THROUGH WILD EUROPE 143 



bridge over the river had to be crossed. We all 

 dismounted for this, and it certainly looked so 

 rickety that I should not have been surprised if the 

 whole structure had collapsed. At the guard-house 

 at the end we were stopped and our passports 

 examined, but of course there was nobody there 

 able to read, so a sentry was sent with us through 

 the town in search of an officer. After he was 

 found another search had to be made for an inter- 

 preter, and when all this troublesome business was 

 at last settled we had to retrace our steps through 

 the bazaar for our things to be examined at the 

 custom-house. 



Our weary horses slipped and stumbled along in 

 a stone-paved gutter full of filth, about a foot wide 

 and nearly a foot deep, between rows of open booths 

 or shops. The light overhead was shut off with 

 crazy roofings, and mattings hung at every angle, 

 while the bystanders jeered and made uncompli- 

 mentary and hostile remarks. I had no need to 

 understand the language to perceive the nature of 

 their behaviour, and on asking Djouraschkovitch 

 afterwards he told me it was lucky I could not 

 understand the actual words. 



This town of Scutari, or Skodra, used to be the 

 ancient capital of Montenegro, when that warlike 

 little Principality was much larger than it is to-day, 

 for it then included parts of Herzegovina and a part 



