Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/179

Rh are enrolled in the Turkish army as irregular troops, or bashi-bazouks. The cradle of their race lies along the shores of the Adriatic from Montenegro on the north to Greece on the south. The country corresponds to ancient Epirus and in physical character resembles the highlands of Scotland. They are descended from the old Illyrians, who were never recognized as Hellenes by the ancient Greeks, but were probably allied to the Greeks racially.

The Roman occupation left many traces, especially in the valleys and more accessible parts of the country, and the great number of Latin derivatives in the Albanian language makes it semi-Romance in character as spoken to-day. The Albanians have blended to some extent also with Slavic elements in the north and Greeks in the south. Their religion is a form of Mohammedanism, but they take their religion less seriously than the moslem Turk and probably embraced it more for political reasons than for feelings of religious conviction. They made a magnificent fight against the conquering Turks in the fifteenth century. For twenty years under their heroic leader, George Castriot, they repelled army after army sent against them. After the death of Castriot, or Scanderbeg, as the Turks called him, the Albanians lost heart and with the fall of Scutari in 1478 they passed under Turkish dominion. They were governed by pashas appointed by the Porte, and under one of these, Ali Pasha, in the early part of the last century they became practically independent. They at first sympathized with Greece in the Grecian war for independence, but the Greeks refused their offers of friendship, and in a certain town besieged and captured by Greeks, there were massacred along with the Turkish garrison a body of 3,000 Albanians who had signified their willingness to desert the Turks and deliver the town to the Greek besiegers. Their treatment at the hands of the Greeks forced the Albanians into the arms of the Turk, and they have since fought valiantly to maintain the supremacy of the Porte. Their native dress is not unlike that of the Scotch highlander, and their skill and bravery in war, their constant interclan strife and their fierce untamable character make the analogy almost complete between the Scotch highlander and this other highlander of the Albanian mountains. The Albanian is a born plunderer. War is his business, and pillage his pastime; and he is held in great dread by the Slav, Rouman and Greek inhabitants of Macedonia.

The Macedonian question is kept alive by several distinct forces. The warring racial elements—Slav, Greek, Rouman and Albanian—and common hatred of the christian inhabitants for the Turk cause constant turmoil and riot. The desire of Servia, Bulgaria and Greece to annex Macedonia no doubt also contributes to the local unrest. The influence of Russia must not be overlooked. Russia has been accused, and history supports the accusation, of fomenting insurrection in