173 



ALBANIA. 



ALBANS, ST. 



174 



cry quarter. The prisoners are gagged, bound, and plundered ; and, 

 if wealthy, retained until they are ransomed. If there is no expecta- 

 tion of resistance, the robbers start up from their place of ambush 

 without firing. 



The population of Albania has always been of a warlike character. 

 They were the soldiers of Pyrrhus, one of the most formidable oppo- 

 nents whom the Romans encountered ; and under Scanderbcg they 

 arrested for awhile the tide of Turkish conquest. At present, under 

 the denomination of Aniauts, they rank among the flower of the 

 Ottoman army, and are found as mercenaries in all parts of Turkey 

 and in the Barbary States. They take the field without baggage or 

 tents, and are far more active than the generality of the Turkish 

 soldiery. They follow the profession of arms till they become 

 decrepit. Besides the annual resort of the robbers to the mountains, 

 some of the shepherds with their flocks, their horses, their moveable 

 houses, their goods, their wives and children, remove at the com- 

 mencement of summer to the mountains, and return when the 

 approach of winter renders the milder climate of the plains more 

 desirable. 



Their agricultural skill is not great. Their plough is of simple 

 construction. The business of sowing and reaping is left to the 

 women and to the aged. The young men fell timber, dress the vines, 

 or are shepherds an occupation which enables them to indulge that 

 idleness to which, when not engaged in war, they are so prone. 



They look upon the female sex as cattle, make them labour, and 

 beat them : yet all marry who can ; marriage being in itself a sign of 

 wealth. 



Most of the Albanians speak Greek, which is also the common 

 written language in use among them, for their own vernacular tongue 

 ia unwritten. Very few of them can speak Turkish. The Greeks of 

 Joifnnina, of the better sort, are well instructed in the manners and 

 languages of Christendom. 



Dancing is one of their most common amusements. The musical 

 instrument in general use among them is a kind of guitar or lute, 

 with three strings, a long neck, and a small round base. They strike 

 the chords not with the hand, but with a piece of quill, half an inch 

 long. Its sound is monotonous ; just sufficient as an accompaniment 

 to their songs, and to mark time. 



The Albanians have few arts or manufactures. A considerable 

 number of capotes are exported annually ; and they produce some 

 embroidery on velvet, stuff, and cloth. 



The country is under the government of the different Turkish 

 Pashas in whose territories it lies, as those of Joinnina, Scutari, 

 Okhrida, Avlc5na, and Delvino. But in a country of such character, 

 and inhabited by such a people, the power of the pashas may be 

 regarded as very small. The local authorities are constituted very 

 differently in different places. Here a district or town is under the 

 control of one man, bearing the Turkish title of Bolu Bashe, or the 

 Greek title of Capitan, or else some designation borrowed from 

 Europe : here an Aga or Bey becomes a petty chieftain of the 

 villagers ; while in other places there are no local authorities. 



The trade consist* mainly in the exchange of natural productions 

 for the manufactures of nations more refined. Oil, wool, wheat, 

 maize, and tobacco are sent to the ports of the kingdom of Naples, 

 or to the Ionian Isles and Malta ; and sheep, goats, cattle, and horses, 

 to the Ionian Islands. Cotton-wool and timber are exported from 

 the Gulf of Arta ; but the cotton is brought chiefly from Thessaly, 

 and the timber from ancient Acarnania, on the south side of the gulf. 

 The manufactured goods which they export are capotes ; gun and 

 pistol stocks, mounted in silver, plain and gilt ; and embroidered 

 velvets, stuff*, and cloths. They import some coffee and sugar from 

 Trieste ; knives, sword-blades, gun-barrels, glass, and paper from 

 Venice; and gold aihd silver thread, for embroidery, from Vienna. 

 French and German cloths are obtained from Trieste. Caps are brought 

 in from Trieste, Leghorn, and Genoa ; and various articles from the 

 Ionian Isles and Malta, which being landed at the ports of Prevesa, 

 Salahora, A vMna, and Durazzo, are conveyed on horseback to the great 

 annual fair of Jottmiina. Linen, velvet, gunpowder, fire-arms, and 

 iron-wares are also imported. The want of ready means of commu- 

 nication is a great impediment to traffic. Goods are conveyed by 

 pack-horses, four or five of which are attached to each other by 

 cords, and guided by one man. The vigorous government of Ali- 

 Pasha, by the suppression of robbers and the construction of roads, 

 afforded facilities for internal traffic which did not previously exist. 



The Albanians, as might be expected from their imperfect civilisa- 

 tion and their peculiar habits, are divided into tribes, each having its 

 proper designation, and distinguished in some particulars from the 

 adjacent tribes. The most northern, and, if we may judge from the 

 extent of country occupied by it, the largest tribe is that of the Ngdge, 

 Ouegues, or Red Albanian*, who inhabit the country watered by the 

 feeders of the Drin. The Mirdites, from whom Scanderbeg arose, and 

 who owe to their priests a degree of civilisation which distinguishes 

 them favourably from their neighbours, appear to be a subdivision 

 of these. Southward from the Ngcge, are the Toske. The Liape, 

 i<>us for poverty, dirt, mg ; aD ,l the Tzami succeed 



these as we advance towards the south; and other tribes, either 

 detached from the more important ones, or else entirely unconnected 

 with them, occupy small portions of the country. Among these, the 



people of the district of KhirnaVa may be noticed for their indulgence 

 of revenge, which they regard as a sacred duty, and which converts 

 their different villages or towns into hostile stations. Some Bulgarian, 

 and some Wallaohian colonies may be found scattered along the 

 eastern frontier of Albania. This division by tribes ia purely Albanian, 

 and was probably in use before the Turkish conquest. Upon that 

 event, several of the chief towns, as Delvino, Berdt, El Bason, Avl6na, 

 Skodre or Scutari, and others, became the seats of provincial 

 governments. 



