of these were the trophies of war with the Montenegrines, who adorned their Vladika’s palace at Cettinje with the same barbarous spoil. The Bosnian arms, with their impaled Moors’ heads, are perhaps a witness to the antiquity of this practice in these countries. Sir Gardner Wilkinson tried to persuade Ali Pashà to give up the practice, and even attempted a mutual agreement between the Pashà and the Vladika on the subject, but Sir Gardner hardly appreciated the character of the man with whom he was dealing. When the author of _Dalmatia and Montenegro_ visited Mostar he only saw five heads on the palace, but as these were over the tower, there may have been far more. The monk mentions that over 1,000 Christians were executed in the Herzegovina under Ali Pashà’s government, and, during the same space of time, only three Mahometans! Ali Pashà used also to impale rayahs.

[308] For _Vlach_ see p. 36. Here it is applied by a native Mahometan in the sense of a Giaour-Turk, or Christian generally. Omer Pashà was a renegade, the son of a Christian, and to this the taunt alludes.

[309] Of these 3,000 to 3,500 are of the Greek communion, which possesses two churches; 400 to 500 are Roman Catholics, who have a chapel; the rest are Mahometans.

[310] Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who made an excursion to Mostar during his Dalmatian travels, met with similar adventures. ‘Some,’ says he, ‘of the Mostar women go without their mask and pull the cloth _feregi_ over their heads, holding it tight to their faces, and peeping out of a corner with one eye, who, when pretty, frequently contrive to remove it “accidentally on purpose.”... I am bound to say that they were often very pretty, and with very delicate complexions.’

[311] See Sir J. Bowring, _Serbian Popular Poetry_, p. 36.

[312] In a climate such as that of the lower Narenta the traveller must be careful to take abundant doses of quinine, or he will be struck down at once with malarious fever.

[313] Slow! slow!

[314] An account of these events, to which I am indebted, was communicated to the _Pesther Lloyd_.

[315] I venture to assume an etymologic connexion between the Dalmatian _Narbona_ and the _Narbo Martius_ of Southern Gaul. If we had not the testimony of ancient writers to the fact that there was a Celtic ingredient in ancient Illyria, we should surely be justified in assuming it from the names of some of the cities. Orange seems to repeat itself in the Illyrian _Arauso_; Anderida in Andretium; and Corinium gives us a Cirencester in the neighbourhood of Zara. Epulus, the name of an Illyrian king, is curiously suggestive of the Eppillus of British coins. This Narbona has certain analogies of position with its Gallic homonym. Of course the ancient name of the Narenta—_Naro_—is also connected with that of the city. This city is called Narbona by both Ptolemy and Polybius, but accounts of its origin differ. According to one it was a Phœnician colony; according to others its founders were Phrygian or Thracian. The chief authority on Narbona or Narona is Dr. Lanza, in his _Saggio storico-statistico-medico sopra l’antica Città di Narona_, Bologna, 1842, which I only know through the summary in Neigebaur’s _Süd-Slaven_. For the inscriptions of course the Illyrian volume of the _Corpus Inscriptionum_ is now the authority; but in elucidating and first calling attention to these much credit is due to Dr. Lanza, Major Sabljur, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson, who gives fac-similes of thirty-three in his work on Dalmatia. Some Naronan inscriptions were published at Ragusa, in 1811, in the _Marmora Macarensia_.

[316] Viddo seems to answer to the Vid or Vit in the Rügen deities Sviantovid, Rugevit, and Porevit, in which names it is variously interpreted as ‘warrior’ or ‘sight,’ Sviantovid being ‘holy sight’ or ‘holy warrior.’ In Illyria _Vid_ means ‘sight.’ It is possible that this Vid is connected with another Sclavonic god Woda, who has been compared with Woden.

[317] San Vito is curiously like Sviantovid.

[318] A tempest is also called _Fortunale_.

[319] They were mostly oblate spheroids, formed of three layers, and when broken showing an agate-like section.

[320] Kohl, _Dalmatien_.

[321] In my account of Ragusan history I have chiefly followed Appendini, _Storia di Ragusa_, which is the chief authority; Engel, _Geschichte des Freistaates Ragusa_; Chiudina (as given in Neigebaur’s _Süd-Slaven_); and Kohl’s _Dalmatien_; and the most recent work on the subject, _Ragusa, Cenni Storici_, compilati da Stefano Skurla, Canon Onor., Profess. Ginnasiale (Zagabria, 1876). For English readers Sir Gardner Wilkinson in his _Dalmatia_, and Mr. A. A. Paton in his _Danube and Adriatic_, have given such excellent accounts of Ragusan history that I only give here a general sketch of it, in which I have tried as much as possible to avoid treading in the footsteps of English fellow-investigators.

