But, you may say, one cannot in fairness expect the new Albanian
Government to achieve in so short a time what the Serbian Government has
effected among the Albanians of Kossovo, who are being persuaded to
relinquish their devastating custom of blood-vengeance. Prior to March
1921, over 400 of its devotees and of brigands had given themselves up
in Kossovo--turning away from the old days when, as one of them
expressed it, "a shot from my rifle was heard at a distance of three
hours' travel"; one of the most eminent among them disdained to
surrender to a local authority and made his way to Belgrade, where he
presented himself one afternoon to the astonished officials at the
Ministry of the Interior. "After all," as Miss Durham has written, "the
most important fact in northern Albania is blood-vengeance." What we
must set out to probe is whether the Albanians, if they are left to
themselves, will be able after a time to administer their country in a
reasonably satisfactory manner.... Their culture is admittedly a very
low one. In the realm of art a few love-songs and several proverbs were
all that Consul Hahn could collect for his monumental work,[78] though
his researches, which lasted for years, took him all over the country.
One of these love-songs, a piece of six lines, will give some idea of
their aesthetic value; a lover, standing outside the house of his lady,
invites her to come out to him immediately; he threatens that if she
disobeys him he will have his hair cut in the Western style, nay more,
he will have it washed and then he will return, howling like a dog.
Consul Hahn's summing up of the Albanians, by the way, stated that the
social life of Caesar's _Bellum Gallicum_ was applicable to the tribes
which now inhabit southern Albania, those of the north not being equal
to so high a standard. Yastrebow, the well-known Russian Consul-General,
tells us of the villages of Retsch and Tschidna, where in winter men and
women clothe themselves with rags, in summer with no rags--so that in
the warmer months a visitor, presumably, in order not to shock the
natives, would take the precaution of depositing his clothes in some
convenient cavern. On the other hand, when the ladies in waiting on the
Princess of Wied drove out in low-cut dresses, it being warm weather,
the people of Durazzo were scandalized at what they called the terrible
behaviour of their Prince's harem. These mountain people live on maize
and milk and cheese--salt is unknown to them. Baron Nopsca is regarded
by the few educated Albanians as the most competent foreign observer. He
knew the language well and travelled everywhere. One custom he relates
of the Merturi is the sprinkling of ashes on a spot where they suspect
that treasure is buried; on the next morning they look to see what
animal has left on the ashes the print of its feet, and this tells them
what sacrifice the guardian of the treasure demands--sheep or hen or
human being. Miss Durham says that human excrement and water is the sole
emetic known to the Albanians; it is used in all cases of poisoning. But
the Albanian's death is most frequently brought about by gun-shot. "In
Toplana," as they say, "people are killed like pigs"--42 per cent. of
the adults, according to Nopsca, dying a violent death. "It was her good
government and her orderliness that obtained for her her admission to
the League of Nations," said the Hon. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., in the
_Morning Post_ of November 29, 1921. And the enthusiastic President of
the Anglo-Albanian Society is modest enough to refrain from telling us
how much she was indebted to his own championship. The evil eye is
feared in Albania more than syphilis or typhus. Siebertz[79] mentions a
favourite remedy, which is to spit at the patient. A ceremonial spitting
is also used by anyone who sees two people engaged in close
conversation; very likely they are plotting against the third party, and
by his timely expectoration their wicked plans will be upset.
Absurd as it may sound, there are not a few Albanian apologists who lay
the entire blame upon the Turks. They assert--and it is true--that
Constantinople left this distant province so completely almost to its
own devices that the suzerain might just as well not have existed. A
few Turkish officials lived in the towns, in the country they showed
themselves when they were furtively travelling through it; and the chief
officials, such as the Vali of Scutari, were wont to be Albanians. And,
being left by the Turks to evolve their own salvation, they turned
Albania into a region of utter darkness--at any rate, they did
practically nothing to shake off the barbarism which they had inherited.
They have certain alluring attributes, such as their unpolluted mediaeval
ideas on the sanctity of guests and the punctilious maintenance of their
honour,[80] their readiness to die for freedom as well as for a quarrel
about a sheep, and their not infrequent personal magnetism. They are
very abstemious, their morals are pure, they have certain mental
qualities, as yet undeveloped, and they are thrifty. But "they are so
devoid of both originality and unity," says Sir Charles Eliot,[81] that
acutest of observers, "that it is vain to seek for anything in politics,
art, religion, literature or customs to which the name Albanian can be
properly applied as denoting something common to the Albanian race."
