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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35231-8.txt b/35231-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a4c20e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/35231-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2536 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Serbia: A Sketch, by Helen Leah Reed + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Serbia: A Sketch + +Author: Helen Leah Reed + +Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35231] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + + + + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +[Illustration: KARAGEORGES--LIBERATOR OF SERBIA] + + + + +SERBIA: A SKETCH + +BY + +HELEN LEAH REED + +AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON'S YOUNG NEIGHBOR" "MISS THEODORA," ETC. + +[Illustration] + +WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE +SERBIAN DISTRESS FUND +555 Boylston Street, Boston +1917 + +Copyright, 1916 +BY HELEN LEAH REED + +THE PLIMPTON PRESS +NORWOOD MASS USA + + + _Serbia, valiant daughter of the Ages, + Happiness and light should be thy portion! + Yet thy day is dimmed, thine heart is heavy; + Long hast thou endured--a little longer + Bear thy burden, for a fair tomorrow + Soon will gleam upon thy flower-spread valleys, + Soon will brighten all thy shadowy mountains; + Soon will sparkle on thy foaming torrents + Rushing toward the world beyond thy rivers. + Bulgar, Turk and Magyar long assailed thee. + Now the Teuton's cruel hand is on thee. + Though he break thy heart and rack thy body, + 'Tis not his to crush thy lofty spirit. + Serbia cannot die. She lives immortal, + Serbia--all thy loyal men bring comfort + Fighting, fighting, and thy far-flung banner + Blazons to the world thy high endeavor, + --This thy strife for brotherhood and freedom-- + Like an air-free bird unknowing bondage, + Soaring far from carnage, smoke and tumult, + Serbia--thy soul shall live forever! + Serbia, undaunted, is immortal!_ + + +Among comparatively recent books in English accessible to the general +reader are: + +SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS +_Mijatovich_--L. C. Page Co. + +THE SERVIAN PEOPLE +_Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich_, 2 vols.--Scribners + +SERVIA BY THE SERVIANS +_Alfred Stead_--Heinemann + +THE SLAV NATIONS +_Tucic_--Hodder and Stoughton + +SERBIA, HER PEOPLE, HISTORY AND ASPIRATIONS +_Petrovitch_--Stokes + +THE STORY OF SERVIA +_Church_--Kelly + +HERO-TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE SERBIANS +_Petrovitch_--Harrap and Co. + +WITH SERBIA INTO EXILE +_Fortier Jones_--The Century Company + +The spelling of names follows "Servia by the Servians," except "Serb." + +The author is indebted to some of these books for facts embodied in this +little sketch--as well as to several persons familiar with Serbia. + +She gives warm thanks to Madame Slavko Grouitch, wife of the Serbian +Secretary for Foreign affairs, who first interested her in Serbia. + + + + +SERBIA: A SKETCH + + + + +I. SERBIA: STARTING + + +Serbia, younger sister of the Nations, has indeed had a younger sister's +portion. In her early years she grew up with little guidance from older +and wiser members of the family. She did not have the advice that she +needed. Perhaps she would not have followed it, though on occasion she +has shown more docility than many of the family. + +It took her a long time to find herself; she had troubles in her +household, and it was her first endeavor to get the factions to unite +and let her be the acknowledged head of the house. She believed it was +her ultimate destiny to govern them all--that this was for their good. + +When she had made herself mistress of her own house, she tried to stand +alone--to be independent of her neighbors. She had no wish to dominate +them. She did not try to aggrandize herself at their expense, nor did +she take up weapons against them. But she wished them to acknowledge her +head of her own household, just as those within her house had done. She +even was willing to be called a Princess--providing she governed her +household well. But almost hidden from the rest of Europe by her +mountains, kept by barriers from easy access to the rest of the world, +the other Nations paid little attention to her. She grew up almost +unnoticed by the world--proud and strong, simple in her tastes, pious in +her own way (for her church was not the church of most of her +neighbors), and thoughtful, if ill educated. + +She was not bookish in those early days; she was too indifferent, +perhaps, to letters. Had she kept a journal, we could now embroider her +story with more brilliant threads. Her lack of education was perhaps +rather her misfortune than her fault. Those who knew her realized her +many fine qualities, yet she made few friends beyond her own +borders,--and because she was independent and poor, her richer neighbors +were suspicious of her and jealous. This one and that one set upon her. +They were jealous when she first put on regal robes. They were afraid +that she wished to enlarge her possessions at their expense, and one of +them, who had assumed complete lordship over Serbia and all her sisters, +was constantly threatening her, pretending at times that if she could +help him against the foe from Asia who was threatening them both, she +should be acknowledged of royal rank. This did not wholly satisfy her. +Her ambitions had grown. She herself was reaching out for the Imperial +purple. She felt that if she wore it, she might better defend herself +and her relatives beyond the mountains from the Asiatic hordes. + +Then came the great test--and from then almost until to-day Kossovo has +been a day of mourning! + + +When the fair, gray-eyed ancestors of the modern Serb came south from +their home in Galicia, moving westward from the shores of the Black Sea, +along the left bank of the Danube, they crossed the river and occupied +the northwest corner of the Balkan Peninsula. How long they had lived in +Galicia we need not ask, but they bore with them traditions of a +catastrophe in India that was probably the cause of their remote +fathers' leaving that country. + +Pliny and Ptolemy mention the Serbs, and we know that for one hundred +years at least previous to 625 A.D. they were at war with the Empire. +The Roman Empire was then slowly disintegrating, and in the Balkans +there was no power to protect the Romanized Illyria from the northern +invaders who in prehistoric times had driven away the aboriginal +inhabitants. + +It matters little whether the Emperor Heraclius invited the Serbs to +settle down in the northwest Byzantine provinces lately devastated by +barbarians, on condition that they would defend the Empire against the +Tartar Avars, or whether he merely accepted the fact that they had +entered these provinces and must stay there. He made an agreement of +peace with the Serbs--and this marks the beginning of their known +history. He desired a buffer State, as the neighbors of the Serbs so +often have desired in later times. The lands the newcomers then occupied +are the Serb lands of to-day--Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, +Old Serbia, Macedonia, Dalmatia, the Banat, and to an extent Croatia and +Western Bulgaria--practically the ideal Pan-Serbia, but in this little +sketch, so far as it is possible, by "Serbia" is meant the Kingdom of +Serbia, at the north of the Balkan Peninsula. + +The Kingdom of Serbia is bounded by Bosnia, Old Serbia, Bulgaria, +Roumania, the Banat, and Slavonia. The boundary rivers are the Danube, +on the north separating it from Hungary and on the northeast from +Roumania; the Drina, on the northwest from Bosnia; the Save, on the +northwest from Croatia and Slavonia; the Timok, on the northeast from +Bulgaria. Various mountain ranges on the west separate it from Bosnia, +on the south and southwest from Turkey, and on the south and southeast +from Bulgaria. + +Until the tenth century, except Pliny and Ptolemy, the Emperor +Constantine Porphyrogenites is the only historian to speak of the Serbs, +and he but briefly; yet their history in those three centuries after +their arrival was an epitome of their history in later years in the +Balkan Peninsula. The general movement was the same. First, a constant +struggle on the one side to establish a union of the jupanias and on the +other side a constant resistance to such centralization. A jupania may +be roughly defined as a county within whose limits lived clans more or +less related to one another. The ruler was a Jupan, and it was not +strange that the more powerful Jupans should tend to absorb their weaker +neighbors. The successful man took the title of Grand Jupan. Jealousy of +the Grand Jupan would lead to assassination, dethronement, and +decentralization--and then would come a repetition of the violent and +bloody story. + +Another element of disorder in Serbia was the ancient Slavonic rule that +a Jupan might be succeeded, not by his son but by the oldest member of +his family. It was hardly to be counted against a strong Jupan that he +should try to arrange for his son to succeed him--yet this added to the +troubles of the Serbs. + +A third and later cause of Serb trouble was the Church. The Greek +Emperor and the Greek Church on the one side, and the Roman Catholic +Church represented by Venice and Hungary on the other, were continually +warring, not only for territory but for influence in the Serb provinces. +Yet in spite of apparent wavering, the Serbs from the time they adopted +Christianity have been constant to the Church of their early choice. + +Finally, the founding in the seventh century of the Bulgarian kingdom, +on the eastern and southeastern frontiers of Serbia, added to the +dangers of this tempestuous little nation. After the Frank and Bulgarian +Emperors in the first quarter of the ninth century had for some time +wrangled over the Serbian tribes, the Bulgarians at last succeeded in +placing a garrison in Belgrade. The Bulgarians ruled Rascia for seven +years, but it was like ruling an uninhabited land, as the larger part of +the Serbians had run away to Croatia. + +Almost two hundred years after the agreement with Heraclius the Serbs +had a strong Jupan who carried out the principles of concentration. This +Visheslav was probably a descendant of that Visheslav who had signed +the agreement with the Greek Emperor. His descendants, of whom the +greatest was Vlastimir, for three generations contributed to the unity +of Serbia by defending it against Bulgar and Frank, who were constantly +menacing even when not directly attacking. Towards the end of the ninth +century, in 871, under Basil the Macedonian, the Serbs acknowledged +again the suzerainty of the Greek Empire and accepted Christianity. This +was in the reign of Mertimir, but after his death almost all of the +Greek Serb provinces were lost to Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria. + +Though Serbia recovered part of her lost provinces, she could not hold +them. The political center of the Serbs had moved to Zeta (Montenegro) +and the mystic Prince Jovan Vladimir in the latter part of the tenth +century, sometimes called King of Zeta, tried in vain to stop the +triumphal march of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria through the Serb provinces. +He himself was taken a prisoner to Samuel's court, where he married the +Tsar's daughter, Kossara. He returned to Zeta as reigning Prince under +the suzerainty of Bulgaria, but in 1015 he was murdered by Samuel's +heir, and he now is venerated as a saint in Serbia. The first Serb +novel, "Vladimir and Kossara," published in the thirteenth century, is +founded on the life of this Prince. + +Zeta was too far from the racial center of Serbia to be a good political +center and soon the disintegration of the first Serb kingdom began. +Although Serbia recovered the provinces Bulgaria had taken, she was +unable to stand alone, and grudgingly accepted Greek suzerainty until +Prince Voislav--cousin of Vladimir of Zeta--started a successful revolt +against the Greeks and united under his own rule Zeta, Trebinje, and +Zahumle. His son, Michel Voislavich, annexed the Jupania of Rascia. In +1072 he proclaimed himself King and received the crown from Gregory +VII. This was an effort to free Serbia from the Greek overlordship, as +expressed in the Greek Church. In the next reign Serbia became better +known to the world when she welcomed the Crusaders under Raymond of +Toulouse, passing through on their way to the Holy Land. Then came +brighter days for Serbia. Stephen Nemanya, Grand Jupan of Rascia, who +lived near Novi Bazar (1122-1199), planned the union of all the jupanias +in one kingdom under one king. This he practically accomplished, for +though unable to include Bosnia, within ten years of his accession he +had almost doubled his territory. + +Later, when Stephen's ambition grew, he received Frederick Barbarossa, +passing through with his Crusaders, and gave him every honor due the +Empire when he visited Nish in 1188, and treated him so liberally that +Barbarossa--at least this is something more than rumor--was considering +a marriage between his son and Stephen's daughter when death put an end +to the alliance. In the next reign the Emperor Henry VI planned, with +the help of the Serbs, to conquer the Byzantine Empire. But again death +took the Emperor before the plans were completed. + +Another notable act of Stephen's was his attack on the Greek provinces +as an ally of the King of Hungary. Stephen Nemanya assumed the +double-eagle as the insignia of his dignity, but though he founded the +first real Kingdom of Serbia, and was called King, he was never crowned. + +Toward the close of his distinguished career, in 1196, weary of the +world, he withdrew to the Monastery Helinder on Mt. Athos, where years +before his youngest son Rastko had retired. Stephen died after three +years of monastic life. The historic records of Serbia begin with his +reign. + +Rastko, known in the Church as Sava and afterwards canonized, was a man +of active temperament--a statesman as well as a churchman. He used his +wisdom and his learning to benefit his country. + +Stephen, son of Nemanya, was the first crowned King of Serbia. He kept +off foreign enemies, and Serbia, no longer dreading attacks, began to +develop some of her mineral resources. She made a beginning, too, of +educating her people. In the next two or three generations of rulers +there were quarrels among members of the ruling family. Outside, too, +the Magyars began to press upon the little kingdom. But on the whole +Serbia was united,--mindful, perhaps, of St. Sava's motto: "Only Union +is Serbia's Salvation." + +Stephen the Sixth, or "The Great," won victories over the Greek +Emperors, the Tartars, and the Bulgarians. He helped the Greek Emperor +against the Turks, now becoming formidable, and as part of his reward +had the Emperor's daughter given him in marriage. But this led to +domestic unhappiness in his later years and some loss of territory. For +his wife tried to keep his son Stephen from his inheritance. In turn, +Stephen's party set upon the King and choked him to death. Though +Stephen Dushan may have had no hand in it, this murder clouds his +reputation. Stephen Dushan is a contradictory character--by some +regarded as the murderer of his father, by others an idealist to be +compared with King Arthur or with Roland. Stephen Dushan (Detchanski), +great-grandson of Stephen Nemanya, came to the throne in 1331 and in ten +years had gained Albania and Epirus and finally all Macedonia except +Salonika. He was practically suzerain of Bulgaria. He freed the Church, +which long since had drifted from Rome back to Byzance. Now he made it +independent of the Greek Emperor, constituting the Archbishop of Petch, +Archbishop, or rather Patriarch, of Serbia. + +Noted both as a soldier and a statesman, Stephen had wider plans than +Vlasimir or Nemanya. The Turks were now looming dangerously in the +East. The Greek Empire was tottering. With it, the rest of Eastern +Europe might fall, including little Serbia--one of the smallest of all +the little principalities. But Serbia, if small, was brave, and Dushan +hoped to proclaim a Serbo-Greek Empire to head off the Asiatic hordes. +To accomplish this he took certain territory from the Greek Empire and, +proclaiming himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, was solemnly +crowned at Uksub at Easter, 1346. Nine years later he tried to unite +Bulgars and Serbs and Greeks against the Turks. With a large army of +about one hundred thousand trained soldiers he was almost at the gates +of Constantinople when a sudden illness overtook him and he died. + +Under Dushan Serbia had very nearly reached her highest +ambition--complete dominion over the Balkan Peninsula. Dushan ruled also +a large part of the former Byzantine lands in Europe. + +Of farther-reaching good for Serbia than his territorial conquests was +the Zakonik or Code of Laws, completed in 1354 under Dushan's direction. +It contained not only the best of the old, but many new, laws resulting +from Dushan's knowledge of his country's needs. It ranks high among +medieval codes of law. After his death, his empire separated itself into +its elements--a number of small states whose rulers were fighting one +another while the Turks were subduing Thrace. + +With the death of Dushan in 1355 the greatness of Serbia also passed +away. His son, Urosh, could not hold what his father had gained, and +little by little parts of his Empire fell off from the center, until but +a small fragment remained. Yet there were still many stout-hearted +Serbs--many who wished to do their utmost to throw off the Turks now +pressing upon them. When Urosh died childless, the direct Nemanya +dynasty came to an end, but in 1371 Lazar Grebelyanovitch of the +Nemanya family was elected ruler of the Serbs. Though called Tsar, he +would not formally take the title. Devoted to his country, he threw all +his energy into forming a Christian League against the Turks. + +But the wily Oriental circumvented him by attacking the members of the +League one by one. For nearly twenty years after that there were many +encounters between Turks and Serbians. At the first attack on Nish, +Serbia so humbled herself as to agree to pay tribute in gold and in +soldiers for the Sultan's armies on condition the Turks would leave her +alone. + +Later Lazar did his utmost to save poor Serbia from further disgrace. He +united with the Ban of Bosnia, also a descendant of Stephen Nemanya, and +together they gained many small victories. After once defeating the +invading Turks under Murat I the Serbs had to stand a second time +opposed to Murat and a well-trained force of Turkish soldiers. Against +the Turks were drawn up the full strength of Serbia, Albania, and +Bosnia. + +There on the field of Kossovo, the "field of blackbirds," June 15, 1389, +was fought one of the decisive battles of history. It was a bitter +defeat for Serbia, though as many Turks as Serbs perished on the field. +On the eve of the battle Murat I had been assassinated. The brave Lazar +with the flower of the Serb nation lay dead--Lazar first made prisoner, +then beheaded. Of all Serbian rulers, the memory of Lazar was held the +dearest. "A pious and generous prince, a brave but unsuccessful +general." + +There was no longer any question as to supremacy in the Balkan +Peninsula. The independence of Serbia and the liberties of all the +smaller states were now the property of the unspeakable Turk. + +Lazar, it is said, was warned of his fate by a letter from Heaven even +before the battle, but he still went forward to fight for his country. +Bowring's translation of the heroic pesma (Battle of Kossovo) gives an +idea of this event. Before the battle Lazar receives the mysterious +letter: + + "Tzar Lasar! thou tzar of noble lineage! + Tell me now, what kingdom hast thou chosen? + Wilt thou have heaven's kingdom for thy portion, + Or an earthly kingdom? If an earthly, + Saddle thy good steed--and gird him tightly; + Let thy heroes buckle on their sabres, + Smite the Turkish legions like a tempest, + And these legions all will fly before thee. + But if thou wilt have heaven's kingdom rather, + Speedily erect upon Kossova, + Speedily erect a church of marble; + Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet; + That the army, to its vespers going, + May from sin be purged--for death be ready; + For thy warriors all are dooméd to stumble; + Thou, too, prince, wilt perish with thy army!" + + When the Tzar Lasar had read the writing, + Many were his thoughts and long his musings. + "Lord, my God! what--which shall be my portion, + Which my choice of these two proffer'd kingdoms? + Shall I choose heaven's kingdom? shall I rather + Choose an earthly one? for what is earthly + Is as fleeting, vain, and unsubstantial; + Heavenly things are lasting, firm, eternal." + + So the Tzar preferr'd a heavenly kingdom + Rather than an earthly. On Kossova + Straight he built a church, but not of marble; + Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet. + Then he calls the patriarch of Servia, + Calls around him all the twelve archbishops, + Bids them make the holy supper ready, + Purify the warriors from their errors, + And for death's last conflict make them ready. + + So the warriors were prepared for battle, + And the Turkish hosts approach Kossova. + Bogdan leads his valiant heroes forward, + With his sons--nine sons--the Jugocichi, + Sharp and keen--nine gray and noble falcons. + Each led on nine thousand Servian warriors; + And the aged Jug led twenty thousand. + + With the Turks began the bloody battle. + Seven pashas were overcome and scatter'd, + But the eighth pasha came onward boldly, + And the aged Jug Bogdan has fallen. + + ....*....*....*....* + + Then Lasar, the noble lord of Servia, + Seeks Kossova with his mighty army; + Seven and seventy thousand Servian warriors. + How the infidels retire before him, + Dare not look upon his awful visage! + Now indeed begins the glorious battle. + He had triumph'd then, had triumph'd proudly, + But that Vuk--the curse of God be on him! + He betrays his father at Kossova. + + So the Turks the Servian monarch vanquish'd, + So Lasar fell--the Tzar of Servia-- + With Lasar fell all the Servian army. + But they have been honor'd, and are holy, + In the keeping of the God of heaven. + +All that the Nemanyas, all that the Serbian people had done toward +national unity was destroyed at Kossovo. Throughout Serb lands, the +anniversary of Kossovo is still kept as a memorial day for all Serbian +heroes, both for those who fell then and those who have since fallen in +defense of their country. + +For seventy years after Kossovo, Serbia, though nominally ruled by +despots, was really subsidiary to the Sultan. George Brankovitch, one of +the despots, worked for an alliance between Serbia and Hungary to +overthrow the Turks. The Turks were defeated at Kunovista, and lands +previously taken were restored to him. This brave man died at the age of +ninety of wounds received in a duel with a Hungarian nobleman. But in +spite of the efforts of Brankovitch, the days of Serbia were numbered. +In 1459 she became a Pashilik under the direct government of the +Porte--and this was her condition for nearly three hundred and fifty +years. + +If in her darkest hour some strong nation had sympathized with Serbia, +her future might have been different. The nations of Europe were now +having a revival of life--a renaissance--but they had no thought of +Serbia, their young sister. She was hidden among her mountains and she +made no outcry. She had tried to do what she could for herself. She had +had her moments of power and happiness. Now came a long, long night. + +[Illustration: CHURCH AT RAVINITZA--WHERE LAZAR WAS BURIED] + +In the darker days many Serbs fled to the mountains, sometimes to carry +on their occupation of farmer so far as they could, unmolested by the +Turk; sometimes to become Haiduks--the Robin Hoods of the mountains and +forests--to steal from the Moslem when it was possible, to give to the +poor Serb; always to keep up an unceasing guerrilla warfare. + +Serbians were sold as slaves by the ten thousands to Constantinople and +to Egypt. Whenever they could, they fled their country to Venice, to +Dalmatia, to Hungary. Those who stayed in Serbia were not meek and so +far as they could they resisted their oppressor. The Church was the +mainstay of the nation; indeed, even to-day, the Serbian Church is a +national rather than a religious organization. Before the end of Serb +power came, southern Hungary had begun to receive many Serbian +immigrants; by the middle of the sixteenth century they were numerous +along the borders of Croatia and Slavonia. Although to a large extent +farm laborers, they were soldiers as well, and fought in many battles +for Austria. In the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of +the sixteenth century, the Serbs in the Hungarian army formed the famous +"Black Legion" and won great fame. In the latter part of the seventeenth +century thirty-seven thousand Serbians went in a body to South Hungary, +and fifty years later one hundred thousand, migrating to Russia, formed +a colony by themselves. In 1690 the Emperor Leopold had granted a fair +amount of liberty, civil as well as religious, to the large organized +body of Serbs who had settled in South Hungary. Their privileges were +from time to time confirmed, especially when the Emperor needed help +from the Serbs against some one of his numerous enemies. At other times +the Serbs in Hungary had no flowery path. Austria was always playing +fast and loose with them, and at last, toward the end of the eighteenth +century, though Austria was treating them well, they saw they had little +cause to hope that she would free them from the Turkish yoke. The +ancient ill will of Hungary against Serbia persisted, and sometimes laws +passed in her favor by Austria were in the end suppressed or nullified +by Hungarian efforts. + + + + +II. SERBIA: SINGING + + +Serbia, in the hands of a cruel conqueror, stripped of most of her +possessions, bereft of happiness, forgotten by her sister nations, had +little left but hope. She still clung to her ideals of brotherhood and +freedom, and she held close her great treasure, a gift inherited from +her remote northern ancestors--her gift of song. Her songs--virile, yet +somewhat softened by contact with her southern neighbors--cheered and +strengthened her. She sang and sang, in a minor key, and her mountains +reëchoed with the deeds of her happier days, with the stories of her +heroes, now seeming more splendid because she herself had become so poor +and unhappy. For centuries she was like one stunned; she had never been +aggressive--now she could not fight against the aggressor who had all +the weapons in his own hands. + +A younger sister--and poor at that!--a younger sister, who had set out +to be perfectly independent--what could she expect? She must work out +her own salvation. Besides, she lived so far away from the centers of +culture she was almost a barbarian. Yet she was not wholly uncouth. She +had been courteous to the Crusaders traversing Europe to crush their +common enemy--the Turk; and now the Turk had captured her! Of course it +was a pity! It was a busy time in Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries; the nations had enough to do to keep their own houses in +order,--and when they had leisure they must keep in touch with new life, +with the renaissance of Art and Learning. They were enchanted with the +discovery that they were not mere parvenus like distant Serbia, but +descendants of that grand old house that had once conquered the world. +The beauty of Paganism--ah, that was something worth contemplating! But +Serbia--well, the Crusades were over, and the Turk was no longer +threatening Western Europe; besides, Serbia had not even belonged to +their Church--so what matter if the Turk crushed her? + +But Serbia was not crushed. Had the nations listened, they could have +heard her singing. There was little else she could do, except wait and +hope--wait like her Marko for the signal to rise. + + +Through five centuries of subjection to the Turks, the guslars, singing +the heroic pesmas, were hardly second in influence to the priests in +fortifying the spirits of the suffering Serbs. The intense patriotism of +the Serb was kept alive, indeed was often kindled, by the folk songs he +had heard even in his cradle. Through all his troubles he has cherished +the divine fire of Nationality, even as the Vestals conserved the sacred +flame. + +The Serb, belonging to the most poetical of nations, has the most +melodious of all Slav tongues--identical with that of the Croats and yet +used as the language of literature a comparatively short time. Even +little more than a hundred years ago people were still arguing whether +ancient Slavonic or the Serbian vernacular should be the language of +literature. But for Dossitie Obradovitch this result might have been +reached less quickly. He, "the great sower," a notable educator, applied +the language of the people to literature, publishing an autobiography, +besides poems and treatises, in the common tongue. Before his death, in +1811, the "Write as you speak" party had won, and literature became the +property of the masses. Yet a further improvement in the language was +undertaken by Vuk Karadgitch, a self-taught cripple, whose grammar, +published in 1814, was epochal. He it was who devised the alphabet of +thirty letters, each one representing a complete sound, and he published +a dictionary and a collection of the pesmas which he took down from the +mouths of the guslars who sang them. Then, when various translations +appeared, Europe remembered vaguely that diplomats and travelers +generations before had brought back accounts of Serbian poetry heard +almost as often in those days in foreign countries as in Serbia itself. + +Goethe was one of the first to translate them and call attention to +those pesmas. He praised their humor and philosophy, their high heroism +mingled with certain spiritual qualities. Soon Sir John Bowring, a +skilled linguist, made a translation into English verse which is nearer +the original in spirit and letter than any that has been made since. + +There have also been many fine prose translations of the Kossovo cycle +and of other pesmas, and all readers agree that in them is, as one +critic says, "a clear and inborn poetry, such as can scarcely be found +in any other modern people." + +"Serbian song," wrote Schafferik, "resembles the tone of the violin; old +Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that of the guitar. The old +Slavonian in the Psalms sounds like the loud rush of the mountain +stream; the Polish like the sparkling and bubbling of a fountain; and +the Serbian like the quiet murmuring of a streamlet in a valley." + +The Serb loves to sing; every young countryman carries his gusle, and is +ready to use it--a one-stringed violin, shaped something like a +mandolin, played on the knee with a bow, like a violoncello. Men and +women--peasants and townsmen--all sing. When two or more sing together, +it is unison and not part-singing. The national Serb music is rich in +melodies. The traveler to-day hears the Serb singing a ballad of the +days of Stephen Dushan of Kossovo, of the Bulgar War, of Karageorges +(the William Tell of the mountains). The gusle wails monotonously, with +an occasional trill on one or two minor notes. Some find its music +plaintive, others call it tiresome, and travelers as long ago as the +beginning of the eighteenth century have written of seeing numbers of +people in a crowd silently weeping as they listened to an old blind man +chanting the national songs. + +There are two great epic cycles--one centering around Tsar Lazar, the +other around Marko--and both have to do with the Battle of Kossovo. +Fragments of other cycles show that Dushan, Milos Obilich, and other +heroes have been each a chief figure in them. + +No matter how unlearned, from one point of view, a Serb may be, he can +always talk about Stephen Nemanya, or St. Sava, or Marko, and the other +great men of his race. Moreover, he is continually creating new songs, +new folk lore. In the great mills of this country he lightens his work +with his simple melodies. Sometimes the words of his song form a clear +narration of the events that brought him to America, even of happenings +since his arrival. His own sorrows, his own joys, are woven in his epic. +After their recent war with Bulgaria, everywhere at village festivals, +the Serbs began to sing of their victories, and to-day they are +undoubtedly singing of the sorrows of the past two years. + +Mr. Miatovich says that when as Cabinet Minister he had been defeated, +forty years ago, the next day he heard the people singing this event in +the streets. + +Whatever the subject--whether it deals with ancient times or with the +present; whether it is an epic or one of the so-called women's +songs--the Serbian pesma is anonymous. No single writer or composer +claims it. It is the work of the people, all of whom have had a chance +to modify it as it has passed through the ages. + +Among all the heroes of the guslars the favorite has always been Prince +Marko. Although much of the career of the Marko of the pesmas was +fabulous, this prince had a real existence in the latter part of the +fourteenth century--the son of Vukashin, who tried to usurp the throne +of young Urosh after the death of Stephen Dushan, and Queen Helen, +unless one prefers to account for Marko's glittering qualities by making +him the offspring of a dragon and a fairy queen. The real Marko was not +a great man, as the world counts greatness. He ruled a small territory +in Macedonia, and Prilip was his capital. He is said to have been +friendly with the Turks and to have died fighting for the Sultan. This +was after Kossovo, when Serbia was sleeping. Yet he must have had +qualities that made him rise above this in popular estimation, for his +local reputation grew with time and became national. Certainly for five +centuries he has been a living personality, not only in Serbian but in +Croatian, Bulgarian, and Roumanian tradition. + +It is worth considering--this theory that in Prince Marko the Serbian +nation projects itself; that his sufferings and successes are the +sufferings and successes of the whole nation; that it beholds its own +virtues and weaknesses in his; its own individuality in his popular +personality; its own doom in his tragic fate. + +Athletic, keen-minded, quickly reading the designs of his foes, he, as +an individual, was what Serbia would like to have been as a political +entity. Even as he triumphed over Magyar, Venetian or Turk, so would the +Serb have triumphed. When Serbia was sunk in poverty the guslar brought +before his hearers visions of splendid things they could never hope to +see, but whose beauties satisfied their imagination. + +Marko is the knight without fear, without reproach--the lover of +justice, the hater of all oppression. He is kind and dutiful, the +protector of the poor and abused. His pity extends even to animals, who +in turn often helped him. "He feared no one but God." Courteous to all +women, tender and dutiful to his mother, Marko could be savage and cruel +beyond belief toward the Turks. + +Human weapons never harmed him, and he wielded a war club weighing one +hundred pounds, composed of sixty pounds of steel, thirty pounds of +silver, and ten pounds of gold. One touch of this mace beheaded a foe, +as one stroke of his saber ripped him open. + +Marko's horse, Sharaz, his constant companion and helper, was the +strongest and swiftest horse ever known. He knew just when to kneel down +and save his master from the adversary's lance. He knew how to rear and +strike the enemy's charger with his forefeet. When roused he would +spring up three lance lengths forward. Glittering sparks flashed from +beneath his hoof, blue flame from his nostrils. He has been known to +bite off the ears of the enemy's horse; sometimes he trampled Turkish +soldiers to death. Marko fed him bread and wine from his own dishes. +Sharaz kept guard over Marko while he slept. He always shared the glory +of victory. + +Yet, whether or not Marko personifies Serbia, in the life of Marko the +current of Serbian medieval life is reflected as in a mirror. + +In these poems Turks are always unreliable and cruel; Venetians are +crafty; the faithless wife is usually lured away by a Turk. In one vivid +tale, Marko's own bride, as he is taking her home from Bulgaria, is +stolen by a Doge of Venice, who, with three hundred attendants, had been +invited by her father to be part of her bridal procession. His designs +do not succeed, and when Marko comprehends this treachery he does not +hesitate. "He cleft the Doge's head in twain," and he struck another +traitor with his saber "so neatly" that he fell to earth in two pieces. + +The touch of exaggeration in all the stories is not one merely of +incident but of detail--the kind of exaggeration a child loves. For +example, when Marko was brought from the cell where the Sultan had +imprisoned him for three years, his nails were so long that he could +plow with them. The Serbs of those days, having few splendid things in +their own surroundings, loved to endow Marko with grandeur. On his tent, +for instance, was fixed a golden apple. "In the apple are fixed two +large diamonds which shed a light so far and wide that the neighboring +tents need no candle at night." In another instance a magnificent ring +is described, "so richly studded with precious stones that the whole +room was lighted up." + +The ransom demanded by Marko and his friend Milosh from the Magyar +General Voutchka was more than magnificent. He was to give three tovars +of gold for each (a tovar was as much as a horse could carry on his +back), and, among other things, a gilded coach harnessed with twelve +Arabian coursers used by General Voutchka when visiting the Empress at +Vienna. Voutchka's wife not only agrees to this, but adds one thousand +ducats for each of the two. Even in a poem, it delighted the Serbs to +have a Magyar in their power. + +Sometimes Marko's adversary is a Moor--for example, the Moor who wishes +to marry the Sultan's daughter and the other Moor who demanded a wedding +tax from the maidens of Kossovo. He cut off the head of this Moor with +one touch of his mace. At another time he is imprisoned by a Sultan +whose daughter releases him. He has promised to marry her. But when they +have started on their elopement, and she lifts her veil, he is horrified +to see how black she is. There seemed nothing for him to do but to run +away. Yet he knows that he has committed a sin in breaking his +promise--and he confesses this sin to his mother: + + "Then I sprang upon the back of Sharaz, + And I heard the maiden's lips address me-- + 'Thou in God my brother--thou--oh, Marko! + Leave me not! thus wretched do not leave me!' + + Therefore, mother! wretched do I lowly penance: + Thus, my mother! have I gold o'erflowing, + Therefore seek I righteous deeds unceasing." + +In these pesmas one has glimpses not only of all the neighbors who +warred upon the Serbians, but of Christian malcontents going over to the +Church of Rome or sowing dissensions at home. A careful reader can get +an almost complete picture of the Serbian life after the Conquest, +painted, to be sure, in high colors. + +In most of the Serbian heroic pesmas there is little of that +superstitious element that marks the ordinary life of the Serb to-day, +except in the almost constant presence of the Vila. Marko's Vila never +loses an opportunity to help him, to warn him, and even to scold him. + +The Serbian Vila, so conspicuous in Serbian song and story, may be +roughly defined as a guardian angel. She is a vaguely beautiful maiden +born of the dew and nurtured in a mysterious mountain and seems to +combine qualities of both classic and northern mythologies. She has +qualities which are even essentially Christian, for sometimes she +expresses her belief in God and St. John, and always she has a deadly +hatred for the Turk. No higher compliment can be paid a lady than to +say, "as fair as the mountain Vila," and a steed "swift as a Vila" means +one of great value. Occasionally Marko reproves his Vila Rayviola and +once when she has shot an arrow through the throat and another through +the head of his friend Milosh, he pursues her among the clouds on his +horse Sharaz and brings her to earth with his club, ungallantly adding: +"Thou hadst better give him healing herbs lest thou shalt not carry +longer thy head upon thy shoulders." But generally Marko's attitude is +more affectionate: "Where art thou now, my sister-in-God, thou Vila?" + +There are in existence about thirty-eight poems and twice as many prose +legends detailing the thrilling exploits of Marko. In spite of certain +accounts of his death, it is generally thought that he never died, but +withdrew to a cave near the castle of Prilip and is still asleep there. +At times he awakes and looks to see if a sword has come out of a rock +where he thrust it to the hilt. When it is out of the rock, he will know +that the time has come for him to appear among the Serbians once more to +reestablish the Empire destroyed at Kossovo. Even now, on occasions, he +may appear to help his disheartened country-men. An interesting story +of the War of 1912-13 is told that bears directly on this belief. The +Serbian forces were storming the fort at Prilip when their general +ordered a delay. In spite of this, they pushed on and ran straight to +the castle of the royal prince, Marko. The general trembled, believing +that without the help of his artillery, for which he was waiting, these +men of the infantry would be wholly destroyed. But even while dreading +this, he saw the Serbian national colors flying from the donjon of +Marko's castle. His Serbs had driven the Turks away and were victorious, +as it proved, with little loss of life. When he reproved them for +risking so much: "But we were ordered by Prince Marko, did you not see +him on his Sharaz? Prince Marko commanded us all the time--'Forward! +forward!'" They really believed that they had seen their hero. + +Two passages from the heroic pesmas may serve to show Marko under +different aspects. In the first he has been invited by the Grand Vizier +to go hunting, in company with twelve Turks. He has obeyed the Vizier's +command and has loosed his falcon. + + Then the princely Marko loosed his falcon; + To the clouds of heaven aloft he mounted; + Then he sprung upon the gold-wing'd swimmer-- + Seized him--rose, and down they fell together. + When the bird of Amurath sees the struggle, + He becomes indignant with vexation: + 'Twas of old his custom to play falsely-- + For himself alone to gripe his booty: + So he pounces down on Marko's falcon, + To deprive him of his well-earn'd trophy. + But the bird was valiant as his master; + Marko's falcon has the mind of Marko: + And his gold-wing'd prey he will not yield him. + Sharply turns he round on Amurath's falcon, + And he tears away his proudest feathers. + + Soon as the Visir observes the contest, + He is fill'd with sorrow and with anger; + Rushes on the falcon of Prince Marko, + Flings him fiercely 'gainst a verdant fir-tree, + And he breaks the falcon's dexter pinion. + Marko's noble falcon groans in suffering, + As the serpent hisses from the cavern. + Marko flies to help his favourite falcon, + Binds with tenderness the wounded pinion, + And with stifled rage the bird addresses: + "Woe for thee, and woe for me, my falcon! + I have left my Servians--I have hunted + With the Turks--and all these wrongs have suffer'd." + +But Marko did not content himself with words and the Grand Vizier had +hardly time to warn his companions when Marko cleft his head asunder and +proceeded to cut each of his twelve companions in two. After +deliberation he went to the Sultan and told what he had done. The Sultan +laughed, for he was afraid of the light in Marko's eyes and chose to +dissemble: "If thou hadst not behaved thus I would no longer have called +thee my son. Any Turk may become Grand Vizier, but there is no hero to +equal Marko," and he dismissed Marko with presents. + +In the second, "The Death of Marko," he has been warned by the Vila that +his death is near, and he obeys her commands. + + Marko did as counsell'd by the Vila. + When he came upon the mountain summit, + To the right and left he look'd around him; + Then he saw two tall and slender fir-trees; + Fir-trees towering high above the forest, + Covered all with verdant leaves and branches. + Then he rein'd his faithful Sharaz backwards, + Then dismounted--tied him to the fir-tree; + Bent him down, and looked into the fountain, + Saw his face upon the water mirror'd, + Saw his death-day written on the water. + + Tears rush'd down the visage of the hero: + "O thou faithless world!