immigrants soon also learnt the art of seamanship. During the siege of Constantinople in 626, which they undertook in alliance with the Avars, they conducted the attack from the seaward side in small boats (cf. pp. 64 f.). In the year 641 certain Slavs, probably those from Epirus, landed on the Italian coasts and plundered Apulia. The Slav pirates traversed the Ionian and Ægean seas, penetrating even to the Cyclades and the coast towns of Asia Minor. Al-Achtal, an Arabian writer of the seventh century, speaks of the fair-haired Slavs as a people well known to his readers. The enterprise of the Slavs was further facilitated by the fact that the Byzantine Empire was now in difficulties with the Arabs, as it had formerly been with the Persians. Their chief attack was directed about 609 against Thessalonica, the second city in the Byzantine Empire. They repeatedly besieged this town by land and water, and on one occasion were encamped for two years before its gates. The Byzantine authorities were, however, invariably successful in saving this outpost. In the seventh century the Slav colonisation of the Balkan Peninsula was complete, and no corner remained untouched by them. The Byzantine authors of that period refer to the Balkan territories simply as Sklavinia. 2. INFLUENCE OF GEOGRAPHY ON THE HISTORY OF THE SLAV WITH regard to the influence which their change of domicile exercised upon the political development of the Slav immigrants and the course of their civilization, we are reduced to conjecture; generalisation is easier here than detailed proof, but in this case the connection between geographical position and history is unmistakable. The position of the Balkan Peninsula, which brought the southern Slavs nearer than any other members of the race to the Greco-Roman world, was of great importance for their future development. In the course of their historical career the southern Slav tribes wavered for a long time between Italy and Byzantium, until eventually the western portion became incorporated with Roman politics and civilization, and the eastern portion with the Byzantine world. For other facts, however, in the life of the southern Slavs deeper causes must be sought, originating in the configuration of the country. If we regard the peninsula of Hamus from the hydrographical and orographical point of view, we shall immediately perceive that the configuration of the country has determined the fate of its inhabitants. As the whole of the continent is divided from west to east by a watershed which directs the rivers partly to the Baltic and partly into the Danube, so also this southeastern peninsula has its watershed which directs. the streams partly towards the north and partly southwards. As the northern mountain range has divided the peoples, as well as the waters, which lie on either side of it, so too the same fact is apparent in the Balkans. The northern and the southern parts of the peninsula have run a different course of development with different results. The mountain range of the Balkans, rising to 12,146 feet, is difficult to cross, notwithstanding its thirteen passes, and many of the struggles between the northern and southern Balkan races were fought out on the ridges of these mountains. At the same time it must be said that other ethnographers have -Croatian drawn different conclusions from these same orographical conditions (cf. Manojlo Smiljanić, in the Ratzel Gedächtniss-schrift, 1904). Apart from these facts, the whole peninsula is divided, by mountain ranges running in all directions, into districts, each of which with certain efforts might develop independently of others, as was the case in Western Europe. In ancient Hellas this was the fact which favoured the development of so many independent territories, and during the Slav period it also facilitated the rise of several kingdoms. In so far as it is unjust to regard the Balkan Peninsula as part of Eastern Europe in the strict sense of the term, it is incorrect to call it an East European peninsula. Balkan territories are in every respect more allied to Western Europe, and are somewhat Alpine in character. Thus the immigrant Slavs were easily able to continue in this district their separate existence, a fact which entirely corresponded with their wishes. Hence the manifold nature of the southern Slav kingdoms; for this reason, too, they were more easily accessible to influences which ran very diverse courses. Diversity of geographical configuration naturally produced diversity of civilization; some districts lay on the main lines of communication, while others, more difficult of access because more mountainous in character, were left far behind in the march of progress. Differences of climate must also be taken into account. To the north of the mountain range in the river system of the Danube the climate is severe, the winter long and hard, as upon the continent; the Danube itself is constantly frozen over. But when we cross the plains and descend into the Thracian plain, a warmer climate is found, where even the cotton-tree will flourish. The vegetation of the country is here of the Mediterranean type, while north of the Balkans it is central European, and of the type of the Steppes in the eastern part; we may notice here the occurrence of the bay-cherry tree, which is widely spread in Asia Minor and Persia. The oak is to be found everywhere, a circumstance which has