FROM "_The London Messenger_."
THE CORONATION OF KING RUPERT OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.
(_By our Special Correspondent_, _Mordred Booth_.)
PLAZAC, _October_ 17, 1907.
Plazac does not boast of a cathedral or any church of sufficientdimensions for a coronation ceremony on an adequate scale. It wastherefore decided by the National Council, with the consent of the King,that it should be held at the old church of St. Sava at Vissarion--theformer home of the Queen. Accordingly, arrangements had been made tobring thither on the warships on the morning of the coronation the wholeof the nation's guests. In St. Sava's the religious ceremony would takeplace, after which there would be a banquet in the Castle of Vissarion.The guests would then return on the warships to Plazac, where would beheld what is called here the "National Coronation."
In the Land of the Blue Mountains it was customary in the old days, whenthere were Kings, to have two ceremonies--one carried out by the officialhead of the national Church, the Greek Church; the other by the people ina ritual adopted by themselves, on much the same basis as the GermanicFolk-Moot. The Blue Mountains is a nation of strangely loyal tendencies.What was a thousand years ago is to be to-day--so far, of course, as ispossible under the altered condition of things.
The church of St. Sava is very old and very beautiful, built in themanner of old Greek churches, full of monuments of bygone worthies of theBlue Mountains. But, of course, neither it nor the ceremony held in itto-day can compare in splendour with certain other ceremonials--forinstance, the coronation of the penultimate Czar in Moscow, of AlfonsoXII. in Madrid, of Carlos I. in Lisbon.
The church was arranged much after the fashion of Westminster Abbey forthe coronation of King Edward VII., though, of course, not so manypersons present, nor so much individual splendour. Indeed, the number ofthose present, outside those officially concerned and the Press of theworld, was very few.
The most striking figure present--next to King Rupert, who is seven feethigh and a magnificent man--was the Queen Consort, Teuta. She sat infront of a small gallery erected for the purpose just opposite thethrone. She is a strikingly beautiful woman, tall and finely-formed,with jet-black hair and eyes like black diamonds, but with the uniquequality that there are stars in them which seem to take varied colouraccording to each strong emotion. But it was not even her beauty or thestars in her eyes which drew the first glance of all. These detailsshowed on scrutiny, but from afar off the attractive point was her dress.Surely never before did woman, be she Queen or peasant, wear such acostume on a festive occasion.
She was dressed in a white _Shroud_, and in that only. I had heardsomething of the story which goes behind that strange costume, and shalllater on send it to you. {2}
When the procession entered the church through the great western door,the national song of the Blue Mountains, "Guide our feet throughdarkness, O Jehovah," was sung by an unseen choir, in which the organ,supplemented by martial instruments, joined. The Archbishop was robed inreadiness before the altar, and close around him stood the Archimandritesof the four great monasteries. The Vladika stood in front of the Membersof the National Council. A little to one side of this body was a groupof high officials, Presidents of the Councils of National Law andJustice, the Chancellor, etc.--all in splendid robes of greatantiquity--the High Marshall of the Forces and the Lord high Admiral.
When all was ready for the ceremonial act of coronation, the Archbishopraised his hand, whereupon the music ceased. Turning around, so that hefaced the Queen, who thereon stood up, the King drew his handjar andsaluted her in Blue Mountain fashion--the point raised as high possible,and then dropped down till it almost touches the ground. Every man inthe church, ecclesiastics and all, wear the handjar, and, following theKing by the interval of a second, their weapons flashed out. There wassomething symbolic, as well as touching, in this truly royal salute, ledby the King. His handjar is a mighty blade, and held high in the handsof a man of his stature, it overtowered everything in the church. It wasan inspiriting sight. No one who saw will ever forget that nobleflashing of blades in the thousand-year-old salute . . .
The coronation was short, simple, and impressive. Rupert knelt whilstthe Archbishop, after a short, fervent prayer, placed on his head thebronze crown of the first King of the Blue Mountains, Peter. This washanded to him by the Vladika, to whom it was brought from the NationalTreasury by a procession of the high officers. A blessing of the newKing and his Queen Teuta concluded the ceremony. Rupert's first act onrising from his knees was to draw his handjar and salute his people.
After the ceremony in St. Sava, the procession was reformed, and took itsway to the Castle of Vissarion, which is some distance off across apicturesque creek, bounded on either side by noble cliffs of vast height.The King led the way, the Queen walking with him and holding his hand . .. The Castle of Vissarion is of great antiquity, and picturesque beyondbelief. I am sending later on, as a special article, a description of it. . .