The apologists, such as Miss Durham, argue that the other Balkan peoples
suffered from a good deal of internal tumult after they had set
themselves up as independent countries. And it is submitted that the
Albanians would gradually develop the same national spirit as their
neighbours. But there are as yet, Miss Durham must acknowledge, very
few signs that this will ever come to pass.
"We are Albanians," said Monsignor Bumci, "we ask for Albania! We demand
it! Surely you can see that we are all marching together, men from all
parts of Albania, marching against the Yugoslavs. I say we are united."
And some miles from Scutari a part of the Albanian army was returning
from a foray into Yugoslavia. When they came into the territory of a
certain tribe they were compelled, by way of toll, to surrender their
booty. Such incidents occurred in several places, so that obviously the
conditions still prevail that were described in 1905 by Karl
Steinmetz,[82] an Austrian engineer who learned the language and
travelled through the country in the disguise of a Franciscan monk. "The
tribes cannot conceive the idea of a higher unity," says he in one of
his valuable books. [So that in attempting to build up the new State
these tribal institutions should be used as much as possible. Except in
the towns, which play a relatively small part in the country's life, the
voting should be by tribes.] "How could a Nikaj and a Shala meet," says
he, "except for mutual destruction? Will a Mirdite for a nice word give
up his bandit expeditions to the plain? The local antagonisms are as yet
far too great." More often than not you would find that the Albanians
regard each other as at the time of the Balkan War, when, for example, a
Serbian cavalry officer took the village of Puka and asked the mayor to
lead him to the neighbouring village of Duci. His worship consented, but
after walking on ahead for half an hour he stopped. "We are now midway
between the two villages," he said, "and I can go no farther." "Unless
you continue," said the captain, "I shall be obliged to have you shot."
"_Nukahaile_ [I don't care]," said the Albanian. "It is all the same to
me whether I am killed by you or by the men of Duci, and I certainly
shall be killed if I show myself there."
"We are all united, Catholic and Moslem. It is splendid!" said Monsignor
Bumci. "And we are not by any means fanatical--with us it is the
country first and our religion afterwards."
Certainly the Shqyptar is not so good a churchman as we have sometimes
been led to believe. Prenk Bib Doda is said to have cherished the
precepts of the Catholic Church with such devotion that he could not
bring himself to institute divorce proceedings against his childless
wife. We are told that his mother was animated with similar scruples,
and that, to solve this awkward question the old lady one day seized a
rifle and shot her daughter-in-law dead. There is not more truth in this
tale than in that of the brigands who, on a certain Friday, overpowered
and slew a caravan of merchants between Dibra and Prizren. On examining
their spoil they are said to have discovered a large amount of meat,
but, as it was Friday, to have refrained from consuming it. Prenk Bib
Doda was, as a matter of fact, impotent; and his widow, Lucia Bib Doda,
survives him.... One agrees with Monsignor Bumci that the Albanian is
not altogether so blindly a supporter of his Church as we have been
told, and his murderous intentions against a neighbouring tribe will be
not at all diminished if they happen to profess the same religion as
himself.
"Anyone can see," quoth the Monsignor, "that the Government is dear to
us. Men are coming from all over the country, anxious to execute its
wishes and to be enrolled against the Yugoslav."
Yes, we saw numbers of men tramping up to Scutari, from boys to
septuagenarians. They were going to fight--it pleased them enormously.
But if the Tirana Government had ordered them to go back and work on
their fields, if it had asked them to take some precautions against the
ravages of syphilis, if it had expressed the hope that they would no
longer sell their women for an old Martini, or that the village prefects
would pay some regard to sanitary matters--in the whole of Albania, says
Siebertz, there is only one W.C.--then they would have laughed at this
Government which tried to lay a hand on their ancestral liberties.
"The end of it all is," said the Monsignor, "we are Albanians. We demand
the independence of our country."