--thou lovely flow'ret! + Thou wert lovely--a short pilgrim's journey-- + Short--though I have seen three centuries over-- + And 'tis time that I should end my journey!" + + Then he drew his sharp and shining sabre, + Drew it forth--and loosed the sabre-girdle; + And he hasten'd to his faithful Sharaz: + With one stroke he cleft his head asunder, + That he never should by Turk be mounted, + Never be disgraced in Turkish service, + Water draw, or drag a Moslem's Jugum. + Soon as he had cleaved his head asunder, + Graced a grave he for his faithful Sharaz, + Nobler grave than that which held his brother. + Then he broke in four his trusty sabre, + That it might not be a Moslem's portion, + That it might not be a Moslem's triumph, + That it might not be a wreck of Marko, + Which the curse of Christendom should follow. + Soon as he in four had broke his sabre, + Next he broke his trusty lance in seven; + Threw the fragments to the fir-trees' branches. + Then he took his club, so terror-striking, + In his strong right hand, and swiftly flung it, + Flung it from the mountain of Urvina, + Far into the azure, gloomy ocean. + To his club thus spake the hero Marko: + "When my club returneth from the ocean, + Shall a hero come to equal Marko." + + When he thus had scatter'd all his weapons, + From his breast he drew a golden tablet; + From his pocket drew unwritten paper, + And the princely Marko thus inscribed it: + "He who visits the Urvina mountain, + He who seeks the fountain 'neath the fir-trees, + And there finds the hero Marko's body, + Let him know that Marko is departed. + When he died, he had three well-fill'd purses: + + How well fill'd? Well fill'd with golden ducats. + One shall be his portion, and my blessing, + Who shall dig a grave for Marko's body: + Let the second be the church's portion; + Let the third be given to blind and maim'd ones, + That the blind through earth in peace may wander, + And with hymns laud Marko's deeds of glory." + + And when Marko had inscribed the letter, + Lo! he stuck it on the fir-tree's branches, + That it might be seen by passing travellers. + In the front he threw his golden tablets, + Doff'd his vest of green, and spread it calmly + On the grass, beneath a sheltering fir-tree; + Cross'd him, and lay down upon his garment; + O'er his eyes he drew his samur-kalpak, + Laid him down,--yes! laid him down for ever. + + By the fountain lay the clay-cold Marko + Day and night; a long, long week he lay there. + Many travellers pass'd, and saw the hero,-- + Saw him lying by the public path-way; + And while passing said, "The hero slumbers!" + Then they kept a more than common distance, + Fearing that they might disturb the hero. + + + + +III. SERBIA: SEAWARD + + +The Nations of Europe that had over-looked Serbia in her days of +strength--she was so young, and so far away, half hidden in her +wilderness of mountains--the Nations of Europe that had turned deaf ears +to her cries when the Turk attacked her, began to make inquiries about +the little sister. She had been asleep so long that some of them really +imagined her dead. But they heard some plaintive music: they recognized +her voice as she sang. They saw that she was not only alive, but awake, +thoroughly wide awake, and that she was asking for help. But they had +troubles enough of their own--revolutions and things of that kind. The +people were altogether too troublesome--so at least the rulers said--and +the people, who ought to have heeded poor Serbia's cries, did not take +time to find out just who she was, and what she desired. All might have +been different had they known that Serbia was one of themselves, +acknowledging no privileged classes and desiring little but a chance to +get on her feet and walk alone. For this she needed space to expand in, +space in which to exhale the spirit of freedom that filled her. The +Turk, her master, was growing weaker. She could almost strike off her +own shackles when suddenly a deliverer came--one of her own people, a +son of her mountains. + +When her master was driven away, Serbia began to look about her, a +little humbly at first, for she was trying to understand herself. She +saw that she needed education before she could take her proper place in +the world. So she set herself bravely to learn from books. She noticed +that the stronger Nations were governed by rules, and she gave herself a +Constitution patterned on theirs. Regular work was hard for her, but she +worked diligently and saved a little, though disinclined to hoard. She +had rich treasures hidden away but she had never thought about them, +even as playthings. What does a child care for diamonds? But when it was +made clear to her that wealth is power, she worked more heartily. + +The other Nations began to admit that Serbia was no longer Nobody. +Indeed she was so near being Somebody that many thought it would be wise +to win her friendship, and wiser to put her under obligations. So when +she asked for an Hereditary Prince, presto! the thing was accomplished! +though once she had hardly dared ask more than the privilege of naming +her own chief. + +In outward aspect Serbia began to be more like other people, although +some of her neighbors remembered too well her hoydenish days and her +years of poverty. Still, they could flatter her sometimes, for she held +the key to certain things that several of them needed--trade routes, +fertile lands, and other things that no ambitious Nation should live +without. Soon some of her neighbors desired to control the sale of +things that modestly enough she had begun to offer to the world. She had +heard that money was power, and she hoped to send her goods to market in +the best way. She noticed that every one who made a success of business +had a place by the sea. In the whole family of Nations she was the only +one who had not a place by the sea, except the littlest one perched up +in the high mountains. But this little one makes a success by trading in +beauty. Yet beauty is an intangible thing to carry to any market and is +best disposed of in the mountains themselves. + +When Serbia first expressed her longing for the sea every one frowned. +"Impossible!" There were other things that ought to please her as +well--opportunities to help them in their wars, little snips of +territory here and there if she helped them gain anything. But a +seaport--ridiculous! Why, the Imperial cousin on one side of her would +be insulted! What better could little Serbia wish than to market her +goods to him, or at least send them over routes he had picked out? + +Then Serbia said less and thought more. She sang less, but she composed +more songs, and she listened to the people talking, not singing. She +found she could not live by poetry alone. The Young Serbs and the +Panslavs told her their plans and she looked hopefully at her big +fur-clad Cousin. But though with him it wasn't a question of trade, he +had ambitions of his own. He wasn't sure but that Serbia with a seat by +the sea might watch him too closely. Then all the others in the great +family of Nations took sides with one or the other. + +Serbia was restless, but she knew she could wait. Her household was now +much more closely united than in the days of her youth, and she had +realized what had once seemed a vain dream--comparative independence. So +she could wait! + + +Who would look at pictures of massacres extending throughout Serbia! at +plundered villages! at tortured women and fatherless children shrieking +in agony! All the horrors inflicted by the Turks on the Serbs in the +early nineteenth century were the convulsive movements of one near his +end. The Turk himself was growing weaker and weaker, and his weakness +was Serbia's opportunity. But where was the man to lead her out of +bondage? There was now no heir to her throne, the throne of what had +once been a proud kingdom. Assassination and exile had led also to the +passing of the old nobility. Although the family of the ancient kings +was no more, the old racial stock had little changed. The Serbs were +still of the same indomitable race, still breathing the spirit of +freedom, still bound to one another in a true brotherhood. Yet, loyal +though they were, ready to die for Serbia, where could they look for a +leader? + +In the early part of 1804, Mustapha Pasha, the Turkish Governor of +Belgrade, was much too kind and benign a man to suit the Janissaries and +the Dahias, their leaders. They had dealt slaughter right and left, and +at last had killed Mustapha himself because he had opposed their +cruelty. While they were planning a general massacre of the most eminent +Serbs in the country, all Serbs who could were fleeing to the mountains. +The rumored massacre was the last straw, and a silent cry arose, "Oh, +for the right man!" Then came the whisper that a leader had been +found--Karageorges, Black George, a prosperous raiser of swine, at this +time about forty years old. He had served in the Austrian armies nearly +twenty years before under Joseph I, that Emperor who, of all the +Austrian monarchs, is said to have meant the most and to have done the +least. + +Karageorges, Black George, so called either on account of his dark +complexion or his moody disposition, a brave man and a man of character, +had fled to the Sumadia for safety. He had great influence among the +large body of refugees in that beautiful forest region of secure +mountain fastnesses. Karageorges was a blunt, plain man, and honest. He +had a strong sense of justice, though notably hot tempered. At the +meeting, when he was chosen leader, there were about five hundred Serbs, +men all under arms. In responding to their request that he would lead +them against the Turks, he said: "Again, brothers, I cannot accept, for +if I accepted I certainly would do much not to your liking. If one of +you were taken in the smallest treachery, the least faltering, I would +punish him in the most fearful manner." "We want it so, we want it so!" +they cried. When he saw that they were in earnest, Karageorges accepted +the office they conferred on him and the Archpriest of Bonvokik +received and consecrated his oath. Upon this Karageorges took supreme +control of the insurrection. + +At this same meeting, in the little village of Oorshats, they organized +a National Assembly. At first the Serbs with tactics worthy an Oriental +managed to keep the Sultan's attention from their insurrection by +protesting that they were in arms not against the Sultan himself but +against the Dahias, who, by disobeying him, were the real rebels. +Deceived, or willing to seem deceived, the Porte let them work out their +own plans. But the battle of Ivankovitz awoke The Sublime Porte. Turks +defeated by Serbs! The world had never heard of such a thing! In vain +Napoleon advised The Porte to take no notice of the Serb insurrection. +It was merely part of a Russian plot! Soon the army of Karageorges was +before Shabaz, where the Turks were intrenched. The Turkish commander +shouted from the heights, ordering Karageorges and his men to give up +their weapons. "Come and get them!" cried Karageorges. In a short time +the Serb leader and his army were in Shabaz, from which the enemy had +fled in great disorder. Austria was now too intent upon her own war with +Napoleon to give the Serbs the help they sought. She merely advised them +to make peace with The Porte. In accordance with her usual policy, she +wished to cramp the little State within small limits, subject to her +interests. Russia, though more sympathetic, had little thought to spare +for Serbia. At this moment she herself was trying to make an alliance +with Turkey against Napoleon, but she did advise Serbia not to accept +the recent offer of The Porte to give her self-government and to +recognize Karageorges. + +Pathetic enough was the vacillation of Serbia between Austria and +Russia. Had Austria been more responsive, Karageorges would have +preferred closer relations with her. But while Austria was indifferent +to Serbia's advances the Tsar, showing more interest in Serbia's +affairs, agreed to send his agent to her. He promised help also if the +Serbians would agree to all things initiated by the Russian government. +Austria was disturbed. Serbia was too bold; she must be watched! + +Like most really great men Karageorges, even when first acclaimed his +country's deliverer, had enemies. The old question of centralization and +decentralization had come up. Many thought him too autocratic. The +enemies of Serbia encouraged decentralization. Divided, she would be +easier to subdue. Russia disapproved of many things done by Karageorges. +But he had the strong support of the Sumadia in whatever he did. When +the Turks again tried to invade Serbia, Russian and Serbian troops, +fighting side by side, drove them away. But for the party troubles, but +for the loudly expressed ill will of leaders of the opposition, +Karageorges might have been happy. + +Though Serbs fought side by side with Russians until 1812, it happened +that no important battles took place on Serbian territory. During these +years Serbia not only had self-government, but she somewhat increased +her boundaries by lands taken from neighboring Pashiliks. Yet she had +her disappointments. Turkey, when Russia's war with Napoleon began, +disregarded the few concessions made to Serbia by the Peace of +Bucharest. At last, the Grand Vizier led his army against Serbia, and +although her men fought bravely, they had to draw back from the +frontier. Then a strange thing happened! With no obvious reason, +Karageorges went back to Belgrade with the army reserves. Without +staying there even for a day, he and part of his officers practically +deserted the army. Crossing the Danube into Austria, they forsook their +country in her day of trial. With them went the Russian consul and the +Metropolitan and many leading Serbians with their families. + +The downfall of Karageorges was due to no fault of his. No one ever +doubted his courage, and could he have had his own way, when he saw the +impossibility of pushing back the enemy, he would have gone again to his +stronghold in the Sumadia, there to fight to the last. But there was a +frontier to be defended, and Serbs owning property along the rivers +begged for protection. The army was not large enough to accomplish all +that was demanded of it. The Turks were victorious and with their +victory there began again a series of acts of unspeakable cruelty. + +Among the Serbs who remained in Serbia when Karageorges and his friends +crossed over into Austria was Milosh Obrenovitch. He had not only served +with Karageorges in the Austrian armies, but he had worked for him as a +keeper of swine on his Sumadia estate. During the recent revolution he +had helped his great leader by watching the Balkan passes for unfriendly +Bosnians and Albanians. + +When Milosh saw that the Turks were, for the time at least, masters, he +offered to help them reconquer the Serbs. In reality, faithful to his +own people, he was only waiting a chance to aid them. The time came and +one memorable Palm Sunday, 1817, he appeared near the church at Tokova +and the people called upon him to lead them against the Turks. He told +them that this would be a difficult undertaking. "We know that, but we +are ready for anything. Dost thou not see that we perish as it is?" +"Here am I," he replied. "There stand you!" "War to the Turks! With us +is God and the right." Then arms were brought out from underground +hiding places. His men were ready and Milosh led them on to victory over +the Turks. When later the Turks came to treat with him, they made him +tribute collector. Many of the Serb chiefs were therefore displeased and +wished to fight openly. They suspected Milosh of double-dealing. Among +these was Karageorges who had landed unexpectedly in Serbia. +Karageorges and Milosh were no longer friends. One explanation of this +was that Milosh suspected Karageorges of poisoning his brother Milan, +who had died suddenly, but no one who really knew Karageorges could +suspect him of using poison to a rid himself of an enemy. + +But the world does believe that Milosh betrayed Karageorges to the +Turks. Certainly the latter was murdered by the Turkish Governor's +men--beheaded in the lonely house where he was sleeping. This was a +pathetic end for a great life that had held as many melodramatic as +tragic events. Karageorges was a true patriot. He was neither cruel nor +blood-thirsty, though circumstances often compelled severity. A glance +at his portrait shows his nobility of character. That he was a lover of +law and justice was evident by his promptly establishing a system of +law-courts for Serbia. He reduced taxation, and though he could neither +read nor write--or because of this--he zealously supported education. He +hoped that the time would come when Serbia need no longer send outside +to get the trained men whose help she needed. He established many good +public schools, among them the High School at Belgrade, which later grew +into the University. + +Among his tragic moments was that one when he had to shoot his father in +order to prevent his torture by the Turks, and that other when he +refused to save his brother from execution when he found he deserved the +death penalty. More melodramatic than tragic was a critical moment in +the National Assembly when members sat with pistols held at their heads +that they might not act foolishly. + +Though not a crowned King, in name, Karageorges had all the power of a +monarch. Yet with so much at his command he retained his taste for the +simplest life. His dress was that of the peasant and, even when Chief +Executive of Serbia, he often cooked his own meals in the kitchen of his +dwelling. + +After the death of Karageorges the efforts of Serbia to have Turkey +recognize her dragged on. At last, in 1820, the Sultan by a special +bérat made Serbia a hereditary princedom. This was a long step in the +right direction. + +Milosh, feeling secure in his seat, did well by his country, and better +by himself. Years after his death, Serbs in gossiping groups would +recount the divers ways in which Milosh had filled his coffers. His +keenness for the main chance, and his general canniness, all his +subjects admired hugely. But the burly neighbor looking on was less +pleased. Why did a little struggling State trouble herself so about +education, and economical housekeeping? Why should she try to attain the +impossible? Then, to show poor Serbia how impossible her ambitions were, +Russia frowned and agreed with those who thought the hereditary Prince +too autocratic. In eastern Europe there was room for only one Autocrat. +"Moreover," muttered Russia, "why should an Autocrat give a Constitution +to Serbia?" A threat was mingled with the muttering--and Milosh withdrew +the Constitution. + +Yet Russia used her influence so strongly with Turkey that Great Britain +began to take an interest in Serbia. The young State was growing too +fast, there was no telling where she might wander. She needed a +guardian--some one to watch her, to note where she was going and tell +her she must not. So Great Britain sent Colonel Hodges to Serbia as her +General Consul, and he whispered--for Russia must not hear him--that in +case Serbia had trouble with Russia, Great Britain and France would +stand by her. Next, the Porte, never before known as a constitution +maker, invited Milosh to send deputies to Constantinople to plan a new +Constitution for Serbia. But Milosh found this new Constitution no +better than the one Russia had made him withdraw. Alas for Milosh! alas +for Serbia! Although the new Constitution was to have the guarantee of +the Great Powers, the Constitution itself would not hold water. A few +months later, the authority of the Prince of Serbia was modified. It was +ordered that he should have a Council of seventy life members. He had +desired Councillors whom he could appoint and dismiss at will, but +Turkey, forgetting a promise to Great Britain, had yielded to Russia. As +the Constitution required Milosh to appoint the most distinguished men +in his realm as Councillors, and as at this time Serbia's men of +influence were chiefly his enemies, he was disturbed. Although the +British Ambassador counseled patience, Milosh plotted to do away with +this Constitution by a military vote. When his plans fell through, he +abdicated, in June, 1839, and retired to his home in Wallachia. Before +abdicating, however, Milosh had to sign the Constitution imposed upon +him at the instigation of Russia, and this limiting of the power of the +hereditary Prince was a good thing for Serbia. + +Milan, the eldest son of Milosh, survived but three weeks after his +father's abdication. Michel, the younger son, succeeded him. While he +was wrangling with the Porte and Russia, Vuychitch, a Councillor, +started a rebellion and Michel, not knowing what else to do, left +Serbia. This suited Vuychitch and soon the National Parliament elected +the son of Karageorges Prince of Serbia. Serbia was quiet and prosperous +during his reign, but Alexander himself was of a timid and wavering +temperament, not even bold enough to summons a National Assembly. +Friendly to Turkey and to Austria, rather than to Russia, he pleased no +one of them, and finally, when he did call a National Assembly, the +Council dethroned him. Old Milosh was now asked to return and the change +of rulers was made without excitement or disorder. + +At the death of Milosh after three short years, his son, the exiled +Michel, returned to the throne. In his exile he had grown wiser and he +was ready with a definite program for Serbia's good. He saw that if his +country was to be respected, her independence must be guarded. First +among his many reforms was a new Constitution to replace the one Russia +had imposed on Serbia. Michel was a good diplomatist and, in 1862, when +the Turkish Government at Belgrade bombarded Belgrade, he demanded the +evacuation of all the forts, and some of them complied. Next he sent his +wife to London--the beautiful Julia, Countess Hunyadi. She interested +Gladstone, Bright, and other influential Englishmen in little Serbia. He +armed and drilled a national army and had an understanding with Greece +and other Balkan states for a general uprising against the Turks. +Finally he requested the Sultan to remove all Turkish garrisons in +Serbia, and when Great Britain supported the advice the other Great +Powers gave the Sultan, the later, at last, gave up the forts to Michel. +Michel did much for Serbia. He built good highways, laid out parks, and +gave her many fine public buildings, including an opera house. He was +among the first to emphasize Serbia's need of a seaport, and he was +equally far-sighted in many other matters. + +Michel had no children and when the Karageorges exiles heard that he +meant to divorce his wife and remarry, their own hopes of power in +Serbia faded. Poor Michel, their victim, was assassinated in the spring +of 1868. No change of dynasty followed Michel's death. Serbia proclaimed +as Prince, Milan, son of a first cousin of Milosh the elder. + +Milan's early years had been spent in Paris, and the kind of education +he received there left its bad impress on his whole life. When confirmed +by the Skupchtina he was barely thirteen, and little more than of age +when, five years later, urged by Panslavists, he had a war with Turkey. +Although Serbia was defeated, this war forced the Balkan situation, and +the attention of Europe was turned toward the little Nation that held +the key to the Balkans. Milan had made strategic mistakes, and when the +vast Turkish army was invading Serbia, he called on the Great Powers for +help. While they hesitated, Russia ordered Abdul Hamid to sign an +immediate truce. When Russia within a few weeks of this went to war with +Turkey, Serbia, in spite of her recent losses, was able to help her. +After capturing Vrania, Pirot, and Nish, Serbia had the joy of +celebrating Mass on the Field of Kossovo where five hundred years before +she had lost everything. + +Yet at the Peace of Stefano Serbia did not get a fair reward. Her +welfare was but a shuttlecock, beaten back and forth between great +nations. She could secure, at the Berlin Congress, neither complete +independence nor the annexation of certain territories she hoped for. +But at this Congress Austria gained her own ends by giving Serbia two +strong neighbors for watchdogs, Bulgaria and East Roumelia. She also +imposed a barrier between Serbia and her strongly desired goal--the sea. + +When Milan saw that he could not depend on Russia, whom he had been +brought up to regard as a friend, he turned to Austria. He began to pay +long visits to Vienna. Thus he angered both his own people and the Tsar, +but Austria was always ready to give him the money his manner of life +required. The building of new railways threw the Nation into debt, and +between the advice given first by Progressives, then by Radicals, Milan +the ne'er-do-well could barely enjoy a life devoted to pleasure. At the +beginning of his reign the Porte had acknowledged him hereditary Prince +of Serbia, but Milan, aiming higher, in 1882 had himself proclaimed +King. Not long after this, in a war with Bulgaria, he had to retreat +ingloriously before Prince Alexander of Battenberg. Indeed, now, as on +other occasions throughout his reign, Milan behaved like the proverbial +spoiled child. Sometimes, fearing his people might use a rod made of +something more stinging than words, he would completely disarm them in a +brilliant speech. When things were at their very worst his statesmen +would extricate him. Yet gradually he lost influence with the Nation in +spite of the new Constitution which gave them most things that +enlightened nations seek. But various happenings were tending to +estrange him from his people, not the least of which was his undignified +quarrel with his wife, with whom, even after their divorce, he continued +to bicker about their son. Milan was rather a blunderer than a villain, +and as he had managed to hold the affection of his people through all +his misdeeds, political or domestic, his abdication was a great +surprise. He went away suddenly to live in Paris the life he preferred, +after making provision that Alexander, his son, should succeed him. + +Alexander was but a boy of fourteen when he came to the throne--a +subnormal boy, and wilful, too. As an Autocrat he had no rival among +modern Serbian rulers. No one unmade and made so many Constitutions. No +Prince or King of Serbia surprised his people with so many coups d'état. +But the time had passed when the misdoings of a ruler could make the +people of Serbia very unhappy. Although the King never failed to show +that he despised not only statesmen and scholars but even distinguished +army officers, he could terrorize neither individuals nor the Nation. +The three great parties, Liberal, Radical, and Progressive, were not +afraid to express opinions, and many reforms were projected and carried +out. Serbs as a whole were anxious to be counted among the people of the +world of intelligence and culture. Alexander and Draga mortified them; +but the assassination of the wretched pair lowered the Nation in the +estimation of humanity. + +Less than a week had passed since the killing of the King and Queen, in +the spring of 1903, when the Skupchtina elected Peter Karageorgevitch to +the throne. This grandson of Karageorges had been an exile for +forty-five of his fifty-seven years of life. Austria and Russia alone +among the Great Powers were willing now to recognize him. Great Britain +waited three years before sending back her Minister to Serbia. This was +after the regicides had gone from the country. + + + + +IV. SERBIANS + + +So Serbia was no longer a child, and she wore a royal crown. She even +had to be considered by the family of Nations when making plans. Some +members of the family, indeed, would like to have made all her plans for +Serbia, without intimating that in so doing they would profit +themselves. Serbia realized that there were things she could not do +without the consent of some, or even all of them; but she did not wonder +why--for Serbia herself had grown up, and it wasn't merely a physical +development. She understood a great many things that in her more +primitive days she could not have comprehended. + +Sometimes they fought among themselves, with an occasional black eye for +one or the other, because they found it hard to decide, not what they +could do for Serbia--the youngest and most inexperienced--but what they +could get from her without her discovering their motives, without the +others objecting. They forgot that Serbia was no longer a child; they +did not know that she could spy self-interest in the proffers they made +her. So she was coldly distant with them at times, though she leaned +most toward the big, fur-clad Cousin from the North. He was closer of +kin, a double relation, and he seemed less mercenary than some of them. +But even he could not get her a home facing the sea. She longed so +ardently for this! Why did every one hinder her? The Imperial Cousin on +the West was determined to stop her. Had he not given refuge to her +exiled children in the days of darkness? Had he not let them win +victories for him when she had hardly a friend in the world? Was it +likely--as human nature goes--that he had done this without expecting a +reward? No, she must be reasonable and must let him have the first +choice of all that she had to sell, and at his own price. Should she +reach the sea, others would tempt her. She would find all sorts of +people there anxious to trade with her--new people whom she herself had +never yet had a chance to help. No! he, the Imperial Cousin, knew what +was best for her. The only trade route for her was the one through his +land. She must send her things that way and, after he had looked them +over, if there was anything he did not wish, she might sell it to some +one else. Moreover, of course, she must pay whatever he charged for +transportation and customs as she passed through his country. + +But Serbia had grown more sophisticated. Her costume of red and gold +still followed the old lines; indeed, only a close observer could see +any changes in it. But the material was richer than formerly, and she +had thrown aside the little veil--symbol, as it seemed to her, of the +darkening oppression of the Ottoman. Her people were clamoring around +her. They assured her they were not lazy, though perhaps a little slower +than some of their neighbors. Their fields yielded abundantly. They +discovered that by digging they could get much wealth, not only from the +surface but from their rocks far below. They must be able to exchange +it--to send it readily where they wished. Why, why, since they were +willing to pay for it, could they not have a seaport of their own? + +But there was another who was determined to hold Serbia back. She did +not know him well; for though he bore the Imperial eagle, he had +appropriated a title that belonged to the old house that for a time had +held the world in its grasp. She would not call him a parvenu--not +wholly a parvenu--yet why should he trouble her? She was not really in +his way. Could it be that he was trying to curry favor with the turbaned +Turk, and hoped to ingratiate himself the more thoroughly by tormenting +her? What had the Turk to give him? Ah! Serbia had now grown so worldly +that she suspected motives in every action, even in those sometimes that +were really guileless. + + +Serbia, in the same latitude as France and Italy, has a similar climate, +though with greater extremes of heat and cold; and its average of one +hundred rainy days yearly prevents its being called a land of sunshine. +With an area about equal to that of the State of New York, its +population of four millions is much smaller--nearer, indeed, that of +Massachusetts. About fifteen thousand of its nearly thirty-four thousand +square miles of area is territory added since the Balkan wars. The +rivers of Serbia flow toward the north into the Danube. Its boundary +rivers, the Danube, Save, Drina, and Timok are navigable, but of those +within Serbia, only the Morava is navigable, and that for but sixty +miles. Serbia is not only protected by the ranges on her boundaries, but +four-fifths of the surface is covered with mountains, a "chaos of +mountains," a fact both helping and hindering her progress through the +centuries. The general aspect of Serbia is one of beauty, with high and +rugged mountains, mysterious forests, and long narrow river valleys as +picturesque as fertile. Even the Sumadia, called the rallying point of +the Nation, is now well cultivated and enterprising. Many medieval +buildings add to the picturesqueness of the country, forts and churches +perched on rocky heights or half screened in the woods. + +Serbian towns resemble one another, with their wide, clean streets, and +red-roofed houses built of stone, with suburbs that show many attractive +dwellings surrounded by shrubbery. Even if the churches are not very +graceful, there are many modern school buildings throughout the country. +The five largest towns have--or, alas! had--from fifteen thousand to +about one hundred thousand inhabitants each, from Passavowitz to +Belgrade; in order, Leskovatz, Kraguievatz, and Nish, but Belgrade is +by far the largest. + +Although the original Serb type was probably blonde, the mingling of the +Slav with the other races in the Balkans has brought it about that most +Serbs are now dark-skinned and dark-haired and of only average stature. +The tall blonde peasant of the Sumadia is an exception to this type, +though the Serb generally has a clear gray eye. + +The Serb is excitable and volatile. While holding to old things he is +ready to grasp new ideas, but his new ideas he cannot always make +practical. It is probably for this reason that Serbia is behind many +countries in agricultural and industrial development. The Serb is not of +a jealous disposition. He is ready to praise what others have done, and +though tenacious of purpose he is neither dogged nor blunt like his +neighbor the Bulgarian. The modern Serb desires to be well thought of. +He is anxious to be measured by Western standards, yet in his heart he +still cherishes many old customs. If he is less straightforward, +especially in politics, than one might wish, his love of strategy may be +ascribed to the many years when it took something besides physical +courage to save him from the brutality of the Turk. Even his enemies +admit his bravery. In general character, the Serb may be compared to the +Scotch Highlander, "brave in battle, with much canniness in prosecuting +material interests." All visitors to Serbia note the great hospitality +of the Serb, and he shows a marked courtesy in dealing with others. He +is fond of fun and laughter, as any one realizes who sees him at a +festival, dancing the national dance--the kolo--to the sound of the +flute and the bag-pipe, and often, afterwards, listening to the heroic +verse of the guslar as he accompanies them on the gusle. + +The Serb's religion is almost the same as patriotism with him. The +Orthodox Church of Serbia to-day has a strong resemblance to the early +Christian Church of the eighth century. "Here we know the English very +well, and your Church is not unlike our own," said a Serb to an English +traveler recently. The independence of the Serbian Church is largely due +to the fact that the Turks did not interfere with the religious faith of +the Serbs in the long dark night of oppression. Though this may have +been merely from their contempt for the conquered and their Church, the +result was to the advantage of the Serb. + +Many Serbian traditions are contrary to the spirit of the Christian +Church, but the Church early found that the only way to hold the Serb +was to be patient in the hope that Christianity would eventually modify +his Pagan beliefs. In few nations is there such a mingling of heathen +traditions and piety. The traditions, yes, even the superstitions of the +Serb helped him bear the hardships of the Turkish reign. While the Serb +has held fast to Christianity for more than a thousand years and while +bigotry and atheism are almost unknown in Serbia, the Serb does not +attend Church devotedly. He is, however, very faithful to religious +customs, though many of these originated in heathendom. The Saints are +very real to him and each one has duties, yet some of them are very like +the gods of mythology. + +The Serb is a great observer of signs and they deeply affect his daily +life. His manner of getting up, of dressing, the person whom he first +meets in the day, the way the dog barks or the moon shines--all these +things have some influence on his actions. Many of his superstitions +naturally relate to birth, death, and marriage. Most youths and maidens +know just what to do to discover their future husband or wife. + +There is poetry in many Serb beliefs about death, notably that death can +be foretold by the person himself or by some of his family. Very +beautiful is the idea that there is a star for every person, that +disappears when that person dies. The Serb has a strong faith in +immortality. He believes in both good and bad spirits, and in witches +and enchanters, as well as in the poetic Vili. He occasionally hunted +and killed witches in the olden times. Vampires, too, have had an +existence in his imagination. To protect himself from all these evil +things, the Serb of old had various superstitious practices, and it is +surprising sometimes to-day to find him cherishing primitive beliefs. As +cattle raising for example is certainly one of his chief occupations, +many superstitions exist and are put into practice for making the cattle +healthy and fat, and for protecting them from wild beasts. The Serb also +knows what charm to use to make his wheatfields grow, to prevent +droughts and other things that might injure his crops or his fruit +trees. + +Among all their festivals, the Serbs celebrate Christmas the most +elaborately, with feasts and ceremonies, many of which come down from +Pagan days. After supper, on Christmas eve, seeds and crumbs are +scattered outside as a treat for the birds, which, they say, are also +God's creatures. A young oak or baidnak always plays a conspicuous part +in the Christmas festival and the ceremonies attending it are most +picturesque. The Slava is also a most important festival. It is a family +celebration and generally falls on the Feast Day of some great Saint. +After a man's death, the same Slava is kept by his son. In some regions, +people with the same Slava do not marry, for having the same Slava may +mean that they are of the same stock. Of all people the Serbs are most +scrupulous not to marry those who are nearly related to them. + +While religion is so strongly a part of his daily life, the Serb is yet +disinclined to engage in abstract religious discussions. This is strange +since he is very fond of long political and historical arguments. An +English traveler came upon two men engaged in a fisticuff fight. When +he inquired the cause, he was told that the two had a disagreement about +something that had happened at the Battle of Kossovo, five hundred years +before. + +Although there is less now than in former times of the unique and formal +swearing of brotherhood between Serb and Serb, the feeling of +brotherhood is still very strong. Travelers through the country +sometimes come upon rude stones erected to soldiers who have died "for +the glory and freedom of his brother Serbs." + +What has been said about the men applies to a great extent to the women +of Serbia. It must be admitted, however, that in the interior of the +country woman is still reckoned inferior to man--the plaything of youth, +the nurse of old age. But the modern Serbian woman is coming to the +front. She is not strong-minded in the limited sense, not anxious, like +her Russian kinswoman, to mix in politics, yet she is deeply interested +in national affairs and in crises she is always ready to help. If she +does not work as hard as the Montenegrin woman she still performs much +heavy labor. The men of Serbia encourage her higher ambition. Of late +years, many Serb women have gone abroad for training as teachers, or to +engage in technical work. Not infrequently, their expenses have been +paid wholly or in part by some brother or cousin whose own earnings were +small. + +To tell what Serb women have done in the many wars of their country +would be a long story. Not content with providing food and clothing for +the soldiers and nursing the wounded, time and again they have carried +guns and have fought by the side of the men of their families. This was +notably the case in the late war with Bulgaria, and in the present war +also many of them have served as soldiers. + +The Serb woman is not willing to go out as a domestic. She prefers to +earn money, if she has to, as a teacher, secretary, or nurse, or in a +profession; but in her own home the Serb woman does no end of work. She +is the first to rise, the last to go to bed, and seems never to rest, +for she does all the housework. She spins, weaves, and embroiders; +cooks, washes, milks the cows, makes cheese; she takes care of the +children and the sick; she makes the family pottery and sometimes the +opanke or shoes. + +But the condition of her country the past few years has to a great +extent destroyed the home life of the Serb women. Very remarkable was +the "League of Death" the women formed in the war before the present. +Young and old of all social conditions became good shots, and stood side +by side, rifles on their shoulders, like men. They made the men wear the +medal of the League. In that war women did not join the fighting troops, +as in the present. But they often accompanied them on the march, +carrying on notched sticks their heavy bundles with clothes and +domestic utensils, and set up their little households wherever the men +happened to halt. + +In the present war, Serbia has a three-fold claim on Americans: Because +of the democracy of its institutions and people; because of the +simplicity of life as it is lived there; and because of its centuries of +struggle for political independence. + +Serbia is one of the most democratic countries in the world. It has no +titles, except those of the King and his next of kin. All other Serbians +are "gospodin" and "gospoja," our "Mr." and "Mrs." The farmer is the +real aristocrat and eighty per cent of the Serbians are farmers. + +The farmer has many things in his favor. Even the peasant has five acres +of land allotted him by the government; and in his home garden he raises +carrots and turnips and pumpkins and melons. The larger farmers raise +wheat and corn and sugar beets, oats and all the cereals; and cattle in +large numbers. They raise their own food and they are chiefly +vegetarians; and they carry their surplus in ox-teams to the nearest +market. Prices are regulated by the Agricultural Society. Every farmer +gives one or two days a year to the State and pays his taxes in kind. +When crops fail, the Coöperative Agricultural Society lends him money. +It also advances money for implements and buildings, and offers prizes +for cattle and improved stock. + +Living a simple life, the average Serbian needs little money. One dollar +in Serbia is equal to five dollars here. If a farmer enters trade, he is +thought to be going down in the world. He may enter banking or life +insurance with no discredit, but the shopkeepers of the country are +largely foreigners. In all Serbia there are hardly two-score +millionaires. Serbian women are good housewives and do much of their own +work. Serbians, in general, are too independent to be servants; and the +latter are largely Austrians. Government employees in Serbia are +natives. Young Serbians also are educated for the church, the army, for +law, and for school teaching. Young men intended for the army generally +study in France, for scientific work in Germany, for the church in +Russia. Many young Serbians, too, have studied in Switzerland and in +Belgium. Thus, Serbian society as a whole is sympathetic with foreign +countries. + +Of the four million inhabitants of Serbia proper, the larger number +belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, but there are also a good many +Roman Catholics and some Moslems. Though their life is in general very +simple, Serbians are not wholly untouched by modern progress. Many towns +have electric lights and telephones, and electric trams are by no means +unknown. Serbia has rich mineral resources, which the State is +undertaking to develop. Among their manufactures is a remarkable wool +carpet and a certain kind of coarse linen. Though they have a fairly +large output of silk, silk fabrics as well as finer textiles are +imported. A man who has a salary of three thousand dollars is an +exception, and considered very prosperous. Salaries of cabinet ministers +hardly exceed this sum, and court life does not tend to any +magnificence. + +Serbians marry young. There is little illegitimacy in the country and +infrequent divorce. They have been called automatically eugenic--on +account of their strict marriage laws forbidding marriage under certain +degrees of relationship. The Serbians are a domestic people, devoted to +their children; hence, the present condition of the country is +especially tragic. + +The people of Serbia have the greatest admiration for Americans, and for +the independence and political ideas of America. + +The valorous struggle of little Serbia against Austria, its tireless +enemy, astonished the world at the beginning of the present war. It +accomplished hardly less for the cause of the Allies in the East than +the resistance of Belgium in the West. Yet, at first, the sufferings of +the more distant Serbians attracted less attention than the case +demanded. Their agony continues acute and terrible. + + + + +V. SERBIA: SIGHING + + +Then, at last, Serbia reached the sea. Unexpectedly, it is true, and not +at the point that she had long had in mind. Sad and bereft, was she +deserted by God as well as by man? As she sat there alone she heard a +confused murmur of voices, and she vaguely distinguished the cries of +children for their fathers, and wives for their husbands--and tales +echoed in her ears that were sadder, more horrible, than the most +horrible tales of the Turkish night. Poor Serbia! Her garments were torn +and stained with snow and mud, her face was bruised. Gone, gone her +aspect of happy prosperity. Yet in spite of all she had suffered there +was a light in her eyes--the light of her soul shining through the +sadness. She was not bowed down, though her attitude spoke of sorrow. +She was disturbed not for herself, but for her people. How they had +suffered! She did not try to shut her ears to the murmurs that still +came to her--children crying faintly and oh, so pitifully! and strong +men, yes, she heard the moaning of strong men. Then as she looked in the +direction of the sound, she saw a mother bowed in grief beside a long +snowy road, yet uttering no word as old men, strangers to her, found a +place for the little frozen body under the hard ground. She saw a long, +long line winding up the narrow, shelving road, where a false step at +any moment might send a man to death into the river five hundred feet +below. "The best fighters in the world!" It had made her proud to hear +this, but now how could they fight the savage winter? Worst place of +all, Kossovo, where not so long before she had celebrated Mass +triumphantly, Kossovo, again to be as when it was first named "The Field +of Black Birds," "The Field of Vultures." Now the stricken lay never to +rise again and for a moment Serbia could look no longer. + +There were other things along the road--rifles, and cartridge belts, +burdens too heavy to carry far, and she wished that all such things +might lie on the ground forever, never to be used by young or old. + +Alas, the little boys! the little boys who had never been away from +their mothers--the hope of Serbia--dying by thousands along that dreary +road; dying, dying on the plain of Kossovo. War, for them, a kind of +holiday! They were soldiers now; they would be real men when they +reached the sea! The little boys, the hope of the future! Of the thirty +thousand who trod that dreary road, only a half lived to reach the sea. +Not one-half of these reached the island where they were to have their +training as soldiers. + +The soul of Serbia was in agony as a ghostlike army, pale, pinched, and +starved, crept over the snowy mountains, over the soggy roads--men, +women, and poor dumb animals sinking in to their death. Of those who +came to the edge of the sea some could hold out no longer, but died when +comfort was near. + + +Despite the circumstances under which he came to the throne, no one +believed that King Peter had planned or had anything to do with the +murder of Alexander and Draga; he, the direct descendant of the honest +Karageorges. Yet it could not be denied that he had profited by this +murder and, consequently, even when the horror of the whole thing had +faded from the minds of other Europeans, he had a certain amount of +prejudice to overcome. Yet in the first ten years of his reign, Serbia +had prospered. Her nearly one thousand miles of railways had brought her +in closer connection with the world. Though the debt incurred for these +railways and other improvements were large she had no trouble in +borrowing money. Her loans were readily taken by outside capitalists. + +In the hundred years since she had been freed from Turkish rule, Serbia +had made constant advance in culture, in all that may be called economic +life. Her peasant farmers not only produced all that the Serbians +themselves needed--wheat, barley, maize, fruits of various kinds, +cattle, and pigs--but there was a demand for some of their staples in +other countries, and more and more they required a larger market; more +and more they chafed under the restrictions made by Austria. The whole +country realized, as outsiders had realized, that Austria was slowly +squeezing her; that Austria would be ready to devour her when the right +time came. The King had a difficult task in keeping his people +contented. + +Politically, however, Serbia in the nineteenth century had made great +advances, and King Peter's domain was a well-organized limited monarchy. +After many vicissitudes Serbia at last has an excellent Constitution, +well meeting all the needs of the Nation. In the King and the +Skupchtina is vested all the legislative power. The Skupchtina, an +assembly elected by proportional representation, has complete control of +the national finances. Serbia has good Courts of Justice and a humane +prison system, and her standing army not only has to be taken into +account by the Great Powers, but has spoken loudly for itself in the +present war. Serbia has also good local government; the scheme for which +includes two public bodies, a municipal council and a communal +tribunal. + +[Illustration: KING PETER ABOUT TO LEAVE