3-082-243 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ten Days in Bosnia: the lake, near Jézero, 1895. 'An hour's journey by carriage takes you from Jajce to Jézero. The latter hamlet is conspicuous only for a few picturesque harems and a pretty tourists' house; but it stands upon the banks of a lake which is worthy of the mountain passes. The confluence of the Plevna and the Verbas, which gives to Jajce its fall, gives to Jézero this magnificent sweep of water, which is the chief ornament of the verdurous hills. But the people of the lake are strange enough to be remarkable, and a native hand which accompanied our party made the most discordant music that has ever driven men to rashness. Seated in an old canoe, the five minstrels, armed with a fiddle and a fife, a drum made of the carcase of a sheep, and a dreadful machine shaped like a guitar, played merrily as our own boat was driven with powerful sweeps toward the tourists' house. We learn that the quintet was composed of criminals released that day in our honour - a surprising miscarriage of justice which, for the health of the community at Jézero, has, one hopes, now been repaired'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.