Dimež and His Gang

bout Soldiers from Carniola who Preferred to Serve the Emperor in Local Forests. A Story of Carniolan Dissidents

Abstract

Most of the outlaws who roamed our forests and the countryside, but who also appeared in towns in the past century, were deserters or soldiers fired from the army. Since they were violent and often threatened to set fires, people silently gave them what they had demanded, but of course they also stole without asking. Franc Ziherl-Dimež, the most disreputable among them, lived in the 1850s. His adventures became the source of numerous romantic tales handed down from generation to generation, but there are also written reports of authorities from that time which are far from tedious and dull.