2>fc Ld RESELLERS SUPPLIED WITII TRIMMED OR UNTRIMMED COPIES As THEY MAY INDICATE THEIR PREFERENCE. Number 12. Published by HARPER & RROTHERS, New York. Price 15 Cts. Copyright, 1S7S, t.y Harpis 4 Bkothk&s. BR a. TWENTY YEARS' RESIDENCE AMONG THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY: BULGARIANS, GREEKS, ALBANIANS, TURKS, AND ARMENIANS. BY J± CONSUL'S DAUGHTEE A-NID WIFE. EDITED BY STANLEY LANE POOLE. DEDICATED (BY PERMISSION) TO THE MARCHIONESS OF SALISBURY, BY HER GRATEFUL SERVANT, THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. No one who has talked with many people on the Eastern Question can have failed to remark the wide difference of opinion held on things which ought to be matters of cer- tainty, and on which two opinions ought to be impossible. This divergence of view is only a very natural consequence of the want of any book of authority on the subject. How is one to learn what manner of men these Bulgarians and Greeks of Turkey real- ly are ? Hitherto our information has been chiefly obtained from newspaper correspond- ents : and it is hardly necessary to observe that the nature of their selected information depends upon the tendency of the paper. There have, of course, been notable excep- tions to this common rule of a party-con- science ; the world of journalists is but now lamenting the untimely death of one of its most distinguished members, with whose name honor and truth and indefatigable thoroughness must ever be associated. But granting the honesty and impartiality of a correspondent, allowing the accuracy of his report of what he has seen, it must be con- ceded that his opportunities -for observation are short and hurried, that he judges almost solely from the immediate present, and that by the nature of his profession he is seldom able to make a very long or intimate study of a people's character. One accepts his re- ports as the evidence of an eye-witness ; but one does not necessarily pledge one's self to his deductions. For the former task he has every necessary qualification : for the latter he may have none, and he probably has not the most important. Especially unsafe is it to trust to estimates of nations formed hastily on insufficient experience in the midst of general disorder, such as that in which many summary verdicts have lately been composed. But if newspaper correspondents are placed at some disadvantage, what can be said for those well-assured travellers who pay a three months' visit to Turkey, spend the time pleasantly at Pera, or perhaps at the country- houses of some Pashas, and then consider themselves qualified to judge the merits of each class in each nationality of the mixed inhabitants of the land. It is unpleasant to have to say it ; but it is well known that scarcely a single book upon Turkey is based upon a much longer experience than of three months. In this dearth of trustworthy information, it was with no little interest that I learnt that an English lady, who had lived for a great part of her life in various provinces of Euro- pean and Asiatic Turkey, and whose linguis- tic powers perfected by experience enabled her to converse equally with Greeks, Turks, and Bulgarians as one of themselves, had formed a collection of notes on the people of Turkey — on their national characteristics, the way they live, their manners and cus- toms, education, religion, their aims, and ambitions. In any case the observations of one who had for more than twenty years en- joyed such exceptional advantages must be valuable. Of the opportunities of the Author there could be as little doubt as of her con- scientious accuracy in recording her experi- ence. The only question was not the quality but the quantity of the information. But in this the manuscript surpassed all expecta- tions. Every page teemed with details of life and character entirely novel to all but Eastern travellers. Every subject connected with the people of Turkey qpemed to be ex- haustively treated, and it was rarely that any need for more ample information was felt. In editing what, as I have had nothing to do with the matter of it. I may without van- ity call the most valuable work on the people of Turkey that has yet appeared, I have strictly kept in view the principle laid down by the Author — that the book was to be a collection of facts, not .a vehicle for party views on the Eastern Question, nor a recipe for the "harmonious arrangement of South- eastern Europe. Politically the book is en- tirely colorless. It was felt that thus only could it commend itself to both, or rather all, the disputing parties on the question, and that only by delicately avoiding the suscep- tible points of each party could the book at- tain its end— of generally imparting a certain amount of sound information on the worst- known subject of the day. The reader, therefore, must not expect to find here a defence of Turkish rule nor yet an attack thereon : he will only find an ac- count of how the Turks do rule, with a few incidental illustrations scattered throughout the book. Comment is, as a rule, eschewed as superfluous and insulting to the intelli- gence of the'reader. Still less must he look for any expression of opinion on the wisdom or folly of the policy of Her Majesty's Gov- ernment. All these things are apart from the aim of the work. It is wished to provide the data necessary to the formation of any THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY. ■worthy views on the many subdivisions, of the Eastern Question, It is not wished to point the moral. 