CLEMENTINIAN WOMEN.
At the beginning of the last century emigrants from Bosnia, calling themselves Clementinians, settled in the villages of Hertkovze and Nikinze in the Peterwardein regiment. Their earlier history and the origin of their name are involved in obscurity: but so much is certain, that their ancestors migrated thither from Albania, and were there converted to the Catholic religion. They differ from their neighbours in language, customs, religious ceremonies, way of life and physiognomy.
The frontispiece to this volume represents females belonging to this tribe. The figure in the middle exhibits a bride in her wedding attire: on her left stands one of her companions in her usual holiday apparel: and both are listening attentively to the instructions of the industrious housewife on the left of the print. From the coronet of feathers which adorn the head of the bride, and reminds us of the natives of Guinea and Mexico, to the neat slipper of fish-skin which covers the foot, all is of native material and workmanship. The women spin, weave, dye, and make all their apparel and personal ornaments with peculiar neatness. They attend with truly commendable assiduity to the household concerns, while the men till the ground. Distinguished by purer morals, and therefore more highly respected, they consider it beneath them to mingle their blood with that of the other inhabitants of the frontiers; but conduct themselves invariably as a peaceable tribe among unsettled and turbulent neighbours.