Vol. XIX, No. 12 



WASHINGTON 



December, 1908 



THE 



ATHONAL 



©«AIPIHII1(0 



MBAM] 



/rnl 



IN QUAINT, CURIOUS CROATIA 



By Felix J. Koch 



With Photographs by the Author 



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HAT Hungary is to the 

 Dual Empire, that is Cro- 

 atia to Hungary," they 

 had told us on the train as we whirled 

 on into Agram. Agram, as you know, 

 is capital of the crown land of Croatia. 

 Croatia holds directly from the crown of 

 Hungary. 



What they meant was that even as 

 Hungary is ever fomenting discord, 

 preaching revolt, as it were, against the 

 double crown, so in Croatia they are 

 working for separation from Hungary, 

 for Pan-Slavism — anything that will 

 bring independence. 



But we had come into Croatia pri- 

 marily on a search for queer corners. 

 Luck had favored us decidedly in bring- 

 ing us into Agram on a Sunday morning. 



On Sundays, in this part of Europe, 

 the cities hold their markets. Not a bad 

 idea, for then the husband can accom- 

 pany his spouse to market and help bear 

 the heavy basket. 



Market time to a tourist, however, is 

 the best of all times for viewing the 

 native costumes of the peasants. In 

 Croatia every village and hamlet has its 

 particular costume. The costume varies 

 for young men and old men, for matron 

 and maid and dowager; but the same 

 style has obtained for the same period of 



time since the days, perhaps, of Hun- 

 yadi. So one who knows the coun- 

 try-sides can tell at once the girl from 

 Sissek from the vineyard lassie of Som- 

 obor, and she can tell you who has come 

 from Ogulin, where the moss grows 

 heavy on the roofs, and who makes her 

 home beside the Plitvica lakes, the sum- 

 mer resort of all Croatia. 



This market was the cleanest, fairest, 

 and brightest of all markets whereof we 

 know, and we have marketed from 

 Hopedale, up in Labrador, to Saloniki, 

 on the ^Egean. The stalls were long 

 benches, as some harvest home in Ohio. 

 Long aisles ran between, and in these 

 stood the peasants. The vegetables 

 which they offered had been arrayed in 

 neat piles or pyramids before them. 

 Every apple was polished, every basket 

 was immaculately clean. In Holland we 

 found they cleaned things to bring the 

 tourist ; here, however, touristry was 

 practically nil. 



Yonder, as we sauntered, was some 

 cheese on dainty plates of porcelain. Be- 

 side it was milk in a white jug, but with 

 a brown mottling. Up above, over each 

 stall, an immense canvas umbrella was 

 raised, and that, too, was white. It made 

 us think of the market at Strassburg. 



