Travels in Southeastern Europe

The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.

EASTWARD HOI IT1 represented a national principle and a political victory. So, as we whirled across Servia in his funeral train, my comrades spoke much of the dead, and used him as a text on which to preach Great Servia. They were all Serbs, young and aflame with patriotism. I found that my acquaintance with the clan Vassoievich was a passport, and the name of its leader one to conjure with. Talk all ran on unredeemed Servia and King Peter, who is to realize the national ideal. ' Now we have a King who is as good as yours,' they said, 'and Servia will have her own again.' And on the whole long track folk turned out in crowds with priests, candles, and banners, and wailed funeral chants. This began at Nish, in the black before the dawn with never a star overhead. It went on all day at station after station; we never forgot that Firmilian was dead, and that Old Servia had yet to be redeemed. This was rubbed into us hard on the frontier-at the best of times there is something uncanny about the Turkish frontier nowwhere we stayed for an hour and three quarters, and were searched for dynamite. There was no time even to offer backshish; the whole of everybody's possessions were tipped out on to the dirty ground, and we waded knee-deep in one another's worldly goods, in which the officials sought for contraband with the minute industry of monkeys after fleas. Then followed pocket-searching, punching, poking, pommelling, a strict personal examination from which I alone was exempt, and our passports were taken.
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About this Item

Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 111
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001
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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bosnia/ans3900.0001.001/118

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"The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham." In the digital collection Travels in Southeastern Europe. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 1, 2025.
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