THROUGH WILD EUROPE 237 



national hero, and remember how he freed them 

 from the Turkish yoke. 



Their code of honour may seem peculiar in our 

 eyes, but such as it is they keep to it religiously, 

 and, after all, there is much excuse for the custom 

 of the vendetta among a proud and warlike 

 people bereft of any semblance of law or order. 

 They know there is no protection for life or property 

 except that of their own right hands, and small 

 blame to them if they exact a life for a life. 



We had several impromptu shooting competitions, 

 in which I could always beat all comers, partly, no 

 doubt, owing to my being better armed than they 

 were. Shooting one day at a hen's egg on the top 

 of a stack fifty yards away, I only missed once out of 

 five shots, whereas three of them only made one hit 

 between them in about a dozen shots, though they 

 all used a rest for the rifle. With my Greener '3 10 

 I could put a bullet through a reed-stem every time 

 at twenty-five yards. With a Smith and Wesson 

 pistol I could hit a mark the size of a shilling at 

 twelve yards nearly every time ; so that I acquired 

 a reputation for a good shot, very useful in a country 

 like Albania. 



One day we had a visitor, a tall and handsome 

 man, who had one arm crippled. They told me 

 the history of the accident. It seemed that about 

 twelve months before he had been attacked by two 



