The fine harbour known as the "Bocche di Cattaro" is thirteen miles long from the entrance to Cattaro itself, which lies at the extreme south. The "bocche," the mouths, lie between the Punta d'Ostro and the Punta d'Arza, both fortified, and in the channel is the little rock Rondoni, on which is another fort, Mamola. These defensive works were completed in 1897. The bay was known to the ancients as "Sinus Rhizonicus," Rhizon, from which it was then named, being the modern Risano at the extremity of the northern arm. The "Tavola Peutingeriana" gives the name "Resinum." The first mention of the "Rhizinitie" is about B.C. 229, at the period of the unfortunate wars waged by Teuta, widow of Agron, against the Romans. Their origin is variously ascribed to Colchis, Troy, and to Sicilian colonies sent by Dionysius of Syracuse. The Bocchesi prefer a Sicilian origin; but the Greeks called all this part of the continent Illyris Barbara. Livy mentions the Rizuniti among the peoples of the kingdom between the fall of Teuta and the ruin of Genzius. Risano was Teuta's capital, and there she died in 220 B.C. Her husband Agron had conquered the country as far as Friuli. Teuta allowed her subjects to be pirates, with the result that Issa (Lissa), the only island which had remained independent, complained to Rome, and the Romans sent an embassy to protest; but the youngest At Prevlacca, near Punta d'Ostro, are remains of antique walls, thought to be those of the ancient Epidaurus, by those who maintain that it was at the gates of the "Sinus Rhizonicus." Most authorities, however, agree in placing it at Ragusa Vecchia. Objects of the bronze age have been excavated at Risano, and sepulchral stones and altars of strange and un-Roman form have been found at Lastua Inferiore and Perzagno. Cattaro appears as a Roman city under the name of Ascrivium or Acrivium, and it and Risano are the only two towns known at the fall of the Illyrian kingdom. The Romans made a road from Aquileia to Durazzo. It passed by Epidaurus and along the Sutorina Valley to Castelnuovo, where it turned along the coast to Risano, Perasto, Orohovac, Dobrota, and Ascrivium. Thence it went to Castel TrinitÀ. This road put the Rizuniti into communication with the Dalmatians, and with the tribes to the south. Rizinum was a Roman colony, and inscriptions show that it belonged to the Sergian tribe and was governed by decurions. It was the seat of the god Medaurus, of whom all that is Ascrivium was also a Roman colony. The municipal senate was presided over by duumvirs, who held office for a year, and had power over the entire administration of the city and of justice. The greater part of the ancient Rhizon is now under water, and Cattaro has been many times destroyed by invaders, so that there are very few antique remains. At Risano are the remains of a building vaulted in two compartments, like an ancient tomb, and a few stones. Some thirty sarcophagi found there in 1870 raised hopes of the discovery of a necropolis, but these hopes were disappointed. A colossal foot of an ox in bronze and one of white marble were found in 1868, and a few inscriptions, one of which, at the entrance to the Greek church, shows that the 7th Legion was stationed there. It is to a distinguished soldier, who had twice gained a golden garland of honour, neckchain, and bracelets, which he wore in the triumph after the Dacian war. At Prevlacca, Cattaro, Scagliari, Scoglio S. Giorgio, and Perasto are also inscriptions. After the death of Theodosius the "Sinus Rhizonicus" became subject to the Western Empire (395 A.D.), and till the days of Diocletian it was the southern limit of Dalmatia. Justinian took it from the Ostrogoths, and, considering it as part of Dardania, fortified the castle of ?atta??? in 532 to defend it from barbarian inroads. Risano, like Salona and Epidaurus, was destroyed by an inroad of the Huns in 639, after which Heraclius handed Dalmatia over to the Croats and Serbs, who divided it between them. He, however, reserved to himself the important coast-towns. In 867 the Saracens destroyed Budua, and went with thirty-six The bishopric of Cattaro is said to date from the fifth or sixth century as suffragan to Spalato (that is, to Salona, as Spalato only became metropolitan in 650); but the first certain date occurs in 877, in which year an act of the Concilium Delmitanum, when the ancient rights of Salona were divided with Spalato, enacts that Cattaro and Budua shall be suffragan to Dioclea. Bishops of Risano are mentioned in 141 and 591. In 1033 the metropolitan of Salona called a council, and the bishop of Cattaro went with those of