Monday, by which time they have become

In Altorshowa and Xegotin, it is customary to renew the turf on graves on the morning of the second Monday after Easter; and on the afternoon of that day the young people assemble and twist green garlands: youths, each one with another, and maidens also, in the same manner, then enter into this alliance, whilst kissing through their garlands, which are afterwards exchanged. This first bond, howeverthey being yet quite young  lasts only till the succeeding year: it is not yet “brotherhood and sisterhood” for ever; only an initiatory preparation. On the following Easter

Monday, by which time they have become better acquainted, they cither confirm their original choice or make a new election.

This union concerns only the persons by whom it is formed; marriage is, on the contrary, regarded as an affair of interest to the whole family. The fathers of two houses meet, and settle the matter together; exchanging presents, which sometimes amount to a considerable value.

Thus, by a sort of purchase, is so useful a member of a household as a grown-up maiden surrendered by one to another. Her brother delivers the bride to the solemn procession which comes to conduct her to her new abode; and there she is received by the sister, or sister-in-law, of the bridegroom. She dresses a child, touches with a distaff the Avails which are so often to see her occupied with this implement, and carries bread, wine, and water, up to the table which it will become her daily duty to prepare: with these symbolical ceremonies she enters into the new community.

Her mouth is sealed by a piece of sugar, to denote that she should utter little, and only what is good. As yet she is only a stranger; and for a whole year she is termed the “betrothed.” By an assumption of continued bashfulness, prescribed by custom, she keeps apart, even from her husband. In the presence of others she scarcely converses with him; much less would a playful phrase be permitted from her lips. It is only when years have passed, and she has become the mother of grown-up children, that she in reality finds herself on an equality with other members of the family into which she has entered.

Considering the strong feeling of blood-relationship that prevails with the Servians, it is remarkable that the revenge of murder is unknown; especially as an indication of this feeling, common to nations of similar condition, is a prominent characteristic of the people of Montenegro, the race most nearly related to them. This may arise from the fact that powerful families, or races, are not found in Servia : they could not acquire, nor afterwards maintain their ascendancy, in consequence of the violent character of the national subjection.

The union of families into a community is a custom more of a political nature, than one founded on common origin or lineage. By the Turks, who considered murder rather a loss than a crime, the village in which a murder had been perpetrated was condemned to pay, as compensation, the price of blood, called Kriminci.nThis was fixed at1000 piastres.

Amongst the early Germans

The household requires but little assistance from strangers. The men raise their own buildings; construct, in their rude manner, their ploughs and waggons; prepare the yokes of their draught oxen; hoop their casks; and manufacture their shoes from rough leather. Their other clothing is prepared by the women ; who spin wool and flax, weave linen and woollen cloth, and understand the art of dyeing with madder. Their land yields the food they require ; so that salt is perhaps the only article they iind it necessary to purchase. The mechanics most in request by the villages are smiths, to make their tools. A mill belongs to several houses conjointly, and each house has its day for using it.

These family households, supplying all their own wants, and shut up each within itselfa state of things which was continued under the Turks, because the taxes were chiefly levied upon the households formed the basis of Servian nationality. Individual interest was thus merged, as it were, in that of the family.

No one commemorated the day of the saint whose name he bore, nor his own birthday; but each household had its tutelary saint, whose day they celebrated with mirth and festivity.

Amongst the early Germans, families were held together by a peculiar preference for the relations on the mother’s side; the mother’s brother being, according to ancient custom, a very important personage. In the Sclavonic-Servian tribe there prevails to a greater extent a strong and lively feeling of brotherly and sisterly affection : the brother is proud of having a sister; the sister swears by the name of her brother. A deceased husband is not publicly bewailed by his wife: the mournful office is performed by his mother and sisters, who also tend his grave.

In some parts a very strange custom prevails when one of two brothers dies, whose birthdays chance to fall in the same month; the survivor is fastened to the dead body, until he adopts in his deceased brother’s stead some stranger youth, by whom he is then released.

Corresponding to these notions, is one of the most peculiar institutions of the Servian tribe  “ The Brotherhood.” Persons unite with one another “ in the name of God and St. John,” for mutual fidelity and aid during their whole lives. A man, it is considered, will make the safest selection for his ** brother,” in choosing one, of whom he may at some time have dreamed that he had solicited assistance in some case of need. The allied designate themselves “ Brothers in God,” “ Brothers by choice,” Pobrcitimi. No ecclesiastical benediction is considered necessary for constituting this bond in Scrvia Proper.

