THROUGH WILD EUROPE 103 



as he can as quickly as possible. Well he knows 

 the time and opportunity is short, for soon some 

 other official will be making a bid for the post, and 

 he will be shelved to make room for him. Then, 

 unless he has acquired sufficient for another post 

 elsewhere, he will be left without employment. A 

 nice picture truly, and a nice state of things ! 



This year a law was made forbidding the export- 

 ation of timber from the forests. A German mer- 

 chant in the town who had or was about to purchase 

 timber from a neighbouring forest was approached 

 personally by the governor, who gave him to under- 

 stand that in return for a present of ^20 or £30, 

 I forget which, no notice would be taken of any 

 infringement of the law ! 



There are no roads, no bridges, no law, no 

 protection, no justice for anybody. 



I have myself heard a Bey offer a man £$ 

 to swear falsely that a Christian, whom he 

 named, was guilty of a recent murder. The offer 

 was refused, not at all on the ground of its being 

 a false charge, but solely because it wasn't enough. 

 For £10 he said he would do it willingly ! It 

 is true I didn't understand what they said, as 



they spoke in Albanian, but B understood, 



although they thought that he didn't know Al- 

 banian, but only Turkish ; and he translated their 

 conversation to me afterwards. 



