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Migrating a
Two-Tier Application
to Azure
A Hands-on Walkthrough of
Azure Infrastructure, Platform,
and Container Services
—
Peter De Tender
 Migrating a Two-Tier
Application to Azure
A Hands-on Walkthrough of Azure
Infrastructure, Platform,
and Container Services

Peter De Tender
Migrating a Two-Tier Application to Azure
Peter De Tender
Lokeren, Belgium

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-6436-2 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-6437-9

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6437-9

Copyright © 2021 by Peter De Tender

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Printed on acid-free paper
I dedicate this book to Ivan De Rop, head teacher in my senior year in
high school, for believing in my skills and passion for information
technology, although I did business management studies.
Table of Contents
About the Author����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix

About the Technical Reviewer��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi

Acknowledgments������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii

Chapter 1: Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
Migrating a Two-Tier Application to Azure Using Different Architectures and
DevOps Best Practices������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 1
Setting the Scene�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 1
Abstract and Learning Objectives������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2
Technical Requirements���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 4
Azure Subscription������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 4
Naming Conventions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
Other Requirements���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
Alternative Approach��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5
Final Remarks������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6

Chapter 2: Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine��������������������������� 7

Prerequisite lab: Preparing your (Azure) environment������������������������������������������������������������������ 7
What You Will Learn����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Time Estimate�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7
Task 1: Deploying the lab jumpVM virtual machine using Azure Portal
template deployment��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 8
Task 2: Cloning the setup scripts from GitHub���������������������������������������������������������������������� 20
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 21

v
Table of Contents

Chapter 3: Lab 1: Deploying an Azure Virtual Machine Baseline

Application Workload��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
Lab 1: Deploying the baseline virtual machine environment using an
ARM template from within Visual Studio 2019��������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
What You Will Learn�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
Time Estimate����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
Prerequisites������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 24
Task 1: Understanding the ARM template building blocks���������������������������������������������������������� 24
Task 2: Running an ARM template deployment from Visual Studio 2019������������������������������������ 31
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 49

Chapter 4: Lab 2: Performing Assessment of Your As-Is Situation������������������������ 51

Lab 2: Performing assessment of your as-is situation���������������������������������������������������������������� 51
What You Will Learn��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 51
Time Estimate������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 51
Prerequisites������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 51
Task 1: Running a SQL Server assessment using Data Migration Assistant������������������������� 52
Task 2: Running a web server assessment using Azure App Service Migration Assistant���� 62
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 66

Chapter 5: Lab 3: Deploying an Azure SQL Database and Migrating

from SQLVM������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 67
Lab 3: Deploying an Azure SQL database and migrating from SQLVM���������������������������������������� 67
What You Will Learn��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 67
Time Estimate������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 68
Prerequisites������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 68
Scenario Diagram������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 68
Task 1: Deploying a new Azure SQL Server instance������������������������������������������������������������ 68
Task 2: Performing a SQL database migration from a SQL virtual machine
to SQL Azure, using SQL Data Migration Assistant���������������������������������������������������������������� 78
Task 3 (Optional): Using SQL Server Management Studio to migrate from
SQLVM to a SQL Azure instance��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 93
Task 4: Defining a hybrid connection from a WebVM to an Azure SQL database���������������� 102
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 107

vi
 Table of Contents

Chapter 6: Lab 4: Deploying an Azure Web App and Migrating from WebVM������� 109
Lab 4: Deploying an Azure Web App and migrating from WebVM��������������������������������������������� 109
What You Will Learn������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109
Time Estimate���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109
Prerequisites����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 109
Scenario Diagram���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 110
Task 1: Publish an ASP.NET project to Azure Web Apps from Within Visual Studio 2019����� 110
Task 2: Publishing the source code to Azure Web Apps������������������������������������������������������ 117
Task 3: Migrating a web application from Azure App Service Migration Assistant�������������� 125
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 130

Chapter 7: Lab 5: Deploying Docker and Running Azure Container Workloads���� 131
What You Will Learn������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 131
Time Estimate��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
Prerequisites����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
Scenario Diagram��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
Tasks����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
Task 1: Installing Docker Enterprise Edition (trial) for Windows Server 2019
on the lab jumpVM�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 133
Task 2: Validating and running basic Docker commands and containers��������������������������������� 139
Task 3: Integrating Docker extension in Visual Studio Code����������������������������������������������������� 149
Task 4: Deploying and operating Azure Container Registry������������������������������������������������������ 155
Task 5: Deploying and running Azure Container Instance��������������������������������������������������������� 162
Task 5: Running an Azure Container Instance from a Docker image in Azure
Container Registry�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 165
Task 6: Deploying and operating Azure Web App for Containers����������������������������������������������� 181
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 186

Chapter 8: Lab 6: Deploying and Running Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)�������� 187
What You Will Learn������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 187
Time Estimate��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 187
Prerequisites����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 187

vii
Table of Contents

Scenario Diagram��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 188

Task 1: Deploying Azure Kubernetes Service using Azure CLI 2.0�������������������������������������������� 188
Task 2: Configuring RBAC for managing Azure Kubernetes Service and ACR integration��������� 193
Task 3: Running a Docker container image from Azure Container Registry in
Azure Kubernetes Service��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 196
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 206

Chapter 9: Lab 7: Managing and Monitoring Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)���� 207
What You Will Learn������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 207
Time Estimate��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 207
Task 1: Enabling container scalability in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)������������������������������� 208
Task 2: Monitoring Azure Kubernetes Service in Azure������������������������������������������������������������� 215
Task 3: Managing Kubernetes from Visual Studio Code������������������������������������������������������������ 225
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 231

Chapter 10: Lab 8: Deploying Azure Workloads Using Azure DevOps������������������ 233
What You Will Learn������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 233
Time Estimate��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 233
Prerequisites����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 234
Scenario Diagram��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 234
Task 1: Deploying an Azure DevOps organization��������������������������������������������������������������������� 234
Task 2: Introduction to source control with Azure DevOps Repos��������������������������������������������� 241
Task 3: Creating and deploying an Azure build pipeline for your application���������������������������� 254
Task 4: Building a release pipeline in Azure DevOps����������������������������������������������������������������� 263
Task 5: Creating and pushing a Docker container to ACR��������������������������������������������������������� 279
Task 6: Creating a release pipeline for Docker containers from ACR���������������������������������������� 294
Task 7: Creating an Azure DevOps pipeline to deploy an ACR container to
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 307
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 316

Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 317

viii
About the Author
Peter De Tender has more than 20 years of experience
in architecting and deploying Microsoft datacenter
technologies. Since early 2012, he started shifting to cloud
technologies (Office 365, Intune) and quickly jumped onto
the Azure platform, working as cloud solution architect and
trainer, out of his own company. Since September 2019,
Peter moved into an FTE role within Microsoft Corp in the
prestigious Azure Technical Trainer team, providing Azure
readiness workshops to larger customers and partners
across the globe.
Peter was an Azure MVP for 5 years and IS a Microsoft Certified Trainer for more
than 12 years and is still actively involved in the community as speaker, technical writer,
and author.
You can follow Peter on Twitter @pdtit and check his technical blog,
https://www.007FFFLearning.com.

ix
About the Technical Reviewer
Amita Thukral is an IT professional, an NIIT degree holder,
and ITIL certified. She has more than 16 years of extensive
experience working with top IT organizations like Wipro
Infotech, Dell India, Hughes Software Systems, and Xcad
Agencies. She worked as a technical editor for Leanpub
Publishing with author Peter De Tender (MVP) for a web
book “Migrating a dotnetcore 2-tier application to Azure,
using different architectures and DevOps best practices.”
As a service delivery manager, she has handled multiple
IT instructor–led and online trainings across various
global locations. As a project manager, she was responsible
for running cloud computing projects, like Azure and Dynamics 365, and prepared
comprehensive action plans, including resources, timeframes, and budgets for projects.
She worked on updating, reviewing, and building documentation and content of the
lab guides and ebooks for several cloud-based technical projects. She has performed
coordinating tasks like planning and scheduling, along with administrative duties
like maintaining project documentation, database management, and collaborating
with clients and internal teams to deliver results. She ensured that all projects were
completed on time and within budget and met high-quality standards.

xi
Acknowledgments
After writing seven technical books, it’s hard to come up with original thank-you words.
Anyone reading this book knows this is a work of time, dedication, and passion for
technology, as well as a passion for sharing knowledge. I am fortunate enough to have a
wife supporting me in this. But I’m no longer allowed to thank her (her own words), as
sharing knowledge and helping people is what makes me who I am.
That said, I owe a big thanks to Spandana Chatterjee and Divya Modi from Apress,
who picked up my “Azure hands-on labs” self-published material from Leanpub
and offered to take over the content and publish it through Apress. This was the best
opportunity to update the technical content, make it current, and add new topics to
the exercises. And your audience reach-out is much broader than what I could ever get
myself, so you help in spreading the Azure knowledge.
I’d also like to thank my technical reviewer, Amita Thukral – my faraway friend from
India, always eager to help where she can and at the same time living the “continuous
learning” life. You are professional, have an amazing drive for details, and are overall a
lovely person to work with.
And Wim Matthyssen, community buddy and fellow Azure expert, thanks for
jumping in last minute to give your technical blessing on the flow, wording, and lab
scenarios and overall validate them.
Both of you pushed up the level of quality.

xiii
CHAPTER 1

Introduction
 igrating a Two-Tier Application to Azure Using
M
Different Architectures and DevOps Best Practices
S
 etting the Scene
You are part of an organization that is running an e-commerce platform application, at
present using Windows Server on-premises infrastructure, based on a virtual Windows
Server 2012 R2 web server running Internet Information Services (IIS) and a second
Windows Server 2012 R2 virtual machine (VM) running Microsoft SQL Server 2014
database services.
The business has approved a migration of this business-critical workload to Azure,
and you are nominated as the cloud solution engineer for this project. No decision has
been made yet on what the final architecture should or will look like. Your first task is
building different Proof of Concepts in your Azure environment, to test out the different
architectures available today, to host your application workload:
–– Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS), using Azure Virtual Machines

–– Platform as a Service (PAAS), using Azure Web Apps and Azure SQL
–– Containers as a Service (CAAS), using Azure Container Instance (ACI)
and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

At the same time, your CIO wants to make use of this project to switch from a more
traditional mode of operations, with barriers between IT sysadmin teams and developer
teams, to a “DevOps” way of working. Therefore, you are tasked to explore Azure DevOps
and determine where CI/CD pipelines, together with other capabilities from Azure DevOps,
can assist in optimizing the deployment as well as optimizing the running operations of this
e-commerce platform, especially when deploying updates to the application.