'On.ce convejrsiCnl With tin- actual state of the people of Turkey, onoq knowing how fhey:]ivte;v.].at aj« i heir y4r.tues( and vices, what I their, alma" and' aiKbii and it is easy for any rational man to draw his conclusions ; easy to criticise favorably or otherwise according to the merits of the •use the policy of the British Government towards Turkey and towards Greece, to de- cide whether after all the supposed rising in Bulgaria (about which little is said here, be- cause everything has already been well said) was ever a rising at all ; whether the Turks are or are not incapable of the amenities which many believe them then to have in- dulged in ; whether the Bulgarians are friendly to Russia, or are really the ver/hum- ble servants of the Porte ; in short, whether half the questions which have for two years been the subject of perpetual contention ad- mit of debate at all. The book has been divided into four parts. In the first, the general characteristics of the various races of Turkey are sketched. Very little is said about their history, for it is not the history but the present state — or rather the state just before the war — of the people (hat is the subject of the book. But the Author has tried to bring home to the reader the social condition and the national charac- ter of their different races. The Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, Armenians, and Jews are in turn described, and the, for the time, scarcely less important Circassians, with the Tatars and Gypsies, have their chapter. In the second part? the tenure of land in Turkey and the state of the small peasant farmers are explained, and an account is given of houses and hovels in Turkey, in- cluding that most superb of Turkish houses, the Seraglio of the Sultan, to which with its inmates a very detailed notice is devoted ; and the part ends with an account of Munici- pality and Police in Turkey, together with the kindred subject of Brigandage. The third part is occupied with the man- ners and customs of the races. Pew things give such an insight into the character of a people as a study of their customs, and it is believed that these chapters on the extraordi- nary ceremonies employed in Turkey on the occasion of a birth or marriage, or a death, the dress, food, amusements, of the Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks, and Armenians will prove of as much value as interest. The fact, for example, that in many parts of Bulgaria the weddings take place not in the church but in the cellar of the bridegroom's house speaks volumes on the insecurity of a woman's per- son while Turkish governors rule in Bulga rian towns. The custom of the Bulgarian bridegroom flinging a halter over his bride's neck and dragging her into his house is an interesting relic of capture, and the subse- quent knocking of the bride's head against the wall as a warning against infidelity illus- trates the general chastity of the people. The indecent exhibitions, again, at Turkish wed- dings help to explain the want of refinement and womanly feeling among Turkish ladies. The ceremonies of the Greeks are interesting from another point of view, inasmuch as very many of them are identical with those of the ancient Greeks. The last part is devoted to the education, superstition, and religion of the people of Turkey. It is here that we get to the root of Turkish manners ; for we see how the Turk is brought up, how he learns the vices that have become identified with the thought of his race, how he remains, in spite even of a western education, deeply imbued with super- stition, and finally how he loses all the energy of the old Othmanli character by the opera- tion of the fatal doctrine of Kjsmet. The chapters on Education are among the most valuable in the book ; whilst those on Re- ligion will serve to explain some of the diffi- culties that beset the proper adjustment of affairs in Southern Europe. The study of the facts thus brought together points to a considerable modification of the views commonly entertained with regard to the characters of the peoples of Turkey. The Author's long experience leaves no doubt of the vast superiority of the Greeks to the other races ; yet there is no people that one is more accustomed to hear spoken of with distrust and even contempt. The Greeks are commonly charged with a partiality for sharp practice, with intolerable vanity ; their character is summed up as petty. There is always a grain of truth in a calumny : when plenty of mud is thrown some of it sticks, not because of the quantity of the mud, but because there is sure to be an adhesive sympathy with some part of the object of the attack. The Greeks have in some degree laid themselves open to these charges. It was very unwise of them to take the first rank as merchants in the East, and thus arouse the jealousy of the merchants of all European nations, whom they have eclipsed by their superior business capacities. Envy will pick holes anywhere, but it is especially easy to criticise the customs of a merchant class. Mercantile morality all over the world is a thing