616 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



"We may best begin our ethnic description by the apportionment 

 of the entire Balkan Peninsula into three linguistic divisions, viz., the 

 Greeks, the Slavs, and the Tatar-Turks. Of these the second is nu- 

 merically the most important, comprising the Serbo-Croatians, the 

 Albanians, and, in a measure, the Bulgarians. Their distribution is 

 manifested upon our map, to which we have already directed atten- 

 tion. These Slavic-speaking peoples form not far from half the entire 

 population. Next in order come the Greeks, who constitute probably 

 about a third of the total. As our map shows, this Greek contingent 

 is closely confined to the seacoast, with the exception of Thessaly, 

 which, as an old Hellenic territory, we are not surprised to find Greek 

 in speech to-day. The Slavs, contrasted with the Greeks, are prima- 

 rily an inland population; the only place in all Europe, in fact, 

 where they touch the sea is along the Adriatic coast. Even here the 

 proportion of Greek intermixture is more considerable than our map 

 would seem to imply. The interest of this fact is intensified because 

 of the well-deserved reputation as admirable sailors which the modern 

 Dalmatians possess. They are the only natural navigators of all the 

 vast Slavic world. Everywhere else these peoples are noted rather for 

 their aptitude for agriculture and allied pursuits. There is still an- 

 other important point to be noted concerning the Greeks. They 

 form not only the fringe of coast population in Asiatic as well as in 

 European Turkey; they, with the Jews, monopolize the towns, de- 

 voting themselves to commerce as well as navigation. Jews and 

 Greeks are the natural traders of the Orient. Thus is the linguistic 

 segregation between Greek and Slav perpetuated, if not intensified, 

 by seemingly natural aptitudes. 



Perhaps the most surprising feature of our map of Turkey is the 

 relative insignificance of the third element, the Turks. There were 

 ten years ago, according to Couvreur, not above seven hundred and 

 fifty thousand of them in all European Turkey. Bradaska estimated 

 that they were outnumbered by the Slavs seven to one. Our map 

 shows that they form the dominant element in the population only in 

 eastern Bulgaria, where they indeed constitute a solid and coherent 

 body. Everywhere else they are disseminated as a small minority 

 among the Greeks or Slavs. Even about Constantinople itself the 

 Greeks far outnumber them. In this connection we must bear in 

 mind that we are now judging of these peoples in no sense by their 

 physical characteristics, but merely by the speech upon their lips. 

 Nowhere else in Europe, as we shall soon see, is this criterion so fal- 

 lacious as in the Balkan states. Religion enters also as a confusing 

 element. Sax's original map, from which ours is derived, distin- 

 guishes these religious affiliations as well as language. He was indeed 

 the first to employ this additional test. The maze of tangled Ian- 