1
© Peter De Tender 2021
P. De Tender, Migrating a Two-Tier Application to Azure, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6437-9_1
Chapter 1 Introduction

As you are new to the continuous changes in Azure, you want to make sure this
process goes as smooth as possible, starting from the assessment over migration to
performing day-to-day operations.

Abstract and Learning Objectives

This book enables anyone to learn, understand, and build a Proof of Concept, by
performing a platform migration of a two-tiered application workload to Azure public
cloud, leveraging on different Azure Infrastructure as a Service, Azure Platform as a
Service (PAAS), and Azure container offerings like Azure Container Instance (ACI) and
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
The focus of the book is having a true hands-on lab experience, by going through the
following exercises and tasks:

• Deploying your “lab virtual machine”

• Deploying a two-tier Azure Virtual Machine (web server and SQL

database server) using Infrastructure as Code (IAC) concepts with
ARM (Azure Resource Manager) template automation in Visual
Studio 2019

• Performing a proper assessment of the as-is WebVM and

SQLVM infrastructure using Microsoft assessment tools

• Migrating a SQL Server 2014 database to Azure SQL PaaS

(lift and shift)
• Migrating a .NET Core web application to Azure Web Apps
(lift and shift)

• Containerizing a .NET Core web application using Docker and

pushing to Azure Container Registry (ACR)

• Running a containerized application in Azure Container

Instance (ACI) and Azure Web App for Containers

• Running a containerized application in Azure Kubernetes

Service (AKS)

2
 Chapter 1 Introduction

• Deploying Azure DevOps and building a CI/CD pipeline for the

sample e-commerce application

• Managing and monitoring Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and other

Azure Monitor capabilities

Starting from an (optional but highly recommended for consistency) ARM template–
based deployment of a lab virtual machine, readers get introduced to the basics of
automating Azure resource deployments using Visual Studio and Azure Resource
Manager (ARM) templates, together with additional Infrastructure as Code concepts like
Custom Script Extension and PowerShell Desired State Configuration (DSC).
Next, readers learn about the importance of performing proper assessments and
what tools Microsoft offers to help in this migration preparation phase. Once the
application has been deployed on Azure Virtual Machines, readers learn about Microsoft
SQL Server database migration to Azure SQL PAAS, as well as deploying and migrating
web applications to Azure Web Apps.
After these foundational platform components, the following chapters will totally
focus on the core concepts and advantages of using containers for running business
workloads, based on Docker, Azure Container Registry (ACR), Azure Container Instance
(ACI), and Web App for Containers, as well as how to enable container orchestration and
cloud scale using Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
In the last part of the book, readers get introduced to Azure DevOps, the Microsoft
application lifecycle environment, helping in building a CI/CD pipeline to publish
workloads using the DevOps principles and concepts, showing the integration with
the rest of the already-touched-on Azure services like Azure Web Apps and Azure
Kubernetes Service (AKS), closing the exercises with a chapter on Azure monitoring and
operations and what tools Azure has available to assist your IT teams in this challenge.

Note The Proof of Concept lab scenario is built in such a way that each lab
exercise is building on top of the previous lab exercise in sequence. Given the
dependencies across different labs, make sure you finish each lab exercise
successfully, before continuing on to the next lab.

3
Chapter 1 Introduction

T echnical Requirements
Before being able to perform the hands-on tasks in this book, make sure you meet each
of the technical requirements:

–– Azure subscription with full administrative permissions

–– Naming conventions

A
 zure Subscription
Make sure you have (full administrative) access to an Azure subscription, allowing you
to deploy the different Azure resources being used throughout the exercises. You can use
an Azure free or trial subscription or use any paid subscription.
Signing up for a free/trial subscription can be done from here: https://signup.
azure.com/signup?offer=ms-azr-0044p&appId=102&l=en-gb&correlationId=37037FE
60CF76B40251371B40DDF6AB9

If you go through all exercises, estimate an average consumption of 20–30 USD,

assuming you shut down or delete the resources that are no longer in use or required.

4
 Chapter 1 Introduction

N
 aming Conventions

Important Most Azure resources require unique names. Throughout the

lab steps, we will identify the naming convention for the given resources as
“[SUFFIX]” as part of resource names. You should replace this with a unique
string, e.g., your own initials, guaranteeing those resources get uniquely named
and not blocking a successful deployment.

O
 ther Requirements
Readers need a local client admin machine, running a recent Operating System, allowing
them to

–– Browse to https://portal.azure.com from a recent browser.

–– Establish a secured Remote Desktop (RDP) session to a lab jumpVM

running Windows Server 2019.

A
 lternative Approach
Where the lab scenario assumes all exercises will be performed from within a lab
jumpVM (see Chapter 2 on how to get started with this deployment), readers could also
execute (most, if not all) steps from their local client machine, if that is what they prefer.
The following tools are being used throughout the lab exercises:

–– Visual Studio 2019 community edition (updated to latest version)

–– Docker for Windows (updated to latest version)

–– Azure CLI 2.0 (updated to latest version)

–– Kubernetes CLI (updated to latest version)

–– SimplCommerce Open Source e-commerce platform example

(http://www.simplcommerce.com)

5
Chapter 1 Introduction

Note Make sure you have these tools installed prior to the workshop if you are
not using the lab jumpVM. You should also have full administrator rights on your
machine to execute certain steps in using these tools.

F inal Remarks
Due to the continuously evolving nature of Azure, Azure services, the Azure Portal,
and other tools we will be using for the exercises, it might be that some screenshots or
wordings do not match what you will see on your end. We apologize for this already,
although there isn’t much we can do about it. If the differences are too many, it would be
almost impossible to execute the exercises. Please have a look at our GitHub repository
http://www.apress.com/source-code for any updates and errata.
We hope you enjoy the different exercises, learn from them, and find them useful
in your day-to-day job or journey in which you explore Azure capabilities. Do not
hesitate reaching out at [email protected] or @pdtit (Twitter) in case you have any
questions. We are here to help you making this a successful learning path.

6
CHAPTER 2

Prerequisite Lab:
Deploying Your Lab
Virtual Machine
 rerequisite lab: Preparing your (Azure)
P
environment
What You Will Learn
In this first lab, you prepare the baseline for executing all hands-on lab exercises:

–– Log on to your Azure subscription.

–– Deploy the lab jumpVM within your Azure subscription.

–– Download the required source files from GitHub to the lab jumpVM.

T ime Estimate
This lab is estimated to take 45 min, assuming your Azure subscription is already
available.

7
© Peter De Tender 2021
P. De Tender, Migrating a Two-Tier Application to Azure, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-6437-9_2
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

T ask 1: Deploying the lab jumpVM virtual machine using

Azure Portal template deployment
In this task, you start deploying the “lab jumpVM” virtual machine in your Azure
environment. This machine becomes the starting point for all future exercises, as it
has most required tools already installed. The deployment is based on an ARM (Azure
Resource Manager) template in a publicly shared GitHub repository.

1. Once you are logged on to your Azure subscription, select Create

a Resource.

2. In the Search Azure Marketplace field, type “template

deployment”.

8
 Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

3. And select Template deployment (deploy using custom

templates) from the list of Marketplace results, followed by
clicking the Create button.

4. This opens the Custom deployment blade. Here, select “Build

your own template in the editor.”

9
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

5. First, from a second tab in your browser window, go to the

following URL on GitHub, browsing to the source files repository
for this lab, specifically the JumpVM folder:

­http://www.apress.com/source-code.

10
 Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

6. Select the azuredeploy.json object in there. This exposes the

details of the actual JSON deployment file.

11
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

7. Click the Raw button, to open the actual file in your browser.

8. Your browser should show the content as follows:

12
 Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

9. Here, select all lines in the JSON file, and copy its content to the
clipboard.

10. Go back to the Azure Portal. From “the edit template” blade,
remove the first six lines of code you see in there, and paste in
the JSON content from the clipboard.

11. “The edit template” blade should recognize the content of the
JSON file, showing the details in the JSON Outline on the left.

