760 The National Geographic Magazine 



procedure would but bring about some 

 shooting on a larger scale than might be 

 comfortable, for the Yuruks are very 

 much attached to their dogs. As they 

 are all heavily armed, and would not 

 hesitate to defend the dogs, it is always 

 best, therefore, for the visitor to be meek 

 and peaceful. 



From the archaeologist's point of view 

 I have been informed that Hierapolis is 

 a negative quantity. The ruins are 

 chiefly Greek and Roman, and it is im- 

 possible to excavate the city, which be- 

 longs to an earlier period, on account of 

 the hardened calcareous deposits. One 

 could only dig by blasting, and such a 

 method would result in shattering the 



ruins. The only possible way in which 

 such work could be carried on would be 

 by tunneling under the surface and re- 

 moving the prehistoric finds piecemeal 

 from the cliff. 



During my stay of five days in this 

 part of the country I was shown every 

 attention by Mr Pantasopoulos, of De- 

 nizli, who, by the way, has one of the 

 finest flour mills in Asia Minor, partly 

 equipped with American machinery. He 

 very kindly assisted me in getting horses, 

 provisions, etc., for an excursion to the 

 ruins, and I am indebted to him other- 

 wise for much courtesy.* 



* To be continued in the December number. 



BULGARIA, THE PEASANT STATE 



NO PEOPLE have greater cause 

 for satisfaction and honest 

 pride in what they have ac- 

 complished during the last 30 years than 

 have the Bulgarians. Their progress in 

 self-government and education since 

 1877-8, when, with the aid of Russia 

 and Rumania, they threw off the Turk- 

 ish yoke, is one of the most remarkable 

 records ever made by any people within 

 a similar space of time. Industry, cour- 

 age, and compulsory education have won 

 for them a position unsurpassed by any 

 country of their size, and have made 

 them in less than a generation a power- 

 ful, and perhaps the determining, factor 

 in the settlement of the Eastern question. 

 When the Turks were driven out of 

 Bulgaria after 500 years of misrule and 

 anarchy, and the Bulgarians were 

 allowed a semi-independence by the 

 Congress of Berlin, they found them- 

 selves very poorly equipped to form a 

 new nation. Without money, with only 

 a few educated leaders and the mass of 

 peasants illiterate, surrounded by jealous 

 and much more powerful states, their 

 future independence seemed remote, if 

 not impossible of achievement. But the 

 leaders had grit and common sense, and 

 realized that there were three essentials : 

 (1) To educate the people; (2) to grant 



religious tolerance to all, and (3) to re- 

 quire of every man two or three years'* 

 military training, so that every Bul- 

 garian would be a capable soldier in time 

 of need. 



As a result of the rigorous system of 

 education which was inaugurated, prac- 

 tically all young Bulgarians can now 

 read and write. Whereas in 1879 there 

 could not have been 20 per cent of the 

 male city population able to read and 

 write, today 92 per cent of the male city 

 Bulgarian population between the ages of 

 10 and 30 can read and write and 74 per 

 cent of the female, and 68 per cent of the 

 male and 18 per cent of the female rural. 

 This is a result which none of the coun- 

 tries, neighbors of Bulgaria and others 

 to the west, can show. 



In 1906 there were 4,584 elementary 

 schools, with 8,785 teachers and 400,216 

 pupils. Nearly 10 per cent of the popu- 

 lation are attending primary school. 



In 1879 there was only one school in 

 the whole country which could pretend 

 to the title of gymnasium. There are 

 now eight gymnasiums for boys and five 

 for girls, four normal schools for pre- 

 paring competent teachers for the pri- 

 mary schools, a seminary, two special 

 commercial schools, and a university 

 with three faculties — history and philol- 



