44-8 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



Education is becoming more general, and new roads have been 

 constructed. Every male person above the age of seventeen 

 has to serve in the army, which can muster about 35,000 men. 

 Not more than 150 are on permanent service. These form the 

 bodyguard of the Prince. It is not necessary to maintain 

 soldiers or police constantly on duly in Montenegro, where 

 crime is almost unknown. 



The Montenegrins have the poetical faculty, but that they 

 are not necessarily a literary people may be inferred from the 

 fact that the first bookshop in this ancient country was opened 

 as recently as 1879. They have always had more to do with 

 the sword than with the pen. "Every man, dressed in the 

 picturesque costume of his tribe, carries his pistol and yataghan 

 in his girdle," says one who has 

 lived among them. When war 

 breaks out, the schoolboy and the 

 veteran will be found equally eager 

 for the fray. 



It has been said that courage 

 and energy, with other kindred 

 virtues, may be seen in their 



highest perfection among the Montenegrins. When a girl is 

 born, the mother says, " I do not wish thee beauty, but 

 courage. Heroism alone gains the love of men." Two incidents 

 of the war of 1879 illustrate the devoted heroism of which 

 Montenegrin women are capable, and the desperate steps they 

 will take to avoid contamination by submitting to a foe. A 

 Turk named Mehmed Pasha carried away a Montenegrin girl, 

 the beautiful Yoka. They were in the mountains. The girl 



implored her captor to desist 

 from his endearments, which 

 were doubly disgraceful as they 

 were in the presence of the 

 Turkish soldiers. The road they 

 had to traverse was only a 

 narrow ledge of rock above a 

 precipice. Overcome by emotion, 

 she sank to the ground. Mehmed 

 seized her in his arms. She embraced and 



P/toto bij A. Olto] [Allenlmrg. 

 A WEND (FRONT AND BACK VIEW). 



WEND WOMAN IN FULL DRESS. 



Photo by J. G. Kruiakelder] 

 CHEKHS. 



clung to 



him. Suddenly she turned and drew him to the edge 

 of the rock. Clinging to him with all her force, she 

 dragged him with her over the precipice into the deep 

 abyss, where their bodies were subsequently found. The 

 other incident occurred in a frontier village. The men 

 had left the village to join the main body of their forces. 

 Soon after their departure the Turks entered the place. 

 The women took refuge in an old tower, where they 

 defended themselves like Amazons. The only weapons 

 they had were old guns, and successful resistance was 

 hopeless. The women and children heaped the powder- 

 barrels together. When eventually some fifty Turks 

 dashed into the tower, a torch was applied to the powder, 



