Peoples of the Balkans--The migration of nations--The
Illyrians--The Thracians and Scythians--Hippocrates and
Galenus--The habits of the Scythians--The origin of the
Hellenes--The arrival of the Macedonians--Philip of Macedonia and
Alexander the Great--The power of Rome--The Goths and
Theodosius--The advent of Slavs and Mongolians--The Hungarians,
Petshenegs, and Vlachs--Balkan people in the fourteenth
century--The Armenians: their early history--Tiridales, King of the
Armenians--Turkish conquest of Persia--Armenia and the Greek
Orthodox Church--The Kurds and Armenians--The Georgians--Attempt to
arouse Armenia--Nihilism in Armenia--Massacre of Armenians--Abdul
Hamid and the Armenian question--Disastrous Armenian rising--Future
of the Armenians--The Albanians and their language--Other names for
the Albanians--Albanian characteristics--Albania demands
autonomy--The future of Albania--The Vlachs: their language and
habits--King Milutin's effort to settle them.
In no other quarter of the globe are you likely to meet such a medley of
human races as in the Balkan Peninsula, the south-east corner of Asia
perhaps excepted. Certainly nowhere else in Europe has there been such
constant shifting of a population, such risings and wanings of divers
factors in history, such a coming and going of migrant mortals.
Before the gods of ancient Hellas entered on their genial despotism,
before man had become conscious of his own importance, and therefore
recorded his doings and sayings, great forces were labouring in the vast
swamps and forests of Central Europe and put forth one after another
races of human beings who, emerging from darkness, sought the light and
wandered towards the midday sun.
This subconscious movement led swarm on swarm of migrants across the
great rivers of Europe, over the mountain-passes, into the genial
southern plains, and accounted for the settlement of one race after
another in the peninsulas of Europe that stand out into the warm waters
of the Mediterranean Sea.
More than any other, the Balkan Peninsula was sought by these wanderers.
The aboriginal race in this part of Europe were the Illyrians, 'tis
said; but little is known of them and they have left few traces--a word
or two of their speech in the mixed language of the present-day
Albanians. More definite records remain of later races, before whom the
Illyrians were forced to make way. These also came from the north and
belonged to the dolichocephalic Aryans, who peopled Italy and the Balkan
Peninsula, worked out their destiny, and were subject to the same
treatment they had meted out to those whom they had found in possession
and displaced. Of the peoples who stand recorded in ancient history the
Thracians and Scythians were the most prominent. The former are said to
have occupied the districts south of the lower Danube, the latter lived
on that river's northern bank. Herodotus suggests that the Thracians
were a people of some importance, occupying a large tract of country,
and describes them as a tall, strong race, blue-eyed and fair-haired, in
appearance like the ancient Teutons. They were sufficiently interesting
to cause historians of old to give details of their doings, to mention
several of their more important tribes, such as the Triballi, Dardani,
Agathyrsen, and those who were found in Asia, Phrygians, Lydians,
Moesians, and above all the Trojans. The Dacians were another tribe, and
became more prominent as they entered into authenticated history under
their King Decebalus, who defeated the Emperor Domitian and forced
Imperial Rome to pay tribute to him.
[Illustration: THE COAST OF GREECE
Cloud shadows chasing each other over the rocky promontories of Hellas,
whose sons have marched north towards Constantinople.]
The Scythians are less known, and some confusion about them existed
among ancient historians. Herodotus mentions two peoples of that name;
they came into collision with each other in Southern Russia, near the
Ural Mountains, the passes of which were the gates of Europe for the
invading Mongols and other non-Aryan races. Galenus describes his
Scythians as Mongols, Hippocrates gives them all the attributes of
Teutons, and recent researches tend to show that Galenus mistook the
Scythians he may have seen or heard of, and that Hippocrates was nearer
the truth about them. The data given by antiquarians so far suggest that
the Scythians were a long-headed race, and had many customs peculiar to
the ancient Teutons; they venerated the god of war in the form of a
sword, they sought auguries in the interlacing boughs of trees, their
legends bore some resemblance to the saga of the Norse-folk, and they
indulged in the playful habit of using the skulls of vanquished enemies
as drinking-vessels.
