M. Edith Durham High Albania and Its Customs in 1908
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
HIGH A A AND CU 908 LB NIA ITS STOMS IN 1 . ' 'DITH D M B M . URHA . ' TH L XXXI ' I P AT' . ' HIGH ALBANIA is the large tract of m ountain land which forms the north - west r r corne of Turkey in Europe . It is the only spot in Eu ope in which the tribal system has been preserved intact up to the present day and along with it a mass C n of very ancient customs . hanges are now sweeping rapidly over the Balka u b peninsula, and it is with the hope of ind cing someone etter qualified than myself I tr to go and investigate on the spot, before it is too late , that will y and give r w i an idea of the very p imitive conditions hich still preva l . Writing has, it r alwa s b een art r appea s , y an unknown to the t ibesman , consequently he possesses r u r an extraordina y memory , and has handed down q antities of oral t aditions , most of which remain to be collected . r r u A Life is ve y o gh , but the dangers of travel in North lbania have been r d I . n idiculously exaggerate . In most places was received with enthusiasm Ma y r m h ad 1 eceived dist icts did not remember having been visited by an English an , but a few Austrians or Germans ' and a few had not admitted any foreigner at l f r a l o . K n years In such they only knew of the i g of England vaguely, as one of the Seven Kings who are believed to squat in a circle and arrange the affairs of r K K Eu ope . One of the seven is the ing of France, and one , I believe, the ing of P oland . A Alba nian Sh c eta a r The lbanian tribesman does not call himself , but yp , and h a 9 75 He c S 71 73 . Sh é his land g/3 says he is the son of an eagle ( yp ) , and his land is the His u so - Ar land of eag les . lang age grammatically belongs to the called yan group , and he boasts and believes that he is the oldest thing in the Balkan peninsula r n r it was his befo e the comi g of the Slav or Turk , and he hates each with a bitte r Balkan hatred . The e is , I believe , no valid reason for doubting that he is the more or less direct descendent of the ancient Illyrian tribes that dwelt in the land r r Rom an r when we fi st have reco d of it . , Slav , and Turk have in tu n held the Balkan peninsula . But the mountain tribesman has never been more than r — IS u r 1 off nominally conque ed and still nsubdued . Empi es pass ove him and run ’ like water from a duck s back a1 r1 ved i n A n When I Scutari , lba ia, the capital , travelling in the mountains was G v in strictly forbidden by the Turkish o ernment , as the tribes were almost a ITH D H M — Hi h Albania a nd its Customs i 454 . n 1 9 08 M ED UR A g . h a d r u open revolt . But as I knew the people and good int od ctions , I took French r w leave , sneaked out of the town in the grey befo e da n , dodged the gendarmerie u r o tposts , and was soon safely away in very light marching orde . all - b u I visited in some twenty four tri es , and in many was lucky eno gh to ’ d u get a etailed acco nt of the tribe s origin . r r r u These t ibes are divided into several marked groups . The fi st g o p I Ma ltsia e m a d/w G u . visited was , the reat Mo ntainous Land This consists of five r i large tribes and th ee small ones . Four of the five large ones each tells that ts a r r r ncesto came from the no th with his family , thi teen or fourteen generations ago , n n r u flying from the adva ci g Tu ks . In some cases they fo nd uninhabited land and r u n settled on it . In othe s , they fo ght with the men already on the land , and fi ally A n t . t a a s se tled among them These former inhabi ants they c ll , which is inter - A D A preted in the latest lbanian ictionary as aborigines . They tell that the nas r t r r were ve y strong and ac ive , could leap over six ho ses and ate aco ns and h r efl h o s es . n A u H r They intermarried with th e A as . few ho ses in the oti t ibe still trace A All r . Skre li direct descent from the nas , in the male line four of these t ibes ( H Gru Kilm eni h r oti, da, ) tell t at their ancesto s came from Bosnia or the H r r r n . e zegovina , p ecise dist ict unknow An approximate d ate for the coming of these 1m m ig rants is the founding of u Gru r o f the ch rch of da, th ee hundred and eighty years ago , so they say . Some say r the tribes they came ather before , and some rather after , this event . This 1 5 28 H r gives the date . isto y shows that, roughly speaking , the tradition is r K 146 3 probably co rect, for the Turks killed the last ing of Bosnia in , spread H gradually over the land , and finally incorporated all Bosnia and erzegovina in the u 1 59 0 h T rkish Empire about . The s ifting of the peoples falls well within this period (146 3 o f r — The family , a communal pe haps sixty or seventy members such exist - — still to day would march slowly, rarely more than fifteen miles a day , and n rr would be lo g on the way, the women ca ying the burdens and driving the r flocks . There would be an armed bodyguard of twenty or thi ty fig hting men, for fi 11 0 at fifteen a tribesman is a ghting man, and often carries arms, and is mean foe at twelve . Many of the neighbouring tribes of Montenegro tell precisely the same tale fle d r f n namely, that their ancestors from the Turks thi teen or ourtee generations Mal tsia u ago . Moreover, certain tribes of e madhe and Montenegro act ally - acknowledge blood relationship , and trace descent from a common forefather . I am very strongly inclined to believe that the present language and nationality of u r — - Serb o h one r s ch t ibes that is , whether to day they are p and Monteneg in , or Alb anophone and Albanian— has been determined mainly by whether they came under the influence of the Orthodox Servian Church or of the Roman Catholic C h hurc . There is some evidence to show that the people who came down from C b b the north were neither Orthodox nor atholic , ut elonged to the heretical M — Hi h Alba nia a n d its Customs 1 ITH D H in 9 08 . 45 M . ED UR A g 5 w th e a l A Bogomil sect , which was ide spread in B lkan peninsu a in the Middle ges . w as r M altsia I ext emely interested to find that the e madhe tribes, more especially Skreli H the two , and oti , which say they come from Bosnia , the stronghold of are r Bogomilism , freely tattooed on the hand , arm and sometimes b east , with r r designs that I at once recognised as common in ce tain pa ts of Bosnia, notably r 'aice th e w r a ound , old capital , he e the last king was slain, and in these designs m the sun and the crescent moon are al ost always factors . SU N A ND M OON. N. ALBANIA . m M anich eeism M anich eeism Bogomilis was a form of , and in the sun and r M altsia moon play a most important part . The Ch istian married women of e madhe wear a crescent of silver fi l ag re e or of gold braid on their caps . They vow and declare that this has nothing to do with the Turk ' It is our custom . We ' have always done it . ' ou cannot live long with the up—country tribesman without finding that the r r H e religion he p ofesses is the merest su face veneer . is guided for the most part t his by mysterious supers itions and beliefs hidden in the recesses of soul , and he cares no jot for priest or h odja when their teaching runs counter to his o wn ITH D H M — Hi h Alba nia a nd its Customs in 1 8 45 6 M . ED UR A g 9 0 . n He Albanian ideas as to the fitness of thi gs . is a thorn in the side o f all his r He h w Spiritual pasto s .