12. Click the Save button.

13
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

13. This redirects you back to the Custom deployment blade, from
where you will execute the actual template deployment, filling in
the required fields as follows:

–– Subscription: Your Azure subscription

–– Resource group: Create New/[SUFFIX]-JumpVMRG

–– Location: Your closest by Azure region

–– Admin Username: labadmin (this information is picked up from the ARM

template; although you could change this, we recommend you to not do so
for consistency with the lab guide instructions and avoiding any errors
during later deployment steps)

–– Admin Password: [email protected] (this information is picked up from

the ARM template; although you could change this, we recommend you to
not do so for consistency with the lab guide instructions and avoiding any
errors during later deployment steps)

14
 Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

14. When all fields have been completed, scroll down in the blade.
Under the Terms and Conditions section, check “I agree to the
terms and conditions stated above,” and click the Purchase
button.

15. This sets off the actual Azure resource deployment process.
From the Notifications area, you can get update information
about the deployment.

15
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

16. If you click “Deployment in progress…,” you will get redirected to

the Microsoft.Template Overview blade, showing you the details of
each Azure resource getting deployed.

17. Wait for the deployment to complete successfully. Note this could
take up to 25–30 minutes, because of the custom scripts we
run during the installation process, which you can see from this
detailed view or from the Notifications area.

18. From the notification message, click “Go to resource group.” (If
you already closed the notification message, from the Azure Portal
navigation menu to the left, select Resource groups.)

16
 Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

19. Click the jumpvm Azure Virtual Machine resource. This

redirects you to the detailed blade for the jumpvm resource. Here,
click the Connect button.

Note Because the VM is linked to a “basic” public IP address resource, all

incoming TCPIP traffic is allowed. Therefore, incoming RDP is just working. In a
real-life scenario, this VM would be configured with Network Security Group (NSG)
rules, only allowing specific traffic.

20. From the Connect to virtual machine blade, notice the public
IP address and port 3389. This allows you to establish an RDP
session to the Azure VM. Do this by clicking the Download RDP
File button.

17
Chapter 2 Prerequisite Lab: Deploying Your Lab Virtual Machine

(Note: If your local network blocks direct RDP to Azure VMs,

consider having a look at Azure Bastion, an Azure service
performing HTML5 browser-based routing to RDP or SSH-
enabled machines. Specifically for this JumpVM, we offer an ARM
template in the same GitHub repo as the JumpVM: ­https://
github.com/pdtit/2TierAzureMigration/blob/master/JumpVM/
bastion-template.json.

21. Open the downloaded RDP file; You are prompted for your
credentials in the next step, provide the VM administrator name
(labadmin) and its password ([email protected]), which are
the default.

