310 Henry Skene, Esq., on the Albanians. 



the tribes, and are devoted to trade and agriculture. The 

 purity of race has been less scrupulously preserved than with 

 the northern tribes, yet they are for the most part fair- 

 haired. They dress with great splendour, their clothes be- 

 ing covered with gold lace and embroidery, and they carry 

 arms like their more warlike countrymen, notwithstanding 

 that they do not make so much use of them. They inhabit 

 the country, watered by the Thyamis, which is opposite the 

 island of Corfu, and the regions about the river Acheron, ex- 

 tending nearly as far as the gulf of Ambracia, on the south. 

 They call their territory Tsamouria, which, together with the 

 name of Tsamis which they bear, is probably derived from 

 the river Thyamis. The site of the well-known Soali is in 

 this district, as also the ancient Buthrotam, now a small 

 military position seen from the town of Corfu. Margariti, 

 Paramythia, and Philates, are their principal towns. 



The existence of a nation in the very heart of Greece, 

 which is totally different from the original inhabitants in 

 manners, appearance, language, and costume, has naturally 

 roused the curiosity of antiquaries, and given rise to much 

 research on the subject of their origin. 



The Albanian language being merely oral, the want of 

 written documents renders their history exceedingly obscure, 

 and the silence preserved by the Greek and Byzantine writers 

 on the subject has reduced the data within a very narrow com- 

 pass. They are called Arvaniti by the Greeks, and Arnaout 

 by the Turks, both names being derived, along with that of 

 Albanians, from the Albanes, an ancient people of the shores 

 of the Caspian Sea, which may have incorporated itself with 

 the Illyrians. The town of Elbassan or Albanopolis in Illy- 

 rian Macedonia, took its name from them, as it is supposed 

 to have been built by a horde of these Asiatic barbarians, who 

 were driven to the coast of the Adriatic by the advancing 

 tribes of the east. In their own language they call them- 

 selves Skipetar, which name bears some affinity with that of 

 of the Skitekip, mentioned by the Armenian geographers as 

 inhabiting a territory near the Caspian. One of the best au- 

 thorities* op the subject compares the name of Skipetar with 



* Colonel Leake, 



