Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/71

 SLAVS

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SLAVS

estates and residents of cities. According to the cen- sus of 1900 the Poles in Russia numbered about 8,400,000; in Austria, 4,259,150; in Germany, in- cluding the Kasubes and Mazurians, 3,450,200; in the rest of Europe about 55,000; and in America about 1,500,000; consequently altogether, 17,664,350. Czer- kawski reckoned the total number of Poles to be 21,111,374; Straszewicz held that they numbered from IS to 19,000,000. As regards religion the Poles of Russia are almost entirely Catholic; in Austria 83.4 per cent are Catholics, 14.7 per cent are Jews, and 1.8 per cent are Protestants; in Germany they are also almost entirely Cathohcs, only the Mazurians in E;ist Prussia and a smaU portion of the Kasubes are Protestant.

Ethnographically the PoUsh nation is divided into three groujjs: the Great Poles live in Posen, Silesia, and Prussia; th<> Little Poles on the upper Vistula as far as the San River and in the region of the Tatra mountains; the Masovians east of the Vistula and along the Narva and the Bug. The Kasubes could be called a fourth group. All these groups can be subdivided again into a large number of branches, but the distinctions are not so striking as in Russia and historical tratUtion keeps all these peoples firmly united. The Kasubes live on the left bank of the Vistula from Dantzic to the boundary of Pomerania and to the sea. According to government statistics in 1900 there were in Germany 100,213 Kasubes The very exact statistics of the scholar Ramult gives 174,831 Kasubes for the territory where they live in large bodies, and 200,000 for a total including those scattered through Germany, to which should be added a further 130,000 in America. According to the latest investigation the Kasubes are what remains of the Slavs of Pomerania who are, otherwise, long extinct.

C. Lusatian Sorbs. — The Lusatian Sorbs are the residue of the Slavs of the Elbe who once spread across the Oder and Elbe, inhabiting the whole of the present Northern Germany. During centuries of combat with the Germans their numbers gradually decreased. They are divided into three main groups: the Obotrites who inhabited the present Mecklenburg, Liineburg, and Holstein whence they extended into the Old Mark; the Lutici or Velta-, who liveil between the Oder and Elbe, the Baltic and the Varna; the Sorbs, who lived on the middle course of the Elbe between the Rivers Havel and Bober. The Lutici died out on the Island of Rugcn at the begin- ning of the fifteenth centur>'. In the mi<ldlo of the sixteenth centurj- there were still l.irgc numbers of Slavs in Liinebui'g anil in the northern ])art of the Old Mark, while their numbers were less in Mecklenburg and in Brandenbm'g. However, even in Liineburg the last Slavs disapijeared between 1750-60. Only the Lusatian Sorbs who li\ed nearer the borders of Bohemia have been able to maintain themselves in de- clining numbers until the present time. The reason probably is that for some time their territory belonged to Bohemia. At present the Lusatian Sorbs number about 150,000 persons on the upper course of the Spree. They are divided into two groups, which differ so decidedly from each other in speech and cus- toms that some regard them as two peoples; they also have two separate literatures. They are rapidly be- coming Gennanized, especially in Lower Lusatia. The Lusatian Sorbs are Catholics with exception of 15.000 in Upper Lusalia.

D. linheminnfi niiil Slnvaks. — The Bohemians and Slovaks also belong to the north-western branch of the Slavonic j)eoples. They entered the region now con- stituting Boliemia from the north and then spread farther into what is now Moravia and Northern Ilun- garv', and into tlw jiresent 1/OWcr .\ustria as far as the Danube. The settlciiicnis of llic Slovaks in Hungary must have extended far towards the south, perhapa

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as far as Lake Platten, where they came into contact with the Slovenes who belonged to the southern Sla- vonic group. Probably, however, they did not for- rnerly e.xtend as far towards the east as now, and the Slovaks in the eastern portion of Slovakia are really Ruthenians who were Slovakanized in the late Middle Ages. Directly after their settlement in these coun- tries the Bohemians fell apart into a great number of tribes. One tribe, which settled in the central part of the ijresent Bohemia, bore the name of Czechs. It gradually brought all the other tribes under its con- trol and gave them its name, so that since then the en- tire people have been called Czechs. Along with this name, however, the name Bohemians has also been re- tained; it conies from the old Celtic people, the Boii, who once lived in these regions. Soon, however, Ger- man colonies sprang up among the Bohemians or Czechs. The colonists settled along the Danube on the southern border of Bohemia and also farther on in the Pannonian plain. However, these settlements dis- appeared during the storm of the Magj'ar incursion. The Bohemians did not suffer from it as they did from the later immigrations of German colonists who were brought into the country by the Bohemian rulers of the native PremsyUdian dynasty. These colonists lived through the mountains which encircle Bohemia and large numbers of them settled also in the interior of the country. From the t liirteenth century the lan- guages of Bohemia and Moravia became distinct tongues.

The Bohemians have emigrated to various countries outside of Bohemia-Moravia. In America there are about 800,000 Bohemians; there are large Bohemian colonies in Russia in the province of Volhynia, also in the Crimea, in Poland, iind in what is called New Russia, altogether numbering 50,385. In Bulgaria there are Bohemian colonies in Wojewodovo and near Plevna; there is also a Bohemian colony in New Zea- land. Nearly 400, 000 Bohemians live at Vienna, and there are large numbers of Bohemians in the cities of Linz, Pesth, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Triest; there are smaller, well-organized Bohemian colonies in nearly all Austrian cities, besides large Bohemian col- onies in Hungary and Slavonia. In the last-men- tioned country there are 31,581 Bohemians. These settlements are modern. The Slovaks occupy the south-eastern part of Moravia and the north-eastern part of Hungary from the Carpathians almost to the Danube. But there are scattered settlements of Slo- vaks far into the Hungarian plain and even in South- ern Hungary, besides colonies of Slovaks in Slavonia. On account of the barrenness of the soil of their native land many Slovaks emigrate to America. According to the Austrian census of 1900 there were 5,955,297 Bohemians in Austria. The number may be de- cidedly higher. In Germany there were 115,000 Bohemians; in Hungary 2,019,641 Slovaks and 50,000 Bohemians; in America there are at least 800,000 Bo- hemians; in Russia 55,000; in the rest of Europe 20,000. Consequently taking all Bohemians and Slovaks together there are probably over 9,000,000. If, as is justifiable, the figines for America, Vienna, Moravia, Silesia, and Hungary are considered entirely too low, a maximum of about 10,000,000 may be ac- cepted. As to religion 96.5 per cent of the Bohe- mians are Catholics, and 2.4 per cent are Protestants; 70.2 per cent of the Slovaks are Catholics, 5.3 per cent are Uniat Greeks, and 23 per cent are Protestants.

E. Slovenes. — The Slovenes belong, together with the Croats, Serbs, and B\ilgarians, to the southern group of Slavs. The Slovenes have the position farthest to the west in the .\lps and on the Adriatic. They first ai)peared in this region after the departure of the I^>nibar(ls for Italy and the first, date in their historj' is .595, when they fought an unsuccessful battle with the Bavarian Duke Tassilo on the field of Toblach. They occupied at first a much larger