484 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



music. The Czech Schaffarik says : 

 "Serbian song resembles the tune of the 

 violin ; old Slavonian, that of the or- 

 gan ; Polish, that of the guitar. Old 

 Slavonian sounds like the loud rush of 

 the mountain stream ; Polish, like the 

 sparkling and bubbling of a fountain ; 

 Serbian, like the quiet murmuring of a 

 streamlet in the valley." 



Few very rich, none very poor, a 

 pauper unknown before 1914, each 

 family owning its own homestead, how- 

 ever small, democratic in the extreme, 

 loving former Queen Natalie because 

 "she walks the streets bareheaded with 

 flowing hair," vivacious and quick in 

 movement, unsuspicious and open- 

 handed, equal to the Belgians in suffer- 

 ing, heroism, and glory. Out of the 

 furnace the Serbians are emerging, a 

 trustworthy, steadfast, self-reliant peo- 

 ple (see also Jugo-Slavia, page 485). 



THE: MONTENEGRINS * 



According to the Slavic legend, the 

 Almighty, when shaping the earth, car- 

 ried a great bag filled with mountains 

 which he was sowing as a farmer sows 

 grain. East of the Adriatic the bag 

 broke, the mountains fell out, took root 

 and produced the craggy masses of the 

 Tserna Gora, or Black Mountain, or 

 Monte Negro. 



The Montenegrins as a people are. the 

 incarnation of heroism and freedom. 

 After their kingdom was destroyed at 

 Kossova, a handful of Serbians, who 

 would neither emigrate nor submit, 

 took refuge in these mountains. Shut 

 off from outside help, ertirely sur- 

 rounded by Ottoman Turks, many times 

 attacked by apparently resistless armies 

 which they always defeated, scorning 

 even nominal allegiance to the Turk or 

 any other power, from 1389 to 1916 

 they maintained their savage independ- 

 ence. 



Resistance to the Turk was the domi- 

 nant motive of their social and political 

 life. Their ruler was a vladika or 

 bishop because, as sacrosanct, he would 

 be invulnerable to Moslem attacks or 

 bribes. Succession, which had been 

 from uncle to nephew, became heredi- 

 tary in 1851. 



The Sultan formally recognized their 

 independence in 1799. So did all Eu- 

 rope seventy-nine years later. 



This tiny State, after standing for 

 centuries as the only beacon light of 



* See also, in National Geographic 

 Magazine, "Where East Meets West" 

 (Dalmatia, Montenegro, and Herzego- 

 vina), by Marion Cruger Coffin (May, 

 1908) ; "East of the Adriatic" (Dalma- 

 tia, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Herzego- 

 vina), by Kenneth McKenzie (Decem- 

 ber, 1912). 