Dulcigno, Antivari, and Suacia. They were caught in a storm and wrecked at Bacile near Torcole, twelve miles from Lesina, and were all drowned. The sailors have never forgotten the catastrophe. The Cattarines in consequence sent to the Pope, pointing out the difficulties of communication, and obtained transference to the arch-diocese of Antivari. The "bocche" consist of several expanses of water, separated by narrow canals and surrounded by lofty mountains, which often rise so nearly directly from the water's edge as greatly to increase their impressiveness. The scenery is exceedingly fine, and indeed the view from the road to Cettinje is claimed as almost unsurpassed in Europe. The first of the narrows is between the Kobila range (1470 ft.) and the west point of the peninsula Lustica. It leads into the Bay of Topla, and the steamer heads direct for Castelnuovo, leaving on the left the Sutorina, the lower part of the Canali valley, a portion of the territory of the Republic of Ragusa ceded to Turkey in 1699 to form a buffer state between herself and Venice. The Slav name of Castelnuovo is Erzeg Towards the east is Kloster Savina, a monastery said to have been founded in 1030, and now the summer residence of the Servian Orthodox bishops of Cattaro. There is, however, nothing to be seen authorising so early a date; the smaller of the two churches may perhaps date from the thirteenth century, since it has a pointed wagon vault and transverse ribs without mouldings. In this church the Knights of Malta who died some two hundred years ago lie buried. The interest of the place lies in the seventeenth-century silver-work, in which the treasure is rich. It includes some twenty carved crosses mounted in silver and enamel THE RUINED BASTION, CASTELNUOVO, BOCCHE DI CATTARO The view from the road between these two places is enchanting. Above the blue waters of the Bay of Teodo the ground rises to the mountains, which divide it from the Gulf of Cattaro, while farther still and bluer, the greater heights of Montenegro cut the sky with their serrated edges. To reach the Bay of Teodo another of the narrows is passed, the Canal of Kombor, by the foot of Mount Dvesite. Here is a naval station. The land is the most fertile in the whole district, and here is grown the famous Margamino wine. At Bianca, near Teodo, Danilo, Prince of Montenegro, used to pass the summer. Farther on is the Strait of Le Catene, so called because in 1381 Lewis of Hungary actually put chains across it to protect the inner portions. Opposite to the channel is Perasto, to the left the Valle di Risano, to the right the Gulf of Cattaro. In front of Perasto are two little islands, with picturesque buildings upon them—the Scoglio S. Giorgio, and the Madonna del Scarpello, a little church with a green cupola, containing a picture of the Madonna ascribed as usual to S. Luke, a Byzantine work decked with gold and silver, brought hither from Negropont in 1452. For many years the Bocchesi brought shiploads of stone to increase the size of the island, and still, on July 22 of each year, a stone-laden Near Risano, at Sopoti (the rushing), is an intermittent waterfall 45 ft. high, which I was told was 100 ft. wide. As soon as it runs dry the cave from which it issued can be entered for several hundred yards. The A white line about 3,000 ft. high marks the military road between Perasto and Cattaro; the way of access to the blockhouses, in each of which a detachment of twenty-five men, with two non-commissioned officers and one lieutenant, is on duty for a year at a time, bearing great heat in summer (for it is said that an egg laid on the rock in the sun is hard in eight minutes), while in winter they are often blocked by the snow for two or three weeks together. Perasto is now a little place of some 500 inhabitants, but shows in its ruined palaces and unfinished church that it was once populous and prosperous. It has had a stormy history, during which the Perastines have shown themselves sturdy fighters and loyal supporters of their overlords, and is the one city of the Bocche which remained faithful and grateful to Venice, even after Campo Formio. When the Austrian troops came to take possession, the gonfalon, which had been confided to the Perastines by the Republic, as a reward for their Nearer to Cattaro is Mula, and on the other side Dobrota; along both roads are red and white oleanders, orange and lemon trees, ancient figs and chestnuts, locust beans (carob), olives, pomegranates, and main' flowers, among which may be specially named beautiful pale mauve irises. The torrent Skurda, or Fiumara, separates the mountains Pestingrad