Dalmatians

“ Cattle-rearing, seafaring and fisheries are the chief industries. Besides Dalmatians, the people are made up of Italians, Albanians, Germans and Jews. The Dalmatians are a fine race of men, bold and brave as seamen and soldiers, and formerly were the main support of the military power of Venice. The cities are almost all on the coast. ”

“ Against the Taurisci and Iapudes and Dalmatians and Pannonians you yourselves now before me battled most zealously and frequently for some few walls and desert land; you subdued all of them though they are admittedly a most warlike race; and, by Jupiter, against Sextus also, for Sicily merely, and against this very Antony, for Mutina merely, you carried on a similar struggle, so that you came out victorious over both. ”

“ If the sea coast were watched too carefully for them to get away by boat, there was a wild mountainous district behind, where a man could hide among the rocky crags undisturbed until the hue and cry after him had died down. Just as the Bohemians near the German frontier were always inclined to be restive, and the Government more or less obliged to take a lenient view of their offences, so the Dalmatians were seldom subjected to persecution. Austria-Hungary never let off her wrath on those able to defend themselves. ”

“ The Dalmatian Croats, as the most virile and stubborn element in the race, have always formed the vanguard of political thought, but it is to Agram that they have always turned for the necessary backing, and it is the peasantry of Croatia who have always borne the brunt of every attempt at repression. Latterly the Dalmatians have been the soul of the student movement, which plays so vital a part in recent political development. ”

“ While the neighbouring peoples had already attained a high degree of culture, the Dalmatians were as yet unacquainted with money, and divided their land, without recognizing any special right of property in it, afresh every eight years among the members of the community. ”

“ The citizens, being enraged at him, would accept neither the one nor the other.
Next the Romans made a campaign against the Dalmatians. This race consists of Illyrians who dwell along the Ionian Gulf, some of whom the Greeks used to call Taulantii, and part of them are close to Dyrrachium. The cause of the war was that they had been abusing some of their neighbors who were in a league of friendship with the Romans, and when the Romans joined an embassy in their behalf the Dalmatians returned an answer that was not respectful, and even arrested and killed the envoys of the other nations. ”

“ In many cities they manage restaurants. The exceptional shrewdness of the Dalmatians is in bold contrast to their illiteracy. They get on amazingly in spite of their lack of education. Once they have determined to remain in this country, they take to American ways more readily than do the other southern Slavs.
Croatia, too, has its men of the sea, but in America most of the immigrants of this race are to be found in the mines and coke furnaces of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In New York City there are some 15,000 Croatian mechanics and longshoremen. ”

“ Not far from the rocky island of Melada, which the Dalmatians say is the Melita of the Scriptures, the Spera in Dio met with very stormy weather and baffling winds. Thereabouts one rough and cloudy night, when not only Milenko but almost all the men were on deck, they all at once saw a ship looming in the darkness at a short distance from them. The captain had either forgotten to hoist a light, or else had let it go out. When they perceived that dark shadow, only a little darker than the surrounding night, they did their utmost to steer out of her way. ”

“ In those parts they buy their wives without seeing them—”
“I shall not go there,” said Pere Leger.
“There are nights when my sleep is still illuminated by the eyes of Zena,” continued Schinner. “The husband was sixty-nine years of age, and jealous! not as a tiger, for they say of a tiger, ‘jealous as a Dalmatian’; and my man was worse than A Dalmatian, one Dalmatian,—he was three and a half Dalmatians at the very least; he was an Uscoque, tricoque, archicoque in a bicoque of a paltry little place like Zara—”
“Horrid fellow, and ‘horrider bellow,’” put in Mistigris. ”

“ The turbulent peoples also, who had possession of the district along the Illyrian coast, gave their Roman masters constant employment. The Dalmatians, even at an earlier period the most considerable people of this region, enlarged their power so much by admitting their neighbours into their union, that the number of their townships rose from twenty to eighty. ”