of itself, not generally understanded of the people. But there is nothing to show that the Greek merchants are less scrupulous than the rest, though their temptations are infinitely greater. If a little sharp business is said to be permissible, and even perhaps necessary, at Liverpool, for instance, it is d fortiori essential in Turkey. It is a per- fectly well-understood principle that in Tur- key, where everything is done by bribery and corruption, a merchant, unless he wishes to be ruined, must steer a somewhat oblique course. So long as the late Turkish rule ex- tended over Greek subjects, it was necessary to do in Turkey as the Turks do. French and English merchants sin as much as the Greeks in this manner ; but the superior commercial ability of the Greeks and their consequent success have drawn on them the whole evil repute. It is not that the Greeks cheat more than other commercial nations : it is merely that they make more money on the same amount of cheating. Ilineillm ira>! The Greeks, again, are certainly conceited, and with excellent reason. It would be absurd to expect anything else. They are but newly freed ; after centuries of Ottoman tyranny, followed by a generation of Bava- rian despotism, they have at last been allowed to enjoy some fifteen years of freedom. Even under the stiff court of George, but much more during the last fifteen years, they have made prodigious progress. Having worked out their own freedom, they have been mak- ing themselves fit for freedom. From craven slaves of the Turk they have become a lib- erty-loving people. Their thoughts have been casting back to the noble ancestry which they claim as their own, and looking onward to the great future that is in store for them. They have measured themselves intellectually with the rest of Europe and have not been worsted. They have spent the last twenty years in the work of self -education, and so successful have been their efforts that it is well known that no nation can compare with Greece in the general education of its people — that to Greece alone cau be applied the ambiguous taunt that she is over-educated. All these things are legitimate subjects of pride. It is no wonder that the Greeks are vain of their adopted ancestors ; no marvel that they are proud of their keen wits and facile intelligence. They have formed a justly high estimate of their national worth, and are justly proud of the progress they have already made, and they take no pains to con- ceal it. Their faults are only exaggerations of national virtues, the outcome of the reac- tion from a long servitude ; they are the necessary but temporary result of the circum- stances. A little time for development, a ! closer association with the other powers of Europe, and a worthier trust on the part of these, and the Greeks will lose their blem- ishes of youth ; conceit will be toned down to a proper pride, and high intelligence will no longer be called over-cleverness. The na- tion has marched steadily forward in the lit- | tie time it has been free ; it has made great ' steps in educating itself and in spreading knowledge among its members still subject to the alien ; it has shown itself able to govern itself, even to restrain itself under terrible provocation when there was much to gain and little that could be lost. If it is given fair play, the time may yet come when a seventh Great power shall arise in Europe, when the Greeks shall again rule in Byzanti- um, and Europe shall know that the name of Hellenes is still a sacred name. The Author's account of the Bulgarians differs little from the ordinary opinion, ex- cept on one important point. She describes them as honest hard-working peasants, rather slow and stupid, but excellent laborers. But she absolutely denies the ferocious character ascribed to them by some writers. Every one knows that they exacted a terrible vengeance from the Turks, and no man of spirit can blame them for it ; though it is much to be regretted that, if the accounts be true, they carried their revenge to the length of Turkish barbarity. But this was an exceptional time : it has had its parallel in most nations, as those who remember the feeling in England at the time of the Indian mutiny can wit- ness. As a rule the Bulgarian is, on the con- trary, rather too tame. He is a very domes- tic animal, lives happily with his family, keeps generally sober, enjoys his dance on the common on feast-days, and goes with perfect willingness and satisfaction to his . daily work in the fields or at the rose-harvest. He is an admirable agricultural laborer, with a stolidity more than Teutonic, without the Teuton's energy. Yet these Bulgarians seem to have a good deal of sound common sense, and show many of the qualities necessary in a people that is to govern itself. It has hitherto submitted with curious tranquillity to the Turkish yoke, and the Sultan has prob- ably had few less ill-affected servants than the Bulgarians. On the other hand, it seems that the Bulgarians entertain a very decided hostility to Russia, an enmity second only to their hatred for the Greeks. The third important element in the future of South-East Europe is the Turks. Of them it is not necessary to say much : most people are fairly enlightened as to the m;m- \ ners and rule of the Turk, and the Author has