Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-09-10
IN SONG,
DEFEAT OF SERBS
Man Who Lost Family in War
Continues Chant Hour
Upon Hour.
ENTERTAIN CORFU CROWDS
Six Hundred "Third-Ban" Men
Tco Badly Manned to
Fight Again.
ENTERTAIN CORFU CROWDS

tembcr 9.--The Serbian army has long
since left Corfu-but not all the Serbs.
hesidcs those who rest for eternity
III alien soil. on the sunlit slopes of
the island Of Nido. some 500 living
Serbs remain here. The war goes on
without them. They are the third
ban mon. too old or too badly manned
ever to fight again.
| Many of them arc i'll even now. and
tho two hospital tents at Potamo under
supervision OF Miss Emily Simmons. Of
New York. an English trained nurse
sent out by the American Red Cross,
are generally full. Just now out of GOO
| third-ban" men in camp there are lis
! In the hospital The remainder are
| In charge of two English Quakers
acting for the British Serbian Relief
Committee.
Those who are we'll enough work at
! trivial tasks to I'LL their empty days
| they who have been heroes. They carve
canes OF white olive wood or weave
baskets to sell to tourists-anything TO
keep the fingers busy and dull the
dreams Of what is passing over there.
behind the Albanian hills in what was
once Serbia. Save what has come to them
from the American Red Cross or the
British Serbian Relief, they have moth
ing. They staggered through Albania
leaving by the roadside all their meager
possessions-even at the last their use
less guns. for which there was no moro
ammunition. Here and there one or
two have kept their torn and mud
stained blankets. One, through all the
vicissitudes of that hideous retreat,
chung TO a deep, long handled saucepan,
mountain heirloom of other ages
| And In t..
It's own. ~ miraculous metamorphosis
/ is in progress. over the oval bowl
bends the gray head of what seems an
! old, old man. He is fifty six-but he
| looks seventy. His two sons are dead;
| his brother and his brothers three sons;
! his sisters husband and her son-all
are dead. somewhere between the Dam
ube and the Adriatic, on the road from
Kragujevatz to Durazzo He alone
remains n third ban" man, his lighting
| done, his family come TO an end and
OF what was once his home only
an antique saucepan. He is stringing a
cord of twisted horsehair across the
hollow bowl TO the far end Of the
| wooden handle. On the ground beside
him lies an olive wand bent in the
shape of an are dts tips connected by
another string OF woven horsehair.
ne Olu luNU TASK Is COmDleleQ.
Mumblng to himself he picks up the
saucepan and balances 1t on his knee.
In his right hand the lmprovised bow
sweeps across the solitary string with
tone. vibrant and low. The fingers
OF the left hand grip the handle. and,
pressing the cord, vary the tone in a
scale OF half dozen notes.
EXPERIMENTS WITH
NEN-MAnE ISSPRJ'MENV
Gently the old man draws his bow,
| experimenting with mis- new-made in
strument. Around him gather the
others in the tent, one by one draw
! ing near to the unaccustomed sound.
"A Gusla y gusla" they cry. de-
lighted. pressing closer.
Aye" he replies, proudly. fondling
the transformed saucepan. "a gusla."
And i'll half-voice he begins to sing.
| accompanying the words with the few
primeval notes of his saucepan gusla.
At first ii is the chant. five centuries
old. of the fugitive Serbs after their
defeat on the plains Of Kosovo-the
chant that is called The Bloody
Night;
'Peloved, my beloved.
Will ii end at last. this ira ric night
Al whose dawn YOU must go TO hattle?"
But there have been SO many bloody
nights since then. so much that is now
to be added to the ancient legend. The
old man abandons the song OF CEN
turtles old. and, raising his voice. he
begins the narrative OF another defeat,
n more recent and more poignant trial
| OF the soul of Serbia.
! Heroes, do you remember" he he
gins. monotonously: and step by step
! he traces tho "a of 4
hania the blood stained pathway OF re.
treat. lie names each pass, each
bridge. each brook and height He re-
calls the names Of those who died fight
| ing and of those who fell of hunger
and exhaustion by the way. And those
who listen. as the narrative proceeds.
remind tho singer OF an incident for
! gotten. At once it is Incorporated in
! the improvisation.
] Hour upon hour tho chant continues,
and the gusla means its hummed &C.
| compartment.
Sometimes at twilight. at the edge
+, OF the crowd that surrounds tho bard
| bending over his TRANSPORTED saucepan
Il short. wiry youth stands, hnlf-lost III
! the shadows His dark eyes CLEAN III
the candlelisht; his eager. mobile face
reflects the eNaltation OF somber har-
monies and sublime words. Silent he.
too listens to the heroic story OF HIS
race. his nervous hands opening and
/ shutting, his countenance glorihed by
a strange. inner flame. Unobtrusively.
! he Sins from the circle at last. UNI
| marked. and strincs of into the dusk.
1t is Prince Alexander OF Serbia
the last OF the Karageorgevitchea or
! "Nlack Georges"