304 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 140. 



from the surrounding Slavic races in origin, and 

 he has a more or less close affinity with the Rus- 

 sian, who has been described as a Slavonianized 

 Finn with a dash of Mongol blood. This distinc- 

 tion of race is of the greatest Importance as it 

 explains, in a measure, how it was that the Bul- 

 garian remained passive, while his Servian and 

 Montenegrin neighbors maintained or secured their 

 independence. Other things, however, also con- 

 tributed to tliis result as, for instance, the banish- 



A SKETCH MAP TO ILLUSTRATE CHANGES IN TURKISH TERRITORY BY THE TREATIES OF 

 SAN STEFANO AND BERLIN. 



Bulgaria, shown thus 



Territory taken from Turkey by treaty of San Stefano, and restored 5^ 



to her by Congress of Berlio, shown by horizontal lines : — 



Accessions to Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro are shown by Mill 



vertical lines : iil'l 



ment of the old Bulgarian nobihty, the nearness 

 of Bulgaria to Constantinople, and the lack of 

 homogeneity in the population of that countiy. 

 For, although the Bulgarians put together out- 

 numbered all other nationalities, the Turks and 

 the Greeks (here, at least, working in harmony 

 with then- masters) formed an important element. 

 It is exceedingly difficult to come to any decision 

 as to the exact place which sliould be given to the 

 Bulgarian in the social scale. There is no lack of 

 books on the Slavic provinces of Turkey, but, un- 

 fortunately, those of recent date have been written 



by Englishmen, and whenever an Englishman 

 writes on any phase of the eastern question his 

 pohtical predilections cloud his judgment. Thus 

 an English tory has pictured the Bulgarian as ' a 

 lazy drunkard and a fanatical fetishist,' while de- 

 claring, almost in the same breath, that the Turk 

 is ' honest, sober, industrious,' and, furthermore, 

 asserting that the 'purest family love exists 

 in the harem as much as in any household of 

 Europe.' The liberal, on the contrary, ; regards 



' Turkish home 

 life ' as something 

 to be avoided, 

 and asserts that 

 drunkenness i s 

 rampant among 

 the Mussulmans, 

 and that any 

 Turk would mur- 

 der a Christian 

 for a few piastres. 

 The Bulgarian, 

 on the other 

 hand, in the eyes 

 of the English 

 liberal, if not 

 possessing all the 

 virtues, is ' very 

 industrious, p e - 

 nurious, and, al- 

 though rather 

 apathetic as a 

 workman and 

 employe, is to be 

 preferred to all 

 others.' The 

 truth undoubted- 

 ly lies between 

 the two extremes. 

 It was the fortune 

 of the present 

 writer to pass a 

 few days in Bul- 

 garia some six 

 years ago, to see 



1T.3C0 Geogr. sq. m. 

 30,700 " " " 



a good deal of its inhabitants, and to have many 

 long and interesting conversations with some 

 western Europeans who were then employed on 

 the Varna railway. The conclusions which have 

 forced themselves upon him are at variance with 

 those reached by the English tory. 



In times past, and even at present, the Bulgarians 

 might be called a superstitious race, but so might 

 others nearer home ; and it should always be re- 

 membered that until recently the Bulgarian had few 

 educational advantages, except those afforded by 

 our own American missionaries, who not only 



