remarkable ethnological phenomena of the Middle Ages. Even in the
ninth century the Bulgarians had adopted the Servian language, and
soon afterwards they ceased to speak their own. Their idiom is less
polished than that of the Servians, and, possessing no literature,
has not become fixed. The purest Bulgarian, it is said, may be heard
in the district of Kalofer, to the south of the Balkan. The gradual
transformation of the Bulgarians into Slavs is ascribed by some authors
to the {139} prodigious facility for imitation possessed by that
people; but it is simpler to assume that, in course of time, the
conquering Bulgarians and the conquered Servians became amalgamated,
and that, whilst the former gave a name to the new nation, the latter
contributed their language, their manners, and physical features. Thus
much is certain, that the inhabitants of Bulgaria must now be looked
upon as members of the Slavonian family of nations. Together with the
Servians, Croats, and Herzegovinians, they are the most numerous people
of European Turkey; and, if the succession to the dominion of the Turks
is to be decided by numbers alone, it belongs to the Servo-Bulgarians,
and not to the Greeks.
The Bulgarians, as a rule, are not so tall as their neighbours the
Servians; they are squat, strongly built, with a large head on broad
shoulders. Lejean, himself a Breton, and others, consider that they
bear a striking resemblance to the peasants of Brittany. In several
districts, and notably in the environs of Philippopoli, they shave
the head, a tuft of hair alone excepted, which they cultivate and
dress into a tail as carefully as the Chinese. Greeks and Wallachians
ridicule them, and many proverbial expressions refer to their want of
intelligence and polish. This ridicule, however, they hardly deserve.
Less vivacious than the Wallachian, or less supple than the Greek, the
Bulgarian is certainly not deficient in intelligence. But bondage has
borne heavily upon him; and in the south, where he is oppressed by the
Turk and fleeced by the Greek, he looks unhappy and sad; but in the
plains of the north and the secluded mountain villages, where he has
been exposed to less suffering, he is jovial, fond of pleasure, fluent
of speech, and quick at repartee. The inhabitants of the northern
slopes of the Balkan, perhaps owing to a greater infusion of Servian
blood, are better-looking, too, than other Bulgarians, and dress in
better taste. A still finer race of men are the Pomakis, in the high
valleys of the Rhodope, to the south of Philippopoli. Their speech is
Bulgarian, but in no other respect do they resemble their compatriots.
They are a fine race of men, with auburn hair, full of energy, and of a
poetical temperament. We almost feel tempted to look upon them as the
lineal descendants of the ancient Thracians, especially if it should
turn out to be true that in their songs they celebrate Orpheus, the
divine musician.
The Bulgarians, and especially those of the plains, are a peaceable
people, recalling in no respect the fierce hordes who devastated the
Byzantine empire. They are not warlike, like their neighbours the
Servians, and do not keep alive in their national poetry the memory of
former struggles. Their songs relate to the events of every-day life,
or to the sufferings of the oppressed; and the “gentle _zaptieh_,”
as the representative of authority, is one of the characters most
frequently represented in them. The average Bulgarian is a quiet,
hard-working peasant, a good husband and father; he is fond of
home comforts, and practises every domestic virtue. Nearly all the
agricultural produce exported from Turkey results from the labour of
Bulgarian husbandmen. It is they who have converted certain portions of
the plain to the south of the Danube into huge fields of {140} maize
and corn, rivalling those of Rumania. It is they, likewise, who, at
Eski-Za’ara, at the south of the Balkan, produce the best silk and
the best wheat in all Turkey, from which latter alone the bread and
cakes placed upon the Sultan’s table are prepared. Other Bulgarians
have converted the noble plain of Kezanlik, at the foot of the Balkan,
into the finest agricultural district of Turkey, the town itself being
surrounded by magnificent walnut-trees and by rosaries, which furnish
the famous attar of roses, constituting so important an article of
commerce throughout the East. Amongst the Bulgarians between Pirot and
Turnov (Tirnova), on the northern slope of the Balkan, there exist
flourishing manufactures. Each village there is noted for a particular
branch of industry. Knives are made at one, metal ornaments at another,
earthenware at a third, stuffs or carpets elsewhere; and even common
workmen exhibit much manual dexterity and purity of taste. An equally
remarkable spirit of enterprise is manifested amongst the Bulgarians
and Zinzares of the district of Bitolia, or Monastir. The town
itself, as well as Kurshova, Florina, and others in its vicinity, are
manufacturing centres.
