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THE NATIONAL/ GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



From the heights where they graze 

 their flocks in summer, the Rumani de- 

 scend into the valleys in winter ; and on 

 the road men, women, and children, sur- 

 rounded by their hundreds of sheep and 

 goats in search of grazing lands, form a 

 picture of nomad life that reminds us of 

 the days of Abraham. 



There are said to be some 80,000 of 

 these Rumani ; but who really knows their 

 number, scattered as they are over hun- 

 dreds of mountain peaks, in inaccessible 

 Villages or caves and moving from place 

 to place ? 



Towns oe southern Albania 



The towns of southern Albania are few 

 and, though strange and picturesque in 

 appearance, are in reality poor in com- 

 fort. Of cities there are not any. Ko- 

 ritza, with some 20,000 people, is the 

 largest place, but it is far from being a 

 city. However, if the towns are some- 

 what mean and squalid, they are interest- 

 ing to the eye and have the charm of old- 

 world quaintness. There are but four 

 worth mentioning: Arjirokastro, so old, 

 at least in appearance, that its origin falls 

 back into the mists of time ; the pleasant 

 village of Premati, lying in a fertile valley 

 along the river Viosa ; Koritza, held by 

 the French * and Valona, clean and thriv- 

 ing under the Italian army. 



They are all pleasant places to look 

 upon, nestling among the mountains, in 

 the valleys, and by the sea, with their old 

 gray walls and roofs of stone dotted with 

 storks ; but they possess none of the 

 comforts or conveniences of modern life. 



Such matter-of-fact things as trams, 

 hotels, or cafes do not exist in Albanian 

 towns and would seem wholly out of 

 place. Water is drawn from the wells 

 as it was 4,000 years ago, or maybe from 

 some near-by stream. Inns are repre- 

 sented by the khan, a stone building, half 

 house, half stable, where caravans and 

 pack trains stop to rest. 



Albania belongs to a time as far back 

 as the annals of the world can reach and 

 is as primitive as if it were in central 

 China, almost as difficult to penetrate as 

 Tibet itself. It is a land unfamiliar to the 

 traveler and shunned by the tourist of to- 

 day. 



This was not always so, however, for 

 along the Adriatic coast and behind the 

 mountains that face the sea are many 

 relics of the golden days of Venice and 

 even some traces of Roman occupation. 

 We know that Venice once highly prized 

 the western shores of this beautiful 

 region, and the sway of the Mistress of 

 the Adriatic in medieval times is attested 

 not merely by the fortress, strong for its* 

 day, which defended the roadstead of 

 Porto Palermo, and by the Lion of St. 

 Mark, roughly carved in the solid rock 

 above the village of Vuno in the Chimara, 

 but by the remains of many castles upon 

 the hills. 



Above Arjirokastro and above Valona 

 stand two of these Venetian ruins ; but 

 the greatest castle in Albania was the one 

 whose ruins I saw in the old town of 

 Tepeleni. It was not Venetian, but the 

 birthplace of Ali -Bey, the great Albanian 

 leader, who afterward became a Turkish 

 Pasha of three tails. Beside the greater 

 ruins of this old castle stands the crumb- 

 ling town, on the banks of the brawling 

 Viosa at its junction with the Zrinos and 

 facing a mountain gorge which is a gate- 

 way to Macedonia, where once a Roman 

 legion defeated the Eastern hordes. 



THE PICTURESQUE MOUNTAIN VHXAGES 



If the three or four centers of popula- 

 tion in southern Albania are a little dis- 

 appointing as cities, this is not true of the 

 country or of the picturesque villages 

 which gather like gray splashes upon the 

 grayer hills, where they appear to have 

 nestled since the beginning of time. Rough 

 stone huts they are for the most part,, 

 with flat stone roofs. For purposes of 

 defense, they are usually situated half way 

 up the lower hills, and the houses and out- 

 buildings are often surrounded by strong 

 stone walls. 



The valleys are rich and well cultivated, 

 chiefly by the women, but present a deso- 

 late, deserted appearance, except in the 

 daylight working hours. Not a farm- 

 house nor a stable is to be seen amidst all 

 the fertile acres. The crops cannot be 

 stolen ; no bandit would think of destroy- 

 ing them, and so they are left unguarded. 



Both the people and country of Al- 

 bania strongly remind the stranger of 