18
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
 But the Janissaries who ruled the roast at the Serai were
something more than a turbulent rabble of bravoes. They were
Sclaves, descendants, most, of the ruling families of the older
Bosnian kingdom. They spoke the native tongue. They were imbued
with provincial patriotism. They were in close alliance with the
haughty provincial aristocracy, who perpetuated feudalism under a
Mahometan guise. These Sclavonic Janissaries refused to take to the
celibacy and barrack-life of their order. They took wives. They
became landed proprietors. They even settled down to mercantile
pursuits. Thus, with their participation and patronage, Bosna Serai,
the chosen seat of the Bosnian nobility, the Camp of her Prætorians,
acquired rights and immunities which made her a Free City.
Nothing in this curious history is more interesting to observe than
the way in which the primitive institutions of Sclavonic family life
assert themselves in this municipal constitution. The Civic
Communism—I use the word in its uncorrupted sense—grows out of
the domestic. Just as the Bosnian family communities elected, and
still elect, their elders, so now the families who owned the
surrounding lands were represented by a hereditary Starešina; and
the artisans and merchants bound themselves into Bratsva or
brotherhoods, each guild electing its Starost or alderman. Thus
arose a civic government, based on the possession of real property
and prosperity in trade.[242]
Enjoying such a municipal constitution, actively protected by the
Janissaries at Stamboul, the Serai rose to an almost sovereign
position in Bosnia. So jealous was its senate of its privileges, and so
irresistible its authority, that it actually established a municipal law
by which the Vizier of Bosnia was forbidden to tarry more than a day
at a time within the city walls. For a single night he was entertained
at the public expense; next morning he was escorted without the
gates. Even in the exercise of his shadowy authority at Travnik, the
Sultan’s lieutenant stood in perpetual fear of the patriarchs of the
real capital; for if he presumed to offend these haughty elders, they
had but to lodge a complaint against him with the Odjak of the
Janissaries at Stamboul, and the Vizier was forthwith recalled. The
Porte, indeed, endeavoured to assert its sovereignty within the city
by appointing two officers to decide disputes between Moslems and
Rayahs, but the citizens retained the right of dismissing these at
their pleasure.
Thus Serajevo was the mouthpiece of the old Sclavonic national
feeling of Bosnia, as it survived in a Mahometan guise—the
acknowledged protectress of provincial interests against the hated
Osmanlì. Bosnia had changed her creed, but she clung to her
independence; and when, at the beginning of the present century,
Sultan Mahmoud II. thought to stamp out provincial liberties in
Bosnia as elsewhere, it was the Serai that took the lead in
opposition. When the Janissaries were extinguished at Stamboul,
their tall ovoid turbans, the gold and imperial green, still flaunted
themselves unchallenged in the streets of Serajevo. The citadel on
the height was their last refuge. It was, however, successfully
stormed by the Vizier, and Serajevo was given over to the tender
mercies of the Sultan’s officer. A terrible vengeance was wreaked,
and more than a hundred of the leading citizens were proscribed
and executed. The Vizier took up his residence triumphantly in the
fortress, but the reign of the Osmanlì lasted only a few months. In
July 1828 the citizens of Serajevo, aided by those of Visoko, rose
desperately against the oppressor. A street fight followed, which
lasted three days. The Vizier, who upheld his authority with a
garrison near 2,000 strong, made an obstinate resistance, but the
imperial troops were gradually beaten back from house to house,
from mosque to mosque, till, fairly overmastered, the Sultan’s
lieutenant was glad to escape with his life and the shattered
remnant of his troops. A few years later Serajevo again fell into the
hands of the destroyer of the Janissaries. But in the Bosnian
rebellion of 1850 the citizens once more flew to arms. For a while
they made themselves masters of the Vizier’s fortress on the height,
but finally succumbed to Ali Pashà; and the municipal independence
of Serajevo shared the ruin of feudalism throughout Bosnia. The true
capital of Bosnia has since been the seat of the Turkish Governor of
the Vilajet.
But though Serajevo herself has degenerated into the chef-lieu of
a ‘circle’—though an alien bureaucracy has succeeded the patriarchal
sway of her own landowners and merchants—though Giaour-Sultans
and ‘New Turks’ from Stamboul—those muck-rakes of mendicant
statecraft who filch their political tinsel from the gutters of the
boulevards!—have replaced her native Agas and elders by an
Osmanlì ‘Préfet,’ with the same apish levity with which these same
gentry toss aside the jewelled amber of their forefathers for a
Parisian cigarette!—nevertheless, despite of all these tinkering
experiments in centralization of which they have been made the
corpus vile, the citizens of this old stronghold of provincial liberties
have only clung with warmer attachment to the ‘true green’ of
Bosnian Toryism. Only what they can no longer practise in politics
they parade in religion, and Serajevo remains more than ever the
focus of the Mahometan fanaticism of Bosnia. This was the danger
of the present moment, and gave but too valid grounds for the wide-
spread apprehension among the Bosnian rayahs that the outbreak of
the revolt might provoke the bigots of the capital to a general
massacre of the Christian minority there; and that the Damascus of
the North might, as she had already threatened a year or two ago
on a less provocation, reproduce the bloody scenes which have
made her Syrian namesake a word of terror to the Christians of
Turkey.
This is what happened here only three years ago, as we heard the
story from those who played a distinguished part in averting the
impending catastrophe; nor can anything give a better idea of the
dangerous spirit abroad among the Moslem population of Serajevo.
The new orthodox cathedral, which now forms the most
prominent object in the city, was begun a few years ago by the Serb
or Greek Church here, on a scale which seemed to make it a direct
challenge to the Mahometan part of the population. The presence of
the consular body in the town made it possible for the Christians to
take advantage of the right of church-building accorded by Firmans
of the Grand Signior, and accordingly the work proceeded without
any interference. But the Christians were not content with the
permission to build a church in the most conspicuous position in one
of the main streets of the city, but must needs rear a pretentious pile
which should throw into the shade the biggest of the two hundred
and odd mosques with which Mahometan piety has adorned the
Serai. No expense was spared, and the total outlay reached, so we
were credibly informed, the (for this country) enormous sum of
£13,000, exclusive of the costly icons and other church-furniture
presented by the Emperor of Russia. A swaggering edifice—all of
stone—built in the usual bastard Byzantine taste of the Fanariote
hierarchy, and of which the worst that can be said is that it is worthy
of its patrons—began to raise itself above the neighbouring house-
tops, and at last contemptuously looked down on the dome of the
Imperial Mosque itself—the Dzàmia of Sultan Mahommed! It was
perhaps hardly to be expected that the ignorant Moslem fanatics
should view with equanimity this last manifestation of Christian
humility.
What, however, seems especially to have stuck in their throats,
was the design of hanging bells in the cathedral tower. It is strange
the animosity which such an apparently harmless sound as that of a
church bell has always excited in the bosoms of those hostile to the
Christian faith. Those of us who have Norse blood running in their
veins may remember that their heathen ancestors showed just the
same vehement repugnance to the tintinnabulation of too officious
missionaries. Perhaps in a Mahometan country it may be feared by
the faithful that the infidel clangour might drown the prayers of the
muezzin on neighbouring minarets; perhaps the renegade population
of Bosnia have inherited something of the prejudice that led their
Bogomilian forefathers to regard Church bells as ‘Devil’s trumpets’!
But this, at least, is certain, that in Bosnia there are few Christian
churches where any other summons to the congregation is allowed
than that of a wooden clapper; and that to hang bells in a centre of
Moslem fanaticism like Serajevo was a deliberate and wanton
provocation.
The plain English of the matter is that the Christians of Serajevo,
relying on consular protection, saw in the erection of this new
church a fine opportunity for wiping off the scores of ancient insults
against the Mahometans. It was quite natural that they should do
so. But it was also natural that the Moslems should refuse to pocket
the insult. The ringleaders of fanaticism in the city took up the
gauntlet thus thrown down, and some time before the day of the
opening ceremony it oozed out that a Mahometan conspiracy was
afoot by which short work would be made of the unbelievers and
their conventicle together. The indefinite multiplication of evil
passions caused by ecclesiastical wrong-headedness had brought
matters to such a pass, that Easter Day—the date of the opening
ceremony—might have proved a second St. Bartholomew’s for the
Christian minority of Serajevo.
Happily, at this crisis, the consular body stepped in. Mr. Holmes,
our representative—who took a prominent and worthy part in
averting the bloodshed—and the other Consuls, informed the Pashà
of the imminence of the danger, and unfolded to him the existence
of a Mahometan conspiracy. The Pashà sent some of the ringleaders
out of the country, made the leading Moslems responsible for the
preservation of order, and finally persuaded the Christians to forego
the bell-ringing. As it was, the opening ceremony took place under
the protection of Turkish arms. The city was placed in a state of
siege. For three days previously all the wine-shops in the town had
been closed by order of the authorities. The troops were held in
barracks under arms. At intervals along the streets trumpeters were
stationed to give the earliest alarm; and, in fine, such precautions
were taken as prevented any actual disturbance of the peace.
It was not without some vague misgivings that we now found
ourselves entering the streets of this metropolis of fanaticism. But
the sight which presently broke on us, on turning a corner into the
main street, was such as might well convince us that the worst
forebodings of the Bosnian Christians had come true. We had
emerged on the scene of a great fire which had destroyed one entire
side of the street, so that we were obliged to pick our way among
black and smouldering débris, through which a party of Turks were
engaged in clearing a path. They, however, seemed peaceable
enough, and we were further relieved by seeing the cupola of the
Serbian cathedral rising unscathed on the other side of the way.
We presently met a consular Cavass, who politely conducted us to
the English Consulate, situate on the other side of the little river
Miljaška, which we crossed by a stone bridge. Our Consul was away,
having migrated to Mostar in order to be nearer the centre of the
disturbances in the Herzegovina; but we were hospitably taken in by
his amiable daughters, and Mr. Freeman, his chargé d’affaires; and
found ourselves, after our long course of roughing, once more
among the comforts of an English home, and surrounded by the
quiet of an English garden. Here, in this rich soil, under this Eastern
sky, we saw for the first time in Bosnia our familiar flowers—roses,
verbenas, and petunias, and others equally delicious—scenting the
air, and making us realise what a paradise this land might become in
civilized hands. The fruit-trees—the stock of which Mr. Holmes, who
has great horticultural taste, had imported from Malta—were
weighed down with an exuberant crop of plums, peaches,
greengages, and apples, each of which would have secured a prize
at a show; and this though from the shallowness of the soil these
trees only flourish for a time. Contrast with these the miserable
plums, pears, and apples obtainable in the native markets of
Serajevo! The Bosniacs show themselves absolutely incapable of
pomiculture; they plant their fruit-trees almost as close together as
cabbages, and expect them to thrive. Our Consul produced
magnificent peaches by simply planting the miserable Bosnian
substitute properly.
We found that affairs here had taken a very serious turn. On
Saturday last Dervish Pashà, the Vali or Governor-General of Bosnia,
had left to take the command in Herzegovina, where the revolt was
making head. On Sunday—this country being now left without any