Some notice of the chief towns of Albania will be found in the 

 articles under their respective names. No one of them can be desig- 

 nated as the capital ; for the country is not under the government of 

 one pasha. Joanninn, which is indeed beyond the boundaries of 

 Albania strictly so called, is the most important ; and after it may be 

 mentioned Scutari, Okhrida, Berat, Durazzo (the ancient Dyracchium), 

 Delvino, Argyro Castro, Avl<5na, Prevesa, and Arta. Parga was, till 

 delivered up to the Turks, a town of considerable size, having 8000 

 inhabitants. The people of Antivari and Dolcigno are chiefly Moham- 

 medans. Their situation on the coast leads them to become sailors, 

 and they are the only Albanians who have any acquaintance with 

 shipping. They enter into the service of the Barbary States, or follow 

 piracy at home. 



Albanian colonies are to be found in different parts of Turkey and 

 Greece, especially in Attica, Bceotia, Argolis, Elis, and Laconia ; but 

 these are labourers. The warlike character of the nation is retained 

 only by those who remain at home ; and in the Morea the language ia 

 nearly lost, while in the Attic villages it is retained, these being pro- 

 bably colonies of later date. The people of Hydra are descended from 

 Albanian colonists, but are scarcely distinguishable from their neigh- 

 bours. There are also some Albanian colonies in Calabria and Abruzzo, 

 on the western shore of the Adriatic. 



ALBANO, ALBANUM. [ALBA.] 



ALBANS, ST., Hertfordshire, a market-town, a municipal, and till 

 1852, when it was disfranchised, a parliamentary borough, and the 

 seat of a Poor-Law Union, is built on the summit and northern decli- 

 vity of a small hill, at the base of which flows the river Ver, Verlam, 

 or Muse, in 51 46' N. lat., 21' W. long., distant 13 miles W.S.W. 

 from Hertford, and 21 miles N.W. by N. from London. The popu- 

 lation in 1851 was 7000. The borough is governed by 4 aldermen 

 and 12 councillors, one of whom is mayor, and till 1852 returned two 

 members to the Imperial Parliament. The town is in the arch- 

 deaconry of St. Albans and diocese of Rochester. St. Albans Poor- 

 Law Union contains 8 parishes, with an area of 40,441 acres, and a 

 population in 1851 of 17,774. 



The modern town of St. Albans is situated close to the site of the 

 ancient Verulamium (Verulam), being separated from it by the small 

 river Ver, a feeder of the Colne. Verulamium was probably at first 

 a British town, and then a municipium under the Romans; a term 

 which implies that its inhabitants possessed some of the privileges of 

 Roman citizens. The Roman road, called by the Saxons the ' Watling 

 Street,' was also called Werlaem Street, because it first went direct to 

 Verulam, passing close under its walls. (Gibson's ' Camden,' vol. i. 

 79.) Verulam was the scene of dreadful slaughter in the great rebel- 

 lion under Boadicea, who destroyed here and at Londinium (London), 

 and at other places, about 70,000 Roman citizens and their allies. The 

 town was however restored, and continued to be a principal Roman 

 station while that people possessed this island. Here an eminent 

 citizen, Albnn, is said to have suffered martyrdom, in 297, in the 

 persecution under Diocletian. In his honour a monastery for 100 

 Benedictine monks was erected in 796 by Offa, king of Mercia. 



Ulsiuus, or Ulsig, the sixth abbot, may be regarded as the founder 

 of the modern town of St. Albans, for he, about 948, erected three 

 churches on the three principal roads leading to the monastery, laid 

 out a place for a market, and encouraged the people of the neighbour- 

 hood to build by supplying them with money and materials. In the 

 years 1455 and 1461, during the wars between the rival houses of 

 York and Lancaster, two fierce battles were fought in the neighbour- 

 hood of 'he town ; in the first of these Henry VI. fell into the hands 

 of the Yorkists, and in the last was rescued by his wife, Margaret of 

 Anjou. St. Albans obtained a charter of incorporation from Edward 

 VI. in 1553 ; the elective franchise (which had been very long sus- 

 pended) had been restored before that time. The franchise was sub- 

 sequently enjoyed till 1852, when in consequence of a report of a 

 parliamentary commission, showing that bribery had been systemati- 

 cally carried on among the electors, the borough was deprived of the 

 parliamentary franchise. 



St. Albans is well paved and lighted, and has a supply of good water. 

 The part on the old line of the north road (which runs through the 

 town) is narrow, and has many ancient houses. The other parts are 

 more spacious and well built, and the new line of the north road has 

 some neat villas. The parochial churches are the Abbey Church, 

 St. Peter's, on the left bank of the Ver ; on the right bank is St. 

 Stephens, and St. Michael's, which contains the monument of Francis 

 Bacon, who bore the title of Viscount St. Albaus. A proprietary church 

 is at Colney Heath, and a new district church at Leverstock Green. 

 In the town are chapels for Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, 

 Independents, Baptists, Quakers, Roman Catholics, and Unitarians. 

 A temperance-hall, recently erected, is also occupied as a place of 



