There are no towns in IMontenegro, and the largest vil- lage contains only 1200 inhabitants. Cettigne or Tzet- tinie, the seat of government, contains between twenty and thirty well-built houses, besides a convent and the palace of the prince of Jlontenegro. The villages are unwaUed; the houses, or rather huts, which compose them are very rarely provided with chimneys, and in the elevated districts are more wretched in appearance than even the mud-hovels of Ireland. " The houses," says Wilkinson, " are of stone, generally with thatched roofs, but many are covered partly or entirely with wooden shingles, a mode of roofing very common in Sla- vonic countries. Some of the better kinds are roofed with tiles, on which large stones, the primitive nails of Montenegro, are ranged in squares, to keep them from being torn off by the wind. Each house generally con-
tains one or two rooms on the ground-floor, with a loft above, occupying the space between the gables, where they keej) their Indian corn and other stores. The as- cent to it is by a ladder, applied to a square hole in its floor, calling itself a door ; and this floor, which per- forms the part of ceiling to the lower room, is frequently of wicker-work, laid on rafters running from wall to wall. The lower room is at once the parlor, the sleep- ing-room, and the kitchen ; but in the small villages the liouses have no loft, and their style of building is very primitive, the walls being merely of rude stones, without cement, and the roof of the coarsest thatch. In the better kind of houses is a bedstead, standing in one corner of the room. It may be styled a large bench, and generally consists of planks resting on a simple frame, having the head and one side to the wall ; and a foot-board, with a post running up to the ceiling, com- pletes the whole wood-work. Those who can afford it have a large mattress and quilt, or blankets ;*but no Montenegrin bed is encumbered with curtains or sheets, and the only extras seen upon it are intended for warmth, in which the struccha [somewhat like the Scotch plaid, and worn hy both sexes over their shoulders] performs an essential part. Native visitors are satisfied to roll themselves up in their strucche and lie on the floor,- which is the bare earth; and the poorer people, who cannot afford bedsteads, do the same at their homes, though this is no great hardship to the Montenegrin, who is accustomed, as long as the season will allow him, to sleep out of doors, upon the ground, or on a bench made of stones and miul. But whether in or out of the house, in a bed or on the ground, the Montenegrin al- ways keeps on his clothes, his arms are close to his side, and when aroused by anj' alarm, or by the approach of j morning, he is up at the shortest notice ; and no toilet intervenes, on ordinary occasions, between his rising and his pipe. The embers of the fire, which had been cov- ered up with ashes the night before, are then scraped up, and the usual habits of the day begin. The fire- place, which is in another corner of the room, is a raised hearth on the floor, with a caldron suspended from a ring above; it also serves as an oven, the Montenegrin bread being merely dough baked in ashes, as by the Arabs now and by the patriarchs of old, and witliout leaven. Chimneys are an unknown luxury in most IMontenegrin houses, and the smoke escapes as it can. The furniture is not abundant, consisting of a bench, a few wooden stools, and a simple table; and the only brilliant-look- ing objects in the house are the arms and dresses of the inmates. Clocks or watches are also luxuries unknown to Montenegro, except at Tzettinie and the convents, and the only mode of ascertaining time is by watching the sun, or by common hour-glasses, and an occasional simdial. In some of the wildest mountain districts the houses or huts are of the meanest character, made of rough stones piled one on the other, or of mere wicker-work, and covered with the rudest thatch, the whole building being merely a few feet high. Few houses in Montenegro have an upper stors^, except at Tzettinie, Rieka, and some other places, where they are better built than in the generality of the villages, of solid stone, and roofed with tiles. Warm houses are indeed vert' requisite there in winter, when it is very cold, the level of the whole country being considerably above the sea, amid lofty peaks covered with snow during many months, and subject to stormy winds that blow over a long range of bleak mountains. The climate, however, is healthy, and these hardy people are remarkable for longevity.
"Both men and women are verj' robust, and they are known to carry as much as 200 funti (about 175 pounds) on their shoulders, over the steepest and most rugged rocks. All appear muscular, strong, and hardy in Montenegro; and the knotted trees, as they grow amid the crags, seem to be emblematic of their countrj', and in character with the tough, sinewy fibre of the inhabitants. But, though able, the men are sel-