competent head—the revolt broke out in Bosnia. The news, as may
be imagined, produced great excitement here, and threw the
Christian minority into a state verging on consternation. The old
rumours of an approaching massacre once more gained credence.
But the panic became universal last night, when flames were
observed rising from the immediate neighbourhood of the new
cathedral, and in the centre of the Christian quarter, amongst houses
inhabited by the leading Christian merchants. The Governor, Hussein
Pashà, by repute a weak and incapable man, hearing the guns and
cannon—which are here the usual fire-signals—and seeing the
conflagration, at once jumped to the conclusion that the anticipated
outbreak was beginning; and instead of sending the troops—who in
Serajevo supply the place of a fire-brigade—to put out the fire, kept
them in barracks waiting for the light to reveal the supposed
disturbers of the peace. Thus the fire—which in its origin was, as we
learnt from the most authentic source, purely accidental, and so far
from being the work of a Moslem fanatic, had actually originated in
the house of a well-known Mahometan, a renegade detested by the
Christians—was allowed to spread, and fifteen houses in the most
flourishing quarter of Serajevo were reduced to ashes before the
Pashà could be undeceived, or proper measures be taken to bring
the flames under. The danger to the whole city was imminent, the
houses being mostly of wood and plaster; and, indeed, Serajevo had
been previously burnt down on four several occasions. Perhaps the
motives which induced the Mahometans to lend active help to the
Christians in conquering the flames were not altogether
disinterested.
Meanwhile, from the unfortunate quarter in which the
conflagration had arisen, and from the electric state of the political
atmosphere, it lay in the very nature of things that the origin of the
disaster should be misrepresented, and that the majority of the
Christian population took it for granted that it was the work of
Moslem spite. Thus a purely accidental circumstance had added fuel
to the general uneasiness, and to-day a panic prevailed among the
Christians of Serajevo.
 From the English Consulate, where we are now lodged, we
hastened to pay our respects to two English ladies whose
acquaintance we had already had the good fortune to make on the
Save, and who are prosecuting a work in Bosnia of which their own
country may well be proud, and for which a more civilised Bosnia
may hereafter be grateful. Some years ago Miss Irby first travelled
through many of the wildest parts of Turkey in Europe in company
with Miss Muir Mackenzie, and the book composed by these two
ladies on the Sclavonic Provinces of Turkey is well known to all
Englishmen who take an interest in those neglected lands and their
down-trodden Sclavonic cousins. But Miss Irby, with the practical
spirit of her race, was not content with acquainting the world with
the lamentable condition of the Serbian people under the Turkish
yoke, but set herself to work to remedy these evils. It was the
backward state of education among the rayah women of even the
better classes which struck her as one of the peculiar obstacles in
the way of national progress, and it was this which she resolved to
overcome. In 1865 Miss Irby settled in Serajevo, and since that date
she and a fellow-labourer, Miss Johnston, have devoted their lives to
a propaganda of culture among the Bosnian Christian women.
Nothing in their efforts has been more conspicuous than their good
sense. As the best way to promote the spread of a liberal education
among the women, these ladies have formed a school in which to
bring up native school-mistresses. There has been no attempt at
Protestant proselytism; the pupils, whether of the Greek or Romish
Church, being left to the spiritual charge of their own pastors.
We found these ladies engaged in packing up their effects
preparatory to removing from the country for the present with their
most promising pupils. They had only arrived the previous Thursday
by the tedious post from Brood; but the state of affairs seemed so
threatening, that there was nothing for it but to take the children
elsewhere and wait for quieter times. They experienced some
difficulty in obtaining permission from the Pashà to take the embryo
school-mistresses with them, as the Pashà considered that their
departure would increase the panic among the Christians of
Serajevo, by whom they are widely known and respected. It could
not, however, well have been greater. Already, several of the leading
Serb merchants had presented themselves at the English school-
house, and begged to be allowed shelter if the expected butchery
commenced. The Austrian Consul had just taken away his wife, and
a general exodus of Christians from the city was going on. Miss
Irby[243] and Miss Johnston finally obtained the required permission,
and, as we were afterwards happy to learn, have succeeded in
planting their school at Prague till this tyranny be overpast. It is
difficult indeed for the liberal arts to flourish at the best of times in a
Turkish province! The other day, on the opening of a rayah school at
Banjaluka, the authorities issued peremptory orders prohibiting the
teaching of history or geography! So rigid has become the
censorship of the press, that Miss Irby, though provided, like
ourselves, with an autograph Bujuruldu from the Governor-General
of Bosnia, was not allowed to bring her little store of books into the
country, and was forced to leave them at Brood. The state of
literature in Serajevo itself may be gathered from the following fact:
in a city of between fifty and sixty thousand inhabitants there is not
a single book-shop!
Aug. 22.—To-day we made the acquaintance of the German
Consul, Count Von Bothmar, who expressed considerable surprise at
our arriving here unmolested. From him and the other members of
the consular body, who were very ready to supply us with full details
as to the stirring events that are taking place around us, we learnt
many interesting facts relative to the causes and course of the
insurrection in Bosnia. These accounts, and others from trustworthy
sources, reveal such frantic oppression and gross misgovernment as
must be hardly credible to Englishmen. We have heard all that can
be said on the Turkish side, but the main facts remain unshaken.
The truth is that outside Serajevo and a few of the larger towns
where there are Consuls or resident ‘Europeans,’ neither the honour,
property, nor the lives of Christians are safe. Gross outrages against
the person—murder itself—can be committed in the rural districts
with impunity. The authorities are blind; and it is quite a common
thing for the gendarmes to let the perpetrator of the grossest
outrage, if a Mussulman, escape before their eyes. There is a
proverb among the Bosnian Serbs, ‘No justice for the Christian.’ Miss
Irby, who has made many enquiries on these subjects, estimates
that in the Medjliss, the only court where Christian evidence is even
legally admitted, ‘the evidence of twenty Christians would be
outweighed by two Mussulmans.’[244] But why, it may be asked, do
not the Christians appeal to the Consuls for protection? In the first
place, in a mountainous country like Bosnia, with little means of
communication, to do so would in most cases be a physical
impossibility. In the second place, as Count Bothmar assured us, if
such complaint is made to a Consul, so surely is the complaining
rayah more cruelly oppressed than before; henceforth he is a
marked man, nor is consular authority so omnipresent as to save
him and his family from ruin. ‘God alone knows,’ he exclaimed, ‘what
the rayahs suffer in the country districts!’ Remembering the revolting
scenes, of which I had been a witness, at the Christian gathering
near Comušina, I could believe this.
But the most galling oppression, and the main cause of the
present revolt, is to be found in the system and manner of taxation.
The centralised government set up in Bosnia since 1851 is so much
machinery for wringing the uttermost farthing out of the unhappy
Bosniac rayah. The desperate efforts of Turkish financiers on the eve
of national bankruptcy have at last made the burden of taxation
more than even the long-suffering Bosniac can bear. It was the last
straw.
The principal tax—besides the house and land tax, the cattle tax,
[245] and that paid by the ‘Christian’ in lieu of military service which
is wrung from the poorest rayah for every male of his family down to
the baby in arms[246]—is the eighth,[247] or, as it is facetiously called
by the tax-collector, the tenth, which is levied on all produce of the
earth. With regard to the exaction of this tax, every conceivable
iniquity is practised. To begin with, its collection is farmed out to
middle-men, and these, ex-officio pitiless, are usually by origin the
scum of the Levant. The Osmanlì or the Sclavonic Mahometan
possesses a natural dignity and self-respect which disinclines him for
such dirty work. The men who come forward and offer the highest
price for the license of extortion are more often Christians—
Fanariote Greeks—adventurers from Stamboul, members of a race
perhaps the vilest of mankind. No considerations of honour, or
religion, or humanity, restrain these wretches. Having acquired the
right to farm the taxes of a given district, the Turkish officials and
gendarmerie are bound to support them in wringing the uttermost
farthing out of the misera contribuens plebs, and it is natural that
this help should be most readily forthcoming when needed to break
the resistance of the rayah.
These men time their visitation well. They appear in the villages
before the harvest is gathered and assess the value of the crops
according to the present prices, which, of course, are far higher just
before the harvest than after it. But the rayahs would be well
contented if their exactions stopped here. They possess, however, a
terrible lever for putting the screw on the miserable tiller. The
harvest may not be gathered till the tax, which is pitilessly levied in
cash, has been extorted. If the full amount—and they often double
or treble the legal sum—is not forthcoming, the tax-gatherer simply
has to say ‘then your harvest shall rot on the ground till you pay it!’
And the rayah must see the produce of his toil lost, or pay a ruinous
imposition which more than swamps his profits.
But supposing, as often happens, the Spahi, or tithe-farmer, who
is shrewd enough to know that ex nihilo nihil fit, sees no means of
wringing the required amount from the village till after the harvest
has been disposed of. In that case he imposes on the Knez or village
elder, who represents the commune in the transaction, an
assessment drawn up in the Turkish tongue,[248] and as intelligible
to the rural Bosniac as so much Chinese. The money from the
grapes or corn or tobacco assessed having been realised, the Spahi
presents himself again to the village, and demands, perhaps, double
what had been agreed on. The astonished Knez takes out the
written agreement, a copy of which had been supplied to him, and
appeals to it against the extortioner. But if he carries the matter
before a Turkish court, the first Effendi who sets eyes on it will tell
him that every iota of the Spahi’s claims is borne out by that
precious document!
Or if he still remains obstinate, there are other paraphernalia of
torture worthy of the vaults of the Inquisition. A village will
occasionally band together to defend themselves from these
extortioners. Thereupon the tithe-farmer applies to the civil power,
protesting that if he does not get the full amount from the village,
he will be unable in his turn to pay the Government. The Zaptiehs,
the factotums of the Turkish officials, are immediately quartered on
the villagers, and live on them, insult their wives, and ill-treat their
children. With the aid of these gentry all kinds of personal tortures
are applied to the recalcitrant. In the heat of summer men are
stripped naked, and tied to a tree smeared over with honey or other
sweet-stuff, and left to the tender mercies of the insect world. For
winter extortion it is found convenient to bind people to stakes and
leave them barefooted to be frost-bitten; or at other times they are
thrust into a pigsty and cold water poured on them. A favourite plan
is to drive a party of rayahs up a tree or into a chamber, and then
smoke them with green wood. Instances are recorded of Bosniac
peasants being buried up to their heads in earth, and left to repent
at leisure.[249]
I will quote a single instance of these practices, communicated by
the Princess Julia of Servia to the author of ‘Servia and the Servians.’
‘A poor woman, frantic with agony, burst into the palace of the
Princess at Belgrade. She had been assessed by the Turkish
authorities of a village in Bosnia of a sum which she had no means
of paying.... She was smoked. This failed of extracting the gold. She
begged for a remission, and stated her inability to pay. In answer