SERBIA--NOVEMBER, 1915] + +Serbia, after many years of backwardness, has been paying great +attention to education. The Minister of Education is a man of great +prestige and influence. Teachers are well trained and well paid. It is +not strange, perhaps, that a people with the Serbians' deep poetic +sensibility should in the past have given little attention to technical +training, but a change has of late been coming, a change of attitude +that after the war will undoubtedly produce important results. From the +earliest days the Serb has had a marked aptitude for handicraft. In +medieval documents, certain Serbian blacksmiths are named as expert +makers of penknives, and to-day Serbian metal work has high rank. Unlike +the Greek, the Serb has little aptitude for trade, and unlike the +Bulgar, he is rather sluggish in working his farm, slow to use improved +methods or new implements. Yet, in spite of the many upheavals at home, +he has been constantly progressing, and since he threw off Turkish rule +has each year become sturdier and more self-reliant. Indeed, he can be +called to-day efficient in both the economic and the military sense. + +In the Middle Ages Serbia was one of the largest silver-producing +countries in Europe. Her mountains have as yet given up but little of +their treasure. The Romans knew the mines and brought out of them much +gold, silver, iron, and lead and, during the later Middle Ages, the +merchants of Ragusa obtained no small portion of their wealth from the +same source, but about the middle of the fifteenth century the Turks put +an end to all enterprises of this kind. In the first half of the last +century, mining was revived. Belgian capital had a large part in this, +especially in producing copper and iron. + +The copper mines south of Passarowitz were said to be among the richest, +if not the richest, in the world. But as yet Serbia herself hardly +appreciated the value of her own resources. Her less than one thousand +miles of railways had loaded her with a heavy debt. Austria had improved +the Danube--largely, however, for Austria's advantage. But Serbia began +to look about. She was determined to gain, if possible, the economic +independence she longed for. With a resourceful King, with a competent +Ministry headed by the eminent Pachich, this ought not to be difficult, +she thought, ought to be much less difficult than her long, hard +struggle for political independence. + +The spirit of the Serb has been shown in the remarkable development of +coöperation in industry, especially in the twentieth century. "Only +Union is Serbia's Salvation"--this was St. Sava's famous saying in the +distant twelfth century. Politically, his words had proved true for +Serbia, and economically they had begun to show their value, especially +in King Peter's reign. + +One reason for the success of nineteenth century coöperation in Serbia +may be found in the Zadruga of ancient times. This was a large family +association including male kinship to the second and the third degree. +It often numbered more than a hundred individuals; each member had a +fixed duty and the revenues were divided among all the members. The +Zadruga was ruled by an elder or Stareschina. Sometimes the Stareschina +was a woman. The Stareschina kept the money-box and attended to the +payment of taxes. The women of the Zadruga obeyed the Stareschina's +wife. This kind of community life was so familiar to the Serbs that it +was no unusual thing when some one asked, "Whose is that drove of +sheep?" to hear the reply "Ours," never "Mine." + +In Literature, in Science, in Art, the Serb had begun to take his +rightful place in Europe, encouraged by the example of a large-minded, +cultured monarch. + +Serbia had long realized that within her boundaries lived hardly half of +the Serb race in Europe. The feeling of brotherhood with all his kin +which is so powerful a characteristic of the individual Serb is even +more marked in the Serbian Nation. A generation ago Serbia was willing +to go to war with Turkey to help her downtrodden kindred in Bosnia and +Herzegovina. "The saving of Old Serbia and the Union of the Serb peoples +is the star by which the Serb steers," said a traveler in the early part +of King Peter's reign, and certainly to the liberty-loving Serb this +was a beautiful vision--that he was sometime to liberate from Turkish +and from Austrian control all his oppressed brothers, the four and a +half millions whom the twentieth century found so restive under Turkish, +Teutonic, or Magyar control. + +For Serbia, then, her entrance into The Balkan League in 1912 was a +natural sequence of many of her previous aspirations and efforts. In +presence of a common danger--the Teuton working through the Turk--the +Balkan States put aside their own particular rivalries and formed a +Union. This was effective, and the Turks were defeated. But when Turkey +was defeated, Bulgaria and Serbia were again at sword's points. It was +not a question of jealousies between small kingdoms, but rather a larger +issue--Pan-Slavism as against Pan-Teutonism. Serbs, wherever found, were +outspoken, and Austria saw that she might have to give up not only her +hope of adding Serbia to her dominions but besides this lose her +dominion over the Serbs within the dual monarchy. From that time she +hardly tried to hide her intention of punishing Serbia for her ambition. +Serbia, meanwhile, was growing bolder, stronger. Though her successes in +recent wars had not given her her coveted seaport, she had found ways of +getting a considerable proportion of her products to market without +sending them through Austria. Her imports from Austria fell off largely. +Austria and Germany saw that they would have difficulty in making Serbia +a docile ward, especially as M. Pachich in 1912 had made it plain to the +other Powers that it would be to their advantage to give Serbia a chance +to expand. + +It was eleven years almost to a day from the time he came to the throne, +when Peter's security was shattered by an explosion. The Archduke +Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, while making a +tour through Bosnia, were killed at Sarajevo by a Serb, not one of the +kingdom of Serbia but a Serb of Greater Serbia. Austria, that had been +for so long watching Serbia as a cat watches a mouse, quickly pounced on +the little kingdom. She made demands such as no civilized country could +comply with, and at last gave an ultimatum on the twenty-seventh of July +which had far-reaching consequences. It was a stone thrown into a quiet +pool and the ripples and eddies reached unthought-of shores, as the +whole world now knows. + +There are many strange circumstances connected with this murder. Those +who have followed out the various clues have seen evidence that the Serb +government had no knowledge of the proposed murder, but there is much +that tends to show that the assassination was not a great surprise to +Austria--that Ferdinand, even at home, was in fear of his life. He +always slept in a room without furniture and not long before the +assassination he had taken out a life insurance, the largest life +insurance known. In case of his death, it was necessary to make +provision for his consort who could hope nothing from the house of which +he had long been the heir. When Ferdinand's heir had a son born to him, +the Austrians turned against Ferdinand and wished him out of the way. +His removal, indeed, was a greater object to Austria-Hungary than to +Serbia, for it was generally known that he was liberal in his ideas +regarding the Serbs in the dual monarchy, and had even formed a plan for +giving them Home Rule. + +From the beginning Austria-Hungary tried to impress on the world that +the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand was part of a revolt of the southern +Slav provinces of Austria instigated by the Serbian government. On the +twenty-third of July, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding that +she use every means in her power to punish the assassins and stop all +further anti-Austrian propaganda. The next day, Russia asked for delay, +and on July twenty-fifth, ten minutes before the time of the ultimatum +expired, Serbia made due apologies and agreed to all the conditions +imposed by Austria except the one that Austria should have official +representatives in the work of investigation. Two days later, the +Austrian foreign office issued a statement with these words: "Serbia's +note is filled with the spirit of dishonesty." Austria was determined on +war. She had not accepted Serbia's apologies. + +Then the Great Slav came to the rescue of the smaller. Russia +immediately notified Austria that she would not allow Serbian territory +to be invaded. Now it was Germany's turn. She let it be known +semi-officially that she stood ready to back Austria. No one, she said, +must interfere between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. On this +twenty-seventh of July Sir Edward Gray, Great Britain's Foreign +Secretary, proposed a London conference of the Ambassadors of all the +Great Powers. France and Italy at once accepted but Austria and Germany +declined this invitation. On the twenty-eighth of July came the fateful +call to war. "Austria-Hungary considers itself in a state of war with +Serbia." The reason given for this was that Serbia had not replied +satisfactorily to Austria's note of the twenty-third of July. Events +followed in quick succession. Russia's mobilization was followed by a +request from Germany that she stop this movement of the troops and make +a reply within twenty-four hours. Whereupon England notified Germany +that she could not stand aloof from a general conflict; that the balance +of power could not be destroyed. Russia made no reply to Germany's +ultimatum but instead sent out a manifesto: "Russia is determined not to +allow Serbia to be crushed and will fulfil its duty in regard to that +small kingdom." Next, the German Ambassador at the French foreign office +expressed fear of friction between the Triple Alliance and the Triple +Entente unless the impending conflict between Austria and Serbia should +be strictly localized. + +On August first, the German Ambassador handed a declaration of war to +the Russian Foreign Minister. This meant war with France, and hardly had +the French Government issued general mobilization orders when the +invasion of France began. A day later, Germany demanded of Belgium free +passage for her troops, and the French Government proclaimed martial law +in France and Algiers. All Continental Europe was now aflame. The German +Ambassador had made a strong bid for British neutrality, and Great +Britain's reply was noble. After speaking of its friendship with France +it concluded with the words: "Whether that friendship involves +obligations, let every man look into his own heart and construe that +obligation for himself." + +On the fourth of August, after Italy had proclaimed her neutrality, +England's ultimatum was sent to Germany. When no reply came, the +British foreign office announced that a state of war existed between the +two countries and Germany gave the British Ambassador his passport. A +day later, President Wilson offered the good offices of the United +States to bring about a settlement between the warring powers. On the +seventh of August, a day after Austria-Hungary had declared war on +Russia, Germany announced that jealousy of Germany was the real cause of +the war. On the ninth of August, Serbia, in order to get rid of the +German Ambassador, declared war on Germany and, finally, war was +declared between France and Austria, and Austria and Great Britain. +Portugal reported that she was on the side of Great Britain. + +Soon Austrian troops were invading Serbia, three to one. On the +twenty-seventh of July, the Serbian army had mobilized. It had barely +recuperated from the recent war with Bulgaria and, while men were in +trim for fighting, the army was ill equipped and to an extent +unprepared for a new war. This in itself shows the folly of the +accusation that the Serbian Government had encouraged the murder of the +Archduke in order to precipitate a war with Austria. An additional bit +of evidence in Serbia's favor, if more were needed, was the fact that +when the Archduke was murdered, many Serbian officials and other men of +importance were at German or Austrian watering-places and had difficulty +in getting back to their homes and their duties. + +Little of the war material destroyed in the recent conflict with +Bulgaria had been replaced and even when the Serbs took the field they +had not sufficient ammunition, for much of their ammunition was French +and, owing to conditions in France, the latter country could no longer +supply Serbia with what she needed. Yet by the middle of August the +armies of the Crown Prince in a five days' engagement, the Battle of +Jadar, sent the Austrians across the river, and out of Serbia. In dead +and wounded the invaders had lost about twice as many as the Serbs, as +well as a large amount of ordnance and stores. They returned in +September, but after inflicting much damage on the country were again +defeated and again driven out of Serbia about the middle of December. + +Serbia, invaded by an army three times as large as her own, fought +valiantly and drove the Austrians outside her kingdom, not, however, +until much damage had been done. Not only had she many wounded but the +invader destroyed everything, even the property of non-combatants who +had remained passive on their farms. So viciously had the Austrians +treated the non-combatants that all who could fled the country toward +Macedonia. Crops were seized; cattle were killed or taken away; farms +and implements destroyed, and in fact the whole country was laid waste. + +[Illustration: SERBIAN VILLAGERS ON THEIR WAY TO EXILE] + +Perhaps in no better way can the barbarous methods of the Austrian +invader be understood than from a quotation from an appeal made by the +Serbian Archbishop. + + "The barbarous methods of warfare of the German Allies, the + object of which is to annihilate other nations and their + culture, have inflicted on us, as well as on the Belgians, + bloody and incurable wounds. Whole crowds of our best and + noblest Serbs, who as non-combatants peacefully received the + Austrian army, have been killed with a cruelty of which even + savages would be ashamed. Men and women, old men and + innocent children have been murdered by terrible tortures, + by arms, and by fire. Many have been locked up in school + buildings and other houses and burnt alive. All the churches + to which the Austrians got access have been desecrated, + robbed, and destroyed. The schools and the best houses have + fared in the same way. Belgrade, the beautiful capital of + Serbia, its churches, its educational and humanitarian + institutions, have been destroyed. The university, the + national library, the museum, and scientific collections, + have been ruined. For those who have escaped, and for the + orphans of the fallen, speedy help is most necessary." + +Said Madame Grouitch an eye witness of these depredations, "Imagine the +farming districts of our Middle States charred and trampled, and +everything killed. This would give you a faint idea of Serbia after the +Austrians first entered it." When they approached Belgrade at the very +beginning of the war, within six hours they were shelling the city and +killing women and children. In other cities, as at Shabats, for example, +they did many things from what seemed a mere spirit of wantonness, +emptying the contents of shops into the streets and carrying away +property that could hardly have been of use to them. But while they +devastated the country they had entered and terrified the +non-combatants, they had few engagements with the Serbian soldiers +worthy the name of battle. + +It was during this second invasion that King Peter especially endeared +himself to his men. In one instance where they were growing +disheartened, he entered the trenches and discharging his rifle as a +signal, led them to victory. The Serbs from the beginning of the war +felt confidence in their leaders--the Crown Prince, Putnik, Misich, +Pasich, the king. + +The Serbian soldiers were gathering strength. The world knew before this +that they were brave fighters; since that autumn of 1914 they have known +that they are unsurpassed. Facing an enemy that outnumbered them three +to one, they did not flinch, and by the 20th of December the Austrians +were driven out of Serbia--not to return for nearly a year. During that +year, however, the Austrians from the other side of the Danube were +constantly bombarding Belgrade, while the inhabitants for the most part +went about their business as usual. The army, which had early been +ordered out of the city in a vain effort to save Belgrade from +bombardment, was now putting itself in good condition. The return of the +invaders was certain, the time less sure. All that Serbia could do was +to spare no effort to put herself in the best condition to meet the +inevitable attacks of the foe. The hospitals were full of wounded and +Serbian women and nurses from outside were doing their best for the +Serbian soldiers and for the many sick Austrian soldiers, when the +dreadful typhus broke out. + +But for famine and disease during their fatal six months Serbia might +still be on her feet. Her tragic condition interested the whole world, +unwilling to see the women relatives of a million fighters suffering, +aye, even dying. The first invasion resulted in taking away from their +home the majority of the peasants who had remained behind to provide +food. The invaders did not even respect the hospitals--they cut off the +water supplies so that the nurses could not even provide for the sick. + +During those months of disease the black flag hung over hundreds of +houses in every Serbian town. The whole country was demoralized, for +many officials had lost their lives. The fever was so virulent that it +may be said that no country has ever suffered so severely. The typhus +that broke out in the early part of 1915 came from the bad sanitary +condition of the Austrian prison camps, and Serbia, weakened by war, was +in no condition to resist. Several thousands a day died in the early +months of that year. In six of the most fertile districts, more than +half of the children died--of hunger, cold, and exposure as well as of +disease--and it was not until the Red Cross physicians and others from +various countries took hold, that the disease abated. + +Meanwhile, men of Serbia were fighting bravely and hopefully until an +advancing wave of Teutons swept over the country and the populace fled. +It had been wiser, perhaps, if non-combatants had stayed in their homes, +but so fearful were the atrocities reported, the atrocities committed by +the German armies in Belgium and elsewhere, that retreat seemed wisest. +Many Serbian soldiers, however, wished to stay and face the invader +until they could fight no longer. But they would have had to fight with +three against their one. The hordes rushing on were beyond +belief--Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians. The humbler people might +with less danger have stayed behind, but the Government, naturally, +could not remain in its capital and there were many others upon whom a +price was set. When once the retreat began it rolled up by tens of +thousands, and this human flood could not be stopped. It was a +spectacular flight. All the private vehicles that the Government could +get together; all the motor trucks which could be collected; all in one +great procession, peasants carrying their household goods in bundles +over their shoulders--chiefly old men and women, for the young men were +in the army; young women carrying babies in their arms with little +children clinging to their skirts were following close behind. Those in +motor vehicles did not have a painless journey. Often their cars broke +down; they were thrown into the mud from which they were with +difficulty rescued. Sometimes a car and its occupants fell from the +precipice into the foaming river below. They went over mountains as high +as our Alleghanies and as wild as our Rockies. Sometimes they passed +feudal castles on steep rocks; sometimes they went through dangerous +passes and slept in the open, fearing attacks from the murderous +Albanians, who were certainly to be dreaded. For not a few of the poor +pilgrims met death at the hands of these cut-throats. For days and days, +they moved on in the drenching rain, cold and starving! And it was not +only the animals that succumbed to the horror of the march; old men and +women, children, and soldiers who once had been strong at last had to +give up and lie down in death. Constantly they were in dread of the +approaching enemy, whose guns after a while they could hear rumbling in +the distance. But they kept moving on toward the sea, where they +expected ships to take them to a safer country. + +The wraith of an army reached the sea and the wraith of an army of +non-combatants,--all of this suffering merely to find a haven from the +advancing Teutonic armies! Perhaps those men were right who had refused +to retreat, who had begged for death by a comrade's gun rather than have +the dishonor of turning backs to the enemy. Though they saw that the +conquest of Serbia was inevitable, it was hard to admit that they were +beaten. At last, after all this hardship, when the poor Serbians reached +the Adriatic, they found no food! Transports loaded with food had been +sunk in the harbors! Weary, starving, they must wait a little longer. + +Was there ever before such a flight? The retreat of one civilized Nation +before another; the flight of a whole people, Government, soldiers, +non-combatants, and all because of the rumors of the terrors the pursuer +would inflict if he caught his prey! At the sea they breathed more +freely--they could look across the water and there, far, far beyond, lay +the lands where for centuries the weaker had not been sorely oppressed. + +[Illustration: SERBIAN SOLDIERS ON THE BANKS OF THE DRINA] + +Then the wraith of an army began to hope; and on the island the soldiers +were recuperating, and the little boys--a quarter of those who had +poured into the great procession from all the roads, from every little +village, from every town--the dead, would not swell the triumph of the +victors. Those by the sea rested and grew stronger; and after a while +the world began to hear that Serbia, deprived of her country, a Nation +living in exile, was getting ready to claim her own. She was now one of +the Allies. Her army could give an account of itself. "Poor Serbia!" +they had said. "Plucky Serbia!" they were now saying, and it was even +possible to imagine the world crying, "Lucky Serbia!" The soldiers +recuperating at Corfu; the women working at Corsica making the +wonderful embroideries that had given Serbia fame the world over; the +downtrodden under the feet of the Conqueror, living in shattered +dwellings in Serbian town and village, and praying, praying for the +restoration of their homes, hiding their tears while they worked or +prayed or nursed the sick--all, all working for Serbia. + +Then those people who recognize heroism, those people who admire +patience and silent bravery, those people who long had cried, "Plucky +Serbia!" who had long been working for Serbia, now worked the harder, +and other workers joined them, until there were few sections of the +globe where there was not a group working for Serbia. The remnant of the +army, too, worked harder than ever, training, gathering strength, adding +to its numbers,--and at last it was ready. + + +Then Serbia had a vision of the men who had made her great--Vladimir, +who first showed that union is strength; Michael, her earliest King, and +Stephen Nemanya, who gave her a real kingdom, and Stephen Dushan, whose +dreams of a Serb Empire had given her glory; then Lazar Grebelyanovitch, +her brave and generous defender at Kossovo. Again, after her long sleep, +Karageorges, heroic and just, grandsire of King Peter; and last, Milos +Obrenovitch, whose cleverness had laid the foundation for much of her +present good. + +Had she changed too quickly from the old patriarchal system before she +could rightly replace it? All this time, she now realized too well, she +had been only half-educated. It was easy enough for the great Nations to +criticize her, forgetful of the long past years when they were in her +condition, yet none of them could deny her her heroic past. + +Then Serbia looked toward the sea. She no longer felt the pain of her +grief and her bruises; she was no longer alone. Friendly hands reached +out to her on every side, and beyond the sea lay noble England, and +strong Canada, and heroic France--Allies fighting for her, for her who +might never be able to reward them; and, nearer to her, she could see +fair Italy, magnificent Russia, and brave Montenegro and Roumania. All, +all had been fighting for her, for in fighting for liberty, they fought +for the oppressed of the whole world. They had been fighting her +battles--the battles of the days of her strength. And there, farther +off, was friendly America. For the moment she saw her ideal State--the +union of Serb countries into one independent National State--a Serbian +or a Croato-Serb monarchy. + +Then, a shout, a clamor of voices, "Monastir! Monastir! Serbia! Serbia!" +Not a year since that awful retreat, and now the long exile was nearing +its end. King Peter, and the Crown Prince, the Government, the whole +Nation were hurrying home! + +"There is no death without the appointed day," chants the old pesma. +Serbia will live! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Serbia: A Sketch, by Helen Leah Reed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + +***** This file should be named 35231-8.txt or 35231-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/3/35231/ + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Serbia: A Sketch + +Author: Helen Leah Reed + +Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35231] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + + + + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 360px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="360" height="650" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;"> +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="368" height="604" alt="Karageorges—Liberator of Serbia" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Karageorges—Liberator of Serbia</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>SERBIA: A SKETCH</h2> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h3>HELEN LEAH REED</h3> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON'S YOUNG NEIGHBOR" "MISS THEODORA," ETC.</h4> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 129px;"> +<img src="images/illus-2.jpg" width="129" height="131" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"> +WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE<br /> +SERBIAN DISTRESS FUND<br /> +555 Boylston Street, Boston<br /> +1917<br /> +<br /> +Copyright, 1916<br /> +<span class="smcap">By Helen Leah Reed</span><br /> +<br /> +THE PLIMPTON PRESS<br /> +NORWOOD MASS USA<br /> +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Serbia, valiant daughter of the Ages,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Happiness and light should be thy portion!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Yet thy day is dimmed, thine heart is heavy;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Long hast thou endured—a little longer</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Bear thy burden, for a fair tomorrow</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Soon will gleam upon thy flower-spread valleys,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Soon will brighten all thy shadowy mountains;</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Soon will sparkle on thy foaming torrents</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Rushing toward the world beyond thy rivers.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Bulgar, Turk and Magyar long assailed thee.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Now the Teuton's cruel hand is on thee.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Though he break thy heart and rack thy body,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>'Tis not his to crush thy lofty spirit.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Serbia cannot die. She lives immortal,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Serbia—all thy loyal men bring comfort</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Fighting, fighting, and thy far-flung banner</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Blazons to the world thy high endeavor,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>—This thy strife for brotherhood and freedom—</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Like an air-free bird unknowing bondage,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Soaring far from carnage, smoke and tumult,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Serbia—thy soul shall live forever!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Serbia, undaunted, is immortal!</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Among comparatively recent books in English accessible to the general +reader are:</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Servia and the Servians</span><br /> +<i>Mijatovich</i>—L. C. Page Co.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Servian People</span><br /> +<i>Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich</i>, 2 vols.—Scribners<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Servia by the Servians</span><br /> +<i>Alfred Stead</i>—Heinemann<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Slav Nations</span><br /> +<i>Tucic</i>—Hodder and Stoughton<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Serbia, her People, History and Aspirations</span><br /> +<i>Petrovitch</i>—Stokes<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Story of Servia</span><br /> +<i>Church</i>—Kelly<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Hero-Tales and Legends of the Serbians</span><br /> +<i>Petrovitch</i>—Harrap and Co.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">With Serbia into Exile</span><br /> +<i>Fortier Jones</i>—The Century Company<br /> +<br /> +The spelling of names follows "Servia by the Servians," except "Serb."<br /> +</p> + +<p>The author is indebted to some of these books for facts embodied in this +little sketch—as well as to several persons familiar with Serbia.</p> + +<p>She gives warm thanks to Madame Slavko Grouitch, wife of the Serbian +Secretary for Foreign affairs, who first interested her in Serbia.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>SERBIA: A SKETCH</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>I. SERBIA: STARTING</h2> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-s.jpg" width="120" height="120" alt="S" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3"> +Serbia, younger sister of the Nations, has indeed had a younger sister's +portion. In her early years she grew up with little guidance from older +and wiser members of the family. She did not have the advice that she +needed. Perhaps she would not have followed it, though on occasion she +has shown more docility than many of the family.</p></div> + +<p>It took her a long time to find herself; she had troubles in her +household, and it was her first endeavor to get the factions to unite +and let her be the acknowledged head of the house. She believed it was +her ultimate destiny to govern them all—that this was for their good.</p> + +<p>When she had made herself mistress of her own house, she tried to stand +alone—to be independent of her neighbors. She had no wish to dominate +them. She did not try to aggrandize herself at their expense, nor did +she take up weapons against them. But she wished them to acknowledge her +head of her own household, just as those within her house had done. She +even was willing to be called a Princess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>—providing she governed her +household well. But almost hidden from the rest of Europe by her +mountains, kept by barriers from easy access to the rest of the world, +the other Nations paid little attention to her. She grew up almost +unnoticed by the world—proud and strong, simple in her tastes, pious in +her own way (for her church was not the church of most of her +neighbors), and thoughtful, if ill educated.</p> + +<p>She was not bookish in those early days; she was too indifferent, +perhaps, to letters. Had she kept a journal, we could now embroider her +story with more brilliant threads. Her lack of education was perhaps +rather her misfortune than her fault. Those who knew her realized her +many fine qualities, yet she made few friends beyond her own +borders,—and because she was independent and poor, her richer neighbors +were suspicious of her and jealous. This one and that one set upon her. +They were jealous when she first put on regal robes. They were afraid +that she wished to enlarge her possessions at their expense, and one of +them, who had assumed complete lordship over Serbia and all her sisters, +was constantly threatening her, pretending at times that if she could +help him against the foe from Asia who was threatening them both, she +should be acknowledged of royal rank. This did not wholly satisfy her. +Her ambitions had grown. She herself was reaching out for the Imperial +purple. She felt that if she wore it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> she might better defend herself +and her relatives beyond the mountains from the Asiatic hordes.</p> + +<p>Then came the great test—and from then almost until to-day Kossovo has +been a day of mourning!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-w.jpg" width="120" height="119" alt="W" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_2"> +When the fair, gray-eyed ancestors of the modern Serb came south from +their home in Galicia, moving westward from the shores of the Black Sea, +along the left bank of the Danube, they crossed the river and occupied +the northwest corner of the Balkan Peninsula. How long they had lived in +Galicia we need not ask, but they bore with them traditions of a +catastrophe in India that was probably the cause of their remote +fathers' leaving that country.</p></div> + +<p>Pliny and Ptolemy mention the Serbs, and we know that for one hundred +years at least previous to 625 <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> they were at war with the Empire. +The Roman Empire was then slowly disintegrating, and in the Balkans +there was no power to protect the Romanized Illyria from the northern +invaders who in prehistoric times had driven away the aboriginal +inhabitants.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>It matters little whether the Emperor Heraclius invited the Serbs to +settle down in the northwest Byzantine provinces lately devastated by +barbarians, on condition that they would defend the Empire against the +Tartar Avars, or whether he merely accepted the fact that they had +entered these provinces and must stay there. He made an agreement of +peace with the Serbs—and this marks the beginning of their known +history. He desired a buffer State, as the neighbors of the Serbs so +often have desired in later times. The lands the newcomers then occupied +are the Serb lands of to-day—Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, +Old Serbia, Macedonia, Dalmatia, the Banat, and to an extent Croatia and +Western Bulgaria—practically the ideal Pan-Serbia, but in this little +sketch, so far as it is possible, by "Serbia" is meant the Kingdom of +Serbia, at the north of the Balkan Peninsula.</p> + +<p>The Kingdom of Serbia is bounded by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> Bosnia, Old Serbia, Bulgaria, +Roumania, the Banat, and Slavonia. The boundary rivers are the Danube, +on the north separating it from Hungary and on the northeast from +Roumania; the Drina, on the northwest from Bosnia; the Save, on the +northwest from Croatia and Slavonia; the Timok, on the northeast from +Bulgaria. Various mountain ranges on the west separate it from Bosnia, +on the south and southwest from Turkey, and on the south and southeast +from Bulgaria.</p> + +<p>Until the tenth century, except Pliny and Ptolemy, the Emperor +Constantine Porphyrogenites is the only historian to speak of the Serbs, +and he but briefly; yet their history in those three centuries after +their arrival was an epitome of their history in later years in the +Balkan Peninsula. The general movement was the same. First, a constant +struggle on the one side to establish a union of the jupanias and on the +other side a constant resistance to such centralization. A jupania<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> may +be roughly defined as a county within whose limits lived clans more or +less related to one another. The ruler was a Jupan, and it was not +strange that the more powerful Jupans should tend to absorb their weaker +neighbors. The successful man took the title of Grand Jupan. Jealousy of +the Grand Jupan would lead to assassination, dethronement, and +decentralization—and then would come a repetition of the violent and +bloody story.</p> + +<p>Another element of disorder in Serbia was the ancient Slavonic rule that +a Jupan might be succeeded, not by his son but by the oldest member of +his family. It was hardly to be counted against a strong Jupan that he +should try to arrange for his son to succeed him—yet this added to the +troubles of the Serbs.</p> + +<p>A third and later cause of Serb trouble was the Church. The Greek +Emperor and the Greek Church on the one side, and the Roman Catholic +Church represented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> by Venice and Hungary on the other, were continually +warring, not only for territory but for influence in the Serb provinces. +Yet in spite of apparent wavering, the Serbs from the time they adopted +Christianity have been constant to the Church of their early choice.</p> + +<p>Finally, the founding in the seventh century of the Bulgarian kingdom, +on the eastern and southeastern frontiers of Serbia, added to the +dangers of this tempestuous little nation. After the Frank and Bulgarian +Emperors in the first quarter of the ninth century had for some time +wrangled over the Serbian tribes, the Bulgarians at last succeeded in +placing a garrison in Belgrade. The Bulgarians ruled Rascia for seven +years, but it was like ruling an uninhabited land, as the larger part of +the Serbians had run away to Croatia.</p> + +<p>Almost two hundred years after the agreement with Heraclius the Serbs +had a strong Jupan who carried out the principles of concentration. This +Visheslav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> was probably a descendant of that Visheslav who had signed +the agreement with the Greek Emperor. His descendants, of whom the +greatest was Vlastimir, for three generations contributed to the unity +of Serbia by defending it against Bulgar and Frank, who were constantly +menacing even when not directly attacking. Towards the end of the ninth +century, in 871, under Basil the Macedonian, the Serbs acknowledged +again the suzerainty of the Greek Empire and accepted Christianity. This +was in the reign of Mertimir, but after his death almost all of the +Greek Serb provinces were lost to Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria.</p> + +<p>Though Serbia recovered part of her lost provinces, she could not hold +them. The political center of the Serbs had moved to Zeta (Montenegro) +and the mystic Prince Jovan Vladimir in the latter part of the tenth +century, sometimes called King of Zeta, tried in vain to stop the +triumphal march of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria through the Serb<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> provinces. +He himself was taken a prisoner to Samuel's court, where he married the +Tsar's daughter, Kossara. He returned to Zeta as reigning Prince under +the suzerainty of Bulgaria, but in 1015 he was murdered by Samuel's +heir, and he now is venerated as a saint in Serbia. The first Serb +novel, "Vladimir and Kossara," published in the thirteenth century, is +founded on the life of this Prince.</p> + +<p>Zeta was too far from the racial center of Serbia to be a good political +center and soon the disintegration of the first Serb kingdom began. +Although Serbia recovered the provinces Bulgaria had taken, she was +unable to stand alone, and grudgingly accepted Greek suzerainty until +Prince Voislav—cousin of Vladimir of Zeta—started a successful revolt +against the Greeks and united under his own rule Zeta, Trebinje, and +Zahumle. His son, Michel Voislavich, annexed the Jupania of Rascia. In +1072 he proclaimed himself King and received the crown from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Gregory +VII. This was an effort to free Serbia from the Greek overlordship, as +expressed in the Greek Church. In the next reign Serbia became better +known to the world when she welcomed the Crusaders under Raymond of +Toulouse, passing through on their way to the Holy Land. Then came +brighter days for Serbia. Stephen Nemanya, Grand Jupan of Rascia, who +lived near Novi Bazar (1122-1199), planned the union of all the jupanias +in one kingdom under one king. This he practically accomplished, for +though unable to include Bosnia, within ten years of his accession he +had almost doubled his territory.</p> + +<p>Later, when Stephen's ambition grew, he received Frederick Barbarossa, +passing through with his Crusaders, and gave him every honor due the +Empire when he visited Nish in 1188, and treated him so liberally that +Barbarossa—at least this is something more than rumor—was considering +a marriage between his son and Stephen's daughter when death put<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> an end +to the alliance. In the next reign the Emperor Henry VI planned, with +the help of the Serbs, to conquer the Byzantine Empire. But again death +took the Emperor before the plans were completed.</p> + +<p>Another notable act of Stephen's was his attack on the Greek provinces +as an ally of the King of Hungary. Stephen Nemanya assumed the +double-eagle as the insignia of his dignity, but though he founded the +first real Kingdom of Serbia, and was called King, he was never crowned.</p> + +<p>Toward the close of his distinguished career, in 1196, weary of the +world, he withdrew to the Monastery Helinder on Mt. Athos, where years +before his youngest son Rastko had retired. Stephen died after three +years of monastic life. The historic records of Serbia begin with his +reign.</p> + +<p>Rastko, known in the Church as Sava and afterwards canonized, was a man +of active temperament—a statesman as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> well as a churchman. He used his +wisdom and his learning to benefit his country.</p> + +<p>Stephen, son of Nemanya, was the first crowned King of Serbia. He kept +off foreign enemies, and Serbia, no longer dreading attacks, began to +develop some of her mineral resources. She made a beginning, too, of +educating her people. In the next two or three generations of rulers +there were quarrels among members of the ruling family. Outside, too, +the Magyars began to press upon the little kingdom. But on the whole +Serbia was united,—mindful, perhaps, of St. Sava's motto: "Only Union +is Serbia's Salvation."</p> + +<p>Stephen the Sixth, or "The Great," won victories over the Greek +Emperors, the Tartars, and the Bulgarians. He helped the Greek Emperor +against the Turks, now becoming formidable, and as part of his reward +had the Emperor's daughter given him in marriage. But this led to +domestic unhappiness in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> later years and some loss of territory. For +his wife tried to keep his son Stephen from his inheritance. In turn, +Stephen's party set upon the King and choked him to death. Though +Stephen Dushan may have had no hand in it, this murder clouds his +reputation. Stephen Dushan is a contradictory character—by some +regarded as the murderer of his father, by others an idealist to be +compared with King Arthur or with Roland. Stephen Dushan (Detchanski), +great-grandson of Stephen Nemanya, came to the throne in 1331 and in ten +years had gained Albania and Epirus and finally all Macedonia except +Salonika. He was practically suzerain of Bulgaria. He freed the Church, +which long since had drifted from Rome back to Byzance. Now he made it +independent of the Greek Emperor, constituting the Archbishop of Petch, +Archbishop, or rather Patriarch, of Serbia.</p> + +<p>Noted both as a soldier and a statesman, Stephen had wider plans than +Vlasimir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> or Nemanya. The Turks were now looming dangerously in the +East. The Greek Empire was tottering. With it, the rest of Eastern +Europe might fall, including little Serbia—one of the smallest of all +the little principalities. But Serbia, if small, was brave, and Dushan +hoped to proclaim a Serbo-Greek Empire to head off the Asiatic hordes. +To accomplish this he took certain territory from the Greek Empire and, +proclaiming himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, was solemnly +crowned at Uksub at Easter, 1346. Nine years later he tried to unite +Bulgars and Serbs and Greeks against the Turks. With a large army of +about one hundred thousand trained soldiers he was almost at the gates +of Constantinople when a sudden illness overtook him and he died.</p> + +<p>Under Dushan Serbia had very nearly reached her highest +ambition—complete dominion over the Balkan Peninsula. Dushan ruled also +a large part of the former Byzantine lands in Europe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of farther-reaching good for Serbia than his territorial conquests was +the Zakonik or Code of Laws, completed in 1354 under Dushan's direction. +It contained not only the best of the old, but many new, laws resulting +from Dushan's knowledge of his country's needs. It ranks high among +medieval codes of law. After his death, his empire separated itself into +its elements—a number of small states whose rulers were fighting one +another while the Turks were subduing Thrace.</p> + +<p>With the death of Dushan in 1355 the greatness of Serbia also passed +away. His son, Urosh, could not hold what his father had gained, and +little by little parts of his Empire fell off from the center, until but +a small fragment remained. Yet there were still many stout-hearted +Serbs—many who wished to do their utmost to throw off the Turks now +pressing upon them. When Urosh died childless, the direct Nemanya +dynasty came to an end, but in 1371<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Lazar Grebelyanovitch of the +Nemanya family was elected ruler of the Serbs. Though called Tsar, he +would not formally take the title. Devoted to his country, he threw all +his energy into forming a Christian League against the Turks.</p> + +<p>But the wily Oriental circumvented him by attacking the members of the +League one by one. For nearly twenty years after that there were many +encounters between Turks and Serbians. At the first attack on Nish, +Serbia so humbled herself as to agree to pay tribute in gold and in +soldiers for the Sultan's armies on condition the Turks would leave her +alone.</p> + +<p>Later Lazar did his utmost to save poor Serbia from further disgrace. He +united with the Ban of Bosnia, also a descendant of Stephen Nemanya, and +together they gained many small victories. After once defeating the +invading Turks under Murat I the Serbs had to stand a second time +opposed to Murat and a well-trained force of Turkish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> soldiers. Against +the Turks were drawn up the full strength of Serbia, Albania, and +Bosnia.