and Mrajanik from the lofty Lovcen, which towers above Cattaro to the height of 5,770 ft. It is the holy mountain of Montenegro; on it the great Wladika Pietro, the singer of the Servian redemption, chose to be buried, as if from that height his spirit might watch and protect the land to which he devoted his life. Every year a pilgrimage climbs to the white-walled little chapel which sparkles on the dark mountain side. The Servian dream is for the waters of Cattaro to be covered with ships under the In the city of Cattaro, the ancient Ascrivium or Acrivium, some small remains of the Roman period are to be seen encrusted in the walls of the clock-tower, an altar and a memorial to a girl and her teacher. At the beginning of the ninth century it boasted several fine buildings, to which a rich man named Andreaccio Saracenis, mentioned as "Certo zitadino nobile zintilhomo si de generazion come di richeza," contributed. Towards the end of the eighth century S. Maria Infunara was built by him in the rope-makers' district, and here he also founded a convent to enable his second daughter Theodora to lead the life of contemplation. He also paid for the first cathedral of S. Trifone, which Porphyrogenitus says was circular. The body of this martyr of the third century was being brought to Venice from Asia Minor by certain merchants, when a storm obliged them to shelter in the Bocche. The magnates of the city and Andreaccio treated with the pilot for its purchase, and paid 200 Roman solidi for the shrine, and 100 for a gemmed crown above it. On January 13, 809, clergy and people went by ship to Porto Rose to fetch the body. On their return the bishop invited them to stop on the spot where the church was to be built, and hymns were sung. February 3, the reputed day of his martyrdom, was accepted as the festival, and a figure of S. Trifone was put on the standard of the city. Certain coins which bore his effigy were named after him. The sarcophagus of Andreaccio, in which his wife was also buried, was found beneath the street in 1840, between the cathedral and the bishop's palace. A portion of the ciborium of his church is encrusted in the wall of the sacristy inscribed: "Andree sci ad honorem sociorvmq The rock above the town, called Stirovnik, has a chapel upon it, the Madonna della Salute, now used as an ossuary, which has a piece of Lombard carving inserted in the tympanum above the door. The present cathedral was built about the middle of the twelfth century. A great effort was made, contributions were invited, and a tax of three per cent, on legacies was imposed. Success crowned the effort, and on June 19, 1166, Bishop Malone consecrated the altars, amid the rejoicings of the Bocchesi. The head of S. Trifone, stolen in 968, was brought from Constantinople in 1227 by Matteo Bonascio. At first deposited in S. Pietro, it was brought to the cathedral on December 20, with great pomp. In return, he was given the field of S. Theodore, and his family was exempted from communal taxes in perpetuity. PLAN OF THE CATHEDRAL, CATTARO The plan of the cathedral is that of a Roman basilica with nave and aisles. The three apses are semicircular, with pilasters externally. The nave has three quadripartite bays, and a half-bay to the west. The aisles CIBORIUM OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO RELIQUARY OF THE HEAD OF S. TRIFONE, CATTARO The treasury contains a good many rather uninteresting objects, such as arm and leg reliquaries of the fourteenth century, or later rather, decorated with nielli and bosses in relief, and a few others shaped like vases borne on stems; on some of them the date 1483 can be traced. The reliquary of the body of S. Trifone is of silver, and rather rough sixteenth-century work, but encloses a wooden coffer, upon which remains of ninth-century paintings have been discovered. The head reliquary is of gold and enamel, the stem and an arcade round the upper part of fourteenth-century work (the upper portion re-made in the seventeenth), and the foot apparently of an intermediate period, with early Renaissance details upon a Gothic plan, medallions in relief, and rough scroll-work. The knop has eight roundels with niello crosses crossleted; on the stem are saints in niello in vesicas. The arches of the canopied arcade are filled with figures in relief in couples and enamels in basse-taille, red and blue alternately. The nielli have had a ground of blue enamel. These two reliquaries and a crystal cross in a very graceful setting, early Renaissance in style, are kept in a receptacle lined with cut velvet, upon which are embroideries of half-figures of