Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/329

Rh Almonds, oranges, and citrons are also largely cultivated, and the oranges of San Vito, near Muravera, and of Milis, a few miles to the north of Oristano, are noted for their excellence ; tho white wines of the banks of the Oristano are of good repute ; and among other products of the island are mulberries, tobacco, madder, and hemp. Forests of oak, cork-oak, firs, and pines, though greatly reduced in extent, still cover, it is said, about one-fifth of the surface. The rearing of live-stock receives more attention than agriculture proper. No artificial pasture-grasses are grown, but the natural pastures beside the numerous rivers yield abundance of food, except during the dry season, when the horses, asses, cattle, sheep, and goats have to content themselves with straw, some dried beans, and a little barley. Most attention is bestowed on horses. At one time the Sardinian Government endeavoured to keep a stud on the island for rearing horses for the Pied- montese cavalry, but the persons employed (natives of the main- land) were unable to withstand the malaria. There are some large private establishments for the rearing of horses, however, and the tending of live-stock generally forms so important a part of the occupations of the people that animals rank next after minerals among the exports of the island. Of the wild animals, the wild sheep known as the musimon, or European mufllon, formerly an inhabitant of all the mountains of the Mediterranean peninsulas and islands, and now confined to Sardinia and Corsica, is the most interesting. Among the noxious animals are scorpions and tarantulas. The lagoons near the coast on the south and west abound in mullets, eels, mussels, and crabs, which are caught in great numbers by the natives, Avhile the fisheries round Sardinia, as round Corsica, are in the hands of Italians from the mainland. The anchovy, sardine, and coral fisheries are all lucrative. The coral is said to be of excellent quality, and is exported to the markets of Genoa and Marseilles. The external commerce of the island has nearly trebled itself in the twenty-five years 1856-81, the imports and exports each amount- ing in the latter year to about 1,500,000 (about 2, 4s. per head of population). This increase is chiefly owing to the development of the mining industry, ores making up nearly one-third of the total value of the exports. Live animals make up about a fourth of the total value, and cereals, which come next in order, about one- seventh. The chief imports are cotton and other manufactures and colonial products. The inland trade has been greatly promoted within the last fifty years by the construction of roads and railways. Before 1828 there were no roads at all in the island ; the tracks which existed could be traversed only on foot or on horseback. But upwards of 1500 miles of national and provincial roads, all well made and well kept, have since then been con- structed. Of railways, introduced since 1870, there are now 265 miles in all (equal to about 1 mile of railway for every 34 square miles of surface). For administrative purposes Sardinia, like the rest of Italy, is divided into provinces and circles (circondarii). The following table gives the names of these divisions with the population accord- ing to the last census (end of 1881) : Circles. Communes. Population. Circles. Communes. Population. Cagliari Iglesias Lanusei Oristano Prov. Cagliari 79 24 48 106 10.3,336 77,373 64,816 125,110 Saisari AlgMero 24 20 33 21 9 88,312 43,624 59,794 41,193 28,444 Orieri Tempio Prov. Snssari 257 420,035 107 261,367 The whole population of the department is thus 682,002, equal to about 74 to the square mile, Sardinia being the least populous of all the great divisions of the kingdom, in which the average density is 255 to the square mile. The population is, however, increasing at a rather more rapid rate than on the mainland. Between 1871 and 1881 it increased by about 46,000, or 7 '18 per cent, while the average rate of increase throughout the kingdom was only 6 '16 per cent. The inhabitants of Sardinia are a hardy race, of about middle height, and of dark complexion. They are little accustomed to hard work, but this is one of the consequences of the backward state of their civilization and of the impediments already indicated to the development of the resources of the island. Education, as in many other parts of Italy, is very far behind, notwithstanding the law which makes elementary education compulsory ; but here, as throughout the kingdom, it is rapidly extending. In 1880-81 only 37,197 children, or less than one-eighteenth of the popula- tion, were in attendance at the elementary schools, but this number was double what it had been in 1861-62. At Cagliari there is a university, attended by from 300 to 400 students. The people are lively in their disposition, fond of music and poetry, remarkably hospitable, and strong in their family attach- ments. With this last trait, however, is connected the chief blot on their character their addiction to the practice of the vendetta, 309 which prevails here as in Corsica, and according to which an outrage on one's honour is wiped out in blood, and the cause of one member of a family is taken up by the rest, so that the death of one victim leads to