[322] Professor Mommsen visited Epidaurus and took down most of the inscriptions for the Illyrian volume of the _Corpus Inscriptionum_. I have no wish to give more than a general description of the antiquities of Epidaurus here, as I hope to give a full account of my epigraphic gleanings elsewhere.

[323] In the _Monumenta Macarensia_, Rhacusæ, 1810, p. 47, is a votive inscription reading I.O.M.S. ‖ MAXIMVS ‖ LAPIDARI ‖ VS EX VOTO ‖ ARAM POS., found at Narona (Viddo). Is it possible that this was raised by a _Lapidary_ in our sense of the word? May not the coarser craft have been combined with the more refined? Mediæval architects were often goldsmiths as well.

[324] _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris._

[325] Or serpent.

[326] It is, perhaps, worth noticing that the two _St. Hilaries_, of Arles and Poitiers, are signalised in ancient iconography as slayers of serpents or dragons.

[327] _De Administrando Imperio._ The derivation _Roccosa_ or _Reclusa_ might be suggested. Ragusa appears in early writers under various forms, Lavusa, Labusa, Labuda, Labusædum, Rausium, Rangia, Rachusa, &c.

[328] Sir Gardner Wilkinson and others called it ‘oak-wood,’ forgetting that _Dubrava_ and _Dub_ mean ‘oak-wood,’ and ‘oak’ only as their secondary meaning, and primarily signify a wood and tree generally. Remains of the original pine-wood still covered the mountain side till the French destroyed it about the year 1806, when they swept away the freedom of the Republic. See Kohl’s _Dalmatien_, vol. ii. p. 45.

[329] Alas! that I should have to record that the statue dates at least eight centuries later than Orlando’s time. This statue, which originally stood before the Church of S. Biagio, was thrown down in 1825 by a hurricane, when the following inscription was found on a brass plate beneath its pedestal: MCCCC.... III. DI MAGGIO ‖ FATTO NEL TEMPO DI PAPA MARTINO QUINTO ‖ E NEL TEMPO DEL SIGNOR NOSTRO ‖ SIGISMONDO IMPERATOR ROMANORUM ‖ ET SEMPER AUGUSTUS ET RE D’ONGARIA ‖ E DALMATIA ET CROATIA ETC. FÒ MESSA ‖ QUESTA PIETRA ET STENDARDO QUI ‖ IN HONOR DI DIO E DI SANTO BLASIO ‖ NOSTRO GONFALON. LI OFFICIALI.... It is interesting to notice that the Ragusan account of Orlando as ‘Governor of Bretagne’ agrees with the contemporary Einhard’s account of the historical Roland. The historian of Charles the Great calls him ‘Hruodlandus Brittannici limitis præfectus.’ Orlando’s exploits are associated with other towns of the eastern coast of the Adriatic. Sir Gardner Wilkinson mentions that the magnificent harbour of Pola is called ‘Orlando’s house.’ The probable design of the statue of Roland at Ragusa was, as in the free German cities, to signify her independence of external authority.

[330] A full account of these events is given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson from Appendini.

[331] Giacomo da Evora, who published his poems in 1596, writes of Cœur-de-Lion’s Cathedral at Ragusa:

‘Aurea templa micant regis monumenta Britanni
Quo nullum majus Dalmata vidit opus.’

[332] Perhaps the earliest testimony to the municipal government of Ragusa in the Middle Ages is a diploma of the Byzantine Emperors Basil and Constantine VI., dated 997, addressed ‘Vitali Archiepiscopo et Lampridio præsidi civitatis, una cum omnibus ejusdem civitatis nobilibus.’

[333] As the _Segretaria_, _Cancelleria_, _Notaria_, _Dogana_, _Tesoreria_, and _Annona_.

[334] Or Maggior Consiglio.

[335] Decrees and letters to foreign princes from this body are signed ‘Il Rettore e Consiglieri della Repubblica di Ragusa.’

[336] E.g., to head a procession to the Cathedral. Such days were scrupulously marked in the Ragusan almanacks—‘_Oggi sua serenità si porta al duomo._’

[337] For criminal causes there was a tribunal of four judges; for civil causes four consuls—_consoli delle cause civili_.

[338] There was, indeed, a serious squabble in 1763 between the old and new nobility, the Salamanchesi and Sorbonnesi, but it evaporated in high words.