intentionally avoided crowding her pages with Turkish atrocities : they are all very much alike, and they are not pleasant read- ing. The official classes meet with scant respect at her hands ; but with most writers she speaks favorably of the Turkish peasant. The principal vice he has is his religious fanaticism, which is the result partly of Mohammedanism itself, and partly of the form and manner in which it is inculcated in Turkey. Islam may be broad and tolerant enough ; but not the rigid orthodox Islam as taught in the primary schools of the Otto- man Empire. Islam is an excellent creed by itself ; but a ruling Mohammedan minority in a Christian country is an endless source of trouble. But the religious question is only one of those which have disturbed the posi- tion of the Porte. The system of administra- tion, as described in these pages, is enough to overturn any power, and an official class brought up under vicious home influences, educated in fanatical mosque-schools, living the self-indulgent indolent life of Stamboul, getting and keeping office by bribery, ad- ministering " justice" to the highest bidder, is a doomed class. When one sees how a Turkish child is brought up he begins to won- der how any Turk can help being vicious and dishonest. It is quite certain that there is no hope for the Turks so long as Turkish women THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY. remain what they are, and home-training is the initiation of vice. So far as can be judged, the Turk naturally possessed some of the true elements of greatness ; but it is rarely they come to bear fruit : they are choked by the pernicious social system which destroys the moral force of the women and thereafter the men of the empire. It is this carefully inculcated deficiency in all sense of uprightness and justice, and this trained tend- ency to everything that is a crime against the community, that renders the Pasha incapable of governing. It is this fact which compels one to admit that, whatever the decisions of the Berlin Congress, it is a clear gain that the war has won for Europe, to be able to speak of Turkish rule in the past tense. With full knowledge of the experience and research of the Author, I must yet say there are some points — notably the Greek Church of Russia — in which I cannot bring myself to agree with her ; and I must also add that, owing to the haste with which the book was put -through the press, I have allowed a few misprints to escape me. Stanley Lank Poole. June 20«, 1878. CHAPTER I. THE BULGARIANS. Sketch of Bulgarian History — The Slav Occupation — Bulgar Conquest— Mixture of the Races — The Bul- garian Kingdom— Contests with Constantinople— Basil Bulgaroktonos— Bulgaria under Ottoman Rule — Com- pulsory Conversion— The Fomaks — Oppressive Gov- ernment — Janissary Conscription— Extortion of Offi- cials—Misery of the People— Improvement under Ab- dul-Medjid— Fidelity of the Bulgarians to the Porte— The late Revolt no National Movement — The Geogra- phical Limits of Bulgaria— Mixture with Greeks— Life in the House of a Bulgarian Country Gentleman — Daily Levees of Elders and Peasants — Counsel of the Chorbadji and Stupidity of the Clients— Instances of Night in a Bulgarian Hamlet, and the Comfort thereof — Unity of the Nation —Distrust of Foreigners— De- moralization of the Bulgarians— The Hope for the Future. The Bulgarians, who were completely crushed by the Ottoman Conquest, and whose very existence for centuries was almost forgotten, have been suddenly brought before the world by the late unhappy events in their country. ?>Iuch has been written by English and foreign authors respecting them, but few of the writings on the subject appear to agree with regard to the origin, the history, or the present social and moral condition of this much injured but deserving people. I have no pretensions to throw a fresh light on the first two points. The few remarks I shall make are based upon such authors as are con- sidered most trustworthy, and especially on the recent researches of Professor Hyrtf, re- serving to myself the task of describing the moral and social condition of the modern Bulgarians, as fourteen years spent among them enables me to do. From the Bulgarian Professor Drinov, who ; appears to have made the Balkan peninsula | his especial study, we learn that before the arrival of the Bulgarian tribes into European Turkey, the southern side of the Danube had been invaded by the Slavs, who during four centuries poured into the country and, steadily spreading, drove out the previous I inhabitants, who directed their steps towards the sea-coasts and settled iD the towns there. In the beginning of the sixth century the Slavonic element had become so powerful in its newly-acquired dominions, and its depre- I dutory incursions into the Byzantine Empire so extensive, that the Emperor Anastasius found himself forced to build a wall from Selymbria on the Sea of Marmora to Derkon ' on the Black Sea in order to repel their at- j tacks. Procopius, commenting on this, re- ' lates that while Justinian was winning use- less victories over the Persians, part of his empire lay exposed to the ravages of the Slavs, and that not less than 200,000 Byzan- tines were annually killed or carried away into slavery. The hostile spirit, however, between these