774 



The National Geographic Magazine 



SERVIAN GIRLS OF NISCH, SERVIA 



Photo by F. J. Koch 



SERVIA AND MONTENEGRO 



SERVIA is about the size of Ver- 

 mont and New Hampshire com- 

 bined, while Montenegro would 

 make only three Rhode Islands. Little 

 Montenegro has the proud distinction of 

 never having been conquered by the 

 Turks. 



Both countries are peopled by the 

 Serbs, a slavic tribe, who entered the 

 cowitry about 650 A. D. at the invitation 

 of Emperor Heraclius, who planned 

 them as a bulwark against the Avars. 

 During the twelfth to fourteenth cen- 

 turies the kingdom of Servia embraced 

 Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Thessaly, 

 part of Bulgaria, and all of the Greek 



peninsula except Attica and the Pelopon- 

 nesus. When the Turks overran the 

 country a band of Servians withdrew 

 among the mountains now known as 

 Montenegro. Among these peaks, which 

 range from 2,500 to 8,000 feet in height, 

 they successfully defended themselves 

 against repeated atttacks from the power- 

 ful Ottoman Sultans. 



Servia resembles Bulgaria and Ru- 

 mania in not having any large landed 

 estates. All the arable land is divided 

 into small holdings, not exceeding on the 

 average 20 acres. One of the conditions 

 under which Servia obtained her inde- 

 pendence in 1878 (by the Treaty of Ber- 



