I asked him if he was content with his present condition; and he answered, “Indeed, I am not; I am perfectly miserable, and sometimes think of returning to Russia, coute qui coute.—­My salary is L20 sterling a year, and everything is dear here; for there is no village, but an artificial settlement; and I have neither books nor European society.  I can hold out pretty well now, for the weather is fine; but I assure you that in winter, when the snow is on the ground, it exhausts my patience.”  We now took a turn down the inclosure to his house, which was the ground-floor of the guard-house.  Here was a bed on wooden boards, a single chair and table, without any other furniture.

The Director, obliging me, made up a bed for me in his own house, since the only resource at the traiteur’s would have been my own carpet and pillow.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 11:  Ingenious treaties have been written on the origin of the Gothic and Saracenic styles of architecture; but it seems to me impossible to contemplate many Byzantine edifices without feeling persuaded that this manner is the parent of both.  Taking the Lower Empire for the point of departure, the Christian style spread north to the Baltic and westwards to the Atlantic.  Saint Stephen’s in Vienna, standing half way between Byzantium and Wisby, has a Byzantine facade and a Gothic tower.  The Saracenic style followed the Moslem conquests round by the southern coasts of the Mediterranean to Morocco and Andaloss.  Thus both the northern and the eastern styles met each other, first in Sicily and then in Spain, both having started from Constantinople.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

Cross the Bosniac Frontier.—­Gipsy Encampment.—­Novibazar described.—­Rough Reception.—­Precipitate Departure.—­Fanaticism.

Next day we were all afoot at an early hour, in order to pay a visit to Novibazar.  In order to obviate the performance of quarantine on our return, I took an officer of the establishment, and a couple of men, with me, who in the Levant are called Guardiani; but here the German word Ueber-reiter, or over-rider, was adopted.

We continued along the river Raska for about an hour, and then descried a line of wooden palings going up hill and down dale, at right angles with the course we were holding.  This was the frontier of the principality of Servia, and here began the direct rule of the Sultan and the Pashalic of Bosnia.  At the guard-house half a dozen Momkes, with old fashioned Albanian guns, presented arms.