THROUGH WILD EUROPE 79 



the people poured in from all the country round 

 until the narrow street was packed full of men 

 and women in the most extraordinary variety of 

 costumes I had ever seen. It was just like stepping 

 backward into the Middle Ages, only instead of 

 carrying sword and spear the men are armed with 

 huge revolvers and rifles. One man had in his 

 waistcloth a very handsome silver-handled sword. 

 I was told it had been presented by the Russian 

 Government for having cut off a Turk's head in 

 the late war. He had evidently lost an eye over 

 the job, but looked immensely proud of himself. 



The Montenegrin costume is handsome enough, 

 but the Albanians are more picturesque and fantastic 

 in their attire. It would be a great chance for a 

 figure artist in search of new subjects to come and 

 stop here for two or three or six months. He 

 would get abundance of new material in the way of 

 costume, colour, and a type of humanity quite fresh 

 to the picture galleries overcrowded with Italian 

 and Egyptian subjects. 



Albanian mountaineers, with black jackets tufted 

 heavily with black worsted, their national white fez 

 with headcloth, and thick, white felt trousers cut 

 tight, with fantastic stripes of broad, black braid 

 down the outside and inside of each leg ; venerable 

 Turks, Bosniacs, negroes, Turkish women in 

 shapeless camel-hair cloaks with enormous hoods, 



