CARLSTADT FRONTIER. THE VICE-HARAM-BASSA OF THE SZERESSANS.
Besides the frontier cordon there is in the Carlstadt and Banal frontier a chosen band of clever, trusty, and tried guards called by the ancient appellation of Szeressans. They go according to circumstances either singly or in companies, on foot or on horseback to discover the most secret plans and stratagems of their rapacious Turkish neighbours, which they seldom fail to counteract and frustrate, and are particularly ingenious in the discovery of concealed plunder.
The chief of these Szeressans is styled Haram-Bassa. When fully equipped, he wears a sort of red uniform coat and waistcoat, blue pantaloons, and a sharp-pointed cap of green cloth, turned up with a red and white striped stuff. His arms consist of a musquet, with which he hits his man with never failing certainty at the distance of three hundred paces, a pair of pistols for nearer objects, a Turkish knife and a sword for close quarters; and on busy days there is none of these weapons perhaps but what he employs. In bad weather a wide red mantle with a hood covers both his person and his arms.
TANASZIA DOROJEVICH.
VICE HAROM-BASSA OF THE SERISCHANS.
The second in command, called Vice-Haram-Bassa, is represented in the annexed plate. He is armed like his superior, but appears here in his ordinary dress. His pipe is his constant companion. His horse, with his red mantle thrown carelessly over the saddle when he dismounts, is his constant companion and grazes by his side. The horse in this country is seldom allowed a feed of oats; grass in summer and hay in winter constitute the whole of his subsistence. But little attention is paid to him in other respects, nay more frequently the horse is teased and ill used by his master; hence he is generally unsteady and shy, and a stranger must use great caution in riding him. These animals are small, hardy, and sure-footed, and are extremely useful for carrying moderate loads over the mountains, and for riding in steep, rugged, and scarcely beaten roads. They have their own pace which the rider must let them pursue, or he is more likely to be dismounted than to make them stir from the spot.
In the mountains of Croatia the horses are seldom employed for draught; and it is at the risk of life or goods that they are harnessed to any vehicle. If, however, by coaxing, this point has been accomplished, and the driver has set them a-going, he cannot answer for their proceeding. Each pulls a different way; the rotten harness, perhaps, botched together at the moment when it is wanted, snaps at the least strain; the drivers, generally as numerous as the horses, are as far from agreeing as the latter. The utmost confusion of course arises on the least accident. The men invoke all the saints and all the devils to their assistance: in the most fortunate event, the vehicle is left behind, but more commonly it is broken to pieces. Whoever, therefore, values a whole skin will do well not to trust himself in this mountainous region to any vehicle without the greatest precaution. On the high road from Carlstadt to Zeng the traveller will find horses trained to draw, but not in the by-roads in the interior of the country.
In their manners and way of life, as well as in their clothing and arms, the people of the frontiers hold an intermediate place between the Oriental and the European. The husbandman goes out armed to his agricultural labours, and with trembling he commits the seed to the bosom of the earth. Unless he keeps constantly on the watch the green corn is either cut down or fed off; and when the farmer has reaped his scanty crop he is frequently obliged to fight his way home with it.
In winter the frontiers are more safe, and the duty of guarding them is less arduous than in summer. The footmarks in the snow betray the retreat of the robber, and there is no friendly thicket to shelter him: he is therefore not very willing to venture forth amid tempests and intense cold for the sake of a precarious and uncertain gain. On the other hand, the inclemency of the weather renders the service of the frontier posts more severe. Nothing but the iron constitutions of these men could withstand the incessant changes of temperature. One day perhaps a furious north or north-east wind brings snow, covers all the roads and freezes every limb: the next an equally tempestuous south-east, produces a thaw and suddenly inundates the country. The houses, slight and unsubstantial, suffer from both, and the roofs and out-buildings are destroyed by the fury of the storm.
Amid these incessant changes, the winter in these elevated regions is unhealthy and destructive. When the storm keeps all inhabitants closely imprisoned in the smoky huts, the frontier-man on duty at his post, frequently receives a visit from a hungry wolf prowling about in quest of prey. Thus engaged in an incessant conflict with a rude nature and savage neighbours, is it surprising that these people should have advanced no farther than a half-civilized state!