A TYPICAL MONTENEGRIN GIRL.
In 1861-62 Nikola meted out to the invading Turks a noteworthy defeat. Again in 1877-78 he defeated ninety thousand Turks, with a much inferior number of Montenegrins, and drove them from the country, killing and wounding twelve thousand.
Many interesting anecdotes are told of the daring and bravery of the Montenegrins in their struggles to save their country from the covetous grasp of the Mohammedans. Only a band of men driven to desperation in almost inaccessible mountain regions could possibly withstand so many attacks of such overwhelming odds as were hurled against them. In one famous battle at Kristatz a small band of two thousand engaged thirty thousand Turks under Suleiman Pasha, inflicting a loss of three thousand five hundred upon the enemy, while the number of their own dead totalled but seven hundred. On another occasion at Jezero the Montenegrins killed four hundred and eighty Turks, sustaining a loss of but thirty-six killed and wounded.
During this latter engagement a powerful mountaineer of the clan of Paperi, having distinguished himself at the battle of Vucidol by capturing Osman Pasha, the Turkish general, and carrying him to Prince Nikola, being presented with five hundred ducats for his captive, was jokingly bade by the Prince to fetch him another Turk. The hero, however, took the matter seriously and, at an opportune moment, rushed into the Turkish lines, snatched a devout Mohammedan around the waist, disarmed him and started to carry him off toward the rear, where Prince Nikola was watching the fight. In order to arrive at the side of his sovereign he was compelled to make a détour, and before he had covered half the distance he was brought down with a bullet in his thigh. Naturally, he dropped his Ottoman captive, and the latter immediately sprang at his throat. With almost superhuman efforts, in spite of the excruciating pain of his wound, he held off the vengeful Turk with one hand and, aiming his pistol with the other, ordered his adversary to lift him on his back and carry him to the Prince. To disobey meant instant death, for the cold, circular muzzle of a huge weapon was even then so close to his fez that he could plainly see the rifling in the barrel. Stumbling and groaning under the weight of his Montenegrin rider the Turk approached the Prince, while the hills resounded with the cheers of the men of the clan of Paperi. Upon delivering his steed to his leader the soldier fell to the ground senseless from exhaustion and loss of blood.
While this same battle was at its height the Prince approached a mountaineer of more than eighty years of age, who was bravely endeavouring to keep his place among his fellows but with evident difficulty, and suggested to him sympathetically that he was too old to follow the flag and had better withdraw. The veteran, being thus considered by his military idol as unable longer to fight for his country, forthwith drew his pistol and committed suicide.
It was at the siege of Nikshitch that the valorous warrior-priest of the Montenegrins, Pope Milo, challenged any Turk to personal combat between the lines with broadswords. Both armies ceased the fight while the battle-royal was in progress. The Turk, however, proved the better swordsman and killed his antagonist, severing the head from the body. Upon the resumption of hostilities an infuriated Montenegrin revenged the death of Pope Milo by dealing with the same Turk in a similar manner.
Prince Nikola himself was in command at the siege of Nikshitch, in which the Montenegrin women were little less active than the men, for they carried ammunition and food across the mountains and otherwise assisted in the Montenegrin victory. The Prince, reclining upon a rock, over which he had first spread his struka, received the surrender of Scanderbeg and invited the Turkish commander to take coffee with him. Coffee over, he wrote a poem of the siege and forwarded it by messenger to his wife in Cettinje. She read it aloud to the citizens gathered together in the public square.
But fighting as one nation against another has not been the only form of warfare indulged in by the Montenegrins. During the brief intervals of Turkish lethargy blood-feuds between the families of the mountaineers afforded the male members plenty of diversion. They had no cause to complain of monotonous inactivity. A boy might grow to manhood in blissful ignorance that it would be his duty sooner or later to take the life of another, thus avenging the untimely death of one of the members of his own family. Upon the successful accomplishment of his mission, as was usually the case, he, in turn, would be thereafter considered as a target for the weapon of some member of the rival family. Thus the feuds were continuous, imperishable heirlooms handed down from father to son, even unto the third and fourth generation.
A STONE MASON OF CETTINJE AND HIS CART.