Those who preferred to take arms against the Turk had the choice
either of leaving their country and entering the service of one which
was at war with Turkey or else abiding in their own land, gathering in
bodies of fifty to a hundred men, massacring as many Turks as
possible, protecting and avenging their own people, sometimes being
killed themselves, otherwise returning to the mountains every spring.
The "heiduks," as they were called, had the people's unbounded
devotion. Their achievements, perhaps a little touched with romance,
were celebrated in the people's songs, and as it may be of interest to
know what kind of song this people made in the period of uttermost
depression, I give overleaf a couple that are concerned with heiduks;
they are translations from a book of mine, _The Shade of the Balkans_,
which is out of print.