Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

308 THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS. short of police, and could not give me more than one suvarri, which, after the amount he had recklessly wasted upon me a few days before, was amusing. We rode along the edge of the 'lake' of Avlona, a shallow, brackish lagoon in a swamp from which the sea has retreated, a place that breeds fever all the summer, and crossed it on a stone causeway to the village of Lart. It was about seven in the morning, the village lay bright-white by a great dazzle of water, and the sky was exquisitely clear. 'Christ is risen! ' cried the villagers as we rode through, and in front of every house curls of blue smoke rose from the big wood fire over which the Easter lamb was roasting, spitted lengthwise on a pole. Once through the village our troubles began; they always do on a Turkish road. When starting on a journey in this land people give you an elaborate 'send-off'-' May the road be smooth for thee! May no harm befall thee! Mayest thou arrive safely at thy journey's end! " and so forth. I was told that no language contained so many and such beautiful farewells as does Albanian. I replied that there is no country in which they are so urgently required. We had to cross several miles of swamp, fetlock-deep at best, often hock-deep, and quite foggy with mosquitoes. Progress was frightfully slow; the mud black, oily, and smelly. We rode knee-deep in the sea at last, as the bottom was a little firmer there. Finally we reached our old friend the Viosa, here wide, shallow, and tame, and crossed without diffi
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Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 308
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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