</p> + +<p>There on the field of Kossovo, the "field of blackbirds," June 15, 1389, +was fought one of the decisive battles of history. It was a bitter +defeat for Serbia, though as many Turks as Serbs perished on the field. +On the eve of the battle Murat I had been assassinated. The brave Lazar +with the flower of the Serb nation lay dead—Lazar first made prisoner, +then beheaded. Of all Serbian rulers, the memory of Lazar was held the +dearest. "A pious and generous prince, a brave but unsuccessful +general."</p> + +<p>There was no longer any question as to supremacy in the Balkan +Peninsula. The independence of Serbia and the liberties of all the +smaller states were now the property of the unspeakable Turk.</p> + +<p>Lazar, it is said, was warned of his fate by a letter from Heaven even +before the battle, but he still went forward to fight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> for his country. +Bowring's translation of the heroic pesma (Battle of Kossovo) gives an +idea of this event. Before the battle Lazar receives the mysterious +letter:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Tzar Lasar! thou tzar of noble lineage!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell me now, what kingdom hast thou chosen?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wilt thou have heaven's kingdom for thy portion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or an earthly kingdom? If an earthly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saddle thy good steed—and gird him tightly;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let thy heroes buckle on their sabres,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Smite the Turkish legions like a tempest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And these legions all will fly before thee.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if thou wilt have heaven's kingdom rather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speedily erect upon Kossova,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Speedily erect a church of marble;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the army, to its vespers going,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May from sin be purged—for death be ready;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For thy warriors all are dooméd to stumble;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, too, prince, wilt perish with thy army!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the Tzar Lasar had read the writing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Many were his thoughts and long his musings.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Lord, my God! what—which shall be my portion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which my choice of these two proffer'd kingdoms?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall I choose heaven's kingdom? shall I rather<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Choose an earthly one? for what is earthly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is as fleeting, vain, and unsubstantial;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heavenly things are lasting, firm, eternal."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the Tzar preferr'd a heavenly kingdom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rather than an earthly. On Kossova<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Straight he built a church, but not of marble;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he calls the patriarch of Servia,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Calls around him all the twelve archbishops,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bids them make the holy supper ready,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Purify the warriors from their errors,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for death's last conflict make them ready.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the warriors were prepared for battle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the Turkish hosts approach Kossova.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bogdan leads his valiant heroes forward,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With his sons—nine sons—the Jugocichi,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sharp and keen—nine gray and noble falcons.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Each led on nine thousand Servian warriors;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the aged Jug led twenty thousand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With the Turks began the bloody battle.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seven pashas were overcome and scatter'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the eighth pasha came onward boldly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the aged Jug Bogdan has fallen.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">....*....*....*....*<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then Lasar, the noble lord of Servia,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seeks Kossova with his mighty army;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seven and seventy thousand Servian warriors.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How the infidels retire before him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dare not look upon his awful visage!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now indeed begins the glorious battle.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He had triumph'd then, had triumph'd proudly,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But that Vuk—the curse of God be on him!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He betrays his father at Kossova.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So the Turks the Servian monarch vanquish'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So Lasar fell—the Tzar of Servia—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Lasar fell all the Servian army.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But they have been honor'd, and are holy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the keeping of the God of heaven.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>All that the Nemanyas, all that the Serbian people had done toward +national unity was destroyed at Kossovo. Throughout Serb lands, the +anniversary of Kossovo is still kept as a memorial day for all Serbian +heroes, both for those who fell then and those who have since fallen in +defense of their country.</p> + +<p>For seventy years after Kossovo, Serbia, though nominally ruled by +despots, was really subsidiary to the Sultan. George Brankovitch, one of +the despots, worked for an alliance between Serbia and Hungary to +overthrow the Turks. The Turks were defeated at Kunovista, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> lands +previously taken were restored to him. This brave man died at the age of +ninety of wounds received in a duel with a Hungarian nobleman. But in +spite of the efforts of Brankovitch, the days of Serbia were numbered. +In 1459 she became a Pashilik under the direct government of the +Porte—and this was her condition for nearly three hundred and fifty +years.</p> + +<p>If in her darkest hour some strong nation had sympathized with Serbia, +her future might have been different. The nations of Europe were now +having a revival of life—a renaissance—but they had no thought of +Serbia, their young sister. She was hidden among her mountains and she +made no outcry. She had tried to do what she could for herself. She had +had her moments of power and happiness. Now came a long, long night.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/illus-22.jpg" width="650" height="407" alt="Church at Ravinitza—where Lazar was buried" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Church at Ravinitza—where Lazar was buried</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the darker days many Serbs fled to the mountains, sometimes to carry +on their occupation of farmer so far as they could, unmolested by the +Turk; sometimes to become Haiduks—the Robin Hoods of the mountains and +forests—to steal from the Moslem when it was possible, to give to the +poor Serb; always to keep up an unceasing guerrilla warfare.</p> + +<p>Serbians were sold as slaves by the ten thousands to Constantinople and +to Egypt. Whenever they could, they fled their country to Venice, to +Dalmatia, to Hungary. Those who stayed in Serbia were not meek and so +far as they could they resisted their oppressor. The Church was the +mainstay of the nation; indeed, even to-day, the Serbian Church is a +national rather than a religious organization. Before the end of Serb +power came, southern Hungary had begun to receive many Serbian +immigrants; by the middle of the sixteenth century they were numerous +along the borders of Croatia and Slavonia. Although to a large extent +farm laborers, they were soldiers as well, and fought in many battles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +for Austria. In the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of +the sixteenth century, the Serbs in the Hungarian army formed the famous +"Black Legion" and won great fame. In the latter part of the seventeenth +century thirty-seven thousand Serbians went in a body to South Hungary, +and fifty years later one hundred thousand, migrating to Russia, formed +a colony by themselves. In 1690 the Emperor Leopold had granted a fair +amount of liberty, civil as well as religious, to the large organized +body of Serbs who had settled in South Hungary. Their privileges were +from time to time confirmed, especially when the Emperor needed help +from the Serbs against some one of his numerous enemies. At other times +the Serbs in Hungary had no flowery path. Austria was always playing +fast and loose with them, and at last, toward the end of the eighteenth +century, though Austria was treating them well, they saw they had little +cause to hope that she would free them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> from the Turkish yoke. The +ancient ill will of Hungary against Serbia persisted, and sometimes laws +passed in her favor by Austria were in the end suppressed or nullified +by Hungarian efforts.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h2>II. SERBIA: SINGING</h2> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-s.jpg" width="120" height="120" alt="S" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3">Serbia, in the hands of a cruel conqueror, stripped of most of her +possessions, bereft of happiness, forgotten by her sister nations, had +little left but hope. She still clung to her ideals of brotherhood and +freedom, and she held close her great treasure, a gift inherited from +her remote northern ancestors—her gift of song. Her songs—virile, yet +somewhat softened by contact with her southern neighbors—cheered and +strengthened her. She sang and sang, in a minor key, and her mountains +reëchoed with the deeds of her happier days, with the stories of her +heroes, now seeming more splendid because she herself had become so poor +and unhappy. For centuries she was like one stunned; she had never been +aggressive—now she could not fight against the aggressor who had all +the weapons in his own hands.</p></div> + +<p>A younger sister—and poor at that!—a younger sister, who had set out +to be perfectly independent—what could she expect? She must work out +her own salvation. Besides, she lived so far away from the centers of +culture she was almost a barbarian. Yet she was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> wholly uncouth. She +had been courteous to the Crusaders traversing Europe to crush their +common enemy—the Turk; and now the Turk had captured her! Of course it +was a pity! It was a busy time in Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries; the nations had enough to do to keep their own houses in +order,—and when they had leisure they must keep in touch with new life, +with the renaissance of Art and Learning. They were enchanted with the +discovery that they were not mere parvenus like distant Serbia, but +descendants of that grand old house that had once conquered the world. +The beauty of Paganism—ah, that was something worth contemplating! But +Serbia—well, the Crusades were over, and the Turk was no longer +threatening Western Europe; besides, Serbia had not even belonged to +their Church—so what matter if the Turk crushed her?</p> + +<p>But Serbia was not crushed. Had the nations listened, they could have +heard her singing. There was little else she could do, except wait and +hope—wait like her Marko for the signal to rise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-t.jpg" width="120" height="119" alt="t" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3">Through five centuries of subjection to the Turks, the guslars, singing +the heroic pesmas, were hardly second in influence to the priests in +fortifying the spirits of the suffering Serbs. The intense patriotism of +the Serb was kept alive, indeed was often kindled, by the folk songs he +had heard even in his cradle. Through all his troubles he has cherished +the divine fire of Nationality, even as the Vestals conserved the sacred +flame.</p></div> + +<p>The Serb, belonging to the most poetical of nations, has the most +melodious of all Slav tongues—identical with that of the Croats and yet +used as the language of literature a comparatively short time. Even +little more than a hundred years ago people were still arguing whether +ancient Slavonic or the Serbian vernacular should be the language of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +literature. But for Dossitie Obradovitch this result might have been +reached less quickly. He, "the great sower," a notable educator, applied +the language of the people to literature, publishing an autobiography, +besides poems and treatises, in the common tongue. Before his death, in +1811, the "Write as you speak" party had won, and literature became the +property of the masses. Yet a further improvement in the language was +undertaken by Vuk Karadgitch, a self-taught cripple, whose grammar, +published in 1814, was epochal. He it was who devised the alphabet of +thirty letters, each one representing a complete sound, and he published +a dictionary and a collection of the pesmas which he took down from the +mouths of the guslars who sang them. Then, when various translations +appeared, Europe remembered vaguely that diplomats and travelers +generations before had brought back accounts of Serbian poetry heard +almost as often in those days in foreign countries as in Serbia itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>Goethe was one of the first to translate them and call attention to +those pesmas. He praised their humor and philosophy, their high heroism +mingled with certain spiritual qualities. Soon Sir John Bowring, a +skilled linguist, made a translation into English verse which is nearer +the original in spirit and letter than any that has been made since.</p> + +<p>There have also been many fine prose translations of the Kossovo cycle +and of other pesmas, and all readers agree that in them is, as one +critic says, "a clear and inborn poetry, such as can scarcely be found +in any other modern people."</p> + +<p>"Serbian song," wrote Schafferik, "resembles the tone of the violin; old +Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that of the guitar. The old +Slavonian in the Psalms sounds like the loud rush of the mountain +stream; the Polish like the sparkling and bubbling of a fountain; and +the Serbian like the quiet murmuring of a streamlet in a valley."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Serb loves to sing; every young countryman carries his gusle, and is +ready to use it—a one-stringed violin, shaped something like a +mandolin, played on the knee with a bow, like a violoncello. Men and +women—peasants and townsmen—all sing. When two or more sing together, +it is unison and not part-singing. The national Serb music is rich in +melodies. The traveler to-day hears the Serb singing a ballad of the +days of Stephen Dushan of Kossovo, of the Bulgar War, of Karageorges +(the William Tell of the mountains). The gusle wails monotonously, with +an occasional trill on one or two minor notes. Some find its music +plaintive, others call it tiresome, and travelers as long ago as the +beginning of the eighteenth century have written of seeing numbers of +people in a crowd silently weeping as they listened to an old blind man +chanting the national songs.</p> + +<p>There are two great epic cycles—one centering around Tsar Lazar, the +other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> around Marko—and both have to do with the Battle of Kossovo. +Fragments of other cycles show that Dushan, Milos Obilich, and other +heroes have been each a chief figure in them.</p> + +<p>No matter how unlearned, from one point of view, a Serb may be, he can +always talk about Stephen Nemanya, or St. Sava, or Marko, and the other +great men of his race. Moreover, he is continually creating new songs, +new folk lore. In the great mills of this country he lightens his work +with his simple melodies. Sometimes the words of his song form a clear +narration of the events that brought him to America, even of happenings +since his arrival. His own sorrows, his own joys, are woven in his epic. +After their recent war with Bulgaria, everywhere at village festivals, +the Serbs began to sing of their victories, and to-day they are +undoubtedly singing of the sorrows of the past two years.</p> + +<p>Mr. Miatovich says that when as Cabinet Minister he had been defeated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> +forty years ago, the next day he heard the people singing this event in +the streets.</p> + +<p>Whatever the subject—whether it deals with ancient times or with the +present; whether it is an epic or one of the so-called women's +songs—the Serbian pesma is anonymous. No single writer or composer +claims it. It is the work of the people, all of whom have had a chance +to modify it as it has passed through the ages.</p> + +<p>Among all the heroes of the guslars the favorite has always been Prince +Marko. Although much of the career of the Marko of the pesmas was +fabulous, this prince had a real existence in the latter part of the +fourteenth century—the son of Vukashin, who tried to usurp the throne +of young Urosh after the death of Stephen Dushan, and Queen Helen, +unless one prefers to account for Marko's glittering qualities by making +him the offspring of a dragon and a fairy queen. The real Marko was not +a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> man, as the world counts greatness. He ruled a small territory +in Macedonia, and Prilip was his capital. He is said to have been +friendly with the Turks and to have died fighting for the Sultan. This +was after Kossovo, when Serbia was sleeping. Yet he must have had +qualities that made him rise above this in popular estimation, for his +local reputation grew with time and became national. Certainly for five +centuries he has been a living personality, not only in Serbian but in +Croatian, Bulgarian, and Roumanian tradition.</p> + +<p>It is worth considering—this theory that in Prince Marko the Serbian +nation projects itself; that his sufferings and successes are the +sufferings and successes of the whole nation; that it beholds its own +virtues and weaknesses in his; its own individuality in his popular +personality; its own doom in his tragic fate.</p> + +<p>Athletic, keen-minded, quickly reading the designs of his foes, he, as +an individual, was what Serbia would like to have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> been as a political +entity. Even as he triumphed over Magyar, Venetian or Turk, so would the +Serb have triumphed. When Serbia was sunk in poverty the guslar brought +before his hearers visions of splendid things they could never hope to +see, but whose beauties satisfied their imagination.</p> + +<p>Marko is the knight without fear, without reproach—the lover of +justice, the hater of all oppression. He is kind and dutiful, the +protector of the poor and abused. His pity extends even to animals, who +in turn often helped him. "He feared no one but God." Courteous to all +women, tender and dutiful to his mother, Marko could be savage and cruel +beyond belief toward the Turks.</p> + +<p>Human weapons never harmed him, and he wielded a war club weighing one +hundred pounds, composed of sixty pounds of steel, thirty pounds of +silver, and ten pounds of gold. One touch of this mace beheaded a foe, +as one stroke of his saber ripped him open.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>Marko's horse, Sharaz, his constant companion and helper, was the +strongest and swiftest horse ever known. He knew just when to kneel down +and save his master from the adversary's lance. He knew how to rear and +strike the enemy's charger with his forefeet. When roused he would +spring up three lance lengths forward. Glittering sparks flashed from +beneath his hoof, blue flame from his nostrils. He has been known to +bite off the ears of the enemy's horse; sometimes he trampled Turkish +soldiers to death. Marko fed him bread and wine from his own dishes. +Sharaz kept guard over Marko while he slept. He always shared the glory +of victory.</p> + +<p>Yet, whether or not Marko personifies Serbia, in the life of Marko the +current of Serbian medieval life is reflected as in a mirror.</p> + +<p>In these poems Turks are always unreliable and cruel; Venetians are +crafty; the faithless wife is usually lured away by a Turk. In one vivid +tale, Marko's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> own bride, as he is taking her home from Bulgaria, is +stolen by a Doge of Venice, who, with three hundred attendants, had been +invited by her father to be part of her bridal procession. His designs +do not succeed, and when Marko comprehends this treachery he does not +hesitate. "He cleft the Doge's head in twain," and he struck another +traitor with his saber "so neatly" that he fell to earth in two pieces.</p> + +<p>The touch of exaggeration in all the stories is not one merely of +incident but of detail—the kind of exaggeration a child loves. For +example, when Marko was brought from the cell where the Sultan had +imprisoned him for three years, his nails were so long that he could +plow with them. The Serbs of those days, having few splendid things in +their own surroundings, loved to endow Marko with grandeur. On his tent, +for instance, was fixed a golden apple. "In the apple are fixed two +large diamonds which shed a light so far and wide that the neighboring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> +tents need no candle at night." In another instance a magnificent ring +is described, "so richly studded with precious stones that the whole +room was lighted up."</p> + +<p>The ransom demanded by Marko and his friend Milosh from the Magyar +General Voutchka was more than magnificent. He was to give three tovars +of gold for each (a tovar was as much as a horse could carry on his +back), and, among other things, a gilded coach harnessed with twelve +Arabian coursers used by General Voutchka when visiting the Empress at +Vienna. Voutchka's wife not only agrees to this, but adds one thousand +ducats for each of the two. Even in a poem, it delighted the Serbs to +have a Magyar in their power.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Marko's adversary is a Moor—for example, the Moor who wishes +to marry the Sultan's daughter and the other Moor who demanded a wedding +tax from the maidens of Kossovo. He cut off the head of this Moor with +one touch of his mace. At another time he is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> imprisoned by a Sultan +whose daughter releases him. He has promised to marry her. But when they +have started on their elopement, and she lifts her veil, he is horrified +to see how black she is. There seemed nothing for him to do but to run +away. Yet he knows that he has committed a sin in breaking his +promise—and he confesses this sin to his mother:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Then I sprang upon the back of Sharaz,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I heard the maiden's lips address me—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Thou in God my brother—thou—oh, Marko!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leave me not! thus wretched do not leave me!'<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therefore, mother! wretched do I lowly penance:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thus, my mother! have I gold o'erflowing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore seek I righteous deeds unceasing."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In these pesmas one has glimpses not only of all the neighbors who +warred upon the Serbians, but of Christian malcontents going over to the +Church of Rome or sowing dissensions at home. A careful reader can get +an almost complete picture of the Serbian life after the Conquest, +painted, to be sure, in high colors.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>In most of the Serbian heroic pesmas there is little of that +superstitious element that marks the ordinary life of the Serb to-day, +except in the almost constant presence of the Vila. Marko's Vila never +loses an opportunity to help him, to warn him, and even to scold him.</p> + +<p>The Serbian Vila, so conspicuous in Serbian song and story, may be +roughly defined as a guardian angel. She is a vaguely beautiful maiden +born of the dew and nurtured in a mysterious mountain and seems to +combine qualities of both classic and northern mythologies. She has +qualities which are even essentially Christian, for sometimes she +expresses her belief in God and St. John, and always she has a deadly +hatred for the Turk. No higher compliment can be paid a lady than to +say, "as fair as the mountain Vila," and a steed "swift as a Vila" means +one of great value. Occasionally Marko reproves his Vila Rayviola and +once when she has shot an arrow through the throat and another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> through +the head of his friend Milosh, he pursues her among the clouds on his +horse Sharaz and brings her to earth with his club, ungallantly adding: +"Thou hadst better give him healing herbs lest thou shalt not carry +longer thy head upon thy shoulders." But generally Marko's attitude is +more affectionate: "Where art thou now, my sister-in-God, thou Vila?"</p> + +<p>There are in existence about thirty-eight poems and twice as many prose +legends detailing the thrilling exploits of Marko. In spite of certain +accounts of his death, it is generally thought that he never died, but +withdrew to a cave near the castle of Prilip and is still asleep there. +At times he awakes and looks to see if a sword has come out of a rock +where he thrust it to the hilt. When it is out of the rock, he will know +that the time has come for him to appear among the Serbians once more to +reestablish the Empire destroyed at Kossovo. Even now, on occasions, he +may appear to help his disheartened country-men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> An interesting story +of the War of 1912-13 is told that bears directly on this belief. The +Serbian forces were storming the fort at Prilip when their general +ordered a delay. In spite of this, they pushed on and ran straight to +the castle of the royal prince, Marko. The general trembled, believing +that without the help of his artillery, for which he was waiting, these +men of the infantry would be wholly destroyed. But even while dreading +this, he saw the Serbian national colors flying from the donjon of +Marko's castle. His Serbs had driven the Turks away and were victorious, +as it proved, with little loss of life. When he reproved them for +risking so much: "But we were ordered by Prince Marko, did you not see +him on his Sharaz? Prince Marko commanded us all the time—'Forward! +forward!'" They really believed that they had seen their hero.</p> + +<p>Two passages from the heroic pesmas may serve to show Marko under +different<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> aspects. In the first he has been invited by the Grand Vizier +to go hunting, in company with twelve Turks. He has obeyed the Vizier's +command and has loosed his falcon.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then the princely Marko loosed his falcon;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the clouds of heaven aloft he mounted;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he sprung upon the gold-wing'd swimmer—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seized him—rose, and down they fell together.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the bird of Amurath sees the struggle,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He becomes indignant with vexation:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas of old his custom to play falsely—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For himself alone to gripe his booty:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So he pounces down on Marko's falcon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To deprive him of his well-earn'd trophy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the bird was valiant as his master;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marko's falcon has the mind of Marko:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his gold-wing'd prey he will not yield him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sharply turns he round on Amurath's falcon,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he tears away his proudest feathers.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Soon as the Visir observes the contest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is fill'd with sorrow and with anger;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rushes on the falcon of Prince Marko,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flings him fiercely 'gainst a verdant fir-tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he breaks the falcon's dexter pinion.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marko's noble falcon groans in suffering,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the serpent hisses from the cavern.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marko flies to help his favourite falcon,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Binds with tenderness the wounded pinion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with stifled rage the bird addresses:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Woe for thee, and woe for me, my falcon!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have left my Servians—I have hunted<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the Turks—and all these wrongs have suffer'd."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Marko did not content himself with words and the Grand Vizier had +hardly time to warn his companions when Marko cleft his head asunder and +proceeded to cut each of his twelve companions in two. After +deliberation he went to the Sultan and told what he had done. The Sultan +laughed, for he was afraid of the light in Marko's eyes and chose to +dissemble: "If thou hadst not behaved thus I would no longer have called +thee my son. Any Turk may become Grand Vizier, but there is no hero to +equal Marko," and he dismissed Marko with presents.</p> + +<p>In the second, "The Death of Marko," he has been warned by the Vila that +his death is near, and he obeys her commands.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Marko did as counsell'd by the Vila.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he came upon the mountain summit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the right and left he look'd around him;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he saw two tall and slender fir-trees;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fir-trees towering high above the forest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Covered all with verdant leaves and branches.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he rein'd his faithful Sharaz backwards,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then dismounted—tied him to the fir-tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bent him down, and looked into the fountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw his face upon the water mirror'd,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw his death-day written on the water.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Tears rush'd down the visage of the hero:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"O thou faithless world!—thou lovely flow'ret!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wert lovely—a short pilgrim's journey—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Short—though I have seen three centuries over—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And 'tis time that I should end my journey!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then he drew his sharp and shining sabre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drew it forth—and loosed the sabre-girdle;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he hasten'd to his faithful Sharaz:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With one stroke he cleft his head asunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he never should by Turk be mounted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never be disgraced in Turkish service,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Water draw, or drag a Moslem's Jugum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon as he had cleaved his head asunder,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Graced a grave he for his faithful Sharaz,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nobler grave than that which held his brother.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he broke in four his trusty sabre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it might not be a Moslem's portion,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it might not be a Moslem's triumph,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +<span class="i0">That it might not be a wreck of Marko,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which the curse of Christendom should follow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soon as he in four had broke his sabre,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Next he broke his trusty lance in seven;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Threw the fragments to the fir-trees' branches.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he took his club, so terror-striking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In his strong right hand, and swiftly flung it,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flung it from the mountain of Urvina,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Far into the azure, gloomy ocean.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his club thus spake the hero Marko:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"When my club returneth from the ocean,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall a hero come to equal Marko."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When he thus had scatter'd all his weapons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his breast he drew a golden tablet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From his pocket drew unwritten paper,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the princely Marko thus inscribed it:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"He who visits the Urvina mountain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He who seeks the fountain 'neath the fir-trees,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And there finds the hero Marko's body,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let him know that Marko is departed.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When he died, he had three well-fill'd purses:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How well fill'd? Well fill'd with golden ducats.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One shall be his portion, and my blessing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who shall dig a grave for Marko's body:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the second be the church's portion;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the third be given to blind and maim'd ones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That the blind through earth in peace may wander,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And with hymns laud Marko's deeds of glory."<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when Marko had inscribed the letter,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo! he stuck it on the fir-tree's branches,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That it might be seen by passing travellers.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the front he threw his golden tablets,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doff'd his vest of green, and spread it calmly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On the grass, beneath a sheltering fir-tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cross'd him, and lay down upon his garment;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er his eyes he drew his samur-kalpak,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Laid him down,—yes! laid him down for ever.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By the fountain lay the clay-cold Marko<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Day and night; a long, long week he lay there.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Many travellers pass'd, and saw the hero,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Saw him lying by the public path-way;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while passing said, "The hero slumbers!"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then they kept a more than common distance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fearing that they might disturb the hero.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> +<h2>III. SERBIA: SEAWARD</h2> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-t.jpg" width="120" height="119" alt="T" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3"> +The Nations of Europe that had over-looked Serbia in her days of +strength—she was so young, and so far away, half hidden in her +wilderness of mountains—the Nations of Europe that had turned deaf ears +to her cries when the Turk attacked her, began to make inquiries about +the little sister. She had been asleep so long that some of them really +imagined her dead. But they heard some plaintive music: they recognized +her voice as she sang. They saw that she was not only alive, but awake, +thoroughly wide awake, and that she was asking for help. But they had +troubles enough of their own—revolutions and things of that kind. The +people were altogether too troublesome—so at least the rulers said—and +the people, who ought to have heeded poor Serbia's cries, did not take +time to find out just who she was, and what she desired. All might have +been different had they known that Serbia was one of themselves, +acknowledging no privileged classes and desiring little but a chance to +get on her feet and walk alone. For this she needed space to expand in, +space in which to exhale the spirit of freedom that filled her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> The +Turk, her master, was growing weaker. She could almost strike off her +own shackles when suddenly a deliverer came—one of her own people, a +son of her mountains.</p></div> + +<p>When her master was driven away, Serbia began to look about her, a +little humbly at first, for she was trying to understand herself. She +saw that she needed education before she could take her proper place in +the world. So she set herself bravely to learn from books. She noticed +that the stronger Nations were governed by rules, and she gave herself a +Constitution patterned on theirs. Regular work was hard for her, but she +worked diligently and saved a little, though disinclined to hoard. She +had rich treasures hidden away but she had never thought about them, +even as playthings. What does a child care for diamonds? But when it was +made clear to her that wealth is power, she worked more heartily.</p> + +<p>The other Nations began to admit that Serbia was no longer Nobody. +Indeed she was so near being Somebody that many thought it would be wise +to win her friendship, and wiser to put her under obligations. So when +she asked for an Hereditary Prince, presto! the thing was accomplished! +though once she had hardly dared ask more than the privilege of naming +her own chief.</p> + +<p>In outward aspect Serbia began to be more like other people, although +some of her neighbors remembered too well her hoydenish days and her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +years of poverty. Still, they could flatter her sometimes, for she held +the key to certain things that several of them needed—trade routes, +fertile lands, and other things that no ambitious Nation should live +without. Soon some of her neighbors desired to control the sale of +things that modestly enough she had begun to offer to the world. She had +heard that money was power, and she hoped to send her goods to market in +the best way. She noticed that every one who made a success of business +had a place by the sea. In the whole family of Nations she was the only +one who had not a place by the sea, except the littlest one perched up +in the high mountains. But this little one makes a success by trading in +beauty. Yet beauty is an intangible thing to carry to any market and is +best disposed of in the mountains themselves.</p> + +<p>When Serbia first expressed her longing for the sea every one frowned. +"Impossible!" There were other things that ought to please her as +well—opportunities to help them in their wars, little snips of +territory here and there if she helped them gain anything. But a +seaport—ridiculous! Why, the Imperial cousin on one side of her would +be insulted! What better could little Serbia wish than to market her +goods to him, or at least send them over routes he had picked out?</p> + +<p>Then Serbia said less and thought more. She sang less, but she composed +more songs, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> she listened to the people talking, not singing. She +found she could not live by poetry alone. The Young Serbs and the +Panslavs told her their plans and she looked hopefully at her big +fur-clad Cousin. But though with him it wasn't a question of trade, he +had ambitions of his own. He wasn't sure but that Serbia with a seat by +the sea might watch him too closely. Then all the others in the great +family of Nations took sides with one or the other.</p> + +<p>Serbia was restless, but she knew she could wait. Her household was now +much more closely united than in the days of her youth, and she had +realized what had once seemed a vain dream—comparative independence. So +she could wait!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-w.jpg" width="120" height="119" alt="W" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_2">Who would look at pictures of massacres extending throughout Serbia! at +plundered villages! at tortured women and fatherless children shrieking +in agony! All the horrors inflicted by the Turks on the Serbs in the +early nineteenth century were the convulsive movements of one near his +end. The Turk himself was growing weaker and weaker, and his weakness +was Serbia's opportunity. But where was the man to lead her out of +bondage? There was now no heir to her throne, the throne of what had +once been a proud kingdom. Assassination and exile had led also to the +passing of the old nobility. Although the family of the ancient kings +was no more, the old racial stock had little changed. The Serbs were +still of the same indomitable race, still breathing the spirit of +freedom, still bound to one another in a true brotherhood. Yet, loyal +though they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> were, ready to die for Serbia, where could they look for a +leader?</p></div> + +<p>In the early part of 1804, Mustapha Pasha, the Turkish Governor of +Belgrade, was much too kind and benign a man to suit the Janissaries and +the Dahias, their leaders. They had dealt slaughter right and left, and +at last had killed Mustapha himself because he had opposed their +cruelty. While they were planning a general massacre of the most eminent +Serbs in the country, all Serbs who could were fleeing to the mountains. +The rumored massacre was the last straw, and a silent cry arose, "Oh, +for the right man!" Then came the whisper that a leader had been +found—Karageorges, Black George, a prosperous raiser of swine, at this +time about forty years old. He had served in the Austrian armies nearly +twenty years before under Joseph I, that Emperor who, of all the +Austrian monarchs, is said to have meant the most and to have done the +least.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>Karageorges, Black George, so called either on account of his dark +complexion or his moody disposition, a brave man and a man of character, +had fled to the Sumadia for safety. He had great influence among the +large body of refugees in that beautiful forest region of secure +mountain fastnesses. Karageorges was a blunt, plain man, and honest. He +had a strong sense of justice, though notably hot tempered. At the +meeting, when he was chosen leader, there were about five hundred Serbs, +men all under arms. In responding to their request that he would lead +them against the Turks, he said: "Again, brothers, I cannot accept, for +if I accepted I certainly would do much not to your liking. If one of +you were taken in the smallest treachery, the least faltering, I would +punish him in the most fearful manner." "We want it so, we want it so!" +they cried. When he saw that they were in earnest, Karageorges accepted +the office they conferred on him and the Archpriest of Bonvokik<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +received and consecrated his oath. Upon this Karageorges took supreme +control of the insurrection.</p> + +<p>At this same meeting, in the little village of Oorshats, they organized +a National Assembly. At first the Serbs with tactics worthy an Oriental +managed to keep the Sultan's attention from their insurrection by +protesting that they were in arms not against the Sultan himself but +against the Dahias, who, by disobeying him, were the real rebels. +Deceived, or willing to seem deceived, the Porte let them work out their +own plans. But the battle of Ivankovitz awoke The Sublime Porte. Turks +defeated by Serbs! The world had never heard of such a thing! In vain +Napoleon advised The Porte to take no notice of the Serb insurrection. +It was merely part of a Russian plot! Soon the army of Karageorges was +before Shabaz, where the Turks were intrenched. The Turkish commander +shouted from the heights, ordering Karageorges and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> his men to give up +their weapons. "Come and get them!" cried Karageorges. In a short time +the Serb leader and his army were in Shabaz, from which the enemy had +fled in great disorder. Austria was now too intent upon her own war with +Napoleon to give the Serbs the help they sought. She merely advised them +to make peace with The Porte. In accordance with her usual policy, she +wished to cramp the little State within small limits, subject to her +interests. Russia, though more sympathetic, had little thought to spare +for Serbia. At this moment she herself was trying to make an alliance +with Turkey against Napoleon, but she did advise Serbia not to accept +the recent offer of The Porte to give her self-government and to +recognize Karageorges.