New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-16
BEAUTY IN THE BALKANS.
VARIED FACIAL TYPES ONE MEETS AT
sERAJEvo-QUAINT PICTURE
COSTUMES

The number Of facial types that one meets in a
minutes walk in the bazaar at Serajevo. Bosnia,
is startling" writes American traveller but II
takes long to distinguish Greek Christians from
Catholics or Jews any Of these from the Turks
After all they come from a common stock the
Jews excepted. for. though universally called
Turks, the Moslems Osmanlis but Bos-
MANS the descendants of (mainly forced converts
to Islamism. dating back TO the conquest of the
country by the Turks
My guide at Serajevo is a Pacha-in reduced
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS yet he has an oval sensitive
face. with straight features, and the small, blue
gray eyes of the North. His old father is exactly
like the Pacha.' He said an ancestor came from
the Herzegovina and they did not in any way hail
from Turkey. But they universally dubbed
Turks. and are proudly and emphaticaly follow
ers of the Prophet.
THE garb of all creeds is Oriental It takes a
practised eye to that this Herzegovnian Serb
pictured is not Turkish maiden, and the orthodox
Greek from Bosnias capital. also portrayed on
this page, actually mistaken by fellow
townsman for Moslem girl The third OF these
girls. the Catholic has a dress that better dis
unguishes her. 1t has features that are all its
own.
Bosnia about twenty years ago blood
STAINED than atrocious Bulgaria. 1t is wonderful
to-day to see the security with which people move
ABOUT among their hereditary enemies. Property,
loo' Is safe AS a result trade is fast increasing
and agriculture is making great progress. The
Moslem element has been positively favored under
Austrian rule, in the general arrangements
JeWesseS, Catholics Serbs of the Orthodox
taith. and gypsies. less than Moslem women
wear trousers in the Balkans. A tall gypsy dancing
girl In the railway station at SerajeVo struck me
as the most graceful woman 1 ever saw-wilowy
as her Own Empress Elizabeth used to be on horse
PACK flexible as a beautiful panther, like the Sarah
Bernhard of some fifteen years ago
=, mere Is no suggestion of mannishness about
Eastern womens divided skirts They are indeed
far less mannish than cyclists knckerbockers or
the French chatelaines' shooting dress. My eye
was blessed by the sight of my gypsy just when
smarting from the spectacle of Viennese tailor
made wheewomen-so wooden in body; pinched
IN waist; so stunted In limb!
The Serbian woman often wears on gala occa-
sleeve-so general in Eastern Europe, and so grace
fui-to sheathe the arm hang at the back
the weather or the wearer's will may ordain. Her
smart cap Is sort Of fez, not special symbol of
MahOmetanism, but pretty generally in favor with
all ereeds. On neck and throat she wears fortune
In gems coins and chans-probably all the fortune
she possesses saving her wealth in bracelets and
belt clasps.
But, after all. If her face her fortune
often she would he we'll off. There are many lovely
young Serbian girls and many stately danes also
OF this race and faith in the Balkans.
But these Easterns, in their secular costumes
are less odd than There Is something
approximate even in very fanciful details OF their
dress 1t all has some relation to the human form
or to the work that the wearers are about And It
IS easy admire those who make beautiful pictures
wherever they are, and whatever they do"