52 IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 



and insisted upon our moving the tent to the 

 vicinity of his house. We had the greatest diffi- 

 culty in refusing his hospitable offers ; in fact, he 

 went so far as to come for us with a boat the next 

 morning, but we were firm in our resolution not 

 to move again. 



As we had been at PakoStane, so again at 

 Zablace, we were struck by the inferior type of 

 humanity represented by the inhabitants of the 

 mainland compared with those of the scoglia. The 

 women here are especially brutish in appearance. 

 They wear a long white garment with a sort of 

 waistcoat over it, and a white head-covering. This 

 would be all very well, were it not for the fact that 

 it is generally filthy. It is true we arrived on 

 Saturday evening, and I noticed a great differ- 

 ence the next day ; whence I infer that they are 

 put on clean for the festa, and last the week out. 



Zablade is in many ways a neglected spot. 

 The Austrians call Dalmatia "the half-forgotten 

 country," and surely this can be called " the quite- 

 forgotten place." It even has no priest, nor has 

 it any school. Indeed, there may be said to be 

 no church, even the small octagonal chapel by 

 the landing-place being the private property of the 

 local family, and there is rarely any service in it. 



Here also there are marshes, or rather lagoons, 

 which, being salt, do not make the place in any 

 way unhealthy. In Venetian times it was a 



