THROUGH WILD EUROPE 71 



fears and hates Austria almost as much as it does 

 its hereditary enemies the Turk and the Albanian ; 

 but in Albania, the most northern Turkish possession, 

 Italy and Austria are openly vying with each other 

 in extending their sphere of influence. 



In Albanian towns there are Italian and Austrian 

 schools which almost pay children to come and be 

 educated. As far as language goes, however, Austria 

 is at an immense disadvantage, for German taught 

 in the schools can never hope to compete with 

 Italian picked up spontaneously by the people in 

 their daily lives. 



The Jews in these countries were originally of 

 Spanish extraction, so that it is not at all unusual to 

 find Spanish spoken. 



In Montenegro the people are Serbs, and Servian 

 is the national language. In Albania the officials 

 are Turks, so that two quite distinct languages are 

 spoken. Farther south Greek begins to be in much 

 use. So that it is not very surprising to find amid 

 all these complexities of race and language a poly- 

 glot people who speak fluently from three to seven 

 or eight different tongues. 



