surpass them in intelligence and industry. In the seventeenth century
there took place amongst them even a sort of revival similar to the
Renaissance of Western Europe, and the love of art was developed
sufficiently far to give rise to a school of painters in the villages
of Olympus. Faithful to their national traditions and the instincts
of their race, the Greeks of Thessaly have sought to organize
themselves into self-governing commonwealths. In their free towns,
or _kephalokhori_, they are permitted to elect their town councils,
establish schools, and appoint what teachers they like. They know how
to get the Turkish pasha not to meddle in their local affairs. They pay
the taxes demanded by the Turks, as their ancestors paid them to Athens
or some other Greek city, but in every other respect they are free
citizens governing themselves. The contrast between these independent
commonwealths and the _chifliks_ of Mussulman proprietors cultivated by
Greek farmers is most striking. The land of the free proprietors is, as
a rule, far less fertile than that included within these chifliks; yet
it produces more, and its cultivators live in comparative ease.
The Greeks of Thessaly bestow much care upon the education of growing
generations. Even the most miserable Greek village in the Pindus can
boast of a school, which is visited by the young people up to the age
of fifteen. As an instance of the commercial spirit of the Thessalians
we may mention the Weavers’ Co-operative Association, formed in the
last century in the town of Ambelakia, delightfully situated amongst
orchards and vineyards on the southern slopes of the Valley of Tempe.
This powerful association wisely limited its dividends to six per
cent., and expended the surplus profits upon an extension of its
business. For {115} many years it enjoyed the greatest prosperity, but
the wars of the empire, which closed the markets of Germany against
it, brought about its ruin. Co-operation likewise partly accounts for
the flourishing cloth manufacture of the twenty-four wealthy Greek
villages on the peninsula of Magnesia, to the north of the Gulf of
Volo. This district, together with that of Verria, to the north of the
Inje Karasu, is probably the most prosperous in all the Greek provinces
of Turkey, and it is at least partly indebted for this prosperity to
its happy geographical position, being far away from great strategical
high-roads.[32]
IV.—ALBANIA AND EPIRUS.
The name of SHKIPERI, which the Albanians give to the country they
inhabit, is supposed to mean “land of rocks,” and no designation
could be more appropriate. Stony mountains occupy the whole of the
country, from the frontiers of Montenegro to those of Greece. The only
plain of any extent is that of Scutari (Shkodra), to the south of
the Montenegrin plateau, which forms the natural frontier of Albania
towards the north. The bottom of this depression is occupied by the
Lake of Scutari; and the Drin, the only river of the Balkan peninsula
which is navigable for a considerable distance from the sea, debouches
upon it. The Drin is formed by the junction of the White and the Black
Drin, and in former times it only discharged a portion of its waters
temporarily into the Boyana River, which drains the Lake of Scutari.
But in 1858 it opened itself a new channel opposite to the village
of Miet, about twenty miles above its mouth, and since that time
the greater volume of its waters flows in the direction of Scutari,
frequently inundating the lower quarters of that town. The marshy
tracts on the Lower Drin are dangerous to cross during the heat of
summer, and the fevers of the Boyana are the most dreaded along the
whole of that coast.
Most of the southern ramifications of the Bosnian Alps are inhabited
by Albanians, but they are separated from their kinsmen in Albania
proper by the deep valley of the Drin, a kind of _cañon_ similar to
those of the Rocky Mountains, enclosed between precipitous walls
several thousand feet in height, and hardly ever trodden by the foot
of a wanderer. The mountain systems of Bosnia and Albania are only
indirectly connected by a series of ranges and plateaux stretching
from the mountain of Glieb in a south-easterly direction as far as
the Skhar, or Scardus of the ancients. The crest of this latter runs
at right angles to most of the ranges of Western Turkey, and although
its culminating point is inferior in height to those of Slav Turkey,
it is the point of junction between the Balkan and the {116} mountain
systems of Bosnia and Albania. The Skhar is of great importance, too,
in the hydrography of Turkey; for two great rivers, the Bulgarian
Morava and the Vardar, descend from its flanks, one flowing to the
Danube, the other to the Gulf of Saloniki. Chamois and wild goats are
still met with in the Skhar, as in the Pindus and Rhodope, and M. Wiet
mentions an animal known to the Mirdits as a _lucerbal_, which appears
to be a species of leopard.
