Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/250

228 episode, and was glad to hear that the sketch was locked up quite safely.

Tabu on names.—I have been for the last seven months engaged in distributing relief (clothing, roofing material, etc.) to the luckless Albanians whose property was entirely destroyed in the disturbances last year. This necessitates keeping a list of the families who have received relief, and it is usually only with great difficulty that a woman can be induced to give her husband's name. She always gives her own maiden name. When pressed as to her husband's name, she very often says,—"Ask that other woman," pointing to a comrade, "she knows." The only reason I can obtain for this is,—"Modesty; of course she is too modest to say to which man she belongs." Even here in Scutari, until very recently, it was never the custom of a (Christian) man and wife to recognise each other in the street, and they very seldom, if ever, went out together. I was given the same reason,—"She would not like people to know he was her husband." The last ten years, however, have seen rapid changes. It was fortunate that I visited the Albanian mountaineers when I did, for that year (1908) was the last in which they were to be seen in their primitive state.

Burial customs.—It is customary in the mountains of Shalu and Dushmani, and possibly elsewhere, to leave some iron article in a new-made grave until the corpse is brought for interment. It is unlucky to step over an empty grave.

Bridal customs.—In the Crmnica valley in Montenegro (and possibly in other parts), it was, and among peasants may still be, the duty of the two djevers (bride-leaders) who came to fetch the bride to see that no one tied knots in the fringe of her strukka (a long straight shawl, worn like a Scottish plaid and with very long fringes at each end). Should some malevolent person succeed in doing this, the bride would either miscarry with her first child or bear a cripple.

Divine right.—It is amazing how greatly the tribesmen believe in "the divine right of kings." The hereditary chief of the Mirdites, Prenk Pasha, was looked on as but little short of a god when he returned from exile in 1908. Now, although after three years' experiences the Mirdites and other tribes are