always encouraged swine-breeding. The local fauna are also different. The most important domestic animals are the ass and the buffalo. Horses are used only for riding and as beasts of burden. The Turks introduced camels into the countries; and during the military period great stables for camels were erected on the highroads. But at the present time the camel is disappearing with the Turk. The Balkan lands are rich in predatory animals, such as wild boars, wolves, etc., and also in birds of prey, white eagles, golden eagles, vultures, etc., as is proved by the fact that between 1870 and 1880 alone, in the last century, some twelve to fifteen thousand head of big game were killed every year in the Balkans. In the present day bears, wolves, boars, and in places vultures and eagles, are the pest of the country. Upon the whole, the magnificent position of the Balkan territories on the Mediterranean has at all periods favoured the development of the inhabitants. The fact that the Slavs here came into contact with the sea created new conditions of life and fresh needs. They learnt the art of seamanship, and rose to be a commercial nation. The Southern Slavs show a different national type from the great mass of Slav nationality; their environment and their neighbours have given them a special national character. 3. THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVS, THEIR CONSTITUTION AND RELIGION THE Slav races which settled in the Balkan Peninsula were numerous. Such different names are known as Severane, Brsjakes (Berzetes), Smoljánes, Sagulates (cf. p. 47), Welesiči, Dragoviči, Milinci (Milenzes), Ezerites (Jeserzes), etc. These names are, however, of little importance for the determination of nationality. Apart from the fact that they have often been transmitted to us in a corrupt form, their value is purely topographical and in no way ethnographical. They coincide with the names of the lakes, rivers, and mountains about which the tribes settled. The question then arises, did the tribes give their names to these mountains and rivers, or, what is more probable, did they themselves borrow the old names of these rivers, etc.? The latter is the case with the names Timok Timočane, Morawa = Morawana, Narenta = Narentane, etc. The opinion of the Bulgarian scholar, Marin St. Drinov, appears to be correct, that at different times different tribes of the northern and western Slavs, or rather fragments of them, made settlements here; a further proof of the theory is the divergent dialects of the Bulgarian language. = Historians go on to relate that, of the Slavs in the western half of the Balkans, the Serbs and Croatians were the most numerous, and that they alone founded kingdoms of their own side by side with the Bulgarian state. This information is of little use to us from an ethnographical point of view; the case may have been as it was in Bohemia, Poland, Russia, and elsewhere, that one small tribe was enabled, by the force of some favourable circumstance, gradually to subdue other tribes, and to include them in its own name, while itself becoming denationalized by the conquered tribes. This may be true of the Serbs and Croatians, as it certainly was of the Bulgarians. The whole nation thus passed into one political unity, and then acquired some meaningless name, possibly taken from a river, mountain, lake, or town of the country, from a national leader, or perhaps from some totally different language. All, then, that can be said is this, that side by side with the Bulgarians in the east of the peninsula two important kingdoms, the Servian and Croatian, were afterwards formed on the west; though each of these, like the Bulgarians, included several tribes, both bear the names Croatia and Servia, which are capable of no further explanation. If we compare the names of the Slav settlements with those in the North of Europe, on the Elbe and Vistula, Pruth, Dnieper, etc., we find numerous coincidences, and we can in fact assert with Drinov that the Balkan Peninsula contains representatives of all the Slav races and is a miniature picture of the Slav world. These numerous races, then, bore for the moment different names. Three of these, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Servia, became important; and all others were included under these. The Greeks, however, gave them all collectively the one name of Slaveni, and knew the whole country as Slavinia. The Eastern Roman Empire was known as Romania by the Slavs. This name, however, they applied particularly to the Thracian plain (Romanja, hence the Turkish name Rumili or Roumelia). At the present day the mountain tribes on the borders of the Thracian plain call the inhabitants of the plain Romanec and the women Romanka, although -Croatian the whole country up to the neighbourhood of Constantinople was entirely under Slav influence. The Slavs of that period, like most of the European peoples, were at a stage of civilization which may be described as semi-nomadic. While cattle-rearing and hunting were their main sources of food, agriculture was also carried on, and, as among the Germans, was obligatory upon the women and slaves. An historian informs us that the Avars employed the Slav women for agricultural purposes and in place of draught-animals, which was no innovation on their part. Nomadic tribes periodically deserted the lands which they had ploughed, and removed to virgin soil. Social and