The Amusing People of Bosnia
(Copyright, 19M, hy T. C. McClure.)
I'STRIA-H I'NGARY Is talking
again about putting; more railroad
Into Bosnia. Bosnia doesn't care.
The Bosnian prefers to pl4
A
over the Kaldermai, which pretty
word describes long lines of deep holes and
high boulders, optimistically supposed to
form a rood in this interesting land.
Bosnia used to be wakeful enough. A
quarter of a century ago It occupied as
much ppnce regularly in the news as the
other Balkan states do today. In thosj
days "trouble In the Balkans" was not
eomphte without a massacre or a revo'u
tlon in Bosnia.
Sometimes It was at the expense of the
Christians; sometimes the Turks paid th
fiddler. The bill was always large and nil.
After Bosnia was turned over to Austria.
Hungary it became Inglorlnusly quiet, and
today It Is probably mentioned less In Ihei
world's history than most native states of
Interior Africa.
If Bosnia is ever shaken out of Its Rln
Van Winkle sleep under the shadow of
Its Dlnnrlc Alp wall, now is the time; for
the new banus, who has been named to
govirn Croatia, Slavonla and Dalmatla,
which squeeze Bosnia between them, is a
lineal descendant of the old Bosnian king.
Ills name Is Theodor, Count Pejacsevlch
von Veroecze. This Is mentioned merely
for local color.
The old kings or bans of KnsnU wero
great folk. They lived In palacis hidden
!n the dark mountains. It would be hard
to build palaces or huts In Bosnia without
having them in mountains. A Bosnlnij
calls a place that is 2,000 feet above the
level of the sea a lowland and views It as
a highway of commerce.
The old Bosnian bans never failed to
pick up a good fight If It lay before their
doors. They fought the Turks and the
Hungarians and the Dalmatians alter
nately. By the treaty of Berlin in ITS.
after the Russo-Turkish war, when all the
nations, small and big, that were engagd
In the fight were presented with diplomatic
gold bricks, Austria-Hungary, that didn't
fight at all, got Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Bosnians tell a story to account for
the formation of their land. It accounts
for that and othei things, among them why
Bosnia is not threatening the world's mar
kets sufficiently to frighten anybody.
The story Is that one day the devil was
hurrying across the Balkan peninsula to
pee a man. He bore on his back a few ar
guments In the shape of a bag full of boul
ders. As Is we'l known to all who are at
all acquainted with him, the devil favors
his left foot, owing to a little family mat
ter in the shape of a hoof. This made him
stub his toe against Montenegro and ha
stumbled and fell headlong.
His bag flew over his head and the con
tents went helter skelter over the place
that Is now Bosnia. The devil was so an
ncyod that he left the-outfit Just where it
dropped and went off swearing, kicking
great holes Into the place with hi hoof.
The general and specific aspect of Bosnia
today shows that the only part of the mess
that has been e'eared away since this hap
pened Is the bag.
Bosnia Is black with mountains. There
Isn't such a thing as a bee line there. Trav
eling through It Is a matter of dodging be
tween mountains from one end of the coun
try to the other. The rivers all fall down
hill, and a Bosnian considers a river that
flows without a waterfall for ten miles an
Important and wonderful navigable stream,
and calls tha village in that favored district
a port.
On the Mediterranean or Adriatic side
stand the Dinarlc Alps, as virgin as they
were when the forgotten Daclans first
swarmed Into Kurope through their defiles.
Toward the Danube are ha!f a dozen ranges
of mountains. The towns in the Interior
sit at the bases of mountains. The railroad
runs over grac?. .hat make it Impossible to
haul heavy trains. It goes over passes so
dangerous that the rails have had to be
made so narrow in gauge that the road Is
toy-like.
Yet Eosnia. although It is hardly ever
heard of, Is the key to an Immense com
merce, and Austria-Hungary Is determined
some day to turn that key and unlock the
door that shall lead her merchants out Into
the Mediterranean.