It would seem that the Scythians came from the country now known as
Silesia and were probably displaced by the Teutons. Those who made this
people their special study as did worthy Pomponius Mela, maintain that
the Parthians were of the same race, had the same habits, spoke the same
speech, and moreover had much the same fashions in dress. The Scythians
were clothed _à l'Allemande_ of the period, simply and chastely in shirt
and trousers, the latter considered an enormity by earlier Roman
historians, who possibly found that the trouser crease of their day was
as little in accord with artistic tradition as that of the present day.
One fact emerges from all the profound utterances of authorities on the
subject, namely, that the Scythians were not of Mongolian extraction,
and should under no circumstances be identified with the Huns.
I have already mentioned the Illyrians, and have got no further in the
matter of their descent than have any of the recognized authorities on
that important subject. What information does exist about this people is
chiefly negative; for instance, that they did not belong to the
Indo-German race, but to an older family which after a century or two of
genteel poverty went under before the pushing young Aryans.
There appears to be a great deal of doubt as to the date when the Greeks
or Hellenes arrived upon the scene in the Balkan Peninsula. Some say
that they were the first arrivals, born there, in fact; others that they
came wandering down from the north in relays, that the overflowing fount
of humans in Northern Europe poured wave after wave of _ces gens là_
over Southern Europe. Be that as it may, it seems nevertheless probable
that the Hellenes were akin to the Thracians and had many attributes in
common with them. There are the crude paintings still extant, showing
Hellenes of the sixth century B.C., and these of men fair-haired and
blue-eyed; again, leaving the artistic for the scientific
standpoint--the ancients of Hellas were dolichocephalic.
I have followed the fortunes of the Hellenes in another chapter, and
must now confine myself to generalities about the Balkan people of all
ages.
The people of Hellas were very happy according to all accounts; their
clothing was inconspicuous, their wants few, and they enjoyed a
peculiarly pleasant _entente_ with the gods and goddesses whom they
evoked out of their own imagination, as well as from different phenomena
which Nature produces to foster our taste for the supernatural. They
must have been a thoroughly lovable, imaginative, unpractical collection
of philosophers, richly endowed with all the necessaries of life, such
as wives, children, servants, etc.; in fact, everything to make life
worth living and philosophizing easy. How the times have changed since
then! They changed suddenly, it appears, for ancient Hellas, for their
cousins, as they considered themselves, the Macedonians, felt the need
for expansion, "Tatendrang" if they had only known it, and therefore
broke in upon the daydreams of the dwellers in Arcadia.
Philip of Macedonia led his army against the Hellenes, the allied
Thebans and Athenians, defeated them at Cheironeia in 338 B.C., and
forced them to acknowledge his dominion over them. His son, Alexander
the Great, vanquished the Thracians, defeated the Thebans, who had
revolted against his rule, and prepared for his victorious march through
Asia Minor.
The Hellenes made many an effort to throw off the Macedonian yoke, but
failed, and exchanged it for that of Rome, after the last Macedonian
King had been defeated by the Romans at Pydna in 168 B.C. Macedonia was
divided up into four provinces, and was incorporated with the Roman
Empire in 146 B.C. Greece became the province of Achaia. The northern
Balkan countries retained their independence until near the end of the
first century B.C., when, by degrees, Rome conquered all the people
south of the Danube, the Moesii, Raetii, and Vindelicei, their lands
forming the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum.
It is usual to include Roumania among the Balkan States, though that
kingdom does not consider itself one of them. Trajan crossed the Danube
and entered what is now Roumania, adding it to the Roman Empire as Dacia
Trajana in A.D. 106.