The "Coronation Feast," as it was called on the menu, was held in theGreat Hall, which is of noble proportions. I enclose copy of the menu,as our readers may wish to know something of the details of such a feastin this part of the world.
One feature of the banquet was specially noticeable. As the NationalOfficials were guests of the King and Queen, they were waited on andserved by the King and Queen in person. The rest of the guests,including us of the Press, were served by the King's household, not theservants--none of that cult were visible--but by the ladies and gentlemenof the Court.
There was only one toast, and that was given by the King, all standing:"The Land of the Blue Mountains, and may we all do our duty to the Landwe love!" Before drinking, his mighty handjar flashed out again, and inan instant every table at which the Blue Mountaineers sat was ringed withflashing steel. I may add parenthetically that the handjar isessentially the national weapon. I do not know if the Blue Mountaineerstake it to bed with them, but they certainly wear it everywhere else.Its drawing seems to emphasize everything in national life . . .
We embarked again on the warships--one a huge, steel-plated Dreadnought,up to date in every particular, the other an armoured yacht most completein every way, and of unique speed. The King and Queen, the Lords of theCouncil, together with the various high ecclesiastics and greatofficials, went on the yacht, which the Lord High Admiral, a man ofremarkably masterful physiognomy, himself steered. The rest of thosepresent at the Coronation came on the warship. The latter went fast, butthe yacht showed her heels all the way. However, the King's party waitedin the dock in the Blue Mouth. From this a new cable-line took us all tothe State House at Plazac. Here the procession was reformed, and woundits way to a bare hill in the immediate vicinity. The King andQueen--the King still wearing the ancient bronze crown with which theArchbishop had invested him at St. Sava's--the Archbishop, the Vladika,and the four Archimandrites stood together at the top of the hill, theKing and Queen being, of course, in the front. A courteous younggentleman, to whom I had been accredited at the beginning of the day--allguests were so attended--explained to me that, as this was the nationalas opposed to the religious ceremony, the Vladika, who is the officialrepresentative of the laity, took command here. The ecclesiastics wereput prominently forward, simply out of courtesy, in obedience to the wishof the people, by whom they were all greatly beloved.
Then commenced another unique ceremony, which, indeed, might well find aplace in our Western countries. As far as ever we could see were massesof men roughly grouped, not in any uniform, but all in national costume,and armed only with the handjar. In the front of each of these groups orbodies stood the National Councillor for that district, distinguishableby his official robe and chain. There were in all seventeen of thesebodies. These were unequal in numbers, some of them predominatingenormously over others, as, indeed, might be expected in so mou
ntainous acountry. In all there were present, I was told, over a hundred thousandmen. So far as I can judge from long experience of looking at greatbodies of men, the estimate was a just one. I was a little surprised tosee so many, for the population of the Blue Mountains is never accreditedin books of geography as a large one. When I made inquiry as to how thefrontier guard was being for the time maintained, I was told:
"By the women mainly. But, all the same, we have also a male guard whichcovers the whole frontier except that to seaward. Each man has with himsix women, so that the whole line is unbroken. Moreover, sir, you mustbear in mind that in the Blue Mountains our women are trained to arms aswell as our men--ay, and they could give a good account of themselves,too, against any foe that should assail us. Our history shows what womencan do in defence. I tell you, the Turkish population would be biggerto-day but for the women who on our frontier fought of old for defence oftheir homes!"
"No wonder this nation has kept her freedom for a thousand years!" Isaid.
At a signal given by the President of the National Council one of theDivisions moved forwards. It was not an ordinary movement, but anintense rush made with all the _elan_ and vigour of hardy andhighly-trained men. They came on, not merely at the double, but as ifdelivering an attack. Handjar in hand, they rushed forward. I can onlycompare their rush to an artillery charge or to an attack of massedcavalry battalions. It was my fortune to see the former at Magenta andthe latter at Sadowa, so that I know what such illustration means. I mayalso say that I saw the relief column which Roberts organized rushthrough a town on its way to relieve Mafeking; and no one who had thedelight of seeing that inspiring progress of a flying army on their wayto relieve their comrades needs to be told what a rush of armed men canbe. With speed which was simply desperate they ran up the hill, and,circling to the left, made a ring round the topmost plateau, where stoodthe King. When the ring was complete, the stream went on lapping roundand round till the whole tally was exhausted. In the meantime anotherDivision had followed, its leader joining close behind the end of thefirst. Then came another and another. An unbroken line circled andcircled round the hill in seeming endless array, till the whole slopeswere massed with moving men, dark in colour, and with countlessglittering points everywhere. When the whole of the Divisions had thussurrounded the King, there was a moment's hush--a silence so still thatit almost seemed as if Nature stood still also. We who looked on werealmost afraid to breathe.
