LINGUISTIC AREAS IN EUROPE DOMINIAN. 437 



This abandonment of the region by the Eomans is invoked for 

 political reasons by the Magyar rulers of Transylvania in order to 

 deny the autochthonous character of Rumanian natives of this Hun- 

 garian Province. Rumanian historians, however, have been able to 

 demonstrate the imtenability of this assumption.^ Clues offered by 

 geography also tend to validate Rumanian claims. 



From the valley of the Dniester to the basin of the Theiss the 

 steppes of southern Russia spread in unvarying uniformity, save 

 where the tableland of the Transylvanian Alps breaks their conti- 

 nuity. The entire region was the Dacia colonized by the Romans.^ 

 Unity of life in this home of Rumanian nationality has been un- 

 affected by the sharp physical diversity afforded by the enclosure of 

 mountain and plain within the same linguistic boundary. The 

 thoroughness with which Rumanians have adapted themselves to the 

 pecularities of their land is evinced by the combination of the twin 

 occupations of herder and husbandman followed by Moldavians and 

 Wallachians. Cattle and- flocks are led every summer to the rich 

 grazing lands of the elevated Transylvanian valleys. In winter man 

 and beast seek the pastures of the Danubian steppes and prairies. 

 Rumanians thus maintain mountain and plain residences, which 

 they occupy alternately in the year,^ These seasonal migrations 

 account for the intimacy between highlanders and lowlanders, be- 

 sides affording adequate explanation of the peopling of the region 

 by a single nationality.* 



There was a time, however, when Rumanian nationality became 

 entirely confined to the mountain zone. The invasions which fol- 

 lowed the retirement of the Romans had driven Rumanians to the 

 shelter of the Transylvanian ranges. Perched on this natural for- 

 tress, they beheld the irruption of Slavs and Tatars in the broad 

 valleys which they had once held in undisp)uted sway. Only after 

 the flow of southeastern migrations had abated did they venture to 

 reoccupy the plains and resume their agricultural pursuits and 

 seasonal wanderings. 



The outstanding facts in these historical vicissitudes is that the 

 mountain saved the Latin character of Rumanian speech. Had the 

 Romanized Dacians been unable to find refuge in the Transyl- 

 vanian Alps there is no doubt that they would have succumbed 

 to Slavic or Tatar absorption. As it is, the life of Rumanians is 



^A. D. Xenopol, Histoire des Roumains, Leroux, Paris, 1896. 



" W. R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas. Holt, New York, 1911, pp. 34, 35, 39. 



* Typical examples of seasonal migration are found in Switzerland, where conditions 

 prevailing in the higher and lower valleys of the Alps have induced the inhabitants to 

 shift their residence with the seasons. 



* A similar nomadism is observable among the Rumanians of the Pindus Mountains ; 

 V. The Nomads of the Balkans : An account of life and customs among the Vlachs of 

 Northern Pindus. By A. J. B. Wace and M. S. Thompson, Methuen, London, 1914. 