</p> + +<p>Pathetic enough was the vacillation of Serbia between Austria and +Russia. Had Austria been more responsive, Karageorges would have +preferred closer relations with her. But while Austria was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> indifferent +to Serbia's advances the Tsar, showing more interest in Serbia's +affairs, agreed to send his agent to her. He promised help also if the +Serbians would agree to all things initiated by the Russian government. +Austria was disturbed. Serbia was too bold; she must be watched!</p> + +<p>Like most really great men Karageorges, even when first acclaimed his +country's deliverer, had enemies. The old question of centralization and +decentralization had come up. Many thought him too autocratic. The +enemies of Serbia encouraged decentralization. Divided, she would be +easier to subdue. Russia disapproved of many things done by Karageorges. +But he had the strong support of the Sumadia in whatever he did. When +the Turks again tried to invade Serbia, Russian and Serbian troops, +fighting side by side, drove them away. But for the party troubles, but +for the loudly expressed ill will of leaders of the opposition, +Karageorges might have been happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>Though Serbs fought side by side with Russians until 1812, it happened +that no important battles took place on Serbian territory. During these +years Serbia not only had self-government, but she somewhat increased +her boundaries by lands taken from neighboring Pashiliks. Yet she had +her disappointments. Turkey, when Russia's war with Napoleon began, +disregarded the few concessions made to Serbia by the Peace of +Bucharest. At last, the Grand Vizier led his army against Serbia, and +although her men fought bravely, they had to draw back from the +frontier. Then a strange thing happened! With no obvious reason, +Karageorges went back to Belgrade with the army reserves. Without +staying there even for a day, he and part of his officers practically +deserted the army. Crossing the Danube into Austria, they forsook their +country in her day of trial. With them went the Russian consul and the +Metropolitan and many leading Serbians with their families.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<p>The downfall of Karageorges was due to no fault of his. No one ever +doubted his courage, and could he have had his own way, when he saw the +impossibility of pushing back the enemy, he would have gone again to his +stronghold in the Sumadia, there to fight to the last. But there was a +frontier to be defended, and Serbs owning property along the rivers +begged for protection. The army was not large enough to accomplish all +that was demanded of it. The Turks were victorious and with their +victory there began again a series of acts of unspeakable cruelty.</p> + +<p>Among the Serbs who remained in Serbia when Karageorges and his friends +crossed over into Austria was Milosh Obrenovitch. He had not only served +with Karageorges in the Austrian armies, but he had worked for him as a +keeper of swine on his Sumadia estate. During the recent revolution he +had helped his great leader by watching the Balkan passes for unfriendly +Bosnians and Albanians.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Milosh saw that the Turks were, for the time at least, masters, he +offered to help them reconquer the Serbs. In reality, faithful to his +own people, he was only waiting a chance to aid them. The time came and +one memorable Palm Sunday, 1817, he appeared near the church at Tokova +and the people called upon him to lead them against the Turks. He told +them that this would be a difficult undertaking. "We know that, but we +are ready for anything. Dost thou not see that we perish as it is?" +"Here am I," he replied. "There stand you!" "War to the Turks! With us +is God and the right." Then arms were brought out from underground +hiding places. His men were ready and Milosh led them on to victory over +the Turks. When later the Turks came to treat with him, they made him +tribute collector. Many of the Serb chiefs were therefore displeased and +wished to fight openly. They suspected Milosh of double-dealing. Among +these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> was Karageorges who had landed unexpectedly in Serbia. +Karageorges and Milosh were no longer friends. One explanation of this +was that Milosh suspected Karageorges of poisoning his brother Milan, +who had died suddenly, but no one who really knew Karageorges could +suspect him of using poison to a rid himself of an enemy.</p> + +<p>But the world does believe that Milosh betrayed Karageorges to the +Turks. Certainly the latter was murdered by the Turkish Governor's +men—beheaded in the lonely house where he was sleeping. This was a +pathetic end for a great life that had held as many melodramatic as +tragic events. Karageorges was a true patriot. He was neither cruel nor +blood-thirsty, though circumstances often compelled severity. A glance +at his portrait shows his nobility of character. That he was a lover of +law and justice was evident by his promptly establishing a system of +law-courts for Serbia. He reduced taxation, and though he could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> neither +read nor write—or because of this—he zealously supported education. He +hoped that the time would come when Serbia need no longer send outside +to get the trained men whose help she needed. He established many good +public schools, among them the High School at Belgrade, which later grew +into the University.</p> + +<p>Among his tragic moments was that one when he had to shoot his father in +order to prevent his torture by the Turks, and that other when he +refused to save his brother from execution when he found he deserved the +death penalty. More melodramatic than tragic was a critical moment in +the National Assembly when members sat with pistols held at their heads +that they might not act foolishly.</p> + +<p>Though not a crowned King, in name, Karageorges had all the power of a +monarch. Yet with so much at his command he retained his taste for the +simplest life. His dress was that of the peasant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> and, even when Chief +Executive of Serbia, he often cooked his own meals in the kitchen of his +dwelling.</p> + +<p>After the death of Karageorges the efforts of Serbia to have Turkey +recognize her dragged on. At last, in 1820, the Sultan by a special +bérat made Serbia a hereditary princedom. This was a long step in the +right direction.</p> + +<p>Milosh, feeling secure in his seat, did well by his country, and better +by himself. Years after his death, Serbs in gossiping groups would +recount the divers ways in which Milosh had filled his coffers. His +keenness for the main chance, and his general canniness, all his +subjects admired hugely. But the burly neighbor looking on was less +pleased. Why did a little struggling State trouble herself so about +education, and economical housekeeping? Why should she try to attain the +impossible? Then, to show poor Serbia how impossible her ambitions were, +Russia frowned and agreed with those who thought the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> hereditary Prince +too autocratic. In eastern Europe there was room for only one Autocrat. +"Moreover," muttered Russia, "why should an Autocrat give a Constitution +to Serbia?" A threat was mingled with the muttering—and Milosh withdrew +the Constitution.</p> + +<p>Yet Russia used her influence so strongly with Turkey that Great Britain +began to take an interest in Serbia. The young State was growing too +fast, there was no telling where she might wander. She needed a +guardian—some one to watch her, to note where she was going and tell +her she must not. So Great Britain sent Colonel Hodges to Serbia as her +General Consul, and he whispered—for Russia must not hear him—that in +case Serbia had trouble with Russia, Great Britain and France would +stand by her. Next, the Porte, never before known as a constitution +maker, invited Milosh to send deputies to Constantinople to plan a new +Constitution for Serbia. But Milosh found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> this new Constitution no +better than the one Russia had made him withdraw. Alas for Milosh! alas +for Serbia! Although the new Constitution was to have the guarantee of +the Great Powers, the Constitution itself would not hold water. A few +months later, the authority of the Prince of Serbia was modified. It was +ordered that he should have a Council of seventy life members. He had +desired Councillors whom he could appoint and dismiss at will, but +Turkey, forgetting a promise to Great Britain, had yielded to Russia. As +the Constitution required Milosh to appoint the most distinguished men +in his realm as Councillors, and as at this time Serbia's men of +influence were chiefly his enemies, he was disturbed. Although the +British Ambassador counseled patience, Milosh plotted to do away with +this Constitution by a military vote. When his plans fell through, he +abdicated, in June, 1839, and retired to his home in Wallachia. Before +abdicating, however, Milosh had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to sign the Constitution imposed upon +him at the instigation of Russia, and this limiting of the power of the +hereditary Prince was a good thing for Serbia.</p> + +<p>Milan, the eldest son of Milosh, survived but three weeks after his +father's abdication. Michel, the younger son, succeeded him. While he +was wrangling with the Porte and Russia, Vuychitch, a Councillor, +started a rebellion and Michel, not knowing what else to do, left +Serbia. This suited Vuychitch and soon the National Parliament elected +the son of Karageorges Prince of Serbia. Serbia was quiet and prosperous +during his reign, but Alexander himself was of a timid and wavering +temperament, not even bold enough to summons a National Assembly. +Friendly to Turkey and to Austria, rather than to Russia, he pleased no +one of them, and finally, when he did call a National Assembly, the +Council dethroned him. Old Milosh was now asked to return and the change +of rulers was made without excitement or disorder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the death of Milosh after three short years, his son, the exiled +Michel, returned to the throne. In his exile he had grown wiser and he +was ready with a definite program for Serbia's good. He saw that if his +country was to be respected, her independence must be guarded. First +among his many reforms was a new Constitution to replace the one Russia +had imposed on Serbia. Michel was a good diplomatist and, in 1862, when +the Turkish Government at Belgrade bombarded Belgrade, he demanded the +evacuation of all the forts, and some of them complied. Next he sent his +wife to London—the beautiful Julia, Countess Hunyadi. She interested +Gladstone, Bright, and other influential Englishmen in little Serbia. He +armed and drilled a national army and had an understanding with Greece +and other Balkan states for a general uprising against the Turks. +Finally he requested the Sultan to remove all Turkish garrisons in +Serbia, and when Great Britain supported<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> the advice the other Great +Powers gave the Sultan, the later, at last, gave up the forts to Michel. +Michel did much for Serbia. He built good highways, laid out parks, and +gave her many fine public buildings, including an opera house. He was +among the first to emphasize Serbia's need of a seaport, and he was +equally far-sighted in many other matters.</p> + +<p>Michel had no children and when the Karageorges exiles heard that he +meant to divorce his wife and remarry, their own hopes of power in +Serbia faded. Poor Michel, their victim, was assassinated in the spring +of 1868. No change of dynasty followed Michel's death. Serbia proclaimed +as Prince, Milan, son of a first cousin of Milosh the elder.</p> + +<p>Milan's early years had been spent in Paris, and the kind of education +he received there left its bad impress on his whole life. When confirmed +by the Skupchtina he was barely thirteen, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> little more than of age +when, five years later, urged by Panslavists, he had a war with Turkey. +Although Serbia was defeated, this war forced the Balkan situation, and +the attention of Europe was turned toward the little Nation that held +the key to the Balkans. Milan had made strategic mistakes, and when the +vast Turkish army was invading Serbia, he called on the Great Powers for +help. While they hesitated, Russia ordered Abdul Hamid to sign an +immediate truce. When Russia within a few weeks of this went to war with +Turkey, Serbia, in spite of her recent losses, was able to help her. +After capturing Vrania, Pirot, and Nish, Serbia had the joy of +celebrating Mass on the Field of Kossovo where five hundred years before +she had lost everything.</p> + +<p>Yet at the Peace of Stefano Serbia did not get a fair reward. Her +welfare was but a shuttlecock, beaten back and forth between great +nations. She could secure, at the Berlin Congress, neither<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> complete +independence nor the annexation of certain territories she hoped for. +But at this Congress Austria gained her own ends by giving Serbia two +strong neighbors for watchdogs, Bulgaria and East Roumelia. She also +imposed a barrier between Serbia and her strongly desired goal—the sea.</p> + +<p>When Milan saw that he could not depend on Russia, whom he had been +brought up to regard as a friend, he turned to Austria. He began to pay +long visits to Vienna. Thus he angered both his own people and the Tsar, +but Austria was always ready to give him the money his manner of life +required. The building of new railways threw the Nation into debt, and +between the advice given first by Progressives, then by Radicals, Milan +the ne'er-do-well could barely enjoy a life devoted to pleasure. At the +beginning of his reign the Porte had acknowledged him hereditary Prince +of Serbia, but Milan, aiming higher, in 1882 had himself proclaimed +King. Not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> long after this, in a war with Bulgaria, he had to retreat +ingloriously before Prince Alexander of Battenberg. Indeed, now, as on +other occasions throughout his reign, Milan behaved like the proverbial +spoiled child. Sometimes, fearing his people might use a rod made of +something more stinging than words, he would completely disarm them in a +brilliant speech. When things were at their very worst his statesmen +would extricate him. Yet gradually he lost influence with the Nation in +spite of the new Constitution which gave them most things that +enlightened nations seek. But various happenings were tending to +estrange him from his people, not the least of which was his undignified +quarrel with his wife, with whom, even after their divorce, he continued +to bicker about their son. Milan was rather a blunderer than a villain, +and as he had managed to hold the affection of his people through all +his misdeeds, political or domestic, his abdication was a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +surprise. He went away suddenly to live in Paris the life he preferred, +after making provision that Alexander, his son, should succeed him.</p> + +<p>Alexander was but a boy of fourteen when he came to the throne—a +subnormal boy, and wilful, too. As an Autocrat he had no rival among +modern Serbian rulers. No one unmade and made so many Constitutions. No +Prince or King of Serbia surprised his people with so many coups d'état. +But the time had passed when the misdoings of a ruler could make the +people of Serbia very unhappy. Although the King never failed to show +that he despised not only statesmen and scholars but even distinguished +army officers, he could terrorize neither individuals nor the Nation. +The three great parties, Liberal, Radical, and Progressive, were not +afraid to express opinions, and many reforms were projected and carried +out. Serbs as a whole were anxious to be counted among the people of the +world of intelligence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and culture. Alexander and Draga mortified them; +but the assassination of the wretched pair lowered the Nation in the +estimation of humanity.</p> + +<p>Less than a week had passed since the killing of the King and Queen, in +the spring of 1903, when the Skupchtina elected Peter Karageorgevitch to +the throne. This grandson of Karageorges had been an exile for +forty-five of his fifty-seven years of life. Austria and Russia alone +among the Great Powers were willing now to recognize him. Great Britain +waited three years before sending back her Minister to Serbia. This was +after the regicides had gone from the country.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV. SERBIANS</h2> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-s.jpg" width="120" height="120" alt="S" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3">So Serbia was no longer a child, and she wore a royal crown. She even +had to be considered by the family of Nations when making plans. Some +members of the family, indeed, would like to have made all her plans for +Serbia, without intimating that in so doing they would profit +themselves. Serbia realized that there were things she could not do +without the consent of some, or even all of them; but she did not wonder +why—for Serbia herself had grown up, and it wasn't merely a physical +development. She understood a great many things that in her more +primitive days she could not have comprehended.</p></div> + +<p>Sometimes they fought among themselves, with an occasional black eye for +one or the other, because they found it hard to decide, not what they +could do for Serbia—the youngest and most inexperienced—but what they +could get from her without her discovering their motives, without the +others objecting. They forgot that Serbia was no longer a child; they +did not know that she could spy self-interest in the proffers they made +her. So she was coldly distant with them at times, though she leaned +most toward the big, fur-clad Cousin from the North. He was closer of +kin, a double relation, and he seemed less mercenary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> than some of them. +But even he could not get her a home facing the sea. She longed so +ardently for this! Why did every one hinder her? The Imperial Cousin on +the West was determined to stop her. Had he not given refuge to her +exiled children in the days of darkness? Had he not let them win +victories for him when she had hardly a friend in the world? Was it +likely—as human nature goes—that he had done this without expecting a +reward? No, she must be reasonable and must let him have the first +choice of all that she had to sell, and at his own price. Should she +reach the sea, others would tempt her. She would find all sorts of +people there anxious to trade with her—new people whom she herself had +never yet had a chance to help. No! he, the Imperial Cousin, knew what +was best for her. The only trade route for her was the one through his +land. She must send her things that way and, after he had looked them +over, if there was anything he did not wish, she might sell it to some +one else. Moreover, of course, she must pay whatever he charged for +transportation and customs as she passed through his country.</p> + +<p>But Serbia had grown more sophisticated. Her costume of red and gold +still followed the old lines; indeed, only a close observer could see +any changes in it. But the material was richer than formerly, and she +had thrown aside the little veil—symbol, as it seemed to her, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> +darkening oppression of the Ottoman. Her people were clamoring around +her. They assured her they were not lazy, though perhaps a little slower +than some of their neighbors. Their fields yielded abundantly. They +discovered that by digging they could get much wealth, not only from the +surface but from their rocks far below. They must be able to exchange +it—to send it readily where they wished. Why, why, since they were +willing to pay for it, could they not have a seaport of their own?</p> + +<p>But there was another who was determined to hold Serbia back. She did +not know him well; for though he bore the Imperial eagle, he had +appropriated a title that belonged to the old house that for a time had +held the world in its grasp. She would not call him a parvenu—not +wholly a parvenu—yet why should he trouble her? She was not really in +his way. Could it be that he was trying to curry favor with the turbaned +Turk, and hoped to ingratiate himself the more thoroughly by tormenting +her? What had the Turk to give him? Ah! Serbia had now grown so worldly +that she suspected motives in every action, even in those sometimes that +were really guileless.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-s.jpg" width="120" height="120" alt="S" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3">Serbia, in the same latitude as France and Italy, has a similar climate, +though with greater extremes of heat and cold; and its average of one +hundred rainy days yearly prevents its being called a land of sunshine. +With an area about equal to that of the State of New York, its +population of four millions is much smaller—nearer, indeed, that of +Massachusetts. About fifteen thousand of its nearly thirty-four thousand +square miles of area is territory added since the Balkan wars. The +rivers of Serbia flow toward the north into the Danube. Its boundary +rivers, the Danube, Save, Drina, and Timok are navigable, but of those +within Serbia, only the Morava is navigable, and that for but sixty +miles. Serbia is not only protected by the ranges on her boundaries, but +four-fifths of the surface is covered with mountains,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> a "chaos of +mountains," a fact both helping and hindering her progress through the +centuries. The general aspect of Serbia is one of beauty, with high and +rugged mountains, mysterious forests, and long narrow river valleys as +picturesque as fertile. Even the Sumadia, called the rallying point of +the Nation, is now well cultivated and enterprising. Many medieval +buildings add to the picturesqueness of the country, forts and churches +perched on rocky heights or half screened in the woods.</p></div> + +<p>Serbian towns resemble one another, with their wide, clean streets, and +red-roofed houses built of stone, with suburbs that show many attractive +dwellings surrounded by shrubbery. Even if the churches are not very +graceful, there are many modern school buildings throughout the country. +The five largest towns have—or, alas! had—from fifteen thousand to +about one hundred thousand inhabitants each, from Passavowitz to +Belgrade; in order, Leskovatz,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Kraguievatz, and Nish, but Belgrade is +by far the largest.</p> + +<p>Although the original Serb type was probably blonde, the mingling of the +Slav with the other races in the Balkans has brought it about that most +Serbs are now dark-skinned and dark-haired and of only average stature. +The tall blonde peasant of the Sumadia is an exception to this type, +though the Serb generally has a clear gray eye.</p> + +<p>The Serb is excitable and volatile. While holding to old things he is +ready to grasp new ideas, but his new ideas he cannot always make +practical. It is probably for this reason that Serbia is behind many +countries in agricultural and industrial development. The Serb is not of +a jealous disposition. He is ready to praise what others have done, and +though tenacious of purpose he is neither dogged nor blunt like his +neighbor the Bulgarian. The modern Serb desires to be well thought of. +He is anxious to be measured by Western standards, yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> in his heart he +still cherishes many old customs. If he is less straightforward, +especially in politics, than one might wish, his love of strategy may be +ascribed to the many years when it took something besides physical +courage to save him from the brutality of the Turk. Even his enemies +admit his bravery. In general character, the Serb may be compared to the +Scotch Highlander, "brave in battle, with much canniness in prosecuting +material interests." All visitors to Serbia note the great hospitality +of the Serb, and he shows a marked courtesy in dealing with others. He +is fond of fun and laughter, as any one realizes who sees him at a +festival, dancing the national dance—the kolo—to the sound of the +flute and the bag-pipe, and often, afterwards, listening to the heroic +verse of the guslar as he accompanies them on the gusle.</p> + +<p>The Serb's religion is almost the same as patriotism with him. The +Orthodox Church of Serbia to-day has a strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> resemblance to the early +Christian Church of the eighth century. "Here we know the English very +well, and your Church is not unlike our own," said a Serb to an English +traveler recently. The independence of the Serbian Church is largely due +to the fact that the Turks did not interfere with the religious faith of +the Serbs in the long dark night of oppression. Though this may have +been merely from their contempt for the conquered and their Church, the +result was to the advantage of the Serb.</p> + +<p>Many Serbian traditions are contrary to the spirit of the Christian +Church, but the Church early found that the only way to hold the Serb +was to be patient in the hope that Christianity would eventually modify +his Pagan beliefs. In few nations is there such a mingling of heathen +traditions and piety. The traditions, yes, even the superstitions of the +Serb helped him bear the hardships of the Turkish reign. While the Serb +has held fast to Christianity for more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> a thousand years and while +bigotry and atheism are almost unknown in Serbia, the Serb does not +attend Church devotedly. He is, however, very faithful to religious +customs, though many of these originated in heathendom. The Saints are +very real to him and each one has duties, yet some of them are very like +the gods of mythology.</p> + +<p>The Serb is a great observer of signs and they deeply affect his daily +life. His manner of getting up, of dressing, the person whom he first +meets in the day, the way the dog barks or the moon shines—all these +things have some influence on his actions. Many of his superstitions +naturally relate to birth, death, and marriage. Most youths and maidens +know just what to do to discover their future husband or wife.</p> + +<p>There is poetry in many Serb beliefs about death, notably that death can +be foretold by the person himself or by some of his family. Very +beautiful is the idea that there is a star for every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> person, that +disappears when that person dies. The Serb has a strong faith in +immortality. He believes in both good and bad spirits, and in witches +and enchanters, as well as in the poetic Vili. He occasionally hunted +and killed witches in the olden times. Vampires, too, have had an +existence in his imagination. To protect himself from all these evil +things, the Serb of old had various superstitious practices, and it is +surprising sometimes to-day to find him cherishing primitive beliefs. As +cattle raising for example is certainly one of his chief occupations, +many superstitions exist and are put into practice for making the cattle +healthy and fat, and for protecting them from wild beasts. The Serb also +knows what charm to use to make his wheatfields grow, to prevent +droughts and other things that might injure his crops or his fruit +trees.</p> + +<p>Among all their festivals, the Serbs celebrate Christmas the most +elaborately, with feasts and ceremonies, many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> of which come down from +Pagan days. After supper, on Christmas eve, seeds and crumbs are +scattered outside as a treat for the birds, which, they say, are also +God's creatures. A young oak or baidnak always plays a conspicuous part +in the Christmas festival and the ceremonies attending it are most +picturesque. The Slava is also a most important festival. It is a family +celebration and generally falls on the Feast Day of some great Saint. +After a man's death, the same Slava is kept by his son. In some regions, +people with the same Slava do not marry, for having the same Slava may +mean that they are of the same stock. Of all people the Serbs are most +scrupulous not to marry those who are nearly related to them.</p> + +<p>While religion is so strongly a part of his daily life, the Serb is yet +disinclined to engage in abstract religious discussions. This is strange +since he is very fond of long political and historical arguments. An +English traveler came upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> two men engaged in a fisticuff fight. When +he inquired the cause, he was told that the two had a disagreement about +something that had happened at the Battle of Kossovo, five hundred years +before.</p> + +<p>Although there is less now than in former times of the unique and formal +swearing of brotherhood between Serb and Serb, the feeling of +brotherhood is still very strong. Travelers through the country +sometimes come upon rude stones erected to soldiers who have died "for +the glory and freedom of his brother Serbs."</p> + +<p>What has been said about the men applies to a great extent to the women +of Serbia. It must be admitted, however, that in the interior of the +country woman is still reckoned inferior to man—the plaything of youth, +the nurse of old age. But the modern Serbian woman is coming to the +front. She is not strong-minded in the limited sense, not anxious, like +her Russian kinswoman, to mix in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> politics, yet she is deeply interested +in national affairs and in crises she is always ready to help. If she +does not work as hard as the Montenegrin woman she still performs much +heavy labor. The men of Serbia encourage her higher ambition. Of late +years, many Serb women have gone abroad for training as teachers, or to +engage in technical work. Not infrequently, their expenses have been +paid wholly or in part by some brother or cousin whose own earnings were +small.</p> + +<p>To tell what Serb women have done in the many wars of their country +would be a long story. Not content with providing food and clothing for +the soldiers and nursing the wounded, time and again they have carried +guns and have fought by the side of the men of their families. This was +notably the case in the late war with Bulgaria, and in the present war +also many of them have served as soldiers.</p> + +<p>The Serb woman is not willing to go out as a domestic. She prefers to +earn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> money, if she has to, as a teacher, secretary, or nurse, or in a +profession; but in her own home the Serb woman does no end of work. She +is the first to rise, the last to go to bed, and seems never to rest, +for she does all the housework. She spins, weaves, and embroiders; +cooks, washes, milks the cows, makes cheese; she takes care of the +children and the sick; she makes the family pottery and sometimes the +opanke or shoes.</p> + +<p>But the condition of her country the past few years has to a great +extent destroyed the home life of the Serb women. Very remarkable was +the "League of Death" the women formed in the war before the present. +Young and old of all social conditions became good shots, and stood side +by side, rifles on their shoulders, like men. They made the men wear the +medal of the League. In that war women did not join the fighting troops, +as in the present. But they often accompanied them on the march, +carrying on notched sticks their heavy bundles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> with clothes and +domestic utensils, and set up their little households wherever the men +happened to halt.</p> + +<p>In the present war, Serbia has a three-fold claim on Americans: Because +of the democracy of its institutions and people; because of the +simplicity of life as it is lived there; and because of its centuries of +struggle for political independence.</p> + +<p>Serbia is one of the most democratic countries in the world. It has no +titles, except those of the King and his next of kin. All other Serbians +are "gospodin" and "gospoja," our "Mr." and "Mrs." The farmer is the +real aristocrat and eighty per cent of the Serbians are farmers.</p> + +<p>The farmer has many things in his favor. Even the peasant has five acres +of land allotted him by the government; and in his home garden he raises +carrots and turnips and pumpkins and melons. The larger farmers raise +wheat and corn and sugar beets, oats and all the cereals; and cattle in +large numbers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> They raise their own food and they are chiefly +vegetarians; and they carry their surplus in ox-teams to the nearest +market. Prices are regulated by the Agricultural Society. Every farmer +gives one or two days a year to the State and pays his taxes in kind. +When crops fail, the Coöperative Agricultural Society lends him money. +It also advances money for implements and buildings, and offers prizes +for cattle and improved stock.</p> + +<p>Living a simple life, the average Serbian needs little money. One dollar +in Serbia is equal to five dollars here. If a farmer enters trade, he is +thought to be going down in the world. He may enter banking or life +insurance with no discredit, but the shopkeepers of the country are +largely foreigners. In all Serbia there are hardly two-score +millionaires. Serbian women are good housewives and do much of their own +work. Serbians, in general, are too independent to be servants; and the +latter are largely Austrians. Government employees in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> Serbia are +natives. Young Serbians also are educated for the church, the army, for +law, and for school teaching. Young men intended for the army generally +study in France, for scientific work in Germany, for the church in +Russia. Many young Serbians, too, have studied in Switzerland and in +Belgium. Thus, Serbian society as a whole is sympathetic with foreign +countries.</p> + +<p>Of the four million inhabitants of Serbia proper, the larger number +belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, but there are also a good many +Roman Catholics and some Moslems. Though their life is in general very +simple, Serbians are not wholly untouched by modern progress. Many towns +have electric lights and telephones, and electric trams are by no means +unknown. Serbia has rich mineral resources, which the State is +undertaking to develop. Among their manufactures is a remarkable wool +carpet and a certain kind of coarse linen. Though they have a fairly +large output<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> of silk, silk fabrics as well as finer textiles are +imported. A man who has a salary of three thousand dollars is an +exception, and considered very prosperous. Salaries of cabinet ministers +hardly exceed this sum, and court life does not tend to any +magnificence.</p> + +<p>Serbians marry young. There is little illegitimacy in the country and +infrequent divorce. They have been called automatically eugenic—on +account of their strict marriage laws forbidding marriage under certain +degrees of relationship. The Serbians are a domestic people, devoted to +their children; hence, the present condition of the country is +especially tragic.</p> + +<p>The people of Serbia have the greatest admiration for Americans, and for +the independence and political ideas of America.</p> + +<p>The valorous struggle of little Serbia against Austria, its tireless +enemy, astonished the world at the beginning of the present war. It +accomplished hardly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> less for the cause of the Allies in the East than +the resistance of Belgium in the West. Yet, at first, the sufferings of +the more distant Serbians attracted less attention than the case +demanded. Their agony continues acute and terrible.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2>V. SERBIA: SIGHING</h2> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-t.jpg" width="120" height="119" alt="T" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_3">Then, at last, Serbia reached the sea. Unexpectedly, it is true, and not +at the point that she had long had in mind. Sad and bereft, was she +deserted by God as well as by man? As she sat there alone she heard a +confused murmur of voices, and she vaguely distinguished the cries of +children for their fathers, and wives for their husbands—and tales +echoed in her ears that were sadder, more horrible, than the most +horrible tales of the Turkish night. Poor Serbia! Her garments were torn +and stained with snow and mud, her face was bruised. Gone, gone her +aspect of happy prosperity. Yet in spite of all she had suffered there +was a light in her eyes—the light of her soul shining through the +sadness. She was not bowed down, though her attitude spoke of sorrow. +She was disturbed not for herself, but for her people. How they had +suffered! She did not try to shut her ears to the murmurs that still +came to her—children crying faintly and oh, so pitifully! and strong +men, yes, she heard the moaning of strong men. Then as she looked in the +direction of the sound, she saw a mother bowed in grief beside a long +snowy road, yet uttering no word as old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> men, strangers to her, found a +place for the little frozen body under the hard ground. She saw a long, +long line winding up the narrow, shelving road, where a false step at +any moment might send a man to death into the river five hundred feet +below. "The best fighters in the world!" It had made her proud to hear +this, but now how could they fight the savage winter? Worst place of +all, Kossovo, where not so long before she had celebrated Mass +triumphantly, Kossovo, again to be as when it was first named "The Field +of Black Birds," "The Field of Vultures." Now the stricken lay never to +rise again and for a moment Serbia could look no longer.</p></div> + +<p>There were other things along the road—rifles, and cartridge belts, +burdens too heavy to carry far, and she wished that all such things +might lie on the ground forever, never to be used by young or old.</p> + +<p>Alas, the little boys! the little boys who had never been away from +their mothers—the hope of Serbia—dying by thousands along that dreary +road; dying, dying on the plain of Kossovo. War, for them, a kind of +holiday! They were soldiers now; they would be real men when they +reached the sea! The little boys, the hope of the future! Of the thirty +thousand who trod that dreary road, only a half lived to reach the sea. +Not one-half of these reached the island where they were to have their +training as soldiers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>The soul of Serbia was in agony as a ghostlike army, pale, pinched, and +starved, crept over the snowy mountains, over the soggy roads—men, +women, and poor dumb animals sinking in to their death. Of those who +came to the edge of the sea some could hold out no longer, but died when +comfort was near.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="drop"> +<img src="images/cap-d.jpg" width="120" height="121" alt="D" class="cap" /> +<p class="cap_1">Despite the circumstances under which he came to the throne, no one +believed that King Peter had planned or had anything to do with the +murder of Alexander and Draga; he, the direct descendant of the honest +Karageorges. Yet it could not be denied that he had profited by this +murder and, consequently, even when the horror of the whole thing had +faded from the minds of other Europeans, he had a certain amount of +prejudice to overcome. Yet in the first ten years of his reign, Serbia +had prospered. Her nearly one thousand miles of railways had brought her +in closer connection with the world. Though the debt incurred for these +railways and other improvements were large she had no trouble in +borrowing money. Her loans were readily taken by outside capitalists.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>In the hundred years since she had been freed from Turkish rule, Serbia +had made constant advance in culture, in all that may be called economic +life. Her peasant farmers not only produced all that the Serbians +themselves needed—wheat, barley, maize, fruits of various kinds, +cattle, and pigs—but there was a demand for some of their staples in +other countries, and more and more they required a larger market; more +and more they chafed under the restrictions made by Austria. The whole +country realized, as outsiders had realized, that Austria was slowly +squeezing her; that Austria would be ready to devour her when the right +time came. The King had a difficult task in keeping his people +contented.</p> + +<p>Politically, however, Serbia in the nineteenth century had made great +advances, and King Peter's domain was a well-organized limited monarchy. +After many vicissitudes Serbia at last has an excellent Constitution, +well meeting all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> the needs of the Nation. In the King and the +Skupchtina is vested all the legislative power. The Skupchtina, an +assembly elected by proportional representation, has complete control of +the national finances. Serbia has good Courts of Justice and a humane +prison system, and her standing army not only has to be taken into +account by the Great Powers, but has spoken loudly for itself in the +present war. Serbia has also good local government; the scheme for which +includes two public bodies, a municipal council and a communal +tribunal.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/illus-98.jpg" width="700" height="407" alt="King Peter about to leave Serbia—November, 1915" title="" /> +<span class="caption">King Peter about to leave Serbia—November, 1915</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>Serbia, after many years of backwardness, has been paying great +attention to education. The Minister of Education is a man of great +prestige and influence. Teachers are well trained and well paid. It is +not strange, perhaps, that a people with the Serbians' deep poetic +sensibility should in the past have given little attention to technical +training, but a change has of late been coming, a change of attitude +that after the war will undoubtedly produce important results. From the +earliest days the Serb has had a marked aptitude for handicraft. In +medieval documents, certain Serbian blacksmiths are named as expert +makers of penknives, and to-day Serbian metal work has high rank. Unlike +the Greek, the Serb has little aptitude for trade, and unlike the +Bulgar, he is rather sluggish in working his farm, slow to use improved +methods or new implements. Yet, in spite of the many upheavals at home, +he has been constantly progressing, and since he threw off Turkish rule +has each year become sturdier and more self-reliant. Indeed, he can be +called to-day efficient in both the economic and the military sense.</p> + +<p>In the Middle Ages Serbia was one of the largest silver-producing +countries in Europe. Her mountains have as yet given up but little of +their treasure. The Romans knew the mines and brought out of them much +gold, silver, iron, and lead and, during the later Middle Ages,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> the +merchants of Ragusa obtained no small portion of their wealth from the +same source, but about the middle of the fifteenth century the Turks put +an end to all enterprises of this kind. In the first half of the last +century, mining was revived. Belgian capital had a large part in this, +especially in producing copper and iron.</p> + +<p>The copper mines south of Passarowitz were said to be among the richest, +if not the richest, in the world. But as yet Serbia herself hardly +appreciated the value of her own resources. Her less than one thousand +miles of railways had loaded her with a heavy debt. Austria had improved +the Danube—largely, however, for Austria's advantage. But Serbia began +to look about. She was determined to gain, if possible, the economic +independence she longed for. With a resourceful King, with a competent +Ministry headed by the eminent Pachich, this ought not to be difficult, +she thought, ought to be much less difficult than her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> long, hard +struggle for political independence.</p> + +<p>The spirit of the Serb has been shown in the remarkable development of +coöperation in industry, especially in the twentieth century. "Only +Union is Serbia's Salvation"—this was St. Sava's famous saying in the +distant twelfth century. Politically, his words had proved true for +Serbia, and economically they had begun to show their value, especially +in King Peter's reign.</p> + +<p>One reason for the success of nineteenth century coöperation in Serbia +may be found in the Zadruga of ancient times. This was a large family +association including male kinship to the second and the third degree. +It often numbered more than a hundred individuals; each member had a +fixed duty and the revenues were divided among all the members. The +Zadruga was ruled by an elder or Stareschina. Sometimes the Stareschina +was a woman. The Stareschina kept the money-box and attended to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> +payment of taxes. The women of the Zadruga obeyed the Stareschina's +wife. This kind of community life was so familiar to the Serbs that it +was no unusual thing when some one asked, "Whose is that drove of +sheep?" to hear the reply "Ours," never "Mine."</p> + +<p>In Literature, in Science, in Art, the Serb had begun to take his +rightful place in Europe, encouraged by the example of a large-minded, +cultured monarch.</p> + +<p>Serbia had long realized that within her boundaries lived hardly half of +the Serb race in Europe. The feeling of brotherhood with all his kin +which is so powerful a characteristic of the individual Serb is even +more marked in the Serbian Nation. A generation ago Serbia was willing +to go to war with Turkey to help her downtrodden kindred in Bosnia and +Herzegovina. "The saving of Old Serbia and the Union of the Serb peoples +is the star by which the Serb steers," said a traveler in the early part +of King Peter's reign, and certainly to the liberty-loving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Serb this +was a beautiful vision—that he was sometime to liberate from Turkish +and from Austrian control all his oppressed brothers, the four and a +half millions whom the twentieth century found so restive under Turkish, +Teutonic, or Magyar control.