A mountain region, hardly 3,000 feet in elevation, but exceedingly
difficult of access, rises to the west of the Skhar, on the other
side of the Black Drin: this is the citadel of Upper Albania, the
country of the Mirdits and Dukajins. Enormous masses of serpentine have
erupted there through the chalk, the valleys are hemmed in by bold
precipices, and the torrents rapidly run down the hollowed-out beds on
the exterior slopes. As a rule, the direction of the tortuous ranges
of this mountain country is the same as that of the southern spurs of
the Skhar. They gradually decrease in height, enclosing fine upland
valleys, where the waters are able to accumulate. The Lake of Okhrida,
the largest sheet of water in Upper Albania, has not inaptly been
likened to the Lake of Geneva. Its waters are bluer even than those of
its Swiss rival, and more transparent, and fish may be seen chasing
each other at a depth of sixty feet beneath its surface: hence its
ancient Greek name of Lychnidos. The delightful little town of Okhrida
and Mount Pieria, with its old Roman castle, guard its shores, and the
white houses of numerous villages peep out amongst the chestnut forests
which cover the slopes of the surrounding hills. This lake is drained
towards the north through the narrow valley of the Black Drin. If the
statements of the inhabitants may be credited, the waters of the double
basin of Lake Presba reach Lake Okhrida through subterranean channels.
The isolated peak of Tomor commands this lake region on the west. To
the south of it commences the chain of the Pindus, locally known as
Grammos. At first of moderate height, and crossed by numerous mountain
roads affording easy communication between Albania and Macedonia, these
mountains gradually increase in height as we proceed south, and exactly
to the east of Yanina they form the mountain mass of Metzovo, with
which the Pindus, properly so called, takes its rise. This mountain
mass is inferior in altitude to the peaks of Bosnia or Northern
Albania, but it is far more picturesque than either, its slopes being
covered with forests of conifers and beech-trees, and the plains
extending along its foot having a more southern aspect. Mount Zygos,
or Lachmon, which rises in the centre of this mountain mass, does not
afford a very extended panorama, but if we climb the craggy peaks of
the Peristera-Vuna, or Smolika, near it, we are able to look at the
same time upon the waters of the Ægean and Ionian Seas, and even the
shore of Greece may be descried beyond the Gulf of Arta.
A famous lake occupies the bottom of the limestone basin at the western
foot of the mountain mass of Metzovo. This is the Lake of Yanina,
and nowhere else throughout Epirus do we meet with an equal number
of natural curiosities as on the shores of this lake. Its depth is
inconsiderable, nowhere exceeding forty feet, and it is fed only by
numerous springs rising at the foot of the rocks. There is no {117}
visible outlet; but Colonel Leake assures us that each of the two
basins into which it is divided is drained by a subterranean channel.
The northern lake pours its waters into a sink, or _voinikova_, and
reappears towards the south-west as a considerable river, which flows
into the Ionian Sea. This is the Thyamis of the ancients, our modern
Kalamas. Farther to the south the ancient Acheron bursts from the
rocks, and having received the nauseous waters of the equally famous
Cocytus, throws itself into the “bay of sweet waters,” thus called on
account of the large volume of water discharged into it by rivers.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.—SOUTHERN EPIRUS.
According to Kiepert. Scale 1 : 1,400,000.
K. Katavothra.]
When the waters of the southern and larger basin of Lake Yanina are
low, there is but a single effluent, which plunges down into an abyss,
and in doing so turns the wheels of a mill. The Cyclopean ruins of
the Pelasgic city of Hellas command this huge chasm with its roaring
waters. The subterranean river reappears far to the south, and flows
into the Gulf of Arta. But when the level of the lake is high, four
other sinks swallow up its superabundant waters, and convey them into
the main channel, the direction of which is indicated by a few small
lakes. The important part played in the mythology of ancient Greece by
these subterranean effluents, and particularly by the infernal Acheron
and the Cocytus, amply proves the influence exercised by the Pelasgians
upon the civilisation of the Hellenes. The myths of the Hellopians
became the common property of all Greece, and {118} there was no
temple in all Hellas more venerated than their sanctuary at Dodona,
where the future might be foretold by listening to the rustling of the
leaves of sacred oaks. This sacred grove existed, probably, near one of
the Cyclopean towns so numerous in the country, if not on the shore of
the lake itself. Some, erroneously no doubt, have looked for it near
the castle inhabited in the beginning of this century by Ali Tepeleni,
the terrible Pasha of Epirus, who boasted of being a “lighted torch,
devouring man.”
