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IN ALBANIA WITH THE GHEGS. IN ALBANIA WITH THE GHEGS. “Fierce are Albania’s children, yet they lack Not virtues, were those virtues more mature, 377 Where is the foe that ever saw their back? Who can so well the toil of war endure? ‘Their native fastnesses not more secure Than they in doubtful time of troublous need ; ‘Their weath how deadly ! Wh But their friendship sure Gratitude or Valor bids them bleed, Unshaken rushing on where’er their chief may lead.” Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto II. TOMS OF SKANDERBEG AT ALUSSIO, Ow the eastern shores of the Adriatic, at j the southern extremity of the olive-clad | coast of Dalmatia, a short distance beyond | Cattaro, the Austrian rule over the Slav ceases, and the Turkish province of Albania begins. Geographically, the position of the country is described as“ conterminous with | the ancient Epirus and with the southern | provinces of ancient Ilyria,” and as includ- ing part of the classic soil of Macedonia and Chaonia, ‘The serrated coast of Al- bania is washed in the north by the waters of the Adriatic, and by the Gulf of Arta in the south. On the east it is separated from Servia and the Turkish provmce of Rumili by the rocky barrier of the Pin- Vor. XXI—27. dus and Scardus Mountains; Greece lies upon its southern frontier, and to the north it is bounded by Montenegro and Bosnia. From north to south Albania is barely three | hundred miles in length, or a trifle shorter than Ireland; from the sea eastward to the Pindus and Scardus chain it nowhere extends inland beyond one hundred miles | at its northern or broadest extremity, and this narrows down to thirty on the southern border. Ethnologically, Albania is broadly divided by the two great tribes or clans of Ngege, Ghegides, or Ghegs, who inhabit northern or Tilyrian Albania, and the Tos- | kides, or Tosks, who people the southern or Epirotic portion of the country. Colonel 378 IN ALBANIA WITH THE GHEGS. Leake and Johann George von Hahn, the only reliablé authorities on the subject of Albania, mention a third clan called the Liape, 2 poor and predatory race who live in the mountains between the Toke and Delvius. ‘The principal Gheg towns are Dulcigno, Scutari, and Durazzo, and the ief ‘Tosk cities ‘are Berat and Elbassan. he Albanians themselves, however, know no such scientific distinctions as Gheg or Tosk. research has pronounced to be an independ- ent branch of the Indo-European family and, according to Humboldt, “ the floating plank of a vessel that has been sunk in the ocean of time and lost for ages,” they call themselves Scifetdar, or “highlanders.” The Turks in a like manner ignore all tribe distinctions, and term them broadly Arnauds, The common belief is that Albania is thinly peopled, Square mile for square mile, no country on the borders of Albania possesses more populous centers. Scutari alone, the capital of the north, has a popu- lation of almost 27,000, and Joannina, the metropolis of the south, has quite as many inhabitants ; Ochrida, Prisrend, Elbassan, and Berat are all considerable cit: ies; nor are the minor towns of Dulcigno, Alessio, Durazzo, Croya, Jakova, and Ipek by any means thinly peopled. Hardly more exact is Dr. Arnold's oft-quoted saying that Albania “is one of those ill-fated. portions of the earth which, though placed in imme- diate contact with civilization, has remained perpetually barbarian.” Disguised in one form or another, this opinion has given color to English encyclopedias, until Albania has come to be regarded as a “very Botany Bay In their own language, which recent | | in moral geography "—a black, barbaric spot | in Europe surrounded by a perfect halo of | Slav civilization, That its people are, as yet, very far from the acme of civilization, | all who know them will readily admit; but | that they are so wofully behind the social advancement of their Slav neighbors is easy enough to disprove. In the first place, the Albanians are not | only industrious and skilled in various hand- fafts, but the country has several repre- sentative manufactures which would not disgrace the art productions of our Western capitals, Can this be said of the Mon- tenegrins, the Bosnians, or the Servians ? In the towns of Ipek’ and Jakova, gold | and silver filigrees are made, far superior to Maltese work, both in the artistic feeling exhibited in the design, and the marvelous intricacy and delicacy of the finish of the workmanship. This glittering, lace-like Jakova work is eagerly sought for in every bazaar, and the costliest “Gold cups of filigree, made to secure ‘The hand from burning,”— as mentioned by Byron in “ Don Juan,” and which are generally placed under the tiny Turkish coffee-cups,—are always of Albanian manufacture. Prisrend is famous for its carpets, but more particularly for the pro- duction of the magnificent silver-mounted pistols and chased and jewel-hilted yata- ghans, which lend such splendor to every opulent Albanian’s girdle; while Scutari is celebrated for the skill of its cloth-workers, and the dexterity of its gold embroiderers. Have the Slavs on the northern and eastern borders any industries such as these ? Much has been said and more written of late concerning the turbulent spirit of the Albanians. But it must be remem- bered that the country is most exception- ally constituted, composed as it is of three opposing religious bodies, governed by a foreign power. The southern, or Tosk, Albanians belong, for the most part, to the Greek church; central Albania is chiefly Mahommedan; and northern, or Gheg, Albania is principally Roman Catholic. ‘Add to this the fact that nearly all the Mahommedan Albanians are descended from Bektashes, or renegades from the Christian faith, and that, bitterly as these tripartite factions hate one another, they detest the Porte still more, and the only wonder left us is that internal strife and rebellion have not long ago decimated the population. Yet the Albanians are not IN ALBANIA WITH THE GHEGS. 379 so constantly at loggerheads with each other or their rulers as one might suppose. ‘The existing troubles, for instance, cannot be traced to these sources. They have been brought about solely by the re-adjustment of the Albanian frontier under the decrees of the Berlin Treaty. By these stipulations a very considerable portion of the country has been awarded to the Arnauds’ heredit- ary foes, and Montenegro, Servia, and Greece each claim a portion of the Albanian border. Now, the Albanians are as distinct in race and language from their borderers, the Greeks and Slavs, as from their Moslem tulers. Even the most pronounced Slavo- philes are compelled to regard the Scipe- tdars not merely as a tribe, but a nation. Moreover, their antiquity is as high as any of their neighbors’, Long before the Turk- ish conquest of Constantinople, Albania had its independence under a number of petty princes. The people are wont to boast of themselves as the only northem race who, in the fifteenth century, successfully checked the conquering arms of Mahomet the Great. ‘This they did’ for twenty-four years under the leadership of the deathiess George Castriot, or Skanderbeg, as the Turks called him. Such is the veneration of the Ghegs for his memory that his chivalrous deeds are the constant theme of their songs, whilst to this day—more than four hundred years

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