My Diary in Serbia Part 9

I went to see a camp of Serbian soldiers; they had many large guns and carts full of sh.e.l.ls which they showed us. Sixteen sh.e.l.ls in each cart; they were 15 cc. They also had boxes full of rings of gun cotton, with powder in the centre; these they put on the top part of the sh.e.l.l before firing it off. There are about 200 bullocks and carts at this camp. The hood part of the ox-cart is used as a shelter for two soldiers to sleep under, and very comfortable it looks, and they only have a very few tents to pitch and quite small ones, low to the ground; one cannot stand up in them. Six men sleep in one tent. We went to see the air-craft guns and were shown how they were worked; it was most interesting. We then went on to where the Serbs were practising firing the sh.e.l.ls. They have high stone walls which they use as a target, and there are two or three trenches near the walls.

We saw lots of bursted sh.e.l.ls. In the afternoon we went for another walk and saw the women making wine out of plums. They pack large barrels full of plums, then fill them up with water and put some sugar in; these are left for a month or longer; then the liquor is drawn off and bottled. I wish the plums had been washed! We met some women knitting some elaborate coloured stockings; the colour is worked in after the stockings are knitted. Some of the walnuts here are almost as large as a hen's egg.

Sat.u.r.day, _September 11, 1915._

To-day I have been in the wards taking the numbers down of all the patients. I also did some was.h.i.+ng, then I got some lovely wild flowers and arranged them in our sitting-room. We have a gorgeous Indian tent; it is cool in the hot weather and warm in cold; it is lined inside with yellow. I have a very large tent all to myself; it would hold quite six or eight beds, so I am in luck's way. On my table I constantly find dishes of grapes, and to-night I found a dish of boiled corn--so good, I invited four of the nurses up to help eat it.

The farm girls bring me all these good things, but of course I have to be careful what I eat. Five of the Second Farmers' unit have been to spend the day with us; one of them comes from St. Leonards. She has asked me to go and see her when I return to England. I also met a nurse from Holland; she knows me quite well by sight; she used to work for Dr. Stanley Turner at Battersea.

Sunday, _September 12, 1915._

I have been for two short walks to-day. The fields are still a ma.s.s of lovely wild flowers, and the hedges full of red berries. I keep the sitting-room supplied with flowers as I am not allowed to do work, so I do all kinds of odd jobs.

Monday, _September 13, 1915._

A wet day, so I wrote cards this morning and mended stockings. Letters and papers are coming very badly from home. We have seven dispensaries at work; Mrs. Stobart has just started the last one.

Tuesday, _September 14, 1915._

I went for a walk with one of the sisters. We saw a large Serbian camp, then on to a gipsy village. We had crowds of little children after us; they are not used to seeing strangers about. We then saw a cemetery where some Austrian prisoners were digging up some old graves; the skulls and bones they were collecting and putting into handkerchiefs to re-bury them; it was a ghastly sight. In this cemetery they had little arched fireplaces made of brick at the head of each grave. I suppose in the cold weather when they come to wail over the grave they light a fire. I have picked up seven horseshoes, so I ought to have some good luck.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A waggon drawn by oxen at Kragujevatz.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gun captured from the Turks in the last war. Used by the Serbs to bring down German aeroplanes.

_Face page 96._]

Wednesday, _September 15, 1915._

I was not well again to-day, so I stayed in bed all day. The doctors say I am not to do any work for six months in the kitchen departments; it is very annoying.

Thursday, _September 16, 1915._

It seems that the peasants only have three sets of clothes to last them their life; the cloth is homespun, very strong and heavy, and a dark brown colour, most serviceable. It is trimmed with black braid.

Sat.u.r.day, _September 18, 1915._

Two of the sisters arrived last night from the dispensary. They have had several cases of small-pox; out of six cases in the village, two died. The peasants are the most funny people. Three days before the death of one of the smallpox patients everything was got ready for the burial. The coffin was made by friends on the premises. The girl was told, when our nurse went to feed her, not to take any more food.

Before the girl was actually dead she was put in her very best clothes to be buried in; she was also laid out before the breath was out of her body. The coffin was left open until just before putting into the grave. There were no priests in the village, and the girl was buried by her friends.

