Balkan War, 1912-13

by Servia and Bulgaria, and it was rejected.

The Powers labored in vain to avert a conflict; and on Oct. 8, Montenegro, apparently acting on instructions from Bulgaria, declared war upon Turkey. Servia and Bulgaria held back in the hope that this move might result in a peaceful solution of the difficulty, or at any rate that the Powers would immediately define their attitude. But neither end was accomplished. Turkey would listen to no proposition involving the league's interference in her internal affairs, and on Oct. 17 she declared war on Servia and Bulgaria, who immediately accepted the challenge.

Turkey at that time had about 200,000 regular troops in Europe; but at least 150,000 more were available in the Asiatic provinces, and they were moved as rapidly as possible. Nazim Pasha, the War Minister, was generalissimo of the forces. Four Nizam (active army) corps, under Abdullah Pasha, were in Thrace. The force in Macedonia was commanded by Riza Pasha. Army corps were stationed at Salonica, Monastir, and Usküb, while the smaller towns, including the stronghold of Scutari, capital of Albania, were garrisoned chiefly by Albanian and Macedonian volunteers. The total Macedonian force (including volunteers) was estimated at 200,000.

All

The Montenegrin Advance.The Montenegrin army was about 40,000 in strength, commanded by Crown Prince Danilo. It was divided into three parts-the Northern army, headed by General Vukovitch; the Eastern, or Central, by General Lazovitch; and the Western, by General Martinovitch, the War Minister. The last two made Scutari their objective; the Northern army set out across the vilayet of Kossovo to join one of the Servian columns. three moved from Podgoritza without delay Martinovitch marching straight upon Scutari, while Lazovitch's task was to reduce a number of Turkish fortresses between the Montenegrin frontier and the Albanian capital. The nearest one was on Mount Planinitza; and upon it from Goritza hill, Prince Peter, a captain of artillery, fired the first gun on the morning of Oct. 9. King Nicholas, seventy-one years of age, was with the troops. Lazovitch quickly captured Planinitza, Detchitch, and Shiptchanik (Oct. 11); but Tuzi, offering stout resistance, did not fall until Oct. 14, when the garrison surrendered. Lazovitch VOL. I.-Mar. '13

541 C

had now cleared the way, and went forward by the north shore of Lake Scutari. He met with but little opposition, and his batteries silenced the fire of a few small Turkish vessels on the lake.

The chief defence of Scutari, which Martinovitch reached with slight difficulty, was Tarabosch Mountain, 6 miles distant on the southwest, and not more than 1,200 feet in height. Its four forts had been admirably built by German military engineers; but they had overlooked a spur of the mountain, and by Oct. 23 this was in possession of Martinovitch's forces, which had hastily blasted a road to the top with dynamite. The two Montenegrin columns now began the siege of Scutari on the north, west, and east. The city was garrisoned by 12,000 volunteers, and had been reinforced by a division of 6,000 regulars under Essad Pasha, who took charge of the defence.

Meanwhile Vukovitch was making his way through the vilayet of Kossovo. He drove the Turks from Berane and Bielopolie, and captured several other towns, and on Oct. 25 joined the Western Servian column at Sienitza. His successes brought him 6,000 prisoners and a large quantity of arms and provisions.

or

The Serbs Invade Macedonia, -Before the formal declaration of war a body of 3,000 irregular Turkish and Albanian troops entered Servia through the Morava Valley, and came in contact with the Servian cavalry near Ristovatz (Oct. 14). Three days later war was on. The Servian army numbered about 230,000 troops. General Putnik was commanderin-chief, and the force operated in three separate columns-the First, or Central army (3 divisions), under Crown Prince Alexander; the Second, or Eastern (5 divisions), under General Stefanovich; and the Third, Western (3 divisions), under General Zievkovich. There were also independent divisions. The objective of the first two armies was Usküb; while Zievkovich, in the west, was to operate with the Northern army of Montenegro. Alexander marched down the Morava; Stefanovich approached by way of Kustendil in Bulgaria, and captured Egri Palanka. The advance of the two columns was opposed at Kumanovo by the Sixth Corps under Zekki Pasha. The battle raged for two days on a fog-hung plain. There was fierce close-range fighting, and the Servian artillery made frightful havoc among the Turks, who were completely

Balkan War, 1912-13

routed (Oct. 24), with a loss of 5,000 men and 60 pieces of artillery. The Servian casualties were about 2,500. The remnants of the Sixth Corps fled to Usküb, whence they were driven (Oct. 26) by the victorious Serbs. Zekki now found himself in danger of envelopment. He evacuated Krupülü, which the Serbs entered on Oct. 29, and retired upon Monastir.

