Scutari

“ Now I never cross his frontier without hoping soon to be able to witness his departure from Europe.
A shattered fortress frowns on the hill, a row of ramshackle buildings lines the shore, a filthy crowd fills the custom-house steps. Scutari—Albanese, Skodra at last. Time rolls back from the invisible boundary against which the centuries have beaten in vain, and before us lies the land of a prehistoric people and the life of past ages. Canoes big and little come paddling out in a scrambling hugger-mugger ”

“ Every day they fought, sometimes for two, sometimes four hours and upwards, as fancy dictated. About fifty persons had been more or less injured in this pastime, but their ardour was rather increasing than diminishing, when the pasha of Scutari, without notice or warning, seized on the islands of Vranina and Lessandro, at the head of the lake of Scutari. The Montenegrians had there a post of about twenty men, but they were overpowered, several killed, and the rest sent captive to Scutari. ”

“ I will pass, by Allah! and that too without the loss of a single para."
"Yes, you may pass, certainly; through the prison-door," replied the chief of police, who was getting rather excited also; "and you will pay a pretty fine before you come out again."
"I will go to Scutari."
"Not by crossing the Bosphorus; and as it is impossible to go any other way—"
"You think so, do you?" sneered Kéraban, who with clenched hands and red face looked quite apoplectic. "You think so; well, then, I will go to Scutari, and I will not cross the Bosphorus, neither will I pay the fine." ”

“ Yet when I went back to Scutari, as a man will go back to the home of his youth, the inhabitants were so far from recognising me as one of themselves that the thought occurred to me how amusingly like life it would be if I, who am not notable for the orthodoxy of my opinions, were massacred for a Christian in the town where I was born! ”

“ Here the pups, after strenuous mountaineering, would get their outlook on life, with all its excitements and possible dangers; here Turkish cavalry from Scutari would come dashing past, galloping furiously when there were people to watch this feat and stones to lame their clever little horses, subsiding to a walk when beyond the sight of admirers and when the roads were soft with dust some inches deep, or grass by the wayside. ”

“ They do not even know that Roufaï is the true name of the dervishes they go to stare at, and that there is more than one tekkeh of them in Scutari. The traditional “howling” is all that concerns them. And if I were the sheikh of that tekkeh I would shut its doors to all tourists—or at least to more than one or two of them at a time. They make more noise than the dervishes.
Scutari Cemetery
Having relieved my mind on this subject, in my quality of a native of Scutari, I am able to continue in my other quality of peripatetic impressionist. ”

“ Upon passing the glittering booth of Scutari again, he sees the stout Turk in earnest conversation with a man who wears a fez, but who sports a blond mustache, and at sight of whom Aleck receives something of a shock.
Instead of passing out of the bazaar, he lingers around, watching for this individual, [Pg 14] who soon comes lounging along, smoking a pipe, with the most careless abandon in the world. ”

“ We always took a camera with us, but with very poor results. It is against the Mahometan religion to be photographed, neither are photographers looked upon with pleasure. We did once plant our camera [140] in the main street of the bazaar, to the great anger of a policeman who ordered us off, luckily after we had secured a picture.
When we were quite new to Scutari, it happened we were waiting for a boat to take us off to the steamer, when we were struck with a particularly fine old Scutariner in red fez and long flowing skirt. ”

“ But the Kapudan Pasha, with a merry heart, kept on watering the transplanted tulips till he had done it thoroughly, and entrusted them to four bostanjis, bidding them carry the flowers through the canal to the Sultan's palace at Scutari, while he had his horse saddled and without the slightest escort trotted quite alone into Stambul, where at that very moment they were crying loudly for his head. ”

“ Our Lady of Scutari—A miracle—The fête—A funeral—A drunken Arnaut—Our escort—Two more Britons—Warm discussion—War—Marco.
The morrow (October 18th) was the great holiday of North Albania, the day of Our Lady of Scutari.
Long ago all this country was Christian. In this city there then stood a beautiful wooden image of the Virgin Mary. Thousands of the faithful were wont to flock hither year by year to offer their devotions at her feet, and to be healed of their infirmities; for no sick man that had faith was ever known to kiss the white feet of the image and not depart whole. ”

“ All Britain was stirred with admiration at her heroism; for it was well known how difficult was the task she was undertaking. But the quiet gentle woman herself feared neither death, disease nor hard work; the only thing she did not like was the fuss the people made about her.
Scutari, whither she went, is situated on the eastern side of the Bosphorus, opposite Constantinople. Thither the sick and wounded soldiers were being brought by hundreds. It took four or five days to get them from the field of battle to the hospital, their wounds during that tame being generally unattended to. ”

“ She worked like a slave in a mine. She began to believe, as she had begun to believe at Scutari, that none of her fellow-workers had their hearts in the business; if they had, why did they not work as she did? She could only see slackness and stupidity around her. Dr. Sutherland, of course, was grotesquely muddle-headed; and Arthur Clough incurably lazy. Even Sidney Herbert ... oh yes, he had simplicity and candour and quickness of perception, no doubt; but he was an eclectic; and what could one hope for from a man who went away to fish in Ireland just when the Bison most needed bullying? ”

“ Scutari has belonged from time immemorial to the Serbians.
2 Kraly means King.
3 Boyana is the name of the river washing the wall of Skadar.
4 Neimar means ‘architect.’
5 Sir John Bowring, writing in 1827, states that a small stream of liquid carbonate of lime is shown on the walls of Scutari as evidence of the truth of this story. Vouk St. Karadjitch, says that the Serbian people even to-day believe that no great building can be successfully erected without the immuring of some human being. ”

