Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

THE STORY OF THE PEOPLE. 17 perhaps, is the maddest of all. The Bulgarians, too, claim to be Alexander's sons. Alexander, I have been told quite seriously, commanded his men, ' according to a well-known classical author' (name not given), 'in a tongue that was not Greek, and was therefore undoubtedly Bulgarian!' A song was sung during the late Macedonian insurrection, in which an eagle, who is soaring over the land, asks what is the cause of so much excitement, and is told that the sons of Alexander are arising. This annoyed the Greeks and the Albanians extremely, for the insurrection was being worked solely for Bulgarian ends. ' Georgie,' we asked one of our hospital patients, 'do you know about Alexander the Great? ' Georgie cheered up; Alexander was clearly an 'old pal.' Georgie believed himself to be a Bulgar and a son of Alexander beyond any doubt. ' We all are,' he said. Poor Georgie! he spoke a Slav dialect, and was possibly a mixture of all the races that have ever ruled the peninsula, and all he had gained was a Mauser ball through his right hand in the name of Alexander the Great. Alexander died, but the aborigines had one other burst of glory. Pyrrhus (Burri = the Valiant, Alb.), King of Epirus, is all their own; no other nations claim him. Gendarmes in South Albania to-day will tell you of Pyrrhus, 'the great King who beat the dirty Greeks and everybody else.'
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 17
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 May 1, 2025.
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