Sunday, _September 19, 1915._

We had service at 5.30 a.m. The priests in Serbia are not allowed to go into the church until they are married. In war time no priests are allowed to marry, so they are not able to go into the church. The priest at Natalintse went to have dinner at our dispensary. He took with him all the things that he thought they would not have, cheese and wine. They were having goose for dinner. He took this course, and then he kept stretching across the table, took a fork without asking, and kept helping himself; he had five helpings of goose. Pudding he refused, but our interpreter was sitting next to him, so he took a fork and took a taste of his pudding without asking. Five little boys keep the church in order and they ring the bell. The priests and people think nothing of spitting on the floor of the church. I thought this habit was bad enough in the streets in England, but I find that it is worse abroad. This morning a Red Cross ambulance corps, pulled by bullock-wagons, pa.s.sed this camp; they were the first to go to Malanovatz to join the first field ambulance, the Bevis unit. This afternoon I went up to see another Serbian camp, and took photographs.

Monday, _September 20, 1915._

We are having lovely weather, but the nights are terribly cold, and there is a thick frost in the morning. The days are very hot. It seems that when the Austrians last year got into Belgrade they were there for thirteen days. When the Serbs drove them out, they found a freshly-made cemetery full of wooden crosses. The Serbs thought that it was strange within such a short time, and the graves were a curious shape. The Serbs turned up the soil and found about 80,000 pieces of ammunition.

Tuesday, _September 21, 1915._

Mrs. Stobart, Mr. Greenhalgh, Colonel Gentnich, Mr. Little and myself motored over to Vilanovatz to see the dispensary. There is one doctor, a nurse, a cook and two orderlies; the dispensary site is very beautiful. They are doing good work and they have about 70 to 100 patients every day; they come for miles; some of them are in a terrible condition. This dispensary is fifteen miles away; the ride is lovely, the scenery being so very beautiful. The fields are looking so pretty with wild crocuses. There is only one shop in the village.

Paprica grows very plentifully out here; the stews are quite red with it. The paprica is also eaten in the green state filled with meat minced.

Wednesday, _September 22, 1915._

This morning one of the sisters and I went on the top of some hills to see the Serbians practising and testing some Turkish sh.e.l.ls. It was most interesting, for they were telephoning up to the a.r.s.enal after every one that was fired, stating the distances. In the afternoon we both went up to get a sh.e.l.l; there were fourteen unexploded ones.

Thursday, _September 23, 1915._

We have heard nothing but firing most of the day. I forgot to say that on Tuesday a message came up from the Government to say that an aerial raid was expected, but they were again driven back.

Friday, _September 24, 1915._

To-day we hear that the Bulgarians have joined with the Austrians, and that fighting has started on the Bulgarian frontier. All along the Danube and at Belgrade the Austrians were bombarding. One hundred sh.e.l.ls were fired.

Sat.u.r.day, _September 25, 1915._

To-day we had a message from the Serbian Government to say that part of our unit had to go to form a hospital near the Bulgarian frontier.

The Serbians have a splendid equipment ready. Twenty of this unit are going: Mrs. Stobart, Mr. Greenhalgh, two doctors, six chauffeurs, two cooks, two orderlies, and six nurses. They are taking six motors. We shall be very busy here with so many of the staff away. The doctors want me to stay a little longer to help in the wards, do the diet sheets and the accounts, and help the nurses.

Sunday, _September 26, 1915._

We had two services to-day, one at 5 a.m., the other at 5 p.m. We are still having very hot days but the nights are cold. The wild flowers are beautiful, and there are lots of b.u.t.terflies, little blues, and a dark yellow with black edge round the wings, and swallow-tail. There are scarcely any cabbage b.u.t.terflies here, but there are some quite small white, like the cabbage.

Monday, _September 27, 1915._

The part of our unit that was to go to the Bulgarian frontier had to be inspected to-day, with all their baggage. There is some difficulty in getting through to Salonika, owing to the troops going to the frontier.

Tuesday, _September 28, 1915._

I hope to be back on duty in a few days. To-night the sky was most gorgeous, quite indescribable; there were two of the most beautiful rainbows, absolutely perfect, with a sunset which illuminated the mountains all round. Moles are very plentiful here; they make a dreadful mess of all the fields. One lived under the ground-sheet in our sleeping-tent, but, poor thing, it got trodden on and we found it dead. There are a few bats; they are a tremendous size, much larger than they are in England. Gra.s.shoppers and locusts are also plentiful.

Small birds are scarce, only a few sparrows and swallows and sand-martins and larks. The swallows have their nests right inside some of the houses on the tops of the electric light and in some of the corners. They fly about at night, catching flies, not caring for any one. We heard last night that the Scottish unit had lost one of their nurses, with typhoid; it was at Valievo. Dr. Inglis, from Kragujevatz, and the head of the Scottish women's hospital, a woman doctor, had to read the burial service. I had a lovely large bunch of hyssop given to me this morning; it is used in the churches at christenings to sprinkle the infant with holy water.