Zievkovich, in the meantime, after seizing Prishtina and Mitrovitza, and acting in concert with the Montenegrins, had effectively ridded Kossovo of its garrisons. The last of the Turkish soldiers fled from Novibazar into Austrian territory, while Servia proceeded methodically to occupy the conquered territory. The Eastern column (about 75,000) now joined the Bulgarian army in Thrace.

The Bulgars in Thrace. · The Bulgarian army numbered over 300,000, under the chief command of General Savoff, and was divided into three parts, with some independent divisions. The First Army, or Corps (5 divisions), under General İvanoff, marched down the Maritza Valley; and after seizing the town of Mustafa Pasha (Oct. 18), which became Bulgarian headquarters, advanced upon Adrianople (Oct. 20). The Second Army (3 divisions) consisted of second-line troops (about 55,000), at first under General Kuniticheff. The Third Army (5 divisions), under General Dimitrieff, proceeded by way of the Tundja to Kirk Kilisseh.

Abdullah's original line north of Adrianople was forced back by the Bulgarian advance, and with 250,000 men he occupied a fortified zone with the two strongholds of Adrianople and Kirk Kilisseh at the extremities. His right wing-the Third (Nizam) Corps, at the latter place-was commanded by Mahmud Mukhtar Pasha; while he himself, on the centre and left, directed the movements of the leaders of the three other corps. Kirk Kilisseh was captured by Dimitrieff on Oct. 24, after two days of heavy fighting. A few of Mukhtar's officers and men started a panic, and the Third Corps retired in confusion upon Viza.

Leaving a garrison of 40,000 under Shukri Pasha to cope with the Bulgarian bombardment of Adrianople, which began Nov. 1, Abdullah fell back upon Lüle Burgas, and formed a new line between that place and Viza. Savoff left Ivanoff, with forces drawn chiefly from the Second Army, to invest Adrianople, and sent the body of the First Army

Balkan War, 1912-13

forward under Kuniticheff. Dimitrieff occupied Bunar Hassan (Oct. 28), and took position opposite Mukhtar at Viza. Kuniticheff seized Eski Baba (Oct. 27), and after reinforcement by three brigades from Ivanoff, marched on Lüle Burgas and captured the town on Oct. 29.

Abdullah's army had been weakened by the withdrawal of about 100,000 men for the defence of Constantinople, but his remaining 160,000 successfully resisted the Bulgarian attack, and even repulsed Dimitrieff at Viza. Next day (Oct. 30) Abdullah, seeing that the Bulgars had suffered severely, advanced about 8 A. M. His troops were in poor condition, for they had been three days without food, and ammunition was lacking for the artillery. Abdullah counted on an energetic assault by Mukhtar with the Third Corps, seconded by the flank attack of an Ottoman division which had just debarked at Midia, on the Black Sea. But at three in the afternoon the Turkish commander realized that Mukhtar was too hard pressed to render him assistance; his own troops were completely exhausted; and he had to abandon all his positions. This move rendered necessary the retreat of the Third Corps on the following day (Oct. 31), and the whole army fell back in complete disorder, without food, transports, or ambulances, and reached the Tchataldja lines— the land defence of Constantinople, a series of antiquated fortifications crossing the Gallipoli peninsula about 20 miles from the capital on Nov. 6. The losses at Lüle Burgas-Viza are estimated at 15,000 allies and 40,000 Turks.

