CHAPTER III.

Departure from Bittoglia-Mountain travelling-Singular lakeTurbaned grave-stones-Aspect of the country-Inhabitants -Bivouac-Numerous caravan-Visit from the mountaineers -Lake of Presba-Magnificent scenery-Arrival at Ocrida— Hospitable reception from Mr. Roby-Description of Ocrida and its romantic lake-Primitive boats-Visit to the Monastery of Schir Naoun-The monks-A model monastery-A visit to Ali, the Governor of Ocrida-The magic wand-A fishing party with Ali-Dr. Schück-Turkish pic-nic.

We had already remained six days in Bittoglia, and Georgy, who was slowly recovering from a severe attack of intermittent fever, partly from his dread of going among the cut-throats of Albania, as he termed them, obstinately refused to accompany me if I persisted in extending my tour across the mountains. This resolution of my kiraidji entailed upon me much vexation and inconvenience. He was honest and faithful, and from long travelling together, we had become attached to each other; but Kismet, as the Turks would say, stood my friend. I was saved from the delay and

annoyance of being obliged to procure a pair of horses and another guide by my friends, who having introduced me to a Greek merchant, Constantine Roby, he kindly offered me the use of his horses, and the escort of his caravan as far as Ocrida, with a letter of introduction to his father, a resident in that town. I had also the gratification of being accompanied by Signor Roberti, Halil Effendi, and two other gentlemen of the town, to an interesting lake in a deep gorge of the mountains, where the snow never melts during the greatest heat of summer.

On leaving Bittoglia, we followed the rocky banks of the Monastir-sou, through a deep defile which led up the precipitous side of the mountain, offering at every angle in the pathway some frightful chasm, each more terrible than the other; it was a foretaste of what we were to expect in the Skela (horse-pathways) of Albania, the most execrable and dangerous for the traveller in European Turkey. Having already served a long apprenticeship to this sort of travelling, I had become callous to any apprehension of danger; but my friends, who had been accustomed to easy equestrian promenades on the plains of Bittoglia, were much alarmed for the safety of their necks.

At length, after a toilsome ascent of nearly four hours, we reached the summit of a rock, beneath which lay the lake, surrounded by a chain of rocks, jagged and torn, as if they had been rent asunder by some convulsion of nature; at the same time we enjoyed a splendid view of Bittoglia and its beautiful plain, en

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circled by a chain of mountains, and the defile leading to Salonica on the Ægean Sea. The lake is small and said to be fathomless, and so cold, that when the hand is immersed in it, the icy chill is felt in every part of the body. People who suffer from intermittent and other fevers of that description, make this lake their resort during summer; and I was informed, rarely fail to recover in a few weeks; they drink the water and perform copious ablutions. We found a han and a coffee-house, with a few temporary huts for the accommodation of the invalids.

On parting from our friends, who made up their minds to pass the night at the comfortless han near the lake, rather than run the risk of breaking their necks twice in the same day by returning to Bittoglia, we continued our route to Ocrida. The continual ascent and descent of these mountain ridges, with their impenetrable forests, jutting rocks and deep defiles, which form a natural boundary between Macedonia and Albania, and the only means of communication in these parts between the two countries, must be highly dangerous for a hostile army to cross. They are, in fact, a connecting link with the Pindus on one side, and with the more elevated chain we described when travelling in Upper Albania in those districts of Prizren, Ipek and Gousnee, and which runs through Tchernegora, on to the Adriatic, thus encircling the whole of Albania in a wall of rock on its land frontier, with the sea on the other, as a boundary. The Turks in their endeavours to destroy the nationality of a people,

may change the name of certain districts and include them in those of another province; but the long ridges of mountains by which Albania is encircled, have traced upon its soil the lines of a natural map, which no hand of man can erase, while the inhabitants, whether Christian or Mahometan, are distinguished by the same traits, customs, manners and language.

The mountain district through which we were now travelling, included in the government of the Vizier of Roumelia, was long the battle-ground between the armies of the Crescent and the Cross; here the hero Scanderbeg, at the head of his fierce mountaineers, destroyed one infidel army after another, which would appear incredible, were we not aware of the danger an enemy incurs in passing over a country like this, so strong in natural defences, and inhabited by a people who have lost nothing of the valour of their ancestors. We are reminded of the contest by meeting here and there with clusters of ancient turbaned grave-stones, indicating that the ground must never be disturbed where the blood of the faithful has been shed. However barren these mountains may appear, on viewing their naked rocky pinnacles from a distance, they contain within their bosom many beautiful and fertile valleys, gorges and defiles, producing luxuriant crops of grain; the sides of the mountains are also tolerably well wooded, and interspersed here and there with blooming meadows and green fields, on which we see herds of sheep, goats, and even small oxen grazing; and if we may judge from the number of hamlets, the population

must be considerable; but this is one of the peculiarities of these provinces, so long the theatre of devastating war and Turkish misrule, and which induced the industrious Rayah to leave the plain and seek a home in the mountain, where he might live with his family in comparative security.

We encamped for the night in a lonely glen not far distant from the Lake of Presba, where we found a caravan had already taken up their quarters, so that with the addition of our party, we amounted altogether to nearly a hundred men; this was the most numerous assemblage of kiraidjis, with their packs of merchandize, I had yet met with in these provinces; and truly it was an interesting scene to see so many blazing fires in various parts of the glen, surrounded by members of every nationality in the Turkish empire, each displaying in his language, dress and manners, some characteristic of his race; and in the midst of them, a solitary Englishman, placing full reliance in their good faith and honesty; and though I had not now my old friend Georgy to say something in favour of his Ingleski Gospodin, I was everywhere treated by these wildlooking men with the greatest courtesy and kindness, who thought themselves highly honoured if I sat down and eat, drank or smoked the tchibouque with them, or condescended to tell them something about the manners and customs of Frangistan.

The situation selected for our nightly bivouac combined many advantages; we had sufficient pasture for our horses, and the finest spring water, in addition to