THE MEDITERRANEAN PEOPLES—FISCHER. 519 
The number of the Turks is considerably decreasing also in their 
own native country, Asia Minor. The principal reasons for this are 
that they alone bear the blood tax in their incessant wars, so that 
the young men are for many years withdrawn from home—in some 
vilayets the women outnumber the men by 12 per cent—coming back, 
either not at all or physically and morally injured, and that they 
suffer more commercially under the poor Turkish administration than 
do the crafty Greeks, Armenians, and others. 
Figures show that the Turkish civilization in nearer Asia Minor 
has been almost supplanted by the Grecian. This fact also is likely 
to have important political significance in the near future. The num- 
ber of Osmanlic Turks and those who consider themselves such is very 
difficult to estimate. Ten millions would probably cover all. Besides 
“Turks ” and Greeks, there are a few hundred thousand Armenians 
in Asia Minor who were distributed forcibly by the Turks all over 
the peninsula even as far as Constantinople. 
The Arabic-speaking population of Syria, a considerable part of 
which is Christian, however, may be estimated at 2,000,000 and that 
of lower Egypt at about 5,500,000. 
Neglecting small and from our point of view unimportant divi- 
sions, we get in round numbers the following table of the apportion- 
ment of races of the Mediterranean region: 
1. Catholic Latin peoples on the bays of the northwestern part____ 60, 000, 000 
(CHANG Tyee AR WE a ce cee a ee Ege eg Bs 34, 000, 000 
COS paniar d's Ss se ae eee Se ae ee 18, 000, 000 
(eC) MR OLtucuese == oss ee eee a ee 4, T00, 000 
(Gaal enc he ee ee 2, 800, 000 
2. Slavs of the southeast European peninsula (Christians of the 
Greeks ©hureh)s 222 Soe ee ae ees eee ee eee 10, 000, 000 
Ca) meSerLviansh 22 celal [ae eo eee 5, 000, 000 
(G0) Baul Sal an Se a AT ee ce 5, 000, 000 
3. Albanians (Mohammedans, Roman Catholics, Greeks, Chris- 
eT SAINT $5) eee re ee ee = eels Ce eee oe a = eee 1, 500, 000 
Alen ICG IGS ere erie eee Sk ee ee ea Ee a ee ee ae 5, 000, 000 
Fs, ELE Lets a I a sue ae ele ne ERY Nei Ce el 10, 000, 000 
ih, ESI SIRSD, oh BE ee ER ag ee ae oe oes ee eee Cat We PIE 13, 000, 000 
Heo INGER NSA Se Se eS ee ee ek Ere ae ee es ae 8, 250, 000 
otal Vio hamnimMe clam seas ese ee eee 31, 000, 000 
MO FAA CATS Gian Spee see a ee ee eee 75, 000, 000 
Grand total of all Mediterranean peoples__________________ 106, 000, 000 
From this it appears that the Christian inhabitants of the region 
are in the great majority. It also appears that the Mohammedan 
districts are extremely thinly populated. This is due not so much to 
geographical disadvantages, for Syria, Barca, Tripoli, and Tunis 
41780—08——37 
