Travels in Southeastern Europe

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

TEPELEN TO ELBASAN. 321 guarantee us the same amount of help she has given the Bulgarians? ' Berat's chief trade is in hides, 'opanke' (the local leathern sandal), and saddlery. It has a fascinating bazar. I wandered about alone' when my guide was busy, and met with the greatest courtesy. If any little boys tried to follow me, they were stopped by the nearest man. The odd part of all these towns is that the wild are so wild and the civilized so civilized. All the centuries are jumbled together. The better-to-do wear European clothes and are quite smart, and at the pharmacy you can buy Vichy water and Giesshubel from a man who speaks French; but, coming to market, you meet long, lean men of the mountains, inragged fustanellas, armed with flintlocks of a pattern quite 250 years old, though of modem make. And the wildest thing of all I met was a sort of fakir-swarthy, halfstripped, mad-eyed-who carried a begging-bowl and a battle-axe that looked as if it hailed from the Far East. In the han I had a small, unfurnished room, with three swallows' nests in it, and a large hole in the floor, and I lived on lumps of meat from the cookshop. You select what looks most eatable. The man asks how many penn'orth you require. You indicate the size; he hacks it off, and, seizing a handful of salt in large, dirty-gray crystals from a pot alongside, he rubs it between his palms and sprinkles your dish. He lends you the plate, and sends for it later. The food is rough, but it is nourishing. The meat is II
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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 321
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/ans3900.0001.001/328

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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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