During my repeated and, on more than one occasion, protracted sojourns in the Principality [of Serbia] — that was its rank until a few years ago, when it promoted itself to the rank of Kingdom — I have frequently, much too frequently, heard male Servians grunt and female Servians squeal, under the pretence of singing, in a manner that would have done distinguished credit to the most vociferous hog of all the bristly herds that constitute the staple of their national trade ; and it has been my dismal fate, times without number, to listen to Servian military bands, doing such deeds of terror with brass and wood, as have blanched my cheek and chilled my blood. But no sound of strictly Servian origin that has ever reached my ears could be justly described as musical.