J, A \ n AND WATKR. March 16, kjiO. 
FREEBOOTERS OF THE BALKANS. 
Bv Jan Gordon. 
IMr. Jan Cutnlini, lite a filer of this diin/e. acled us eir^iiteer 
to Dr. Berry's Serbian Mission from the Koyal Free 
Hospital. He was in the Balkans for six months 
and mure, and travelled widely both in Serbia and 
M onlcne\;,ro , taking part in the great retreat. He 
and his wife, aho uas also attached to the Mission. 
have fust piihlished, throuf^h' Messrs. Smith Elder and 
Co., an account of their wanderings entitled " The 
Luck of Thirteen," illustrated bv fhcmsel.'rs. bn/li oi 
them bein'^ artists. 
IN niodtTn armu-s wc liavt- now discarded the frec- 
boottr, but in the Balkan States they have not 
yet learned that the 1 ndisciplincd auxiliary is of 
little use in the warfare of to-day, and here the 
( oniitaji have a reeof^nised military position. Perhaps 
in a way one is \\r()nf( in su^j^esting that we have completely 
tliscarded, for the (omitaji is after all only a bold spy. a 
spy who would use force rather than cunning, who employs 
a bomb instead of gold. Even in peace time in the 
Balkans they fringe the frontiers like a nimbus round the 
moon fortelling future storms. I-'or them is no middle 
course between death or honour, as a rule they nc.'ver are 
made |)risoners, and 1 have personal recollections of three 
such Spartan-. 
Georgcvitch. 
Whin I knew iiim deorgevitch was military store- 
keejx-r to Vrnjatdika Banja. No position could have 
become him better, he was an ideal storekeeper — and, 
was also gerant of the hydropathic hotel which we later 
turned into a hospital. He was young, plump, and genial. 
On ordinary cU-ys clothed in Serbian uniform, he was, 
sa\-e for his statinc,. umioticeable. But on Sunday, 
arrayed in his show clothes and sallying out to attract the 
frncics of the ladies who were health resorting, Georgcvitch 
was a sight for " nuts " to weep at. To see him, his plump 
iigure encased in a very tight fitting black tail coat with 
l)raidcd edges, brilliant waistcoat, violently striped 
Irou-ers, patent leather boots with cloth tops, little 
patterns worked in between the leather and the cloth, was 
to see what the modern Serb can do when he tries. His 
hat, a bowler with a generous brim. Was always a size 
too small and perched at the angle which he thought the 
most attractive. At any rate Georgcvitch was never 
deserted, but let us hope that the rumour of his courage 
attracted mo'c than his personal appearance. One snowy 
Sunday some girls maliciously snowballed him when he 
was dressed in his best clothes. He gave a howl of elephan- 
tine laughter, stooped — to the grave danger of his coat — 
])ieked up in his enormous hands a lump of snow and with 
it laid one of his aggressors flat. 
One morning Georgcvilch presented himself at our 
hospital and demanded to see a yiatient. The two talked 
violently for a while, and when (ieorgevitch came away 
a tear was glistening at the corner of his eye. He said 
to me : " Tliat man was my comrade. A great big man 
he was, and now look at him, all skin, and bones inside — 
nothing else. We were Comitaj together. Ya ! " The 
tear had disappeared and his eye gleamed with another 
llame. " HeiT Ciott, that is a life " he cried, " two loaves 
»f bread per man and then — Forwards, always For- 
wards." " Imagine, " he clutched my arm, " adark night ; 
\-ou go silently, silently through the trees, and there 
before you is an enemy outpost. \'ou pull f)ut J'our 
bombs, see ! " He swung round to his hip pocket and 
shewed me a smallish square cast iron bo,\ at one end of 
which was a brass cap. He unscrewed the cap, and 
■ pointed to a pin which projected from the case. " You 
see that pin, well you hit it — ^count one, two, three, four, 
and at five, throw it. Ah then. Bouin ! Bourn ! 
Bourn ! " he waved his hands wildly. " They fly, we run 
after them, always throwing. Bourn ! Bourn ! That is 
me 
Eh 
" We take no prisoners," he went on, " they take 
no prisoners, and from two hundred of us only twenty- 
three remain — a fine man that one. Ya." 
