An Open Prison

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 28, 1902

A COUNTRY where the jail is every day thrown open that the prisoners may wander forth at their own sweet will is unique. Such a land is Montenegro. Here, according to a writer in the Leisure Hour, little stigma attaches to an enforced residence in the wretched prison that almost fronts the royal palace. There are few criminals except those who have committed murder instigated by vendetta. Thieving is almost unknown, and is punished by public flogging.

Those who commit blood offenses are condemned to sleep for a longer or shorter period in the miserable prison. Restrictions disappear with the darkness, for at daybreak the doors are thrown open, and the prisoners are permitted to come forth and walk about the neighborhood, and talk or smoke and chat with friends upon the green square which faces the building.

One of the principal distinctions between these criminals and their fellows is that they carry no arms, a deprivation that is the greatest disgrace to a Montenegrin. According to the gravity of their crime, they are fettered on one or both feet. This heavy iron chain they hook with careless nonchalance into their belts, and walk the green proudly, knowing that none of their friends will think the worse of them because of the deed which brought them there.

Although prisoners, they still wear the national costume, for in Montenegro all are garbed in much the same fashion, little distinction appearing between prince and peasant, soldier and scholar. For the matter of that, every man is a warrior, trained to battle. He takes his turn to serve for a few weeks in each year in barracks and as bodyguard to the prince.

The universal dress is picturesque. Men and girls alike wear the capa, a headdress they never doff. Married women cover their heads with a lace veil. The capa is a red cloth cap bordered with black silk. It is regarded as symbolical. On the men's the letters “N. I.” are prominent. They stand for Nicholas I. In other respects the headgear of men and women is alike.

The red color is supposed to be in memory of the blood shed for freedom; the black border is mourning for the lost Servian empire, and the golden half moon recalls the centuries elapsed since the empire fell.

Besides the cap, a red, double-breasted short jacket is part of the costume. It is richly embroidered in gold or black silk. A bright-colored sash about the waist holds the weapons; full, baggy blue cloth trousers reach to the knees, and white woolen gaiters, hooked on with innumerable gilt hooks and eyes, cover the rest of the legs. The feet are encased in slippers of untanned goat's hide, while a cugna, a sort of long gabardine, woven of white sheep's wool, homespun, serves as upper dress for the poorer people. The rich employ for the purpose a beautiful robin's-egg green broadcloth, embroidered with gold. This completes the masculine attire.

The women wear a woolen skirt, with a long linen tunic beneath, and the cugna of white wool or broadcloth above.