APKIL 87 



short during the last five- and- twenty years; but his 

 frontier still girdles the Tzerna Gora very closely. 

 Sultry Skodra still bristles with arms ; the only fertile 

 part of the Prince's realm is the plain round Pod- 

 goritza, acquired under the treaty of 1878, and that 

 lies as open as ever to sudden raids from the Albanian 

 mountains. Podgoritza itself is a divided town, the 

 clear-flowing Ribnica separating the old Moslem quarter 

 with its snowy minarets and mouldering walls, from 

 the scattered rows of uninteresting houses which form 

 the new and Christian centre of business. Here 

 Montenegrins in red and blue, and Boccesi in green 

 frocks, meet freely and mix amicably enough with 

 Albanians in white woollen jacket and trousers heavily 

 slashed and embroidered with black, and white-gowned 

 Turks with green, pink, or yellow turbans. The medley 

 of costumes makes a picture of which one never tires, 

 amid surroundings as architecturally unromantic as 

 any South African mining village. 



Shepherds and goatherds in this district are dis- 

 tinguished from Prince Nicola's subjects in the rest 

 of the province by enormously thick sheepskin coats. 

 The heat was semi-tropical during our stay in Pod- 

 goritza, and becomes much fiercer during the summer 

 months ; yet these fellows never seem to lay aside this 

 ponderous covering, much the same as a fur motor- 

 coat, loitering about the rocky wilderness, and tramp- 

 ing along the burning highways from sunrise to sunset, 

 in charge of their patient flocks. 



In this land of fine men, one naturally feels some 

 interest in the mothers who bear them. Most travellers 