Movements of the Greeks. Greece, whose attitude had been uncertain, went to war on Oct. 17 after the Porte had refused to release some Greek vessels detained in Turkish ports. Her army numbered about 110,000 -although they were not all mobilized-under the command of Crown Prince Constantine. The bulk of these had Salonica as an objective; while one division of 6,000, under General Sapunzakis, was sent to capture the fortress of Janina and other places in Epirus. The main army, leaving Larissa, forced its way over the Meluna pass and captured Elassona (Oct. 19). After a sharp battle with some of Riza's troops at Sarantaporu the next day, it marched in two columns upon Salonica, occupying, with slight resistance, Servia, Verria, Vodina, Jenitza, and Catherini on the way. At

VOL. I.-Mar. '13

541 D

Topsin it was joined by a Servian force which had marched down the Vardar. Meanwhile a separate Greek division had landed in Chalcidia and was approaching Salonica from the southeast. A Bulgarian division, under General Todoroff, also heading for Salonica, had already captured Drama and other towns; but it found itself opposed at Seres, 60 miles northeast of the city, by Turkish troops, strongly posted on the hills.

Preparations for investment had been begun on the night of Nov. 1, when a Greek torpedoboat drove a Turkish cruiser from the harbor. The commander at Salonica, Tahsin Pasha, could not hope to hold out against forces at least three times the strength of his own, coming from all directions. On Nov. 8 he capitulated, and next day the Greeks and Serbs entered the town. Todoroff, who had dislodged his opponents, arrived on Nov. 10. The allies made 25,000 of the Fifth Corps prisoners, and captured 70 cannon, 30 machine guns, 2,000 horses, and 75,000 rifles. After Sarantaporu, Prince Constantine sent a division under Colonel Mathiopolu toward Monastir. Greece was the only member of the league with an adequate navy, and her fleet blockaded Turkish ports and seized a number of islands in the Northern Ægean.

Later Events. The Bulgars and Serbs before Adrianople had succeeded in capturing only 4 of the 30 permanent works of the fortress; but the city was completely isolated. Scutari still held out under Martinovitch's investment, and Sapunzakis was struggling toward Janina, defended by a garrison of 15,000. Winter with heavy snow storms had now set in, and the Montenegrins were suffering severely from exposure. Martinovitch determined to stop supplies from reaching Scutari; and with a portion of his army he moved upon the seaport of San Giovanni di Medua, which he reached on Nov. 16, after the capture of Luzari in a hard fight (Nov. 14) had driven the Turkish troops from the neighborhood. From San Giovanni the Montenegrins continued down the Adriatic coast, driving the Turks into Alessio. Meanwhile, a Servian column made a remarkable forced march from Prizrend across the Albanian Mountains, pushing their guns through the snow. They approached Alessio by way of the Drin Valley, and began shelling the town; while the Montenegrins opened fire from the hills on the opposite side

Balkh

of the river. In less than four hours the garrison had surrendered (Nov. 19).

After his flight from Usküb, Zekki Pasha and his remaining troops joined Djavid Pasha and the Seventh Corps at Monastir. Djavid was successfully resisting the Greek attack from the south when a Servian army appeared from the north. Monastir, with over 40,000 troops, surrendered on Nov. 18; but the generals managed to escape.

The Bulgars made a rapid flank movement upon the Turks in their headlong flight after Lüle Burgas, striking the rear guard a savage blow at Tchorlu (Nov. 6), while the cavalry penetrated as far as Rodosto, on the Sea of Marmora. A new line was formed opposite the Turkish position at Tchataldja, and preparations for attack were made at once. After some preliminary fighting, the main battle began on Nov. 17 and continued until Nov. 19. For the first time the Bulgars found themselves outranged in artillery, for the Turks had heavy siege guns, and a number of others had been brought up from the fleet.

But Turkey had had enough. Albania had declared herself independent in the middle of November, and a provisional government, with Ismail Kemil Bey as president, was set up. To add to the disasters, cholera broke out in the Turkish camp. The Porte had appealed several times to the Powers to stop the war, and now made direct overtures to Bulgaria. A truce was declared, and this led to an armistice on Dec. 3. Meanwhile, the Serbs were completing the occupation of Macedonia; Dibia and Ochrida were taken with many prisoners and stores.

