The simplest and most inoffensive query is answered thus:—­

“Hast thou any milk?” says the thirsty wayfarer, pausing at a hut.

“I have none, by God,” and the stranger proceeds wearily on his way.

Our visit to the hospital was decidedly interesting.  The senior doctor of Montenegro was an ex-Austrian military surgeon.  He was very pressing in his invitation, so one day we wended our steps thither at eleven o’clock.  We were met by a smart-looking nurse, who told us that the doctor was at present engaged in an operation, and would be with us shortly.  He soon appeared, and, apologising for the simplicity of the building, started taking us round.  First he led us into the accident-room, where the injured are first treated.  There were the usual operating-tables and cases of instruments.  “We treat wounds that are suppurating here,” he said pleasantly.  “Our real operating-room is in the other house, and is much better fitted up.  This being the only hospital in the country I have all the operations to perform, generally one a day.”

Then we went into the Roentgen room.  The X rays, the doctor informed us, was very useful in locating bullets.  In the men’s ward a young man was pointed out to us who had been shot twice during a kolo dance in the arm and leg.

“The Montenegrins,” said the doctor, “are very careless when they fire their revolvers during a dance, and I get a good many patients that way.”  Afterwards we visited some other wards, and we were finally taken to the other operating-room, or theatre.  But it was only a reproduction of the other on a large scale.  “The Prince is very generous,” said the doctor, “and gives me a free hand.  We have every modern appliance, and I have trained my assistants to such an extent that I can absolutely rely on them.  The hospital costs a lot of money, for we only charge a krone (about a franc) a day, and then they petition that they cannot pay.”

After inscribing our names in a book we went back to our midday meal.

The hospital, from a medical and surgical standpoint, is extremely up to date, and at its head is a doctor who may be counted as one of the finest operators in Europe; at his own request his name has not been mentioned.  It is another instance of Prince Nicolas’ benevolence to his people, another of the progressive movements which he is ever introducing into the country.  Every district has a doctor, all of whom are under the head doctor at Cetinje, who directs all treatment in the case of an epidemic.  Serious cases are sent to Cetinje and treated there, but these are largely surgical.  The fame of the doctor at Cetinje has reached the furthermost village; men who have suffered for years now troop joyfully to the capital, and the number of operations increases yearly.

May the hospital and its capable chief flourish and continue to bring the blessings of science to the worthy sons of the Black Mountain!