she was tossed into the river Drina, and after her were thrown her
two infant children—one of four years old, the other of two. Before
her eyes, notwithstanding her frantic efforts to save them, her
children perished. Half drowned and insensible, she was dragged to
land by a Serbian peasant. She made her way to Belgrade, believing,
from the character of the Princess for humanity, that she would aid
her. Of course to do so was out of the question.’[250]
Gustav Thoemmel, who was attached to the Austrian Consulate
here, relates how the application of such tortures drove many
Bosnian rayahs to desperation in 1865. No less than five hundred
families took refuge across the borders from these inquisitors in the
spring of that year. They were, however, turned back and forced to
return to their homes in Bosnia in a most deplorable state.
‘Complaint,’ says Thoemmel, ‘about outrages of this kind are scarcely
ever brought forward, since the rayah seldom obtains evidence or
even hearing, and his complaining only brings down on him
increased persecution. So it happens that the higher officials often
remain in entire ignorance of the barbarities perpetrated by their
underlings.’
It must not be supposed that the higher authorities here are
altogether blind as to the evils attendant on the tithe-farming. It will
hardly be believed that the present Governor-General, and his
predecessor Osman Pashà, have been doing their best to remove
this abuse, but were thwarted by the authorities at Stamboul, who
have in recent years taken away much of the independent power of
the provincial Vali, the better to suck everything into that sink of
corruption. Our Consul has for years directed his energies with the
same object, and acting on his representations, Lord Stratford de
Redcliffe used all his influence to support the appeal of Osman
Pashà. But neither our most influential ambassador nor the Turkish
Governor-General of Bosnia could induce the Porte to remove the
abuse. The pretext by which these representations were always
eluded was that the tithe was a religious institution. The present
Vali,[251] a man of more subtle genius, had, however, succeeded in
drawing a distinction between this and the religious tithe, and was
confident that he would be shortly permitted to abolish it, and
substitute for it a land tax not farmed by middle-men. But it was
already too late. The present revolts, both in Bosnia and the
Herzegovina, are mainly due to the extortion of the ‘dime.’
It was on Sunday, August 15—the same day on which the great
Christian pilgrimage took place on the mountain above Comušina—
that the peasants of that part of Bosnia, who had been goaded to
madness during the last few weeks by the exactions of the tax-
gatherer (with whom this year the government, itself unable to meet
its creditors, had driven a harder bargain than usual), first took up
arms. From the rapidity with which the revolt spread through Lower
Bosnia there seems to have been a preconcerted movement—
indeed, it was previously known at Belgrade with sufficient accuracy
what lines the outbreak would follow. The first movement took place
near Banjaluka, where the rayah villagers rose on their extortioners
and slew eight tax-gatherers. This was immediately followed by
other risings extending along the Possávina to the neighbourhood of
Brood and Dervent. Several of the watch-towers along this frontier
were surprised, and their Turkish garrison massacred. Meanwhile,
the Christian women and children are fleeing beyond the Austrian
border for protection; the banks of the Save at the present moment
are a piteous sight, and the forest border and willow river-hedge are
crowded with these harmless fugitives, holding out their hands and
entreating to be ferried over to the Slavonian shore. The news of the
outbreak quite bewildered the authorities at Serajevo. The Vali, the
only man capable of coping with the difficulties of the situation, had
just left for the Herzegovina. Bosnia was bereft of troops, for the
Seraskier at Stamboul, disregarding the earnest warnings of the Vali,
had persisted in withdrawing the regulars stationed in the province
till hardly any were left, and of these every available man, except
those absolutely necessary for garrison duty, had now been
dispatched to the Herzegovina.
Meantime, the Mahometan population of Lower Bosnia has taken
the law into its own hands, and the authorities have been forced to
look on and see the Mahometan volunteers, the Bashi-Bazouks—not
long ago suppressed for conduct too outrageous for even the worst
of governments to tolerate—spring once more into existence. Such
were the ferocious warriors whose acquaintance we had made at
Travnik. To-day they are streaming into Serajevo: we met a party of
them defiling through the street, and the leader of the gang, as he
passed, glared savagely at the Giaour. They are, from what we hear,
mere organised brigands headed by irresponsible partizans, and at
present are committing the wildest atrocities—cutting down women,
children, and old men who come in their way, and burning the crops
and homesteads of the rayah. That the defence of Bosnia should
have fallen into the hands of such men is one of the most terrible
features of the situation, and nothing can better show the
abjectness of her present governors than that they have now
consented to accept the services of these bandits—and that even
the Turkish authorities are now calling them out as well as the Redìf.
There seems, however, to be little authority of any sort left to the
government at the seat of the insurrection in Bosnia, for the native
Mahometan population, seeing itself left defenceless by its Osmanlì
officials, has rudely thrust them aside, and the defensive measures
are now being carried out by self-constituted committees of public
safety, which have sprung up at Banjaluka, Dervent, and other
towns. The artificial bureaucracy of 1851 has collapsed under the
shock, and the long-restrained savagery of the old dominant caste
has burst forth like a caged lion for the defence of Islâm. The
marauding bands now desolating Bosnia are for the most part
headed by Begs or Agas, scions of the old Bosnian nobility: the
Bashi-Bazouks are simply feudal retainers following their lords. Thus,
in Bosnia, the Christian outbreak has been opposed by a counter-
revolution of Moslem fanaticism in close alliance with the still vital
relics of Bosnian feudalism.
News of a sanguinary fight near Banjaluka, between five hundred
insurgents and the Turks, has just come in. It lasted eleven hours,
‘with uncertain results’—which means favourably to the Christians.
The number of the revolters at one spot, and the duration of the
conflict, alike witness the seriousness of the rising. The telegraph to
Brood has just been cut, but a battalion has been dispatched to keep
open the communication at this important point. We further hear
that the streets of Agram and Belgrade are placarded with
inflammatory proclamations, calling on the Southern Sclaves to rise
in defence of their brothers. Like manifestoes have appeared at
Bucharest. The German Consul looks on this South-Sclavonic
agitation as one of the most serious features of the present
situation. As far as Serajevo is concerned, he already telegraphed
three days ago to Berlin and Constantinople that there was no
longer security here against any contingency.
Meanwhile, the events in the city seem to be shaping their course
on the model of 1872. To-day a conjuration of about three hundred
of the leading Turks took place in the great Mosque. They appeared
there with arms in their hands, and swore that there was a plot
against their lives! It has now oozed out that they have banded
themselves together to fall with their following on the Christians of
Serajevo, should the revolt break out any nearer here—as things go,
a not unlikely contingency. The Christians are more alarmed than
ever, and appeal to consular protection. Their apprehensions are
further excited by the fact that a notorious brigand—a certain
Dervish Aga—has appeared at the head of the Mahometan
volunteers of this neighbourhood.
Now, it appears that even our humble selves have become the
objects of fanatical suspicion. We have been already honoured by
having consular reports sent to the representative of Austria
regarding our motions and conduct during our tour—which reports
were the subject of an official interview between that gentleman and
our Consul, who endeavoured to explain it to him—with what
success is doubtful—that it was not the practice of the English
Government to send political agitators on secret missions to
nationalities! It is now the turn of the Mahometans to suspect our
intentions, and a few harmless sketches of Serajevan costumes, and
a little innocent curiosity as to the wares on some of the Serajevan
shop-boards, have excited such indignation in the bosoms of true
believers that a deputation of forty Turks waited on the Pashà to
complain of us, and entering, as it would appear, into a kind of
competition which could display the most Oriental inventiveness of
calumny—it has resulted in our being accused first of taking notes of
the fortress, and ultimately of violating a mosque! Of course we had
scrupulously avoided even approaching the portals of such a sacred
edifice; and as to the fortress, we had not even visited the quarter
of the town in which it stands. Mr. Freeman convinced the Pashà
that these accusations were false; but it was thought better after
this that we should be accompanied in our peregrinations by
consular guards or cavasses, English or German.
Aug. 23rd.—This morning the German Consul, with whom we
lunched, informed us that he had just obtained an interview with the
Pashà to represent to him the threatening state of affairs, and
especially this new Mahometan conspiracy, and to ask what
measures he intended to take to protect the Christians in the event
of a disturbance. The Pashà explicitly declared that he was ready to
use his troops and cannon against the first disturbers of the peace,
to whatever party they belonged. The Consul is tolerably satisfied
with this, and believes that the troops are sufficiently Osmanlì and
obedient to official commands to be trusted not to fraternize with
the native Mahometan fanatics.
We had been asked to meet the representatives of Austria and
Russia, and received quite an ovation at the Consulate. The
conversation turned on the Greek hierarchy of this country, and the
worst that we had heard of these wolves in sheep’s clothing was
more than corroborated. Perhaps the most terrible feature of the
tyranny under which the Bosnian rayah groans, is that those, who
should protect, betray him, and that those, to whom he looks for
spiritual comfort, wring from him the last scrap of worldly belongings
which has escaped the rapacity of the infidel. Amongst all the
populations of modern Turkey there is only one so vile as to fawn
upon the tyrants. The modern Greeks of Constantinople—the
Fanariotes, let us call them—not to pollute a hallowed name—have
inherited all the corruption of a corrupt empire, and added to their
hereditary store. It is from these, as we have seen, that the odious
class of middle-men, who farm the taxes, is chiefly recruited. It is
also from these that the dignitaries of the Greek Church throughout
Turkey are chosen.
The Turks have not hesitated to utilize the sleek knavery ready to
their beck. It has long been a part of Turkish policy to rivet the
fetters of their Sclavonic subjects by filling the high ecclesiastical
offices of the Greek Church with Fanariote bishops. The office of the
old Serbian metropolitans who resided at Ipek was suppressed, and
Bosnia has since been divided into four eparchies[252] under the
immediate control of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Eparchs
needing, like the head of the Greek Church himself, an exequatur
from the infidel before they can enter on their functions. The Greek
Patriarch takes good care that these eparchies shall be filled by none
but Fanariotes, and thus it happens that the Pravoslaves or orthodox
Christians of Bosnia, who form the majority of the population,[253]
are subjected to ecclesiastics, aliens in blood, in language, in
sympathies, who oppress them hand in hand with the Turkish
officials, and set them, often, an even worse example of moral
depravity.
It does not become the English language to record the Sejanian
arts by which they rise. Usually, as the lackey of a Pashà or some
rich Fanariote, they amass gains which they afterwards lay out in an
episcopal speculation—for sees go to the highest bidders at
Stamboul.[254] The new Metropolitan arrives at Serajevo, and
immediately sets to work to make the speculation pay. To retain their
office they have further to send enormous bribes yearly to the
fountain-head of corruption. Thus the simony which begins on the
patriarchal throne descends to the meanest pulpit, and the poorest
pope in Bosnia has to bargain with his bishop for his cure of souls!
The shepherd, fleeced himself by his bishop, must recoup himself