saints beneath niches raised in gold; above the niches are domes, and between them twisted columns, probably originally part of a vestment. A globe-shaped ciborium, with cresting and knop of the fourteenth century, is interesting. Upon the globe a La Colleggiata is the ancient church of S. Maria Infunara, which Andreacci Saracenis founded, but was rebuilt in 1221, during the Servian period. It has a nave two bays in length, the first cross-vaulted, and the second with a dome enclosed within an octagonal drum, and with a barrel-vaulted presbytery before the apse. An aisle to the north, continued to the tower as a sacristy, is later. The apse has shallow pilasters dividing the exterior surface into three, in the centre of which is a walled-up east window of two lights, with a cross within a circle in the tympanum beneath the enclosing arch. The arch of the south door is perhaps a fragment of the original building, and the west door also looks early. In the aisle is a Virgin and Child, with painted faces, and the hands and feet added in relief and painted. The draperies are silver and silver-gilt, pat S. LUKA, CATTARO S. Luka, the Greek church, of nearly the same period and plan as the cathedral, was built in 1195 by Marco di Andrea Casa Franci, and Bona, daughter of Basilio, prior of Cattaro, The dome is pointed, and rests on four pointed Romanesque arches with rough pendentives. The apse is divided by pilaster strips into three portions externally, and in the central one is a two-light round-headed window with central colonnette. The roof is continued over the chapel of S. Spiridion to the north (which has an apse, but no window, except the little rose over the external door), and this makes the church look square from the south-east. The west side has one clerestory window beneath a great unmoulded arch, and a circular-headed door below, the jambs of which are made of earlier fragments; the late belfry is of three arches, two and one; beneath is an unusual curved ornamentation, a curious presage of the "New Art" of a few years ago. The church appears to have been restored in the fourteenth century, since a consecration by Bishop Doimo II. is recorded in 1368; but it has been a Greek church since 1689, was enlarged in 1747, and the structure shows signs of considerable rebuilding. The iconostasis is of the seventeenth century; the paintings are covered with silver plates. There is a huge cross with wings at the base and paintings. Through the central arch the arca and a little cross are seen. The chapel of S. Spiridion also has its iconostasis. At Easter time two processional crosses of silver and a Resurrection banner decorate the church outside the iconostasis. The Cattarine silversmiths have also executed work away from THE SCUOLA NAUTICA, CATTARO There are a few interesting doors and windows in the town, of various periods. The Palazzo Drago, near the cathedral, has a pretty window of something the same style as the east window of the cathedral; the great doorway of the provincial tribunal has some fine heraldry in the tympanum (a helmeted lion, with another lion for the crest) and angels in the spandrils, while upon the caps beneath the lintel are other lions, with shields flying from their necks. These are of the late Venetian period. The faÇade of the Nautical School, illustrated, displays a bold and unusual treatment, and there is a well near the hotel with elaborate and massive iron-work about the pump connected with it. The streets and alleys are all of the same width, and badly lighted, and it is a difficult place to find one's way about after dark. The only amusement available is usually the large cafÉ on the Riva, which appears to be open at all hours of the day and night—at least, we had coffee there before leaving by boat at 4.15 a.m. The gates are shut at 9 p.m., except the Porta Marina. Over this gate the Venetian lion still appears, a rather late example, but in refreshing contrast with the griffins supporting the Austrian arms above, a work of 1814. Outside are gigantic oleander-trees, and, to the right, the market, where many Montenegrins may be seen in their striking costumes. Beyond the Porta Gordicchio is the wood market, and one for horses and forage is outside the Porta Fiumara, where the barrack for belated Montenegrins stands, for they are not admitted within the walls. Just outside the Porta Marina we found a shooting-saloon established on our second visit, with a number of moving figures, which performed on the marksman A CORNER OF THE WALLS, CATTARO The walls, which are 28 ft. high, were built in 1667, after the older ones had been thrown down