Revenge in Cases of Murder

Servian Villages.  Tutelary Saints.  Brotherly and Sisterly Affection.  Mourning. Remarkable Custom on the Death of a Brother.  Institution of “ The Brotherhood Festival of the Garlands.  Marriage Ceremonies.  Revenge in Cases of Murder not known in Servia.  Village Communities. – Substitutes for Churches. Poverty of the Priesthood.  Confession.  Dependent state of the Monks.  Cloisters.  National Church.  Veneration for Nature.  Festival in honour of the Dead.  Custom of the Women on St. George’s Eve.  Whitsuntide.

The Festival of the Krulize.  The IVilis. Festival of St. John.  Harvest.  Procession of the Dodola, a Form of Invocation for Rain.  Custom on the Eve of St. Barbara.  Swearing by the Sun and by the Earth.  Popular Servian Toast or Sentiment.  Remarkable Religious Celebration of Christmas.  Belief in Vampyrcs and lfitches.  Personality of the Plague.  Powerful Influence of the Ifilis.  Servian Poetry.  National and Heroic Songs.  The Guslc.  Festival Meetings.  Domestic Life of the People.

Songs of Husbandry.  Amatory Verse. Celebration of Heroic Exploits.  Historical Ballads.  Mixture of the True and the Fabulous.  National Collection of Songs.  Wild Traditions.Deeds of Hunyad.

THE villages of Servia stretch far up into the gorges of the mountains, into the valleys formed by the rivers and streams, or into the depths of the forests. Sometimes, when consisting of forty or fifty houses, they spread over a space as extensive as that occupied by Vienna and its suburbs. The dwellings are isolated, at a distance one from another, and each contains within itself a separate community.

The real house is a room enclosed by loam walls, and covered with the dry bark of the lime, having the hearth in the centre. Around this room chambers are constructed  Clijet or AVajat often fitted up with polished boards, but without any fire-places. The house ostensibly belongs to the father and mother of the family; to whose use a separate sleeping-room is sometimes appropriated. The chambers are for the younger married people.

All the members of the family constitute but one household; they work and eat together, and in the winter evenings assemble around the fire. Even when the father dies, his sons, appointing one of their brothers, the best qualified amongst them, as master of the house (Stargeshina), remain together until too great an increase of the family renders a separation desirable. It is not unusual for one house to form an entire street.

The Turks lived in the towns

The Turks in the country  not only those of distinction, but others of lower rank who had gradually assembled around them  considered themselves the masters of the Baja. Not only did the Turks reserve for themselves the exercise of arms, but also the right of carrying on such trades as were in any way connected with Avar. Like our northern ancestors, or their OAVII oriental forefathers, amongst AArhom the son of a smith once founded a dynasty, many a Turk has been seen to turn back his silken sleeve, and shoe a horse ; still he regarded himself as a. kind of gentleman. Other occupations the Mussulmans left Avitli contempt to Christian mechanics : for instance, no Turk would have condescended to be a furrier. Every thing that they thought suitable and becoming  beautiful arms, rich dresses, magnificent houses  they claimed exclusively for themselves.

But the personal treatment of Christians Avas most oppressive. No Servian dared to ride into a toAvn on horseback: lie Avas only alloAvcd to appear on foot; and, to any Turk who might demand it, he Avas bound to render personal service. “When meeting a Turk on the road, it Avas his duty to halt, and make Avay for him; and if he happened to

carry small arms in defence against robbers, he was obliged to conceal them. To suffer injuries was his duty; to resent them was deemed a crime worthy of punishment.

Happily the constitution of the country made a separation of the two people possible. Towards the close of the last century, nothing would strike a foreigner passing through Servia more forcibly than the difference between the cities and the country. The Turks lived in the towns, large or small, and the fortresses; the Servians in the villages.

The Pachas, for their own advantage, would not suffer the Turks to roam singly about the country; and, in the existing state of things, the Servians had ample cause for avoiding the towns. Many a Servian attained the age of sixty without ever having seen a town.

Thus, from the distance at which the antagonist parties were kept, the national spirit of the Servians was maintained alive and unsubdued.

Above all things however

Correspond to the Italian Fuorus- riti, banditti, or to the Condotticri of some of the Spanish provinces. The consideration, that the rulers whoso administration they opposed were infidels, gave them a much stronger feeling of being in the right than the latter could have. The Ileyducs lay in ambush for such Turks as they knew would be passing the road, especially those sent with treasure to Constantinople.

