Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

TEPELEN TO ELBASAN. 319 it, and run a light railway to Avlona. This completely staggered him. ' You have only been here twenty-four hours, and you have already thought of all this I You,' he added piously,' think only of people's bodies; I.-of their souls.' Berat has but one consulate, and that a Greek one. People cling to it as their one link with the outside world, and a safe means of receiving foreign correspondence, and the Greeks, having no rivals here, are working an active propaganda. There are four Greek schools, to which Greece is said to contribute ~300 a year, and there is a Greek Bishop. But Italy is striving hard to plant a school of her own to counteract Greek influence. The town has about II,ooo inhabitants, rather more than half Moslem. The neighbour-lands are very savage. Bloodfeuds rage and brigandage was rife till a year ago, when active efforts were made against it, many men captured, and some executed. But the land is in a mediaeval state of barbarism, and the quarrels of the rival Begs have a Montague and Capulet flavour. The latest excitement was the case of Suli Beg. A certain man wished to give his daughter in marriage to a Vlah. But one of Suli Beg's followers coveted her as bride. He appealed to Suli to help him. The girl's father, on the other hand, belonged to a rival Beg's party. The rival Beg said the girl should marry the Vlah; Suli said she should not. Each party sent a troop of some thirty armed men, and a fight took place. Several were killed, others badly
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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 319
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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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bosnia/ans3900.0001.001/326

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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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