the three years of their married
life, only to arrive at this conviction. And you took them for bride and
groom? No wonder! since they still feast with unabated relish on connubial
sweets. Ah, well! such diet is not for me, my boy: I thrive upon sour
grapes."

PENN SHIRLEY.

OUR MONTHLY GOSSIP.

MIRIDITE COURTSHIP.

The Miridites were until very lately an unknown people to a vast majority
of even well-informed persons in Europe and America. But since their late
uprising against the Turks their name has appeared conspicuously in many
despatches from the seat of war, and their movements have excited the
active interest of the public all over the civilized world. Their close
proximity to the Montenegrins, their indomitable courage and love of
liberty, and the natural advantages of their country for purposes of
defence and for the infliction of damages on Turkish trade with the coast
of the Adriatic, all render them dangerous enemies to the Ottoman empire.
And, indeed, nothing but their greater hostility to the Montenegrins has
prevented their being a more troublesome neighbor to the Turks than the
latter have yet found them. Though apparently pacified for the present,
they are not likely to forget any grievance, real or imaginary, and they
may yet take a very active part in the operations of the hostile forces
near their country. A sudden movement on their part might have caused the
complete destruction of the Turkish army now overrunning Montenegro.

But it is not only in a political light that these little-known
mountaineers are interesting to the outside world. Their habits, character
and tones of thought are so essentially peculiar, and so widely different
not only from those of fully-civilized countries, but from those existing
in the districts immediately adjoining them, that in reading descriptions
of this part of Albania our interest is constantly being excited on some
new point.

Instead of dressing in rich and gorgeously-colored attire, like the other
Albanians, the Miridites wear a conspicuously plain costume. The dress of
the men consists of a long white woollen coat, a red belt, white
pantaloons, rough hide boots and a white felt cap. The women wear coats
like the men, embroidered and fringed aprons, red trousers, and blue
handkerchiefs twisted around the head. The dress of the priests seems to
us strikingly inappropriate, or at least far removed from our notions of
sacerdotal vestments. It co