118 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



kinsmen of the plain. They are said to be intelligent, and though the land 

 they live in is exceedingly sterile, they enjoy more comforts than the peasants of 

 the lowlands. Many of them annually migrate into neighbouring countries, 

 especially at harvest-time. 



In Western Galicia the ethnological boundaries coincide with the mountain 

 crests. The Gorals do not extend to the southern slopes of the Beskids, nor 

 are the Podhalanes, or Polish herdsmen of the upper valleys of the Tâtra, met 

 with in the plains of Hungary ; but to the east of the Tâtra we enter a country 

 having a mixed population, and it is quite impossible to draw a line separating 

 the Poles fi^om the liuthenians. Many of the inhabitants speak both languages. 

 The valley of the San, a river flowing into the Vistula, may, however, be looked 

 upon, as the linguistic boundary, the Rutheuians predominating to the east of 



Fig. 73. — The Distributiox of the Poles in Galicia. 

 According to Ficker. Scale 1 : 6,000,000. 



E.of P. 



ir~2 



Ovor 30 ii,c 



Ocer 10 ii.c. 



it. Formerly, when the Poles were the sole masters of the country, their lan- 

 guage slowly gained ground ; but the Ruthenians are now recovering all they 

 lost, although many educated people in the towns beyond the San prefer to use 

 Polish. The two nations differ also in religion, for whilst the Poles are Roman 

 Catholics, the Ruthenians belong to the Greek Church. Most of the small 

 Rutheniun nobles, derisively called cJwdaczkova sz/ac//ta, i.e. " sandal- wearing 

 gentlemen," are Greek Catholics, whilst the large landowners belong to the 

 Roman Church. 



The Ruthenians, or Red Russians, have never been able to agree with their kins- 

 men the Poles. They are Russians certainly, though speaking a dialect difl'ering 

 from that of the Muscovites, to whom, moreover, they are dissimilar in customs. 

 The descendants of numberless exiles, who fled the yoke of Russian despotism, live 