by an earthquake. These must have been strong, since the city was blockaded in vain by a Venetian fleet in 1378, and attacked by the Turks equally vainly in 1539, 1569, 1572, and 1657. The present walls zigzag up the mountain to the Fort S. Giovanni, which dominates the roads leading into Montenegro. From the fort one looks down upon the first house beyond the frontier. A little below the fort is a threatening mass of rock, which has been bound with iron to prevent it from falling upon the city below. The Montenegrin road climbs the mountain with no less than sixty-six zigzags. At a little chapel with an early Renaissance faÇade some way outside the town, the Angelus bell hung outside just below the gable termination, without any visible means of being rung, and we wondered how this was done, until we happened one day to be within sight at the Angelus hour, when we saw a man bring out a ladder and ascend to within reach of a short cord hanging from the clapper, which he seized and agitated! The military are on the look-out for spies, and our camera occasioned two or three very searching inquiries. I congratulated myself upon having obtained authority to photograph from headquarters, without which we should certainly have been stopped. After taking the group of the Albanian horsedealers (who crossed with us to Bari with their merchandise) we wished to have a separate figure of the villain to the left; but the next man, who was master of the gang, thought time enough had been lost, and, taking the halter from a horse, twisted it round his neck by way of explaining that he was his servant, and that he objected to any further interruption to business. As we were walking between Perzagino and Mula an old man addressed us, asking if we were English, and, on our reply ALBANIAN HORSE-DEALERS, CATTARO To face page 388 We saw very few English on our second trip. From the time we passed Cologne to the time we arrived at Cattaro we did not hear a word of our own language, though the boat in which we travelled from Spalato to Cattaro was entirely of English make, with Liberty chintzes in the cabins, and panels of coloured plaster in the saloon. It had cost £70,000, the captain said, and was certainly extremely rapid and comfortable. In the early morning we saw the sardine boats coming in. They carry on the bow an apparatus with a number of jets connected with an acetylene plant, producing at night a most vivid light. The Bocchese is a born seaman, beginning at the age of twelve, and often going on till he is seventy. In the Bocche scarcely a third of the land is fruitful, yet 40,000 people lived in the district, mainly, of course, by the sea. From their childhood the boys have always longed for the day when they might accompany their fathers into the world beyond the sea. They were always ready to fight, and expected to have to do so, for, until the second half of the eighteenth century, it was unusual good fortune to make a sea or land trip to Albania without being attacked. The ancient houses, with loopholes and little windows, still look more like citadels than convenient dwellings. The women had to protect their children and their own honour when the men were away, and this had its effect upon their character. In many villages it was the custom for a bride to go out some morning before she was married into a lonely place and sing the death-wail, so that she might know it if she became a widow! The introduction of the steamboat has reduced the There were certain variations among the Bocchesi from the religious customs of the Morlacchi, which are perhaps worth noting. The great fast before Easter lasted for fifty days, and during that time even fish was allowed but twice to the sick, on the Annunciation and on Palm Sunday. During fasts the people do not sing, a custom observed strictly on the islands. Three days before Ascension Day the crosses are taken out of the churches and fastened to poles ten or twelve feet high, with fluttering banners; these days are therefore called "Cross" days. The village girls make garlands to hang from the ends of the crosses. They are then carried in procession round the village and over the fields; when a spring is reached it is surrounded, the priest reads the gospel, and blesses the water and the people with the cross. On Ascension Day, or the day before, a procession with the cross goes through the village, and every house is blessed. In the coast-strip, on the eve of "Cross Day," there is a frugal supper; on the day itself, a dinner. Before both, the master of the house cuts a piece of bread from the "Kreuzlaib" (a large round loaf with a cross