The doctor played games of cards with our host, but the united efforts of P. and myself failed to discover any method or system in the game.  The doctor tried to explain at first, but after five minutes we begged him to desist.  So we sat and looked on, drinking cups of black coffee and endeavouring to make friendly overtures to the babies, who openly showed that they considered us distinctly dangerous.

The house itself was curious.  The ceiling was low and the walls were of great thickness.  The windows were so small that it was barely possible to squeeze one’s head through the opening.  The idea of the house is to obtain the maximum amount of warmth, for the cold of these mountainous regions is intense in winter.  In summer, however, these houses are delightfully cool.

The evening before our departure from Kolasin we were invited to an open-air feast at the peasant’s country house.

The “country house” was, it is true, only a rough wooden shanty, but, as our meal was outside, it didn’t matter.

When we arrived, after an hour’s walk, we found a table set out with a white cloth and three wooden chairs on a green slope overlooking the valley of Kolasin.  It was a delightful spot.  Some little distance away the last few turns were being given to a lamb roasted whole on a spit over an open fire.

The feast was soon served up.  The entire lamb, on a great wooden platter, an enormous bowl of milk, eggs, sheeps’ cheese, and unlimited spirits.  The women-folk waited on us and kept our platters full.  Other men with their wives joined us, not to partake of this Homeric feast, but to see us gorge ourselves.  It may not be a nice expression, but we were literally forced to eat to an uncomfortable state of repletion.  They took no denial, and even then the lamb was not nearly finished.  These mountaineers eat meat only on great festivals, and consume enough to last them for the next few months.  They did not realise that we were content with sufficient to last us for the next few hours.

Our glasses, too, were kept replenished with the potent spirit of the land, and our respective healths were drunk, on the average, once every three minutes.  When this began to pall they toasted each other, in which we had naturally to join, and these were followed by patriotic toasts.  It was rather an uproarious evening.

About ten we took our leave, and our hosts drew their pocket cannons and started firing; we naturally replied, and a deafening fusillade went on till every man had emptied his revolver.  With singing ears we returned to our hotel to find the town alarmed, excited groups were congregated in the Market Square.  Our feu-de-joie was speedily explained, and the men flocked into the inn.  As a slight return for the fright we had given them, we paid for a few quarts of spirits.  The Governor overlooked our law-breaking, for after dark firing is not allowed, and no doubt he envied us in his heart, for, poor man, he is in the clutches of the Band of Good Hope, much, we heard, to his disgust.