Photograph by F. J. Koch 



ONE FAMILY, OR CI, AN, OF ALBANIANS 



In certain remote mountain districts of Albania, the tribal law, known as the Canon of 

 Lek (a legendary lawgiver), still obtains in full force. By this law a man is complete master 

 in his own house and may even kill his wife or children. Marriages are frequently arranged 

 in infancy and may be consummated when the girl becomes 14 years of age. Among moun- 

 tain clans the women till the soil in the valleys while the men guard the flocks on the hill- 

 sides. 



the case of a little American school for 

 girls at Koritza, which I visited. 



In the clays of the Turk there were pri- 

 mary and secondary schools in some of 

 the towns, and instruction in the Koran 

 was given in the village mosques, but 

 neither reading nor writing taught. 



ALBANIA UNDFR THF, AUSTRIANS 



It is true that at Scutari a college and 

 a seminary were established, with the aid 

 of the Austrian Government; the Fran- 

 ciscans had several primary schools and 

 three lay schools were supported by the 

 Italian Government, in its endeavor, even 

 before the occupation, to educate the 

 people. In all these institutions Italian 

 was the language of instruction. The 

 priests of the Greek Church, upon whom 

 the rural population depended for instruc- 

 tion, were often deplorably ignorant. 



Of the Albanians north of the Allied 

 lines no information is, of course, avail- 

 able, and the attitude of the Austrian, the 

 German, and the Bulgar toward these 

 unfortunate people is an unknown story, 

 a hard one, I am inclined to think, from 

 the rumors of hardship and forced labor 

 which are current. 



Though no census of population has 

 been taken, it is estimated that the Alba- 

 nians as a whole number some two and a 

 half million people.* Their home land is 

 a magnificent country, with its chaos of 

 grand mountains, deep and fertile val- 

 leys, and beautiful streams — a region 

 without forests, almost without wood- 

 lands, it is true, but superb in its stern 

 majesty. 



* An estimate given me in conversation in 

 Albania as covering the entire race. It may be 

 an overestimate. 