“ The victorious hero, the grand vezír and commander-in-chief, Murád Páshá, having fully completed all his preparations for opening the campaign in the east, re-appointed Gúrjí Mohammed Páshá governor of Constantinople, and passed over with his brilliant army to Scutari, on the 5th of the month Sefer. The commanding general, impatiently anxious to march against Persia, left Scutari about the beginning of Rabia I., and reaching the frontiers of that country, he was joined by the various beglerbegs with their respective troops, who had been appointed for this war. ”

“ Albania was, in fact, for the Young Turks, the most important of its European possessions, for, well handled, it might have remained loyal to the Turk against the dreaded Slav. But Constantinople did nothing to achieve this. And Scutari was infuriated because, though the prisoners had been released in honour of the Constitution throughout the land, the doors of Scutari prisons were still closed. Folk began to say: "The Young Turk is as bad as the Old." ”

“ Among the suburbs of Constantinople, Scutari is not the least interesting, inasmuch as it leads us to notice the funereal customs of the Turks, and their cemeteries, of which Scutari is the principal site.
Interment almost immediately follows upon the decease of the person; a practice common to all classes at Constantinople. The corpse is carried to the grave on a bier by the friends of the deceased: this is considered as a religious duty, it being declared in the Koran, that he who carries a dead body the space of forty paces, procures for himself the expiation of a great sin. ”

“ However, these words are only when I am cross at having been prevented from writing to the folk I love, such as thee, of the progress of Scutari. Else generally the feeling in every soul, so wide and so deep, touches us more than I can tell, and helps us over the inevitable weight of the anxiety more than I thought [265] possible—heavy, redfaced, old fox-hunting Squires, who never had a “sentiment” in their lives, come with their eyes full of tears; narrow-minded Farmers with both eyes on the main chance are melted; young ladies who never got beyond balls and concerts are warmed. ”

“ The pasha whose bride was stolen, you have met. Aroun Scutari is the man. He comes to the Fair nominally as a dealer in precious stones, but actually to satisfy a revenge that has been slumbering these twenty years. A Turk never forgets nor forgives an insult or injury, and it so happened that he was madly infatuated with the lovely houri Samson carried away—something rather unusual with a pasha who can buy as many wives as he cares to support. ”

“ I coasted the gulf of Constantinople, and leaving the road to Nicea, a town situated to the southward near the Black Sea, I successively lodged at a village in ruins, inhabited solely by Greeks; then at another near to Scutari; and, lastly, at Scutari itself, on the strait, and opposite to Pera. The Turks guard this passage [479] , and receive a toll from all who cross it. It has rocks that would make it easy of defence, if they were fortified. Men and horses can readily embark and disembark. ”

“ Responsible persons in Yugoslavia, such as Dr. Trumbić, the former Foreign Minister, do not believe that Scutari is a necessity for their State—whether Yugoslavia is a necessity for Scutari is another question—and they hold that it is quite possible to preserve the 1913 frontier (perhaps with a minor rectification in Klementi) and live in friendship with their neighbours. This, of course, is under the assumption that these neighbours will "play the game"—and it is just this which the Albanians will be unable to do if they are left to their own slender resources. ”

“ Scutari (50) , a town of Turkey in Asia, on the Bosporus, opposite Constantinople; has several fine mosques, bazaars, &c.; large barracks on the outskirts were used as hospitals by Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War; has large and impressive cemeteries; chief manufactures are of silks, cottons, &c. Also name of a small town (5) in European Turkey, situated at the S. end of Lake Scutari, 18 by 16 m., in North Albania. ”

“ I leaned from the saddle and spoke earnestly to the byraktor myself, Rexh’s murmured translation for his ears while I held his eyes: “I must get to Scutari to-night. It is necessary. But I do not want to risk any man’s life. I take my own life in my hands and go with it on the trail. No one else can carry it for me. That is American custom. It is American custom that I thank you now, and give back to you your protection, and go on alone. If it is not your custom, I am sorry, but by all American custom your honor is safe, and I am American, and Albanian law does not apply to me.” ”

“ Aleck says hastily.
“And as the woman is in the employ of the Turk, as this very affair has all been arranged while the others were in the Japanese bazaar, or viewing the scenery of the Alps, her words fall upon deaf ears,” continues Wycherley.
“But Scutari dare not attempt violence.”
“You forget he is a Turk, and naturally brings some of his Bosphorus habits here with him. Samson Cereal ran away with his bride in a manner just as bold. More than one person has come to the World’s Fair and [Pg 109] never been heard of again. ”

“ We were on our way to Scutari, where was our real place of residence, and only lodged here and there on our journey to fleece those who were piously disposed. I had not joined more than ten days when they continued their route, and after a week of very profitable travelling, passed through Constantinople, crossed the Bosphorus, and regained their place of domiciliation, and were received with great joy by the inhabitants, to whom the old chief and many others of our troop were well known. ”

“ I had to wait a few days for the voyage to Scutari, profiting by the occasion of the return of some engineers and the French consul at that place. We found the town flooded, a fisherman by the side of one of the streets showing us a fine string of fish which he had caught in the roadside ditch. Decay, neglect, and utter demoralization were written large on the general aspect of the capital of one of the most important of the provinces of the Turkish Empire in Europe, i.e. important to Turkey. ”

“ The dress of the females is more various, and often fantastical. A singular custom prevails among the girls of stringing together the pieces of money which they have collected for their portion, and wearing them upon their heads. Some of them have their hair hanging down in braids to a great length, loaded with this species of ornament.
Scutari, on the lake of that name, is now considered the chief town of Albania. It is the centre of a large inland trade, and contains about 40,000 inhabitants. ”

“ The Albanians are not Southern Slavs, and it is merely the voice of the thoughtless mob in Montenegro which has been claiming Scutari for the reason that they held it in the Middle Ages—several of their rulers are buried there—and because 20,000 Montenegrins gave their lives to take it in the Balkan War. ”