The Bulgarians, peaceable, patient, and industrious as they are, are
beginning to grow tired of the subjection in which they are held.
They certainly do not as yet dream of a national rising, for the
isolated revolts which have taken place amongst them were confined to
a few mountaineers, or brought about by young men whom a residence
in Servia or Rumania had imbued with an enthusiasm for liberty. But
though docile subjects still, the Bulgarians begin to raise their
heads. They have learnt to look upon each other as members of the
same nation, and are organizing themselves for the defence of their
nationality. The first step in this direction was taken on a question
of religion. When the Turks conquered the country a certain number
amongst them turned Mohammedan to escape oppression; but though they
visit the mosques, they nevertheless still cling to the faith of their
forefathers, venerate the same springs, and put their trust in the same
talismans. A few joined the Roman Church, but a great majority remained
Greek Catholics. Greek monks and priests, not long since, enjoyed
the greatest influence, for during centuries of oppression they had
upheld the ancient faith. Their presence vaguely recalled the times of
independence, and their churches were the only sanctuaries open to the
persecuted peasant. But the Bulgarians, in the end, grew discontented
with a priesthood who did not even take the trouble to acquire the
language of its congregations, and openly sought to subject them to an
alien nation like the Greeks. Nothing was further from their thoughts
than a religious schism. They merely desired to withdraw from the
authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and to found a National
Church of their own, as had been done by the Servians, and even by
the Greeks of the new Hellenic kingdom. The Vatican of Constantinople
protested, the Turkish Government proved anything but favourable to
this movement of emancipation, but in the end the Greek priests were
forced to retire—precipitately in some instances—and the new National
Church was established. {141}
This pacific revolution, though directed against the Greeks, cannot
fail to influence the relations between Bulgarians and Turks. The
former have combined, for the first time since many centuries, for the
accomplishment of a common national object, and this reawakening of a
feeling of nationality cannot but prove detrimental to the rule of the
Osmanli. The latter are not very numerous in the country districts of
Western Bulgaria, where they are met with chiefly in the towns, and
particularly in those which are of strategical importance. Eastern
Bulgaria, however, is for the most part peopled by Turks, or at all
events by Bulgarians who have adopted the language, dress, manners, and
modes of thought of their conquerors. No Christian monastery exists in
this stronghold of Turkish power, though there are several Mohammedan
places of pilgrimage held in high repute for their sanctity.
The Greeks, next to the Turks, are the most important element of the
population of Bulgaria. They are not very numerous to the north of
the Balkan, where their influence hardly exceeds that of the Germans
and Armenians established in the towns. To the south of the Balkan,
though not numerous relatively, they are much more widely distributed.
One or two Greeks are met with in every village, carrying on trade
or exercising some handicraft. They make themselves indispensable
to the locality, their advice is sought for by all, and they impart
their own spirit to the whole of the population. Where two or three
of these Greeks meet they at once constitute themselves into a sort
of community, and throughout the country they form a kind of masonic
brotherhood. Their influence is thus far greater than could be expected
from their numbers. There are a few important Greek colonies amongst
the Bulgarians, as at Philippopoli and Bazarjik, and in a valley of the
Rhodope they occupy the populous town of Stanimako, to the exclusion of
Turks and Bulgarians. The ruins of ancient buildings, as well as the
dialect of the inhabitants, which contains over two hundred Greek words
not known to modern Greek, prove that Stanimako has existed as a Greek
town for upwards of twenty centuries, and M. Dumont thinks that it is
one of the old colonies of Eubœa.
The initiatory part played by the Greeks in Southern Bulgaria is
played in the north by the Rumanians. The right bank of the Danube,
from Chernavoda to the Black Sea, is for the most part inhabited by
Wallachians, who are gradually gaining upon the Turks. Other colonists
are attracted by the fertility of the plains at the northern foot
of the Balkan. The Bulgarians are careful cultivators of the soil
themselves, but the Rumanians nevertheless gain a footing amongst them,
as they do with the Servians, the Magyars, and the Germans. They are
more active and intelligent than the Bulgarians, their families are
more numerous, and in the course of a generation they generally succeed
in “Rumanising” a village in which they have settled.
