.Ml Cain 



A LAUNDRY TUB HEWN FROM A TREE TRUNK 



The Servian peasants have very Httle money, so almost everj^thing around them is home- 

 made. The dovetail takes the place of the nail in most construction, and the Servian peasant 

 never buys anything he can possibly m.ake himself, or for which there is a home-made 

 substitute. 



tional dance, and perhaps one of the 

 most peculiar is that of Servia. They 

 call it the "kola." When we read a few 

 months ag-o about tangoing on the beach 

 and everywhere else our dances were but 

 copying the Servian idea as to occasions 

 for dances. It matters little to them 

 what their surroundings, ' the kola is 

 danced upon the least provocation. It 

 may be in the streets of the city or it 

 may be while attending their flocks in the 

 fields. _ On the field of battle the soldiers 

 dance it, and at every state ball the King 

 leads it. The dance is nothing more than 

 a huge serpentine formation of a group 

 of dancers hand in hand, which seems to 

 twist and turn in and out as the dancers 

 keep step to a monotonous tune. None 

 of these steps are more intricate than 

 those of a lot of children playing "ring 

 around the roses." 



The Servians are hospitable, sympa- 

 thetic, witty, and by nature full of merri- 

 ment, song, and dancing. At the same 

 time they are a deeply religious people. 

 At all family festivals three toasts are 

 drunk — the first to the glory of God, the 

 second to the Holy Cross, and the third 

 to the Holy Trinity — with invocations for 

 blessings to "the men in all places." 



SERVIANS PRESENT PERIL 



Servia is now suffering a terrific epi- 

 demic of t3q3hus as a result of the herd- 

 ing together of the peasant classes in one 

 portion of that riven country, and the 

 great battle of the war, from a sanitary 

 standpoint, is to find some method of 

 completely controlling the spread of ty- 

 phus-causing vermin. It probably repre- 

 sents a greater problem in concentration 

 camps and trenches than any other dis- 



428 



