institute proceedings
against another merchant who had gravely and publicly insulted
him. The lawyer drew up the complaint, for which he charged the
small sum of 20 perpers (= francs), but although his client was
a wealthy man this fee appalled him; he resolved to take no
further steps. In general, the Scutarenes prefer to suffer
imprisonment rather than part with any money. And the
willingness of the Albanians not to look a gift-horse in the
mouth could often be observed at Podgorica between the years
1909 and 1912, when Nicholas of Montenegro would occasionally
appear in the market-place with a supply of caps and other
articles for the Albanians. These he would distribute, having
first exclaimed: "Ka[vc]ak Karadak Kralj Nikola barabar!" (that
is to say, "The Albanian and the Montenegrin are equal in the
eyes of King Nicholas!"). Ka[vc]ak is a word meaning a brigand,
an outlaw; the Montenegrins apply it to their neighbours, and
these latter, throwing their new caps in the air and cheering
for Nikita, did not mind what he called them.]

[Footnote 81: _Turkey in Europe._ London, 1900.]

[Footnote 82: _Ein Vorstoss in die Nordalbanischen Alpen._
Vienna, 1905.]

[Footnote 83: _Italy in the Balkans at this Hour._ Naples,
1913.]

[Footnote 84: _L'Albanie Independente_, by Dukagjin-Zadeh Basri
Bey. Paris, 1920.]

[Footnote 85: Cf. the _New Statesman_, February 5, 1921.]

[Footnote 86: When the Serbian troops arrived at Pri[vs]tina in
the Balkan War they discovered among the inhabitants of that
place a man who had not left his house for some fourteen years.
We are told (in _The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland,
Ireland_, etc., vol. v. London, 1921) of my Lord Eyre of
Eyrescourt in County Galway "that not one of the windows of his
castle was made to open, but luckily he had no liking for fresh
air." Yet probably his lordship's countenance had not the
pallor of the man of Pri[vs]tina, because "from an early dinner
to the hour of rest he never left his chair, nor did the claret
ever quit the table."]

[Footnote 87: When this account of the incident was published
in my small book, _A Difficult Frontier_, it caused a reviewer,
one I. M., in _The Near East_ to observe, that I "can be
jubilant when a Montenegrin in Yugoslav pay insults a British
officer, C