which even Mahometan gravity and decorum could not repress.

We had, however, some capital sport, and notwithstanding the great heat of the noonday sun, so unpropitious to an angler, succeeded in tempting a large salmontrout, full ten pounds in weight, from beneath the shade of a projecting crag. To the intense interest of all our friends, he fought long for life and freedom; every now and then, as he approached the shore, scared by so many people, rushing out again into deep water with the velocity of an arrow shot from a bow, till at length, completely beaten, we landed him with perfect ease. The feat in reality was trifling, and which any disciple of Isaac Walton might accomplish equally well, but these people, who had never seen fish caught before with rod and line, expressed the most unbounded admiration. It, however, proves the interest these people have begun to take in the customs and manners of the European nations, and their desire to assimilate themselves to our social habits, and break down the barrier that had so long severed them from all intercourse with their more civilized neighbours. It is hardly necessary to add, that we enjoyed the sumptuous entertainment à la champêtre of our hospitable host, Ali, and parted excellent friends.

CHAPTER IV.

Imperial fisheries of the Sultan-Defile of the Drin-Ascent of the Miriditi Mountains-Hospitality of the inhabitants—Aspect of the country-Arrival at the Djeta of a Miriditi chieftainSketch of Hamsa, the chief-His singular history-Austrian and Italian missionaries-Fanaticism of the Miriditi-Stefa, my kiraidji-Some account of him-The versatility of his religious opinions-The pass of Keupris-Dangerous travelling-Rencontre with a party of Albanian rebels-Ancient bridge over the Scoumbi-Arrival at Elbassan-Description of the town and its inhabitants-The Albanian tribes—Their political tendencies-Some account of the independent tribes of the Miriditi-Depopulation of Albania.

FOR want of space, we are compelled to conclude our sketches of Ocrida and its beautiful lake, which if Monsieur Voltaire had seen, he never would have said, when writing upon Geneva, "Mon lac est le premier lac du monde !" And now, having secured another kiraidji, accompanied by my friend, the Missionary from Vienna, we set out for the mountain home of those independent tribes of Albania, the Miriditi, the worthy

priest assuring me that we should not only meet with a hospitable reception from his co-religionists, but find a chief there who spoke the English language fluently.

On leaving Ocrida, our route lay along the banks of the lake, over meadows like a bowling-green, till we came to the little town of Strouga, distant about two leagues; here, in compliance with a previous invitation, we passed the remainder of the day and night at the house of a very worthy man, Demetrius Miladin, who had been to Italy and Trieste, and spoke the Italian language fluently. Our short stay here afforded us an opportunity of visiting the imperial fisheries; and however clumsily erected, they yield the Sultan an annual revenue of a hundred thousand piastres. Here we also plied our fishing-rod, and succeeded even better in charming the trout than in the Lake of Ocrida; they are smaller in size, but far more numerous.

After passing the bridge at Strouga, we followed the banks of the Tzerna Drina (Black Drin), to distinguish it from the White Drin, which, rising in the Alpine district of the Scardus, in Upper Albania, meets the Black Drin at Stana, and forms one river. About a league, or a league and a half from Strouga, the defile of the Drin commences, so famous during the wars of the Turks and the Christians in the time of Scanderbeg, and said to be the most formidable and dangerous to the advance of an enemy of any in European Turkey; and truly the wild aspect of the landscape before us-the river dashing through its narrow bed, enclosed within piles of rocks shooting up

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till their summits are lost in the clouds, rendered still more sombre by the dark foliage of trees springing out of every fissure, might suffice to appal the stoutest heart in a position that offered no security from the attack of an enemy in possession of the heights, who had only to hurl down the loose fragments of rocks to crush every living thing beneath them; and this is the only entrance from the vast basin of Ocrida into the mountain retreat inhabited by those independent tribes of Albania called the Miriditi.

We passed through a couple of villages inhabited by the Mahometan Miriditi, who to distinguish themselves from their Christian brethren occupying the higher regions of the mountain, call themselves the Djeghi. We will say nothing about their religious feelings, but I thought there was more respect displayed towards my companion, the missionary, who appeared to be no stranger to them, than was consistent with the usual bearing of good Mahometans.

On leaving the defile of the Drin, so aptly named by the Turks the Kara-Drina, we ascended, or rather climbed up, the steep sides of the mountain through a cleft in the rocks, in rainy weather the bed of a cataract, where it required all our care to steady the feet of our trembling steeds. At length we got to the summit of a beautiful plateau, with a neat village surrounded by cultivated fields, and flocks of sheep and goats browsing on the surrounding slopes; the small white chapels with Latin crosses, sufficiently indicated that we were now within what may be called the terri

tory of the Latin Miriditi. Here we remained for the night, the hospitable mountaineers providing every necessary that could conduce to our comfort.

On continuing our route through this secluded mountain region, I was agreeably surprized to see a succession of these little hamlets with their orchards and fields, in which maize and barley appeared the principal productions; indeed, every spot capable of culture was tilled with the most indefatigable industry, and every rivulet artificially turned and divided into a succession of tiny streamlets for the purpose of irrigation. In a few favoured situations they grew a little tobacco for their own use; and here and there in a field or two, supported by terraces constructed of fragments of the rock, the vine and the walnut were seen growing in the richest luxuriance; still, the great source of wealth to these mountaineers consists in their flocks of sheep and goats, together with the produce of the apiary. Forests of the noble oak also are seen occasionally feathering the sides of the mountain; but in a country without roads or navigable rivers, they yield no profit whatever to the inhabitants, except what they convert to their own use.

From time to time we found the mountains broken and split into narrow, deep gorges, as if by an earthquake, between which there was no connexion, but by a species of bridge constructed of trunks of trees, disclosing a yawning abyss beneath frightful to behold. To cross one of these, without any railing or support, required no little nerve; yet, if we could divest our