emand
it! Surely you can see that we are all marching together, men from all
parts of Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are united."

And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian army was returning
from a foray into Yugoslavia. When they came into the territory of a
certain tribe they were compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their
booty. Such incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously the
conditions still prevail that were described in 1905 by Karl
Steinmetz,[82] an Austrian engineer who learned the language and
travelled through the country in the disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The
tribes cannot conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up the new State
these tribal institutions should be used as much as possible. Except in
the towns, which play a relatively small part in the country's life, the
voting should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala meet," says
he, "except for mutual destruction? Will a Mirdite for a nice word give
up his bandit expeditions to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet
far too great." More often than not you would find that the Albanians
regard each other as at the time of the Balkan War, when, for example, a
Serbian cavalry officer took the village of Puka and asked the mayor to
lead him to the neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented, but
after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped. "We are now midway
between the two villages," he said, "and I can go no farther." "Unless
you continue," said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
"_Nukahaile_ [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is all the same to
me whether I am killed by you or by the men of Duci, and I certainly
shall be killed if I show myself there."

"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is splendid!" said Monsignor
Bumci. "And we are not by any means fanatical--with us it is the
country first and our religion afterwards."

Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman as we have sometimes
been led to believe. Prenk Bib Doda is said to have cherished the
precepts of the Catholic Church with such devotion that he could not
bring himself to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
wife. We are told that his mother was animated with similar scruples,
and that, to solve this awkward question the old lady one day seized a
rifle and shot her daughter-in-law dead. There