er a time to administer their country in a
reasonably satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a very
low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs and several proverbs were
all that Consul Hahn could collect for his monumental work,[78] though
his researches, which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some idea of
their aesthetic value; a lover, standing outside the house of his lady,
invites her to come out to him immediately; he threatens that if she
disobeys him he will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more,
he will have it washed and then he will return, howling like a dog.
Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians, by the way, stated that the
social life of Caesar's _Bellum Gallicum_ was applicable to the tribes
which now inhabit southern Albania, those of the north not being equal
to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known Russian Consul-General,
tells us of the villages of Retsch and Tschidna, where in winter men and
women clothe themselves with rags, in summer with no rags--so that in
the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not to shock the
natives, would take the precaution of depositing his clothes in some
convenient cavern. On the other hand, when the ladies in waiting on the
Princess of Wied drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather,
the people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called the terrible
behaviour of their Prince's harem. These mountain people live on maize
and milk and cheese--salt is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
by the few educated Albanians as the most competent foreign observer. He
knew the language well and travelled everywhere. One custom he relates
of the Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they suspect
that treasure is buried; on the next morning they look to see what
animal has left on the ashes the print of its feet, and this tells them
what sacrifice the guardian of the treasure demands--sheep or hen or
human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement and water is the sole
emetic known to the Albanians; it is used in all cases of poisoning. But
the Albanian's death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot. "In
Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"--42 per cent. of
the adults, according to Nopsca, dying a violent death. "It was her good
government and her orderliness that obtained for her her admission to
the League of