se are great events for
the young folks. It is a custom among the girls for those who are open
for engagement to wear a red feather in their hair. Of late years the
farmers have an organization that is not unlike the grange that we used
to have in this country. Through this they get better markets for what
they have to sell and lower prices for what they have to buy. Many who
read these lines can call to mind some of the great times that people
used to have in the meetings and great days in granger times.

The Servians have some queer customs in regard to death and funerals.
Almost every Servian prepares boards with which to make his own coffin
and keeps them in a dry place ready for use when he dies. Old women save
up money and sew it in their dresses, to be used to pay their funeral
expenses. If a farmer is able to afford it he generally keeps a barrel
of whisky in his cellar, to be drunk at his funeral.

When the body of a dead person is in the house no one eats anything and
the floors are not swept. After the funeral the floors are swept and the
broom thrown away. For a day after one dies a little bread and a glass
of wine are kept in the room with the dead body. They believe the soul
tarries awhile and might want to eat and drink. They also believe that
the soul lingers on earth forty days after death, visiting old familiar
places and on the fortieth day ascends to heaven.

On the day of a funeral an animal, likely a sheep, but never a goat, is
killed at the grave in the presence of one holding a wax candle. This
animal is then roasted and those attending the funeral have a feast, the
guests each bringing something to eat with the roast. Women never sing
or wear flowers or jewelry during the first year of mourning.

European civilization owes much to the Servians. For hundreds of years
these people have fought to save Europe from invasion. They have been
the bulwark of Christendom against the unspeakable Turk and his
religion. The bitter trials and hardships of the Servians have made them
brave, heroic and self-sacrificing. This is especially true of the
women as the following incident among many will show.

After all the hardships of the Balkan War, when diseases and suffering
were everywhere; when the land had been left uncultivated and hunger
stalked across the country and the women in both town and country had
toiled unceasingly; after all these days of misery, when Austria was
mentioned to a peasant woman