Some hundred and fifty years later another people came wandering down
from the north, penetrating as far as the Danube, to the great
discomfiture of Dacia, the Goths, and they forced Emperor Aurelian to
remove his army and colonies to southward and westward, founding a new
colony, Dacia Aureliana. The Goths in their turn, hard pressed by the
wild hordes of nomad Mongolians, the Huns, abandoned the province of
Dacia Trajana, where they had been settled for a century, and crossed
the Danube, invaded Thrace, defeated the Emperor Valens at Adrianople,
and made themselves peculiarly obnoxious to the peaceful people of the
Eastern Empire, while the Huns continued their raid westward. The Goths
in the meanwhile plundered right and left in Thrace unchecked, because
they had filled the hearts of the Roman legionaries with fear, so that
none would meet them in battle again. That wise Emperor, Theodosius I,
knew how to manage them, even made them useful as allies, and contrived
to make the Balkan countries too uncomfortable for them. So the Goths
went elsewhere, and as Gepidi occupied parts of Transylvania, vacated by
the Huns on the death of Attila, their King.
About this time the first Slavs made their appearance. It seems that
they had settled for a while in Wallachia, whither they had wandered
from Southern Russia. Their language proclaimed them akin to the
Indo-German race, but there is reason to suppose that they had a strong
admixture of the Mongolian in them; they proved to be brachy-instead of
dolichocephalic. As the Huns had shown to the Eastern races the gateway
into Europe, other Mongolians streamed in after them, so we find the
Avari settling in Transylvania, and the Bulgars following them. Of these
latter more anon.
About four centuries after the first appearance of the Bulgarians, some
distant relatives of theirs forced their way into Europe, the
Hungarians. It appears that they confined themselves to the left bank of
the Danube, moving westward till they finally settled in Hungary; other
Ugric races followed them, the Petshenegs, and the Cumanians, but these
too kept to the northern bank of the great river. Their descendants may
still be found in parts of Hungary. An entirely different people made
its appearance shortly before the arrival of the Petshenegs, the Vlachs,
a race of nomads of whom no one knows whence they came; they wander
about the Balkan peninsula still, for during all these centuries no one
has managed to induce them all to settle down permanently.
From the tenth century till the fourteenth the Balkan peoples, varied as
they were, and are still, settled down to a more or less ordered
existence, developing into nations, waging war against others, and
behaving in much the same manner as they do to-day. I have treated them
separately elsewhere. A great change came with the fourteenth century,
when yet another race came out of Asia, a people related to the Magyars
and the Bulgars, but already mixed with various other elements,
occupying a different intellectual plane, and moved by aspirations at
variance with the ambitions of the people they visited, the Turks.
I have told how the Turks overran Eastern Europe in another part of this
book, how they brought down the Empire of Byzant, crushed the smaller
nations, and kept them in submission until they grew, like the seed, out
of obscurity into light, insisted on their separate nationalities, and
finally went to war with their oppressors, moving like the spirit of
revenge, striking swiftly and surely till their guns thundered
insistently on the outer defences of Constantinople, at the lines of
Chatalja.
Another people which plays an important part in that complex body, the
Ottoman Empire, is the Armenian race. Their history is somewhat obscure,
as they have never shown any talent for self-government, and,
consequently, hold few records which throw any light on their past.
They are most respectably connected, claiming descent from Japheth. Mt.
Ararat, where the ark eventually landed, is in the northern part of the
territory which they consider their country, and Armenians are still to
be found among the valleys at the foot of that historic eminence. The
Armenian name for their great ancestor is Haik; they call themselves
after him, and their land Haiasdan.
In ancient days they lived within fluctuating frontiers, under several
dynasties, probably a primitive race of shepherds, until Alexander the
Great passed through their country in 328 B.C. and brought them into
contact with the great world. After Alexander's fleeting visit they
broke up into several small states, and were hardly conscious of
political life; they certainly formed no political entity. Thus they
were easily absorbed into the Roman Empire, under Lucullus and Pompey,
what time those great men passed through Armenia on their campaigns
against the Tigranes. They were only nominally under Roman domination,
actually they were a prey to any despot who arose out of the prevailing
anarchy to call himself King and establish some semblance of order. One
of those monarchs marked the temporary union of those sons of Japheth by
a massacre of Romans.