from his flock. On every occasion of life he levies a contribution in
money or in kind, and in some cases he has even succeeded in
establishing a system of heriots. On the death of the father of a
family he takes the best ox; on the mother’s death, a cow. Not
infrequently children grew up unbaptized because the parents were
too poor to pay the fee required.[255] As to the parsons themselves,
their ignorance is usually so gross that they cannot read the
Sclavonic liturgy, and simply repeat it by rote! The Metropolitan of
Serajevo is said to wring as much as 10,000l. a year from his
miserable flock: the other three content themselves with about half
that amount apiece. When it is remembered that the salary of the
Vali Pashà himself only amounts to 500l. a year, the enormity of
these figures may be appreciated. These four successors of the
fishermen of Galilee extort annually between them a sum equal to
one-sixteenth of the total income received by the government of the
province from taxation. Since, however, a large part of what they
extract from the unhappy rayahs must be transmitted in the form of
bribes to Stamboul, the Turkish authorities have orders to assist
them in levying their exactions; and whole Christian villages share
the fate of a sacked city from Turkish gendarmerie, for refusing, or
too often being unable, to comply with the exorbitant demands of
Christian prelates.
De vivis nil nisi bonum. The predecessor of the present
Metropolitan of Serajevo, amongst his other accomplishments, was
an habitual drunkard. He lived in Sardanapalian luxury—his table
groaned with plate; and at his death he left untold treasures in
costly furs alone—the fleecings of his flock! His rapacity was such
that even the slavish spirit of the Bosnian rayah was provoked to
resistance, and in 1864 the agitation became so dangerous that an
assembly of the notables was called at Serajevo to devise a remedy;
and a certain standard of ecclesiastical dues not to be transgressed
was finally imposed on the bishops by the Turkish authorities
themselves. But the Metropolitan, with the shrewdness of his race,
read between the lines. All that was meant, as he had the good
sense to perceive, was a slight increase of his expenditure under the
head of lubrication. Thoemmel, writing so soon after these events as
1867, mentions that ‘this standard has already become a dead letter.’
It is no secret that one of the main provocations of the revolt in the
Herzegovina was the tyranny of the Turkophile bishop Prokopios.
When the storm burst, one of the first attempts at pacification was
the translation of this ghostly vampire to a fatter see!
Vain indeed must be the efforts of the rayah flock to save
themselves from the wolves while they have a hireling for their
shepherd! These episcopal sycophants of the infidel serve the Turk in
a hundred ways—they screen a hundred abuses. No sooner does an
awkward revelation see the light, than one of these renegade
prelates steps forward to throw dust in the eyes of the Christian
West. They know well that to a certain class of mind there is
something comfortable in the very name of bishop. They trade upon
the saintly spell which throws a halo of veracity round any lies they
may invent to shield their patrons or themselves. Ill-founded,
indeed, seem the complaints of the rayah when his bishop comes
forward to confess, from a Christian love of truth and justice—but
with how much laudable reluctance!—that the wrongs of his too
blatant flock are purely imaginary, and that, if anyone has been
aggrieved, it is the honest, the moral, the merciful, the tolerant,
Osmanlì![256]
As an useful sedative we have taken a Bosnian bath, and found
both building and ceremony deliciously Oriental. We entered to find
ourselves under a spacious dome, pierced with a constellation of
star-like openings, which shed a dim religious light on marble
pavements, and ogee archways and niches. In the centre a fountain,
playing into a marble basin, glittered and twinkled in the artificial
starlight, and faintly echoing with a cavernous murmur through vault
and corridor, not only added a refreshing chill to the atmosphere—
cooled already by exclusion of sunlight and the marble walls—but
seemed to let in a sense of coolness by the ears. Here a venerable
Turk came up, and beckoning us to follow him, led us up a flight of
steps to an airy gallery opening from this cool vault, where was a
divan with couches for our repose. Hence we presently emerged,
attired, like the Turks about, in decorous togas and turbans,
convertible into towels, and with clogs on our feet, clattered
awkwardly through the spacious Frigidarium—how the whole brings
to life the luxurious days of ancient Rome!—and thence, after
passing through an antichamber still cool, plunged into the
Calidarium with a vengeance. This was a domed chamber of equal
dimensions with the first, from which opened several lesser rooms
swelling into cupolas above. But we were so suffocated with the hot
steamy atmosphere, that it was not till after we had been seated by
our attendant Turk on a daïs in one of these side-vaults, that we
recovered breath sufficient to take stock of anything. Just behind us,
from a leaden spout fixed in an ogival niche in the wall, gushed forth
a hot fountain into a marble basin, out of which, after much patient
endurance of preliminary sudation, we were basted by our minister.
Then succeeded excoriation by a rough gauntlet that served as
strigil, then we were well lathered, and so the process was repeated
till a final douche of cold water from a wooden bowl gave the signal
for girding ourselves once more and making our way through the
cool chamber—tenfold refreshing now!—to our couch. Here, in the
same turban and light attire as himself, we accompanied a Turk in
dolce far niente tempered with fragrant mocha and cigarettes—
though sherbet is equally proper as a beverage, and a narghilé
would perhaps have been more decorous. The whole process,
including the time spent in recovering from our first succeeding
lassitude, lasted about an hour.
Thus re-invigorated, we renewed our exploration of the streets of
Serajevo—this time accompanied by a gorgeous consular guard.
Besides the baths there are other fine stone buildings here, and the
Bosniac countryman gapes with as much wonderment at the domes
of the two chief mosques as an English rustic at first sight of St.
Paul’s. Of these two Dzàmias, or greater mosques, one, the Careva
Dzàmia, is the work of Sultan Mohammed, who conquered Bosnia;
and the other, the Begova Dzàmia, owes its foundation to Khosrev
Beg, her first Vizier. This latter is the largest, and externally, with its
central dome, subsidiary cupolas, and its portico in front, preserves
faithfully enough the characteristics of its Christian Byzantine
prototypes. Before it is a plot planted with trees, and containing a
stone font filled with the purest water for the ghusél or religious
lustrations. In the porch are two monolithic columns of brown
marble, taken from an earlier Christian church: here, too, is a shrine
or chapel, in which is a gigantic sarcophagus, containing the bones
of the founder, and a smaller one containing those of his wife—both,
especially the former, strewn with costly shawls by the hands of the
pious. The interior of the mosque is plain and whitewashed, except
for the texts of the Koràn upon the walls, and gay Persian carpets
strewn upon the pavement. There are two pulpits, one for ordinary
lessons and sermons; the other a loftier perch used on Fridays for
reading the prayer for the Sultan; and in the wall may be seen a
square stone, the Kiblà, which marks the direction of Mecca. But we
ourselves were advised not to enter, owing to the dangerous spirit of
fanaticism abroad; so these details are gathered second-hand.[257]
Besides her mosques, Serajevo boasts two Bezestans or ‘cloth-
halls,’ usually one of the chief public buildings of a Turkish city. The
larger of these includes a court, surrounded by cloisters, and with a
fountain in the middle; but from the outside you can see little of the
building except some stone cupolas, as the wooden shops of the
market are built against its walls. Inside we found ourselves
wandering along stone arcades vaulted above and bayed at the side
with semi-circular recesses, in which the wares are displayed. They
consist mostly of cloths; and though light is deficient, the brilliance
of the effect is astonishing—the rich display of drapery might recall a
street of Ghent in the Middle Ages! Round the Bezestan are crowded
the narrow streets of the Caršia or market—by exploring which you
can arrive at a fairly exhaustive knowledge of the industries of
Serajevo. There was not such a jumble of wares here as in the
smaller towns of Bosnia. Shops of a similar kind succeeded each
other in a row, or sometimes monopolised a whole street. Here was
the blacksmiths’ street, with a display of colossal nails, and a large
assortment of the elegant bosses of Turkish door-handles with their
knocker-like appendages. Another street was sacred to harness-
makers and sellers of horse-trappings; in a third was a double
arrangement—a lower row of boot-shops conveniently level with the
ground, while, as a roof above the opanka-sellers’ heads, ran the
counters of crockery-merchants, with a charming variety of testjas
and other water jars—so that foot and mouth could be suited at the
same moment! Another street resounded with the hammers of
coppersmiths, moulding their metal into coffee-pots or platters; here
were rows of salt-merchants, or we came upon a group of
armourers’ shops—to-day ominously thronged—bristling with knives
and swords of the famed Bosnian steel. In the smaller Bezestan
were many second-hand goods, and amongst them magnificent flint-
locks of antique form, with stocks richly inlaid with mother-of-pearl
and golden arabesques—the masterpieces of the old workshops of
Prizren. Near these might be seen gun-flints such as have been
described already—the best quality of those imported from Avlona.
But the part of the bazaar which interested us most was the
goldsmiths’ quarter. Here sate a whole street full of cunning
artificers, pinching and twisting the precious metals—but chiefly
silver—into brooches, beads, rings, and ear-rings of filigree work—
charming, both from its intrinsic elegance and from its clearly
marked Byzantine parentage. The Serajevan work, pure and simple,
though not without merit, is somewhat coarse, and we were pleased
to find that the more graceful flowers of silver-work had been
engrafted on the rude Bosnian stock by the taste of an English lady.
Mrs. Holmes, the wife of our hospitable Consul, brought over some
of the chefs-d’œuvre of Maltese filigree-work and set these as
models for the smiths of Serajevo, who have so profited by the
lesson that they are now almost able to compete with the
productions of the more refined Italian artists. The Serajevan work
has not, however, degenerated into mere imitation: certain native
characteristics are still traceable in the new style.
Yet our Consul complained that, as regards skilful workmanship,
the incapacity of the Bosniacs was great even compared with the
Asiatic provinces of Turkey. In Kurdistan, for example, he found no
difficulty in obtaining articles of furniture—sofas, and so forth—of
European elegance, by simply supplying patterns to the native
upholsterers; but here, when he tried to do the same, people
laughed at the very idea! The only carpenters here are Austrians
settled in Serajevo.
The motley groups of citizens of different denominations which
one comes upon in the streets of Serajevo are at least as Oriental as
the wares. Here is a kind of happy family of Turks, Jews, Heretics,
and Infidels. It will be noticed that the Mahometan women of the
capital are not so rigorously veiled as those of the provincial towns—
Travnik, for example. Those of the better condition here are infected
with Stamboul fashions, and now and then you will see a
Mahometan lady pass in her flowing peach-coloured silk, and a veil
so transparent that she might just as well have discarded it
altogether. As we descend in the social scale, modesty increases,
and I will not deny that many of the Serajevan women, with their
long white shrouds, bear a certain resemblance to Lot’s wife after
her metamorphosis; though with reluctance it must be confessed
that we sometimes saw a nose or even an eye! It is amusing to
watch the gradual transformations of the little Mahometan girls here.
How charming was the little maiden opposite!—with her pale green
vest and flowing pink—can they be really pantaloons?—with her
childish beauty peeping forth from beneath a scarlet fez—and so
demure, too, for all her gorgeousness! But by the time she is eleven
the transitionary process will begin; for a while she will content
herself with wrapping a cold white mantle round her head and her
pretty dress—for a while you may still catch a glimpse of her face
and the border of her fez—and then—the cocoon!
 BOSNIAN TYPES AT SERAJEVO.