Austria-Hungary Is not the discoverer of
the fact that Bosnia is a key. The old
Romans knew It, and they hewed mighty
roads through Bosnia, over the mountains,
to connect the Adriatic sea with the
Danube river. , Venice . knew It when It
was the queen of the Mediterranean, and
It Intrigued for the possession of Bosnia
as If It were an empire.
So today Bosnia's old roads are . beset
with the ruins of ancient Roman forts, and
the greatest roads are those that wero
made originally by the Roman road build
ers. When Turkey seized Bosnia those load
were permitted to go to ruin, which is
one of the Turkish fads. Other roads, that
led from Hungary to Croatia southeast
Into Turkey were kept In somewhat bet
ter repair; that a horse could g C
through and over them if Allah was eood
to Jt. By the time the Turkish occupation
was ended about the only things that could
be called roads were those leading south
east, while the roads to the Adriatic,
.
ft v:;- - . '
I f
mm.': k-m
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'-.'
A TYP1CAI. BOSNIAN.
which should, some day, furnish a new
portal for the commerce of ml Kuroito with
the Orient, had almost vanished beneath
the mud of mountain torrents in flood, th3
debris of falling rocks and land slides.
Austria has done much to improve mat
ters, but there Is mighty little business in
Bosnia, and the government couldn't edu
cate the lectors of the empire to the con
viction that It is good financiering to
build hundred thousand dollar roads to
transport a thousond dollars' worth of
prunes, which ure one of the chief staples
of the province.
So today the Bosnian travels nvistly
afoot. After this popular mod" one-s tin?
Bosnian horse, wonderfully ugly, wonder
fully crowbalt-llkc and wonderfully strong.
The deterioration of the roads undi r the
Turk pructically wiped wheeled traffic out
of existence. There are wagons In Bosnia,
but the yare not triumphal chariots. A
wagon is a good deal of a white elephant
In most districts, and the traveler who
has ever tried to negotiate a mount.iin
pass In one will r.eer use anoth-r.
A Bosnian wage n would be a -. are and
valuable addition to a modern museum, if
it could possibly be transported out of tho
country. It can t. It would surely get
stuck In the blood-red mud, or sink in the
coal-black bog, or fall down a slippery
mountain, or sink In a torrential river be
fore It reached a seaport.
It Is based on the ancient Asiatic form
of ox-cart. There Is hardly a piece of
metal work In the typical Bosnian wheeled
vehicle. The parts are made of heavy
timbers, held together with wooden tenons
and with withes of willow woven back and
forth like basketwork. The wheels are
hewn out with a sharp axe, the favorite
and almost the only tool of the Bosnian
carpenter. The tongue Is Immensely long
and sticks out in front of the oxen or the
horses like a spear.
Wicked as the roads are fts a whole,
Austria has built some fine ones where
wheeled traffic would be comfortable, but
the Horn Ian has not adapted himself to
them. He will take the traveler by prefer
ence through the old trails.
It Is more than twenty-five years now
since the Turkish occupation, and the en
terprising and wide-awake Austrian and
Magyar are clamoring at the doors of tho
Bosnian with their goods.
They have pushed mere than 700 miles,
of railroad Into this land. They ure teaw
REV. J C.
iiEAKT
WHlTK. PARTOR OF SACRED
CliLllCU AT WoOLiBINK, la,
A v y.
A BOSNIAN. HEAV'TY.
Ing open new and old highways. But the
Bosnian ploughs In sight of railroad trains
with a wooden plough made by his ances
tors. In bight of freight cars and railroad
stations full of modern supplies, he plods
over his red loads with Ills fret covered by
Immense pouch-like shoi s rii-ule of pig's
skin with the bristles left on. I'ndtr Chris
tian luie he wears his led fea and linen
trousers of TurM-dt cut, gathered at the
ankles.
Anil he lociks at the wile, new roads, anil
then mounts his shaggy, thin little horse
rind g'n'3 , pounding and stumbling i.nd
Jouncing over the trail i f bis daddies.
The Bosnian horse Is a patient beast, for
giving under Insult and Injury. It look-t
equally happy, v. het'.ur find or t tattled.