the sacrifice of many others. But the practice is said to be becoming every day more rare, and never to be resorted to except in case of serious offence. The capital of the island is Cagliari, but Sassari in the north has an equally large population (about 34,000). The other chief towns are Tempio, Alghero, Iglesias, and Oristano. Cagliari, Alghero, and Castel Sardo are fortified. The antiquities of the island are numerous and of peculiar interest. The most remarkable of these are the monuments called nurhags (variously spelled also nuraghe, nuraghi, &c.), of which there are upwards of 3000 scattered over the island. They are round structures having the form of truncated cones, and are generally built of the hardest materials the island supplies (granite, basalt, trachyte, limestone, &c.). The stone is roughly hewn into large blocks, which are laid in regular horizontal courses but not cemented. The blocks in the lower courses are sometimes more than three feet in length. Entrance is obtained by a very low opening at the base to an inner chamber ; and, when there are two or, as in some cases, three stories, these are connected by means of a spiral staircase. The origin and use of these structures are both matters of speculation. The rarity of human remains in them is against the idea that they were used as tombs, while the absence of any relics pertaining to a religious ceremonial is equally adverse to the supposition that they were used as temples. Next to tho nurhags tho most interesting of the remains of antiquity are tho so-called tombs of the giants, which appear to have been actually used as places of burial, although, as the name given to them indi- cates, their dimensions are greatly in excess of those of the human body. Besides these there are tombs the structure of which leads to the belief that they must be relics of an Egyptian colony. History. According to Prof. Crespi, of the university of Cagliari, the tombs just referred to are not the only signs of an early Egyptian settlement in the island of Sardinia. Various remains are said to prove beyond doubt that Egyptians must have founded at least two colonies in very remote times one at tho ancient town of Tharrus on the small peninsula of San Marco at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Oristano, and the other at Caralis, the present Cagliari. But even before the Egyptians Prof. Crespi believes that the Phoenicians had established a colony on the small island of San Antioco, and had built there the town of Sulcis, the ruins of which are still to be seen near the town of San Antioco. Of Phoenicians and Egyptians, however, there are no trustworthy historical records, and the first settlers whose arrival is historically accredited were the Carthaginians, who succeeded in making themselves masters of the island under Hasdrubal in 512 B.C. The island remained in Carthaginian hands for upwards of two hundred and seventy years, and then passed into those of tho Romans, who took advantage of tho war in which Carthage was involved with her mercenary troops after the close of the First Punic War to seize the island (238 B.C.). Thenceforward the island remained in possession of the Romans till near the fall of the empire of the West, when Sardinia also began to suffer from the ravages of the northern hordes by which Italy was at that time overrun and the empire of the West overthrown. About the middle of the 5th century the island was occupied by the Vandals under Genseric, but in the first half of tho following century these were expelled by Belisarius. Very soon after, however, Goths succeeded the Vandals, and after these had in their turn been driven out by Narses the natives managed to expel the Romans and to achieve their independence (665). The Sardinians thereupon elected the leader in the revolt against Rome king of the island, and by him the island was divided into the i'our grand-judicatures of Cagliari, Arborea, Torres, and Gallura. The grand-justices or rulers of these four divisions continued to retain a considerable amount of power during a large part of the Middle Ages. But from the early part of the 8th century down to the middle of the llth their influence was greatly impaired by repeated inroads of the Saracens, who landed now on one coast now on another, and kept the inhabitants in a constant state of alarm. This state of matters was at last put an end to by the Genoese and Pisans, who, acting under the sanction of the pope, despatched a fleet against that of the Saracens. A battle ensued in the Bay of Cagliari ; the Saracens were completely defeated, and the allies landed on the island (1050). Very soon the Pisans adroitly managed to rid themselves of the Genoese, and to gain possession of almost the entire island, deposing the grand-justices of Cagliari, Torres, and Gallura. With the Pisans the greater part of the island remained till 1325, when the pope gave Sardinia to the king of Aragon, who combined with the grand-justice of Arborea to drive out the former rulers. But, this being accomplished, war soon broke out between the two, and numerous successes were gained by tho grand-justice Marian IV. and his daughter Eleonora acting as regent on behalf of her son Marian V., a! minor. The Aragonese seemed to be on tho point of being driven out of the island when Eleonora died of