“ Receive it from me, then: war and confusion In Caesar's name pronounce I 'gainst thee; look For fury not to be resisted. Thus defied, I thank thee for myself. CYMBELINE. Thou art welcome, Caius. Thy Caesar knighted me; my youth I spent Much under him; of him I gather'd honour, Which he to seek of me again, perforce, Behoves me keep at utterance. I am perfect That the Pannonians and Dalmatians for Their liberties are now in arms, a precedent Which not to read would show the Britons cold; So Caesar shall not find them. LUCIUS. Let proof speak. ”

“ Among the Dalmatians and Bosnians, when caressing and complimenting a pretty infant, it is necessary, in order to destroy the enchantment produced by the praise, to spit on its forehead; and if you chance to forget this, the parents with a pistol at your breast will constrain you to remember it. Everywhere in the Balkan peninsula the superstition prevails, as well as in Corsica, in the Land beyond the Forest and among the Huzules on the north-eastern slopes of the Carpathians.262.3 A visitor to Ireland in the reign of Charles II. records the same among the peasantry of his day ”

“ But by the preliminaries of Leoben that province and Istria were given over to Austria. The Dalmatians did not want a democratic constitution, and for some time Austrian agents had been preparing them for an Austrian occupation. They succeeded in inducing the people to acclaim the Emperor Francis II. as their King, and in July 1797 General383 Rukavina landed at Zara with an army; in a few weeks he had occupied the whole of Dalmatia and part of Albania. ”

“ Had he the privileges or the ties of an ordinary man, then, as we all know, the barrener the rocks, the dearer seems the love of the native land; but, situated as he is, he can hardly be accused of want of patriotism if his stay in Montenegro should not extend beyond the time required in saving sufficient of his income to quit it.
Our voyage from Cattaro to Corfu was accomplished in a small trabacolo—the San Marco of Spalatro—having on board three men and a boy. These boats, though not fast, are very safe, and the Dalmatians in general manage small craft well. ”

“ They should have a close, fine coat, which if kept in proper order, should have almost such a shiny appearance as you see on a well groomed horse, they are very lively, cleanly, affectionate, and much more intelligent animals, than is generally supposed, and as they are exceedingly active, and fond of exercise, to those persons who like a cheerful comrade, willing and able, besides being an excellent guard, to accompany them on their journeys on foot, on horseback, or when driving, or even on bicycle, when the travelling is at a moderate pace, I think a Dalmatian would be suitable. ”

“ The Dalmatian.—This is a breed I have bred and kept for many years and I have had the pleasure of judging some of the largest classes of them ever seen, if I remember rightly, having nearly sixty entries on one occasion, at the Crystal Palace, and large classes at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Earl's Court, Birmingham and other places. At one time they got down to a very low ebb, in numbers, but I think they are now coming forward again, as I had a very good lot before me at the last show of the Kennel Club. ”

“ GENERAL APPEARANCE—The Dalmatian should represent a strong, muscular, and active dog, symmetrical in outline, and free from coarseness and lumber, capable of great endurance combined with a fair amount of speed. ”

“ Places that are, or that seem to be, remote often hold a certain melancholy, a tristesse of "old, unhappy, far-off things." But Dalmatia has a serene atmosphere, a cheerful purity, a clean and a cozy gaiety which reach out hands to the traveler, and take him at once into intimacy and the breast of a home. Before entering it the ship coasts along a naked region, in which pale, almost flesh-colored hills are backed by mountains of a ghastly grayness. Flesh-color and steel are almost cruelly blended. No habitations were visible. The sea, protected on our right by lines of islands, was waveless. ”

“ The Dalmatian Dog is generally kept in our country as an appendage to the carriage, and is bred up in the stable with the horses; it consequently seldom receives that kind of training which is calculated to call forth any good qualities it may possess. ”

