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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



ever, to enforce the Latin ritual would prob- 

 ably swing the dissident Jugo-Slavs into the 

 Eastern Orthodox Church. 



Another obstacle to federal union is inex- 

 perience in self-government on the part of the 

 several groups. Except the Montenegrins, and 

 the Serbians in the larger part of royal Serbia, 

 all the groups have been under the blighting 

 domination of alternating foreign masters, 

 mainly Turks, Austrians, and Magyars, since 

 the Middle Ages. The federal system is of all 

 systems the most difficult and complex, requir- 

 ing the largest degree not only of skill, but of 

 self-adjustment and self-control. Yet upon 

 such a Ship of State these Slavic landsmen 

 would embark as officers and crew in a stormy 

 sea. 



To the majority of these people the idea of 

 union is novel, until recently entertained only 

 by some score of dreamers, who, while Turk- 

 ish or Austro-Hungarian subjects themselves, 

 hardly believed in its possibility of realization. 

 Nor do all the groups equally desire union, 

 even now. The Slovenes, for example, are not 

 over-enthusiastic for it. In some respects the 

 situation is analogous to that of the thirteen 

 American States after the Revolution and be- 

 fore the adoption of the Constitution. 



Powerful factors exist favorable to cooper- 

 ation. The peoples are racially one, confronted 

 everywhere by foreigners. Despite minor local 

 differences, they possess in the Serbian a lan- 

 guage intelligible to all, though in less degree 

 to the Slovene, spoken by the great majority, 

 the literary language of Croat, Bosnian, Helvat, 

 Slavonian, Serbian, and in part of the Dalma- 

 tian. Bonds of race and language are strong. 



There is practical absence of inherited ani- 

 mosities. The fact is recognized that whoever 

 of them fought in the Austro-Hungarian ranks 

 did so under military compulsion. There is 

 also appreciative recognition of decimated Ser- 

 bia's natural leadership. 



The one compelling factor is the conscious- 

 ness that unless united the political existence 

 of any of them is most insecure. 



In the attempt of the Jugo-Slavs to rule 

 themselves in the only possible way, they are 

 entitled to the sympathy and patience of all 

 who believe in self-government by the people. 



the BOSNIANS 



For the boundaries of the provinces on the 

 east shore of the Adriatic political gerryman- 

 der is responsible, begun before America was 

 discovered. The inhabitants, subjects until re- 

 cently of Austria-Hungary, are Bosnians, Hel- 

 vats, Croats, Dalmatians, Slavonians, and Slo- 

 venes — a perplexing medley of Slavic peoples, 

 among whom are found a few Jews and for- 

 eigners. 



The Bosnians, so named from the river 

 Bosna, are Serbians and Croats, who for a 

 time maintained a small and not powerful king- 

 dom under a ruler called Ban. They are 

 strongly drawn by sympathy and interest to 

 their kinsmen in royal Serbia. At their capital, 

 Serajevo, occurred on June 28, 1914, the as- 

 sassination of the Austrian Crown Prince and 



his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, which 

 preluded the European war. 



THE H Ely VATS 



The Helvats, or Herzegovinians, who are 

 Serbians and Croats, are appropriately named, 

 their district having been lopped off from 

 Bosnia for the advantage of a Herzog or Arch- 

 duke. 



THE CROATS * 



The Croats were long intimately connected 

 with the Serbians, whom they greatly resemble. 

 In 1908 the Austro-Hungarian sovereign ap- 

 propriated the Turkish provinces of Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina, ninety-eight per cent of 

 whose two million inhabitants are Serbians or 

 Croats. There is no such unanimity in their 

 religion. Forty-two per cent are Eastern Ortho- 

 dox, calling themselves Serbians ; twenty-eight 

 per cent Roman Catholics, calling themselves 

 Helvats, and twenty per cent Moslems, calling 

 themselves Turks. 



THE DALMATIANS f 



The Dalmatians occupy a long, narrow, 

 mountainous fringe of coast land and islands 

 east of the Adriatic. They were often called 

 Pagani or Pagans in derision as being the last 

 of the Slavs to embrace Christianity. Immi- 

 grating in great numbers they quickly absorbed 

 the native population and retained their own 

 characteristics. Just as the Slavs > gave the 

 name of Vlachs to the Latin-speaking Ruma- 

 nians, so the Slavic invaders of Dalmatia called 

 the Latinized people they found there Vlachs, 

 or Mavro - Vlachs — Black Vlachs. In the 

 whirligig of language, Morlach, a corruption 

 of Mavro-Vlach, has become the term by which 

 Dalmatian Slavs are commonly known in Eng- 

 lish. 



The dalmatic, or ceremonial outer robe, worn 

 by the Roman Catholic clergy at the divine 

 office and by sovereigns at coronations, was in- 

 troduced into Rome in the second century from 

 Dalmatia, where it was used only by the no- 

 bility. 



Dalmatia, a shuttlecock between Venice and 

 Hungary, never experienced a national exist- 

 ence. During the last two centuries it has 

 been the alternate possession of Venice, France 

 and Austria. It furnished many of the best 

 sailors in the Austrian navy. 



THE SLOVENES OR WENDS 



The Slovenes or Wends are found outside 

 the Balkan Peninsula in the former Austrian 

 Provinces of Carinthia, Carniola and Styria. 



* See also, in National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, "In Quaint, Curious Croatia," by Felix J. 

 Koch (December, 1908). 



f See also, in National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, "Where East Meets West," by Marian 

 Cruger Coffin (May, 1908), and "East of the 

 Adriatic," by Kenneth McKenzie (December, 

 1912). 



