THROUGH WILD EUROPE 119 



guests, were unable to follow suit as we should have 

 done, and were no doubt considered very degenerate 

 and ill-bred in consequence. 



It was a great relief when the meal was at last 

 finished, long past midnight, and we were left alone. 

 Marco and the servants had cleared away the table 

 and spread for us on the floor two mattresses and 

 gorgeously-coloured coverlets of flowered silk, on 

 which we slept comfortably the sleep of utter 

 satisfaction. 



Early in the morning — too early for me, for I 

 would gladly have had another hour or two — we 

 were roused by Marco bringing water and towels, 

 and an indiarubber collapsible basin. This was 

 another indispensable article always carried, and I 



found it so necessary that on B leaving Albania 



for the United States, I bought it from him. You 

 can't wash yourself at all satisfactorily, Turkish 

 fashion, by having a little water poured over your 

 hands out of a brass teapot over a shallow brass 

 tray. 



After breakfast we started off again under the 

 guidance of two Albanian retainers of the Bey, lean, 

 wild-looking mountaineers mounted on rough, shaggy 

 horses, each man carrying a Martini slung over his 

 shoulder. 



All day we rode, sometimes over hills covered 

 with brushwood, sometimes ploughing through 