The armies were to remain where they were, and the garrisons were not to be revictualled. Greece refused to sign the armistice, although she agreed to participate in a peace conference, and on her part the war went on. It was confined chiefly to the attempt upon Janina, and Sapunzakis fought a battle at Pesta (Dec. 15). The conference to arrange terms of peace met in London on Dec. 17. But it came to nothing, and the envoys were recalled on Jan. 6, 1913. Four weeks went by, filled with threats, and with efforts on the part of the great Powers to prevent a reopening of the war; but on the night of Feb. 3 hostilities were resumed.

Balkh, or BACTRIA, province of Afghan Turkestan, Central Asia, subject to the Ameer of Afghanistan. It extends for 250

Balkh

miles east to west between 63° and 69° E., and for 120 miles north to south between 37° and 35° N. Its climate is unhealthy. The Bactrian camel gets its name from this province.

Balkh, former capital of province, on the Balkh River; still known locally under its ancient title, 'the mother of cities,' and a centre of trade between India, Persia, China, and Central Asia. It is now largely in ruins. It is a place of great antiquity, famous as the cradle of Zoroastrianism; indeed, Zoroaster is said to have been born and to have died at ancient Bactra. Between the seventh and twelfth centuries it was a centre of Buddhism, and seems (from Sven Hedin's and Stein's discoveries) to have extended its influence as far as the now sand-buried cities of East Turkestan. It was sacked by Jenghiz Khan in 1220. The capital was removed to Mazar-iSherif, 10 miles to the east, in 1877.

The modern city occupies but a small part of the former area, and is surrounded by a mud wall. The only commercial industry of importance is the weaving of silk. Pop. 15,000, mostly Uzbegs.

Balkhash, or TENGHIz, a slightly salt lake lying above sea level, between 45° and 47° N. lat. and 73° 30′ and 79° 20′ E. long., in Russian Central Asia. It receives the waters of several streams, but has no outlet. Length, 340 miles; extreme breadth, 53 miles. Its depth is from 70 to 80 feet; consequently. though its area is thirty-two times that of the Lake of Geneva, its volume is only twice as great. It is a relict of a formerly much more extensive sheet of water, although during recent years its level has again risen; but its elevation (900 feet) is too great for it to have formed one water with the Aral.

Balkis or BILKIS, according to Mohammedan tradition, the name of the Queen of Sheba, who visited Solomon. Her story is related (without mention of her name) in Sura 27 of the Koran, and has been elaborated by the commentators into an interesting Oriental tale.

Ball, GAMES OF. That these are of high antiquity is shown by their mention as part of the daily life of the Greeks and Romans in classical times. The balls used in Greece were usually of leather, and hollow. The Romans used, among other kinds, balls stuffed with hair (pila). Forms of football and polo appear to have been known in quite early times. Lawn tennis is the lineal descendant of the VOL. I.-Mar. '13

542

jeu de paume, which was so popular an amusement at the French court. The American game of lacrosse originated among the American Indians; and football is so widespread that its origin is impossible to trace. See BASEBALL; BASKETBALL; BILLIARDS; CRICKET; CROQUET; FOOTBALL; GOLF; HANDBALL; LACROSSE; LAWN TENNIS; POLO; PUSH-,

BALL.

Ball, JOHN (d. 1381), an English priest who fomented the insurrection of Wat Tyler, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at St. Albans.

Ball, SIR ROBERT STAWELL (1840), British astronomer. After graduating at Trinity College, Dublin, he was appointed professor of applied mathematics at the Royal Irish College of Science; and in 1874, astronomer-royal of Ireland. In 1892 he was appointed Lowndean professor of astronomy at Cambridge University and director of the observatory, and in 1897 he became president of the Royal Astronomical Society. He has also served as president of the Mathematical Association, and of the Royal Zoölogical Society of Ireland. He has published: Time and Tide (1889); Atlas of Astronomy (1892); Story of the Sun (1893); Star Land (1893); In the High Heavens (1894); Great Astronomers (1895); Story of the Heavens (1897); The Earth's Beginnings (1901); Popular Guide to the Heavens (1905); Natural Sources of Power (1908); Treatise on Spherical Astronomy (1908).