Bulgarians and Turks, Greeks and Wallachians, isolated colonies of
Servians and Albanians, communities of Armenians and of Spanish Jews,
colonies of Zinzares and wandering tribes of Mohammedan Tsigani,
have converted the {142} countries of the Balkan into a veritable
ethnological chaos; but the confusion is greater still in the small
district of Dobruja, between the Lower Danube and the Black Sea. In
addition to the races enumerated, we there meet with Nogai Tartars,
who are of purer blood than their kinsmen the Osmanli, and exhibit the
Asiatic type in greater purity. Although they cultivate the soil, they
have not altogether abandoned their nomad habits, for they wander with
their herds over hill and dale. They are governed by an hereditary
khan, as at the time when they dwelt in tents.
After the Crimean war several thousand Nogai Tartars, compromised by
the aid which they had rendered the Allies, joined their compatriots
in the Dobruja. On the other hand, about 10,000 Bulgarians, terrified
at the approach of these much-maligned immigrants, fled the Dobruja,
and sought an asylum in Russia, where they were assigned the lands
abandoned by the Crimean Tartars. This exchange proved disastrous to
both nations, for sickness and grief carried off many victims. More
deplorable still was the lot of the Circassians and other Caucasian
tribes, who, to the number of 400,000, sought a refuge in Turkey in
1864. It was by no means easy to provide accommodation for so large a
host. The pasha intrusted with the installation of these immigrants
sent many of them to Western Bulgaria, in the vain hope that they
would cut off all contact between Servians and Bulgarians. The rayas
were compelled to surrender to them their best lands, to build
houses for them, and to supply them with cattle and seed-corn. This
hospitable reception, compulsory though it was, would have enabled
these immigrants to start in their adopted country with a fair chance
of success, had they but deigned to work. This, however, they declined.
Hunger, sickness, and a climate very different from that of their
mountains, caused them to perish in thousands, and in less than a
year about one-third of these refugees had perished. Young girls and
children were sold to procure bread, and this infamous traffic became
a source of wealth to certain pashas. The harems became filled with
young Circassians, who were a drug in the market at that time, and the
human merchandise not saleable at Constantinople was exported to Syria
and Egypt. These Circassians, after thus suffering from sickness and
their own improvident laziness, have now accommodated themselves to
the conditions of their new homes. Though of the same religion as the
Osmanli, they readily assimilate with the Bulgarians amongst whom they
dwell, and adopt their language.
Other refugees, more kindly treated by fate, have found an asylum in
the Dobruja. They are Russian Cossacks, Ruthenians, and Muscovites
of the “Old Faith,” who left their steppes towards the close of last
century in order to escape persecution. The Padisha, more tolerant than
the Christian Empress of Russia, generously received them, and granted
them land in various parts of his dominions. The Russian colonies in
the Dobruja and in the delta of the Danube have prospered, and one of
their settlements on the St. George’s branch of the river is known
as the “Cossacks’ Paradise.” Most of these Russians are engaged in
the sturgeon fishery and the preparation of caviare. They have {143}
proved grateful for the hospitality extended to them, and have always
fought valiantly in defence of their adopted country. They retain their
national dress, their language, and their religion, and do not mix with
the surrounding populations.
In addition to the above, we meet in the Dobruja with colonies of
Germans, Arabs, and Poles, and, in the new port of the Sulina, with
representatives of many nations of Europe and Asia.
* * * * *
There are few countries where the great international high-roads are
as plainly traced by nature as in Bulgaria. The first of these roads
is formed by the Danube. The Turkish towns along its banks—Viddin,
Shishtova, Rustchuk, and Silistria—are taking an increasing share
in European commerce. This highway is continued along the shores of
the Black Sea, where there are several commercial harbours, the most
important being Burgas, a great grain port. This natural highway,
however, has become too circuitous for purposes of commerce. A railway
has therefore been built across the isthmus of the Dobruja, from
Chernavoda to Kustenje, and a second line connects Rustchuk, on the
Danube, with Varna, on the Black Sea, the latter line crossing the
whole of Eastern Bulgaria, and touching the towns of Razgrad and
Shumna. A third line, now in course of construction, will cross the
Balkans by a depression to the south of Shumna, and traversing the
plain in which the towns of Yamboly and Adrianople are built, will
connect the Lower Danube with the Ægean Sea. A third route, still
farther to the west, passes Turnov, or Tirnova—the ancient capital of
the tsars of Bulgaria—Kezanlik, and Eski-Za’ara.
