Dibrans had revolted on account of the cruel treatment they had received at the hands of the Serbi

ans.

The intelligence of the Albanian made a deep impression on the French officers of the army occupying the Ionian Islands, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, when they taught with the greatest facility the new metric system to the Albanian peasants.1

Pouqueville, a man by no means friendly to the Albanians, wrote thus concerning them, a hundred years ago:

"Anything which is exact and useful is singularly welcomed by these people who hastened to adopt vaccination (which is even to-day (1825) forbidden in the Papal States), and who, being devoid of prejudices, would welcome anything likely to improve their condition." 2

These innate qualities more than neutralize the acquired defects which have always been so exaggerated in the fanciful tales about Albania. The stories about the "Albanian brigands" are stories, because brigandage, such as has existed in the Balkans and especially in Greece, has been practically unknown in Albania.

Yet, if by "Albanian brigands” are meant the border raids, such raids are not infrequent throughout the Balkans, and, taking into consideration that the Turkish Government allowed the Albanians full liberty to do as they pleased with their neighbors, the raids were a kind of warfare. Such raids were chronic along the Greek-Turkish border-line, and the

1 F. Gibert, "Les Pays d'Albanie," p. 2. See also p. 307. 2 Ibid., p. 2.

authorities felt that it was their duty to promote this kind of retribution. One has but to remember the occurrences in Macedonia during the last decade, the wholesale massacres, assassinations, and destruction of private property, in order to appreciate this point. A number of writers are wont to forget that Albania is a Balkan country and that the Balkans should be judged by their own and not by European standards.

The fables of the Albanian's disregard of the value of human life owe their origin to the inability of the Porte to provide safe-conducts to travelers and tourists intending to visit the interior of Albania, where Turkish authority was unknown. One, however, must recognize that the Porte was right in doing so, because persons furnished with Turkish recommendations were usually regarded with suspicion and mistrust in those parts of the country which had been able to preserve their independence only by being very careful in regard to Turkish emissaries and agents. Yet, travelers could get into the regions unconquered by the Turks, under the protection of the "Bessa," the plighted faith of some Albanian who would defend them even as against the Sultan. Baron Nopcsa is, therefore, right when he states that "a travel in Albania corresponds to a nocturnal walk in the suburbs of a great European city." That it should be so, despite the absence of any supervision from a higher authority, is to the credit of the Albanian.

The Bessa, which means simply "good faith," is a peculiar institution of the country. It survives today only in Northern Albania where the Turkish Government has never exercised real authority. When

any one, whoever he may be, puts himself under the protection of the Bessa, in other words, is allowed to enter the country on good faith under the protection of an individual or under that of a clan, or what is still more sacred, is accompanied by a woman, he can go to any place he chooses without being interfered with in any way. This institution may seem a primitive one, but it has been the only possible substitute for the lack of a higher governmental authority, among a people freed from any general restraints and not allowed to form a central administration, as has been the case of the Albanians under the Turkish Government, whose authority and power have sufficed to prohibit the establishment of a central authority for the independent clans.

III. SOCIAL CONDITIONS

Social conditions differ somewhat in the three regions into which Albania is usually divided. It is best to treat each region separately.

1. NORTHERN ALBANIA.-As has already been said, Albania is the only country in the Balkans into which feudalism was introduced during the Middle Ages by the Normans. Its lingering traces may be found in the social conditions of the people of a part of Northern Albania, especially among the Catholic population. The reason why it has survived in that part of the country is to be found in the fact that, in the course of time, feudalism was blended with the peculiar clan organization of the people of this region.

Its existence is evidenced by the aristocratic government which is in full sway even at the present time. The country is ruled by an aristocratic oli

garchy composed of the representatives of the leading hereditary families, which claim the right of ( leadership in war. The most important of these is the ruling family of the Dodas, which is virtually the reigning dynasty of Mirdita. We have already seen the part played by the governor of this region in the activities of the Albanian League. It is these hereditary families that the Porte used constantly to play one against the other, in order to keep the country in subjection.

As a counterpart to this distasteful relic of past times, the population of Northern Albania is distinguished for its high ideals of liberty and independence as well as of genuine patriotism. It is this handful of people which has been able to keep the Turks in check, as a result of epic struggles. In fact, there are in this region some localities which the Turk has never been able to enter. The Moslem territories of Mati and Liuma, and the Catholic districts of Mirdita and Kethella were averse even to the appearance on their borders of a Turkish soldier in uniform, and many a time these Moslems and Catholics fought jointly against the Turks.

The Catholic clergy has rendered invaluable services toward keeping alive the spirit of patriotism,11 while among the Moslems national traditions have been perpetuated by the patrician families. The heroic element of Albania finds its stronghold in this part of the country.

The city of Scutari, the population of which is estimated to be about 50,000 souls, and its suburbs,

11 Foremost among these clergymen is Father George Fishta, the most original poet and writer not only of Albania but of all the Balkan Peninsula. He is rightly called the "Tyrtæus of Albania," but there is no doubt that he is more than that.

are not, however, included in the description of Northern Albania, as they are more modern in their social organization.

2. CENTRAL ALBANIA.-Generally speaking, the people of this region enjoy a democratic independence, as a result of the freehold system of land ownership, despite the fact that the largest landed estates, the principal of which are those belonging to the Toptani and Vrioni families, are situated in this region, inasmuch as even on those estates the land is held in the form of perpetual leases, the right of evictment having become obsolete. This region is one of country squires, forming the kernel of a robust middle class of landowners and cultivators. Moreover, as we have already noticed, the extensive landed estates were seized by the peasantry during the insurrection of the Summer of 1914 against the Government of the Prince of Wied.

The serious disadvantages in the condition of the population of this region are to be found in the lack of education and in the existence of a number of settlements of Bosnian refugees which are nests of religious fanaticism. Early in the rule of the Prince, the Government of Durazzo seriously intended to expel these refugees whom the Turkish Government had planted among the Albanian population for obvious reasons of state.

3. SOUTHERN ALBANIA.-Curiously enough, writers on Albania have paid but the scantiest attention to this portion of the country, which is the most progressive, the most educated and civilized, and most likely to exert a high degree of moral influence over the rest of the Albanian people. If it be true, as some are wont to believe and say, that the people