With the Serbs in Macedonia

38 WITH THE SERBS IN MACEDONIA
undisciplined crowd of sightseers, looters, and
wailing women and frantic men, making foolish
efforts to salve unwieldy household gods.
''
Flock and feather beds,'' says the Balkan
were the most favoured. Everybody —
News, ''
man, woman, and child— was burdened with
them, and these later helped in the general
destruction as, abandoned in the last rush
nearer the water's edge, they became so many
torches and, lit by wandering sparks, carried the
epidemic on ahead."
The street scenes were amazing. Out of the
Ghetto, dingy and overcrowded as most Ghettos
are, rolled a tide of distracted humanity clad in
many-coloured biblical costumes. The women
— true children of Israel—
wrung their hands
and cried their lamentations aloud. The wind
whistled and the fire roared ; sobs and shrieks
and shouts echoed on every side ; mules and
oxen and springless native carts clattered on
the cobble-stones. The devil's orchestra was
playing a symphony beyond the wildest dreams
of Richard Strauss amid a babel of tongues and
tears.
Frantic families surrounded the drivers of
those long, noisy native carts, gesticulating,
imploring, outbidding each other for their
goods to be taken next. Bargains were struck
and removals effected in panic time. Table