</p> + +<p>For Serbia, then, her entrance into The Balkan League in 1912 was a +natural sequence of many of her previous aspirations and efforts. In +presence of a common danger—the Teuton working through the Turk—the +Balkan States put aside their own particular rivalries and formed a +Union. This was effective, and the Turks were defeated. But when Turkey +was defeated, Bulgaria and Serbia were again at sword's points. It was +not a question of jealousies between small kingdoms, but rather a larger +issue—Pan-Slavism as against Pan-Teutonism. Serbs, wherever found, were +outspoken, and Austria saw that she might have to give up not only her +hope of adding Serbia to her dominions but besides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> this lose her +dominion over the Serbs within the dual monarchy. From that time she +hardly tried to hide her intention of punishing Serbia for her ambition. +Serbia, meanwhile, was growing bolder, stronger. Though her successes in +recent wars had not given her her coveted seaport, she had found ways of +getting a considerable proportion of her products to market without +sending them through Austria. Her imports from Austria fell off largely. +Austria and Germany saw that they would have difficulty in making Serbia +a docile ward, especially as M. Pachich in 1912 had made it plain to the +other Powers that it would be to their advantage to give Serbia a chance +to expand.</p> + +<p>It was eleven years almost to a day from the time he came to the throne, +when Peter's security was shattered by an explosion. The Archduke +Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, while making a +tour through Bosnia, were killed at Sarajevo by a Serb, not one of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> the +kingdom of Serbia but a Serb of Greater Serbia. Austria, that had been +for so long watching Serbia as a cat watches a mouse, quickly pounced on +the little kingdom. She made demands such as no civilized country could +comply with, and at last gave an ultimatum on the twenty-seventh of July +which had far-reaching consequences. It was a stone thrown into a quiet +pool and the ripples and eddies reached unthought-of shores, as the +whole world now knows.</p> + +<p>There are many strange circumstances connected with this murder. Those +who have followed out the various clues have seen evidence that the Serb +government had no knowledge of the proposed murder, but there is much +that tends to show that the assassination was not a great surprise to +Austria—that Ferdinand, even at home, was in fear of his life. He +always slept in a room without furniture and not long before the +assassination he had taken out a life insurance, the largest life +insurance known. In case of his death, it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> was necessary to make +provision for his consort who could hope nothing from the house of which +he had long been the heir. When Ferdinand's heir had a son born to him, +the Austrians turned against Ferdinand and wished him out of the way. +His removal, indeed, was a greater object to Austria-Hungary than to +Serbia, for it was generally known that he was liberal in his ideas +regarding the Serbs in the dual monarchy, and had even formed a plan for +giving them Home Rule.</p> + +<p>From the beginning Austria-Hungary tried to impress on the world that +the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand was part of a revolt of the southern +Slav provinces of Austria instigated by the Serbian government. On the +twenty-third of July, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding that +she use every means in her power to punish the assassins and stop all +further anti-Austrian propaganda. The next day, Russia asked for delay, +and on July twenty-fifth, ten minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> before the time of the ultimatum +expired, Serbia made due apologies and agreed to all the conditions +imposed by Austria except the one that Austria should have official +representatives in the work of investigation. Two days later, the +Austrian foreign office issued a statement with these words: "Serbia's +note is filled with the spirit of dishonesty." Austria was determined on +war. She had not accepted Serbia's apologies.</p> + +<p>Then the Great Slav came to the rescue of the smaller. Russia +immediately notified Austria that she would not allow Serbian territory +to be invaded. Now it was Germany's turn. She let it be known +semi-officially that she stood ready to back Austria. No one, she said, +must interfere between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. On this +twenty-seventh of July Sir Edward Gray, Great Britain's Foreign +Secretary, proposed a London conference of the Ambassadors of all the +Great Powers. France and Italy at once accepted but Austria and Germany +declined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> this invitation. On the twenty-eighth of July came the fateful +call to war. "Austria-Hungary considers itself in a state of war with +Serbia." The reason given for this was that Serbia had not replied +satisfactorily to Austria's note of the twenty-third of July. Events +followed in quick succession. Russia's mobilization was followed by a +request from Germany that she stop this movement of the troops and make +a reply within twenty-four hours. Whereupon England notified Germany +that she could not stand aloof from a general conflict; that the balance +of power could not be destroyed. Russia made no reply to Germany's +ultimatum but instead sent out a manifesto: "Russia is determined not to +allow Serbia to be crushed and will fulfil its duty in regard to that +small kingdom." Next, the German Ambassador at the French foreign office +expressed fear of friction between the Triple Alliance and the Triple +Entente unless the impending conflict between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> Austria and Serbia should +be strictly localized.</p> + +<p>On August first, the German Ambassador handed a declaration of war to +the Russian Foreign Minister. This meant war with France, and hardly had +the French Government issued general mobilization orders when the +invasion of France began. A day later, Germany demanded of Belgium free +passage for her troops, and the French Government proclaimed martial law +in France and Algiers. All Continental Europe was now aflame. The German +Ambassador had made a strong bid for British neutrality, and Great +Britain's reply was noble. After speaking of its friendship with France +it concluded with the words: "Whether that friendship involves +obligations, let every man look into his own heart and construe that +obligation for himself."</p> + +<p>On the fourth of August, after Italy had proclaimed her neutrality, +England's ultimatum was sent to Germany. When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> no reply came, the +British foreign office announced that a state of war existed between the +two countries and Germany gave the British Ambassador his passport. A +day later, President Wilson offered the good offices of the United +States to bring about a settlement between the warring powers. On the +seventh of August, a day after Austria-Hungary had declared war on +Russia, Germany announced that jealousy of Germany was the real cause of +the war. On the ninth of August, Serbia, in order to get rid of the +German Ambassador, declared war on Germany and, finally, war was +declared between France and Austria, and Austria and Great Britain. +Portugal reported that she was on the side of Great Britain.</p> + +<p>Soon Austrian troops were invading Serbia, three to one. On the +twenty-seventh of July, the Serbian army had mobilized. It had barely +recuperated from the recent war with Bulgaria and, while men were in +trim for fighting, the army was ill equipped and to an extent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> +unprepared for a new war. This in itself shows the folly of the +accusation that the Serbian Government had encouraged the murder of the +Archduke in order to precipitate a war with Austria. An additional bit +of evidence in Serbia's favor, if more were needed, was the fact that +when the Archduke was murdered, many Serbian officials and other men of +importance were at German or Austrian watering-places and had difficulty +in getting back to their homes and their duties.</p> + +<p>Little of the war material destroyed in the recent conflict with +Bulgaria had been replaced and even when the Serbs took the field they +had not sufficient ammunition, for much of their ammunition was French +and, owing to conditions in France, the latter country could no longer +supply Serbia with what she needed. Yet by the middle of August the +armies of the Crown Prince in a five days' engagement, the Battle of +Jadar, sent the Austrians across the river, and out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> Serbia. In dead +and wounded the invaders had lost about twice as many as the Serbs, as +well as a large amount of ordnance and stores. They returned in +September, but after inflicting much damage on the country were again +defeated and again driven out of Serbia about the middle of December.</p> + +<p>Serbia, invaded by an army three times as large as her own, fought +valiantly and drove the Austrians outside her kingdom, not, however, +until much damage had been done. Not only had she many wounded but the +invader destroyed everything, even the property of non-combatants who +had remained passive on their farms. So viciously had the Austrians +treated the non-combatants that all who could fled the country toward +Macedonia. Crops were seized; cattle were killed or taken away; farms +and implements destroyed, and in fact the whole country was laid waste.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/illus-112.jpg" width="700" height="412" alt="Serbian villagers on their way to exile" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Serbian villagers on their way to exile</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps in no better way can the barbarous methods of the Austrian +invader be understood than from a quotation from an appeal made by the +Serbian Archbishop.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The barbarous methods of warfare of the German Allies, the +object of which is to annihilate other nations and their +culture, have inflicted on us, as well as on the Belgians, +bloody and incurable wounds. Whole crowds of our best and +noblest Serbs, who as non-combatants peacefully received the +Austrian army, have been killed with a cruelty of which even +savages would be ashamed. Men and women, old men and +innocent children have been murdered by terrible tortures, +by arms, and by fire. Many have been locked up in school +buildings and other houses and burnt alive. All the churches +to which the Austrians got access have been desecrated, +robbed, and destroyed. The schools and the best houses have +fared in the same way. Belgrade, the beautiful capital of +Serbia, its churches, its educational and humanitarian +institutions, have been destroyed. The university, the +national library, the museum, and scientific collections, +have been ruined. For those who have escaped, and for the +orphans of the fallen, speedy help is most necessary."</p></div> + +<p>Said Madame Grouitch an eye witness of these depredations, "Imagine the +farming districts of our Middle States charred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> and trampled, and +everything killed. This would give you a faint idea of Serbia after the +Austrians first entered it." When they approached Belgrade at the very +beginning of the war, within six hours they were shelling the city and +killing women and children. In other cities, as at Shabats, for example, +they did many things from what seemed a mere spirit of wantonness, +emptying the contents of shops into the streets and carrying away +property that could hardly have been of use to them. But while they +devastated the country they had entered and terrified the +non-combatants, they had few engagements with the Serbian soldiers +worthy the name of battle.</p> + +<p>It was during this second invasion that King Peter especially endeared +himself to his men. In one instance where they were growing +disheartened, he entered the trenches and discharging his rifle as a +signal, led them to victory. The Serbs from the beginning of the war +felt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> confidence in their leaders—the Crown Prince, Putnik, Misich, +Pasich, the king.</p> + +<p>The Serbian soldiers were gathering strength. The world knew before this +that they were brave fighters; since that autumn of 1914 they have known +that they are unsurpassed. Facing an enemy that outnumbered them three +to one, they did not flinch, and by the 20th of December the Austrians +were driven out of Serbia—not to return for nearly a year. During that +year, however, the Austrians from the other side of the Danube were +constantly bombarding Belgrade, while the inhabitants for the most part +went about their business as usual. The army, which had early been +ordered out of the city in a vain effort to save Belgrade from +bombardment, was now putting itself in good condition. The return of the +invaders was certain, the time less sure. All that Serbia could do was +to spare no effort to put herself in the best condition to meet the +inevitable attacks of the foe. The hospitals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> were full of wounded and +Serbian women and nurses from outside were doing their best for the +Serbian soldiers and for the many sick Austrian soldiers, when the +dreadful typhus broke out.</p> + +<p>But for famine and disease during their fatal six months Serbia might +still be on her feet. Her tragic condition interested the whole world, +unwilling to see the women relatives of a million fighters suffering, +aye, even dying. The first invasion resulted in taking away from their +home the majority of the peasants who had remained behind to provide +food. The invaders did not even respect the hospitals—they cut off the +water supplies so that the nurses could not even provide for the sick.</p> + +<p>During those months of disease the black flag hung over hundreds of +houses in every Serbian town. The whole country was demoralized, for +many officials had lost their lives. The fever was so virulent that it +may be said that no country has ever suffered so severely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> The typhus +that broke out in the early part of 1915 came from the bad sanitary +condition of the Austrian prison camps, and Serbia, weakened by war, was +in no condition to resist. Several thousands a day died in the early +months of that year. In six of the most fertile districts, more than +half of the children died—of hunger, cold, and exposure as well as of +disease—and it was not until the Red Cross physicians and others from +various countries took hold, that the disease abated.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, men of Serbia were fighting bravely and hopefully until an +advancing wave of Teutons swept over the country and the populace fled. +It had been wiser, perhaps, if non-combatants had stayed in their homes, +but so fearful were the atrocities reported, the atrocities committed by +the German armies in Belgium and elsewhere, that retreat seemed wisest. +Many Serbian soldiers, however, wished to stay and face the invader +until they could fight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> no longer. But they would have had to fight with +three against their one. The hordes rushing on were beyond +belief—Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians. The humbler people might +with less danger have stayed behind, but the Government, naturally, +could not remain in its capital and there were many others upon whom a +price was set. When once the retreat began it rolled up by tens of +thousands, and this human flood could not be stopped. It was a +spectacular flight. All the private vehicles that the Government could +get together; all the motor trucks which could be collected; all in one +great procession, peasants carrying their household goods in bundles +over their shoulders—chiefly old men and women, for the young men were +in the army; young women carrying babies in their arms with little +children clinging to their skirts were following close behind. Those in +motor vehicles did not have a painless journey. Often their cars broke +down; they were thrown into the mud<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> from which they were with +difficulty rescued. Sometimes a car and its occupants fell from the +precipice into the foaming river below. They went over mountains as high +as our Alleghanies and as wild as our Rockies. Sometimes they passed +feudal castles on steep rocks; sometimes they went through dangerous +passes and slept in the open, fearing attacks from the murderous +Albanians, who were certainly to be dreaded. For not a few of the poor +pilgrims met death at the hands of these cut-throats. For days and days, +they moved on in the drenching rain, cold and starving! And it was not +only the animals that succumbed to the horror of the march; old men and +women, children, and soldiers who once had been strong at last had to +give up and lie down in death. Constantly they were in dread of the +approaching enemy, whose guns after a while they could hear rumbling in +the distance. But they kept moving on toward the sea,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> where they +expected ships to take them to a safer country.</p> + +<p>The wraith of an army reached the sea and the wraith of an army of +non-combatants,—all of this suffering merely to find a haven from the +advancing Teutonic armies! Perhaps those men were right who had refused +to retreat, who had begged for death by a comrade's gun rather than have +the dishonor of turning backs to the enemy. Though they saw that the +conquest of Serbia was inevitable, it was hard to admit that they were +beaten. At last, after all this hardship, when the poor Serbians reached +the Adriatic, they found no food! Transports loaded with food had been +sunk in the harbors! Weary, starving, they must wait a little longer.</p> + +<p>Was there ever before such a flight? The retreat of one civilized Nation +before another; the flight of a whole people, Government, soldiers, +non-combatants, and all because of the rumors of the terrors the pursuer +would inflict if he caught his prey! At the sea they breathed more +freely—they could look across the water and there, far, far beyond, lay +the lands where for centuries the weaker had not been sorely oppressed.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/illus-120.jpg" width="700" height="421" alt="Serbian soldiers on the banks of the Drina" title="" /> +<span class="caption">Serbian soldiers on the banks of the Drina</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then the wraith of an army began to hope; and on the island the soldiers +were recuperating, and the little boys—a quarter of those who had +poured into the great procession from all the roads, from every little +village, from every town—the dead, would not swell the triumph of the +victors. Those by the sea rested and grew stronger; and after a while +the world began to hear that Serbia, deprived of her country, a Nation +living in exile, was getting ready to claim her own. She was now one of +the Allies. Her army could give an account of itself. "Poor Serbia!" +they had said. "Plucky Serbia!" they were now saying, and it was even +possible to imagine the world crying, "Lucky Serbia!" The soldiers +recuperating at Corfu; the women working at Corsica making the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +wonderful embroideries that had given Serbia fame the world over; the +downtrodden under the feet of the Conqueror, living in shattered +dwellings in Serbian town and village, and praying, praying for the +restoration of their homes, hiding their tears while they worked or +prayed or nursed the sick—all, all working for Serbia.</p> + +<p>Then those people who recognize heroism, those people who admire +patience and silent bravery, those people who long had cried, "Plucky +Serbia!" who had long been working for Serbia, now worked the harder, +and other workers joined them, until there were few sections of the +globe where there was not a group working for Serbia. The remnant of the +army, too, worked harder than ever, training, gathering strength, adding +to its numbers,—and at last it was ready.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + + +<p>Then Serbia had a vision of the men who had made her great—Vladimir, +who first showed that union is strength; Michael, her earliest King, and +Stephen Nemanya, who gave her a real kingdom, and Stephen Dushan, whose +dreams of a Serb Empire had given her glory; then Lazar Grebelyanovitch, +her brave and generous defender at Kossovo. Again, after her long sleep, +Karageorges, heroic and just, grandsire of King Peter; and last, Milos +Obrenovitch, whose cleverness had laid the foundation for much of her +present good.</p> + +<p>Had she changed too quickly from the old patriarchal system before she +could rightly replace it? All this time, she now realized too well, she +had been only half-educated. It was easy enough for the great Nations to +criticize her, forgetful of the long past years when they were in her +condition, yet none of them could deny her her heroic past.</p> + +<p>Then Serbia looked toward the sea. She no longer felt the pain of her +grief and her bruises; she was no longer alone. Friendly hands reached +out to her on every side, and beyond the sea lay noble England, and +strong Canada, and heroic France—Allies fighting for her, for her who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +might never be able to reward them; and, nearer to her, she could see +fair Italy, magnificent Russia, and brave Montenegro and Roumania. All, +all had been fighting for her, for in fighting for liberty, they fought +for the oppressed of the whole world. They had been fighting her +battles—the battles of the days of her strength. And there, farther +off, was friendly America. For the moment she saw her ideal State—the +union of Serb countries into one independent National State—a Serbian +or a Croato-Serb monarchy.</p> + +<p>Then, a shout, a clamor of voices, "Monastir! Monastir! Serbia! Serbia!" +Not a year since that awful retreat, and now the long exile was nearing +its end. King Peter, and the Crown Prince, the Government, the whole +Nation were hurrying home!</p> + +<p>"There is no death without the appointed day," chants the old pesma. +Serbia will live!</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Serbia: A Sketch, by Helen Leah Reed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + +***** This file should be named 35231-h.htm or 35231-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/3/35231/ + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Serbia: A Sketch + +Author: Helen Leah Reed + +Release Date: February 10, 2011 [EBook #35231] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + + + + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +[Illustration: KARAGEORGES--LIBERATOR OF SERBIA] + + + + +SERBIA: A SKETCH + +BY + +HELEN LEAH REED + +AUTHOR OF "NAPOLEON'S YOUNG NEIGHBOR" "MISS THEODORA," ETC. + +[Illustration] + +WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE +SERBIAN DISTRESS FUND +555 Boylston Street, Boston +1917 + +Copyright, 1916 +BY HELEN LEAH REED + +THE PLIMPTON PRESS +NORWOOD MASS USA + + + _Serbia, valiant daughter of the Ages, + Happiness and light should be thy portion! + Yet thy day is dimmed, thine heart is heavy; + Long hast thou endured--a little longer + Bear thy burden, for a fair tomorrow + Soon will gleam upon thy flower-spread valleys, + Soon will brighten all thy shadowy mountains; + Soon will sparkle on thy foaming torrents + Rushing toward the world beyond thy rivers. + Bulgar, Turk and Magyar long assailed thee. + Now the Teuton's cruel hand is on thee. + Though he break thy heart and rack thy body, + 'Tis not his to crush thy lofty spirit. + Serbia cannot die. She lives immortal, + Serbia--all thy loyal men bring comfort + Fighting, fighting, and thy far-flung banner + Blazons to the world thy high endeavor, + --This thy strife for brotherhood and freedom-- + Like an air-free bird unknowing bondage, + Soaring far from carnage, smoke and tumult, + Serbia--thy soul shall live forever! + Serbia, undaunted, is immortal!_ + + +Among comparatively recent books in English accessible to the general +reader are: + +SERVIA AND THE SERVIANS +_Mijatovich_--L. C. Page Co. + +THE SERVIAN PEOPLE +_Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich_, 2 vols.--Scribners + +SERVIA BY THE SERVIANS +_Alfred Stead_--Heinemann + +THE SLAV NATIONS +_Tucic_--Hodder and Stoughton + +SERBIA, HER PEOPLE, HISTORY AND ASPIRATIONS +_Petrovitch_--Stokes + +THE STORY OF SERVIA +_Church_--Kelly + +HERO-TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE SERBIANS +_Petrovitch_--Harrap and Co. + +WITH SERBIA INTO EXILE +_Fortier Jones_--The Century Company + +The spelling of names follows "Servia by the Servians," except "Serb." + +The author is indebted to some of these books for facts embodied in this +little sketch--as well as to several persons familiar with Serbia. + +She gives warm thanks to Madame Slavko Grouitch, wife of the Serbian +Secretary for Foreign affairs, who first interested her in Serbia. + + + + +SERBIA: A SKETCH + + + + +I. SERBIA: STARTING + + +Serbia, younger sister of the Nations, has indeed had a younger sister's +portion. In her early years she grew up with little guidance from older +and wiser members of the family. She did not have the advice that she +needed. Perhaps she would not have followed it, though on occasion she +has shown more docility than many of the family. + +It took her a long time to find herself; she had troubles in her +household, and it was her first endeavor to get the factions to unite +and let her be the acknowledged head of the house. She believed it was +her ultimate destiny to govern them all--that this was for their good. + +When she had made herself mistress of her own house, she tried to stand +alone--to be independent of her neighbors. She had no wish to dominate +them. She did not try to aggrandize herself at their expense, nor did +she take up weapons against them. But she wished them to acknowledge her +head of her own household, just as those within her house had done. She +even was willing to be called a Princess--providing she governed her +household well. But almost hidden from the rest of Europe by her +mountains, kept by barriers from easy access to the rest of the world, +the other Nations paid little attention to her. She grew up almost +unnoticed by the world--proud and strong, simple in her tastes, pious in +her own way (for her church was not the church of most of her +neighbors), and thoughtful, if ill educated. + +She was not bookish in those early days; she was too indifferent, +perhaps, to letters. Had she kept a journal, we could now embroider her +story with more brilliant threads. Her lack of education was perhaps +rather her misfortune than her fault. Those who knew her realized her +many fine qualities, yet she made few friends beyond her own +borders,--and because she was independent and poor, her richer neighbors +were suspicious of her and jealous. This one and that one set upon her. +They were jealous when she first put on regal robes. They were afraid +that she wished to enlarge her possessions at their expense, and one of +them, who had assumed complete lordship over Serbia and all her sisters, +was constantly threatening her, pretending at times that if she could +help him against the foe from Asia who was threatening them both, she +should be acknowledged of royal rank. This did not wholly satisfy her. +Her ambitions had grown. She herself was reaching out for the Imperial +purple. She felt that if she wore it, she might better defend herself +and her relatives beyond the mountains from the Asiatic hordes. + +Then came the great test--and from then almost until to-day Kossovo has +been a day of mourning! + + +When the fair, gray-eyed ancestors of the modern Serb came south from +their home in Galicia, moving westward from the shores of the Black Sea, +along the left bank of the Danube, they crossed the river and occupied +the northwest corner of the Balkan Peninsula. How long they had lived in +Galicia we need not ask, but they bore with them traditions of a +catastrophe in India that was probably the cause of their remote +fathers' leaving that country. + +Pliny and Ptolemy mention the Serbs, and we know that for one hundred +years at least previous to 625 A.D. they were at war with the Empire. +The Roman Empire was then slowly disintegrating, and in the Balkans +there was no power to protect the Romanized Illyria from the northern +invaders who in prehistoric times had driven away the aboriginal +inhabitants. + +It matters little whether the Emperor Heraclius invited the Serbs to +settle down in the northwest Byzantine provinces lately devastated by +barbarians, on condition that they would defend the Empire against the +Tartar Avars, or whether he merely accepted the fact that they had +entered these provinces and must stay there. He made an agreement of +peace with the Serbs--and this marks the beginning of their known +history. He desired a buffer State, as the neighbors of the Serbs so +often have desired in later times. The lands the newcomers then occupied +are the Serb lands of to-day--Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, +Old Serbia, Macedonia, Dalmatia, the Banat, and to an extent Croatia and +Western Bulgaria--practically the ideal Pan-Serbia, but in this little +sketch, so far as it is possible, by "Serbia" is meant the Kingdom of +Serbia, at the north of the Balkan Peninsula. + +The Kingdom of Serbia is bounded by Bosnia, Old Serbia, Bulgaria, +Roumania, the Banat, and Slavonia. The boundary rivers are the Danube, +on the north separating it from Hungary and on the northeast from +Roumania; the Drina, on the northwest from Bosnia; the Save, on the +northwest from Croatia and Slavonia; the Timok, on the northeast from +Bulgaria. Various mountain ranges on the west separate it from Bosnia, +on the south and southwest from Turkey, and on the south and southeast +from Bulgaria. + +Until the tenth century, except Pliny and Ptolemy, the Emperor +Constantine Porphyrogenites is the only historian to speak of the Serbs, +and he but briefly; yet their history in those three centuries after +their arrival was an epitome of their history in later years in the +Balkan Peninsula. The general movement was the same. First, a constant +struggle on the one side to establish a union of the jupanias and on the +other side a constant resistance to such centralization. A jupania may +be roughly defined as a county within whose limits lived clans more or +less related to one another. The ruler was a Jupan, and it was not +strange that the more powerful Jupans should tend to absorb their weaker +neighbors. The successful man took the title of Grand Jupan. Jealousy of +the Grand Jupan would lead to assassination, dethronement, and +decentralization--and then would come a repetition of the violent and +bloody story. + +Another element of disorder in Serbia was the ancient Slavonic rule that +a Jupan might be succeeded, not by his son but by the oldest member of +his family. It was hardly to be counted against a strong Jupan that he +should try to arrange for his son to succeed him--yet this added to the +troubles of the Serbs. + +A third and later cause of Serb trouble was the Church. The Greek +Emperor and the Greek Church on the one side, and the Roman Catholic +Church represented by Venice and Hungary on the other, were continually +warring, not only for territory but for influence in the Serb provinces. +Yet in spite of apparent wavering, the Serbs from the time they adopted +Christianity have been constant to the Church of their early choice. + +Finally, the founding in the seventh century of the Bulgarian kingdom, +on the eastern and southeastern frontiers of Serbia, added to the +dangers of this tempestuous little nation. After the Frank and Bulgarian +Emperors in the first quarter of the ninth century had for some time +wrangled over the Serbian tribes, the Bulgarians at last succeeded in +placing a garrison in Belgrade. The Bulgarians ruled Rascia for seven +years, but it was like ruling an uninhabited land, as the larger part of +the Serbians had run away to Croatia. + +Almost two hundred years after the agreement with Heraclius the Serbs +had a strong Jupan who carried out the principles of concentration. This +Visheslav was probably a descendant of that Visheslav who had signed +the agreement with the Greek Emperor. His descendants, of whom the +greatest was Vlastimir, for three generations contributed to the unity +of Serbia by defending it against Bulgar and Frank, who were constantly +menacing even when not directly attacking. Towards the end of the ninth +century, in 871, under Basil the Macedonian, the Serbs acknowledged +again the suzerainty of the Greek Empire and accepted Christianity. This +was in the reign of Mertimir, but after his death almost all of the +Greek Serb provinces were lost to Tsar Simeon of Bulgaria. + +Though Serbia recovered part of her lost provinces, she could not hold +them. The political center of the Serbs had moved to Zeta (Montenegro) +and the mystic Prince Jovan Vladimir in the latter part of the tenth +century, sometimes called King of Zeta, tried in vain to stop the +triumphal march of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria through the Serb provinces. +He himself was taken a prisoner to Samuel's court, where he married the +Tsar's daughter, Kossara. He returned to Zeta as reigning Prince under +the suzerainty of Bulgaria, but in 1015 he was murdered by Samuel's +heir, and he now is venerated as a saint in Serbia. The first Serb +novel, "Vladimir and Kossara," published in the thirteenth century, is +founded on the life of this Prince. + +Zeta was too far from the racial center of Serbia to be a good political +center and soon the disintegration of the first Serb kingdom began. +Although Serbia recovered the provinces Bulgaria had taken, she was +unable to stand alone, and grudgingly accepted Greek suzerainty until +Prince Voislav--cousin of Vladimir of Zeta--started a successful revolt +against the Greeks and united under his own rule Zeta, Trebinje, and +Zahumle. His son, Michel Voislavich, annexed the Jupania of Rascia. In +1072 he proclaimed himself King and received the crown from Gregory +VII. This was an effort to free Serbia from the Greek overlordship, as +expressed in the Greek Church. In the next reign Serbia became better +known to the world when she welcomed the Crusaders under Raymond of +Toulouse, passing through on their way to the Holy Land. Then came +brighter days for Serbia. Stephen Nemanya, Grand Jupan of Rascia, who +lived near Novi Bazar (1122-1199), planned the union of all the jupanias +in one kingdom under one king. This he practically accomplished, for +though unable to include Bosnia, within ten years of his accession he +had almost doubled his territory. + +Later, when Stephen's ambition grew, he received Frederick Barbarossa, +passing through with his Crusaders, and gave him every honor due the +Empire when he visited Nish in 1188, and treated him so liberally that +Barbarossa--at least this is something more than rumor--was considering +a marriage between his son and Stephen's daughter when death put an end +to the alliance. In the next reign the Emperor Henry VI planned, with +the help of the Serbs, to conquer the Byzantine Empire. But again death +took the Emperor before the plans were completed. + +Another notable act of Stephen's was his attack on the Greek provinces +as an ally of the King of Hungary. Stephen Nemanya assumed the +double-eagle as the insignia of his dignity, but though he founded the +first real Kingdom of Serbia, and was called King, he was never crowned. + +Toward the close of his distinguished career, in 1196, weary of the +world, he withdrew to the Monastery Helinder on Mt. Athos, where years +before his youngest son Rastko had retired. Stephen died after three +years of monastic life. The historic records of Serbia begin with his +reign. + +Rastko, known in the Church as Sava and afterwards canonized, was a man +of active temperament--a statesman as well as a churchman. He used his +wisdom and his learning to benefit his country. + +Stephen, son of Nemanya, was the first crowned King of Serbia. He kept +off foreign enemies, and Serbia, no longer dreading attacks, began to +develop some of her mineral resources. She made a beginning, too, of +educating her people. In the next two or three generations of rulers +there were quarrels among members of the ruling family. Outside, too, +the Magyars began to press upon the little kingdom. But on the whole +Serbia was united,--mindful, perhaps, of St. Sava's motto: "Only Union +is Serbia's Salvation." + +Stephen the Sixth, or "The Great," won victories over the Greek +Emperors, the Tartars, and the Bulgarians. He helped the Greek Emperor +against the Turks, now becoming formidable, and as part of his reward +had the Emperor's daughter given him in marriage. But this led to +domestic unhappiness in his later years and some loss of territory. For +his wife tried to keep his son Stephen from his inheritance. In turn, +Stephen's party set upon the King and choked him to death. Though +Stephen Dushan may have had no hand in it, this murder clouds his +reputation. Stephen Dushan is a contradictory character--by some +regarded as the murderer of his father, by others an idealist to be +compared with King Arthur or with Roland. Stephen Dushan (Detchanski), +great-grandson of Stephen Nemanya, came to the throne in 1331 and in ten +years had gained Albania and Epirus and finally all Macedonia except +Salonika. He was practically suzerain of Bulgaria. He freed the Church, +which long since had drifted from Rome back to Byzance. Now he made it +independent of the Greek Emperor, constituting the Archbishop of Petch, +Archbishop, or rather Patriarch, of Serbia. + +Noted both as a soldier and a statesman, Stephen had wider plans than +Vlasimir or Nemanya. The Turks were now looming dangerously in the +East. The Greek Empire was tottering. With it, the rest of Eastern +Europe might fall, including little Serbia--one of the smallest of all +the little principalities. But Serbia, if small, was brave, and Dushan +hoped to proclaim a Serbo-Greek Empire to head off the Asiatic hordes. +To accomplish this he took certain territory from the Greek Empire and, +proclaiming himself Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks, was solemnly +crowned at Uksub at Easter, 1346. Nine years later he tried to unite +Bulgars and Serbs and Greeks against the Turks. With a large army of +about one hundred thousand trained soldiers he was almost at the gates +of Constantinople when a sudden illness overtook him and he died. + +Under Dushan Serbia had very nearly reached her highest +ambition--complete dominion over the Balkan Peninsula. Dushan ruled also +a large part of the former Byzantine lands in Europe. + +Of farther-reaching good for Serbia than his territorial conquests was +the Zakonik or Code of Laws, completed in 1354 under Dushan's direction. +It contained not only the best of the old, but many new, laws resulting +from Dushan's knowledge of his country's needs. It ranks high among +medieval codes of law. After his death, his empire separated itself into +its elements--a number of small states whose rulers were fighting one +another while the Turks were subduing Thrace. + +With the death of Dushan in 1355 the greatness of Serbia also passed +away. His son, Urosh, could not hold what his father had gained, and +little by little parts of his Empire fell off from the center, until but +a small fragment remained. Yet there were still many stout-hearted +Serbs--many who wished to do their utmost to throw off the Turks now +pressing upon them. When Urosh died childless, the direct Nemanya +dynasty came to an end, but in 1371 Lazar Grebelyanovitch of the +Nemanya family was elected ruler of the Serbs. Though called Tsar, he +would not formally take the title. Devoted to his country, he threw all +his energy into forming a Christian League against the Turks. + +But the wily Oriental circumvented him by attacking the members of the +League one by one. For nearly twenty years after that there were many +encounters between Turks and Serbians. At the first attack on Nish, +Serbia so humbled herself as to agree to pay tribute in gold and in +soldiers for the Sultan's armies on condition the Turks would leave her +alone. + +Later Lazar did his utmost to save poor Serbia from further disgrace. He +united with the Ban of Bosnia, also a descendant of Stephen Nemanya, and +together they gained many small victories. After once defeating the +invading Turks under Murat I the Serbs had to stand a second time +opposed to Murat and a well-trained force of Turkish soldiers. Against +the Turks were drawn up the full strength of Serbia, Albania, and +Bosnia. + +There on the field of Kossovo, the "field of blackbirds," June 15, 1389, +was fought one of the decisive battles of history. It was a bitter +defeat for Serbia, though as many Turks as Serbs perished on the field. +On the eve of the battle Murat I had been assassinated. The brave Lazar +with the flower of the Serb nation lay dead--Lazar first made prisoner, +then beheaded. Of all Serbian rulers, the memory of Lazar was held the +dearest. "A pious and generous prince, a brave but unsuccessful +general." + +There was no longer any question as to supremacy in the Balkan +Peninsula. The independence of Serbia and the liberties of all the +smaller states were now the property of the unspeakable Turk. + +Lazar, it is said, was warned of his fate by a letter from Heaven even +before the battle, but he still went forward to fight for his country. +Bowring's translation of the heroic pesma (Battle of Kossovo) gives an +idea of this event. Before the battle Lazar receives the mysterious +letter: + + "Tzar Lasar! thou tzar of noble lineage! + Tell me now, what kingdom hast thou chosen? + Wilt thou have heaven's kingdom for thy portion, + Or an earthly kingdom? If an earthly, + Saddle thy good steed--and gird him tightly; + Let thy heroes buckle on their sabres, + Smite the Turkish legions like a tempest, + And these legions all will fly before thee. + But if thou wilt have heaven's kingdom rather, + Speedily erect upon Kossova, + Speedily erect a church of marble; + Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet; + That the army, to its vespers going, + May from sin be purged--for death be ready; + For thy warriors all are doomed to stumble; + Thou, too, prince, wilt perish with thy army!" + + When the Tzar Lasar had read the writing, + Many were his thoughts and long his musings. + "Lord, my God! what--which shall be my portion, + Which my choice of these two proffer'd kingdoms? + Shall I choose heaven's kingdom? shall I rather + Choose an earthly one? for what is earthly + Is as fleeting, vain, and unsubstantial; + Heavenly things are lasting, firm, eternal." + + So the Tzar preferr'd a heavenly kingdom + Rather than an earthly. On Kossova + Straight he built a church, but not of marble; + Not of marble, but of silk and scarlet. + Then he calls the patriarch of Servia, + Calls around him all the twelve archbishops, + Bids them make the holy supper ready, + Purify the warriors from their errors, + And for death's last conflict make them ready. + + So the warriors were prepared for battle, + And the Turkish hosts approach Kossova. + Bogdan leads his valiant heroes forward, + With his sons--nine sons--the Jugocichi, + Sharp and keen--nine gray and noble falcons. + Each led on nine thousand Servian warriors; + And the aged Jug led twenty thousand. + + With the Turks began the bloody battle. + Seven pashas were overcome and scatter'd, + But the eighth pasha came onward boldly, + And the aged Jug Bogdan has fallen. + + ....*....*....*....* + + Then Lasar, the noble lord of Servia, + Seeks Kossova with his mighty army; + Seven and seventy thousand Servian warriors. + How the infidels retire before him, + Dare not look upon his awful visage! + Now indeed begins the glorious battle. + He had triumph'd then, had triumph'd proudly, + But that Vuk--the curse of God be on him! + He betrays his father at Kossova. + + So the Turks the Servian monarch vanquish'd, + So Lasar fell--the Tzar of Servia-- + With Lasar fell all the Servian army. + But they have been honor'd, and are holy, + In the keeping of the God of heaven. + +All that the Nemanyas, all that the Serbian people had done toward +national unity was destroyed at Kossovo. Throughout Serb lands, the +anniversary of Kossovo is still kept as a memorial day for all Serbian +heroes, both for those who fell then and those who have since fallen in +defense of their country. + +For seventy years after Kossovo, Serbia, though nominally ruled by +despots, was really subsidiary to the Sultan. George Brankovitch, one of +the despots, worked for an alliance between Serbia and Hungary to +overthrow the Turks. The Turks were defeated at Kunovista, and lands +previously taken were restored to him. This brave man died at the age of +ninety of wounds received in a duel with a Hungarian nobleman. But in +spite of the efforts of Brankovitch, the days of Serbia were numbered. +In 1459 she became a Pashilik under the direct government of the +Porte--and this was her condition for nearly three hundred and fifty +years. + +If in her darkest hour some strong nation had sympathized with Serbia, +her future might have been different. The nations of Europe were now +having a revival of life--a renaissance--but they had no thought of +Serbia, their young sister. She was hidden among her mountains and she +made no outcry. She had tried to do what she could for herself. She had +had her moments of power and happiness. Now came a long, long night. + +[Illustration: CHURCH AT RAVINITZA--WHERE LAZAR WAS BURIED] + +In the darker days many Serbs fled to the mountains, sometimes to carry +on their occupation of farmer so far as they could, unmolested by the +Turk; sometimes to become Haiduks--the Robin Hoods of the mountains and +forests--to steal from the Moslem when it was possible, to give to the +poor Serb; always to keep up an unceasing guerrilla warfare. + +Serbians were sold as slaves by the ten thousands to Constantinople and +to Egypt. Whenever they could, they fled their country to Venice, to +Dalmatia, to Hungary. Those who stayed in Serbia were not meek and so +far as they could they resisted their oppressor. The Church was the +mainstay of the nation; indeed, even to-day, the Serbian Church is a +national rather than a religious organization. Before the end of Serb +power came, southern Hungary had begun to receive many Serbian +immigrants; by the middle of the sixteenth century they were numerous +along the borders of Croatia and Slavonia. Although to a large extent +farm laborers, they were soldiers as well, and fought in many battles +for Austria. In the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of +the sixteenth century, the Serbs in the Hungarian army formed the famous +"Black Legion" and won great fame. In the latter part of the seventeenth +century thirty-seven thousand Serbians went in a body to South Hungary, +and fifty years later one hundred thousand, migrating to Russia, formed +a colony by themselves. In 1690 the Emperor Leopold had granted a fair +amount of liberty, civil as well as religious, to the large organized +body of Serbs who had settled in South Hungary. Their privileges were +from time to time confirmed, especially when the Emperor needed help +from the Serbs against some one of his numerous enemies. At other times +the Serbs in Hungary had no flowery path. Austria was always playing +fast and loose with them, and at last, toward the end of the eighteenth +century, though Austria was treating them well, they saw they had little +cause to hope that she would free them from the Turkish yoke. The +ancient ill will of Hungary against Serbia persisted, and sometimes laws +passed in her favor by Austria were in the end suppressed or nullified +by Hungarian efforts. + + + + +II. SERBIA: SINGING + + +Serbia, in the hands of a cruel conqueror, stripped of most of her +possessions, bereft of happiness, forgotten by her sister nations, had +little left but hope. She still clung to her ideals of brotherhood and +freedom, and she held close her great treasure, a gift inherited from +her remote northern ancestors--her gift of song. Her songs--virile, yet +somewhat softened by contact with her southern neighbors--cheered and +strengthened her. She sang and sang, in a minor key, and her mountains +reechoed with the deeds of her happier days, with the stories of her +heroes, now seeming more splendid because she herself had become so poor +and unhappy. For centuries she was like one stunned; she had never been +aggressive--now she could not fight against the aggressor who had all +the weapons in his own hands. + +A younger sister--and poor at that!