IN THE LAND OF THE BORA. 189 



the religious authorities at Constantinople issued 

 a notice calling attention to the habitual disregard 

 there of the Prophet's injunctions as to women's 

 dress. Here it is quite otherwise ; transparent 

 veils and Parisian costumes are unknown. Not 

 only do the women wear a fine linen yashmak, 

 but the better classes also wear a black net vizard 

 like a carnival mask, generally embroidered in 

 gold. The lower classes wear a curious sleeved 

 cloak with the sleeves always pinned behind them. 

 This garment culminates in a high stiff collar, 

 which, however, is not worn round the neck, but 

 over the head. All alike adhere to the shapeless 

 wraps and high yellow boots, in which they shuffle 

 along, so that the passer-by cannot guess if he is 

 looking at a girl or a crone. The men are a fine, 

 active, intelligent-looking lot, and seem to be very 

 observant of their religious duties. 



The Mohammedan villager is, of course, very 

 different, and his womenkind do not cover the 

 face, though they wear cloths round it, ready to 

 draw up over the mouth if a Western European 

 happens to pass. Some villages are entirely 

 Turkish, others are mixed. The proportion of 

 creeds is — Greek Church about half, Turks about 

 a third, Roman Catholics about one-fifth. There 

 are no Turkish towns in the Herzegovina, in the 

 sense that some of those in Upper Bosnia are. 

 In the country the religion depends greatly on 



