Striking Water
An Albanian shepherd plans to expand into arable farming, but he needs water and the search is close to ruining him.
1913
King George V 1910-1936
© Petrit Bejdoni, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Pasture near Rragam in northern Albania, not far from the border with Montenegro. As an English MP and an expert on the Balkans, Aubrey Herbert (1883-1920) worked hard to support efforts to build a democratic and liberal Albania after the Revolt of 1912 brought independence from Turkey, firmly believing that England should broadly support freedom and sovereignty but not take sides in a people’s quarrels. John Buchan’s fictional adventurer Sandy Arbuthnot was a thinly-veiled Herbert, and shared his opinions. See Kindergarten Politics.
Introduction
In 1913, Aubrey Herbert MP reluctantly agreed to take a message from Ismail Qemali to his rival as leader of Albania, Essad Pasha Toptani. Herbert’s company on the long journey to Durrës included a priest with a fondness for verses; a musician who played air-violin; a murderer; a diplomat who was a bit of a comedian; and a ‘shepherd-king.’
I WAS told of one experience of this shepherd-king such as is unusual in the lives of employers — his workmen had once struck for lower wages. This is the story.
He was a mathematician, and by abstruse calculations he had come to the conclusion that there was excellent water hidden in the depths of an unpromising mountain; water he badly required to cultivate land that was otherwise barren.
So the mountain was tunnelled to a considerable depth, and a number of men were employed without result, until it became obvious that the shepherd-king would be ruined if operations were much longer continued. It was then that the workmen, for love of him, struck for lower wages, which he gave them.
His labour in the end was crowned with success; water gushed from the mountain; the prolific earth bore corn, and all shared in his happiness and prosperity.
From ‘Ben Kendim: A Record Of Eastern Travels’ by Aubrey Herbert (1880-1923).