These railways, already opened for traffic or approaching
completion, certainly shorten the journey between Western Europe
and Constantinople; but it is proposed now to avoid the circuitous
navigation of the Lower Danube altogether, by joining the railway
system of Europe to that of Turkey. One of these proposed railways will
pass through Bosnia, and down the valley of the Vardar to Saloniki;
another will follow the ancient Roman road, which connected Pannonia
with Byzantium, and which was paved in the sixteenth century as far as
Belgrad. The principal cities along this great highway are Nish, on a
tributary of the Morava, close to the frontier of Servia; Sofia, the
ancient Sardica, on the Isker, a tributary of the Danube; Bazarjik,
or “the market;” and the fine town of Philippopoli, with its triple
mountain commanding the passage of the Maritza. These towns, on the
completion of the railway, cannot fail to become of great commercial
importance. A hideous monument near Nish will, perhaps, be pointed out
to tourists attracted thither on the opening of the railway. It was
erected to remind future generations of a deed of “glory.” This trophy
of Kele-kalesi consists of a tower built of the skulls of Servians,
who, rather than fall alive into the hands of their enemies, blew
themselves up together with the redoubt which they defended. A governor
of Nish, more humane than his predecessors, desired to remove this
abominable piece of masonry, which no raya passes without a shudder,
but Mussulman fanaticism forbade it. {144}
The influence of commerce cannot fail to modify largely the manners
and customs of a nation as supple and pliable as are the Bulgarians.
War has brutalised the Albanians, and slavery degraded the Bulgarians.
In the towns, more particularly, they have sunk very low. The insults
heaped upon them by Mussulmans, and the contemptuous manner in which
they were treated, rendered them abject and despicable in their own
eyes. Demoralised by servitude and misery, given up to the mercy of
their rich compatriots, the _chorbajis_, or “givers of soup,” they
became shameless and low-minded helots. The Bulgarian women, in the
towns more particularly, presented a spectacle of the most shameful
corruption, and their want of modesty, their coarseness, and ignorance
fully justified the contempt in which they were held by their
Mohammedan sisters. Even as regards education the Turks were in advance
of them: not long ago their schools relatively were more numerous,
and the instruction given in them was of a superior order. Christian
villages, moreover, were never so clean or pleasant as those of the
Turks.
But, whatever may have been the case in the past, things have already
begun to mend. The Turks, as a body, may still be the superiors of
the Bulgarians, as regards probity and a respect for truth, but they
work less, and become impoverished by degrees. In the country the land
gradually passes into the hands of the rayas, in the towns the latter
monopolize nearly all the trade. The Bulgarians, moreover, have learnt
to appreciate the importance of education; they have founded schools
and colleges, have set up printing presses, and send their young men to
be educated at the universities of Europe. The young Bulgarians in the
mixed colleges of Constantinople invariably make the most satisfactory
progress in their studies. This revival of learning is a most hopeful
sign of vitality. If persevered in, the Bulgarian race, which has been
dead, as it were, for so many centuries, may again play its part in the
world’s history. The atrocities of which Bulgaria has recently been
the scene may retard this regeneration, but they certainly cannot stop
it.[40] {145}
VII.—PRESENT POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF TURKEY.
The prophecies respecting the “sick man” have not yet been fulfilled,
and his heritage divided amongst the surrounding powers. To a great
extent he is indebted for this continued existence to the jealousies
of the European powers, and to the fact of Russia having her hands
full in Central Asia. Still, Turkey has recently exhibited a wonderful
amount of vitality. Fresh provinces have been incorporated with the
empire in Arabia, at a distance of 1,800 miles from the capital; and a
rebellion in the north-western portion of European Turkey, originating
in the misgovernment of the country, but aided and abetted by Russia,
has been suppressed with a strong hand. The Turkish empire remains not
only intact, but will actually be found to have considerably increased
in extent, if we include within it the territories of the Khedive of
Egypt, whose arms have been carried to the Upper Nile and into Dar Fur.