The mountains of Suli, to the west of the basin of Yanina, attain an
altitude of 3,500 feet, but the neighbouring hills are of moderate
height, though abrupt and difficult of access, and near the coast they
sink down into small rocky promontories, scantily clothed with shrubs
and overrun by jackals. Swamps abound near the shore, and during summer
their miasmatic air spreads over the neighbouring villages. To the
north of the swamps of Butrinto and of the channel of Corfu, and to the
west of the isolated peak of Kundusi, however, the coast rises again,
and the austere chain of the Chimæra Mala, or Acroceraunii, extends
along it. It was dreaded by the ancients on account of its tempests,
and the torrents which poured down its sides. Squalls and changes of
wind are frequent near the “Tongue (Linguetta) of Rocks,” the most
advanced promontory of this coast, at the entrance to the Adriatic Sea.
These are the “infamous rocks” referred to by the Roman poet, upon
which many a vessel suffered shipwreck. The channel which separates
Turkey at that place from Italy has a width of only 45 miles; it is
less than 100 fathoms in depth, and at some former period an isthmus
may have united the two countries.[33]
The Shkipetars, or Albanians, are subdivided into two leading tribes or
nations, the Tosks and the Gheges, both of whom are no doubt descended
from the ancient Pelasgians, but have in many places become mixed with
Slavs, Bulgarians, and Rumanians, and perhaps even with other nations;
for whilst in some tribes we meet with the purest Hellenic types,
there are others the members of which are repulsively ugly. The Gheges
are the purest of their race, and they occupy, under various tribal
names, the whole of Northern Albania as far as the river Shkumbi.
The territory of the Tosks extends from that river southward. The
dialects of these two nations differ much, and it is not easy for an
Acroceraunian to understand a Mirdit or other Albanian from the north.
Gheges and Tosks detest each other. In the Turkish army they are kept
separated for fear of their coming to blows, and, when an insurrection
has to be suppressed amongst them, the Turkish Government always avails
itself of these tribal jealousies, and is certain of being served with
the zeal and fury which hatred inspires.
[Illustration: ALBANIANS.]
Up to the period of the migration of the barbarians, the whole of
Western Turkey, as far as the Danube, was held by Albanians. But they
were then pushed back, and Albania was entirely occupied by Servians
and Bulgarians. {119} The names of numerous localities throughout
the country recall that period of obscuration, during which the name
of an indigenous race was not even mentioned by the historian. But
when the Osmanli had broken the power of the Serb, the Albanians again
raised their heads, and ever since they have kept encroaching upon
their Slav neighbours. In the north they have gradually descended into
the valley of the Bulgarian Morava, and one of their colonies has
even penetrated into independent Servia. Like the waters of a rising
ocean, they overwhelm the detached tracts of territory still occupied
by Servians. This progress of the Albanians is explained, to a great
extent, by the voluntary expatriation of the Servians. Thousands of
them, headed by their patriarchs, fled to Hungary, in order to escape
the dominion of the Turks, and the Albanians occupied the wastes they
left behind. The Servians still hold their ground near Acroceraunia,
on the shores of Lake Okhrida, and in the hills looking down upon the
fatal plain of Kosovo, where their ancestors were massacred; but they
gradually become Albanians in language, religion, and customs. They
speak of themselves as Turks, as do the Arnauts, and apply the name of
Servian only to the Christians dwelling beyond the frontier. On the
other hand, many of the customs of the Gheges agree in a remarkable
manner with those of their Slav neighbours, and this proves that there
has taken place a thorough blending of the two races.
But whilst the Albanians are gaining ground in the north, they are
losing it in the south. A large portion of the inhabitants of Southern
Albania, though undoubtedly of Pelasgic origin, are Greek by language.
