Travels and politics in the Near East (1898) (14597559740)

Identifier: travelspolitic00mill (find matches)
Title: Travels and politics in the Near East
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Miller, William, 1864-1945
Subjects: Eastern question (Balkan) Balkan Peninsula
Publisher: New York : Frederick A. Stokes
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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e. A multitude of birds glided ceaselessly over thewater or flew in and out of the countless crannies in thelimestone clift, while the fish darted to and fro in therapid current of the Buna. Nestling under the shadowof the rocks at one side of the cavern, hard by a ruinedmosque is a tiny house, the goal of many a pious Moslemsfootsteps, containing the tombs of a Mohammedan saintand his faithful servant. On the wall above, the scimitarand battleaxe of the holy man still remind the pilgrims ofthe unbelievers whom he slew, while every evening thecustodian religiously places a jug of water and a towel bythe coffin for the saints ablution. Every morning, so theytold us in awestruck tones, the towel is moist and the jughalf empty. To a wooden verandah overhanging thestream a skiff is moored, in which, to the immense delightof our two small companions, 1 pulled myself inside themouth of the cavern. Huge stalactites hang from thereofand almost kiss the deep-blue water, and in the distance 138
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Travels and Politics far under the mountain one hears a noise as of thunder.No one has ever navigated this subterranean stream, but thelocal legend tells how one day a shepherd threw his staffinto the Zalomska river, which disappears in the earthsome thirteen miles away, and how his father, a miller atBlagaj, found it floating in the Buna. Father and soncommunicated with one another and resolved to profit bythis freak of nature. Every day the shepherd slew one ofiiis masters sheep, threw its carcass into the Zalomska,and so despatched it to his father, who fished it out of theBuna a few hours later. At last the owner of the flockbecame suspicious, set a watch upon his shepherd, andone day caught him in the act of throwing a dead sheepinto the stream. That evening the miller saw in thewaters of the Buna, instead of the usual sheep, theheadless trunk of his son. High on the rocks above the source of the Buna therestand the majestic ruins of Stephens Castle, or Stjepa-nograd. There, four