We must guard ourselves, at the same time, against the assumption that
Turkey has entered upon a path of normal progress. On the contrary,
Turkey is a mediæval country still, and will have to pass through many
intestine revolutions before it can rank with the civilised states of
Europe or America. The country is in the occupation of hostile races,
who would fall upon each other were they not restrained by force.
The Servian would take up arms against the Albanian, the Bulgarian
against the Greek, and all the subject races would combine against
the Turk. National jealousies are augmented by religious animosities.
The Catholic Bosnians hate other Slavs, and the Tosks detest the
Gheges, although they speak the same language. The Osmanli oppress
these various populations without compunction, their art of government
consisting in playing them off against each other.
Nor can better things be expected in an empire in which caprice
reigns supreme. The Padishah is lord of the souls and bodies of his
subjects; he is commander-in-chief of the army, supreme judge, and
sovereign pontiff. In former times his power was practically limited
by semi-independent feudatories, but since the fall of Ali Pasha and
the massacre of the janissaries he is restrained only by customs,
traditions, and the demands of the Governments of Europe. He is the
most despotic sovereign of Europe, and his civil list the heaviest in
proportion to the revenues of the country. The household of the late
Sultan and of the members of his family was exceedingly numerous. There
lived in the Seraglio an army of 6,000 servants and slaves of both
sexes, of whom 600 were cooks. These servants, in turn, were surrounded
by an army of hangers-on, who were fed from the imperial kitchens, to
which no less than 1,200 sheep were supplied daily by the contractors.
Current expenses were sufficiently heavy, but more considerable
still was the extraordinary expenditure incurred in the construction
of palaces and kiosks, the purchase of articles _de luxe_ and of
curiosities, and for all kinds of prodigalities. The present Sultan,
driven thereto by the precarious position of his empire, has limited
his expenditure. But will this last? {146}
Ministers, valis, and other high officials of the empire faithfully
follow in the footsteps of their sovereign, and their expenditure
always exceeds their salary, though the latter is fixed on a most
liberal scale. As to the lower officials, their salaries are small and
irregularly paid; but it is understood that they may recoup themselves
at the expense of the ratepayers. Everything can be purchased in
Turkey, and, above all, justice. The state of the finances is most
lamentable; loans are raised at usurious interest; and so badly is the
country governed that it has been seriously proposed to intrust the
management of its finances to a syndicate of the European powers ! [41]
Agriculture and industry progress but slowly under such misgovernment.
Vast tracts of the most fertile land are allowed to lie fallow; they
appear to be no one’s property, and any one may settle upon and
cultivate them. But woe to him if he conducts his operations with
profit to himself; for no sooner is he observed to become wealthy
than his land is laid claim to on behalf of the clergy or of some
pasha, and he may consider himself lucky if he escapes a bastinado.
The peasants, in many districts, are careful not to produce more than
they absolutely require to live upon, for an abundant harvest would
impoverish them—would merely lead to a permanent increase of taxation.
The tradesmen in the smaller towns are equally careful to conceal their
wealth, if they possess any.
Many Mussulman families have ceded to the mosques their proprietary
rights. They thus enjoy merely the usufruct of their lands, but are
freed, on the other hand, from the payment of taxes, and the land
remains in the possession of their families until they become extinct.
These lands are known as _vakufs_, and they form about one-third of
the area of the whole empire. They contribute actually nothing towards
the revenues of the State. In the end they aggrandise the vast estates
of the Mohammedan clergy. Taxation weighs almost exclusively upon the
lands cultivated by the unfortunate Christians; and in proportion as
the vakufs increase, so does the produce of taxation diminish. This
must in the end necessarily lead to a secularisation of the estates of
the clergy; and even now, to the great horror of the old Turks, the
Ottoman Government is timidly extending its hands towards the estates
belonging to the mosques of Constantinople.
[Illustration: MUSSULMAN OF ADRIANOPLE, AND MUSSULMAN LADY OF PRISREND.]