"As a Latin," writes Professor Katarani,[83] "I was fire and flame for
Albania.... But after a few months I was forced not only to change my
views about them, but to regret all that I had written in the _Mattino_
and the _Tribuna_.... They are not a people, but tribes ... they are
against every principle of public officials, they live the most
primitive lives. I who know Albania from end to end, who have sacrificed
myself for that country, am absolutely convinced that there could be no
greater misfortune than if, in its present state, it were given autonomy
or independence. Otherwise I confess that an Albania free from any
foreign Power would be to the interest of Italy." And he concludes by
saying that the Albanians have done nothing to deserve an independent
State. It is well known that in the Albanian Societies that after May
1913 were engaged at Constantinople and Sofia, at Rome and Vienna, in
striving for the independence of the country it was not the Albanians
themselves who had the chief word. Those who were initiated into secret
Balkan policies were aware that Albania was the domain with which
Article 7 of the old Triple Alliance was concerned.... The fiery
Albanian patriot, Basri Bey, Prince of Dukagjin, also agrees that in the
beginning an independent Albania would be productive of anarchy. "I
greatly regret to acknowledge it," says he,[84] "but Albania is, so to
speak, the classic type of a country which has never had a real
government." Nevertheless, he is strongly in favour of independence, his
reasons being because Albania is "at the same time the old mother and
the youngest daughter of the Balkans." This flamboyant prince and doctor
and deputy who denounces both Essad Pasha and his nephew Ahmed Beg Mati,
has got his own panacea for the country, which is a Turkish army of
occupation commanded by a French general. Basri Bey seems to confirm the
remarks of his more enlightened co-religionists, Halim Beg Derala and
Zena Beg, for whereas the Moslems can claim no more than a rather larger
third of the inhabitants, he calmly assumes that the whole country is
Moslem. Albania, he says, is now more than ever attached to Turkey, for
the attachment is purely moral. ... The influence of this gentleman
seems to be confined to Dibra, but he has a good opinion of his own
importance. In 1915, in the days of the greatness of Essad Pasha, he set
up a Government at Dibra with himself as Prime Minister and Essad Pasha
as his Minister of the Interior! There does not seem to be much
justification for Basri Bey to call himself a prince. He is a Pomak, for
his ancestors were Bulgars who accepted Islam. His father was an
official of the Turkish Government at Philippopolis.
Father Fichta told me that his countrymen would do very well indeed if
they could import from other parts of Europe financial help, technicians
and judges. Some years ago the Turks settled to send two judges to
Scutari; then the Albanians would no longer be able to charge them with
not administering the law, so that each man was obliged to take it into
his own hands. "It is entirely your fault," said the Albanians, "that we
are driven to adopt the method of blood-vengeance." So thoroughly did
they adopt it that the assassinations in the region of Prizren,
Djakovica and Pe['c] amounted, according to Glueck, to a total of about
six hundred a year. The Turks therefore sent a couple of judges to
Scutari, and on the day after their arrival they were murdered.
What memory have the Albanians of their own great men? One sultry
afternoon, as we were driving in a mule cart from the quaint town of
Alessio, the driver lashed his mule with a long stick; but after half a
mile of this, the animal applied a hind-leg sharply to the driver's
mouth. He roared and fell back in our arms and bled profusely and was
doctored by the fierce gendarme, who put a handful of tobacco on the
wound, so that the driver had to keep his mouth shut. For the remainder
of the afternoon our mule went at a walking pace, and presently, to
while away the time, we begged the gendarme and a merchant of Alessio,
who was travelling with us, to repeat the song of some old hero, such as
Skanderbeg. They stared--their mouths were also shut. And finally the
gendarme said he knew a hero-song. It dealt with Zeph, a man with
sheep, and Mark who stole them. "Give me back my sheep," said Zeph. "No,
no!" said Mark. "Beware!" said Zeph. And one day, as he hid behind a
wall, he fired at Mark and slew him. "That is the song," said the
gendarme, "about the hero Zeph."
To whatever state of culture the Albanians may climb, I think it will be
generally agreed that some regime other than unaided independence must,
in the meantime, be established there. One hears of those who argue that
Albania should forthwith be for the Albanians, because they are a gifted
and a very ancient people. They are not more gifted than the Basques,
and their antiquity is not more wonderful. Nor do they stand on a higher
level of culture with respect to their neighbours than do the Basques as
compared with theirs. Not many tears are shed by the Basques or by
anyone else because those interesting men are all the subjects of France
or Spain.