EVERY MAN A FIGHTER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 101, 14 September 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

EVERY MAN A FIGHTER

IN MONTENEGRO. 0 Montenegro, the little Balkan State which is tackling Turkey, many times its size, was only recently elevated from a t principality to a kingdom, its ruler being ' j, Nicholas I, a iman of blood and iron and it of rugged, stern exterior. o The area of Montenegro is only 3846 square miles; hardly as big as some A us- x .tralian cattle Tuns, and it "has a popu- uJation dimished by emigration to about 250,000, of whom 15,000 are Mussulmans, 2 17,000 Roman Catholics, and the remain- , der Ortihodox Slavs. " _ Its aloofness, perched upon its inaccessible mountains, its age-long and always s successful struggles to preserve its in- * dependence, the martial character of its people, who go about their ordinary avocations armed to the teeth—these things seem to demand a certain archaic sftiteli- I ness in its government which would be f out of place in a more commonplace com- c of equal size. Nothing can be 8 so mediaeval as to he an anachronism in f that mountain eyrie with its untamable warriors and its primitive modes of life. * King Nicholas' State may be narrow, its * revenue may he small, its people may not be numerous, their subsistence may * be hardly won from a scanty soil, but it 1 is a State essentially distinct from all f around it, and boasting a 'history of strenuous simplicity and of glorious in- 1 dependence. ] I EAGER FOR THE FRAY. : The strangest thing about this auto- 1 cratiq country is tl\at, after the auto- • crat all men are equal. In Montenegro ' there are no class distinctions at all. ' Every male bears arms from the age of 1 12, and all the women can shoot. They 1 manufacture nothing but the things required for their housing and clothing, and import their firearms from England and Germany. When not stage-manag-ing family feuds, which are kept up with ; mediaeval zest, they breed pigs, and : make a kind of brandy from the small plums that grow on their mountain slopes. Like all mountain races, the Montengrins, says a recent writer, are madly enamored of freedom, and think war the best of national games. The bigger the foe the more they seem to enjoy it. Two or three years ago they were all agog to fight the Austrians. who took Bosna Serai from their friends the Servians. For several centuries they fought against the Turks, who had taken possession of the little kingdom, and after many privations and defeats they managed to drive the invadess out in 1878, when Turkey formally recognised their independence at the Treaty of Berlin. NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS. The Montenegrins present all the char- , aeteristics of a primitive race, as yet but , little affected bv modern civilisation. Sc- , 'ei'ety is still in that early stage at which personal valor is regarded as the high- ; est virtue, and warlike prowess constitutes the principal, if not the only claim to pre-eminence. They are brave, proud, chivalrous, and patriotic; on the other hand, they are vain, lazy, cruel and revengeful. They possess the domestic virtues of sobriety, cha'stity. and frugality, and well-mannered, affabß and hospitable, 'hough somewhat contemptuous of strainers. They are endowed in no small degree with the high flown poetic temperament of the Serbi and delight j in interminable recitation of their martial 0 deeds, whieh are sung to the strains of c the gnsla. a rudimentary one-stringed fiddle. Dancing is a favorite pastime. J Two characteristic forms are the. slow y and stately ring dance, in which it is j- usually performed by a circle of men; n and the liveliest measures for both sexes .o in which the couples face one another n leaping high into the air, while each man jf encourages his partner by rapid revolver firing Like most imaginative peoples, ly the Montenegrins are extremely superle stitutions, and belief in the vampire, demons, and fairies is almost universal, n- .The men are tall, often exceeding fift in lo height, muscular, and wonderfully active

merit when scaling their native rocks; their bearing is soldierlike and manly, though .somewhat theatrical. The women though freouently beautiful in youth, age rapidly, and are short and stunted, though strong, owing to ' the drudgery imposed on them from childhood.