Sign

“The town, as we drove up its main street, had a mixed character. Good Italian houses were mingled with old Slaavic ones of rude construction; one of the best of the former being the inn, which was the café of the village, and had an unexpectedly prepossessing air of cleanliness. […]. The landlord, an elderly gentlemanly man in a green short jacket, pulled off a fur cap, and, addressing me in choice French, with an easy half-patronising deference, which I never expected to see in a Dalmatian Boniface, informed me that in his youth he had made a competency as contractor for the English fleet at Lissa (of course he never smuggled), and having bought a farm at his native Sign, he kept the café for his own amusement. Next day I called on the Podestà, or Mayor, to whom Carrara had recommended me, who inhabited much the same sort of house as the same functionary in an English country-town. He received me in a neat saloon, hung with newly-framed prints, one of which was the masterpiece of Paul Veronese, “The Supper in the House of Levi”. This led on to a discourse of fine arts, […] that rather surprised me, until I was informed that he had passed three years as a student in the Accademia of the Fine Arts at Venice. Bosnia, that terra incognita, had furnished a treasure trove of 4000 medals and Roman coins to a person who had no notion of their numismatic value; and the Podestà having, from his commercial relations, been enabled to purchase them, had arranged them so as to be easy of inspection. They were valuable, being mostly consular (pp. 6-7).

I then took an inspection of the town, and soon saw that the landlord and Podestà, with their Frank dress, were colonists in a strange country. Being market-day, the Piazza, an open space between the church and a convent-wall, at the end of a sort of bazaar of shops, was crowded with the true Morlacks from the neighbouring villages, who were all Christians, but all wore, as nearly as possible, the old Turkish costume of the last century, except the kaouk. […]. They looked exactly like the Turk as he used to be represented on the stage. They are in person a tall, rude, robust, and somewhat savage race of men; all armed, even in the market-place, […] and all wear sandals with a sole of raw bull’s-hide, but strapped on with cordage instead of goat-skin ties, as in old times. The women wear shoes, and the men to this day consider shoes effeminate (p. 8).

Sign is a thriving place of above 2000 inhabitants, and subsists principally on the trade of the Bosniac caravans, those good new houses having been built since 1814, [when] the terrible plague put a stop to the caravans in direction of Spalato. The trade was restricted to the bazaar up in the Prolog, of which Sign is the nearest market-town. The manufactures of England are bought by the merchants of Bosnia in Trieste; and the Podestà and some others have a principal part of their income from the expedition of these goods in transit, although on the 21th November, 1844, the caravan was re-stablished direct to Spalato.

In the evening I had another highly instructive chat with the Podestà, M. Bulian, who was thoroughly acquainted with the Morlack character. He told me that the great obstacle to improvement was their obstinate antipathy to change. The environs of Sign are rich pasture-lands badly drained; and, under the idea that the best agricultural system for such land was that of Holland, he got the best implements imported from that country, and, in a few years, added largely yo the annual product of his estate. All the Morlacks around him saw the advantage with their eyes open, but not one imitated the example. They said, “We do as our forefathers have done from generation to generation” (pp. 11-13).

The jousting which commemorates the victory against the Turk in the 15th of August, 1715, takes place at the entrance of the town, and is sometimes attended by 10,000 people. Wooden stands are erected along each side of the career and hung with carpets, and trees and shrubs placed in the ground seem to form an avenue. The jousting opens with a procession, in which the arms and dresses are the antique national fashion, after which the judges take their places on the scaffolds appointed for them. Each jouster, who must be a native of the district of Sign, has a heron’s feather and a flower on his fez, a lance in his hand, and is attended by his squire. The ring to be pierced is formed thus:

Advancing at full gallop, he attempts to ring the lance: the centre eye counts three points; the barred space below, two points; and the unbarred space above, one point. Each jouster has three courses, the largest number of points gained conferring victory, for which he receives a hundred-florin prize, and treats the Morlacks with an entertainment afterwards (pp. 16-17)”.