The Races of the Danube. 243 



In calling the Magyars the only non-Aryan in- 

 vaders who have secured a permanent foothold in 

 European territory, I had forgotten, for the mo- 

 ment, the Bulgars who conquei'ed lower Mcesia in 

 the beginning of the sixth century. These Bul- 

 gars were a Tatar race, known also as Ugrians, a 

 name of which the " ogre " of our nursery stories 

 is supposed to be a corruption. But the achieve- 

 ments of the Bulgars, as a distinct race, were 

 hardly of enough consequence to keep them al- 

 ways in one's memory. Though they gave the 

 name Bulgaria to the Roman province of lower 

 Moesia, they were soon absorbed among the Slavs, 

 and quite lost their Tataric speech. And so, 

 while Bulgaria played a prominent part in med- 

 iaeval history, it figures only as a portion of the 

 Slavonic world. Yet to this day, it is said, the 

 inhabitants of Bulgaria exhibit, in their high 

 cheek-bones, flat face, and sunken eyes, as well as 

 in their curious attire, the characteristics of the 

 Tatar race. In the seventh century Bulgaria was 

 overrun by the Avars, but after these nomads 

 were expelled the Bulgarian power developed rap- 

 idly, and was even extended back over Bessarabia 

 and all southern Russia as far as the Sea of Azof. 



5,000,000; Slavs, 6,000,000; Germans and Jews, 1,600,000; Rumans 

 in Transylvania, 3,000,000. 