two nations was broken by short intervals of peace and friendly relations, during which the Slav race supplied some emperors and many distinguished men to the Byzantines. Many Slavs resorted to Constantinople in order to receive the education and training their newly-founded kingdom did not afford them. The migration of the Slavs into Thrace ceased towards the middle of the sev- enth century, when they settled down to a more sedentary life, and, under the civiliz- ing influence of their Byzantine neighbors, betook themselves to agricultural and pasto- ral pursuits. According to historical ac- counts the Slavs did not long enjoy their ac- quisitions in peace, for about the year 679 a.d. a horde of Hunnish warriors, calling themselves Bulgars (a name derived from their former home on the Volga), crossed the Danube under the leadership of their Khan, Asparuch, and after some desperate fighting with the Slavs, finally settled on the land now known as Bulgaria and founded a kingdom which in its turn lasted about seven hundred years. From the little that is known of the original Bulgarians, we learn that polygamy was prac- tised among them, that the men shaved their heads and wore a kind of turban, and the women veiled their faces. These points of similarity connect the primitive Bulgarians with the Avars, with whom they came into close contact, as well as with the Tatars, dur- ing their long sojourn between the Volga and Tanais, as witness the marked Tatar features some of the Bulgarians bear to the present day. The primitive Bulgarians are said to have subsisted chiefly on the flesh of animals killed in the chase ; and it is further related of them that they burnt their dead, and when a chieftain died his wives and servants were also burnt and their ashes buried with those of their master. Schafarik, whose learned and trustworthy researches on the origin of the Bulgarians can scarcely be called in question, remarks that the warlike hordes from the Volga regions, though not numer- ous, were very brave and well skilled in war. They attacked with great ferocity the patient plodding Slavs, who were engaged in culti- vating the land and rearing cattle, quickly obtained the governing power, and after tast- ing the comforts of a settled life, gradually adopted to a great extent the manners, cus- toms, and even the language of the people they had conquered. This amalgamation ap- pears to have been a slow process, occupying, according to historical evidence, ful! two hundred and fifty years. It is during this period that the Bulgarian language must have gradually been effaced, and the vanquishing race, like the Normans in England, absorbed by the vanquished. This fresh mixture with the Slav element constituted the Bulgarians a separate race, with no original title to belong to the Slavonic family beyond that derived from the fusion of blood that followed the long intercourse of centuries, by which the primitive Bulgari- ans became blended with the former inhabi- tants of the country. It is evident that they were superior to the Slavs in military science and power, but inferior as regards civiliza- tion, and thus naturally yielded to the influ- ence of the more advanced and better organ- ized people. By this influence they created a distinct nation, gave their name to the country, and consolidated their power by laws and institutions. The Bulgarian kingdom, from its very foundation in 679 until its final overthrow by the Turks in 1396, presents a wearisome tale of battles with short intervals of peace, in the struggle for supremacy between the Emperors of Byzantium and the rulers of Bulgaria. The balance of power alternately inclined f i om one party to the other ; the wars were inhuman on both sides ; on the one hand, we read of hundreds of thousands of Byzantines yearly sacrificed by the Slavs ; on the other, we have equally horrible spectacles presented to us, like that enacted during the reign of Basil, surnamed BovXyaponTovor (The Bulga- rian-killer), on account of the great number of Bulgarians killed by his order. This sav- age, having on one occasion captured a large number of Bulgarians, separated 15,000 into companies of 100 each, and ordered ninety - I nine out of each of these companies to be j blinded, allowing the remaining hundredth to retain his sight in order to become the leader of his blind brethren. In the midst of such scenes, and at the cost of torrents of blood, successive kingdoms were constituted in this unhappy land of per- petual warfare. Raised into momentary em- inence by the force of arms, they were again hurled to the ground by the same merciless instrument. Supreme power has been alter nately wielded by the savage, the Moslem, and the Christian ; each of whom to the present day continues the work of destruction. The condition of Bulgarians did not improve under the Ottoman rule. Their empire soon disappeared, leaving to posterity nothing but a few ruined castles and fortresses, and some annals and popular songs illustrating its past glory. The Turkish conquest was more deeply felt by the Bulgarians than by their brethren in adversity, the Byzantines and the neighboring Slav nations. These, owing to the more favorable geographical position of their countries and other advantages, were able to save some privileges out of the