[339] ‘Domine Pater Omnipotens, qui eligisti hanc Rempublicam ad serviendum tibi. Elige, quæsumus, gubernatores nostros secundum voluntatem Tuam et necessitatem nostram, ut Te timeant et tua sancta Præcepta custodiant, et nos verâ caritate diligant et dirigant. Amen!’ I take this from Kohl, who copied it from the beginning of the _Specchio del Maggior Consiglio_.

[340] _De situ oræ Illyrici_, lib. i.

[341] The _Congregazione dei Preti_ was instituted here in 1391 for the relief of poor priests.

[342] The senate erected a foundling hospital here in 1432. ‘_Considerando di quanta abbominazione et inhumanità era il gettar delle creature humane piccole, le quali molte fiate non erano raccolte, nè secondo humanità e bisogno sovvenute._’ This institution was called ‘Ospitale della Misericordia.’ In 1347 the Republic built a Poor-house, ‘_Ospitale ad consolationem et suffragium pauperum cunctorum._’ In 1540 an Infirmary for the poor was added.

[343] This law had to be repeated in 1466 with graver penalties; and unless the slave-dealer could recover those he had sold from captivity within a fixed term, he was to be hanged.

[344] Appendini makes it actually Orchan, but Engel’s account is the only one reconcilable with the date 1370.

[345] There is an interesting correspondence between Ragusa and Cardinal Pole on the subject of Ragusan merchants settled in England, and a letter is extant from the cardinal to the Ragusan senate, dated July 11, 1558.

[346] _Merchant of Venice_, Act I., sc. i., where Salarino is speaking of Antonio’s ‘argosies.’

[347] Often wrongly derived from Argo. Possibly the word arrived to us by way of Spain.

[348] Between 1530 and 1535.

[349] See Skurla, op. cit. p. 54.

[350] Representations of these effigies as they still existed in Appendini’s time, will be found in his _Storia di Ragusa_.

[351] Appendini has occupied a volume of his _Storia di Ragusa_ with the literary history of this single city.

[352] Or in their Sclavonic forms _Gundulić_ and _Pulmotić_.

[353] As, for instance, ‘Danitza the daughter of Ostoja,’ ‘Paulimir and Zaptisclava.’

[354] See Mr. A. A. Paton’s ode ‘To the Shade of Gondola,’ in his _Researches on the Danube and Adriatic_, where the English reader will find a brilliant notice of Gondola. Mr. Paton says:—‘The elastic vigour of Ariosto, and the smoothness, the elegance, and completeness of Tasso, seem to mingle their alternate inspirations in the genius of Gondola.’

[355] Skurla, op. cit. p. 70.

[356] An inscription on it shows that it was erected in 1438 by the Neapolitan architect Onofrio di Giordano: ‘Rhaguseorum Nobilium providentia et amplissimi Ordinis jussu, coacto argento publico.’

[357] Below this is the date, 1506, and the name of the maker, Giambattista d’Arbe, who made it ‘to the honour and glory of St. Blasius.’

[358] The date seems tolerably fixed from the resemblance of these coins to those of Stephen Uroš. See _Della Monetazione Ragusea_, Studi di Vincenzo Adamović, p. 17. The administration of the Mint was entrusted to three senators called Zecchieri.

[359] Civitatis Raguseæ Nobiles Providentissimique Cives Blasii Martyris Pontif. q. SS. Præcl. hujus Epidauræ Raguseæ Patroni auspicante Numine, ad prid. Idium Sextilium Aug., Faustum Feliciss.que Diem, ex S.C. et Amplissimi Ordinis decretis, Atrium Prætorianum hoc Insigne ut Publ. Civit. aulam et Senatoriam Ædem Optumis Curanib. (sic) V. Vir. Optimm. in omnem opportunum præsentem et Posteritatis Usum Ære publico Dicandum Exornandumque Dedere. K. A. A.D. MCCCCXXXV SIGISMVNDI IMP. A. II.

[360] Many of the Ragusan archives have been carried off by the Austrians to Vienna. What still remain are practically inaccessible, since, to obtain permission to view them, an order is required from the Governor of Dalmatia at Zara! Among the archives are the Rolls of the Consiglio de’ Pregati, for the years from 1301 to 1802; of the Maggior Consiglio, from 1415 to 1806; of the Minor Consiglio, from 1415 to 1805; _Lettere e Commissioni di Levante_, from 1339 to 1802; _Lettere e Commissioni di Ponente_, from 1566 to 1802; many _Lettere e Relazioni_ of Ragusan nobles at foreign courts; and many _Trattati Turchi_, relations of ambassadors to the Sublime Porte, and negotiations with neighbouring Pashàs. There is also a kind of Ragusan Domesday book—the _Libro Matizza_.