Tins, however, did not prevent their claiming the reputation of honesty and fidelity. When two of them associated together, one was styled ArambasUa, captain or leader; and frequently they assembled in small bands. They had their Jatcitzi (concealers), who sheltered them, singly, in winter, and whom they served as day labourers or shepherds. With the spring they returned into the forests, and joined their bands’; and when one of them happened to be missing, they all in common considered themselves bound to avenge his death.

There is no doubt that the proceedings of these IIeyducs excited a certain ferment in the nation, awakening recollections of the past, and keeping alive the spirit of warfare. Up to this time, however, they had always been disregarded : frequently, also, the Christian population  who were not very conscientiously spared by them, and who always had to make good the losses they causedtook part against them.

Notwithstanding these disorders, the position of affairs first established  the supremacy of the followers of Islam and the subjection of the Christians was upon the whole maintained. The difference caused by religion was the more striking, as it was unconnected with difference of descent. The Spahis, at least,  though not in any way tracing their origin to the ancient nobility of the country  were mostly of Servian extraction and language.

However none regarded it as an act of arbitrary injustice, emanating from personal dislike, that the Christians should be held in exclusion from State affairs, from military command, and from public life. It had always been so: the system, as has been shown, was intimately connected with the principle of Islamism.

In the book of the “ Sultan’s Commands,” compiled by a chief magistrate of Bagdad, in the fifth century of the Hegira, the duties of the Giaours  that is, of those subjects who are not Moslems  are thus specified. “ They must be recognised by their dress; their dwellings must not be loftier than those of the Mussulmans ; the sound of their bells must not be heard; they must not ride either horses or dromedaries.” Even in the 18th century, a decree of Osmar was renewed, by which the “ Infidels ” are forbidden to study the learned Arabic, or to teach their children the Koran. Above all things, however, “they may not wear armsf;”

Mid this Avas so completely a matter of course, that it is scarcely ever mentioned afterwards. The Baja were considered a weaponless herd, whose duty was obedience and subjection. Such was in general the state of Scrvia in the latter half of the 18th century.

The distinction in episcopal offices

It is known also, that, in appointments to vacant Pachalics, money constituted, for a long time, the chief consideration ; and that wealthy Fanariotes, or Armenian bankers, on giving security for the payment of the sums of money to be raised in the respective districts for the Porte, exercised the greatest influence in the nomination of the Pachas: and then, by means of secretaries whom they as-signed to them, controlled their administration.

From Sheik El Islam the}’ bought patents for Kadis by hundreds, and sold them at a large profit to such candidates as had passed the juridical school and obtained the required degree. The distinction in episcopal offices consisted chiefly in this, that the Fanariotes could introduce their own brethren in faith.

These three offices, of Pacha, Kadi, and Bishop, in which the administration of judicial and eccle-siastical authority was vested, might all be obtained     ^

for money; and their holders indemnified them-selves against loss by exercising the power which they had over the people: the revenue of the Spaliis also constituted their pay for specific services.

Thus the country and the people may, in the language of political economy, be considered in the light of capital, the interest of which, taken at the highest rate, belonged to the government; who assigned it to some parties as pay for the protection of the country, but to others as rents farmed out of them.

The Raja, excluded from all share in the conduct of public affairs, appear only as persons to be ruled over; as the means wherewith to realise a revenue for the support of the very State which had subjugated them, and of providing for its soldiery, its officers, and even for the Court.

It was impossible, however, always to carry this arrangement of affairs fully into effect.

The Ottomans are often found in dissension one with another. The Spaliis, living constantly in the -K cAt country, had an interest distinct from that of the Pachas, who resided there only for a short time; and the Janissaries, strong by the united body which they form throughout the Empire, were opposed to both.

So long as they kept each other in check all went well; otherwise, each asserted his claim, which he considered as a personal right, with all the violence he could command. Nor were the Christians uniformly submissive : such as refused to appear before the Kadi, or whom the Turks threatened with deathwhether on account of some fault, or because they wished to oppress them without any legal pretextfled into the forests and turned Jlcyducs or robbers.

