SERVIANS IN CAMP.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 189, 10 November 1876, Page 12

SERVIANS IN CAMP.

The special correspondent of the London ' Standard' at Belgrade gives the following description of the Servians in canxu at Topchider: — * "Twenty minutes' walk from the hospital is the beginning of a sloping plain, and there lies the camp. The first view of it was startling ; the wildest dreams of the most skilful arranger of masquerades never approached thia varied and lively picture. At theextreme left were a number of covered carts, drawn by animals which in size resembled dogs, when compared with our dray horses. These carts were most of them driven by boys, old men or young girls, and contained the baggage of the division; some of them had also casks of rahieh (spirits), and a crowd of thirsty militiamen surrounded these.

"The men, when not exercising in companies, were either lying down or standing about in little groups. All of them almost without exception between the age of forty and fif ty-— wore the dress of the Servian peasants — a short jacket of gray linen or coarse brown cloth, wide trousers reaching to the knee, looking like a sack behind, some thick colored material bound round the leg from the knee downward, and their feet enveloped in all sorts of rags, thrust into sandals made of reddish brown untanned leather, and bound by straps — a very practical covering for the feet, but often of colossal dimensions. A leathern girdle, or red shawl of great length, is worn round the waist. Many have revolvers stuck in the former, from which a number of straps hang down, and to these are attached knives, tinder for striking a light, and other articles considered indispensable by the Servians. Instead of a knapsack, they have only the ordinary thick woollen sacks, so often to be seen hano-ino-on the backs of the horses ; these had been well filled by th« wives of the men with bread, mutton, cheese, and plenty of onions and leaks — the latter a choice delicacy among the Servians, the dreadful odor of which makes the mehanes (inns) almost uninhabitable to European travellers.

" Finally, every one had the national drinking vessel ba,n<nn<y at his side — a gourd hollowed out in the shape of two cylinders united by a ball. The gourd bears a great deal of knocking about is light, and keeps the fluids it contains fresh. A few of the men were in European dress, except that sandals were worn instead of boots, and there were also Roumanians and Zingaris in lon. 01 shirts of coarse linen, worn outside the trousers, and Bulgarians (Roumanians and Bulgarians come from East Servia) in thick woollen coats, which years ago had been white. The gpysies were very numerous! all in the Servian dress, but easily to be recognised by their dark skins, the dozens of gold rings on their fingers, and the laro-e families that surrounded them. The State supplies each of the militiamen with a new gray military cloak of Austrian cut, manufactured in that country; a blue cap, also copied from the Austrians • an ammunition pouch, and another little one for percussion capsi both attached to a black strap round the waist; and an old HussianWmusket, with a three edged bayonet."