100 AUSTRIA- HUNGARY. 



national feelinj^. Some, the descendants of shepherds, called themselves Fraduci ; 

 others, in the mining districts, went by the name of Pofani. At present, however, 

 they know very well that they are the kinsmen of the Wallachians and Mol- 

 davians, that their language is akin to that spoken by several nations of Western 

 Europe, and that numeric;illy they are very formidable. As yet, however, they 

 do not aspire to national autonomy, and if in 1848 they rose against their old 

 landlords, this was not owing to a hatred of race. 



They are serfs no longer, and if they do not always keep possession of the 

 land, it is the Jew usurer, and not the Magyar, of whom they have to complain. 

 These Jews, together with the Bulgarian " Ismaélites," have from immemorial 

 times been the traders of Hungary. It was they who disposed of the booty collected 

 by the Magyars, and carried on the traffic in slaves. They themselves were 

 occasionally reduced almost to a state of slavery, but the money which they 

 succeeded in amassing frequently enabled them to purchase temporary privileges. 

 Since 1867 they have been in the enjoyment of full civil rights, but "mixed" 

 marriages are not yet permitted to them, and the Szekely obstinately refuse to 

 admit them into their villages. 



The increase in the number of Jews since the middle of last century has been 

 prodigious. There are districts in which they form a majority. Munkacs is a 

 town of Jews rather than of Christians, and at Pest they have increased from 

 1,000, in 1836, to 50,000 ! The birth rate amongst the Jews is very high, and 

 they are said to suffer less than the other inhabitants from epidemic and endemic 

 diseases.* In 1872 and 1873, when the cholera carried off Magyars, Germans, and 

 Slavs in thousands, the Jews actually increased in numbers. Emigration con- 

 tributes its share towards this increase. Hardly a village but the " chosen 

 people " are represented by an innkeeper and money-lender. The land by degrees 

 passes into the hands of the Jews, and the unfortunate peasant, whilst cursing 

 in his heart the cause of his ruin, has not the strength of will to avoid it. The 

 estates of ruined " magnates," too, often become the property of Jews. The latter 

 sometimes cause the land thus acquired to be cultivated with care, but as a rule 

 they farm it out to the ousted peasant proprietors. 



The Armenian only resembles the Jew in his love of money and attachment 

 to the national religion. Szamos-Ujvar (Armenopolis) and Ebesfalva (Elisa- 

 betopolis) are the head-quarters of the Armenian merchants, whose number 

 is diminishing, and who no longer speak the language of their ancestors. 



Hungary has always extended its hospitalities to the Tsigani, or gipsies, who 

 were granted certain privileges in the fifteenth century, and formed, as it were, 

 "itinerant republics" each under its headman {egregius), and elected judges 

 {agiles). Joseph II. undertook to civilise the gipsies by compelling them to 

 become cultivators of the soil, and to abandon their national dress and lanffuajje. 

 Notwithstanding this, a few of their nomadic tribes survive to the present da}'. 

 The majority, however, have become peasants or labourers. 



* Annual death rate at Pest (1868—1870) per 1,000 inhabitants:— Eoman Catholics, 48; Lutherans, 

 47; Calviiiists, o4 ; Jews, 18. 



