nothing better to do, they tilled their
fields, or mowed their neighbours', carrying off, it should be noted, the
crop; or pastured their, flocks, watching the opportunity to trespass
over pasture limits. This was the normal and regular life of the
population of Epirus, Thesprotia, Thessaly, and Upper Albania. Lower
Albania, less strong, was also less active and bold; and there, as in
many other parts of Turkey, the dalesman was often the prey of the
mountaineer. It was in the mountain districts where were preserved the
recollections of Scander Beg, and where the manners of ancient Laconia
prevailed; the deeds of the brave soldier were sung on the lyre, and the
skilful robber quoted as an example to the children by the father of the
family. Village feasts were held on the booty taken from strangers; and
the favourite dish was always a stolen sheep. Every man was esteemed in
proportion to his skill and courage, and a man's chances of making a good
match were greatly enhanced when he acquired the reputation of being an
agile mountaineer and a good bandit.

The Albanians proudly called this anarchy liberty, and religiously
guarded a state of disorder bequeathed by their ancestors, which always
assured the first place to the most valiant.

It was amidst men and manners such as these that Ali Tepeleni was born.
He boasted that he belonged to the conquering race, and that he descended
from an ancient Anatolian family which had crossed into Albania with the
troops of Bajazet Ilderim. But it is made certain by the learned
researches of M. de Pouqueville that he sprang from a native stock, and
not an Asiatic one, as he pretended. His ancestors were Christian
Skipetars, who became Mussulmans after the Turkish invasion, and his
ancestry certainly cannot be traced farther back than the end of the
sixteenth century.

Mouktar Tepeleni, his grandfather, perished in the Turkish expedition
against Corfu, in 1716. Marshal Schullemburg, who defended the island,
having repulsed the enemy with loss, took Mouktar prisoner on Mount San
Salvador, where he was in charge of a signalling party, and with a
barbarity worthy of his adversaries, hung him without trial. It must be
admitted that the memory of this murder must have had the effect of
rendering Ali badly disposed towards Christians.

Mouktar left three sons, two of whom, Salik and Mahomet, were born of the
same mother, a lawful wife, but the mother of the youngest, Veli, was a