It i r.evi r soo:i by any i Irinee without a
Wonderful article of full It -i - on Its back,
occupying the place r serve, I for a saddle
in other and h iipi'T amis.
This piece of horse f urni: iit- looks most
marly like a small t:M- v. I h st ih! : loss.
The legs are spars to which are fastened
nil the articles lliet are to lie transported.
The limit of the Bosnian horse load is de
fined only by the capacity of t'.ie table legs
and the available amount of ri pe.
Baps, boxes, baskets, l.imlsT, hay, house
hold utensl s, traveling necessaries all are
tied on till there Isn't an I tch of room left.
There aren't any straps. Hopes are used to
tie the baggage on, ropes lash the furniture
to the horse, a piece of rope acts as a
bridle.
. t ...
NEW SACKED 1IKART CATIIOI.TC fill ItHI AT WOODEINK, la., DliDlCATKD
TO I'LHI-UJ WOU.SH1P J.AST TUKSOAV.
When the horse has been jrn well parked
that little of tt can N seen, the Bosnian
gets cut himself. He sits in front of tho
load, and as tlte Bosnian idea of loading a'
lu-rse Is to put everything well forward,
the rider sits almost on the animal s neck,
much like a man mounted on a camel.
With this outfit the Bosnian Is happy and
the horse doesn't .mind, tiff go the com
paiiloii,s, c'ainherlMK. The horse can climb
like ic goat. It will fall into a hole, ascend
a smooth face of rock, slide down another
and fall into a second ho!.- as placidly as
if it were ambling over a pasture.
Tho Bosnian likes it, for It Is literally
true that where certain fearfully bad bridle
paths arc ixtra'lclcd by excellent new high
ways the Bosnians still plod up and down.
Jolting and stumbling, along the bridle)
paths.
Tile bridle path Is not Ideal, bat there H
n worse road still, which seems to be even
more of a favorite with the true Bosnian,
II is the Kaldcrmas.
The Kaldermas Is a road that was orig
inally a mere path over fields. In a mo
ment of ambition, long ego, the It isid ins
Improved these trails by throwing stoma
into them. As no attempt was mole to
make a foundation, the Kaldermas Is a.
terror today. There Isn't a town of any
size In Boslua that does not boat of ap
proaches of this kind, and the weary trav
eler when he sights a town knows that hi
troubles have only In gun, for the Kalder
mas goes over roc k and swamp.
The fact Is that the Bosnian, although
he lui settled down to being a Kurop-an
and an Austrian, is a Turk at heart. To
day Bosnia and Herzegovina together have
2.11 elementary Kuros-an srhools and KTst
lower Mohammedan M-hools.
The Bosnian still loves s. me of the Turk
ish ways, though he fought the Turk sll
the time. He prefers even now to take his
disputes to a learned Turk rather than to
a Kuropean Judge, and it Is on r. cord that
Bosnian, Croatian and lmlmitiati Chris
tians have taken their law ca ei to Turk
ish kadis on Turk'!i tenltory over mil
over again in rec nt years.
They like the Oriental m -thud, which
permits them to c.nry on their own cim
anil to light it out before the Judge In per
sn. They like, too, bis method of j.ulg ns.
it is within their mid. is anding.
One of the funny Bos lian stories Is about
a c-ise of Just this kind. Two sisters and
a brother had been supporting tb lr old
father until they giew weary of him und
clie-idtd to throw h ut oft.
The wise old rentlemaii di m oven d tho
plan In time. He hur.liil to i lil nd anil
borrowed a bag of gold With this he re
pair) d to his loo:n, where he began to
count It, taking ixeellint care- to make tho
pieces clink loudly.
The "loving" clildren peered through a
crack and saw the hoard Immediately
they In gan to rival each oilier In atten
tions and the foxy old daddy lived In clover
till he died.
As soon 113 he had passed the children
hunted for his hoard and piesently found
a great earthen Jar scaled and extremely
heavy. Forthwith they bore it to a kicdl,
told him the story and besought bin to
make the division.
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