When the Aga was gone, the collector gave me a significant look, and, knocking the ashes out of his pipe into a plate on the floor, said, “Changed times, changed times, poor fellow; his salary is only 250 piastres a month, and his relations used to be little kings in Shabatz; but the other fellows in the Turkish quarter, although so wretchedly poor that they have scarcely bread to eat, are as proud and insolent as ever.”

Author.  “What is the reason of that?”

Collector.  “Because they are so near the Bosniac frontier, where there is a large Moslem population.  The Moslems of Shabatz pay no taxes, either to the Servian government or the sultan, for they are accounted Redif, or Militia, for which they receive a ducat a year from the sultan, as a returning fee.  The Christian peasants here are very rich; some of them have ten and twenty thousand ducats buried under the earth; but these impoverished Bosniacs in the fortress are as proud and insolent as ever.”

Author.  “You say Bosniacs!  Are they not Turks?”

Collector.  “No, the only Turks here are the Aga and the Cadi; all the rest are Bosniacs, the descendants of men of our own race and language, who on the Turkish invasion accepted Islamism, but retained the language, and many Christian customs, such as saints’ days, Christian names, and in most cases monogamy.”

Author.  “That is very curious; then, perhaps, as they are not full Moslems, they may be more tolerant of Christians.”

Collector.  “The very reverse.  The Bosniac Christians are not half so well off as the Bulgarians, who have to deal with the real Turks.  The arch-priest will be here to dinner, and he will be able to give you some account of the Bosniac Christians.  But Bosnia is a beautiful country; how do you intend to proceed from here?”

Author.  “I intend to go to Vallievo and Ushitza.”

Collector.  “He that leaves Servia without seeing Sokol, has seen nothing.”

Author.  “What is to be seen at Sokol?”

Collector.  “The most wonderful place in the world, a perfect eagle’s eyrie.  A whole town and castle built on the capital of a column of rock.”

Author.  “But I did not contemplate going there; so I must change my route:  I took no letters for that quarter.”

Collector.  “Leave all that to me; you will first go to Losnitza, on the banks of the Drina, and I will despatch a messenger to-night, apprising the authorities of your approach.  When you have seen Sokol, you will admit that it was worth the journey.”

The renegade having seen the Aga clear off, now came to pay his visit, and the normal good-nature of the collector procured him a tolerant welcome.  When we were left alone, the renegade began by abusing the Moslems in the fortress as a set of scoundrels.  “I could not live an hour longer among such rascals,” said he, “and I am now in the khan with my servant and a couple of horses, where you must come and see me.  I will give you as good a pipe of Djebel tobacco as ever you smoked.”