33 



The National Geographic Magazine 



another year we retraced our steps to 

 Ragusa. there to repair the ravages 

 travel had made on ourselves and our 

 linen, and enjoy the luxuries of civiliza- 

 tion before starting again for the interior. 



IN HERZEGOVINA 



After Albania, a Turkish province ad- 

 ministered, or rather not administered, 

 by the Turk, we were forcibly struck 

 with the prosperous appearance of the 

 people of Herzegovina and Bosnia, Turk- 

 ish possessions until 1878, when they 

 were, after the revolt, handed over to 

 Austria to be governed. The conditions 

 were said to be as bad then as they are 

 now, in parts of the Sultan's dominions, 

 where there is no safety for life or prop- 

 erty. Today Austria administers the 

 country (under the nominal control of 

 the Porte) wisely and paternally, regard- 

 ing the religious and other customs of the 

 people, with the result that the Moslems 

 and Christians live side by side in the 

 greatest peace and amity. 



We took the railroad, which has been 

 recently constructed, from Ragusa to 

 Mostar. Soon the tropical vegetation of 

 the coast had been left behind, the train 

 crawling steadily up through grand 

 mountain scenery. We made several 

 stops, when wild women from the hills of 

 Herzegovina, in white linen trousers and 

 tunics, their legs incased in top boots, 

 peered shyly at us, afraid to meet our 

 eyes, much less face the camera. We 

 passed several train-loads of peasants 

 traveling fourth class in vans marked 

 ''12 horses or 30 people," and drew up at 

 the capital of Herzegovina, Mostar. 



The town is thoroughly Oriental, beau- 

 tifully situated on both sides of the rap- 

 idly flowing Xarenta, with many minarets 

 picturesquely breaking the sky line. The 

 two quarters of the city are connected 

 bv a superb old stone bridge, with a span 

 of a hundred feet and over 60 feet above 

 the stream. Tradition attributes it to the 

 Romans (though it was probably built by 

 one of the early Sultans), and also says 

 that great difficulty was found in building 

 the foundations, until some one had the 



happy inspiration of burying two lovers 

 beneath the piers, after which all went 

 well. 



Leaving Mostar, we entered the great 

 defile of the Narenta, a wild and rocky 

 gorge, had a glimpse of the Prenj Moun- 

 tains towering to the right, reached the 

 top of the Ivan Plana, the watershed 

 between the Black Sea and the Adriatic, 

 passed through a tunnel, and emerged 

 into Bosnia proper. As we descended 

 toward Sarajevo the country began to 

 assume an entirely different aspect to 

 anything else we had seen in the Penin- 

 sula ; the wild gorges and rocky peaks 

 gave place to fertile river beds and beau- 

 tifully wooded hills, the little villages 

 being very quaint and distinctive. The 

 houses have extremely steep-pitched, 

 shingled roofs and are built, even the 

 modern ones, without chimneys, the 

 smoke escaping as best it can. 



Sarajevo, "the Damascus of the 

 North," so called from the number and 

 importance of its mosques, is a most 

 curious mixture of a European and an 

 Oriental city. It lies in the wide valley, 

 on both sides of the Miljacka. The 

 Austrian quarters are situated along the 

 river bank, while the native houses strag- 

 gle picturesquely up the sides of the in- 

 closing hills, and the population is as 

 mixed as the architecture. As the largest 

 city in the province, it is an important 

 military post ; the streets are full of smart 

 officers and their wives, as well as the 

 officials of the Austrian government, 

 while the native population is varied and 

 includes not only the Greek and Catholic 

 Christians, the Moslem Bosnians, some 

 gipsies, a few Turks, and people from the 

 neighboring states, but quite a colony of 

 the Jews who are the direct descendants 

 of those who, strangely enough, found 

 refuge in Bosnia at the time of the Span- 

 ish Inquisition, and who still speak 

 Spanish and are called Spaniards. Fri- 

 day, Saturday, and Sunday are respect- 

 ively the Moslem, Jewish, and Christian 

 Sabbaths, when the town is less lively, 

 but on other days there is always some- 

 thing doing, especially in the Bazar, 