Then suddenly, without, so far as I could see, any fugleman or word ofcommand, the handjars of all that mighty array of men flashed upward asone, and like thunder pealed the National cry:
"The Blue Mountains and Duty!"
After the cry there was a strange subsidence which made the onlooker rubhis eyes. It seemed as though the whole mass of fighting men hadpartially sunk into the ground. Then the splendid truth burst uponus--the whole nation was kneeling at the feet of their chosen King, whostood upright.
Another moment of silence, as King Rupert, taking off his crown, held itup in his left hand, and, holding his great handjar high in his right,cried in a voice so strong that it came ringing over that serried masslike a trumpet:
"To Freedom of our Nation, and to Freedom within it, I dedicate these andmyself. I swear!"
So saying, he, too, sank on his knees, whilst we all instinctivelyuncovered.
The silence which followed lasted several seconds; then, without a sign,as though one and all acted instinctively, the whole body stood up.Thereupon was executed a movement which, with all my experience ofsoldiers and war, I never saw equalled--not with the Russian Royal Guardsaluting the Czar at his Coronation, not with an impi of Cetewayo's Zuluswhirling through the opening of a kraal.
For a second or two the whole mass seemed to writhe or shudder, and then,lo! the whole District Divisions were massed again in completeness, itsCouncillors next the King, and the Divisions radiating outwards down thehill like wedges.
This completed the ceremony, and everything broke up into units. Later,I was told by my official friend that the King's last movement--the oathas he sank to his knees--was an innovation of his own. All I can say is,if, in the future, and for all time, it is not taken for a precedent, andmade an important part of the Patriotic Coronation ceremony, the BlueMountaineers will prove themselves to be a much more stupid people thanthey seem at present to be.
The conclusion of the Coronation festivities was a time of unalloyed joy.It was the banquet given to the King and Queen by the nation; the guestsof the nation were included in the royal party. It was a uniqueceremony. Fancy a picnic-party of a hundred thousand persons, nearly allmen. There must have been made beforehand vast and elaboratepreparations, ramifying through the whole nation. Each section hadbrought provisions sufficient for their own consumption in addition toseveral special dishes for the guest-tables; but the contribution of eachsection was not consumed by its own members.
It was evidently a part of the scheme that all should derive from acommon stock, so that the feeling of brotherhood and common propertyshould be preserved in this monumental fashion.
The guest-tables were the only tables to be seen. The bulk of thefeasters sat on the ground. The tables were brought forward by the menthemselves--no such thing as domestic service was known on this day--froma wood close at hand, where they and the chairs had been placed inreadiness. The linen and crockery used had been sent for the purposefrom the households of every town and village. The flowers were pluckedin the mountains early that morning by the children, and the gold andsilver plate used for adornment were supplied from the churches. Eachdish at the guest-tables was served by the men of each section in turn.
Over the whole array seemed to be spread an atmosphere of joyousness, ofpeace, of brotherhood. It would be impossible to adequately describethat amazing scene, a whole nation of splendid men surrounding their newKing and Queen, loving to honour and serve them. Scattered about throughthat vast crowd were groups of musicians, chosen from amongst themselves.The space covered by this titanic picnic was so vast that there were fewspots from which you could hear music proceeding from different quarters.
After dinner we all sat and smoked; the music became rather vocal thaninstrumental--indeed, presently we did not hear the sound of anyinstrument at all. Only knowing a few words of Balkan, I could notfollow the meanings of the songs, but I gathered that they were alllegendary or historical. To those who could understand, as I wasinformed by my tutelary young friend, who stayed beside me the whole ofthis memorable day, we were listening to the history of the Land of theBlue Mountains in ballad form. Somewhere or other throughout that vastconcourse each notable record of ten centuries was being told to eagerears.
It was now late in the day. Slowly the sun had been dropping down overthe Calabrian Mountains, and the glamorous twilight was stealing over theimmediate scene. No one seemed to notice the coming of the dark, whichstole down on us with an unspeakable mystery. For long we sat still, theclatter of many tongues becoming stilled into the witchery of the scene.Lower the sun sank, till only the ruddiness of the afterglow lit theexpanse with rosy light; then this failed in turn, and the night shutdown quickly.