general wreck, and to retain a shadow of their na- tional rights. The Byzantines were pro- tected by a certain amount of influence left in the hands of the clergy, while the Slav nations were enabled to make certain conditions with their conqueror before their complete surren- der, and were successful in enlisting the gym pathies and protection of friendly powers in their behalf, and in obtaining through their instrumentality at intervals reforms never vouchsafed to the Bulgarians. This nation, isolated, ignored, and shut out from the civ- ilized world, crouched under the despotic rule of the Ottomans, and submitted to a life of perpetual toil and hardship, uncheered by any of the pleasures of life, unsupported by the least gleam of hope for a better future. This sad condition has lasted for centu- ries ; and by force of misery the people be- came grouped into two classes : the poor, who were constant to their faith and national feeling, and the wealthy and prosperous, who adopted Islam in order to escape persecution and save their property. To this latter class may be added the Pomaks, a predatory tribe inhabiting a mountainous district between the provinces of Philippopolis and Serres. They live apart, and pass for Mussulmans because they have some mosques ; but they have no knowledge of the Koran nor follow its laws very closely. Most of them to this day bear Christian names and speak the Slav language. The men are a fine race, but utterly ignorant and barbarous. Upon the poor and therefore Christian class fell all the weight of the Ottoman yoke, which made itself felt in their moral and material condition, and reached even to the dress, which was enforced as a mark of ser- vility. They were forbidden to build churches, and beyond the ordinary annual poll-tax imposed by Moslems on infidel sub- jects, they had to submit to the many illegal extortions of rapacious governors and cruel landlords ; besides the terrible blood-tax collected every five years to recruit the ranks of the Janissaries from the finest children of the province. Nor were the Bulgarian maid- ens spared : if a girl struck the fancy of a Mo- hammedan neighbor or a government official, he always found means to possess himself a? 299174 THE PEOPLE OF TURKEY. her person without using much ceremony or fearing much commotion. The depressing and demoralizing effect of such a system upon the Bulgarians may be imagined ; it was sufficient to brutalize a people far more advanced than they were at the time of the conquest. It cowed them, destroyed their brave and venturous spirit, taught them to cringe, and weakened their ideas of right and wrong. It is not strange that a people thus demoralized should, under the pressure of recent troubles, be said in some instances to have acted treacherously both towards their late rulers and present pro- tectors ; but the vices of rapacity, treachery, cruelty, and dishonesty could not have been the natural characteristics of this un- happy people until misery taught them the lesson. The laws promulgated in the reign of Sul- tan Abdul-Medjid with respect to the amelio- ration of the condition of the rayahs were gradually introduced into Bulgaria, and their beneficial influence tended greatly to remove some of the most crying wrongs that had so long oppressed the people. These reforms apparently satisfied the Bulgarians — always easily contented and peacefully disposed. They were thankful for the slight protection thus thrown over their life and property. They welcomed tho reforms with gratitude as the signs of better days, and, stimulated by written laws, as well as by the better sys- tem of government that had succeeded the old one and had deprived their Mohammedan neighbors of some of their power of molest- ing and injuring them, they redoubled their activity and endeavored by industry to im- prove their condition. Such changes can be only gradual among an oppressed people in the absence of good government and easy communication with the outer world. The Bulgarians, inwardly, perhaps, still dissatisfied, seemed outwardly content and attached to the Porte in the midst of the rev- olutionary movements that alternately con- vulsed the Servian, Greek, and Albanian populations. A very small section alone yielded to the influence of the foreign agents or comitate, who were using every means to create a general rising in Bulgaria, or was at any time in the Bulgarian troubles enticed to raise its voice against the Ottoman Govern- ment and throw off its allegiance. The late movement is said to have received encour- agement from the Bulgarian clergy acting under Russian influence, and from the young schoolmasters, whose more advanced ideas naturally led them to instil notions of indepen- dence among the people. But these views were by no means entertained by the more thought- ful and important members of the community, and no organized disaffection existed in Bulga- ria at the time the so-called revolt began. The action of a few hot-headed patriots, followed by some discontented peasants, started the re- volt which, if it had been judiciously dealt with, might have been suppressed without one drop of blood. The Bulgarians would probably have continued plodding on as faithful subjects of the Porte, instead of be- ing made — as will apparently be the case — a