Where East Meets West 



327 



peak rose majestically above, far below 

 lay a green valley with its tiny village and 

 the long, lonely, opal lake of Scodra deep 

 set in its barren hills, while the grim 

 Albanian mountains showed blue and 

 hazy in the distance. 



TH£ LAKE OF SCODRA 



We rattled down to Riejka, the village 

 on the lake, so named from Ivan Beg 

 Crnoievich (riejka means a stream), who 

 ruled in the latter half of the fifteenth 

 century and had his capital in this vicin- 

 ity. These were among the darkest years 

 for the Montenegrins, and Ivan was 

 forced to cede the rich plains of the Zeta 

 to the Turks and was driven to the moun- 

 tain fastnesses and there founded Cettinje 

 in 1484. He built a castle above Riejka 

 to fortify his new frontier and swore to 

 hold the Black Mountain at any price. 

 A wise as well as a warlike ruler, he 

 founded a monastery and sent for a print- 

 ing press from Venice, but twenty years 

 after the first book was printed in Lon- 

 don by Caxton ! Popular tradition says 

 that he but sleeps, and will one day awake 

 to lead his people in their hour of need. 



But more pressing than past history 

 was the question of present transport, so 

 we hastened to make inquiries if the boat 

 was running on the lake. "No ; it was 

 broken." "What shall we do?" "If we 

 turn back or wait we shall miss the 

 Wednesday market in Scodra which we 

 have come so far to see." Then being 

 told that if enough passengers turned up 

 to make it worth while a small tug would 

 be run instead, we embarked in a row- 

 boat to reconnoiter. A small pink tug 

 presented itself, and also fortunately two 

 Italian gentlemen and a number of peas- 

 ants, so the list being complete we for- 

 eigners managed to stow ourselves in 

 front, the peasants aft, and the little boat 

 glided out on the pretty tortuous stream 

 through masses of lilies and water reeds, 

 gallantly trying to bar our progress into 

 this lovely solitary lake. Great herons 

 and spoonbills and other water fowl took 

 our passing through their favorite haunts 

 quite philosophically, too indifferent to 



even flop away. We twisted and turned 

 for some time, and after passing a forti- 

 fied island emerged into the open lake — 

 Montenegro towered behind and the so- 

 called accursed mountains of Albania rose 

 in unreal cloudlike masses in the far dis- 

 tance. 



Stops were made at Virbazar and Pla- 

 unitza to take passengers on and off ; at 

 the former place we persuaded the cap- 

 tain to take us ashore with him to pick 

 up the mail, for which he cheerfully an- 

 nounced he might have to wait at least 

 four hours ! So, with the captain and 

 mate, we scrambled into a dugout and 

 were rowed by a sheep-nosed, raucous- 

 voiced boy up another little creek to the 

 charmingly situated town, which was 

 quite overcome with astonishment at 

 seeing us, Europeans, especially women, 

 being rare. 



We sat in front of the little drink shop 

 under the shade of fine old plain trees, 

 with our tea basket, an infinite delight 

 and amusement to the natives. Captain 

 and mate made no bones about drinking 

 out of glasses encrusted with grime, 

 probably being used to Montenegrin cus- 

 toms, but the little maid who served us 

 evidently thought we were accustomed to 

 better things and politely gave the glasses 

 a wipe with still grimier fingers ! 



The town affords some attractive 

 views, while old fortifications on the hill 

 looked worth exploring, but the sun beat 

 down mercilessly and we succumbed to 

 the fascinations of shopping, assisted by 

 the entire population, with much advice 

 and many kindly pats on the back when 

 a certain article was tried on (in the 

 street, as the shop had become too con- 

 gested by onlookers) and considered be- 

 coming. 



So far the transactions had been car- 

 ried on by means of signs, but now the- 

 crowd made way for a handsome ragged : 

 lad with an open face, evidently a trav- 

 eler, with a sturdy staff, and all his^ 

 worldly possessions tied up in a handker- 

 chief. He knew a few words of German* 

 which he had learned from his father,, 

 who "had seen the world" (he had beera 



