friends there within a week's journey from London.

Another railway crosses the Lebanon mountains from Beyrout, and proceeds to Damascus, and thence extends, keeping to the east of the Jordan, to Mecca, in Arabia, the Holy City of the Moslems. This line is called the Sacred or Pilgrim railway, because it conveys large numbers of pilgrims to their shrine. It was built nearly entirely out of the contributions of the faithful, both in money and in free labour.

CHAPTER II

ALBANIANS, POMAKS, TARTARS, AND BULGARIANS

Having briefly narrated the history of the rise and decline of the Ottoman Empire, it may be interesting to have a peep at the various races and nationalities which at present constitute it.

Beginning with Turkey in Europe, we have the Albanians, who occupy the mountainous country north of Greece, and also Albania and Epirus on the eastern shore of the Adriatic. They are a brave, haughty, liberty-loving, but turbulent people, whom some maintain to be the descendants of the ancient Pelasgi, who originally occupied Greece. They boast of having given Alexander the Great to the world. The Albanians were never properly conquered by the Turks, and, excepting those inhabiting the lowlands, they do very much what they please, and even at this moment they are defying the Turkish troops sent to disarm them, and bring them under subjection. Some are Mahomedans, others are Roman Catholics, and others belong to the Greek Church. They have a language of their own, but until quite recently they had no alphabet for it, and it was only within the last forty years that a Scotsman, the agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, endowed them with one, and printed the Scriptures in their tongue. It is this alphabet that the Turks are now trying to suppress by substituting the Arabic, and the Albanians are fighting to maintain. The national dress of the Albanians is a white kilted petticoat coming down to their knees, with a scarlet or purple embroidered vest, and a corresponding sleeveless jacket worn over a white shirt with wide sleeves. The waist is girded with a broad silken band folded many times round the body. Embroidered leggings, corresponding in colour with the jacket, protect the legs, and a red cap, called a fez, with a silken blue tassel, covers the head.

So attached are they to their national costume that an attempt made by Sultan Mahmoud to forbid it led to an insurrection in the same way that the edict in 1747 to do away with the kilts and tartans in the Scottish Highlands created the troubles which followed the rebellion. Naturally, the peasants cannot afford costly material, and their dress consists of a closely-woven, home-spun tweed called shayiak, which is very warm and enduring. They wear a skull-cap of the same material, shayiak knickers and leggings, and sandals instead of shoes. Over this girdle they wear a broad cartridge-belt, which bristles with old-fashioned pistols and formidable daggers.

The Albanians are a nation of clans, implacable in their hatred and constant in their friendships. Their covenant of friendship is cemented by tasting a drop of each other's blood, and from that moment they consider themselves blood kinsmen, and sworn to befriend, defend, or avenge each other.

Like the Israelites of old, the blood avenger pursues the murderer of his friend or clansman until he finds him, and if he should fail to do so during his lifetime, his children are bound to act on his behalf. You can thus understand that in accordance with this law of "vendetta," as they call it, whole families become sometimes exterminated.

Another peculiar method of establishing friendships is by securing the assent of an influential person to stand as godfather to children at baptism. It involves no spiritual obligations, as may be seen from the fact that these godfathers are frequently Mussulmans, but is recognized as a social rite whereby the two families become relations. Albania being a poor country, a large number of its Moslem population join the Turkish army as soldiers or officers, this vocation being congenial with their tastes. Others go to Constantinople or other large towns, and engage in an occupation very different from that of warriors—namely, that of manufacturing and selling cakes, called simits, and an Albanian speciality of confection called halva. It resembles nougat, and is prepared with walnuts or sesame seeds. These commodities are temptingly arranged on large circular trays, which they poise very adroitly on their heads by means of a small cushion resembling a quoit. You will see, under the heading of "Simitji," a picture of this kind of tray, and the tripod upon which it is rested. The seller in the picture is not, however, an Albanian, but a Turk from Anatolia.

These halvagis, as they are called, are great favourites of boys and girls, and of grown-up persons too, and are to be met with at every gathering of people. Albanians also go out as vegetable-gardeners and fruit-sellers, and deal in the remarkably beautiful apple which grows so splendidly in their native country.

The Turks call the Albanians Arnaouts, and many a village occupied by them has in consequence been named Arnaoutkioy, the village of the Albanian.

Another occupation in which they engage is that of shepherds, and among some of this craft I may mention those of the Sultan's flock of sheep on Mount Olympus, to which I have already alluded. They keep huge fierce dogs, which are a terror not only to wolves and bears, but also to human beings whom they may encounter. So daring and powerful are shepherd-dogs of this description that they have been known to tear riders down from the saddle. The writer might once have undergone this fate were it not for the powerful dog-whip which he carried on the occasion of an attack, and to the fact that his horse finally bolted with him until he was some miles from the field of danger.

To shoot one of these dogs is at the peril of your life, for the Albanian law of vendetta seems to extend to avenging their dogs. There is a strong suspicion that an Englishman, who made the ascent of Olympus some twenty years ago, was murdered by these shepherds for shooting one of these creatures in self-defence. On another occasion the captain of one of our ironclads, while shooting in that neighbourhood, had occasion to kill a dog which attacked him, whereupon he was himself felled to the ground by the axe of the shepherd.

Turkish shepherd-dogs, though savage and powerful, have none of the finer instincts of our collies; they will not bring round the sheep in accordance with the shepherd's directions; they are only fighters, and often turn and rend their masters.

It is interesting to watch, as I have done, the yearly migrations of the Albanian shepherds to and from Olympus. My home lay at the foot of the mountain, and one summer's night, when the moon was full, I was waked by the sound of sonorous voices, and the barking of dogs, and bleating of rams. Gradually the sounds became louder, and I could hear the tinkling of bells and finally the tramp of thousands of little feet pattering past my door. To the bleating of the rams was added the shriller cry of the ewes and the feebler notes of the lambs, and, rushing to the window, I could see the whole procession—sheep and shepherd—winding its way upwards. It was a weird sight, those shepherds in their heavy capotes of sheepskin, and their shadows reflected on the mountain, and gave one the impression of so many spectres gliding in the moonlight. The procession passed along, the bleating, the tinkling, the barking, the shouting became fainter, and finally the mountain returned to its silence primeval, and when I awoke in the morning I could not help wondering if it had not all been a dream.