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TURKISH troops: sai^onica 



But in spite of their love of well-built 

 stone-houses, the Vlachs have strongly 

 ingrained nomadic habits, and in sum- 

 mer-time their towns are for the most 

 part abandoned by all the able-bodied 

 males, who wander about the country as 

 itinerant merchants or kiradjis (dealers 

 in and hirers of horses). Many of them 

 are men of substance, and have business 

 connections with all the important cen- 

 ters of the Balkans and Austria-Hun- 

 gary. 



As regards numbers, statistics vary, as 

 usual, very considerably. According to 

 some authorities, they are not more than 

 50,000; whereas Rumanian patriots af- 

 firm them to be at least half a million ; 

 probably they amount to about 100,000. 



But, politically, their importance is 

 very small. They have usually kept on 

 good terms with the Turks, who, until 

 the last rising, treated them less badly 

 than their other Christian subjects. 

 They attend to their trade and take little 

 part in political movements. For a long 

 time they were indistinguishable from 

 the Greeks, whose language they spoke 

 as well as their own. and the Greek 

 party still count them as Greeks in their 

 statistics of Macedonia. 



THE AIvBx\NIANS 



The western districts of the vilayet of 

 Monastir and a large part of that of 

 Kossovo are inhabited by a race wilder 

 and more primitive than any to be found 

 in Europe — the Albanians (see pages 

 1090-1103). Very little is known of this 

 strange and interesting people, save that 

 they speak an Indo-European tongue, 

 but do not belong to any of the recog- 

 nized groups of the Aryan family. It 

 is probable that they are descended from 

 the ancient Illyrians, who were driven 

 westwards by the advancing waves of 

 Slavs. Their language, like the people 

 themselves, is wild and lawless, and has 

 practically no literature. Even the pop- 

 ular songs are very few. 



The Turkish government has deliber- 

 ately kept them in a state of barbarism 

 and ignorance, and makes use of them 

 to overawe the neighboring peoples. 



They are divided by religion into Mo- 

 hammedans, who form two-thirds of the 

 whole number — Orthodox Christians 

 and Roman Catholics. But religion sits 

 lightly on their shoulders, and they are 

 by no means fanatical. In every tribe, 

 save the Mirdits. who are all Catholics, 



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