possessed 100 guns and 15,000
cartridges. So pleased is their historian with the manner in which
they held their own--the rocks which surround Ciprovci are so many
natural fortresses--that he tells us not only the names of the thirty
warriors but those of the other inhabitants who carried milk and bread
to the outposts. On July 14, a Sunday, there was an exciting battle,
in the course of which the Bulgars suffered no human casualties, but
lost to the Serbs 900 sheep and a score of cattle, and this, says
Popoff, "made the women weep very much." As soon as possible a
telegram was sent to the War Office at Sofia, asking for
reinforcements, after which "their spirits rose to such a height that
they felt they could resist anything." On July 26 the Serbs were again
repulsed, but once more a number of sheep and cattle were carried off.
In conclusion the author thanks "all those who morally and materially
have helped and will help the cause," including the mayors of the
neighbourhood.

If the second Balkan War had not left memories more bitter than at
Ciprovci then the reconciling labours of those who follow Dr.
Milovanovi['c] would be less difficult. In our own day Mr. Leland
Buxton, working also for this union which eventually must come,
suggests in his _Black Sheep of the Balkans_[79] that Macedonia should
be made autonomous. But this would do no more than perpetuate the
wearisome and fierce intrigues of which exponents can be always found
in Balkan countries. Macedonia must become the common possession; and
what could be more desirable than that one of these countries should
administer the province in such a way as to attract the other country?
Marshal Mi[vs]i['c] was of opinion that the officials whom the Serbs,
after the Balkan War, placed in Macedonia were too often not the kind
of men whom wisdom would have chosen; but there was as yet a general
eagerness to avoid being sent to those unalluring parts. The officials
left behind them such unhappy recollections that the Serbian army,
advancing through Macedonia in 1918, was received, as a rule, with
something less than delight. Fortunately the Yugoslav Government was
able, after these events, to induce a far superior class of officials
to serve in Macedonia, though I believe the scale of remuneration is
no higher than in the old kingdom. Men are selected who, in addition
to other qualities, speak the Turkish or Albanian of the district.
"You can count on our moral and ma