days in the house of the Vice-Sindaco, under the surveillance of a guardiano.

Fêtes were still going on at Metcovich. The quantity of time consumed in them, by the Morlacchi, is a decided injury to the country, and to industry; and to such an extreme do they carry their fondness for holidays, that of the eight months from March to November, fifty days are occupied in useless festivities; so that, with Sundays, ten days are lost every month; and an instance occurred, in the autumn I was in Dalmatia, of one day only in a whole week being left for work. The fault is in the ignorant Morlacchi priests, who encourage the idleness and fanaticism of the peasantry; and neither the interference of the government, nor the representations of the Pope, who has clearly indicated what days are to be kept as fêtes, have been able to stop the abuse.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish the Morlacchi, from the Turks of the neighbouring provinces, many of their costumes being very similar; and I met one at Metcovich, who had strayed across the border, on a love adventure, who might easily have passed for a Dalmatian, innocent of the Koran. He was a great favourite with the women of Narenta, who admired, and chatted most familiarly with, the handsome Moslem; and many a Morlacco may have had reason to be jealous of his success. Indeed, it has often happened that, neither their knowledge of Turkish customs, the confinement they are to be

subject to, the fact of the attentions (rather than affections) of a Moslem being divided, nor the necessary change of religion, have sufficed to deter Dalmatian women from marriages with Turks; and many have left their country and their homes, despite the entreaties of their parents, to undergo the humiliating treatment of a hareem. This even occurred at a time when the Turks were at war with the Venetians, and were inflicting numerous calamities on the Dalmatian peasantry; of which a remarkable instance is recorded, in the Reports of the Rettori, to the Government of Venice.*

* See the story "Adelino," in the History, A. D. 1574; Chapter IX.

CHAP. VIII.

Departure from the Valley of the Narenta for Vergoraz. Imoschi.-Customs and Superstitions of the Morlacchi.Old Christian Tombs, with the Crescent and Star. The Poglizzans. Almissa. Return to Spalato.

Remarks on the Slavonians.

My quarantine being over, I left Metcovich for Vergoraz and Imoschi. The road passed by Vido; where having swum our horses over the stream of the Norino, and once more ransacked the village, in quest of inscriptions and remains of Narona, we ascended the hills to the north-west. On the point of one of these is a tumulus of heaped stones, called by the people Zadroosbina*, answering to "ex voto," from having been raised, in compliance with a vow, made by the friends of the deceased. On the other side of the hills is the village of Novasella †, and before the descent to it, is a fine view of the picturesque Turkish town of Gliubuski, the distant Velleg, and other mountain ranges.

* Literally, "for friendship."

"New Village." Selo answers to "Village," as Dobroskoselo," "Tzarsko," or "Czarsko-selo," &c. The Italians change it into "Sella."

Gliubuski stands at the side, and extremity, of a rocky ridge of hills; the houses are interspersed with gardens, and commanded, or protected by a citadel, crowning the heights above; and in the plain below is the river Trebisat, which runs into the Narenta at Strúké, in Herzegóvina. Gliubuski is one of the most thriving towns of Herzegóvina, and is about four or five miles from the Dalmatian frontier.

A winding road, through arbutus and other bushes, brought us to Novasella; and we soon afterwards joined the high road, running in a long tedious line to the small lake of Yesaratz. This road is called "Strada Napoleone," having been made by the French, during their occupation of Dalmatia. It is well constructed, of great breadth, and very similar to the French military roads in other countries; and is a portion of that, which extends from Spalato to Sign, and thence to Trigl, Graboaz, Xuppa, and Vergoraz, and which, after crossing the plain of the Narenta, goes to Imotizza, Ragusa, and Cattaro.

The lake of Yesaratz is remarkable for its great rise and fall; and it is evident, from the mark on its hilly banks, that the water is often fifty feet higher than when I saw it in November. It sometimes reaches, and even overflows, the road, which is about one-third of a mile off, without any apparent cause for this phenomenon, neither being fed by any river, nor by torrents running from

lofty surrounding mountains. It is also on a higher level, than the other lakes, in the neighbouring plain of the Trebisat. The name Yesaratz, the diminutive of Yesaro *, distinguishes it from the larger lake of that name, near Prolog; and both these, like the many others met with in Dalmatia, offer a curious subject of inquiry for the geologist.

At Prolog, or Pod-prolog are some old tombs, doubtless of the same time as those beyond Imoschi, which I suppose to be of the Christians before the fifteenth century: some, as usual, are slabs placed flat on the ground, others of a stunted sarcophagus shape; and one is said to have borne a Slavonic inscription, which for some, or no, reason, was destroyed by an ignorant priest, in 1828;-a piece of Vandalism, which had the good effect of eliciting an order from the Emperor of Austria, that all monuments should, for the future, be preserved throughout the country.

The name Prolog †, signifies a "defile;" and the position of the place, above the deep Yesaro, which is surrounded by lofty hills, is remarkable ; but the most interesting object is the Yesaro itself. Fortis says that, "in some parts of it the ruins of houses are seen at the bottom;" a report which does not, however, appear to rest on any good authority; and "one outlet exists towards the south, where it falls into the cavern of Czernivir;

* Or Yezero.

Pod-prolog, or Pod-prologh, "under the defile."