SERFS 



5314 



SERINAGUR 



Serbia contains no workhouses, and it is al- 

 most impossible to find a pauper from one end 

 of the country to the other. 



The national instrument of the country is a 

 fiddle with a single string, known as the gusle. 



A Serbian mother usually carries her baby 

 slung over her shoulder in a canvas bag. O.B. 



Consult Woods' The Danger Zone of Europe; 

 Stead's Serbia and the Serbians; Crawford's 

 The Balkan Cockpit (published in the second 

 year of the War of the Nations). 



Related Subjects. The reader who is inter- 

 ested in Serbia is referred to the following arti- 

 cles in these volumes: 



GEOGRAPHY 



Balkan Peninsula Carpathian Mountains 



Belgrade Danube 



HISTORT 



Balkan Wars Russo-Turkish Wars 



Berlin, Congress of War of the Nations 



Peter I, Karageorgevitch 



SERFS, laborers under the feudal system in 

 Europe, who were bound by law to the land 

 on which they lived, being transferred with it 

 from one owner to another. The serf system of 

 labor arose in the disorderly period of the early 

 Middle ages, when, in return' for protection from 

 raiders, the peasants cultivated the land of the 

 lords and paid them dues on houses, cattle, etc., 

 as they demanded. Serfs were a higher order 

 than slaves and lower than villeins, who were 

 free to go from one lord to another if they 

 chose. Most of the slaves eventually rose to 

 serfdom, and many serfs were able to obtain 

 the freedom of the villein. Both serfs and vil- 

 leins, however, suffered deep misery from their 

 degraded position,, excessive taxation and de- 

 privation of educational and religious advan- 

 tages. By the nobility and clergy, they were con- 

 sidered as less than the cattle or the game on 

 their estates. The system disappeared gradu- 

 ally, with other institutions of feudalism, in the 

 later Middle Ages, but its spirit survived far 

 into the modern period, till the people them- 

 selves arose, from time to time, and wrested 

 their rights from those who oppressed them. 



Serfdom in Russia was the result, not of feu- 

 dalism, but of the despotism of the govern- 

 ment. It was abolished in 1861, when 45,000,- 

 000 serfs of the Crown were freed by decree of 

 Alexander II. See FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



SERGEANT, sahr' jent, a noncommissioned 

 officer found in every army, next in rank above 

 a corporal. His is the highest noncommis- 

 sioned rank, the grade above being that of 

 second lieutenant, a commissioned officer. He 

 is usually chosen because of superior intelli- 



gence and good conduct from among the cor- 

 porals of his company (see CORPORAL). His du- 

 ties are to preserve discipline, to teach drills 

 and to command small detachments, such as an 

 escort body. In the United States service, every 

 company of coast artillery and every company 

 of engineers has eight sergeants; every troop 

 of cavalry and every battery of field artillery 

 has six; and every company of infantry has 

 four, besides the first sergeant and the quar- 

 termaster-sergeant. 



SERGEANT- AT-ARMS, an officer appointed 

 by legislative bodies to enforce order at their 

 meetings, to serve processes ordered by the as- 

 sembly and to make arrests of members during 

 the session when their presence is necessary to 

 constitute a quorum. The sergeant-at-arms in 

 each branch of the Congress of the United 

 States is an important officer, and his authority 

 cannot be ignored. When the sergeant-at-arms 

 carries the mace (which see) down the aisle of 

 either house all disorder should cease. Any- 

 one continuing in disorder after this demon- 

 stration is guilty of contempt. The sergeant- 

 at-arms of the House of Representatives also 

 has charge of the pay roll of the members. 



In the Canadian Parliament the sergeant-at- 

 arms of the House of Commons has charge of 

 messengers and pages, looks after the furniture 

 . of the house and offices, arrests offenders against 

 the privileges of the house, and carries the mace 

 before the speaker on official occasions during 

 sessions of Parliament. 



In Great Britain, such officers are appointed 

 to attend the Speaker in the House of Com- 

 mons and the Lord Chancellor in the House of 

 Lords. The duties of sergeant-at-arms are also 

 exercised by any of the eight members of the 

 royal household who have charge of the cere- 

 monies at public functions. 



The office is said to have been created in the 

 latter half of the twelfth century by Richard I 

 of England, who appointed a corps of twenty- 

 four members to attend him and guard his 

 person. 



SERINAGUR, sere'nuhgur, or SRINAGAR, 

 the capital city of Kashmir in India, near the 

 lake made famous by Moore in his Lalla 

 Rookh. Serinagur is situated on the Jhelam 

 River, 170 miles northeast of Lahore, in the 

 lovely Vale of Kashmir. There are picturesque 

 mountains in the background, and near by are 

 beautiful gardens. The buildings of the city pre- 

 sent a curious combination of different forms 

 of architecture. Serinagur is a center for rug- 

 weaving and the manufacture of silver articles, 



