SWITZERLAND 



4-63 



Though the Burgundians were also one of the German tribes which contributed to the break up 

 of the power of Rome, their descendants now speak the French tongue in the district which 



comprises Neuchatel, Geneva, the Valais, and the Pays de Vaud. In the basin of the Po 



canton of Ticino the people are Italian and speak the Italian language. 



Besides these three main groups there is a small fragment which may be described as an 

 ethnical survival, destined in language, at any rate, to disappear before the German or Italian 

 elements by which it is surrounded. This fragment comprises the RliEeto-Romance people, 

 living in the Grisons and the hilly region between the upper tributaries of the Rhine and the 

 banks of the Upper Inn. They are believed to be descended from the Rhtetians, an ancient 

 tribe which had settled in the district before the German or Teutonic migration, and even 

 before the Romans, who had already conquered and mixed with the primitive inhabitants. 

 Their language is the Rumonsh, which has two dialects, the Rumonsh proper, spoken on the 

 Vorder Rhine and in some parts of the Hinter Rhine, and the Ladin of the Engadine and 

 the valley of the Inn. Both represent in a somewhat modified form the Latin spoken by the 

 Roman peasant of the time of Livy. But however interesting the Rumonsh-speaking race may 

 be from the ethnographical point of view, its members are numerically unimportant. According 

 to the latest returns (1898), 2,150,000 of the inhabitants of Switzerland were of German, 

 700,000 of French, 170,000 of Italian, and 38,000 of Rnmonsh speech. While French is 

 stationary, Italian appears to be encroaching 

 on the German and Rumoush territories. 



The various nationalities found in 

 Switzerland are held together by a con- 

 federacy, or union of twenty-two cantons, 

 each of them quite independent in its 

 local administration, somewhat in the 

 manner of the United States of America. 

 It follows* from what has been said, that 

 the Swiss must present a variety of types, 

 both physically and mentally. Not only 

 have the racial differences to be taken 

 into account, but also the difference in 

 character and manners which we should 

 expect to find in a country where every 

 little commune is practically free to go 

 its own way without interference from its 

 neighbour. 



Physically the Swiss may be described 

 as well built and hardy, with a vigorous 

 physique, due to plain living and mountain 

 air and an outdoor life. They are sober, 

 frugal (quite as much from necessity as 

 from choice), cleanly, and fairly honest, 

 except where rich English and American 

 tourists offer an irresistible temptation to 

 ask exorbitant prices. The late Mr. Ruskin 

 spoke in his "Modern Painters" of the 

 sad deterioration that had taken place 

 already at that date in this respect; and 

 his wise words of warning might be equally 

 applied to Scotland, or even Norway. 



Education flourishes, and technical instruc- BlJ permission of the Professor of A,,I inflow, Ma/. IIM. j/w/, Paris. 

 tion is well attended to. The Canton AN ITALIAN MAN. 