But his comrade was not, in hospital, the wonderful 
hero that Georgcvitch had pictured him ; pcrliaps the 
jiowcr (if bearing pain re()uires <|ualities other than baltle- 
lield bravery. At any rate my wife had nicknamed him 
the " Big child " to tlie great joy of his comrades, because 
he would howl with agony before the doctor had ap- 
proached his bed. He himself adopted the name and 
would pathetically say to her, " Big Child hasn't got any 
cigarettes. Sister." 
Georgcvitch had a beautiful horse and an English- 
made saddle of which he was inordinately proud. One 
day he was appointed captain of cavalry, and a few days 
later rode away. How many maidens wept for his going ? 
Another Comitaj. 
My secfind Comitaj is nameless. After two nights in 
a train I stmnbled out at a wayside station seeking stronK 
Turkish coffee with which is banish sleep from my un- 
satisfied eyelids. Aft inn lay over the way and altiiough 
it was 3 a.m. I opened the door and entered, but staggered 
hack gasping for breath. The floor of the big dining hall 
was heaped with bundles of rags. At first sight it was the 
moonlight flitting of a rag and bone merchant, then when 
one saw the faces there, and here arms and legs, it was 
more like an Armenian massacre. It smelt like a massacre 
too, a massacre several days gone, for the windows 
liad been tight shut all night and there must have been 
fifty soldiers sleeping there. 1 (ordered a table in the 
fresh morning air without, and presently as I was sipping 
my coffee he came out to me. He was gorgeously drunk, 
and evidently had been so all night. Around his coat he 
had a thick leather belt containing si.x bombs, <.m either 
hip was a revolver, also sword, dagger and bayonet, and 
a rifle was on liis back ; he seemed to a military sense 
akin to what those old fashioned mountebanks who used 
to carry and to play sinuiltaneously drum and triangle, 
concertina, bc>lls, pan-pipes and cymbals are to the musical. 
\\'e had little intercoiuse, for alcohol had erected a 
barrier between us, and I need my Serbian spoken slow 
and distinct. Still there he is, a picture of the apotheosis 
of warfare and by now he must have been satisfied. In 
opposition to these I place the portrait of Nikolo Pavlo- 
vitch. 
Nikolo Pavlovitch. 
For five days he was our cicerone, appointed by Marko 
Petrovitch, governor of Ipek and brother to the King of 
Montenegro. Pavlovitch was a large spare man with 
black hair and moustache, keen generous looking eyes, 
and the most beautiful mouth 1 have ever seen. His 
large frame was clothed in a French fireman's uniform — 
the French sent all their old imiforms to Montenegro — 
and though it was several sizes too small for him it could 
not hide his native dignity. He spoke American. He 
explained us the Comitaj as a kind of vigilance committee 
instituted in order to keep down the excesses of the 
Turkish rulers of the Serbian populace. In Macedonia 
especially there were Serbian, Bulgarian, and (ireek 
Comitaji, and to the joy of the Turk they occasionallj' 
would fall foul t)f each other. 
" Ah ! dis ere place," he said once, " 'ad de Turks 
for bosses an dey did jess wat dey like, ^\'e kip 'em in 
order, you bet. Say one Turk feller he carry off Christian 
gals inter is areem ; we shoot 'im up — or one line night. 
Mister Jim, 'e dissapear. So ! " he flicked a finger 
across his throat, " dey know where a goone to, and dat 
kip em feared. Say ! judge e make too much graft. We 
fix im too sure ! Wa judge 'n jury 'n execurta all in one, 
dat make 'm leave our gals alone. I'm tellin yer ! " 
There were educated men amongst the Comitaj, 
in fact the greatfcr proportion, Nikolo Pavlovitch told us. 
He was remarkably intelligent and tho' f>orn a peasant had 
educated himself and read English better than he spoke it. 
His favourite author was Jules Verne, and " Round the 
World in Eighty Days " he judged a masterpiece, and 
" Jane Eyre " came second. Twice he had been caught 
by the Turks; the first time, although they had shot him 
in fifteen places, yet he escaped, was hidden by some 
Serbian women and was cured. He explained that in 
Macedonia a Comitaj could have anything he desired and 
