Herzegovina eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 227 pages of information about Herzegovina.

Herzegovina eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 227 pages of information about Herzegovina.
provinces, and nature has provided them with ample means of gratifying their inclination.  Besides bears, wolves, boars, foxes, roebucks, chamois, hares, and ermines, all of which are plentiful in parts of the country, birds of all kinds abound; grey and red-legged partridges, blackcock, ducks of various kinds, quail, and snipe, are the most common; while flights of geese and cranes pass in the spring and autumn, but only descend in spring.  Swans and pelicans are also birds of passage, and occasionally visit these unknown lands.  The natives are clever in trapping these animals.  This they do either by means of pitfalls or by large traps, made after the fashion of ordinary rat-traps.

Before continuing my journey, I visited the hot springs, which rise from the earth at a stone’s throw from the main road.  Baths were built over them by Omer Pacha, on the occasion of his last visit to Bosnia, for the benefit of the sick soldiers, and such others as chose to use them.  Besides two or three larger baths, there are several intended for one person, each being provided with a kind of cell, as a dressing room.  The waters are considered most efficacious in all cases of cutaneous diseases, and were at one time in great request for every kind of disorder, real and imaginary.  From what I could gather from the ‘Custos,’ I should say that they are now but little frequented.  Leaving the Migliaska, which is here spanned by a solid bridge of ten arches, we crossed the Bosna in about half an hour.  Scattered along the river bank, or in some sheltered nook, protected by large trees alike from the heat and the eyes of curious observers, might be seen the harems of various pachas, and other grandees connected with the province.  After four hours farther march, we arrived at Ekshesoo, where 1 located myself in the khan for the night.  My first step was to send for a jug of the mineral water, for which the village is famous, and at one period of the year very fashionable.  The water has a strong taste of iron, and when fresh drawn, effervesces on being mixed with sugar, wine, or other acids.  It is in great repute with all classes, but the Jews are the most addicted to its use.  No Hebrew in Serayevo would venture to allow a year to elapse without a visit to the springs; they generally remain there for two or three days, and during that time drink at stated hours gallon after gallon of the medicated fluid.  The following night I arrived at Boosovatz, where I left the Travnik road, which I had been retracing up to that point.  The water of the Bosna is here beautifully transparent; and at about an hour’s distance is a spring, the water of which is considered the best in Bosnia.  The Pacha has it brought in all the way to Serayevo, yet, notwithstanding this, I saw many persons in the village suffering from goitre, a by no means uncommon complaint in Bosnia.  The cause for the prevalence of this affliction is difficult to understand, unless we attribute it to the use of the river water, which is at times much swollen by the melting snow.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Herzegovina from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.