88 MONTENEGRO 



who have written on the subject express disappoint- 

 ment in the stature and features of the women of 

 Montenegro; but I was as much impressed by the 

 beauty of many of the maidens as by the worn 

 and haggard appearance of most of the elder ones. 

 The plain fact is that the lot of women in this 

 Christian country is far harder than that of Mussul- 

 man wives who are kept in seclusion. The Greek 

 Church, despite it veneration for the Virgin Mary, has 

 done little or nothing to modify the Oriental doctrine 

 of the abject inferiority of woman to man. Conse- 

 quently all the burdensome tasks are thrown upon 

 women, except agriculture and wood-cutting, which 

 they share with the men. But even that share is not 

 an equal one. If a man goes to the copse to cut 

 firewood, it is his wife who binds the load and carries 

 it home, over the steep paths, on her shoulders. A 

 family attending market always marches in the same 

 order. The father and stalwart sons stroll along in 

 front, smoking the eternal cigarettes, with no burden 

 except their carefully-cleaned arms ; behind follow wife 

 and daughters, bowed with bundles, and perhaps lead- 

 ing an over-loaded little donkey. It is not from 

 unkindness: I never heard a Montenegrin utter a 

 harsh word or bestow a sour look upon his women- 

 kind. It is simply the constituted order of things 

 that man is the lord ; and he would no sooner think 

 of relieving his wife of a load in the journey, than an 

 English squire would propose to groom his own horse 

 after a day's hunting. Neither the Montenegrin wife 

 nor the English groom would appreciate interference 



