Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

192 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. olive oil is only allowed twice a week, and not at all in the first week. Diet was limited to bread, onions, and dried beans. Beans should be very nourishing, but it is the custom here to only partially boil them. After a heavy feed on ' komad,' a day's abstinence, and (literally) a 'blow-out ' of parboiled beans, 'belly-ache' became epidemic among the out-patients. As to the hospital patients, I was on the edge of despair, for they all appeared to be about to commit suicide under my eyes. The low diet told upon them almost at once; wounds ceased healing, and suppuration that had almost ceased began again merrily. Even the arguments of the doctor, who belonged to the Greek Church, were of no avail. One or two consented to take broth, chiefly because they did not consider it food, and we gave a few doses of cod-liver oil under the name of physic, but milk and eggs were totally barred. Some sat up and prayed, with tears in their eyes, not to be made to break the fast, saying the food would go bad in their insides, and such was their nervous terror that it probably would have done so. To add to the difficulty, Vasilika and all the attendants were on the fasting side, and set their energies resolutely to thwart the doctor. There was an unhappy little boy of four whose foot had been shattered with a Martini ball. A fortnight before I had with difficulty kept 'him alive by pouring milk down his throat, for he was too weak to move, and refused all food. When the fast started he had just begun to eat with appetite,
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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 192
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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