animals. After Hoxha’s death in 1985, a mobile cadre devotedrnto maintaining his “teachings” (many bulky volumes, in effectrnthe communist Kanun) was called “Standard Bearers ofrnEnver.”rnX must attend Ys funeral and wake, at which he will be neitherrninsulted nor harmed by the male relatives, one of whom isrnnow his own designated killer. A 30-day Besa is now sought andrn(as usual) granted, although it may be revoked if X is foolishrnenough to brag of killing Y. X’s family may attempt to save hisrnlife by a money payment, determined by an elder called thernBlood Master, which is formalized at a meal during which spotsrnof blood are ritually exchanged. This very rarely happens,rnlargely because all males in the victim’s family must concur—rnone “no” stops it.rnWhatever one thinks of privaternjustice, after 50 years of communismrnthe vendetta is aHve and well.rnCognate provisions take care of all nonblood disputes, notablyrnland, including absolute bans on moving boundary-markersrnand any human bones. Ancient historians will think ofrnSolon and Orestes. One swift consequence of communism’srnfall was the ripping-up of Hoxha’s tomb and throwing-out of hisrnremains, since he is now beyond the pale of the Kanun —in thernnew demonology, he is referred to as “The Great Zeus” and asrn”Vampire” {gjakpires).rnX has two options—he may not (of course) kill his own stalker.rnHe can attempt to flee the community—sections of the localrnroads are under Besa and so inviolate—and thus escaperndeath. (Escape, however, is often a vain hope. Recently in thernlobby of Tirana’s best hotel, a man was decapitated with an axrnas the culmination of a vendetta—his killer had spent 40 yearsrntracking him down.) Or he may take sanctuary in a Kiilla orrn”tower of refuge” where he may not be killed—only a priest canrnenter. Female relatives are allowed to bring him food andrndrink. His sojourn there could be indefinite, and he will not bernalone. Kadare has one village where 180 of 200 households arernin blood feuds, with almost all the menfolk immured, whilernAmery reports cases of fugitives holed up for 20 years and more.rnThis aspect of the Kanun is halfway between ancient notions ofrnsanctuary and the modern inviolability (except in Iran) of embassies;rnthis latter code was honored by communist authorihesrnwhen thousands stormed Tirana embassies in the early 1990’srnin quest of legal emigration or illegal flight.rnWestern writers chorus that one of the Red regime’s (veryrnfew) good deeds was its banning of the blood feuds. Its attitudernwas, in fact, disingenuous to the point of self-contradiction.rnThus, the entry on gjahnarrja in the 1985 Party-approvedrnFjalori Shqiptar (National Encyclopedia) denounces the practicernas incompatible with Marxist-Leninism, yet in the previousrnyear Enver Hoxha’s “Speech on the 40th Anniversary of NationalrnLiberation” was full of hacking swords, rifles, blood, andrnthe slogan “The Vengeance of the People is Merciless”—hisrnvocabulary that of Kadare and the Kanun. The encyclopedia’srnentry on the Kanun, in fact, both has and eats its ideologicalrncake. Lek Dukagjini is pointedly associated with the nahonalrnhero Skanderbeg, and an unspecified portion of the Kanun isrnsaid to typify “the social psychology of the mountaineers andrnthe virtues of our nation: fidelity, manliness, hospitality,rncourage.” Sections that defend private property, class privilege,rnand the “obscurantist Church” are denounced as feudal and reactionary.rnThe porhons dealing with punishments are notedrnwithout blame and this noncommittal conclusion: “Allrnthrough the Kanun can be seen the disfinctive originality of Albania.”rnKadare dutifully follows the line: “The Kanun is one ofrnthe world’s most monumental constitutions, and we Albaniansrnought to be proud of begetting it.”rnApart from pretend moral considerations, one respectablernreason for suppression was the capitalist aspect of the Kanun.rnBut this was merely an attempted hastening of a decline inrnkillings and revenues in the I930’s, a phenomenon noted byrnwriters as diverse as Kadare and Amery. The crises of the times,rnincipient Western influence, and the precommunist efforts ofrnthe much-reviled King Zog to curb the feuds provide coalescentrnexplanations. With war and the invasion of Albania, Zogrntiled to impose a general Besa in the national interest becausernfamilies divided by feuds would not join together against therncommon enemy and therefore weakened guerrilla resistance.rnNaturally, there is not one word of this in the communistrnversion.rnThe more cogent, though unadmitted, impulse was a totalitarianrnneed to take freedom and weapons away from the people;rnHoxha wished simply to make killing and revenge a staternmonopoly. In Kadare’s words, “the Rrafsh has rejected thernlaws, the police, the courts, replacing them with other moralrnrules just as adequate, constraining the administrations of occupyingrnforeign powers and later that of the Albanian state,rnputting the High Plateau quite beyond its control.” Ameryrnfound much to approve of in the Kanun: “This ancient code ofrnconduct has undoubtedly exercised a restraining influence onrnthe clansmen and helped to soften the grim realities of anarchyrn. . . the blood feud has its merits, for it was a great teacher ofrnmanners and respect for the dignity of the individual. No Albanianrncould strike another with impunit)’, and even schoolmastersrnhad been known to pay with their lives for a hasty cuffrnin class.”rnWhatever one thinks of private justice, after 50 years of communismrnthe vendetta is alive and well —it is no historical curiositv’.rnDespite the efforts of priest-mediators and the government’srnBlood Feuds Reconciliation Committee, the currentrnestimate (cited in a recent London Sunday Telegraph story) isrnthat 11,000 males, some as young as 12, are hiding in theirrnhomes or in towers because of blood-feud involvements. In thernwords of relatives of a man from the Northern village of Prosekrnshot by a neighbor who is now jailed: “we cannot accept thisrnhumiliation. The government put him in prison, not us. Wernwant blood for blood, we want revenge according to our traditions.”rnSo the cycles have come ftill circle and back again. Byron’srnverses apply equally to the Albania of Pyrrhus, Lek Dukagjini,rnSkanderbeg, Zog, Hoxha, Berisha, and the new president Re.xhaprnMejdani:rnAlbania’s chief, whose dread commandrnIs lawless law, for with a bloody hand .. .rnThe wild Albanian kirfled to his knee.rnWith shawl-girt head and ornamented gim. crn18/CHRONICLESrnrnrn