--a younger sister, who had set out +to be perfectly independent--what could she expect? She must work out +her own salvation. Besides, she lived so far away from the centers of +culture she was almost a barbarian. Yet she was not wholly uncouth. She +had been courteous to the Crusaders traversing Europe to crush their +common enemy--the Turk; and now the Turk had captured her! Of course it +was a pity! It was a busy time in Europe in the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries; the nations had enough to do to keep their own houses in +order,--and when they had leisure they must keep in touch with new life, +with the renaissance of Art and Learning. They were enchanted with the +discovery that they were not mere parvenus like distant Serbia, but +descendants of that grand old house that had once conquered the world. +The beauty of Paganism--ah, that was something worth contemplating! But +Serbia--well, the Crusades were over, and the Turk was no longer +threatening Western Europe; besides, Serbia had not even belonged to +their Church--so what matter if the Turk crushed her? + +But Serbia was not crushed. Had the nations listened, they could have +heard her singing. There was little else she could do, except wait and +hope--wait like her Marko for the signal to rise. + + +Through five centuries of subjection to the Turks, the guslars, singing +the heroic pesmas, were hardly second in influence to the priests in +fortifying the spirits of the suffering Serbs. The intense patriotism of +the Serb was kept alive, indeed was often kindled, by the folk songs he +had heard even in his cradle. Through all his troubles he has cherished +the divine fire of Nationality, even as the Vestals conserved the sacred +flame. + +The Serb, belonging to the most poetical of nations, has the most +melodious of all Slav tongues--identical with that of the Croats and yet +used as the language of literature a comparatively short time. Even +little more than a hundred years ago people were still arguing whether +ancient Slavonic or the Serbian vernacular should be the language of +literature. But for Dossitie Obradovitch this result might have been +reached less quickly. He, "the great sower," a notable educator, applied +the language of the people to literature, publishing an autobiography, +besides poems and treatises, in the common tongue. Before his death, in +1811, the "Write as you speak" party had won, and literature became the +property of the masses. Yet a further improvement in the language was +undertaken by Vuk Karadgitch, a self-taught cripple, whose grammar, +published in 1814, was epochal. He it was who devised the alphabet of +thirty letters, each one representing a complete sound, and he published +a dictionary and a collection of the pesmas which he took down from the +mouths of the guslars who sang them. Then, when various translations +appeared, Europe remembered vaguely that diplomats and travelers +generations before had brought back accounts of Serbian poetry heard +almost as often in those days in foreign countries as in Serbia itself. + +Goethe was one of the first to translate them and call attention to +those pesmas. He praised their humor and philosophy, their high heroism +mingled with certain spiritual qualities. Soon Sir John Bowring, a +skilled linguist, made a translation into English verse which is nearer +the original in spirit and letter than any that has been made since. + +There have also been many fine prose translations of the Kossovo cycle +and of other pesmas, and all readers agree that in them is, as one +critic says, "a clear and inborn poetry, such as can scarcely be found +in any other modern people." + +"Serbian song," wrote Schafferik, "resembles the tone of the violin; old +Slavonian, that of the organ; Polish, that of the guitar. The old +Slavonian in the Psalms sounds like the loud rush of the mountain +stream; the Polish like the sparkling and bubbling of a fountain; and +the Serbian like the quiet murmuring of a streamlet in a valley." + +The Serb loves to sing; every young countryman carries his gusle, and is +ready to use it--a one-stringed violin, shaped something like a +mandolin, played on the knee with a bow, like a violoncello. Men and +women--peasants and townsmen--all sing. When two or more sing together, +it is unison and not part-singing. The national Serb music is rich in +melodies. The traveler to-day hears the Serb singing a ballad of the +days of Stephen Dushan of Kossovo, of the Bulgar War, of Karageorges +(the William Tell of the mountains). The gusle wails monotonously, with +an occasional trill on one or two minor notes. Some find its music +plaintive, others call it tiresome, and travelers as long ago as the +beginning of the eighteenth century have written of seeing numbers of +people in a crowd silently weeping as they listened to an old blind man +chanting the national songs. + +There are two great epic cycles--one centering around Tsar Lazar, the +other around Marko--and both have to do with the Battle of Kossovo. +Fragments of other cycles show that Dushan, Milos Obilich, and other +heroes have been each a chief figure in them. + +No matter how unlearned, from one point of view, a Serb may be, he can +always talk about Stephen Nemanya, or St. Sava, or Marko, and the other +great men of his race. Moreover, he is continually creating new songs, +new folk lore. In the great mills of this country he lightens his work +with his simple melodies. Sometimes the words of his song form a clear +narration of the events that brought him to America, even of happenings +since his arrival. His own sorrows, his own joys, are woven in his epic. +After their recent war with Bulgaria, everywhere at village festivals, +the Serbs began to sing of their victories, and to-day they are +undoubtedly singing of the sorrows of the past two years. + +Mr. Miatovich says that when as Cabinet Minister he had been defeated, +forty years ago, the next day he heard the people singing this event in +the streets. + +Whatever the subject--whether it deals with ancient times or with the +present; whether it is an epic or one of the so-called women's +songs--the Serbian pesma is anonymous. No single writer or composer +claims it. It is the work of the people, all of whom have had a chance +to modify it as it has passed through the ages. + +Among all the heroes of the guslars the favorite has always been Prince +Marko. Although much of the career of the Marko of the pesmas was +fabulous, this prince had a real existence in the latter part of the +fourteenth century--the son of Vukashin, who tried to usurp the throne +of young Urosh after the death of Stephen Dushan, and Queen Helen, +unless one prefers to account for Marko's glittering qualities by making +him the offspring of a dragon and a fairy queen. The real Marko was not +a great man, as the world counts greatness. He ruled a small territory +in Macedonia, and Prilip was his capital. He is said to have been +friendly with the Turks and to have died fighting for the Sultan. This +was after Kossovo, when Serbia was sleeping. Yet he must have had +qualities that made him rise above this in popular estimation, for his +local reputation grew with time and became national. Certainly for five +centuries he has been a living personality, not only in Serbian but in +Croatian, Bulgarian, and Roumanian tradition. + +It is worth considering--this theory that in Prince Marko the Serbian +nation projects itself; that his sufferings and successes are the +sufferings and successes of the whole nation; that it beholds its own +virtues and weaknesses in his; its own individuality in his popular +personality; its own doom in his tragic fate. + +Athletic, keen-minded, quickly reading the designs of his foes, he, as +an individual, was what Serbia would like to have been as a political +entity. Even as he triumphed over Magyar, Venetian or Turk, so would the +Serb have triumphed. When Serbia was sunk in poverty the guslar brought +before his hearers visions of splendid things they could never hope to +see, but whose beauties satisfied their imagination. + +Marko is the knight without fear, without reproach--the lover of +justice, the hater of all oppression. He is kind and dutiful, the +protector of the poor and abused. His pity extends even to animals, who +in turn often helped him. "He feared no one but God." Courteous to all +women, tender and dutiful to his mother, Marko could be savage and cruel +beyond belief toward the Turks. + +Human weapons never harmed him, and he wielded a war club weighing one +hundred pounds, composed of sixty pounds of steel, thirty pounds of +silver, and ten pounds of gold. One touch of this mace beheaded a foe, +as one stroke of his saber ripped him open. + +Marko's horse, Sharaz, his constant companion and helper, was the +strongest and swiftest horse ever known. He knew just when to kneel down +and save his master from the adversary's lance. He knew how to rear and +strike the enemy's charger with his forefeet. When roused he would +spring up three lance lengths forward. Glittering sparks flashed from +beneath his hoof, blue flame from his nostrils. He has been known to +bite off the ears of the enemy's horse; sometimes he trampled Turkish +soldiers to death. Marko fed him bread and wine from his own dishes. +Sharaz kept guard over Marko while he slept. He always shared the glory +of victory. + +Yet, whether or not Marko personifies Serbia, in the life of Marko the +current of Serbian medieval life is reflected as in a mirror. + +In these poems Turks are always unreliable and cruel; Venetians are +crafty; the faithless wife is usually lured away by a Turk. In one vivid +tale, Marko's own bride, as he is taking her home from Bulgaria, is +stolen by a Doge of Venice, who, with three hundred attendants, had been +invited by her father to be part of her bridal procession. His designs +do not succeed, and when Marko comprehends this treachery he does not +hesitate. "He cleft the Doge's head in twain," and he struck another +traitor with his saber "so neatly" that he fell to earth in two pieces. + +The touch of exaggeration in all the stories is not one merely of +incident but of detail--the kind of exaggeration a child loves. For +example, when Marko was brought from the cell where the Sultan had +imprisoned him for three years, his nails were so long that he could +plow with them. The Serbs of those days, having few splendid things in +their own surroundings, loved to endow Marko with grandeur. On his tent, +for instance, was fixed a golden apple. "In the apple are fixed two +large diamonds which shed a light so far and wide that the neighboring +tents need no candle at night." In another instance a magnificent ring +is described, "so richly studded with precious stones that the whole +room was lighted up." + +The ransom demanded by Marko and his friend Milosh from the Magyar +General Voutchka was more than magnificent. He was to give three tovars +of gold for each (a tovar was as much as a horse could carry on his +back), and, among other things, a gilded coach harnessed with twelve +Arabian coursers used by General Voutchka when visiting the Empress at +Vienna. Voutchka's wife not only agrees to this, but adds one thousand +ducats for each of the two. Even in a poem, it delighted the Serbs to +have a Magyar in their power. + +Sometimes Marko's adversary is a Moor--for example, the Moor who wishes +to marry the Sultan's daughter and the other Moor who demanded a wedding +tax from the maidens of Kossovo. He cut off the head of this Moor with +one touch of his mace. At another time he is imprisoned by a Sultan +whose daughter releases him. He has promised to marry her. But when they +have started on their elopement, and she lifts her veil, he is horrified +to see how black she is. There seemed nothing for him to do but to run +away. Yet he knows that he has committed a sin in breaking his +promise--and he confesses this sin to his mother: + + "Then I sprang upon the back of Sharaz, + And I heard the maiden's lips address me-- + 'Thou in God my brother--thou--oh, Marko! + Leave me not! thus wretched do not leave me!' + + Therefore, mother! wretched do I lowly penance: + Thus, my mother! have I gold o'erflowing, + Therefore seek I righteous deeds unceasing." + +In these pesmas one has glimpses not only of all the neighbors who +warred upon the Serbians, but of Christian malcontents going over to the +Church of Rome or sowing dissensions at home. A careful reader can get +an almost complete picture of the Serbian life after the Conquest, +painted, to be sure, in high colors. + +In most of the Serbian heroic pesmas there is little of that +superstitious element that marks the ordinary life of the Serb to-day, +except in the almost constant presence of the Vila. Marko's Vila never +loses an opportunity to help him, to warn him, and even to scold him. + +The Serbian Vila, so conspicuous in Serbian song and story, may be +roughly defined as a guardian angel. She is a vaguely beautiful maiden +born of the dew and nurtured in a mysterious mountain and seems to +combine qualities of both classic and northern mythologies. She has +qualities which are even essentially Christian, for sometimes she +expresses her belief in God and St. John, and always she has a deadly +hatred for the Turk. No higher compliment can be paid a lady than to +say, "as fair as the mountain Vila," and a steed "swift as a Vila" means +one of great value. Occasionally Marko reproves his Vila Rayviola and +once when she has shot an arrow through the throat and another through +the head of his friend Milosh, he pursues her among the clouds on his +horse Sharaz and brings her to earth with his club, ungallantly adding: +"Thou hadst better give him healing herbs lest thou shalt not carry +longer thy head upon thy shoulders." But generally Marko's attitude is +more affectionate: "Where art thou now, my sister-in-God, thou Vila?" + +There are in existence about thirty-eight poems and twice as many prose +legends detailing the thrilling exploits of Marko. In spite of certain +accounts of his death, it is generally thought that he never died, but +withdrew to a cave near the castle of Prilip and is still asleep there. +At times he awakes and looks to see if a sword has come out of a rock +where he thrust it to the hilt. When it is out of the rock, he will know +that the time has come for him to appear among the Serbians once more to +reestablish the Empire destroyed at Kossovo. Even now, on occasions, he +may appear to help his disheartened country-men. An interesting story +of the War of 1912-13 is told that bears directly on this belief. The +Serbian forces were storming the fort at Prilip when their general +ordered a delay. In spite of this, they pushed on and ran straight to +the castle of the royal prince, Marko. The general trembled, believing +that without the help of his artillery, for which he was waiting, these +men of the infantry would be wholly destroyed. But even while dreading +this, he saw the Serbian national colors flying from the donjon of +Marko's castle. His Serbs had driven the Turks away and were victorious, +as it proved, with little loss of life. When he reproved them for +risking so much: "But we were ordered by Prince Marko, did you not see +him on his Sharaz? Prince Marko commanded us all the time--'Forward! +forward!'" They really believed that they had seen their hero. + +Two passages from the heroic pesmas may serve to show Marko under +different aspects. In the first he has been invited by the Grand Vizier +to go hunting, in company with twelve Turks. He has obeyed the Vizier's +command and has loosed his falcon. + + Then the princely Marko loosed his falcon; + To the clouds of heaven aloft he mounted; + Then he sprung upon the gold-wing'd swimmer-- + Seized him--rose, and down they fell together. + When the bird of Amurath sees the struggle, + He becomes indignant with vexation: + 'Twas of old his custom to play falsely-- + For himself alone to gripe his booty: + So he pounces down on Marko's falcon, + To deprive him of his well-earn'd trophy. + But the bird was valiant as his master; + Marko's falcon has the mind of Marko: + And his gold-wing'd prey he will not yield him. + Sharply turns he round on Amurath's falcon, + And he tears away his proudest feathers. + + Soon as the Visir observes the contest, + He is fill'd with sorrow and with anger; + Rushes on the falcon of Prince Marko, + Flings him fiercely 'gainst a verdant fir-tree, + And he breaks the falcon's dexter pinion. + Marko's noble falcon groans in suffering, + As the serpent hisses from the cavern. + Marko flies to help his favourite falcon, + Binds with tenderness the wounded pinion, + And with stifled rage the bird addresses: + "Woe for thee, and woe for me, my falcon! + I have left my Servians--I have hunted + With the Turks--and all these wrongs have suffer'd." + +But Marko did not content himself with words and the Grand Vizier had +hardly time to warn his companions when Marko cleft his head asunder and +proceeded to cut each of his twelve companions in two. After +deliberation he went to the Sultan and told what he had done. The Sultan +laughed, for he was afraid of the light in Marko's eyes and chose to +dissemble: "If thou hadst not behaved thus I would no longer have called +thee my son. Any Turk may become Grand Vizier, but there is no hero to +equal Marko," and he dismissed Marko with presents. + +In the second, "The Death of Marko," he has been warned by the Vila that +his death is near, and he obeys her commands. + + Marko did as counsell'd by the Vila. + When he came upon the mountain summit, + To the right and left he look'd around him; + Then he saw two tall and slender fir-trees; + Fir-trees towering high above the forest, + Covered all with verdant leaves and branches. + Then he rein'd his faithful Sharaz backwards, + Then dismounted--tied him to the fir-tree; + Bent him down, and looked into the fountain, + Saw his face upon the water mirror'd, + Saw his death-day written on the water. + + Tears rush'd down the visage of the hero: + "O thou faithless world!--thou lovely flow'ret! + Thou wert lovely--a short pilgrim's journey-- + Short--though I have seen three centuries over-- + And 'tis time that I should end my journey!" + + Then he drew his sharp and shining sabre, + Drew it forth--and loosed the sabre-girdle; + And he hasten'd to his faithful Sharaz: + With one stroke he cleft his head asunder, + That he never should by Turk be mounted, + Never be disgraced in Turkish service, + Water draw, or drag a Moslem's Jugum. + Soon as he had cleaved his head asunder, + Graced a grave he for his faithful Sharaz, + Nobler grave than that which held his brother. + Then he broke in four his trusty sabre, + That it might not be a Moslem's portion, + That it might not be a Moslem's triumph, + That it might not be a wreck of Marko, + Which the curse of Christendom should follow. + Soon as he in four had broke his sabre, + Next he broke his trusty lance in seven; + Threw the fragments to the fir-trees' branches. + Then he took his club, so terror-striking, + In his strong right hand, and swiftly flung it, + Flung it from the mountain of Urvina, + Far into the azure, gloomy ocean. + To his club thus spake the hero Marko: + "When my club returneth from the ocean, + Shall a hero come to equal Marko." + + When he thus had scatter'd all his weapons, + From his breast he drew a golden tablet; + From his pocket drew unwritten paper, + And the princely Marko thus inscribed it: + "He who visits the Urvina mountain, + He who seeks the fountain 'neath the fir-trees, + And there finds the hero Marko's body, + Let him know that Marko is departed. + When he died, he had three well-fill'd purses: + + How well fill'd? Well fill'd with golden ducats. + One shall be his portion, and my blessing, + Who shall dig a grave for Marko's body: + Let the second be the church's portion; + Let the third be given to blind and maim'd ones, + That the blind through earth in peace may wander, + And with hymns laud Marko's deeds of glory." + + And when Marko had inscribed the letter, + Lo! he stuck it on the fir-tree's branches, + That it might be seen by passing travellers. + In the front he threw his golden tablets, + Doff'd his vest of green, and spread it calmly + On the grass, beneath a sheltering fir-tree; + Cross'd him, and lay down upon his garment; + O'er his eyes he drew his samur-kalpak, + Laid him down,--yes! laid him down for ever. + + By the fountain lay the clay-cold Marko + Day and night; a long, long week he lay there. + Many travellers pass'd, and saw the hero,-- + Saw him lying by the public path-way; + And while passing said, "The hero slumbers!" + Then they kept a more than common distance, + Fearing that they might disturb the hero. + + + + +III. SERBIA: SEAWARD + + +The Nations of Europe that had over-looked Serbia in her days of +strength--she was so young, and so far away, half hidden in her +wilderness of mountains--the Nations of Europe that had turned deaf ears +to her cries when the Turk attacked her, began to make inquiries about +the little sister. She had been asleep so long that some of them really +imagined her dead. But they heard some plaintive music: they recognized +her voice as she sang. They saw that she was not only alive, but awake, +thoroughly wide awake, and that she was asking for help. But they had +troubles enough of their own--revolutions and things of that kind. The +people were altogether too troublesome--so at least the rulers said--and +the people, who ought to have heeded poor Serbia's cries, did not take +time to find out just who she was, and what she desired. All might have +been different had they known that Serbia was one of themselves, +acknowledging no privileged classes and desiring little but a chance to +get on her feet and walk alone. For this she needed space to expand in, +space in which to exhale the spirit of freedom that filled her. The +Turk, her master, was growing weaker. She could almost strike off her +own shackles when suddenly a deliverer came--one of her own people, a +son of her mountains. + +When her master was driven away, Serbia began to look about her, a +little humbly at first, for she was trying to understand herself. She +saw that she needed education before she could take her proper place in +the world. So she set herself bravely to learn from books. She noticed +that the stronger Nations were governed by rules, and she gave herself a +Constitution patterned on theirs. Regular work was hard for her, but she +worked diligently and saved a little, though disinclined to hoard. She +had rich treasures hidden away but she had never thought about them, +even as playthings. What does a child care for diamonds? But when it was +made clear to her that wealth is power, she worked more heartily. + +The other Nations began to admit that Serbia was no longer Nobody. +Indeed she was so near being Somebody that many thought it would be wise +to win her friendship, and wiser to put her under obligations. So when +she asked for an Hereditary Prince, presto! the thing was accomplished! +though once she had hardly dared ask more than the privilege of naming +her own chief. + +In outward aspect Serbia began to be more like other people, although +some of her neighbors remembered too well her hoydenish days and her +years of poverty. Still, they could flatter her sometimes, for she held +the key to certain things that several of them needed--trade routes, +fertile lands, and other things that no ambitious Nation should live +without. Soon some of her neighbors desired to control the sale of +things that modestly enough she had begun to offer to the world. She had +heard that money was power, and she hoped to send her goods to market in +the best way. She noticed that every one who made a success of business +had a place by the sea. In the whole family of Nations she was the only +one who had not a place by the sea, except the littlest one perched up +in the high mountains. But this little one makes a success by trading in +beauty. Yet beauty is an intangible thing to carry to any market and is +best disposed of in the mountains themselves. + +When Serbia first expressed her longing for the sea every one frowned. +"Impossible!" There were other things that ought to please her as +well--opportunities to help them in their wars, little snips of +territory here and there if she helped them gain anything. But a +seaport--ridiculous! Why, the Imperial cousin on one side of her would +be insulted! What better could little Serbia wish than to market her +goods to him, or at least send them over routes he had picked out? + +Then Serbia said less and thought more. She sang less, but she composed +more songs, and she listened to the people talking, not singing. She +found she could not live by poetry alone. The Young Serbs and the +Panslavs told her their plans and she looked hopefully at her big +fur-clad Cousin. But though with him it wasn't a question of trade, he +had ambitions of his own. He wasn't sure but that Serbia with a seat by +the sea might watch him too closely. Then all the others in the great +family of Nations took sides with one or the other. + +Serbia was restless, but she knew she could wait. Her household was now +much more closely united than in the days of her youth, and she had +realized what had once seemed a vain dream--comparative independence. So +she could wait! + + +Who would look at pictures of massacres extending throughout Serbia! at +plundered villages! at tortured women and fatherless children shrieking +in agony! All the horrors inflicted by the Turks on the Serbs in the +early nineteenth century were the convulsive movements of one near his +end. The Turk himself was growing weaker and weaker, and his weakness +was Serbia's opportunity. But where was the man to lead her out of +bondage? There was now no heir to her throne, the throne of what had +once been a proud kingdom. Assassination and exile had led also to the +passing of the old nobility. Although the family of the ancient kings +was no more, the old racial stock had little changed. The Serbs were +still of the same indomitable race, still breathing the spirit of +freedom, still bound to one another in a true brotherhood. Yet, loyal +though they were, ready to die for Serbia, where could they look for a +leader? + +In the early part of 1804, Mustapha Pasha, the Turkish Governor of +Belgrade, was much too kind and benign a man to suit the Janissaries and +the Dahias, their leaders. They had dealt slaughter right and left, and +at last had killed Mustapha himself because he had opposed their +cruelty. While they were planning a general massacre of the most eminent +Serbs in the country, all Serbs who could were fleeing to the mountains. +The rumored massacre was the last straw, and a silent cry arose, "Oh, +for the right man!" Then came the whisper that a leader had been +found--Karageorges, Black George, a prosperous raiser of swine, at this +time about forty years old. He had served in the Austrian armies nearly +twenty years before under Joseph I, that Emperor who, of all the +Austrian monarchs, is said to have meant the most and to have done the +least. + +Karageorges, Black George, so called either on account of his dark +complexion or his moody disposition, a brave man and a man of character, +had fled to the Sumadia for safety. He had great influence among the +large body of refugees in that beautiful forest region of secure +mountain fastnesses. Karageorges was a blunt, plain man, and honest. He +had a strong sense of justice, though notably hot tempered. At the +meeting, when he was chosen leader, there were about five hundred Serbs, +men all under arms. In responding to their request that he would lead +them against the Turks, he said: "Again, brothers, I cannot accept, for +if I accepted I certainly would do much not to your liking. If one of +you were taken in the smallest treachery, the least faltering, I would +punish him in the most fearful manner." "We want it so, we want it so!" +they cried. When he saw that they were in earnest, Karageorges accepted +the office they conferred on him and the Archpriest of Bonvokik +received and consecrated his oath. Upon this Karageorges took supreme +control of the insurrection. + +At this same meeting, in the little village of Oorshats, they organized +a National Assembly. At first the Serbs with tactics worthy an Oriental +managed to keep the Sultan's attention from their insurrection by +protesting that they were in arms not against the Sultan himself but +against the Dahias, who, by disobeying him, were the real rebels. +Deceived, or willing to seem deceived, the Porte let them work out their +own plans. But the battle of Ivankovitz awoke The Sublime Porte. Turks +defeated by Serbs! The world had never heard of such a thing! In vain +Napoleon advised The Porte to take no notice of the Serb insurrection. +It was merely part of a Russian plot! Soon the army of Karageorges was +before Shabaz, where the Turks were intrenched. The Turkish commander +shouted from the heights, ordering Karageorges and his men to give up +their weapons. "Come and get them!" cried Karageorges. In a short time +the Serb leader and his army were in Shabaz, from which the enemy had +fled in great disorder. Austria was now too intent upon her own war with +Napoleon to give the Serbs the help they sought. She merely advised them +to make peace with The Porte. In accordance with her usual policy, she +wished to cramp the little State within small limits, subject to her +interests. Russia, though more sympathetic, had little thought to spare +for Serbia. At this moment she herself was trying to make an alliance +with Turkey against Napoleon, but she did advise Serbia not to accept +the recent offer of The Porte to give her self-government and to +recognize Karageorges. + +Pathetic enough was the vacillation of Serbia between Austria and +Russia. Had Austria been more responsive, Karageorges would have +preferred closer relations with her. But while Austria was indifferent +to Serbia's advances the Tsar, showing more interest in Serbia's +affairs, agreed to send his agent to her. He promised help also if the +Serbians would agree to all things initiated by the Russian government. +Austria was disturbed. Serbia was too bold; she must be watched! + +Like most really great men Karageorges, even when first acclaimed his +country's deliverer, had enemies. The old question of centralization and +decentralization had come up. Many thought him too autocratic. The +enemies of Serbia encouraged decentralization. Divided, she would be +easier to subdue. Russia disapproved of many things done by Karageorges. +But he had the strong support of the Sumadia in whatever he did. When +the Turks again tried to invade Serbia, Russian and Serbian troops, +fighting side by side, drove them away. But for the party troubles, but +for the loudly expressed ill will of leaders of the opposition, +Karageorges might have been happy. + +Though Serbs fought side by side with Russians until 1812, it happened +that no important battles took place on Serbian territory. During these +years Serbia not only had self-government, but she somewhat increased +her boundaries by lands taken from neighboring Pashiliks. Yet she had +her disappointments. Turkey, when Russia's war with Napoleon began, +disregarded the few concessions made to Serbia by the Peace of +Bucharest. At last, the Grand Vizier led his army against Serbia, and +although her men fought bravely, they had to draw back from the +frontier. Then a strange thing happened! With no obvious reason, +Karageorges went back to Belgrade with the army reserves. Without +staying there even for a day, he and part of his officers practically +deserted the army. Crossing the Danube into Austria, they forsook their +country in her day of trial. With them went the Russian consul and the +Metropolitan and many leading Serbians with their families. + +The downfall of Karageorges was due to no fault of his. No one ever +doubted his courage, and could he have had his own way, when he saw the +impossibility of pushing back the enemy, he would have gone again to his +stronghold in the Sumadia, there to fight to the last. But there was a +frontier to be defended, and Serbs owning property along the rivers +begged for protection. The army was not large enough to accomplish all +that was demanded of it. The Turks were victorious and with their +victory there began again a series of acts of unspeakable cruelty. + +Among the Serbs who remained in Serbia when Karageorges and his friends +crossed over into Austria was Milosh Obrenovitch. He had not only served +with Karageorges in the Austrian armies, but he had worked for him as a +keeper of swine on his Sumadia estate. During the recent revolution he +had helped his great leader by watching the Balkan passes for unfriendly +Bosnians and Albanians. + +When Milosh saw that the Turks were, for the time at least, masters, he +offered to help them reconquer the Serbs. In reality, faithful to his +own people, he was only waiting a chance to aid them. The time came and +one memorable Palm Sunday, 1817, he appeared near the church at Tokova +and the people called upon him to lead them against the Turks. He told +them that this would be a difficult undertaking. "We know that, but we +are ready for anything. Dost thou not see that we perish as it is?" +"Here am I," he replied. "There stand you!" "War to the Turks! With us +is God and the right." Then arms were brought out from underground +hiding places. His men were ready and Milosh led them on to victory over +the Turks. When later the Turks came to treat with him, they made him +tribute collector. Many of the Serb chiefs were therefore displeased and +wished to fight openly. They suspected Milosh of double-dealing. Among +these was Karageorges who had landed unexpectedly in Serbia. +Karageorges and Milosh were no longer friends. One explanation of this +was that Milosh suspected Karageorges of poisoning his brother Milan, +who had died suddenly, but no one who really knew Karageorges could +suspect him of using poison to a rid himself of an enemy. + +But the world does believe that Milosh betrayed Karageorges to the +Turks. Certainly the latter was murdered by the Turkish Governor's +men--beheaded in the lonely house where he was sleeping. This was a +pathetic end for a great life that had held as many melodramatic as +tragic events. Karageorges was a true patriot. He was neither cruel nor +blood-thirsty, though circumstances often compelled severity. A glance +at his portrait shows his nobility of character. That he was a lover of +law and justice was evident by his promptly establishing a system of +law-courts for Serbia. He reduced taxation, and though he could neither +read nor write--or because of this--he zealously supported education. He +hoped that the time would come when Serbia need no longer send outside +to get the trained men whose help she needed. He established many good +public schools, among them the High School at Belgrade, which later grew +into the University. + +Among his tragic moments was that one when he had to shoot his father in +order to prevent his torture by the Turks, and that other when he +refused to save his brother from execution when he found he deserved the +death penalty. More melodramatic than tragic was a critical moment in +the National Assembly when members sat with pistols held at their heads +that they might not act foolishly. + +Though not a crowned King, in name, Karageorges had all the power of a +monarch. Yet with so much at his command he retained his taste for the +simplest life. His dress was that of the peasant and, even when Chief +Executive of Serbia, he often cooked his own meals in the kitchen of his +dwelling. + +After the death of Karageorges the efforts of Serbia to have Turkey +recognize her dragged on. At last, in 1820, the Sultan by a special +berat made Serbia a hereditary princedom. This was a long step in the +right direction. + +Milosh, feeling secure in his seat, did well by his country, and better +by himself. Years after his death, Serbs in gossiping groups would +recount the divers ways in which Milosh had filled his coffers. His +keenness for the main chance, and his general canniness, all his +subjects admired hugely. But the burly neighbor looking on was less +pleased. Why did a little struggling State trouble herself so about +education, and economical housekeeping? Why should she try to attain the +impossible? Then, to show poor Serbia how impossible her ambitions were, +Russia frowned and agreed with those who thought the hereditary Prince +too autocratic. In eastern Europe there was room for only one Autocrat. +"Moreover," muttered Russia, "why should an Autocrat give a Constitution +to Serbia?" A threat was mingled with the muttering--and Milosh withdrew +the Constitution. + +Yet Russia used her influence so strongly with Turkey that Great Britain +began to take an interest in Serbia. The young State was growing too +fast, there was no telling where she might wander. She needed a +guardian--some one to watch her, to note where she was going and tell +her she must not. So Great Britain sent Colonel Hodges to Serbia as her +General Consul, and he whispered--for Russia must not hear him--that in +case Serbia had trouble with Russia, Great Britain and France would +stand by her. Next, the Porte, never before known as a constitution +maker, invited Milosh to send deputies to Constantinople to plan a new +Constitution for Serbia. But Milosh found this new Constitution no +better than the one Russia had made him withdraw. Alas for Milosh! alas +for Serbia! Although the new Constitution was to have the guarantee of +the Great Powers, the Constitution itself would not hold water. A few +months later, the authority of the Prince of Serbia was modified. It was +ordered that he should have a Council of seventy life members. He had +desired Councillors whom he could appoint and dismiss at will, but +Turkey, forgetting a promise to Great Britain, had yielded to Russia. As +the Constitution required Milosh to appoint the most distinguished men +in his realm as Councillors, and as at this time Serbia's men of +influence were chiefly his enemies, he was disturbed. Although the +British Ambassador counseled patience, Milosh plotted to do away with +this Constitution by a military vote. When his plans fell through, he +abdicated, in June, 1839, and retired to his home in Wallachia. Before +abdicating, however, Milosh had to sign the Constitution imposed upon +him at the instigation of Russia, and this limiting of the power of the +hereditary Prince was a good thing for Serbia. + +Milan, the eldest son of Milosh, survived but three weeks after his +father's abdication. Michel, the younger son, succeeded him. While he +was wrangling with the Porte and Russia, Vuychitch, a Councillor, +started a rebellion and Michel, not knowing what else to do, left +Serbia. This suited Vuychitch and soon the National Parliament elected +the son of Karageorges Prince of Serbia. Serbia was quiet and prosperous +during his reign, but Alexander himself was of a timid and wavering +temperament, not even bold enough to summons a National Assembly. +Friendly to Turkey and to Austria, rather than to Russia, he pleased no +one of them, and finally, when he did call a National Assembly, the +Council dethroned him. Old Milosh was now asked to return and the change +of rulers was made without excitement or disorder. + +At the death of Milosh after three short years, his son, the exiled +Michel, returned to the throne. In his exile he had grown wiser and he +was ready with a definite program for Serbia's good. He saw that if his +country was to be respected, her independence must be guarded. First +among his many reforms was a new Constitution to replace the one Russia +had imposed on Serbia. Michel was a good diplomatist and, in 1862, when +the Turkish Government at Belgrade bombarded Belgrade, he demanded the +evacuation of all the forts, and some of them complied. Next he sent his +wife to London--the beautiful Julia, Countess Hunyadi. She interested +Gladstone, Bright, and other influential Englishmen in little Serbia. He +armed and drilled a national army and had an understanding with Greece +and other Balkan states for a general uprising against the Turks. +Finally he requested the Sultan to remove all Turkish garrisons in +Serbia, and when Great Britain supported the advice the other Great +Powers gave the Sultan, the later, at last, gave up the forts to Michel. +Michel did much for Serbia. He built good highways, laid out parks, and +gave her many fine public buildings, including an opera house. He was +among the first to emphasize Serbia's need of a seaport, and he was +equally far-sighted in many other matters. + +Michel had no children and when the Karageorges exiles heard that he +meant to divorce his wife and remarry, their own hopes of power in +Serbia faded. Poor Michel, their victim, was assassinated in the spring +of 1868. No change of dynasty followed Michel's death. Serbia proclaimed +as Prince, Milan, son of a first cousin of Milosh the elder. + +Milan's early years had been spent in Paris, and the kind of education +he received there left its bad impress on his whole life. When confirmed +by the Skupchtina he was barely thirteen, and little more than of age +when, five years later, urged by Panslavists, he had a war with Turkey. +Although Serbia was defeated, this war forced the Balkan situation, and +the attention of Europe was turned toward the little Nation that held +the key to the Balkans. Milan had made strategic mistakes, and when the +vast Turkish army was invading Serbia, he called on the Great Powers for +help. While they hesitated, Russia ordered Abdul Hamid to sign an +immediate truce. When Russia within a few weeks of this went to war with +Turkey, Serbia, in spite of her recent losses, was able to help her. +After capturing Vrania, Pirot, and Nish, Serbia had the joy of +celebrating Mass on the Field of Kossovo where five hundred years before +she had lost everything. + +Yet at the Peace of Stefano Serbia did not get a fair reward. Her +welfare was but a shuttlecock, beaten back and forth between great +nations. She could secure, at the Berlin Congress, neither complete +independence nor the annexation of certain territories she hoped for. +But at this Congress Austria gained her own ends by giving Serbia two +strong neighbors for watchdogs, Bulgaria and East Roumelia. She also +imposed a barrier between Serbia and her strongly desired goal--the sea. + +When Milan saw that he could not depend on Russia, whom he had been +brought up to regard as a friend, he turned to Austria. He began to pay +long visits to Vienna. Thus he angered both his own people and the Tsar, +but Austria was always ready to give him the money his manner of life +required. The building of new railways threw the Nation into debt, and +between the advice given first by Progressives, then by Radicals, Milan +the ne'er-do-well could barely enjoy a life devoted to pleasure. At the +beginning of his reign the Porte had acknowledged him hereditary Prince +of Serbia, but Milan, aiming higher, in 1882 had himself proclaimed +King. Not long after this, in a war with Bulgaria, he had to retreat +ingloriously before Prince Alexander of Battenberg. Indeed, now, as on +other occasions throughout his reign, Milan behaved like the proverbial +spoiled child. Sometimes, fearing his people might use a rod made of +something more stinging than words, he would completely disarm them in a +brilliant speech. When things were at their very worst his statesmen +would extricate him. Yet gradually he lost influence with the Nation in +spite of the new Constitution which gave them most things that +enlightened nations seek. But various happenings were tending to +estrange him from his people, not the least of which was his undignified +quarrel with his wife, with whom, even after their divorce, he continued +to bicker about their son. Milan was rather a blunderer than a villain, +and as he had managed to hold the affection of his people through all +his misdeeds, political or domestic, his abdication was a great +surprise. He went away suddenly to live in Paris the life he preferred, +after making provision that Alexander, his son, should succeed him. + +Alexander was but a boy of fourteen when he came to the throne--a +subnormal boy, and wilful, too. As an Autocrat he had no rival among +modern Serbian rulers. No one unmade and made so many Constitutions. No +Prince or King of Serbia surprised his people with so many coups d'etat. +But the time had passed when the misdoings of a ruler could make the +people of Serbia very unhappy. Although the King never failed to show +that he despised not only statesmen and scholars but even distinguished +army officers, he could terrorize neither individuals nor the Nation. +The three great parties, Liberal, Radical, and Progressive, were not +afraid to express opinions, and many reforms were projected and carried +out. Serbs as a whole were anxious to be counted among the people of the +world of intelligence and culture. Alexander and Draga mortified them; +but the assassination of the wretched pair lowered the Nation in the +estimation of humanity. + +Less than a week had passed since the killing of the King and Queen, in +the spring of 1903, when the Skupchtina elected Peter Karageorgevitch to +the throne. This grandson of Karageorges had been an exile for +forty-five of his fifty-seven years of life. Austria and Russia alone +among the Great Powers were willing now to recognize him. Great Britain +waited three years before sending back her Minister to Serbia. This was +after the regicides had gone from the country. + + + + +IV. SERBIANS + + +So Serbia was no longer a child, and she wore a royal crown. She even +had to be considered by the family of Nations when making plans. Some +members of the family, indeed, would like to have made all her plans for +Serbia, without intimating that in so doing they would profit +themselves. Serbia realized that there were things she could not do +without the consent of some, or even all of them; but she did not wonder +why--for Serbia herself had grown up, and it wasn't merely a physical +development. She understood a great many things that in her more +primitive days she could not have comprehended. + +Sometimes they fought among themselves, with an occasional black eye for +one or the other, because they found it hard to decide, not what they +could do for Serbia--the youngest and most inexperienced--but what they +could get from her without her discovering their motives, without the +others objecting. They forgot that Serbia was no longer a child; they +did not know that she could spy self-interest in the proffers they made +her. So she was coldly distant with them at times, though she leaned +most toward the big, fur-clad Cousin from the North. He was closer of +kin, a double relation, and he seemed less mercenary than some of them. +But even he could not get her a home facing the sea. She longed so +ardently for this! Why did every one