e his pursuers for the time being, and reached the River Zem. Here
his strength failed him and he clung, half fainting from loss of
blood, to the bushes fringing the bank, unable to go any further. In
this position a man of the clan Hotti found him, as he was coming
along the river. Having heard the shots and seeing a bleeding
Montenegrin, he put two and two together and promptly shot him. The
other Albanians, directed by the report, now came up, and literally
hacked the corpse to pieces. So the Zeta peasants are now two deaths
to the bad. In conclusion, we were told that the authorities have
reason to believe that the murdered man had been accompanied by others
on his raid into a friendly country and were seeking for these men
most diligently to punish them severely.
For their violating the border laws?
No, for deserting their comrade, and leaving him to meet his death
alone, and the sentence for this craven deed is ten years.
Next morning we rode into Podgorica, and comparative civilisation,
after a period of roughing it of the hardest description. We had often
gone from five a.m. till seven or eight p.m. on a couple of eggs and
an occasional glass of milk, and had hard going all the time. It
proved to us pretty conclusively how we of civilised lands
disgustingly and habitually overeat ourselves.
We finished considerably harder and more fit than at the start, and we
had lived the whole time as the Montenegrins of the mountains live.
One remarkable gift of which these mountaineers are possessed, and
which deserves special remark, is that of long-distance talking. Men
can speak with each other in the higher altitudes at distances of five
miles and more, where our ears could hardly distinguish a faint sound
of the human voice. Children are accustomed to it at an early age, and
the quaint sight of a mother conversing with her child guarding some
sheep on a neighbouring hillside is often to be witnessed. This gift
must be acquired young, it seems, for Dr. S., who has lived twelve
years amongst the Montenegrins, could neither make himself heard, nor
understand, though he said that he had given himself much pains to
learn the art.
As we rode into Podgorica that morning, we were struck by meeting
several groups of the Turkish inhabitants hanging about outside the
town. Arriving in the town, only Montenegrins were to be seen in the
streets, walking somewhat ostentatiously up and down, their natural
swagger greatly
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