THE ORIGIN AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE 
CZECHOSLOVAK PEOPLE. 
By JiNDfticH Matiegka, 
Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Anthropological Institute, Czech 
Universiti/, Prague. 
[With 4 plates.] 
NOTE. 
The notable history of old Bohemia, the recent liberation of the Czechoslovak 
people after three centuries of forcible subjection to Austria, and the won- 
derful anabasis of the Czechoslovak volunteer troops in Russia and Siberia, 
have raised in many minds a desire to know more about these people and their 
country. It is known that they are the western Slavs, but their exact deriva- 
tion, their early history, the relation of the Czechs to the Slovaks, and of both 
to the other three main Slavic groups — the Poles, Russians, and Jugoslavs, 
together with their actual physical characteristics, are matters on which there 
was hitherto but scarce information. It was to supply authoritative informa- 
tion of this nature, based on scientific research of most recent years, that 
Professor Matiegka, one of the most competent and respected anthropologists 
of Europe, has published during the past year two brief treatises, one under 
the title of " The Bodily Characteristics of the Czech People " (S°, Prague, 1919), 
and the other on the " Origin and Beginnings of the Czechoslovak People " 
(8°, Prague, 1920). The present article is a partial abstract of the first with 
a part translation of the latter treatise. 
The Czechoslovak Republic, as constituted after the peace conference, com- 
prises the territories of Bohemia, IMoravia, Slovakia, Subcarpathian Russia, 
and a portion of Silesia. 
These territories cover nearly 55,000 square miles, and have approximately 
14,000,000 inhabitants, of whom about 7,000,000 are Czechs, 2,800,000 Slovaks, 
and 450,000 Ruthenians. Besides these, there are about 3,000,000 Germans, de- 
scendants of the twelfth to nineteenth century immigrants, and about 1,000,000 
Magyars, who in the course of their domination over Slovakia acquired domicile 
in that country.^ The density of population is very great in Bohemia, reach- 
ing 210 per square mile (United States about 35, State of New York, including 
the city of New York, nearly 200 per square mile). 
Bohemia lies in the heart of the European continent, the remaining Provinces 
extending below and partly into the Carpathians, towards the east. Bohemia 
itself forms a remarkable geographical unit. It is a great diamond-shaped 
1 The figures here given are merely estim.ites. The only offlci.il data are those of the 
1910 Austrian and Hungarian censuses, which are grossly inaccurate as to the propor- 
tions of the different nationalities. The first census of the Republic is to be taken in Feb- 
ruary, 1921. See La Rgpublique Tchdcoslovaque, 8° Prague, 1920 ; Statistical Hand- 
book of the Czechoslovak Republic (in Boh.), 8°, Prague, 1920; and Slovakia in the 
Light of Statistics (in Boh.), 8°, Prague, 1920. 
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