The gradual rise of Persian power affected Haiasdan, which was absorbed
by Persian Shahs of the Sassanid dynasty, one of whom defeated the
Emperor Valerian. But Diocletian broke Persian rule in Armenia, and set
up Tiridales as King over its people. This King looked with disfavour
upon Christianity, which had recently come to the people of Armenia, and
imprisoned its apostle, St. Gregory the Illuminator, in a dry well for
the space of fourteen years, during which protracted period the light
dawned upon Tiridales, and he too became converted.
The Persians became sufficiently powerful to take Armenia away from the
Eastern Empire in the reign of Theodosius II, and appointed native
governors over their new province, Persarmenia. When Islam spread over
Asia Minor, Armenia was torn in pieces during the wars between that
force and the Emperor of Byzant, then became united under the dynasty of
one Ruben, and by alliances with the encroaching Mongols, with the
Crusaders, and Imperial Byzant, contrived to maintain some semblance of
independence. But fate overtook this unhappy people when Ghevout was
King over them, and had to abandon the struggle against the might of
Islam, ending his days as exile in Paris towards the end of the
fourteenth century. Ever since then clouds of troubles have hung heavily
over the Armenians, bursting in furious storms of Moslem fanaticism,
drenching the land with the blood of Christians, for those children of
Japheth never could unite for purposes of self-preservation, and have
therefore been made to suffer whenever the Ottoman arms or policy met
with ill-success in other parts of the Turkish Empire.
Like the sons of Shem these descendants of Japheth are most tenacious of
their faith, their speech, written in Cyrillic script, and their ancient
customs, but they have shown little taste for _les belles lettres_, and
have added little to the world's store of literature. Again, like the
Jews, they have a great gift for commerce and affairs of state; several
Armenians rose to high estate in the Byzantine Empire, witness Leo V,
one of the great Emperors of the East.
The Armenians were never in complete sympathy with the Greek Orthodox
Church, and separated from it early in the history of the Greek Empire;
their country was so far removed from the influence of Constantinople,
and linguistic difficulties widened the breach caused by the failure of
the delegates from the Armenian communities in attending the Councils
of the Eastern Church. In many matters of ritual and observance the
divergence became more marked, and as the Armenians laid more stress on
retaining these than on combined action against their Moslem rulers and
the enemies of the Christian faith, subsequent efforts at reconciliation
have proved abortive.
The Armenians, through their lack of political solidarity, have always
been exposed to aggression from the fierce tribes beyond their elastic
frontiers, and of these the Kurds were the most formidable. The Kurds
are a race of Iranian extraction, speaking a Persian dialect, and,
whether settled on the lands of other races, or wandering at large in
them as nomads, have ever proved troublesome as neighbours. The
Armenians thought to protect themselves by entering into an
understanding with these people, and by putting themselves under the
protection of the Kurds, chiefly in the eastern provinces of the
district inhabited by the sons of Japheth. The Kurds had their own
notions of protection, which they expressed by frequent robbery and
pillage, varied by an occasional massacre. The Turkish authorities, who
had but a feeble hold over the Kurds, seldom interfered in the interests
of Christian subjects; moreover, these latter were seldom at one, as
instanced by the constant friction between the Armenians and the
Georgians whose ancient Church was influenced by Rome in the time of the
Crusaders, and has in recent years been almost entirely absorbed into
the fold of the Roman Catholic Church.
When Peter the Great ruled over Russia, and again during the reign of
Catherine II, attempts were made, chiefly through external agencies, to
arouse nationalist aspirations among the Armenians. A college was opened
in Paris, and endeavoured to consolidate Armenian interests and to make
the voice of this people heard and considered in Constantinople. But
the Turks were not alarmed at this, as they well knew the Armenian
incapacity for concerted action, and had no reason to think an
understanding between them and the Phanar a likely event. So enthusiasm
subsided, and the Armenians, in spite of the peculiar protection
afforded them by the Kurds, and the arbitrary methods of Turkish
tax-gatherers, lived at peace with the Porte and prospered greatly.
