Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/95

Rh 

The modern Greeks are of very composite origin, yet are Inhabi- an extremely compact and homogeneous people. Oat of tants - the million and a half which constitute the present popula tion of the country, only 67,941 speak any other language than Greek, and only 16,084 profess any other religion than the Orthodox ; and all draw well together, glorying with one another in the same memories of a common deliverance, and sharing in the same ambition of a great future. There are in the narrow bounds of Greece three distinct races, speaking different languages, wearing different costumes, observing different customs, and holding little social inter course with one another. These races are the Greek, the Albanian, and the Wallachian. All three are probably much mixed in blood, and, in fact, the descent of each of them has been a very vexed problem in ethnology. But, on the whole, the suggestion of Freeman seems the most likely account of the matter, that, taking them all in all, these three races are the direct representatives of the three races which occupied Greek territory at the time of its conquest by the Romans. Since that time their blood has certainly been mingled with other elements, but still sub stantially the base of the modern Greek is the ancient Greek, the base of the modern Albanian is the ancient Illyrian, and the base of the modern Wallachian is the ancient Thracian.

Of these races the least numerous in Greece is the Wallachian or Roumanian. They are found chiefly in the mountainous regions in the northern parts of Greece, on the slopes of Othrys, in the neighbourhood of Zeitoum, on the hills of Acarnania and JEtolia, and even so far south as the banks of the Boeotian Cephissus. They pursue a nomadic shepherd life, wear black shaggy capotes made to imitate sheep-skin, and speak Roumanian, a modified Latin, the language of their race, and also Greek, the language of the country. They belong to the Greek Church, and sometimes marry Greek girls, but almost never give their own daughters in marriage to Greeks. In 1851 Finlay says there were 50,000 Wallachians in the modern kingdom of Greece; but they are rapidly becoming completely Hellenized, and in 1870 there were only 1217 Wallachians in Greece who did not speak Greek. Most of the brigands that used to infest Greece were Wallachians.

The Albanians, Skipetars (i.e.,Highlander,s),or Arnaouts, occupy at present more than a fourth of modern Greece, all Attica and Megaris (except the capitals), most part of Bosotia and part of Locris, the southern half of Euboea, part of ^Egina and Andros, the whole of the islands of Salamis, Poros, Hydra, and Spezzia, and considerable districts in Argolis, Sicyonia, Arcadia, Laconia, Messenia, and Elis. They speak a language of their own, which certainly belongs to the Aryan family, but philologists are at a loss whether to count it an independent member of the family, or merely a corruption of one of the better known branches. In districts where they exist in small bodies they are losing their own tongue and adopting Greek ; but in places like Attica and Hydra, where they exist in larger numbers, they still keep it up, and if the men understand Greek the women do not. In 1851 Finlay states there were 200,000 Albanians in Greece, and in 1870 there were only 37,598 left who did not speak Greek. The Albanians who dwell in Greece all belong to the Greek Church. They are mostly agriculturists, and seem to care little for political or professional life. They wear a peculiar dress, which was adopted by them mostly from the Slavs, and was regarded as the national costume of Greece after the Revolution, a red fez, a silk jacket embroidered with gold, a white fustanella or petticoat, and gaiters.

The rest of the population, comprising the great bulk of it, are Greeks, a people speaking the Greek language, practising the Greek rite, and claiming descent from the 