The interest is raised from various

The religious affairs of the Christians were administered by their Bishop: but he also, since the Bishopric had passed to the Greeks, had a closer relation to the state authorities than to his flock. Even in his external appearance he adopted the Turkish style. He might be seen riding, in sumptuous apparel, equipped with the insignia of power granted him by the berate of the Grand Signior  the sword and the busdoiccin.

But what gave importance to his office was its pecuniary value.

The Patriarchate at Constantinoplethe Holy Churchforms a commercial institution or bank, in which capitalists are well disposed to invest their money; and its means are used to provide the different tributes to the Porte, regular or irregular, and the large presents with which it is customary to purchase the favour of members of the government. The interest is raised from various sources of revenue; but chiefly from contributions by the Bishops. Every Bishop, when first appointed, must acknowledge himself debtor for a certain sum, which is regulated according to the revenues of his diocese, and must give bond for the exact payment of the interest on this sum  These bonds, called court- bonds, pass from hand to hand as a sort of public stock, and are in much estimation ; since the representative of the Patriarch or Bishop, in whose name they are drawn, dares not be backward in his payment of the interest.

It would not be advisable for the Bishops to pay off the capital for which they have acknowledged themselves indebted, as by that means they would bring the administration of the Holy Church into embarrassment. After their death, the Church is responsible for the amount.

As the Bishops were under the necessity of expending considerable sums to maintain their rank and dignity amongst the nobility, their administration, oppressive even to the Greek Baja, became much more so to the Servians, by whom they were regarded as strangers.

They not only made the priests whom they ordained pay purchase-money for which they referrcd them to their parish-income, but, in Servia, they also raised a peculiar tax called Dimnitza, or chimney-tax, from every household. This impost was levied by virtue of a firman which authorised its collection by armed officials, and enforced it in preference to any opposing claim of the landlords.

 

The administration of the Pachalic

But the Spaliis cannot properly be considered as a class of nobles. In the villages they had neither estates nor dwellings of their own : they had no right to jurisdiction or to feudal service; they were not allowed to eject the tenantry by force, nor could they even forbid them from removing and settling elsewhere. What they had to demand was what might be termed an hereditary stipend, in return for which the duty of serving in war remained unaltered. Xo real rights of property were ever bestowed on them: for a specific service a certain revenue was granted them.

The Grand Signior reserved for himself a number of villages. In addition to this, the Pacha had to be provided for; and the administration of the Pachalic also rendered several branches of revenue necessary.

Feudal services, in general, were very burthen- some ; particularly at first: it appears that the peasants of every village in Servia had to render bond service to the Pacha one hundred days in each year. In Constantinople a register was kept of all the houses in the empire liable to such service. But nothing more is heard of exactions so oppressive as we approach the close of the eighteenth century: even a produce-tax on corn, which the Pacha had formerly been accustomed to collect about Christmas, had fallen into disuetude.

On the other hand, however, he required annually a sum of money from the country. Generally, the amount was regulated by custom; but it could be increased according to circumstances. After consultation with the Kneses, the tax was imposed proportion- ably on the respective districts, and also on the villages and households in the districts.  No register of landed property was in use ; the circumstances of the occupiers, as they happened to be generally and personally known, being taken as the criterion by which they were rated.

Of this revenue, a portion was sent to Constantinople ; but it served chiefly to supply the wants of the province, such as the pay of the Janissaries, &c. The Janissaries, however, since a share of the duties on imports had been assigned to them, had devoted f themselves at the same time to trade, and had become the richest and most influential class in the country.

The Grand Signior was considered not only as the chief in war, but as the Caliph of the Prophet, the administrator of the Koran, in which religion and law are blended. When, in 1784, he was obliged to renounce the temporal dominion of the Crimea, he yet reserved for himself the spiritual authority, and continued to send Mollas and Kadis thither to exercise it.

For Scrvia, a Mollah of the second rank resided in Belgrade. In smaller towns there were Ivadis, who dispensed justice to Mussulmans as well as to Christians. For their income, the Kadis had chiefly to look to the latter; to the revenue accruing to them, in their judicial capacity, from grants of administration on the death of heads of families, and from the dues on commerce; and to the fees arising from actions brought before them.

Jt is obvious that disturbances must have been welcome to them. With the Kadi was associated a Mussulman officer, appointed by the Pacha, to execute his judgments; and who, having the executive power, obtained greater consideration than the peaceful judge.

The Turks to set foot on their domain

To support and to serve the army of the Faithful who had settled in the countrya warrior-caste whose privileges resulted from their religionwas, in Servia, as in all the other provinces of Turkey, the lot of the ltnja. They were compelled to till the land, and to pay the taxes. Let us consider what these were.

