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of life, they are most fastidious with respect to their dress, which generally consists of a jacket of fine red cloth, or silk, or velvet when they can afford it, and always of the most glaring colours; the breast of these jackets, besides being richly braided, are sometimes adorned with several rows of buttons placed as close to each other as possible, this, with the white fustinella and its hundred folds, a red fez jauntily placed on the side of the head, red gaiters, pointed red shoes, silk sash stuck with pistols and a hanjiar, constitute the costume of an Arnout warrior; their principal weapons of defence consist of a long gun richly inlaid, pistols of the same description about a foot and a half long, and a crooked sabre, often of great value, probably an heir-loom for successive generations.

The costume and weapons of their Boulouk-bachi, Soliman Bey, of Novo-Berdo, differed in nothing from those of his men, except they were of a more costly description. So long as the daylight lasted they formed together different groups, around blazing fires, and amused themselves by smoking, singing, story-telling, and playing their monotonous airs on a species of flute called the gabal, there was also the bag-pipe and the lute, to the sound of which the ancient Greek dance, the Pyrrhic, was performed to great perfection.

As we had anticipated, the threatened storm aroused us from our slumbers; thunder, lightning, rain and wind, combined to form one of those violent tempests

which prevail in mountainous countries, consequently our pretty tents, which looked so gay and picturesque the evening previous, were torn from their fastenings, and many of them whirled aloft in the air like balloons and carried off to the mountains; fortunately, the little town of Vouschitrin was not far distant, and thither Veli Bey, myself, and several others scampered as fast as if we had been leaves driven by the wind to seek shelter in the house of the unlucky Aien of the town, whose dreams of paradise and houris must have been most disagreeably disturbed, when he found he had to receive, at one o'clock in the morning, a host of dripping guests. Oriental hospitality, however, prevailed over every other consideration; and his appearance among us was speedily followed by a hot collation, raki, coffee, and the tchibouque―these, with a blazing fire, made us soon forget the violence of the tempest that still raged with increased fury, and shook the house above us.

With regard to myself, being a Frank and a stranger, our host, in consideration for my health, most courteously insisted that I should be supplied with a change of raiment from his own wardrobe; now, as the good Aien was somewhat short and corpulent, his ample shalwar and braided velvet jacket produced a droll effect upon a man spare in flesh and taller by a foot, which added not a little to the merriment of our party. At length, mirth gave way to the fatigue of travelling, the tchibouque was unconsciously laid aside, and one after

the other dropped into the lap of Morpheus, and here we ate, drank, slept and dreamed in the same position, till the beams of the morning sun warned us it was time to be again in the saddle.

On

On leaving Vouschitrin, we passed the ruins of a fortified castle, built by the Servian Emperor, Stephan Douschan, for the defence of this important pass. its crumbling walls, the Turks have erected a species of wooden karaoul, manned by half a dozen Arnouts and two rusty cannon, we presume with the intention of frightening the Haiducs and Rayahs. At Mitrovitza, a small town of about three hundred houses, we arrived at the banks of the Ibar; fortunately a wooden bridge was thrown over it, for having now become a foaming torrent, owing to the rains of the preceding night, swimming across might have been a perilous undertaking. While my friends were occupied in visiting the authorities of the town, I ascended the hill to explore the ruins of the fine old castle of Svetschen, so well known in the history of the Servian empire as the residence of its earliest Krals, during their wars with the Byzantine Greeks, and at a later period against the Turks. It is pleasantly situated on the western bank of the Ibar, and completely commands the defile leading into the interior of the country, and every approach to the town of Mitrovitza. The church is the only part of the building that escaped the devastation of the Turks, and, with the exception of the roof, yet remains in tole

rable preservation: we can still distinctly trace on the walls the half-obliterated pictures of saints, and other religious ornaments appertaining to the Greek religion.

The weather having cleared, and a strong wind dried the floods which rendered the pathway so slippery and dangerous for mountain travelling, we had a pleasant ride of a few hours along the verdant banks of the Ibar, till we commenced the ascent of the Rogosna Planina, which, as usual, in the mountain districts of European Turkey, was conducted up the bed of a torrent. We were, however, repaid for all our labour by a very splendid view, combining the beauties of isolated peaks shooting up to the heavens, mountain plateaus glowing with the verdure of the forest, intersected by a multitude of deep defiles, gorges, and romantic dells, with their rivers and torrents rushing towards the vast basin of the Rasca, which gradually opened to view as we advanced, till it fell upon the vision, like a little world of itself, surrounded by a mountain wall, from which there appeared no outlet; and truly, as we now saw this extensive basin, with its villages and cultivated fields, the large town of Novi-bazar, its mosques and minarets, the whole brightened with the many-coloured tints of the evening sun, it seemed as if destined by nature to be a residence for the gods.

CHAPTER XVII.

Route between Novi-bazar and Bosna-Serai-Mountains and defiles of Bosnia-Natural fortifications-Arrival at BosnaSerai-The representative system in Bosnia-Municipal rights of the citizens-Feudalism and Democracy-FanaticismBosnian renegades-Causes which led to their conversion— Enlightened policy of the early Sultans of Turkey-Turkish reform-Its effects in Bosnia-Political state of Bosnia— English Vice-Consul-His expulsion by the Turks-Impolicy of placing foreigners in diplomatic appointments-Austrian Consul-Commerce and political agents-Historical sketches of Bosnia-Insurrection in Bosnia-Injustice of the Ottoman Porte-Horrible sufferings of the Slavonian-Mussulmans in the Stari Vlah-Milosh, Prince of Servia.

THE accounts we received at Novi-bazar, all tended to prove the insurrection of the Mussulmans of Bosnia was becoming more general; as yet it was confined to the interior of the country, in the vicinity of BaniaLouka and Svornik; still, as several of the most influential chiefs were known to be again in the field, accompanied by a host of fanatic priests, everywhere

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