JEWESS. ROMAN CATHOLIC. MAHOMETAN SCLAVES. TURKISH PRIEST.

PRAVOSLAVES OR ‘SERBS.’

To the left of the group before us will be observed two Jewesses

belonging to the wealthiest part of the Serajevan population. There
are in this city about 2,000 Jews, descendants of those who, in the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, took refuge from the persecutions
of the Catholic rulers of Spain within the dominions of the more
tolerant Grand Signior. But they still look back with a certain regretful
longing to the adopted land of their forefathers. Although they can
speak Bosniac to outsiders without an accent, they still converse
among themselves in a language which was that of Spain in the days
of their expulsion; and the pure Castilian of the Knight of La Mancha,
antiquated in its mother-country, is still to be heard in the streets of
Serajevo![258] They have a pride in those old days, and like to keep
fresh their remembrance. Their Chacham-bashi, or head Rabbi,
serves his friends with confection made of white of eggs and sugar,
called ‘Spanish bread,’ as a kind of memorial feast. But they cling
with even warmer zeal to their old Hebrew rites and customs, and
are so intolerant of innovation that, not long ago,[259] one of their
leading merchants here was excommunicated for letting his wife
wear long hair and dress herself in European fashion! She might well
have contented herself with the coiffure of her co-religionists; for, if
too wanton tresses are curtailed, en revanche they wear a most
gorgeous head-dress. We had seen in the bazaar some tasteful discs
of embroidered work—flowered with a humming-bird brilliance of
design—which we took to be meant for small mats, till we found that
they were worn at the back of their heads by Jewish women.
These Jews are the richest people in Serajevo, but alas! this is not
simply due to their commercial talents. It is unfortunately too true
that a few years ago these astute Israelites made nearly 100,000l.
out of Austrian and German houses by a system of fraudulent
bankruptcy. They act as treasurers and interpreters to the Turkish
authorities in Bosnia, and use the power thus acquired to amass
further gains often not less ill-gotten. They are also the chief
bankers here, and the only usurers. They are as dirty as their gains,
and almost as degraded physically as morally. That they are also
undersized may possibly be connected with the fact that they will
only marry within their community. On the other hand Miss Irby[260]
states that ‘their poor are exceedingly well cared for, and a Jewish
beggar is never seen. No Jew is ever accused of murder, theft, or
violence, or found in Turkish prisons, except on account of debt.’
The other members of our happy family are the Bosniacs of the
Greek Church—the Serbs or Pravoslaves, as they style themselves.
Of these there are about 6,000 in Serajevo, and they approach the
Serbs of the Free Principality in dress as well as in name. They show,
as may be seen, a great variety of head-dress—sometimes the hair
plaited round a central fez à la Serbe—sometimes light white muslin
drapery—sometimes a fez stuck coquettishly on one side, from
which descends what looks like a cascade of black hair flecked with
golden spray, and of such a length as to fall about the hips. It needs
close inspection to detect that this is really black silk interwoven with
gold thread; so that the Serbian maidens of Serajevo may be
congratulated on adding a cubit to their tresses! They further
embellish their hair with flowery sprays, and, on high days, both fez
and bosom with a barbaric superfluity of jewellery—especially coins.
They carry their fortune about with them, and a Bosniac girl is
admired in proportion to the number of coins that spangle her!
Perhaps the same may be seen elsewhere under a civilized disguise,
but here it is paraded with all the naïveté of the savage! ‘What a
pretty girl!’ enthusiastically exclaimed a Bosniac, in the Russian
Hilferding’s hearing; and on his asking with surprise what the
Serajevan might find to admire in a flat nose and a decided squint:
‘What? Don’t you see? There are ducats there to last a lifetime!’ But
there is one kind of beauty which even the Bosniacs can admire, and
that is—fatness! A fat[261] girl is here synonymous with a beauty.
The character of the Christian merchants of Serajevo is, perhaps,
sufficiently indicated. They are, in truth, a money-grubbing,
unamiable lot, and, it need hardly be added, set their faces against
culture in every form. Next to the Jews, they are the richest class in
Serajevo—richer than the Turks, for the Mahometan is incapacitated
by his fatalistic want of enterprize from taking part in any but small
retail trades. The Serbs, on the contrary, hold in their hands most of
the external commerce of the country, for which Serajevo is the
natural staple, being the meeting-place of the main roads leading to
Austria, North of the Save, Dalmatia, and Free Serbia, and being
situate on the caravan route to Stamboul. But they do not make use
of the wealth thus obtained either to elevate themselves or to aid
their oppressed countrymen who lie outside the pale of consular
protection. On the contrary, they form themselves into an exclusive
caste, not only standing apart from the miserable rayah, but even
pooh-poohing his cry of agony when it happens to stand a chance of
being heard by Foreign Consuls or the Turkish Governor. Is it likely,
indeed, that they should do otherwise, with such a spiritual guide as
the Fanar Metropolitan?
Just as characteristic of a narrow-minded bourgeoisie is the way in
which they set their faces against any attempts to better their
education. A few years ago a Serb of Serajevo, who had amassed
what for a Bosniac was a fortune, as a merchant at Trieste, left a
considerable sum of money to be applied in erecting a good school
for the Pravoslave community here, on condition of a certain
additional sum being subscribed by the Serajevan merchants. The
Pravoslave community at large seem to have received the tidings of
this generous bequest with sublime contempt; but one or two
individuals, who hoped to profit by it as teachers, took the matter up
and sent a circular to the European Consuls in the name of the
whole Serb community, stating that that body ‘feeling the want of a
good education for their sons, and wishing to carry out the design of
their benefactor, solicited the aid and patronage of the
representatives of enlightened Christendom.’ This sounded very fine.
The Consuls took the matter up. Mr. Holmes represented it to the
English Government, and though nothing could be given officially,
Lord Clarendon very kindly forwarded 30l. on his own behalf. Then
the bubble burst. The Pravoslave community held an indignation
meeting, in which they disavowed the circular of these interested
enthusiasts for education: protesting that their children were well
enough taught at home, and that a new school they did not want,
and a new school they would not have!
Two other most prominent classes of Serajevan society call for
mention. One is the Board of Health, whose business it is to keep
the streets comparatively clean. The members of this sanitary staff
exercise their unclean office at night, when they patrol the streets in
troops—and the offal which they then pick up is their only food! At
this season these scavengers, who are perpetually falling out among
themselves, raise such a terrible hubbub as murders sleep to those
unused to their rowdiness. Moreover, it is hardly safe to walk across
the street after dark, for these gentry will patch up their own
quarrels and unite to assault the unwary foot-passenger; and,
though they have no other weapons than those wherewith nature
has endowed them, such is the ferocity of their onset that I have
myself seen a Turkish soldier forced to keep these guardians of the
public health at bay with his sword. They do not wear either fez or
turban (so far as we were able to observe), and in this they differ
from the generality of Turkish officials; but they are uniformed in a
coarse hide of a muddy buff-colour, disfigured with mangy patches,
usually out at elbows, and tattered by reason of their nocturnal
brawls, in which they show themselves so transported with passion
as to tear off each other’s ears. By day they are very lazzaroni, and
are to be seen in the streets (their only home), lying across the path
or roadway on their stomachs—truly a disgusting spectacle. It is a
custom not to be transgressed, that both the passers-by, and even
waggons, should move out of their way while my lords are taking
their repose; and it goes ill with him who should kick, or even,
without hostile intent, stumble upon the prostrate sanitary officer,
since he and his fellows—a score of whom (you may be sure) are
ready at hand—are quick in taking the law into their own hands. Nor
can their insulter expect either aid or pity from the bystanders; for
the citizens, rightly considering their profession as necessary to the
public health, invest their person with a certain sanctity; and,
doubtless, were these brutish scavengers expelled by one gate,
pestilence would stalk in by the other.
Then there is another class of functionaries with whom the streets
of Serajevo, and one in particular, are literally swarming, and who
are even more brutal than this precious Sanitary Board. These are
the Zaptiehs—call them, if you please, gendarmes, police, enlisting
sergeants, soldiers, tax-collectors, executioners—for they are Jacks-
of-all-trades. They are the factotums of the Mahometan government
—a terrible engine in the hands of tyranny—ready to execute its
worst behests. We have seen them as the instruments of the tax-
farmer or the bishop, wringing the little hoards of penury from the
miserable rayah—or playing the part of apparitors in those
Inquisition scenes of torture. These are the hired bravoes who live at
free-quarters in the Christian villages; rob, violate—and in many
cases murder—whom they will. There are of course exceptions; and
their worst offences are nothing to the infamy of the Government
which lets loose ignorant fanatics among a population whom their
creed teaches them to count as dogs, and which leaves them,
without pay sufficient for their bare subsistence, to plunder those
whom they nominally protect. When in the presence of Europeans
they usually possess tact sufficient to keep on their good behaviour;
but from the atrocious scenes of which I myself was a witness at the
Christian pilgrimage, their conduct, when freed from any restraint of
foreign surveillance, may be faintly imagined. Those who have had
most acquaintance with the country described them to us as
‘covering the land like a blight.’ Though there are enough of them in
Serajevo in all conscience, we were assured that the number at
present here is smaller than usual, since many have been sent out to
collect the Redìf or reserve, and many have been hastily draughted
into the soldiery. To-day a gang of these commissioned bandits has
been scouring the country with orders to seize thirty horses, but
they have only been able to lay hands on a couple. The Government
exercises the right of seizing horses at need. Nominally it is only a
loan, but the peasants rarely see their beasts back, and dare not
hope for recompense of any kind; besides which the owner is often
impressed himself as kiradjì or driver, without receiving a penny for
this corvée. This forced labour and seizure of horses was one of the
most crying wrongs of the Bosnian and Herzegovinian rayahs, and
one of the many causes of the revolt. How inveterate must be that
misgovernment which continues to sow the wind at the very
moment that it is reaping the whirlwind!
Here, at least, affairs are becoming hourly more ominous. We hear
tidings of a Christian victory near Novipazar, which means that the
single road connecting Bosnia with the rest of Turkey is seriously
threatened. Isolated tales of bloodshed and massacre form the
common topic of conversation. A Serb cuts the throat of a Turkish
Mollah near Mostar; the Christian is hanged; his friends surprise a
party of Mahometans in an inn, and massacre them to a man; the
cry for vengeance is now caught up by the Turks, and so the tragedy
developes. Such details are revolting, but they give a true picture of
the reign of terror which is setting in. To-day a large number of
Austrian women, the wives of artizans beyond the Save, are leaving
the town.
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