Arta, Yanina, and Prevesa are Hellenized towns, and only a few
Mohammedan families there still speak Albanian. Nearly the whole of the
tract between the Pindus and the Adriatic coast ranges has become Greek
as far as language goes, and throughout the mountain region extending
westward to the sea the inhabitants are “bilingual;” that is to say,
they speak two languages. The famous Suliotes, for instance, who talk
Tosk within the bosom of their family, make use of Greek in their
intercourse with strangers. Wherever the two races come into contact,
it is always the Albanian who takes the trouble to learn Greek.
This influence of the Hellenes is all the more powerful as it meets
with support amongst the Zinzares, known also as Macedo-Walakhs,
“Limping” Walakhs, or Southern Rumanians, who are met with throughout
the country. These Zinzares are the kinsmen of the Rumanians of
Wallachia and Moldavia, and live in a compact body only on the two
slopes of the Pindus, to the south and east of the Lake of Yanina. Like
the Rumanians of the Danube, they are most probably Latinised Dacians.
They resemble the Walakhs in features, character, and disposition,
and speak a neo-Latin tongue much mixed with Greek. The Zinzares
in the valleys of the Pindus are, for the most part, herdsmen, and
wander away from their villages sometimes for months. Others carry on
trades, exhibiting much manual skill and intelligence. Nearly all the
bricklayers of Turkey, those of the large towns excepted, are Zinzares;
and the same individual sometimes erects an entire house, doing in turn
the work of architect, carpenter, joiner, {120} and locksmith. The
Rumanians of the Pindus are likewise esteemed as clever goldsmiths.
Their capacity for business is great, and the commerce of the interior
of Turkey is almost entirely in their hands, as is that of the maritime
districts in those of the Greeks. The Walakhs of Metzovo are said to
have stood formerly under the direct protection of the Porte, and
every traveller, whether Mussulman or Christian, was bound to unshoe
his horses before he left their territory, for fear “of his carrying
away a clod of earth which did not belong to him.” Commercial houses
conducted by Walakhs of the Pindus are met with in every town of the
Orient, and even at Vienna one of the most influential banks has been
founded by one of them. Abroad they are generally taken for Greeks,
and the wealthier amongst them send their children to Athens to be
educated. Surrounded by Mussulmans, the Zinzares of the Pindus feel the
necessity of attaching themselves to some country through which they
might obtain their freedom, and they hope for a union with Greece. It
is only quite recently that they have learnt to look upon the Rumanians
of the North and the Italians as their kinsmen. They do not, however,
set much store upon their nationality, and have no aspirations as a
distinct race. There can be no doubt that in the course of ages many
of these Macedo-Walakhs have become Hellenized. Nearly all Thessaly
was inhabited by Zinzares in the Middle Ages, and Byzantine authors
speak of that country as “Great Wallachia.” Whether these Zinzares have
emigrated to Rumania, as some think, or have become assimilated with
the Greeks, the fact remains that at the present day they are not very
numerous on the eastern slopes of the Pindus. Thousands of Rumanian
families have settled in the coast towns, at Avlona, Berat, and Tirana,
embracing Mohammedanism, but still retaining their native idiom.
If we exclude these Zinzares, the Greeks of Epirus, the Servians, and
the few Osmanli dwelling in the large towns, there remain only the
semi-barbarous Gheges and Tosks, whose social condition has hardly
undergone any change in the course of three thousand years. In their
manners and modes of thought these modern Albanians are the true
successors of the ancient Pelasgians, and many a scene that a traveller
may witness amongst them carries him back to the days of the Odyssey.
G. von Hahn, who has most thoroughly studied the Shkipetars, looks upon
them as veritable Dorians, whose ancestors, led by the Heraclidæ, burst
forth from the forests of Epirus to conquer the Peloponnesus. They
are as courageous, as warlike, as fond of dominion, and as clannish
as were their ancestors. Their dress, likewise, is nearly the same,
and the white tunic (_fustanelle_) neatly fastened round the waist
fairly represents the ancient _chlamys_. The Gheges, like the Dorians
of old, are addicted to that mysterious passion which the historians
of antiquity have confounded, unfortunately, with a nameless vice, and
which links men to children by a pure and ideal love, in which the
senses have no part.
