The Retreat From Serbia Through Montenegro and Albania #263119

But if the Serbians found us interesting be cause different from themselves, we certainly found them interesting, and for the same reason. Being chiefly an agricultural people they have a different civilisation and — apart from the Catholic, which we have in common — a dif ferent religion: most are members of the Greek Church and others are Mahommedans, and not only have they another language but another alphabet, the Kyrillic, based on the Greek instead of the Latin characters. Then, too, there is a fortnight's difference in time between their calendar and ours. Two other points of difl'erence we noticed among the peasants — a nod of the head we found meant No, whilst a shake of the head meant Yes, and that the women, who are great knitters, invariably commence a stocking at the toe instead of the top. The Serbs belong to the East of Europe and are therefore quite other than ourselves and have much of the reserve of the Oriental. At first it was the differences that roused our interest; later we not only admired but found the Serbian character lovable.