At last, when we could just discern the faces close to us, a simultaneousmovement began. Lights began to flash out in places all over thehillside. At first these seemed as tiny as glow-worms seen in a summerwood, but by degrees they grew till the space was set with little circlesof light. These in turn grew and grew in both number and strength.Flames began to leap out from piles of wood, torches were lighted andheld high. Then the music began again, softly at first, but then louderas the musicians began to gather to the centre, where sat the King andQueen. The music was wild and semi-barbaric, but full of sweet melody.It somehow seemed to bring before us a distant past; one and all,according to the strength of our imagination and the volume of ourknowledge, saw episodes and phases of bygone history come before us.There was a wonderful rhythmic, almost choric, force in the time k
ept,which made it almost impossible to sit still. It was an invitation tothe dance such as I had never before heard in any nation or at any time.Then the lights began to gather round. Once more the mountaineers tooksomething of the same formation as at the crowning. Where the royalparty sat was a level mead, with crisp, short grass, and round it whatone might well call the Ring of the Nation was formed.
The music grew louder. Each mountaineer who had not a lit torch alreadylighted one, and the whole rising hillside was a glory of light. TheQueen rose, and the King an instant after. As they rose men steppedforward and carried away their chairs, or rather thrones. The Queen gavethe King her hand--this is, it seems, the privilege of the wife asdistinguished from any other woman. Their feet took the time of themusic, and they moved into the centre of the ring.
That dance was another thing to remember, won from the haunting memoriesof that strange day. At first the King and Queen danced all alone. Theybegan with stately movement, but as the music quickened their feet kepttime, and the swing of their bodies with movements kept growing more andmore ecstatic at every beat till, in true Balkan fashion, the dancebecame a very agony of passionate movement.
At this point the music slowed down again, and the mountaineers began tojoin in the dance. At first slowly, one by one, they joined in, theVladika and the higher priests leading; then everywhere the whole vastcrowd began to dance, till the earth around us seemed to shake. Thelights quivered, flickered, blazed out again, and rose and fell as thathundred thousand men, each holding a torch, rose and fell with the rhythmof the dance. Quicker, quicker grew the music, faster grew the rushingand pounding of the feet, till the whole nation seemed now in an ecstasy.
I stood near the Vladika, and in the midst of this final wildness I sawhim draw from his belt a short, thin flute; then he put it to his lipsand blew a single note--a fierce, sharp note, which pierced the volume ofsound more surely than would the thunder of a cannon-shot. On theinstant everywhere each man put his torch under his foot.
There was complete and immediate darkness, for the fires, which had bynow fallen low, had evidently been trodden out in the measure of thedance. The music still kept in its rhythmic beat, but slower than it hadyet been. Little by little this beat was pointed and emphasized by theclapping of hands--at first only a few, but spreading till everyonepresent was beating hands to the slow music in the darkness. This lasteda little while, during which, looking round, I noticed a faint lightbeginning to steal up behind the hills. The moon was rising.
Again there came a note from the Vladika's flute--a single note, sweetand subtle, which I can only compare with a note from a nightingale,vastly increased in powers. It, too, won through the thunder of thehand-claps, and on the second the sound ceased. The sudden stillness,together with the darkness, was so impressive that we could almost hearour hearts beating. And then came through the darkness the mostbeautiful and impressive sound heard yet. That mighty concourse, withoutfugleman of any sort, began, in low, fervent voice, to sing the NationalAnthem. At first it was of so low tone as to convey the idea of a mightyassembly of violinists playing with the mutes on. But it gradually rosetill the air above us seemed to throb and quiver. Each syllable--eachword--spoken in unison by the vast throng was as clearly enunciated asthough spoken by a single voice:
"Guide our feet through darkness, O Jehovah."
This anthem, sung out of full hearts, remains on our minds as the lastperfection of a perfect day. For myself, I am not ashamed to own that itmade me weep like a child. Indeed, I cannot write of it now as I would;it unmans me so!
* * * * *
In the early morning, whilst the mountains were still rather grey thanblue, the cable-line took us to the Blue Mouth, where we embarked in theKing's yacht, _The Lady_, which took us across the Adriatic at a pacewhich I had hitherto considered impossible. The King and Queen came tothe landing to see us off. They stood together at the right-hand side ofthe red-carpeted gangway, and shook hands with each guest as he went onboard. The instant the last passenger had stepped on deck the gangwaywas withdrawn. The Lord High Admiral, who stood on the bridge, raisedhis hand, and we swept towards the mouth of the gulf. Of course, allhats were off, and we cheered frantically. I can truly say that if KingRupert and Queen Teuta should ever wish to found in the Blue Mountains acolony of diplomatists and journalists, those who were their guests onthis great occasion will volunteer to a man. I think old Hempetch, whois the doyen of English-speaking journalists, voiced our sentiments whenhe said:
"May God bless them and theirs with every grace and happiness, and sendprosperity to the Land and the rule!" I think the King and Queen heardus cheer, they turned to look at our flying ship again.