Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

288 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. and there was a bridge and a paved road up to the town. Ali's faults were glaring and obvious, and shocking to the Western mind. Viewed from the ramparts of Tepelen, they come into focus, and are seen in a truer light. He was of the people, and he handled them successfully, for he was one of that rare tribe of geniuses ' the man that was born to be a King.' The poor 'reform' judge struck me as a man who had been given a far 'larger chunk than he could chew.' Now Ali's konak is a huge heap of ruins, and within his fortifications dwells a horde of filthy gipsies of a low and most villainous-looking type. These form the bulk of the inhabitants. One hundred gipsy houses, seventy Moslem Albanian, and thirty Christian, make up all the town. These latter have the bazar and such trade as the place carries on. The Kaimmakam and the gipsies alone dwell within Ali's walls. The land outside and the houses upon it all belong to the neighbouring tekieh, which is reputed 'very rich.' The fortifications are solid and well built of hewn stone. Ali meant Tepelen to rank high as a town, and so it may do some day, for the Viosa valley is the only route from the sea through the mountains tQ the interior, and it is an old, old trade-route, and the ancient way from Apollonia to Dodona. Fragments of ancient walls still stand within those X Ali. They are very rudely built, without mortar, of unhewn stones of unequal sizes somewhat smoothed on the outer surface, and roughly battle
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 288
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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"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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