THE WHIRLPOOL OF THE BALKANS 



185 



self under the leadership of one of her 

 own chieftains — Black George, the swine- 

 herd. And, East and West, the two strik- 

 ing features of the World War which 

 most impressed me were the regeneration 

 of two peoples, the French and the Serbs, 

 who gave renewed evidence that blood 

 will tell, and whose valorous defense of 

 their own soil included an abiding faith 

 that, whatever changes this war might 

 work upon the map of the world, its 

 future and enduring boundaries should 

 be cast upon the firm basis of recognized 

 and recognizable spirit of nationality 

 expressed in blood, tongue, and religious 

 faith. 



Macedonia's cry for help through 

 the centuries 



For centuries Macedonia cried for help, 

 and on occasion did not hesitate to help 

 herself. Across her soil have surged the 

 waves of successive racial domination, 

 and the first great name to emerge from 

 the shadowy tradition with which Mace- 

 donian beginnings are invested is that 

 of Philip, under whom Macedonia and 

 Bulgaria were united in a short-lived 

 supremacy which fell with the death of 

 Alexander the Great, son of Philip. It 

 left, however, a legacy of racial rivalry 

 which persisted to this day between Greek 

 and Slav and which was further com- 

 plicated by the victories of the great hero 

 of the Serbs, Stephen Dushan, whose em- 

 pire was scarcely exceeded by Alexan- 

 der's in that part of the world. 



Is Macedonia by blood preponderantly 

 Greek, Bulgarian, or Serbian? This 

 question, submerged, but not settled, by 

 the Turkish Conquest, for 500 years has 

 formed a central problem of the Near 

 East. It has produced periodic outbursts 

 of arson, pillage, and murder. Again and 

 again it has caused the plains of the fair 

 province to run red with the blood of 

 slaughtered peasants who have refused 

 to foreswear their nationality. 



It has prevented the union of those 

 who are bound by the tie of a common 

 faith and a common suffering ; it brought 

 about the great rift in the Orthodox 

 Greek Church, and in it the Turkish con- 

 queror always found the surest basis for 

 his continued misrule. 



It was laid aside only once — in 191 2 — 

 and then only long enough to dispossess 



the Ottoman tyrant ; but it broke out once 

 more in the blundering and criminal war 

 among the Balkan Allies. 



SALONIKI COMMANDS THE .EGEAN 



Macedonia's plains are fertile, its hills 

 filled with ore or underlaid with oil, its 

 cities are populous and its ports impor- 

 tant. Saloniki, its chief city, has been a 

 center of activity since time out of mind. 

 It stands in a commanding position at 

 the head of the TEgean Sea ; behind it 

 lies a contributing territory of great and 

 practically untouched richness, which 

 now, freed from the paralyzing touch 

 of Turkish tyranny, is destined to become 

 a busy and prosperous province. 



Saloniki is now Greek in rule as it 

 long has been in race ; and to the imagina- 

 tive Hellenes the city has been sealed to 

 them with the blood of their martyred 

 King George I, who was assassinated here 

 in 191 3. But, like all the large towns of 

 the region, its population is a varied one, 

 and one of its picturesque features is 

 that large body of Spanish Jews who 

 fled thither from the Inquisition and who 

 have still preserved their individuality, 

 which they proclaimed by their garb.* 



MOUNT ATHOS ONE OF THE WORLD'S 

 RICHEST MONASTERIES 



East of Saloniki the Chalcidicean Pen- 

 insula spraddles its ungainly shape down 

 into the waters of the ^Egean and here 

 are found some of the most interesting 

 of the world's monastic institutions — the 

 famous monasteries of Mount Athos,f ex- 

 ercising both a civil and an ecclesiastical 

 domination, with many quaint regula- 

 tions: — one being to the effect that no 

 woman shall ever set foot upon the 

 monastic possessions. This rule is strictly 

 enforced, and one may well imagine the 

 consternation of the fathers when the 

 Queen of the Greeks proposed to pay a 

 state visit to Mount Athos after the fall 

 of Saloniki. 



Mount Athos is among the richest of 

 the world's monkish establishments, not 

 alone in the amount of its revenues and 



*See "Saloniki." by H. G. Dwight. in the 

 National Geographic Magazine for Septem- 

 ber, T916. 



t See "The Monasteries of Mount Athos." by 

 H. G. Dwight, in the National Geographic 

 Magazine for September, 19 16. 