marked in the centre), and sticks in it a taper which he has lighted with a brand from the hearth. All pray before it for their dead, cross themselves, and sit down to table. Later in the meal the master rises with a glass of wine, soaks a bit of bread in it, and, with the traditional formula, "I to thee, bread and wine; thou to me, health and joy," extinguishes the taper with the morsel. Then he drinks to all, and they to him. The great piece of bread, into which the taper was stuck, is given to the first beggar who comes by. They provide much more than enough for the guests, as the custom is on those days to feed the poor in Fires are lighted on the eve of S. Stephen's Day, and also on New Year's Day and Epiphany, as well as on the morning of S. John the Baptist's Day, when the people jump over the midsummer fires and cry: "From one S. Giovanni to another, may aching feet be far from me!" On New Year's Day the children get an apple or an orange from the mother, and go to the father, asking him to silver it; he sticks a ten-kreuzer piece or two into it, and they go on to friends and relations with the same request. Every village has its church (some have three or even more), every hilltop has its sanctuary, and each island its holy place. In Cattaro, till the beginning of the nineteenth century, churches and convents occupied a third of the area within the walls, and each nobleman had his private chapel in his villa. The Bocchesi were noted for their honourable fidelity to their word once given, and this probity is still recognised in their commercial dealings. The married sons usually live in the house till the father's death; then the property is divided, and each takes his own house. If the mother is alive she lives with the eldest son. The house master divides the food, giving sufficient to each one, so that he would sometimes go short himself if the girls and daughters-in-law were not always ready to offer him the best part of their portions. The country women of Montenegro always kiss the hand of a male acquaintance in greeting. On the road the man is met on mule-back smoking, the woman on foot with a load, and they neither of them would consent to change their position, and put the load on the mule and make the man walk. The men wear full breeches, a waistcoat and sash round the waist, and a thick whitish wool coat over it, which MONTENEGRINS IN THE MARKET, CATTARO Cattaro has about 2,000 inhabitants, of whom scarcely ten families are old-established; all the old families are dead, or have emigrated. Part of the present population are Italian immigrants; part are Albanian and Montenegrin families (to which nationality many of the country people also belong), who, either for purposes of trade or craft, have settled in the town. From many towns in Austria come the sub-alterns, who have married and now live here. The usual language is Croat, but Italian is generally understood, and songs with the Venetian accent may be heard. But all are much interested in the "Marinerezza," the finest festival of the Bocche, held on February 3. On January 27 the preliminaries commence. The marine officers The standard of S. Trifone bears his figure on a white ground, with the words "Fides et Honor" on a gold embroidered band. Cattaro appears to have been a republic till the thirteenth century, when it came under the protection of Servia, and so continued till the extinction of the Under the Byzantines the prior was first in the state, though there is mention of a Catapan in 1163. The title of the supreme officer was changed to "Rector," and (in 1159) to "Count." Till 1398 he was elected annually; after that time he bore office for a month. He was required to be a native of a friendly Dalmatian city, and was elected by the "arengo" of the nobles. His payment was partly in coin and partly in kind. No one could ask him to be godfather, nor could others of From Cattaro it is but a short distance to the southern boundary of the Austrian Empire on the Adriatic. A stone column between Spizza and Antivari marks the line. Two telegraphic wires are attached to this stone, one belonging to Austria, and one to Montenegro. The Bay of Antivari is said to be the most picturesque place on the Albanian coast, surrounded as it is by lofty mountains, with trees almost hiding the minarets of the town, while, to the north, Spizza is perched on red rocks rising steeply from the water. There is a great waterfall, which appears to fall sheer into the sea, with a mill just at its foot. Budua, which is fifteen miles from Cattaro, is something like Arbe in situation, crowning a projecting peninsula, and |