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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



and soil genial to man, and of free passage to 

 and fro over the land and sea Avhich God has 

 given us. It is another question whether their 

 brethren of the Servian lands will amalgamate 

 with them politically on an extended scale, and 

 revive, either by a federal or an incorporating 

 union, the substance, if not the form, of the eld 

 Servian state. Such an arrangement would prob- 

 ably be good for Europe, and would go some 

 way to guarantee freedom and self-government 

 to the other European provinces of Turkey, 

 whether under Ottoman suzerainty or otherwise. 

 There is another question deeper and more vital. 

 Rudeness and ferocity are rapidly vanishing ; 

 when their last trace disappears, will the sim- 

 plicity, the truth, the purity, the high-strung de- 

 votion, the indomitable heroism, lose by degrees 

 their native tone, and their clear, sharp outline, 

 and will a vision on the whole so glorious for 

 them, so salutary and corrective for us, 



" . ... Die away, 

 And fade into the light of common day V 1 



To the student of human nature, forty years 

 ago, Pitcairivs Island offered a picture of singu- 

 lar interest, no less remote morally than locally 

 from common life — a paradise, not, indeed, of 

 high intellect and culture, but of innocence and 

 virtue. It became necessary to find for the grow- 

 ing numbers a larger site, and they were carried 

 to Norfolk Island, when it had been purged of 

 its population of convicts double-dyed. The spot 

 was lovely, and the conditions favorable ; but the 

 organism would not bear transplanting, and the 

 Pitcairners fast declined into the common mass 

 of men. Is this to be the fate of the men of Mon- 

 tenegro when they substitute ease, and plenty, 

 and power, and the pleasures and luxuries of life, 

 for that stern but chivalrous wooing of adversity, 

 the " relentless power," in which they have been 

 reared to a maturity of such incomparable hardi- 

 hood ? I dare not say ; they have a firmer fibre, 

 a closer tissue, than ever was woven in the soft 

 air and habitudes of Pitcairn ; may they prove 

 too strong for the world, and remain what in sub- 

 stance they are — a select, a noble, an imperial 

 race ! 



In another point of view, they offer a subject 

 of great interest to the inquiries of the naturalist. 

 Physically, they are men of exceptional power 

 and stature. Three causes may perhaps be sug- 

 gested. The habits of their life have been in an 

 extraordinary degree hardy, healthy, simple ; if 



1 Wordsworth, " Ode on Recollections of Childhood.'' 



they have felt the pressure of want at times, thev 

 have never known the standing curse of pleth. 



ora : 



" . . . . Nee nova febrium 

 Terris incubuit cohors." 



Next, may not the severe physical conditions of 

 the Black Mountain have acted as a test, and 

 shut out from the adult community all who did 

 not attain to a high standard of masculine vigor? 

 Among other notable features, they are a people 

 of great longevity. Sir G. Wilkinson (shade of 

 Lewis, hear it not !) found among them, living 

 together as a family, seven successive genera- 

 tions ; the patriarch had attained the age of one 

 hundred and seventeen, with a son of one hun- 

 dred. A youth of seventeen or eighteen very 

 commonly marries a girl of thirteen or fourteen. 1 

 But, thirdly, I conceive that moral causes may 

 have cooperated powerfully with outward Nature 

 in this matter, fortes creantur fortibus ct bonis. 

 The men who went up with Ivan were men ot 

 great souls; and this greatness, transmitted with 

 blood and fortified by habit, may have assisted 

 in supplying us with what seems to be a remark- 

 able case of both natural and providential selec- 

 tion. 



For the materials of this sketch I have been 

 principally indebted to the two works named at 

 its head. They are, I believe, the best on the 

 subject; one is large and elaborate, the other, 

 also full, coming down almost to this day. There 

 is as yet no comprehensive book on Montenegro 

 in our language. We have recently had articles ' 

 on it in the Church Quarterly Review and in Mac- 

 miUctn, the latter guaranteed by the high name 

 of Mr. Freeman. Sir Gardner Wilkinson led the 

 way thirty years ago with some chapters on the 

 Mountain in his Dalmatian work. Dr. Neale has 

 supplied some very brief but interesting notices. 

 Lady Strangford's sketch is slight and thin, but 

 with ample power of observation. Miss Macken- 

 zie and Miss Iiby were able to bestow far more 

 of time and care on a subject well worthy of 

 them, and have probably made by much the 

 most valuable contribution extant in our lan- 

 guage, under this as under other heads, to our 

 knowledge of those South Slavonic provinces 

 whose future will, we may humbly trust, redeem 

 the miseries of their past. " Whereas thou hast 

 been forsaken and hated, so that no man went 

 through thee, I will make thee an eternal ex- 

 cellency, a joy of many generations." 5 — Nine- 

 teenth Century 



1 G., p. 76 « Isaiah lx. 15. 