[361]

Munera diva patris, qui solus Apollinis artes
Invenit medicas per secula quinque sepultas,
Et docuit gramen quod ad usum quodque valeret,
Hic Esculapius celatus, gloria nostra,
Ragusii genitus, voluit quem grata relatum
Esse deos inter veterum Sapientia patrum,
Humanas laudes superaret nata quod omnes:
Quo melius toti nemo quasi profuit orbi.

According to De Diversis (as cited by Signor Skurla) the conceit which originally identified the sculpture of the alchemist with Æsculapius is due to a Cremonese noble, Niccolò Lazziri, to whom the above lines are also attributed.

[362] ‘Sire, io sono abbastanza ricco, per non accettar ricchezze; sono re sulle mie caracche, per non cercar onori; sono cittadino libero di Ragusa mia patria, per non cercar titoli; qual memoria della sovrana vestra grazia cedetemi quest’ asciugamano.’ Skurla, op. cit. p. 16.

[363] Or Di Bona.

[364] Of Marino Caboga and his embassy Mr. Paton gives an excellent account in his _Danube and the Adriatic_, vol. i. p. 224, &c.

[365] D. O. M. Nicolao de Bona, Joannis filio, singularis prudentiæ senatori, qui, gravissimis Reip. temporibus, gravissimâ legatione sponte susceptâ, ad vicinum Bossinæ proregem per vim (sic) Silistriam ad Turcarum Imperatorem transmissus, ibi diuturno in carcere pro Patriæ Libertate catenatus obiit, morte ipsâ animique constantiâ immortalitatem nominis in omnem posteritatem promeritus. Hoc ex Sen. Con. monumentum honoris et memorie positum, Anno MDCLXXVIII. Underneath this is written: Qui lapis veterem Aulam Senatoriam incendio et variis casibus corruptam diu ornaverat in vestibulo ædium civicarum positus est ex Consilii Publici Sententiâ, MDCCCLXX.

[366] We experienced some difficulty in obtaining access to the _Cappella delle Reliquie_, as three keys have to be obtained: one from the bishop, one from the commune, and one (I think) from the Government.

[367] Progonović was commissioned to make it by the Archbishop, Timoteo Maffei, who wished to present it in person to Matthias Corvinus, but died in 1471 before he could accomplish his journey. The Archbishop left it to his grandson, who sold it to the Republic. See Skurla, op. cit. p. 100. We did not witness ourselves the effect of pouring water into the basin.

[368] I have followed Signor Skurla’s Italian rendering of the old Serbian original.

[369] I communicated this account of the refugees to the _Graphic_ of Oct. 9, 1875, and with it the illustration of which the frontispiece is a reduced copy.

[370] If my theory is correct (see p. 390). The peasants about Cattaro wear the same kind of girdle set with stones.

[371] Another interesting evidence of the Turkish influence on Old Ragusa is to be found in the names and values of her coins under the Republic. Thus the _Mischlin_ or _Vižlin_ is derived from the Turkish _Altmishlük_; and the _Altiluk_ or _Artilucco_ is the Turkish _Altilük_.

[372] _Voyage into the Levant_, p. 98.

_To illustrate the Itinerary described in this Book._ Prepared from the Austrian Official Survey _With additions & Corrections_.]

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OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

‘A work which at the present time no intelligent Englishman can overlook.’

ENGLISH INDEPENDENT.

‘This is an opportune publication, of much interest at present in connection with the Servian rising.’

NATURE.

‘Of this book we can say, as the author does of Ragusa, “it far surpasses our most sanguine expectations.”’

THE ACADEMY.

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EXAMINER.

‘The numerous sketches and illustrations found throughout this volume help to bring most vividly before the reader the costumes of the people and the aspect of the country. _Through Bosnia and the Herzegovina_ is a book which will well repay reading.’

THE FIELD.

‘This well-written, interesting, and seasonable book discusses the north-western districts of Turkey in a scholarly and lucid style, with the pen of a competent writer, to whom description is clearly no hard or irksome task, and who displays judgment and original thought in the exercise of his literary calling.’

PALL MALL GAZETTE.

‘In the present deplorable state of political affairs in the East, a book of travels descriptive of two provinces of European Turkey, which are now in rebellion against the sway of the Sultan, and written by an able and observant eye-witness, has more than ordinary interest.... Throughout the book the Author gives ample proof of a tourist endowed with quick observation and the happy faculty of vividly reproducing what he sees and hears.... Mr. EVANS’S book is very able, instructive, and readable; and students of history will gladly make acquaintance with its lucid and interesting pages.’

MORNING POST.

