86 MONTENEGRO 



and colour, though varied in fineness of material 

 according to the circumstances of individuals. In 

 another important respect all are alike. Every man 

 wears round his waist a scarlet leather belt in the 

 front of which is a pouch for pistols and yataghan. 

 The old-fashioned, long-barrelled, silver-mounted pistols 

 are seldom seen now ; heavy revolvers made in 

 Vienna, I believe are the favourite arm, and the 

 Montenegrin is never without them. The Prince, 

 taking a drive with ladies through his dominion, the 

 coachman and jclger on the box of the royal carriage, 

 the Court dandy hanging about the palace, the 

 merchant in his office, the tradesman behind his stone 

 counter, the mason and the carpenter going to their 

 work, the peasant guiding his team of diminutive oxen, 

 the goatherd tending his flock on the hungry hillside 

 all move with the bag of ' barkers ' girt round their 

 stomachs. The rifle is not carried so incessantly as 

 it used to be before the six-shooter came into vogue ; 

 but still you may see peasants of the poorer class, not 

 yet able to afford a revolver, with two of the old- 

 fashioned pistols stuck in the pouch beside the great 

 knife, and a rifle slung on the shoulder, coming into 

 market to offer their modest wares a donkey-load of 

 firewood or a leash of starveling lambs. 



Dangerous playthings, one should think, yet in no 

 part of Europe is there less risk of violence -or robbery 

 than in Montenegro. To bear arms is a habit in- 

 grained by centuries in a nation which owes its very 

 existence to unceasing vigilance and readiness with 

 arms. The claws of the Turk have been clipped fairly 



