THROUGH WILD EUROPE 63 



museum at Serajevo, and one hears much of the 

 prosperity of the country under Austrian rule. It 

 may be so, but whether the prosperity is for the 

 Austrian officials or for the inhabitants of the 

 country I know not. All I can say is, that never 

 in my life have I seen such depressed-looking, hope- 

 less, poverty-stricken people as I saw coming into the 

 town on market-day, driving sheep not much bigger 

 than terriers and ponies the size of a Newfoundland 

 dog. Clad in rags and tatters, and bearing in front 

 a leather band like a shelf — which looks as if origin- 

 ally intended to carry a battery of weapons 1 — they 

 slouch along, with their feet wrapped up in shapeless 

 bundles of rags, exactly like the bears in the Zoo. 

 Very different is their bearing from that of the 

 free and independent Montenegrins, or the warlike 

 Albanians. 



The mountains in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the town are still inhabited by bears and wolves ; 

 and I heard that not only the great Eagle Owl 

 [Bubo maximus), but also the rare Ural Owl {Syrnium 

 uralensis) is to be found there. The abundance of 

 Jackdaws and Hooded Crows in the streets is very 

 noticeable, and I found them equally numerous 

 everywhere throughout the Balkans. At first it 



1 Carrying arms is now prohibited, and the custom has been 

 stamped out after some hundreds have been hung for carrying 

 alone, but they still cling to the now useless belt. 