portion of the Slav group. Whether this fresh arrangement will succeed remains to be seen ; but according to my experience of Bulgarian character, there is very little sym- pathy between it and the Slav. The Bulga- rians have ever kept aloof from their Sla- vonic neighbors, and will continue a separate people even when possessed of independence. The limits of Bulgaria, which must be drawn from an ethnological standpoint, are not very easily determined. The right of conquest and long' possession no doubt entitles the Bulga- rians to call their own the country extending from the Danube to the Balkans. South of that range and of Mount Scardos, however, i.e., in the northern part of Thrace and Mac- edonia, their settlement was never perma- nent, and their capital, originally established in Lychnidos (the modern Ochrida), had to be removed north of the Balkans to Tirnova. The colonies they established were never very important, since they were scattered in the open country as better adapted to the ag- ricultural and pastoral pursuits of the nation. These settlements, forming iuto large and small villages, took Bulgarian names, but the names of the towns remained Greek. The Bulgarians south of the Balkans are a mixed race, neither purely Greek nor purely Bulgarian ; but their manners and customs and physical features identify them more closely with the Greeks than with the Bulga- rians north of the Balkans. There the Fin- nish type is clearly marked by the projecting cheek bones, the short upturned nose, the small eyes, and thickly-set but rather small build of the people. In Thrace and Macedonia, where Hellenic blood and features predominate, and Hellenic influence is more strongly felt, the people call themselves Thracians and Macedonians, rather than Bulgarians ; the Greek lan- guage, in schools, churches, and in corre- spondence, is used by the majority in pref- erence to the Bulgarian, and even in the late church question in many places the people showed themselves lukewarm about the sep- aration, and the bulk remained faithful to the Church of Constantinople. The sandjak of Philippopolis, esteemed almost entirely Bulgarian by some writers, is claimed for the Greeks by others upon the ar- gument that Stanimacho, with its fifteen vil- lages, is Greek with regard to language and predilection, and Didymotichon, with its for- ty-five villages, is a mixture of Greeks and Bulgarians. As a matter of fact, however, in this sandjak, in consequence of its proximity to Bulgaria proper, and to its developed and prosperous condition, the Bulgarian element has taken the lead. The revival of the church question and the educational movement have stayed and al- most nullified Greek influence, which is lim- ited to certain localities like Stanimacho and other places, where the people hold as staunchly to their Greek nationality as the Bulgarians of other localities do to their own. While dispute waxed hot in the town of Philippopolis between the parties of Greeks and Bulgarians, each in defence of its rights, no spirit of the kind was ever evinced in Adrianople, where the population is princi- pally Greek and Turkish, with a small num- ber of Armenians and Bulgarians. In Mac- edonia the sandjak of Salonika, comprising Cassandra, Verria, and Serres, numbering in all about 250.000 souls, is, with few excep- tions, Greek, or so far Ilellenized as to be so to all'intents and purposes. The inhabitants of Vodena and Janitza, and the majority in Doi'ran and Stromnitza, and a considerable portion of the population of Avrat Hissar, on the right bank of the Vardar, claim Greek nationality. The Greeks in this part of the country have worked with the same tenacity of purpose and consequent success in Hellen- izing the people, as the Bulgarians of the kaza of Philippopolis in promoting the feel- ing of Bulgarian nationality there. This mission of the Greeks here has not been a very difficult one, as the national feeling of the bulk of the population is naturally Greek. Notwithstanding the marked tendency of the people towards Hellenism, the language in Vodena and other places is Bulgarian ; but the features of the people, together with their ideas, manners, and customs, are essen- tially Greek ; even the dress of the Bulgarian- speaking peasant is marked by the absence of the typical potour and the gougla or cap worn in Bulgaria. Most of the authors who have written on the populations of these regions have, either through Panslavistic views or misled by the prevalence of the Bulgarian language in the rural districts, put down the whole of the population as Bulgarian, a mistake easily corrected by a summary of the number of Greeks and Bulgarians conjointly occupying those districts, separating the purely Greek from the purely Bulgarian element, and tak- ing into consideration at the same time the number of mixed Greeks and Bulgarians. If the wide geographical limits projected by Russia for Bulgaria be carried out, there will be a recurrence of all the horrors of the recent war in a strife between the Greeks and Bulgarians, in consequence of the en- croachment of the future Bulgaria upon ter- ritory justly laid claim to by the Greeks as ethnologically their own and as a heritage from past ages. The question would be greatly simplmed and the danger of future contests between the t