File:Travels and politics in the Near East (1898) (14784253555).jpg

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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ging off in their thick felt leg-gings, despite the summer heat. But they by no meansmonopolise the artistic treasures of this piazza. There are other women from the valley of Canali onthe road to Cattaro, who vie with their Hercegoviniansisters in tiie picturesqueness of their headgear—apleated white handkerchief, contrasting pleasantly withthe scarlet and orange colours with which the Ragusandames love to cover their hair. The men, too, areresplendent in blue and crimson, which show off to theutmost advantage their magnificent stature. The figureof the hero Orlando, which here, as at Bremen, adornsthe town, might well have been moulded on that ofsome stalwart Dalmatian. But the glories of Orlando,and even the restoration of his sword some twenty yearsago, are eclipsed by the greater fame of San Biagio—theSt. Blazey of our own Cornwall—who has been in all agesthe patron saint of Ragusa. If Orlando had the privilegeof supporting the standard of the Republic, if the traders of 28
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Travels and Politics in the Near East old converted his right arm from the elbow to the wristinto a measure, once known all over the Balkan as thebraccio mgiisco, or Ragiisan arm, it was reserved forSan Biagio to hold the city of Ragusa in the hollow ofhis left hand. Thus holding his beloved town, the saint insilver gazes at the visitor to his church, while from manya niche in the city walls his figure in stone looks downserenely on the modern fortunes of his chosen people. Gointo the old Palace of the Rector, the Government Houseof the Ragusan Republic, and you expect to see a groupof mediaeval senators descending the stairs into the court-yard. But here all is still, and there is nothing save asilent statue—that of a shrewd Ragusan corn merchant,who saved his city from the anger of a mediaeval emperor,and asked as his sole reward not riches, for he possessedthem already, not honours, for none was higher thanthat of Ragusan citizenship, but the towel which themonarch had tucked ben

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