the mass submitted to their fate, and were reduced to poverty and
insignificance.

The rancorous ill-treatment which they experienced at the hands of their
fanatical oppressors, was without doubt increased by the fact that these
found themselves a small and isolated band, all-powerful upon the
immediate spot they occupied, but surrounded by states which were
implacable enemies to their religion; while the remote position of these
provinces, and the difficulty of communication, have combined to render
the people, even now, less tolerant than the more legitimate devotees of
Mahometanism. That idea of superiority over other peoples and religions,
which the Mussulman faith inculcates, was eagerly embraced by them at
the time of their first perversion, and conspired to make them zealots
in their newly-adopted creed. The feeling was inherited, and even
augmented, with each succeeding generation, until it has become the
prominent feature of the race. To such an extent has this been indulged,
that the Bosniac Mussulmans of the present day not only despise all
other religions, but look upon the Mahommedans of other parts of the
empire as very little superior to the Christians. The apathy and
indifference to progress which has inevitably ensued upon the adoption
of Islamism, has made its effects strikingly apparent in these
provinces; and although entirely deprived of all those Seignorial
rights which their ancestors possessed, the Mussulman population appear
perfectly satisfied with the lazy independence procured for them by the
produce and rents of the land, of which they are the sole proprietors.
The Christians, on the other hand, are invariably the tenants, as it is
beneath the dignity of a Mussulman to turn his hand to any kind of
manual labour, i.e. so long as he can find a Christian to do it.

The Euchlemeh, or arrangement for the tenure of land, has long existed