THE NATIONAL, GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



471 



the Armenian has can be traced to his long 

 subjection and his environment. 



Most are dark, almost swarthy, with thick, 

 black hair, heavy brows, generous noses, mus- 

 cular and stocky frames, but among them one 

 finds endless variety of form and feature. Not 

 seldom one sees an Armenian woman with the 

 pencilled eyebrows, chiselled features, and 

 Madonna-like beauty of the Italian ; or an Ar- 

 menian man tall, lithe, handsome, finely pro 

 portioned, fit model for the sculptor. 



In conversation the Armenian language often 

 seems jagged and harsh, but when heard in 

 one of their ancient churches from the lips o r 

 some eloquent! preacher, like the Patriarcl 

 Nerses, it sounds majestic and awe-compelling, 

 like thunder among the crags. 



The massacres of the last four and a half 

 years and the deportation of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of helpless victims, all countenanced by 

 Berlin, have been the most terrible experiences 

 even in Armenia's tragic life. The unimpeach- 

 able evidence of atrocities set forth in the 

 Bryce Commission's report on this theater of 

 war, and the testimony of Henry Morgenthau, 

 former United States Ambassador to Turkey, 

 comprise one of the most appalling indictments 

 of the Prussian-directed Turk in the history of 

 mankind. 



THE TURKO-TATARS 



The Turko-Tatars in Russia number about 

 4,700,000, in great part remnants from the 

 baleful Empire of the Golden Horde, that held 

 Russia in subjection from 1237 to 1481, and of 

 the Khanate of the Crimea. 



The penniless Bashkirs, the snub-nosed Kara- 

 Kirghiz and the Kirghiz-kazaks, the broad- 

 eared Kalmucks, the Kipchaks of Kazan, and 

 the more active Nogais have been restrained 

 and tamed. Some are Moslems, some Bud- 

 dhists, some Sheitan worshippers, some no- 

 madic, some sedentary. The chief interest they 

 excite is anthropological. To the ethnologist 

 they are merely reminders of a merciless past. 



THE RUMANIANS* 



It is a surprising fact that, adjacent to the 

 Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube, sur- 

 rounded by powerful Hungarian and Slavic 

 peoples, separated from Italy and all things 

 Italian by five hundred miles of distance and 

 sixteen hundred years of time, we find, in the 

 words of Ubicini, "A people compact and 

 homogeneous, whose features, language, monu- 

 ments, customs and very name show its Italian 

 origin." 



Two expressions in a well-known handbook 

 condense the connection of ancient Dacia, the 



* See also, in National Geographic Maga- 

 zine;, "Notes on Rumania" (December, 1912) ; 

 "Rumania and Her Ambitions," by Frederick 

 Moore (October, 1913) ; "Rumania, the Pivotal 

 State," by James Howard Gore (October, 

 1915)1 and "Rumania and Its Rubicon," by 

 John Oliver La Gorce (September, 1916). 



modern Rumania, with Rome: "A. D. 107, 

 Dacia made a province." "A. D. 274, Dacia 

 given up to barbarians." 



The first suggests the settlement of thou- 

 sands of Roman families, the universal speak- 

 ing of "lingua rustica" by Roman soldiers, 

 and the influx of prosperity that caused that 

 flourishing Roman colony to be called "Dacia 

 Felix." The second suggests the abandon- 

 ment of Dacia to that unbroken chain of evils 

 and misfortunes from which the people were 

 not delivered until the middle of the last cen- 

 tury. 



Nevertheless, such was the virility of the 

 Roman language and civilization and such the 

 persistence of the Dacians, that from them 

 have been evolved the Rumanians of today, 



The name Vlach, by which, until recently 

 they were commonly known abroad, is the 

 Slavic rendering of Romaioi, Romans, which 

 the Dacian peasants call themselves but which 

 also means robust or strong. Their numerous 

 compatriots who inhabit the Pindus range in 

 Greece are always spoken of as Kutzo- Vlachs 

 or Lame Vlachs. 



Yet, while the Rumanians are Latin in all 

 else,, geography rendered them communicants 

 of the Eastern Orthodox Church. 



More than once, when invaders held their 

 country in subjection for generations, the peo- 

 ple took refuge across the Danube or in the 

 mountains. Their historian, Kogalnitchano, 

 asserts "The Rumanians would not espouse 

 the women of another nation," and with satis- 

 faction quotes Gibbon as saying, "The Vlachs 

 are surrounded by barbarians without mixing 

 with them." 



After the last Tatar invasion, in the thir- 

 teenth century, when the nomads, sated with 

 slaughter and booty, had withdrawn eastward, 

 the people gradually came back and settled the 

 provinces of Wallachia on the Danube and 

 Moldavia between the Carpathians and the 

 Pruth. Both were conquered by the Turks 

 two hundred years later. Turkish governors, 

 called hospodars, exploited the provinces. 



The intellectual national awakening of a 

 hundred years ago hastened their deliverance. 

 Europe guaranteed the two provinces au- 

 tonomy in 1856. Three years afterward they 

 were united as the Principality of Rumania. 

 The nomination of Carol, a Hohenzollern 

 prince, as the new ruler was approved by 

 popular vote, 685,069 persons voting "Aye" and 

 224 voting "No." The choice was happy. 

 Prince until 1881, then King until 1914, he and 

 the Queen, "Carmen Sylva " deserved and en- 

 joyed the love of their people. The present 

 Queen Marie is a charming, patriotic writer. 

 # Allied with Russia, Rumania took an effec- 

 tive part in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, 

 for which she was ill-requited, being obliged 

 to cede Bessarabia to Russia in exchange for a 

 portion of "the land of mountains, fens and 

 barren steppes," called the Dobrudja. A fur- 

 ther portion was acquired after the Balkan 

 war of 1913. 



The Dobrudja, situated between the lower 

 Danube and the Black Sea, is capable of de- 



