Next in sequence         Previous in sequence       Home         Pastel index

Infantryman (Serbian)

A disturbing face, dark and angular. Those hard eyes, on the look-out, behind the strong line of the nose, his rough curled-up moustache, something cunning about him, something enduring, recalling all we have been told about Balkan brigands, and the King of the Mountains, but not so kindly or picturesque. But if a mountain hunter knows how to kill his game unfailingly, if that same man, opportunistic thief, demonstrates to the traveller his dexterity with a rifle, what a marvellous soldier he will make when it becomes necessary to defend his country, that country of rocks, with poor cultivation, but where live people who are the most passionate, the most warlike, the most ardently patriotic there could be.