‘This is a most opportune contribution to the geography, customs, and history of a country which has suddenly emerged from the dimmest obscurity into the full glare of European observation. A few months ago it would not have been easy to find anyone who knew exactly where Bosnia, or even Servia, was situated, or what was the character of their inhabitants, or the nature of their relation to the Porte; and, though this ignorance has since been partially dispelled by the pressing interest of the events that have happened there, and the still more important issues to which these events are probably the prelude, we are still very grateful to anyone who will enable us to see and understand these countries more distinctly. This has been very effectively done for a single district by Mr. EVANS.... These are but samples of the curious information which is to be gained from this book. It is, besides, extremely well written and very amusing, and we confidently recommend it to all who desire to gain some knowledge, at the present critical moment, of the outlying provinces of the dissolving Turkish empire.’

GUARDIAN.

‘This is a most interesting volume, and its publication at the present time is exceedingly opportune, as it gives information which may be relied on, accompanied by excellent engravings and woodcuts, and may help to form a public sentiment in England in reference to the war in the East, which it seems to us can only end in the overthrow of the hateful Turkish power in Europe. The Author and his brother had planned to visit these districts before the outbreak, from special curiosity to see a race of Sclavonic Mahometans; and it was during their walk through the country, under the protection of an autograph letter from the Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish forces, that the insurrection burst out into a flame. They travelled on foot, encamped in the open air, in the forest or on the mountain, as necessity required, mingled with the inhabitants in friendly and pleasant intercourse. They have recorded the results of their visit in a form that may assist in the solution of difficult political problems, interest those who take pleasure in foreign travel, and strengthen the sympathy which, in free Protestant England, is gradually but steadily being awakened by the stragglers for freedom in these unhappy countries.... A valuable historical review of Bosnia is found at the beginning of the volume, which will enable the reader to trace the political history of these lands through their many changes and degradations to the present time. Truly the darkness that now rests upon them is a darkness that may be felt, but the deepest darkness is that which precedes the dawn.’

LITERARY WORLD.

‘Many volumes of travel have been published which profess to describe the aspects of those South Slavonic lands in which the insurrection against the Turkish power, has now for more than a year been aflame; but we have not met with any that deserves to be compared with the book which lies before us. Mr. EVANS combines a variety of qualities, every one of which contributed its share to the excellence of his work, but which even taken singly are not too commonly found among writers of travel, and in well-harmonised union are still more rare. Sound scholarship, wide historical and archæological reading, an intimate previous knowledge of other Slavonic populations, and an appreciation of the peculiar merits of the Slavonic character prepared Mr. EVANS for an investigation into the state and prospects of Bosnia, which was the more valuable because it had been projected long before even the first outbreak in Herzegovina, and was carried out without any idea that the troubled scenes amid which it was conducted involved the large political issues subsequently apparent. But, other travellers with similar advantages of knowledge and prepossession might have missed the most important of Mr. EVANS’S observations. To have passed through the Slavonic provinces of Turkey in a travelling carriage, along the main roads, from city to city, and to have been the guest of Pashà after Pashà, would have been the ordinary fate of the English traveller, and such an experience would have revealed little or nothing of the character and condition of the rayahs. Mr. EVANS, to the amazement of the Turkish officials, and not a little to their embarrassment, made up his mind to penetrate across the country on foot, and to see close at hand the common life of the Christian peasants. In this purpose he persevered, in spite of the remonstrances and menaces of puzzled and suspicious Turks, and his success has secured us a most important mass of testimony bearing upon that phase of the Eastern Question which Europe can no longer put aside. Moreover, a refined and educated taste has enabled Mr. EVANS to reproduce, for the benefit of his readers, the sensations of pleasure aroused by grand or tender scenery, by historical associations and dim suggestions of antiquity, by those beauties of nature in tree and flower, and even insect life that escape the careless eye. For Mr. EVANS is something of a botanist and an entomologist as well as an antiquary and a scholar. He is as ready to call our attention to interesting mountain forms, to the delicate beauty of the flora, and to the moths and butterflies that revel among these blossoms, as to a trace of Roman inheritance in the form of a jar, or to an apposite allusion in Claudian or Ausonius. His style, it must be added, is vigorous and well sustained, often pleasantly touched with humour, and sometimes approaching to eloquence. Few indeed will take up Mr. EVANS’S volume who will decline to read it through, and even those who feel no active curiosity about Slavonic society, or who turn from the Eastern Question as an interminable tangle of inconsistent theories, cannot refuse to interest themselves in this record of travel through scenes that have now obtained for themselves a permanent place in history.’

THE TIMES.

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