could be decided without his personal supervision,
nor was any decision of a tribunal settled without
an appeal to him in person. One day, as I sat
with him under the Tree of Judgment, we saw in the
distance a number of the common people approaching
the tree. “Now,” said he, “you
will see a curious thing. This is a case of appeal
from the decision of the head men of a village on
which there had been quartered more of the Herzegovinian
refugees in proportion to their population than they
thought they should support, so that they sought relief
by sending a part of the refugees to a neighboring
village which had not had what they considered its
due charge. The villagers of the second village
appeal from this overcharge, alleging that their means
do not permit them to receive more than they actually
have.” The rival deputations approached
the tree, cap in hand, and, on the Prince giving the
order to open the case, it was stated through the head
men as the Prince had summarized it. The Prince
heard both cases and then asked the head man of the
lesser village if they had done as much as they could
do in the way of relief, and the head man explained
that their village was small and poor (which was quite
unnecessary to say of a Montenegrin village), and
they could not support more refugees; whereupon the
Prince, addressing himself to the deputation of the
larger village, repeated to them the parable of the
widow and her mite, and, assuring them that the little
village had done its best, as the widow did, and they
must be content, dismissed the case, and without a
word of complaint the two deputations went off together,
discussing with each other in the most friendly manner;
and the discontent, so far as we could see, was at
an end.
But if this patriarchal form of government was interesting,
the character of the people under it was still more
so, and it was to me a great pleasure and privilege
to be enabled to study, as I did for the three years
of the insurrection and war, a nation in the earliest
stage of true civilization, corresponding as nearly
as we can reconstruct ethnology to that of the Greeks
in the time of the Trojan war, arms but not men being
changed. The honesty and civic discipline were
perfect, hospitality limited only by the ability to
give it, and the courage and military discipline absolutely
unquestioning. If the Prince ordered a position
to be stormed, no man would return from the attack
till the bugle sounded the recall. I remember
charges made during the war in which the half of the
battalion was down, dead or wounded, before they could
strike a blow, and this without the presence of the
Prince to stimulate the soldier; but, before him, no
man would flinch from certain death when an order was
given.