The subjectwho, in the event of proving refractory, would be doomed to death or imprisonment pays poll-money to the Sultan, according to the ordinances of the Koran: “ Oppress them,” it is said therein, concerning the Infidels, “until they pay poll-tax and are humbled.”

To this verse of the Koran the Turkish sultans have always appealed, when at any time they, like Achmet 11., have found themselves under the necessity of enacting new laws regarding taxation.* Every male, from seven years of age, is obliged to pay the poll-tax to the end of his days. The tesl’cres, or stamped receipts, which are sent from Constantinople, serve at once as proofs of acknowledged submission, as certificates for protection, and as passports for those by whom they are received.

In the Servian territories there were still some districts remaining under Christian Kneses, or princes; for instance, the Krciina, which was under the hereditary dominion of the Karapand- shitsch, who enjoyed princely authority. And although it may not be true that they possessed the privilege of forbidding any shod horse belonging to the Turks to set foot on their domain, they had the right of refusing to allow a Spahi or a native Turk to settle on their land.

They paid their customary tribute to a Beg, who resided in Kladowo. In a nearly similar manner the Rash- kowitsches for some time had possession of Stariwla. Ivliutsch was governed by elective Ivneses. In the Paclmlic of Belgrade, however, which by way of pre-eminence was called Serfwijaleti, the Spahis were regarded as the proprietors of the villages.

Compared with former times, the Spahis had this advantage, that their rights had by degrees become hereditary: but hence it followed that these were more rigidly fixed than formerty.

They received a tithe of all that the field, vineyard, or beehive produced ; and also a small tax on each head of cattle. Moreover, they had a right to demand for themselves a tax, called Glawnitza, of two piastres, from every married couple. To avoid unpleasant inquiries into the extent of their income, many persons added a portion of the tithe to the Glawnitza. In some parts of the country the people agreed to pay the Spahis for each married couple, whether rich or poor, ten piastres a year in full of all dues. This was at once accepted, as it enabled the Spahis to ascertain the amount on which they might annually reckon.

The need not inquire further how this uncongeniality

Thou wilt not find out any means of enlightening him whom God delivers over to error.” if, as it has been affirmed, a Sultan once entertained the thought of extirpating his Christian subjects, he must have been deterred from the act by reflecting that their services were indispensable to him. From this opposition of belief and unbelief proceeds the whole political system of the Turkish Empire. The two principles of its foundation will always be antagonistic to each other. No hope of forming a united nation can consequently be entertained.

The need not inquire further how this uncongeniality is connected with the opposite principles of the two religions: Christianity is, in its very essence, of a popular nature; and when diffusing its doctrines over heathen nations, first gained ground amongst the people; whilst Islamism, from its very commencement, was promulgated by the sword. Nor need we inquire how this antagonism is connected with the primitive truth of the one faith  at times unseen, but always penetrating  and the falsehood of the other: enough that it is so, and that this difference marks the distinctive character of the two systems.

Christianity endeavours to convert nations; Islamism to conquer the world : ‘! The earth is the Lord’s, and he bestows it on whom he chooses.”

That in the ancient Koman Empire appears to be a judicial hypothesis  namely, that the actual property in land belongs either to the State or the Emperor, and only its occupation and use to the individual,is, in the Ottoman Empire, a positive reality: grounded on the religious belief that “ all the land belongs to the Caliph, the Shadow and Vicegerent of God on earth.’5  When he ful- filled the will of God and of the Prophet, in spreading the pure faith, he distributed the lands which he conquered amongst the armies of the “ Faithful,” who had assisted him in his enterprises : to some, indeed, to hold in hereditary possession, but to the greater part as their pay, in the form of a fief.

Whatever changes may have been effected in more peaceful times, the principle of this arrangement remained in force, as it was fixed from the first. The entire extent of the Ottoman Empire was, in the eighteenth century, as well as in the sixteenth, parcelled out amongst the Timarlis and Spaliis; of whom there are said to have been 132,000.f

The band of Janissaries, computed to consist of 150,000 registered members  although it was really composed of a much smaller number in actual serviceformed a large community, binding together all the provinces of the Empire. The Ortas of the division Dshemaat, who always had the privilege, attended on the Pachas in the fortresses, the keys of which were entrusted to their care.