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We had selected the island of Vranjina for our headquarters, known in history as the site of a famous treaty signed there between the Montenegrins and Venetians in the first half of the fifteenth century. It lies at the north or Montenegrin end of the lake.
Cooking-pots steamed and bubbled, and one group of men broke into an old Montenegrin fighting song, the water of the vast lake sparkled and danced in the distance, and we felt that only we and this rough group of fishermen were alive in the world. It was an idyllic life that we led during our stay at Vranjina, though every comfort known to civilisation was lacking.
We reached our destination, a little chapel with a house for the priest adjoining it, locally termed a "manastir," built on a rather high and conical hill on the south end of the island of Vranjina. The view from the chapel, as we afterwards found, was superb. The whole lake spreads out in its vast expanse. Scutari, or rather the hill behind which it lies, can be seen dimly in the distance.
Achmet Uiko tells his story Sokol Baćo, ex-Albanian chief Shooting on the Lake of Scutari Our journey thither Our frustrated nap Arrival at the chapel The island of Vranjina The priest Fishing and fishermen Our visitors We return to Podgorica. One market day, walking through the streets of Podgorica, we overheard a strange conversation.
They sometimes ascribed powers of healing to us, and were evidently quite distressed when we endeavoured to impress upon them our entire ignorance of medicine. Once a man insisted on baring his leg and showing me a horrible wound which would not heal. Another time the school was marched out from the village of Vranjina, probably to have an object-lesson in geography.
There the good ship Danitza, owned by the same company, awaited us, and conveyed us to Virpazar, past our island of Vranjina and its little chapel. Virpazar is the scene of the Montenegrin Vespers in 1702, and one of the richest villages in the district.
One of the men took a great fancy to us, urging us to come to his house in Vranjina then and there, and "we would," he said, "drink gallons of wine," going on next day. "At any rate," he said, as we gently refused, "let us have a big drink together when ye come again."
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