Ball, THOMAS (1819-1911), American sculptor, was born in Charlestown, Mass. When a boy he secured a position in the New England Museum, where he availed himself of the opportunity to study art. The incident of his modelling a small bust of Jenny Lind, during her visit to this country in 1852, and its great success, turned him permanently to sculpture. He studied in Italy from 1854 to 1856, and on his return was occupied with portrait busts and statuettes until he began work on the famous equestrian statue of Washington in the Boston Public Gardens (1860-4). From 1865 to 1897 he lived in Florence, Italy, and afterward in New York. Some of his best known sculptures are Edwin Forrest as Coriolanus, Eve Stepping into Life, Emancipation (at Washington), and Daniel Webster (Central Park, New York). He wrote My Threescore Years and Ten (1891).

Ballad (French ballade) is derived, according to Littré, from

Ballad

baller, danser. Thus, etymologically speaking, the ballad was originally a song chanted as an accompaniment to the dance. This fact gives to ballads a primeval antiquity and a nonliterary origin; that is to say, the dance songs of early peoples were not composed by professional minstrels, who did not exist in primeval stages of society.

We are acquainted with no race more primitive than the Australian aborigines, whose stone implements are on the line between the Palæolithic and the Neolithic. This people, in its corroborees, magical, religious, or secular, accompanies the dance with song. These ditties, if admired, are transmitted, as part of the dance, across the continent, reaching tribes to whom the words of the song are partially or wholly unintelligible. The song also accompanies the dance among other savage peoples, American and African, and it holds its old place in the dance games traditional among English children; while we have abundant mediæval evidence of the existence of the dance song in Scotland, France, and Europe generally. The ballad, like the popular tale (märchen), is, as a dance song, an invention of the folk, with savage origins and direct modern survivals.

The word 'ballad,' however, has long lost the special sense of a dance song. As early as 1568 the poems in fourteen lines each, said to have been addressed by Mary Queen of Scots to the Earl of Bothwell, were spoken of indifferently as 'sonnets' or 'fond ballads. Knox talks of the 'ballatis' made against the four Marys; and if the famous ballad of The Queen's Marie, or Mary Hamilton, be a survival of one of these, then the word was used on this occasion (about 1564) of a popular narrative poem, whether written by a man of the people, a courtier, or a Puritan. The early 'gude and godly ballatis' are popular songs, travestied for purposes of religious edification in the time of Knox.

The ballad, in short, is a popular form of verse, often adapted -during the last four centuries at least to the purposes of educated men of letters. The verse, as a rule, runs in this measure: 'The king he writ a letter then,

A letter which was large and long; He signed it with his own hand, And he promised to do him no wrong."

The precise date of the evolution of this form of verse is of no great importance as regards the question, 'Are the ballads of popular or literary origin?' All races

Ballad

have had their purely popular dance songs and other songs, composed for the people by members of the people, not professional minstrels. Before the extant forms of ballad verse arose, there must have been other shapes of popular songs, to which the now familiar shape succeeded.

Many writers on the old ballads regard them as, in origin, the composition of professional minstrels, not courtly attendants on kings and earls, but wanderers with viol and rebec, who chanted at street corners or in rural halls and cottages. These minstrels (whose historical existence is certain) are supposed to have vulgarized and degraded the literary romances and heroic poems on knightly deeds. It is denied, even with mockery, that ballads were composed by the people for the people,' and it is pointed out that the people' (of modern European cities) have not the necessary taste and culture for the task.

There is some truth, but perhaps more of error, in this argument. It is true that several old ballads are vulgarizations of known literary romances. An example is King Arthur and King Cornwall (Child's English and Scottish Ballads, new ed. 1882, part ii. pp. 274-288). Here we find

apparently an imitation, or a traditional variation, of Charlemagne's Journey to Jerusalem, a chanson de geste. Now a chanson de geste is a long, formal literary French epic, which, with other elements, has been Anglicized, vulgarized, and abbreviated (by a professional minstrel, probably) into the ballad of King Arthur and King Cornwall. There are many such examples, especially in the Arthurian ballads. As far as all this goes nothing can well be more certain than the literary and professional origin, and relatively degraded character, of this class of romantic ballads. Put when we examine the contents of the chanson de geste, and of the ballad of similar character, we find that the ideas on which both are based, the ideas which both have in common, are often popular and ancient. The general notion of a story, the ground idea, may occur in The Arabian Nights; the perilous tasks are the theme of marchen (popular tales) even among the rudest and remotest tribes of savages. Before the time of Homer, and long before the time of Pindar, this theme had been borrowed by professional Greek minstrels from Greek popular tradition, a form of which occurs in the native mythology of remote Samoa.