Though the last Russo-Turkish war raised no particular enthusiasm among
the Armenians, the Turks thought fit to take precautions against them,
and resorted to massacres, so that the treaty-makers of S. Stefano
insisted on the insertion of a clause safeguarding Armenian interests
against the reprisals of Kurds and Circassians. A number of Armenians
had settled in Russia, others belonged to those who lived in that part
of their former country long since annexed by Russia, and these people
took kindly to nihilism, forming secret societies to foster their
ambitions and make propaganda. Secret societies, whatever their object,
have always been a terror to the Porte, so Turkish feeling towards the
Armenians underwent a change.
The Turks, themselves afraid of massacre at the hands of the Armenians,
met any such possibility by massacring Armenians, and thus commenced
that series of atrocities which induced the Great Powers of Europe to
intervene. This made the situation worse: Musa Bey, the notorious bandit
chief, was indeed summoned to Constantinople to answer for his share in
the lurid transactions, was tried before a Turkish Court, which found
him guiltless of all blame, and eventually acquitted, even commended him
for his behaviour. Thereupon Armenian Churches were desecrated as
suspected of being secret armouries, and a small massacre, only some
fifteen killed, attended this exhibition of Turkish policy. The Armenian
Patriarch, Ashikian, lodged a protest with the Porte in 1890, and three
years later the college of Marsovan was burnt amidst scenes of horror.
Four years later a massacre on a large scale was arranged and executed;
nine hundred Armenians of the mountainous Sasun district were murdered,
because the tax-gatherers had so far been unable to penetrate into that
almost inaccessible region. The Armenians pointed out that if they were
protected from the Kurds a tax-collector's visit might be worth the
while, as matters stood the Kurds had left nothing taxable.
By this time the Armenian problem had become acute, and Abdul Hamid
could think of no other method of solving it than by exterminating the
people who had provoked it by their mere existence. So massacres became
a recognized feature of the Armenian question, even those who lived in
Constantinople were not spared, the capital and other towns, Erzeroum,
Diabekr, Bitlis, all contributing, until the number of victims to this
system of statecraft amounted to about twenty-five thousand. To these
must be added many who escaped the sword to perish from cold, hunger,
and exposure in the following winter.
At last the Armenians became exasperated, and decided on retaliation. In
the spring of the following year, 1896, Armenians attacked and
exterminated several small Turkish garrisons. They were incited to fresh
endeavours by the false hopes raised by several European Powers, and
arranged a _coup de main_ for the 26th of August. A secret society,
calling itself Dashnaktsutian, made a raid on the Ottoman Bank of
Constantinople at midday. The conspiracy must have been well known by
the Sultan's secret police, for it failed completely, and all those who
took part in this desperate venture were killed. A counter demonstration
had been arranged by the Government, for that very afternoon Lazes and
Kurds were let loose in the Armenian quarters of Pera and Galata,
Haskeui and Kum Kapu; their victims numbered some six thousand killed.
The Armenian plot was meant to impress the Western Powers, and they were
duly impressed--but nothing else happened.
There seems no likelihood of the Armenians ever realizing their
nationalist ambitions; they are scattered so widely over the Ottoman
Empire, and for that reason alone cannot forgather for concerted action,
as the Bulgarians and others who live in closer community have succeeded
in doing. History has shown that even when they did cluster together in
their more or less definite geographical limits, they lacked solidarity,
so the only hope for them is in individual effort, by which many have
risen to importance. With the gradual weakening of Ottoman rule, of late
precipitate, the chances are that the Armenians, with their great
capacity for business, their talent for affairs, and their tenacity,
will play a leading part in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, now that they
have risen above their Kurd oppressors and have out-distanced their
Moslem masters.
