THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



479 



oval, h i s complexion 

 olive, his hair abundant 

 and black, his eyes lumi- 

 nous and dark, his figure 

 slight and supple. Only 

 seldom doesi one meet a 

 light-complexioned, light 

 haired Greek. 



He is still at home upon 

 the sea. The carrying 

 trade of the eastern 

 Mediterranean and the 

 Black Sea is largely in 

 his hands. In 1916, of 

 2,658 steamers entering 

 the Piraeus, the harbor 

 of Athens, 2,494 were 

 under the Greek flag. 

 His little sailing vessels, 

 averaging 250 tons ca- 

 pacity, are numerous 

 throughout! the Levant. 



He is an enterprising 

 and ambitious tradesman, 

 frugal and industrious. 

 Many of the great bank- 

 ing houses of southern 

 Europe are Greek. 



As with the ancients, 

 so with the moderns, a 

 chief diversion or occu- 

 pation is politics. Yet 

 modern Greece has not 

 produced a single great 

 statesman except Veni- 

 zelos, himself a Cretan. 



The people are not re- 

 sponsible for the short- 

 comings and mistakes of 

 their government in this 

 just -ended war. They 

 live under a monarchical 

 system, thrust upon them 

 by the Great Powers, 

 after their successful 

 Revolution of 1821-8, and 

 contrary to their instincts 

 and desires. Hence they 

 missed an opportunity in 

 the world struggle to 

 strike a blew for free- 

 dom and humanity as 

 well as for themselves — 

 an opportunity such as 

 may never come to them 

 again. Their king, a 

 German sympathizer, 



since dethroned, was able to block the national 

 will and disappoint all its aspirations. 



In consequence of the Balkan wars of 1912 

 and 1913 there were added to the kingdom 

 about 1,400,000 Greeks formerly Turkish sub- 

 jects. A little later Crete was united to Greece. 

 The present population is about 5,000,000. 

 The excess of males at birth over females is 



greater among the Greeks than among any 



other people of Europe. 



Photograph by Pauline H. Dederer 



A DALMATIAN PEASANT PASSING THROUGH THE PORTA 

 PLOCE, RAGUSA 



Until 1808, Ragusa, proudest of Dalmatian towns, maintained its 

 nominal independence, but at various times during the Middle Ages 

 it came under the protection of Venice, of Hungary, and of Turkey. 

 The Winged Lion of St. Mark above the gateway testifies to the 

 sway of Venice centuries ago. At the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century Napoleon annexed Ragusa to his newly established "King- 

 dom of Illyria." From 1814 up to the present time the city has been 

 an Austrian possession. 



THE BULGARIANS * 



The Bulgarians are of Einno-Ugrian origin. 

 They derive their name from the river Volga, 



* See also, in National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, "Bulgaria, the Peasant State" (Novem- 

 ber, 1908) ; "The Rise of Bulgaria," by James 

 D. Bouchier (November, 1912) ; "Bulgaria and 

 Its Women," by Hester Donaldson Jenkins 

 (April, 1915). 