There is no modern people respecting whom more astounding acts of
bravery are recorded than of the Albanians. In the fifteenth century
they had their Scanderbeg, who, though the theatre of his glory
was more circumscribed than that of his namesake of Macedonia, was
hardly inferior to him in genius, and {121} certainly surpassed him
in justness and goodness of heart. Or what nation has ever exceeded
in courage the Suliote mountaineers, amongst whom not an aged man,
a woman, or a child was found to beg for mercy from Ali Pasha’s
executioners? The heroism of these Suliote women, who set fire to the
ammunition waggons, and then hand in hand precipitated themselves from
the rocks, or sought death in the mountain torrents, chanting their own
funeral song, will at all times stand forth in history as an astounding
fact.
This valour, unfortunately, is associated amongst many tribes with a
fearful amount of savageness. Human life is held cheap amongst these
warlike populations; blood calls for blood, and victim for victim.
They believe in vampires and phantoms, and occasionally an old man has
been burnt alive, on suspicion of his being able to kill by the breath
of his mouth. Slavery does not exist, but woman is held in a state of
servitude; she is looked upon as an inferior being, having no rights
or mind of her own. Custom raises a more formidable barrier between
the sexes than do walls and locked doors elsewhere. A young girl is
not permitted to speak to a young man; such an act is looked upon as a
crime, which her father or brother may feel called upon to punish by a
deed of blood. The parents sometimes consult the wishes of their son
when about to marry him, but never those of their daughter. The latter
is frequently affianced in her cradle, and, when twelve years of age,
she is handed over to a young man on his presenting a wedding outfit
and a sum of money fixed by custom, and averaging twenty shillings.
From that moment he becomes the absolute master of his bride, though
not without first going through the farce of an abduction, as is
customary amongst nearly all ancient nations. The poor woman, thus sold
like a slave, is bound to work for her husband. She is his housekeeper
as well as his labourer, and the national poets compare her to the
“ever-active shuttle,” whilst the father of the family is likened
to the “majestic ram marching at the head of the flock.” Yet woman,
scorned though she be, and brutalised by heavy work, may traverse
the whole country without fear of being insulted, and the life of an
unfortunate who places himself under her protection is held sacred.
Family ties are very powerful amongst the Albanians. The father retains
the rights of sovereign lord up to an advanced age, and as long as
he lives the earnings of his children and grandchildren are his own.
Frequently this communism continues after his death, the eldest son
taking his place. The loss of a member of the family, and particularly
of a young man, gives rise to fearful lamentations amongst the women,
who frequently swoon away, and even lose their senses. But the death
of persons who have reached the natural limits of human life is hardly
mourned at all. The descendants of the same ancestor never lose sight
of their parentage. They form clans, called _phis_ or _pharas_, which
are bound firmly together for purposes of defence or attack, or in
the pursuit of their common interests. Brotherhood by election is
known amongst the Albanians, as well as amongst the Servians and other
ancient nations, and its ties are as strong as those of blood. Young
men desirous of becoming brothers bind themselves by solemn vows in
the presence of their families, and, having opened a vein, they {122}
drink each other’s blood. The need of these family bonds is felt so
strongly in Albania, that young people brought up together frequently
remain united during the remainder of their lives, forming a regular
community, having its days of meetings, its festivals, and a common
purse.
But in spite of these family associations and clans, in spite of the
enthusiastic love which the Albanian bears his native land, there
exists no political cohesion amongst the various tribes. The physical
conditions of the country, no less than an unhappy passion for war,
have scattered their forces, and rendered them unable, consequently,
to maintain their independence. The religious animosities between
Mussulman and Christian, Greek and Roman Catholic, have contributed to
the like result.
It is generally supposed that the majority of the Albanians are
Mohammedans. When the Turks became masters of the country the most
valiant amongst them fled to Italy, and the greater part of the tribes
that remained behind were compelled to embrace Islamism. Many of the
chiefs, moreover, turned Mussulmans, in order that they might continue
their life of brigandage, on pretence of carrying on a holy war. This
accounts for the fact of the aristocracy of the country being for the
most part Mohammedan, and in possession of the land. The Christian
peasant who tills it is nominally a free man, but in reality he is
at the mercy of his lord, who keeps him at the point of starvation.
These Albanian Mussulmans, however, are fanatic warriors rather than
religious zealots, and many of their ceremonies, particularly those
connected with their native land, differ in nothing from those of their
Christian compatriots. They have been converted, but not convinced, and
cynically they say of themselves that their “sword is wherever their
faith is.”