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. Colonel378
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 notIN 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