Another of the old customs of Servia was sufficiently characteristic of its lawless state.  Abduction of females was common.  Sometimes a young man would collect a party of his companions, break into a village, and carry off a maiden.  To prevent re-capture they generally went into the woods, where the nuptial knot was tied by a priest nolens volens.  Then commenced the negotiation for a reconciliation with the parents, which was generally successful; as in many instances the female had been the secret lover of the young man, and the other villagers used to add their persuasion, in order to bring about a pacific solution.  But if the relations of the girl mode a legal affair of it, the young woman was asked if it was by her own will that she was taken away; and if she made the admission then a reconciliation took place:  if not, those concerned in the abduction were fined, Kara Georg put a stop to this by proclamation, punishing the author of an abduction with death, the priest with dismissal, and the assistants with the bastinado.

The Haiducks, or outlawed robbers, who during the first quarter of the present century infested the woods of Servia, resembled the Caterans of the Highlands of Scotland, being as much rebels as robbers, and imagined that in setting authority at defiance they were not acting dishonourably, but combating for a principle of independence.  They robbed only the rich Moslems, and were often generous to the poor.  Thus robbery and rebellion being confounded, the term Haiduck is not considered opprobrious; and several old Servians have confessed to me that they had been Haiducks in their youth, I am sure that the adventures of a Servian Rob Roy might form the materials of a stirring Romance.  There are many Haiducks still in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and on the western Balkan; but the race in Servia is extinct, and plunder is the only object of the few robbers who now infest the woods in the west of Servia.

Such are the customs that have just disappeared; but many national peculiarities still remain.  At Christmas, for instance, every peasant goes to the woods, and cuts down a young oak; as soon as he returns home, which is in the twilight; he says to the assembled family, “A happy Christmas eve to the house;” on which a male of the family scatters a little grain on the ground and answers, “God be gracious to you, our happy and honoured father.”  The housewife then lays the young oak on the fire, to which are thrown a few nuts and a little straw, and the evening ends in merriment.

Next day, after divine service, the family assemble around the dinner table, each bearing a lighted candle; and they say aloud, “Christ is born:  let us honour Christ and his birth.”  The usual Christmas drink is hot wine mixed with honey.  They have also the custom of First Foot.  This personage is selected beforehand, under the idea that he will bring luck with him for the ensuing year.  On entering the First Foot says, “Christ is