Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo, 1903 - 1913
ED009_RAI 400.13140
Albania. Shkodra. Slavic women from the village of Vraka north of Shkodra, with cowries in
their hair (Photo: Edith Durham, 1913).
“Vraka, the only Orthodox Serb village in the district, lies an hour and a half north of Scutari on
the plain. The people were highly delighted that I could speak with them, and at once started
cooking me a meal. It would be a disgrace, they said, for me to eat my own food in their village…
The people complained greatly of Moslem persecution. The houses were full of rifles. ‘Vraka,’ said
my host, ‘is made up of various families that had fled, because they owed blood, from Bosnia and
Montenegro about two hundred years ago.’ They number now some one thousand souls… Were it
not for the Moslems they could live very well, but not one of the Vraka men could now go into
Scutari. They would be shot on the way. The women had to do all bazaar business. He added
philosophically, ‘the Moslems have killed a great many of us, but, thanks to God, we have shot
plenty of them.’” (Edith Durham, High Albania, 1909).