Now, it must be remembered that this is the usual course of evolution in literature. First we have the purely popular elements

543

or factors. These are ideas, often of magic, and concerning animals gifted with human personality, or romantic incidents based on savage manners. These ideas occur equally in the tales of savages, in Greek and Scandinavian epic, in rustic popular tales, and popular ballads. The notions, like the particles of glass in the kaleidoscope, fall into innumerable combinations; but the notions, the story roots, the incidents and situations, are in many cases the flowers of savage fancy. As civilization advances, these story roots are inherited by the peasantry, among whom they even now survive in rural districts of England and Scotland. By-andby a clan of professional bards and minstrels is developed. They go for their materials to the great popular stock of story roots, which they weave into rhapsodies, lays, epics, romances, chansons de geste, and so on, at ributing adventures, whose heroes were originally anonymous, to legendary or historical personagesJason, Odysseus, Charlemagne, Arthur, Sigurd, and so on. Then

a poor wandering but still professional and rudely literary minstrel may take hold of, abbreviate, and vulgarize the new aristocratic lay, epic, romance, or chanson de geste to suit the taste of his humble audiences. The result will be a ballad, like King Arthur and King Cornwall, degraded from an aristocratic chanson or romance. But the fond, the story roots, is of perhaps primeval popular origin.

Once more, it frequently occurs that while a given set of primeval story roots, or even a given sequence of these in a definite order, is borrowed by Homer, Pindar, a romance writer, or an author of chansons de geste, and is adopted to familiar legendary or historical characters, the same story (without the embellishments, and without the newly added attribution to Charlemagne, Arthur, or Sigurd) survives, as a mere märchen or popular tale, among the people. If, then, a man of the people, a rhymer, takes up the old popular mirchen and versifies it as a ballad, we shall possess (1) the artistic, literary, aristocratic epic or romance; (2) the inartistic, unprofessional popular ballad; (3) the popular tale, which is the origin of both the others. Thus the literary composition and the ballad will possess the same foundation, situation, and incidents, but the ballad (unlike the case of King Arthur and King Cornwall) will not be a degradation of the professional artistic poem or romance; it will be merely a popular versification of a popular tale which has also been used by some artistic poet. A scientific criticism ought,

In certain cases, in Africa (Zanzibar), as in Scotland and France, and among the Red Men of North America, there exists the combined volkslied märchen, the narrative told in alternating passages of verse and prose. The famous cante-fable of Aucassin et Nicolete is the only surviving example of the medieval artistic and literary use of a form popular once of old in Scotland, as it still is in Africa and elsewhere. See Steere's Swahili Tales (2nd ed. 1889); Miss Fletcher's Indian Story and Song from N. America (1900); R. E. Dennett's Folklore of the Fjort (1898).

Among romantic ballads which do not seem to be degradations of literary and professional compositions may be noted Clerk Sandars, May Colvin, The Wife of Usher's Well, Tamlane, The Bonny Hind,The Elphin Nourice,W llie's Lady, and many others. Thomas the Rhymer, the Arthurian ballads, and others, seem more probably to be vulgarizations of romances which, in the last resort, are often based on popular data. A reader who wishes to understand the come and go, the warp and woof of influences popular and artistic in the ballad, can hardly do better than read Professor Child's introduction to that of Lord Bateman or Susie Pye. Here we have ancient story roots of nearly universal diffusion, we have an early mediæval literary element, and we can trace the ballad to its very dregs in the modern popular versions of the workhouse and the tavern in the slums.

The method of criticism of ballads here indicated is that of the whole neglected study of popular literary origins. The method has been applied to the epic and to the drama, but, as a rule, critics of the history of epic and drama have not been familiar either with European peasant poetry or with the oral literature of savage and barbaric races. Yet this knowl