Through Bosnia and Herzegovina with a Paint Brush

by Mrs. Edward Robson Whitwell

Herzegovina seems to have changed hands many times within the last 400 years, at one time belonging to Hungary, and then to Bosnia, then Turkey conquered it; earlier, too, the Venetians seemed to have a look in. Of its history under the Turks there seems to be no particular records. Feudalism, under Mahomedan guise continued to survive here. The Spahis, begs, or agas, were mediæval lords who had apostatized to Islam. They kept their ancestral castles, banners and title deeds, and patents of nobility. They enacted feudal service from their serfs and retainers. One of these Mahomedan nobles, Ali, Aga of Stolac, did such good service for the Sultan in his struggle with the Bosnian magnates, that he was made Vizier of Herzegovina, which was freed for a while from Bosnian government. The reform of Sultan Mahmoud did not by any means remove the grievances of the population of Herzegovina. The serfs had now to satisfy the extortion of imperial excisement as well as from their feudal lords. The begs and agas extorted from them forced labour and a third of the produce; the central government levied a tithe, which at the date of the outbreak had become an eighth. Three kinds of cattle tax: the tax for exemption from military service levied on every infant in arms, forced labour in the roads, forced loan of horses, a heavy tax on grapes and tobacco, and a variety of lesser taxes crushed the Christian peasants; but more galling still the manner in which these taxes were extorted—the iniquitous assessment of tax farmers and excisemen—and the brutal license of the Zaptiehs quartered on recalcitrant villagers. All this caused the insurrection of 1875, the villagers of Nevinsinge (which takes its name from a plateau near Mostar) who were unable to bear the extortions and outrages committed by the Zaptiehs and bashi-basouks, rose against their oppressors. The insurrection spread rapidly through Herzegovina and on to Bosnia, and for a year the Herzegovinians under their leaders held out against all the forces of Turkey, and in two struggles in the gorge of Muratovizza the Turks lost over 2,000 men. In July, 1876, principalities joined in the struggle; the Russo-Turkish war followed, and by the treaty of Berlin, the government of Herzegovina and Bosnia was confided to Austria-Hungary, while Niksich and the country about Mount Dormitor were detached from Herzegovina and annexed to Montenegro.

Curiously enough, that at this present time, when all the states around are agitating, not one word comes in protest from either of these two states, Herzegovina or Bosnia.

In July, 1878, the Austrian troops crossed the Herzegovinian frontier, and this news roused the Mahomedan fanatics to a desperate effort.

On August 2nd the Mahomedans of Mostar, believing themselves betrayed by the Turkish government, rose en masse, murdered the Turkish governor and officials. The Austrians pressed forward, and crushing some ineffectual efforts at resistance, entered Mostar on the 5th August. Since the completion of the occupation, the government of the province has been under the military governor at Saràjevo, controlled by the Foreign Office at Vienna. The Sultan has, up to now, remained the sovereign de jure, so that the present declaration of Austria is not likely to involve any alteration of government from what has gone on all these last thirty years.

At Mostar there is quite a comfortable hotel called Hotel Narenta, with a Restaurant attached, where you can order what you like in the way of food, without having to sit through a weary supper—which took an hour at Ragusa,—and we found the cooking much better too. Two ladies can travel alone in these parts quite well, if they can speak Italian and German, and at the Hotels they all speak English. I have my guide, Karabaich, who carries my sketching things and keeps off the crowd—all of which is a convenience, but not a necessity so far.

Next day we wandered into the town, which was a mass of mud. It rained at intervals, but we managed to see the old town with the Turkish Bazaar, which consists of tiny shops; nothing much tempted us to buy, though it was interesting to look at them. There are many little Mosques dotted about with tiny minarets. It was too wet to sketch, so memory must suffice. I thought of taking a drive, but the downpour began after lunch. We wondered how much longer it would last!!

The stamps of Herzegovina are most fascinating with little views on them, they can be had from the value of a quarter of a farthing upwards, each stamp has a different view on it, and they are double the size of an ordinary stamp, so take up a good deal of room on an envelope.

Here we were much impressed by the women’s ungainly costume with their hideous baggy trousers, generally of some black material, the whole of the upper part of the body and head is swathed in the feridjeh, and they waddle along very similar to ducks, the back view being most laughable.

I have painted one in my view of the bridge of Mostar.

I made the excursion by carriage to the source of the Buna, about eight miles from Mostar; happily it ceased raining and I was able to sketch the source which wells up from the ground apparently, but is one of the curious rivers of these countries which in an extraordinary way find their way through a mountain. A windmill and mosque came picturesquely into my foreground, and the rich deep blue of the water added to its charm.