APRIL 85 



or river-banks, English boots are intolerable, unless 

 made with thick felt soles. JEsthetically, the foot- 

 covering is the point in his attire wherein the Mon- 

 tenegrin is apt to be disappointing. On Sundays and 

 feast-days, when he wants to appear particularly smart, 

 he has contracted the deplorable vice of drawing on a 

 pair of what we used to call 'Jemima' boots black 

 boots, that is, with elastic sides. Desinit in piscem 

 the lamentable effects of these loans from Western 

 civilisation upon a costume otherwise so archaic and 

 exquisitely romantic may easily be imagined. The 

 headgear, happily, remains incorrupt. In winter it is a 

 fur cap, with a loose drooping crown of white cloth, 

 exchanged in summer for the biretta or round forage 

 cap, black-bordered, with the Prince's initials worked 

 in gold upon the crimson top. Even the parish priests, 

 who go clad in flowing black gowns, habitually wear 

 this biretta, the recognised badge of nationality and 

 loyalty to Prince Nicola: but then the parish priest is 

 often the crack shot of his village and captain of the 

 local company of sharp-shooters. 



In cold weather, or when travelling, a notable feature 

 is added to the costume, namely, a dark-brown plaid, 

 streaked with flashes of brilliant colour and edged with 

 a long swinging fringe. Even when the snow is gone 

 and the countrymen leave their thick white tunics at 

 home, appearing only in red waistcoats and blue 

 pantaloons, they carry this flung over the left shoulder, 

 like a Highlander's plaid or a Border shepherd's 

 maud. 



The dress is the same for all except priests in design 