“ Dalmatian, dal-mā′shun, adj. belonging to Dalmatia, a strip of Austrian territory along the Adriatic.—Dalmatian dog, the spotted coach-dog, resembling the pointer in shape.
Dalmatic, dal-mat′ik, n. a loose-fitting, wide-sleeved ecclesiastical vestment, worn specially by deacons in the R.C. Church, also sometimes by bishops. [Low L. dalmatica, a robe worn by persons of rank in the early Christian centuries, on the pattern of a dress worn in Dalmatia.]
Dalt, dält, n. (Scot.) a foster-child. [Gael. dalta.] ”

“ The Dalmatian is also used there as a pointer, to which his natural propensity more inclines him than to be a dog of the chase: he is said to be easily broken, and to be very staunch. He is handsome in shape, something between the British foxhound and English pointer; his head more acute than that of the latter, and something longer: his general colour white, and his whole body and legs covered with small irregular-sized black or reddish-brown spots. The pure breed has tanned cheeks and black ears. He is much smaller than the large Danish dog. ”

“ When the bright moon wandered through the sky, and poured her silver flood of light over those wide plains, he would gaze forth, and call to mind that first peculiar night when he heard the dear lips he loved breathe answering vows to his beneath the palace portico on the Dalmatian shore; he would call up again before his eyes the scene in all its loveliness; he would fancy he could feel that soft, dear form pressed gently to his bosom; he would seem to taste the breath of those sweet lips as they met his in the kiss of first acknowledged love ”

“ Many of you must have seen the Dalmatian coach-dog. A handsome animal it is, white in color, but well marked with round black spots. It is not fit for hunting, for its scent is not good, but it is a welcome companion when one is out on foot, on horseback, or in his coach or carriage. Lively, clean and kindly, very active and fond of running, it makes an excellent comrade for the walker or rider. ”

“ Though the Slav population of the Dalmatian hinterland is, according to the assertions of Belgrade, bitterly hostile to Italian rule, I did not detect a single symptom of animosity toward the Italian officers who were my companions on the part of the peasants whom we passed. They displayed, on the contrary, the utmost courtesy and good feeling, the women, looking like huge and gaudily dressed dolls in their snowy blouses and embroidered aprons, courtesying, while the tall, fine-looking men gravely touched the little round caps which are the national head-gear of Dalmatia. ”

“ When Bora blows, the men look like monks or Mephistopheles; for some—the greater number—wrap themselves from head to foot in long cloaks and hoods of brown, while others of a more lively temperament shroud themselves in red. They are a handsome people, rustic-looking, yet often noble, with kind yet bold faces, steady eyes, and a magnificent physique. Their gait is large and loose. There are giants in Dalmatia in our days. And many of the women are not only pretty, but have delightful expressions, open, pure, and gay. There seems to be nothing to fear in Dalmatia. ”

“ XVI FIDO AND PONTO
Fido was a Dalmatian—of the race described by some as blotting paper and by others as plum pudding dogs. Every line of his body had been formed by hundreds of years of tradition. You can find his ancestors in tapestries and petit point in Italian primitives and Flemish family groups, nestling in voluminous satin petticoats, or running at the heels of skating children—moving in sedate indifference beside the cortège of a pope, or barking in gay derision at the tidy Dutch snow. Not "a dog" or "the dog" but "dog" unspecified and absolute. ”

“ Points of the Show Dalmatian.—The points of this breed are, longish head, flat skull, with moderate stop; long and powerful muzzle; medium sized eyes, dark for black spotted, and light for the liver spotted variety; ears rather small, white with black or liver markings, carried close to head; nose black or liver, according to markings on body; neck arched and fairly long, without throatiness; very deep but not wide chest; powerful back and well ribbed body; muscular loins and straight legs, compact, well padded feet ”

“ But the way back, and the fuller knowledge gained in its course, only brings out more strongly the intense charm of Dalmatian coast and mountain scenery, fitly united with the deep historic interest of cities which, though they seem to form a world apart by themselves, 199 have played their part in the world's history none the less. No one can visit Dalmatia once without a wish that his first visit may not be his last; no one can take a glimpse of any of her cities without the desire that the glimpse may be only the forerunner of more perfect knowledge. ”