Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

154 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. The village is a ' chiftlik ' belonging to the Sultan's mother. It had been but partially looted, and the church had not suffered. A festival was in full swing in honour, Danil said, 'of St. John, who did things with water.' Gay in their best clothes, the people came in procession from church, the women carry. ing sheaves of straw prettily plaited, and we followed up the valley. The Moslem thought he would not come, but the Vlah made him. It was freezing hard, and a white fog spoilt the quaint scene. The priest, robed all in blue and gold, blessed the little stream which ran black between its frosted banks. He threw in a crucifix; there was a great scramble of men and boys to be first at the stream; the women dipped in their sheaves, and everyone crossed themselves three times with the holy water. The Vlah made all the responses in a loud voice, rushed wildly for the water, and came back very wet with his fez full of it for me. I made the proper signs, to the delight of the company, and he threw the rest over his Moslem comrade, who took it calmly. Shortly after my return to Resna I read an English newspaper article, in which an impassioned young journalist described the crushed condition of the Christian gendarmes, who, he said, were made to black the boots of their Moslem confreres. I don't think I ever saw any gendarmerie boots that had been blacked by anybody, and the Christian gendarmes I had were all very cheerful; but things look so different when seen from newspaper offices.
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 154
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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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 April 30, 2025.
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