, to a total of about
six hundred a year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were murdered.

What memory have the Albanians of their own great men? One sultry
afternoon, as we were driving in a mule cart from the quaint town of
Alessio, the driver lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a
mile of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the driver's
mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms and bled profusely and was
doctored by the fierce gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the
wound, so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the remainder
of the afternoon our mule went at a walking pace, and presently, to
while away the time, we begged the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio,
who was travelling with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
Skanderbeg. They stared--their mouths were also shut. And finally the
gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It dealt with Zeph, a man with
sheep, and Mark who stole them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day, as he hid behind a
wall, he fired at Mark and slew him. "That is the song," said the
gendarme, "about the hero Zeph."

To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb, I think it will be
generally agreed that some regime other than unaided independence must,
in the meantime, be established there. One hears of those who argue that
Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because they are a gifted
and a very ancient people. They are not more gifted than the Basques,
and their antiquity is not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do the Basques as
compared with theirs. Not many tears are shed by the Basques or by
anyone else because those interesting men are all the subjects of France
or Spain.

5. A METHOD THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN TRIED IN ALBANIA

If only the Albanian question would be taken in hand by
humanitarians.... Here you have one and a half million of wild
children.... Build them schools and roads, police their country--they
themselves agree that the savage atmosphere in the northern mountains
was radically altered by the Austrians when they occupied that country
during the War. One has heard of numerous philanthropic societies in
Great Britain whose object has been more remote and less deserving; if
some such society would turn to Albania, their e