hinder her? The Imperial Cousin on +the West was determined to stop her. Had he not given refuge to her +exiled children in the days of darkness? Had he not let them win +victories for him when she had hardly a friend in the world? Was it +likely--as human nature goes--that he had done this without expecting a +reward? No, she must be reasonable and must let him have the first +choice of all that she had to sell, and at his own price. Should she +reach the sea, others would tempt her. She would find all sorts of +people there anxious to trade with her--new people whom she herself had +never yet had a chance to help. No! he, the Imperial Cousin, knew what +was best for her. The only trade route for her was the one through his +land. She must send her things that way and, after he had looked them +over, if there was anything he did not wish, she might sell it to some +one else. Moreover, of course, she must pay whatever he charged for +transportation and customs as she passed through his country. + +But Serbia had grown more sophisticated. Her costume of red and gold +still followed the old lines; indeed, only a close observer could see +any changes in it. But the material was richer than formerly, and she +had thrown aside the little veil--symbol, as it seemed to her, of the +darkening oppression of the Ottoman. Her people were clamoring around +her. They assured her they were not lazy, though perhaps a little slower +than some of their neighbors. Their fields yielded abundantly. They +discovered that by digging they could get much wealth, not only from the +surface but from their rocks far below. They must be able to exchange +it--to send it readily where they wished. Why, why, since they were +willing to pay for it, could they not have a seaport of their own? + +But there was another who was determined to hold Serbia back. She did +not know him well; for though he bore the Imperial eagle, he had +appropriated a title that belonged to the old house that for a time had +held the world in its grasp. She would not call him a parvenu--not +wholly a parvenu--yet why should he trouble her? She was not really in +his way. Could it be that he was trying to curry favor with the turbaned +Turk, and hoped to ingratiate himself the more thoroughly by tormenting +her? What had the Turk to give him? Ah! Serbia had now grown so worldly +that she suspected motives in every action, even in those sometimes that +were really guileless. + + +Serbia, in the same latitude as France and Italy, has a similar climate, +though with greater extremes of heat and cold; and its average of one +hundred rainy days yearly prevents its being called a land of sunshine. +With an area about equal to that of the State of New York, its +population of four millions is much smaller--nearer, indeed, that of +Massachusetts. About fifteen thousand of its nearly thirty-four thousand +square miles of area is territory added since the Balkan wars. The +rivers of Serbia flow toward the north into the Danube. Its boundary +rivers, the Danube, Save, Drina, and Timok are navigable, but of those +within Serbia, only the Morava is navigable, and that for but sixty +miles. Serbia is not only protected by the ranges on her boundaries, but +four-fifths of the surface is covered with mountains, a "chaos of +mountains," a fact both helping and hindering her progress through the +centuries. The general aspect of Serbia is one of beauty, with high and +rugged mountains, mysterious forests, and long narrow river valleys as +picturesque as fertile. Even the Sumadia, called the rallying point of +the Nation, is now well cultivated and enterprising. Many medieval +buildings add to the picturesqueness of the country, forts and churches +perched on rocky heights or half screened in the woods. + +Serbian towns resemble one another, with their wide, clean streets, and +red-roofed houses built of stone, with suburbs that show many attractive +dwellings surrounded by shrubbery. Even if the churches are not very +graceful, there are many modern school buildings throughout the country. +The five largest towns have--or, alas! had--from fifteen thousand to +about one hundred thousand inhabitants each, from Passavowitz to +Belgrade; in order, Leskovatz, Kraguievatz, and Nish, but Belgrade is +by far the largest. + +Although the original Serb type was probably blonde, the mingling of the +Slav with the other races in the Balkans has brought it about that most +Serbs are now dark-skinned and dark-haired and of only average stature. +The tall blonde peasant of the Sumadia is an exception to this type, +though the Serb generally has a clear gray eye. + +The Serb is excitable and volatile. While holding to old things he is +ready to grasp new ideas, but his new ideas he cannot always make +practical. It is probably for this reason that Serbia is behind many +countries in agricultural and industrial development. The Serb is not of +a jealous disposition. He is ready to praise what others have done, and +though tenacious of purpose he is neither dogged nor blunt like his +neighbor the Bulgarian. The modern Serb desires to be well thought of. +He is anxious to be measured by Western standards, yet in his heart he +still cherishes many old customs. If he is less straightforward, +especially in politics, than one might wish, his love of strategy may be +ascribed to the many years when it took something besides physical +courage to save him from the brutality of the Turk. Even his enemies +admit his bravery. In general character, the Serb may be compared to the +Scotch Highlander, "brave in battle, with much canniness in prosecuting +material interests." All visitors to Serbia note the great hospitality +of the Serb, and he shows a marked courtesy in dealing with others. He +is fond of fun and laughter, as any one realizes who sees him at a +festival, dancing the national dance--the kolo--to the sound of the +flute and the bag-pipe, and often, afterwards, listening to the heroic +verse of the guslar as he accompanies them on the gusle. + +The Serb's religion is almost the same as patriotism with him. The +Orthodox Church of Serbia to-day has a strong resemblance to the early +Christian Church of the eighth century. "Here we know the English very +well, and your Church is not unlike our own," said a Serb to an English +traveler recently. The independence of the Serbian Church is largely due +to the fact that the Turks did not interfere with the religious faith of +the Serbs in the long dark night of oppression. Though this may have +been merely from their contempt for the conquered and their Church, the +result was to the advantage of the Serb. + +Many Serbian traditions are contrary to the spirit of the Christian +Church, but the Church early found that the only way to hold the Serb +was to be patient in the hope that Christianity would eventually modify +his Pagan beliefs. In few nations is there such a mingling of heathen +traditions and piety. The traditions, yes, even the superstitions of the +Serb helped him bear the hardships of the Turkish reign. While the Serb +has held fast to Christianity for more than a thousand years and while +bigotry and atheism are almost unknown in Serbia, the Serb does not +attend Church devotedly. He is, however, very faithful to religious +customs, though many of these originated in heathendom. The Saints are +very real to him and each one has duties, yet some of them are very like +the gods of mythology. + +The Serb is a great observer of signs and they deeply affect his daily +life. His manner of getting up, of dressing, the person whom he first +meets in the day, the way the dog barks or the moon shines--all these +things have some influence on his actions. Many of his superstitions +naturally relate to birth, death, and marriage. Most youths and maidens +know just what to do to discover their future husband or wife. + +There is poetry in many Serb beliefs about death, notably that death can +be foretold by the person himself or by some of his family. Very +beautiful is the idea that there is a star for every person, that +disappears when that person dies. The Serb has a strong faith in +immortality. He believes in both good and bad spirits, and in witches +and enchanters, as well as in the poetic Vili. He occasionally hunted +and killed witches in the olden times. Vampires, too, have had an +existence in his imagination. To protect himself from all these evil +things, the Serb of old had various superstitious practices, and it is +surprising sometimes to-day to find him cherishing primitive beliefs. As +cattle raising for example is certainly one of his chief occupations, +many superstitions exist and are put into practice for making the cattle +healthy and fat, and for protecting them from wild beasts. The Serb also +knows what charm to use to make his wheatfields grow, to prevent +droughts and other things that might injure his crops or his fruit +trees. + +Among all their festivals, the Serbs celebrate Christmas the most +elaborately, with feasts and ceremonies, many of which come down from +Pagan days. After supper, on Christmas eve, seeds and crumbs are +scattered outside as a treat for the birds, which, they say, are also +God's creatures. A young oak or baidnak always plays a conspicuous part +in the Christmas festival and the ceremonies attending it are most +picturesque. The Slava is also a most important festival. It is a family +celebration and generally falls on the Feast Day of some great Saint. +After a man's death, the same Slava is kept by his son. In some regions, +people with the same Slava do not marry, for having the same Slava may +mean that they are of the same stock. Of all people the Serbs are most +scrupulous not to marry those who are nearly related to them. + +While religion is so strongly a part of his daily life, the Serb is yet +disinclined to engage in abstract religious discussions. This is strange +since he is very fond of long political and historical arguments. An +English traveler came upon two men engaged in a fisticuff fight. When +he inquired the cause, he was told that the two had a disagreement about +something that had happened at the Battle of Kossovo, five hundred years +before. + +Although there is less now than in former times of the unique and formal +swearing of brotherhood between Serb and Serb, the feeling of +brotherhood is still very strong. Travelers through the country +sometimes come upon rude stones erected to soldiers who have died "for +the glory and freedom of his brother Serbs." + +What has been said about the men applies to a great extent to the women +of Serbia. It must be admitted, however, that in the interior of the +country woman is still reckoned inferior to man--the plaything of youth, +the nurse of old age. But the modern Serbian woman is coming to the +front. She is not strong-minded in the limited sense, not anxious, like +her Russian kinswoman, to mix in politics, yet she is deeply interested +in national affairs and in crises she is always ready to help. If she +does not work as hard as the Montenegrin woman she still performs much +heavy labor. The men of Serbia encourage her higher ambition. Of late +years, many Serb women have gone abroad for training as teachers, or to +engage in technical work. Not infrequently, their expenses have been +paid wholly or in part by some brother or cousin whose own earnings were +small. + +To tell what Serb women have done in the many wars of their country +would be a long story. Not content with providing food and clothing for +the soldiers and nursing the wounded, time and again they have carried +guns and have fought by the side of the men of their families. This was +notably the case in the late war with Bulgaria, and in the present war +also many of them have served as soldiers. + +The Serb woman is not willing to go out as a domestic. She prefers to +earn money, if she has to, as a teacher, secretary, or nurse, or in a +profession; but in her own home the Serb woman does no end of work. She +is the first to rise, the last to go to bed, and seems never to rest, +for she does all the housework. She spins, weaves, and embroiders; +cooks, washes, milks the cows, makes cheese; she takes care of the +children and the sick; she makes the family pottery and sometimes the +opanke or shoes. + +But the condition of her country the past few years has to a great +extent destroyed the home life of the Serb women. Very remarkable was +the "League of Death" the women formed in the war before the present. +Young and old of all social conditions became good shots, and stood side +by side, rifles on their shoulders, like men. They made the men wear the +medal of the League. In that war women did not join the fighting troops, +as in the present. But they often accompanied them on the march, +carrying on notched sticks their heavy bundles with clothes and +domestic utensils, and set up their little households wherever the men +happened to halt. + +In the present war, Serbia has a three-fold claim on Americans: Because +of the democracy of its institutions and people; because of the +simplicity of life as it is lived there; and because of its centuries of +struggle for political independence. + +Serbia is one of the most democratic countries in the world. It has no +titles, except those of the King and his next of kin. All other Serbians +are "gospodin" and "gospoja," our "Mr." and "Mrs." The farmer is the +real aristocrat and eighty per cent of the Serbians are farmers. + +The farmer has many things in his favor. Even the peasant has five acres +of land allotted him by the government; and in his home garden he raises +carrots and turnips and pumpkins and melons. The larger farmers raise +wheat and corn and sugar beets, oats and all the cereals; and cattle in +large numbers. They raise their own food and they are chiefly +vegetarians; and they carry their surplus in ox-teams to the nearest +market. Prices are regulated by the Agricultural Society. Every farmer +gives one or two days a year to the State and pays his taxes in kind. +When crops fail, the Cooperative Agricultural Society lends him money. +It also advances money for implements and buildings, and offers prizes +for cattle and improved stock. + +Living a simple life, the average Serbian needs little money. One dollar +in Serbia is equal to five dollars here. If a farmer enters trade, he is +thought to be going down in the world. He may enter banking or life +insurance with no discredit, but the shopkeepers of the country are +largely foreigners. In all Serbia there are hardly two-score +millionaires. Serbian women are good housewives and do much of their own +work. Serbians, in general, are too independent to be servants; and the +latter are largely Austrians. Government employees in Serbia are +natives. Young Serbians also are educated for the church, the army, for +law, and for school teaching. Young men intended for the army generally +study in France, for scientific work in Germany, for the church in +Russia. Many young Serbians, too, have studied in Switzerland and in +Belgium. Thus, Serbian society as a whole is sympathetic with foreign +countries. + +Of the four million inhabitants of Serbia proper, the larger number +belong to the Orthodox Greek Church, but there are also a good many +Roman Catholics and some Moslems. Though their life is in general very +simple, Serbians are not wholly untouched by modern progress. Many towns +have electric lights and telephones, and electric trams are by no means +unknown. Serbia has rich mineral resources, which the State is +undertaking to develop. Among their manufactures is a remarkable wool +carpet and a certain kind of coarse linen. Though they have a fairly +large output of silk, silk fabrics as well as finer textiles are +imported. A man who has a salary of three thousand dollars is an +exception, and considered very prosperous. Salaries of cabinet ministers +hardly exceed this sum, and court life does not tend to any +magnificence. + +Serbians marry young. There is little illegitimacy in the country and +infrequent divorce. They have been called automatically eugenic--on +account of their strict marriage laws forbidding marriage under certain +degrees of relationship. The Serbians are a domestic people, devoted to +their children; hence, the present condition of the country is +especially tragic. + +The people of Serbia have the greatest admiration for Americans, and for +the independence and political ideas of America. + +The valorous struggle of little Serbia against Austria, its tireless +enemy, astonished the world at the beginning of the present war. It +accomplished hardly less for the cause of the Allies in the East than +the resistance of Belgium in the West. Yet, at first, the sufferings of +the more distant Serbians attracted less attention than the case +demanded. Their agony continues acute and terrible. + + + + +V. SERBIA: SIGHING + + +Then, at last, Serbia reached the sea. Unexpectedly, it is true, and not +at the point that she had long had in mind. Sad and bereft, was she +deserted by God as well as by man? As she sat there alone she heard a +confused murmur of voices, and she vaguely distinguished the cries of +children for their fathers, and wives for their husbands--and tales +echoed in her ears that were sadder, more horrible, than the most +horrible tales of the Turkish night. Poor Serbia! Her garments were torn +and stained with snow and mud, her face was bruised. Gone, gone her +aspect of happy prosperity. Yet in spite of all she had suffered there +was a light in her eyes--the light of her soul shining through the +sadness. She was not bowed down, though her attitude spoke of sorrow. +She was disturbed not for herself, but for her people. How they had +suffered! She did not try to shut her ears to the murmurs that still +came to her--children crying faintly and oh, so pitifully! and strong +men, yes, she heard the moaning of strong men. Then as she looked in the +direction of the sound, she saw a mother bowed in grief beside a long +snowy road, yet uttering no word as old men, strangers to her, found a +place for the little frozen body under the hard ground. She saw a long, +long line winding up the narrow, shelving road, where a false step at +any moment might send a man to death into the river five hundred feet +below. "The best fighters in the world!" It had made her proud to hear +this, but now how could they fight the savage winter? Worst place of +all, Kossovo, where not so long before she had celebrated Mass +triumphantly, Kossovo, again to be as when it was first named "The Field +of Black Birds," "The Field of Vultures." Now the stricken lay never to +rise again and for a moment Serbia could look no longer. + +There were other things along the road--rifles, and cartridge belts, +burdens too heavy to carry far, and she wished that all such things +might lie on the ground forever, never to be used by young or old. + +Alas, the little boys! the little boys who had never been away from +their mothers--the hope of Serbia--dying by thousands along that dreary +road; dying, dying on the plain of Kossovo. War, for them, a kind of +holiday! They were soldiers now; they would be real men when they +reached the sea! The little boys, the hope of the future! Of the thirty +thousand who trod that dreary road, only a half lived to reach the sea. +Not one-half of these reached the island where they were to have their +training as soldiers. + +The soul of Serbia was in agony as a ghostlike army, pale, pinched, and +starved, crept over the snowy mountains, over the soggy roads--men, +women, and poor dumb animals sinking in to their death. Of those who +came to the edge of the sea some could hold out no longer, but died when +comfort was near. + + +Despite the circumstances under which he came to the throne, no one +believed that King Peter had planned or had anything to do with the +murder of Alexander and Draga; he, the direct descendant of the honest +Karageorges. Yet it could not be denied that he had profited by this +murder and, consequently, even when the horror of the whole thing had +faded from the minds of other Europeans, he had a certain amount of +prejudice to overcome. Yet in the first ten years of his reign, Serbia +had prospered. Her nearly one thousand miles of railways had brought her +in closer connection with the world. Though the debt incurred for these +railways and other improvements were large she had no trouble in +borrowing money. Her loans were readily taken by outside capitalists. + +In the hundred years since she had been freed from Turkish rule, Serbia +had made constant advance in culture, in all that may be called economic +life. Her peasant farmers not only produced all that the Serbians +themselves needed--wheat, barley, maize, fruits of various kinds, +cattle, and pigs--but there was a demand for some of their staples in +other countries, and more and more they required a larger market; more +and more they chafed under the restrictions made by Austria. The whole +country realized, as outsiders had realized, that Austria was slowly +squeezing her; that Austria would be ready to devour her when the right +time came. The King had a difficult task in keeping his people +contented. + +Politically, however, Serbia in the nineteenth century had made great +advances, and King Peter's domain was a well-organized limited monarchy. +After many vicissitudes Serbia at last has an excellent Constitution, +well meeting all the needs of the Nation. In the King and the +Skupchtina is vested all the legislative power. The Skupchtina, an +assembly elected by proportional representation, has complete control of +the national finances. Serbia has good Courts of Justice and a humane +prison system, and her standing army not only has to be taken into +account by the Great Powers, but has spoken loudly for itself in the +present war. Serbia has also good local government; the scheme for which +includes two public bodies, a municipal council and a communal +tribunal. + +[Illustration: KING PETER ABOUT TO LEAVE SERBIA--NOVEMBER, 1915] + +Serbia, after many years of backwardness, has been paying great +attention to education. The Minister of Education is a man of great +prestige and influence. Teachers are well trained and well paid. It is +not strange, perhaps, that a people with the Serbians' deep poetic +sensibility should in the past have given little attention to technical +training, but a change has of late been coming, a change of attitude +that after the war will undoubtedly produce important results. From the +earliest days the Serb has had a marked aptitude for handicraft. In +medieval documents, certain Serbian blacksmiths are named as expert +makers of penknives, and to-day Serbian metal work has high rank. Unlike +the Greek, the Serb has little aptitude for trade, and unlike the +Bulgar, he is rather sluggish in working his farm, slow to use improved +methods or new implements. Yet, in spite of the many upheavals at home, +he has been constantly progressing, and since he threw off Turkish rule +has each year become sturdier and more self-reliant. Indeed, he can be +called to-day efficient in both the economic and the military sense. + +In the Middle Ages Serbia was one of the largest silver-producing +countries in Europe. Her mountains have as yet given up but little of +their treasure. The Romans knew the mines and brought out of them much +gold, silver, iron, and lead and, during the later Middle Ages, the +merchants of Ragusa obtained no small portion of their wealth from the +same source, but about the middle of the fifteenth century the Turks put +an end to all enterprises of this kind. In the first half of the last +century, mining was revived. Belgian capital had a large part in this, +especially in producing copper and iron. + +The copper mines south of Passarowitz were said to be among the richest, +if not the richest, in the world. But as yet Serbia herself hardly +appreciated the value of her own resources. Her less than one thousand +miles of railways had loaded her with a heavy debt. Austria had improved +the Danube--largely, however, for Austria's advantage. But Serbia began +to look about. She was determined to gain, if possible, the economic +independence she longed for. With a resourceful King, with a competent +Ministry headed by the eminent Pachich, this ought not to be difficult, +she thought, ought to be much less difficult than her long, hard +struggle for political independence. + +The spirit of the Serb has been shown in the remarkable development of +cooperation in industry, especially in the twentieth century. "Only +Union is Serbia's Salvation"--this was St. Sava's famous saying in the +distant twelfth century. Politically, his words had proved true for +Serbia, and economically they had begun to show their value, especially +in King Peter's reign. + +One reason for the success of nineteenth century cooperation in Serbia +may be found in the Zadruga of ancient times. This was a large family +association including male kinship to the second and the third degree. +It often numbered more than a hundred individuals; each member had a +fixed duty and the revenues were divided among all the members. The +Zadruga was ruled by an elder or Stareschina. Sometimes the Stareschina +was a woman. The Stareschina kept the money-box and attended to the +payment of taxes. The women of the Zadruga obeyed the Stareschina's +wife. This kind of community life was so familiar to the Serbs that it +was no unusual thing when some one asked, "Whose is that drove of +sheep?" to hear the reply "Ours," never "Mine." + +In Literature, in Science, in Art, the Serb had begun to take his +rightful place in Europe, encouraged by the example of a large-minded, +cultured monarch. + +Serbia had long realized that within her boundaries lived hardly half of +the Serb race in Europe. The feeling of brotherhood with all his kin +which is so powerful a characteristic of the individual Serb is even +more marked in the Serbian Nation. A generation ago Serbia was willing +to go to war with Turkey to help her downtrodden kindred in Bosnia and +Herzegovina. "The saving of Old Serbia and the Union of the Serb peoples +is the star by which the Serb steers," said a traveler in the early part +of King Peter's reign, and certainly to the liberty-loving Serb this +was a beautiful vision--that he was sometime to liberate from Turkish +and from Austrian control all his oppressed brothers, the four and a +half millions whom the twentieth century found so restive under Turkish, +Teutonic, or Magyar control. + +For Serbia, then, her entrance into The Balkan League in 1912 was a +natural sequence of many of her previous aspirations and efforts. In +presence of a common danger--the Teuton working through the Turk--the +Balkan States put aside their own particular rivalries and formed a +Union. This was effective, and the Turks were defeated. But when Turkey +was defeated, Bulgaria and Serbia were again at sword's points. It was +not a question of jealousies between small kingdoms, but rather a larger +issue--Pan-Slavism as against Pan-Teutonism. Serbs, wherever found, were +outspoken, and Austria saw that she might have to give up not only her +hope of adding Serbia to her dominions but besides this lose her +dominion over the Serbs within the dual monarchy. From that time she +hardly tried to hide her intention of punishing Serbia for her ambition. +Serbia, meanwhile, was growing bolder, stronger. Though her successes in +recent wars had not given her her coveted seaport, she had found ways of +getting a considerable proportion of her products to market without +sending them through Austria. Her imports from Austria fell off largely. +Austria and Germany saw that they would have difficulty in making Serbia +a docile ward, especially as M. Pachich in 1912 had made it plain to the +other Powers that it would be to their advantage to give Serbia a chance +to expand. + +It was eleven years almost to a day from the time he came to the throne, +when Peter's security was shattered by an explosion. The Archduke +Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, while making a +tour through Bosnia, were killed at Sarajevo by a Serb, not one of the +kingdom of Serbia but a Serb of Greater Serbia. Austria, that had been +for so long watching Serbia as a cat watches a mouse, quickly pounced on +the little kingdom. She made demands such as no civilized country could +comply with, and at last gave an ultimatum on the twenty-seventh of July +which had far-reaching consequences. It was a stone thrown into a quiet +pool and the ripples and eddies reached unthought-of shores, as the +whole world now knows. + +There are many strange circumstances connected with this murder. Those +who have followed out the various clues have seen evidence that the Serb +government had no knowledge of the proposed murder, but there is much +that tends to show that the assassination was not a great surprise to +Austria--that Ferdinand, even at home, was in fear of his life. He +always slept in a room without furniture and not long before the +assassination he had taken out a life insurance, the largest life +insurance known. In case of his death, it was necessary to make +provision for his consort who could hope nothing from the house of which +he had long been the heir. When Ferdinand's heir had a son born to him, +the Austrians turned against Ferdinand and wished him out of the way. +His removal, indeed, was a greater object to Austria-Hungary than to +Serbia, for it was generally known that he was liberal in his ideas +regarding the Serbs in the dual monarchy, and had even formed a plan for +giving them Home Rule. + +From the beginning Austria-Hungary tried to impress on the world that +the shooting of Archduke Ferdinand was part of a revolt of the southern +Slav provinces of Austria instigated by the Serbian government. On the +twenty-third of July, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding that +she use every means in her power to punish the assassins and stop all +further anti-Austrian propaganda. The next day, Russia asked for delay, +and on July twenty-fifth, ten minutes before the time of the ultimatum +expired, Serbia made due apologies and agreed to all the conditions +imposed by Austria except the one that Austria should have official +representatives in the work of investigation. Two days later, the +Austrian foreign office issued a statement with these words: "Serbia's +note is filled with the spirit of dishonesty." Austria was determined on +war. She had not accepted Serbia's apologies. + +Then the Great Slav came to the rescue of the smaller. Russia +immediately notified Austria that she would not allow Serbian territory +to be invaded. Now it was Germany's turn. She let it be known +semi-officially that she stood ready to back Austria. No one, she said, +must interfere between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. On this +twenty-seventh of July Sir Edward Gray, Great Britain's Foreign +Secretary, proposed a London conference of the Ambassadors of all the +Great Powers. France and Italy at once accepted but Austria and Germany +declined this invitation. On the twenty-eighth of July came the fateful +call to war. "Austria-Hungary considers itself in a state of war with +Serbia." The reason given for this was that Serbia had not replied +satisfactorily to Austria's note of the twenty-third of July. Events +followed in quick succession. Russia's mobilization was followed by a +request from Germany that she stop this movement of the troops and make +a reply within twenty-four hours. Whereupon England notified Germany +that she could not stand aloof from a general conflict; that the balance +of power could not be destroyed. Russia made no reply to Germany's +ultimatum but instead sent out a manifesto: "Russia is determined not to +allow Serbia to be crushed and will fulfil its duty in regard to that +small kingdom." Next, the German Ambassador at the French foreign office +expressed fear of friction between the Triple Alliance and the Triple +Entente unless the impending conflict between Austria and Serbia should +be strictly localized. + +On August first, the German Ambassador handed a declaration of war to +the Russian Foreign Minister. This meant war with France, and hardly had +the French Government issued general mobilization orders when the +invasion of France began. A day later, Germany demanded of Belgium free +passage for her troops, and the French Government proclaimed martial law +in France and Algiers. All Continental Europe was now aflame. The German +Ambassador had made a strong bid for British neutrality, and Great +Britain's reply was noble. After speaking of its friendship with France +it concluded with the words: "Whether that friendship involves +obligations, let every man look into his own heart and construe that +obligation for himself." + +On the fourth of August, after Italy had proclaimed her neutrality, +England's ultimatum was sent to Germany. When no reply came, the +British foreign office announced that a state of war existed between the +two countries and Germany gave the British Ambassador his passport. A +day later, President Wilson offered the good offices of the United +States to bring about a settlement between the warring powers. On the +seventh of August, a day after Austria-Hungary had declared war on +Russia, Germany announced that jealousy of Germany was the real cause of +the war. On the ninth of August, Serbia, in order to get rid of the +German Ambassador, declared war on Germany and, finally, war was +declared between France and Austria, and Austria and Great Britain. +Portugal reported that she was on the side of Great Britain. + +Soon Austrian troops were invading Serbia, three to one. On the +twenty-seventh of July, the Serbian army had mobilized. It had barely +recuperated from the recent war with Bulgaria and, while men were in +trim for fighting, the army was ill equipped and to an extent +unprepared for a new war. This in itself shows the folly of the +accusation that the Serbian Government had encouraged the murder of the +Archduke in order to precipitate a war with Austria. An additional bit +of evidence in Serbia's favor, if more were needed, was the fact that +when the Archduke was murdered, many Serbian officials and other men of +importance were at German or Austrian watering-places and had difficulty +in getting back to their homes and their duties. + +Little of the war material destroyed in the recent conflict with +Bulgaria had been replaced and even when the Serbs took the field they +had not sufficient ammunition, for much of their ammunition was French +and, owing to conditions in France, the latter country could no longer +supply Serbia with what she needed. Yet by the middle of August the +armies of the Crown Prince in a five days' engagement, the Battle of +Jadar, sent the Austrians across the river, and out of Serbia. In dead +and wounded the invaders had lost about twice as many as the Serbs, as +well as a large amount of ordnance and stores. They returned in +September, but after inflicting much damage on the country were again +defeated and again driven out of Serbia about the middle of December. + +Serbia, invaded by an army three times as large as her own, fought +valiantly and drove the Austrians outside her kingdom, not, however, +until much damage had been done. Not only had she many wounded but the +invader destroyed everything, even the property of non-combatants who +had remained passive on their farms. So viciously had the Austrians +treated the non-combatants that all who could fled the country toward +Macedonia. Crops were seized; cattle were killed or taken away; farms +and implements destroyed, and in fact the whole country was laid waste. + +[Illustration: SERBIAN VILLAGERS ON THEIR WAY TO EXILE] + +Perhaps in no better way can the barbarous methods of the Austrian +invader be understood than from a quotation from an appeal made by the +Serbian Archbishop. + + "The barbarous methods of warfare of the German Allies, the + object of which is to annihilate other nations and their + culture, have inflicted on us, as well as on the Belgians, + bloody and incurable wounds. Whole crowds of our best and + noblest Serbs, who as non-combatants peacefully received the + Austrian army, have been killed with a cruelty of which even + savages would be ashamed. Men and women, old men and + innocent children have been murdered by terrible tortures, + by arms, and by fire. Many have been locked up in school + buildings and other houses and burnt alive. All the churches + to which the Austrians got access have been desecrated, + robbed, and destroyed. The schools and the best houses have + fared in the same way. Belgrade, the beautiful capital of + Serbia, its churches, its educational and humanitarian + institutions, have been destroyed. The university, the + national library, the museum, and scientific collections, + have been ruined. For those who have escaped, and for the + orphans of the fallen, speedy help is most necessary." + +Said Madame Grouitch an eye witness of these depredations, "Imagine the +farming districts of our Middle States charred and trampled, and +everything killed. This would give you a faint idea of Serbia after the +Austrians first entered it." When they approached Belgrade at the very +beginning of the war, within six hours they were shelling the city and +killing women and children. In other cities, as at Shabats, for example, +they did many things from what seemed a mere spirit of wantonness, +emptying the contents of shops into the streets and carrying away +property that could hardly have been of use to them. But while they +devastated the country they had entered and terrified the +non-combatants, they had few engagements with the Serbian soldiers +worthy the name of battle. + +It was during this second invasion that King Peter especially endeared +himself to his men. In one instance where they were growing +disheartened, he entered the trenches and discharging his rifle as a +signal, led them to victory. The Serbs from the beginning of the war +felt confidence in their leaders--the Crown Prince, Putnik, Misich, +Pasich, the king. + +The Serbian soldiers were gathering strength. The world knew before this +that they were brave fighters; since that autumn of 1914 they have known +that they are unsurpassed. Facing an enemy that outnumbered them three +to one, they did not flinch, and by the 20th of December the Austrians +were driven out of Serbia--not to return for nearly a year. During that +year, however, the Austrians from the other side of the Danube were +constantly bombarding Belgrade, while the inhabitants for the most part +went about their business as usual. The army, which had early been +ordered out of the city in a vain effort to save Belgrade from +bombardment, was now putting itself in good condition. The return of the +invaders was certain, the time less sure. All that Serbia could do was +to spare no effort to put herself in the best condition to meet the +inevitable attacks of the foe. The hospitals were full of wounded and +Serbian women and nurses from outside were doing their best for the +Serbian soldiers and for the many sick Austrian soldiers, when the +dreadful typhus broke out. + +But for famine and disease during their fatal six months Serbia might +still be on her feet. Her tragic condition interested the whole world, +unwilling to see the women relatives of a million fighters suffering, +aye, even dying. The first invasion resulted in taking away from their +home the majority of the peasants who had remained behind to provide +food. The invaders did not even respect the hospitals--they cut off the +water supplies so that the nurses could not even provide for the sick. + +During those months of disease the black flag hung over hundreds of +houses in every Serbian town. The whole country was demoralized, for +many officials had lost their lives. The fever was so virulent that it +may be said that no country has ever suffered so severely. The typhus +that broke out in the early part of 1915 came from the bad sanitary +condition of the Austrian prison camps, and Serbia, weakened by war, was +in no condition to resist. Several thousands a day died in the early +months of that year. In six of the most fertile districts, more than +half of the children died--of hunger, cold, and exposure as well as of +disease--and it was not until the Red Cross physicians and others from +various countries took hold, that the disease abated. + +Meanwhile, men of Serbia were fighting bravely and hopefully until an +advancing wave of Teutons swept over the country and the populace fled. +It had been wiser, perhaps, if non-combatants had stayed in their homes, +but so fearful were the atrocities reported, the atrocities committed by +the German armies in Belgium and elsewhere, that retreat seemed wisest. +Many Serbian soldiers, however, wished to stay and face the invader +until they could fight no longer. But they would have had to fight with +three against their one. The hordes rushing on were beyond +belief--Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians. The humbler people might +with less danger have stayed behind, but the Government, naturally, +could not remain in its capital and there were many others upon whom a +price was set. When once the retreat began it rolled up by tens of +thousands, and this human flood could not be stopped. It was a +spectacular flight. All the private vehicles that the Government could +get together; all the motor trucks which could be collected; all in one +great procession, peasants carrying their household goods in bundles +over their shoulders--chiefly old men and women, for the young men were +in the army; young women carrying babies in their arms with little +children clinging to their skirts were following close behind. Those in +motor vehicles did not have a painless journey. Often their cars broke +down; they were thrown into the mud from which they were with +difficulty rescued. Sometimes a car and its occupants fell from the +precipice into the foaming river below. They went over mountains as high +as our Alleghanies and as wild as our Rockies. Sometimes they passed +feudal castles on steep rocks; sometimes they went through dangerous +passes and slept in the open, fearing attacks from the murderous +Albanians, who were certainly to be dreaded. For not a few of the poor +pilgrims met death at the hands of these cut-throats. For days and days, +they moved on in the drenching rain, cold and starving! And it was not +only the animals that succumbed to the horror of the march; old men and +women, children, and soldiers who once had been strong at last had to +give up and lie down in death. Constantly they were in dread of the +approaching enemy, whose guns after a while they could hear rumbling in +the distance. But they kept moving on toward the sea, where they +expected ships to take them to a safer country. + +The wraith of an army reached the sea and the wraith of an army of +non-combatants,--all of this suffering merely to find a haven from the +advancing Teutonic armies! Perhaps those men were right who had refused +to retreat, who had begged for death by a comrade's gun rather than have +the dishonor of turning backs to the enemy. Though they saw that the +conquest of Serbia was inevitable, it was hard to admit that they were +beaten. At last, after all this hardship, when the poor Serbians reached +the Adriatic, they found no food! Transports loaded with food had been +sunk in the harbors! Weary, starving, they must wait a little longer. + +Was there ever before such a flight? The retreat of one civilized Nation +before another; the flight of a whole people, Government, soldiers, +non-combatants, and all because of the rumors of the terrors the pursuer +would inflict if he caught his prey! At the sea they breathed more +freely--they could look across the water and there, far, far beyond, lay +the lands where for centuries the weaker had not been sorely oppressed. + +[Illustration: SERBIAN SOLDIERS ON THE BANKS OF THE DRINA] + +Then the wraith of an army began to hope; and on the island the soldiers +were recuperating, and the little boys--a quarter of those who had +poured into the great procession from all the roads, from every little +village, from every town--the dead, would not swell the triumph of the +victors. Those by the sea rested and grew stronger; and after a while +the world began to hear that Serbia, deprived of her country, a Nation +living in exile, was getting ready to claim her own. She was now one of +the Allies. Her army could give an account of itself. "Poor Serbia!" +they had said. "Plucky Serbia!" they were now saying, and it was even +possible to imagine the world crying, "Lucky Serbia!" The soldiers +recuperating at Corfu; the women working at Corsica making the +wonderful embroideries that had given Serbia fame the world over; the +downtrodden under the feet of the Conqueror, living in shattered +dwellings in Serbian town and village, and praying, praying for the +restoration of their homes, hiding their tears while they worked or +prayed or nursed the sick--all, all working for Serbia. + +Then those people who recognize heroism, those people who admire +patience and silent bravery, those people who long had cried, "Plucky +Serbia!" who had long been working for Serbia, now worked the harder, +and other workers joined them, until there were few sections of the +globe where there was not a group working for Serbia. The remnant of the +army, too, worked harder than ever, training, gathering strength, adding +to its numbers,--and at last it was ready. + + +Then Serbia had a vision of the men who had made her great--Vladimir, +who first showed that union is strength; Michael, her earliest King, and +Stephen Nemanya, who gave her a real kingdom, and Stephen Dushan, whose +dreams of a Serb Empire had given her glory; then Lazar Grebelyanovitch, +her brave and generous defender at Kossovo. Again, after her long sleep, +Karageorges, heroic and just, grandsire of King Peter; and last, Milos +Obrenovitch, whose cleverness had laid the foundation for much of her +present good. + +Had she changed too quickly from the old patriarchal system before she +could rightly replace it? All this time, she now realized too well, she +had been only half-educated. It was easy enough for the great Nations to +criticize her, forgetful of the long past years when they were in her +condition, yet none of them could deny her her heroic past. + +Then Serbia looked toward the sea. She no longer felt the pain of her +grief and her bruises; she was no longer alone. Friendly hands reached +out to her on every side, and beyond the sea lay noble England, and +strong Canada, and heroic France--Allies fighting for her, for her who +might never be able to reward them; and, nearer to her, she could see +fair Italy, magnificent Russia, and brave Montenegro and Roumania. All, +all had been fighting for her, for in fighting for liberty, they fought +for the oppressed of the whole world. They had been fighting her +battles--the battles of the days of her strength. And there, farther +off, was friendly America. For the moment she saw her ideal State--the +union of Serb countries into one independent National State--a Serbian +or a Croato-Serb monarchy. + +Then, a shout, a clamor of voices, "Monastir! Monastir! Serbia! Serbia!" +Not a year since that awful retreat, and now the long exile was nearing +its end. King Peter, and the Crown Prince, the Government, the whole +Nation were hurrying home! + +"There is no death without the appointed day," chants the old pesma. +Serbia will live! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Serbia: A Sketch, by Helen Leah Reed + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERBIA: A SKETCH *** + +***** This file should be named 35231.txt or 35231.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/3/35231/ + +Produced by Heather Clark, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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