Another distinct nationality plays a prominent part in the political
life of the Turkish Empire--the Albanians. The learned have spent much
time in discovering their origin, have written many books about them,
and have come to no very definite results after all. Some say they are
descendants of the Illyrians, the original inhabitants of the Western
Peloponese, and try to prove their theory by philology. A most
unreliable guide to the discovery of a nation's antecedents, as proved
by the Bulgarians who, though not originally a Slav race, yet speak a
Slav language. In the case of the Albanians, philology is even more
misleading, and arrives at less definite results, for very few traces
are left of that forgotten tongue, Illyrian, in the language spoken by
the Albanians, a mixture of Slav, Roumanian, Turkish, and modern Greek,
according to G. Meyer, who speaks with authority.
Another hypothesis is that the Albanians are derived from the ancient
Thracians, who were dispossessed of their country by successive waves of
immigrants, and took to the mountains. This theory must also be taken
with reserve, as so many different races--Greeks and Latins, Slavs and
Goths--have passed this way and left their impress. The Albanians
themselves will tell you that they are Skipetari, eaglets, the sons of
the eagle, and as they evidently wish to be considered offspring of that
bird of prey, and lay claim to some of its alleged virtues, it is best
to humour them, though the Turks may call them Arnouts, and the Slavs
describe them as Arbanasi. Popular opinion confines this people to the
mountains of Albania, where they lead a life of untrammelled feudalism;
the latter suggestion is more or less correct, the former not so. There
are probably about three hundred thousand Albanians in the Balkan
countries, and of these about one hundred thousand inhabit the
Peloponese peninsula. They are to be found in greatest numbers among the
mountains of the district named after them, but many live in Greece, in
fact, the population of the eastern and central parts of that kingdom is
largely Albanian.
The Albanians certainly possess one virtue ascribed to the eagle--they
are brave, and have shown their prowess on many occasions, notably
during the wars of Greek independence. Those who know them describe them
as pleasant company, courteous and hospitable, but easily roused to
anger, obstinate and sensitive. This opinion is probably held by the
Turks, who have never succeeded in enforcing their peculiar methods of
government on these free sons of the mountains.
Though the Albanians are often divided among themselves, they invariably
combine against an enemy from outside, be he pasha or tax-collector, and
have thus been able to defy all attempts to bring their country under
some semblance of modern government, even of the Turkish variety.
When left to themselves they find plenty of occupation in blood feuds,
inter-clan fighting, or an occasional raid across the loosely defined
border.
The causes which have led Slavs of the same race to separate and occupy
hostile camps do not affect Albanian unity on questions concerning their
nationality. They are divided into two distinct sections, the Geks and
the Tosks, and are again divided by three divergent creeds, Islam, to
which the majority of Albanians belong, Greek Orthodoxy, which claims
about two-tenths of them, and another tenth adhering to the Church of
Rome. Yet they combine, and have done so quite recently, thanks to the
troubles attending the passing of Ottoman rule from provinces that
adjoin their country. The Albanians have combined to some purpose, have
declared themselves autonomous, were ready with a provincial government,
and now invite their neighbours to leave them to manage their own
affairs in their own way. This, by the by, they have always contrived to
do in face of all efforts to bring them into line with modern ideas.
Little is known of Albania's past history, though individual Albanians
have helped to make history for other nations; the descendant of an
Albanian soldier of the Ottoman Empire rules over Egypt. But history has
been in the making for the last month or so, and possibly, nay,
probably, Albania is about to enter the comity of nations, even as
Servia, Bulgaria, and other former provinces of the Osmanli have done.
There is no reason to suppose that Albania will fail where others have
succeeded. No doubt their habits are not such as to render government,
according to modern notions, an easy matter, but the same was possibly
said of the Highland clansmen some centuries ago, yet these make
excellent law-abiding citizens. Then the Albanians are a highly
intelligent race, and would use their gifts to other purpose than clan
feuds when once they see an opportunity of taking part in the world's
work on a different footing from that to which Turkish rule restricted
them. After all, Servia's chances seemed poor, no outlet to the sea,
cramped by neighbours none too friendly, yet that country has risen out
of chaos, out of slavery and obscurity, to hasten the fall of the
Ottoman Empire, and to open out fresh fields for its own economic
expansion.
Even the ingrained feudalism of the Albanians will vanish under the
modernizing influence of roads and railways, and their picturesqueness
fade under the glamour of successful commercial enterprise. No doubt
those days are yet some distance off when peace and prosperity will
reign over the Balkan Peninsula, but even the Albanians, individually
very capable of perceiving where advantage lies, will be brought into
the ordered state of affairs so dear to those kind neighbours, the Great
Powers.
However, as the change is not likely to be rapid, Europe will have to
make up its mind to a good deal more turmoil before Albania ceases to
cause trouble in the Balkans.
[Illustration: ANATOLI HISSAR
The Castle of Asia, built by Sultan Mohammed I. Here Mohammed II, the
Conqueror, sat and watched the growth of Roumeli Hissar, the Castle of
Europe, in 1451.]
Yet another people are to be found in the Turkish provinces of Europe,
wandering about with their herds among the divers nations who have
settled there, but not of them. These are the Vlachs, but they have many
other designations, for the Greeks are pleased to call them Kambisi
(from _kampos_), Karaguli or Karaguni (black coats), Vlachopimeni, or
Arvanitovlachi; in Albania they are called Cobani, in Macedonia
Cobani, and by the Bulgars Vlasi, a name under which they stand recorded
on mediæval Servian monuments. The papers generally speak of them as
Koutzo-Vlachs. "Koutzo" means halting, lame, though the description
seems inaccurate, for they are confirmed nomads, and cover a deal of
ground during the year. They are chiefly shepherds, and they wander
about Macedonia, Thessaly, and Thrace in search of pasture for their
black-coated sheep, from which derives the nickname Crnovunçi, given
them by the Serbs. Others, again, act as carriers in those districts
unopened as yet by railways, leading strings of ponies over the defiles
that separated Servia and Bulgaria from the Turkish provinces until
recent days. They seem to be of Roumanian origin, and speak a language
akin to that of Roumania, which claims to protect them, and of their
history little is known. They have always been wanderers, and never
showed any inclination towards a settled existence. It has been tried on
them by King Milutin of Servia in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and records of that time make mention of several Vlack villages
by the southern banks of the Danube.
When the Turks conquered Servia these nomads vanished from their
settlements, and no one knows whither they went. It is probable that
they resumed their migratory habits in Macedonia and Thessaly, not
visiting Servia again until comparatively recent times, when the
Russo-Serb war broke out in 1876. Up to this date they are said to have
sojourned in Bulgaria, whither, it is stated, they wandered from Epirus
and Thessaly, to escape from Ali Pasha's heavy hand. A few, a very few,
settled in Macedonia, about Monastir, Krushevo, and at the foot of
Olympus. The Vlachs appear to be a pleasant, harmless people, and
absolutely indifferent to the troubles which have so long agitated the
peoples of the Balkans.
Now that the Balkan provinces of Turkey, where the Vlachs have wandered
for centuries, are passing into other hands, the status of this people
is becoming a matter of interest. As the Balkan nations, Serbs, Bulgars,
and Greeks are insisting so fiercely on their respective nationalities,
Roumania has thought fit to espouse the cause of the Vlachs. No doubt
this intention is born of a sincere desire for the welfare of those whom
the Roumanians consider kinsmen, but the idea is of political value in
that it gives a reason for the modern tendency of claiming compensation,
an innovation so forcibly introduced by the arrival of the S.M.S.
"Panther" off Agadir.
It will be interesting to note to what extent the wandering Vlachs will
benefit by the protection of Roumania, and what they themselves think of
it. Was it to safeguard their interests that Roumania sent its one and
only sea-going warship to swell the international fleet in the Golden
Horn while the Turkish Empire in Europe was falling to pieces?
I have heard the absence of a Chinese man-of-war commented on during my
recent stay in Constantinople.