also civic life in the Balkan Peninsula, and probably among all the Slavs, is founded upon the family group or household (the sadruga), which has survived there, as in Lithuania and Russia, to the present day, so that it cannot be regarded as a consequence of a Byzantine or Turkish system of taxation. Survivals of household organisation have also been demonstrated to exist among the Germans of that period. The married children do not leave the father's house, but remain together under the government of the father or patriarch. All the members of such a family bear the name of the family chief; thus the descendants of Radovan and those of the district they inhabited were known as Radovaniči. When the family had so increased as to make common life impossible, some portion broke away from the union, founded a new settlement, took a new name, and formed a new sadruga, which, however, remained in connection with the original family and worshipped the same deity, who thus remained a common object of reverence to several branch settlements. A sadruga might contain from fifty to sixty members; the chief was known as starosta, or starješina, or gospodar, or wladyka, or djedo, or domakin. The tribe originated in the union of several families. The family was administered by the elders, who apportioned the work, performed the service of the gods during the heathen period, and represented the family in its external relations. Community of property made individual poverty impossible; those only who had been expelled from the federation of the family were abandoned. The affairs of the whole tribe were discussed by an assembly of the elders. The district inhabited by a tribe was known as Zupa, and its central point, which also contained the shrine of the gods in the heathen period, was a citadel or grad. One of the elders or patriarchs was chosen as governor of a Župa, and was then known as the Župan, or, among the Croatians, as the Ban. To this social organisation, which continued longer among the Slavs than among the Germans, are to be ascribed all the defects and the excellences of the Slav tribes. The families did not readily separate from each other, but soon increased to the size of tribes. Hence cattle-breeding and agriculture were conducted to a considerable extent under a system of communal labour and reached a high pitch of prosperity; consequently they were able easily to colonise and permanently to maintain their hold of wide tracts of country. Other conquering nations, such as the Goths and Huns, poured over the country, leaving behind them only the traces of the devastation which they had caused, and then disappeared, whereas the Slavs settled in the country which they occupied. A further consequence was that the Slavs were in no need of extraneous labour for agricultural purposes, and therefore slavery was never so firmly rooted an insti tution among them as among the Germans. The Slavs usually made their slaves members of the household, as is related by the Emperor Mauricius. The Slavs were also able to carry agriculture and manufacture to a higher point. Their standard of morality was higher, owing to their close corporate life and strong family discipline, a fact which also favoured the increase of their population. On the other hand the Germans, among whom agriculture was performed by slaves, devoted themselves entirely to hunting and military pursuits. Still this family organisation enables us to explain why the Slavs were not successful as the founders of states. Their common family life, while implying reverence for their patriarch, also produced a democratic spirit which was entirely opposed to any strict form of constitution. No family was willing to become subject to another; all families desired to be equal; one defended the freedom of another. No family chief was willing to acknowledge the supremacy of another, nor need we feel surprise that the blood feud was an institution which flourished upon such soil. Hence among the Slavs it was far easier for an individual to secure the supremacy over a number of families or tribes, if he stood outside them and was unshackled by their discipline. It is therefore no mere chance that kingdoms of any importance could only be founded among the Slavs by foreign tribes, often invited for that purpose. This peculiarity of the Slav character struck the Byzantine historians. "They have abundance of cattle and corn, chiefly millet and rye," says the Emperor Mauricius; "rulers, however, they cannot bear,” he says in another place, " and they live side by side in disunion. Independence they love above all things, and decline to undergo any form of subjection." Procopius also relates in the sixth century that the Slavs declined to submit to the rule of any one man, but discussed their common affairs in council. The pride and honour of individual families was to them more important than all else. Only under pressure of direst need did the Slav tribes join in choosing a common leader, and for this reason strangers were easily able to secure dominion over them. Concerning the religion of the Southern Slavs, our sources of information have little to tell us; they were polytheists, their chief deities were the heaven and the heavenly bodies. Of Svantovit and Perun, the deities of the northern Slavs, no traces are to be found. They worshipped their gods in groves, mountains, and rocks. Victims were offered to them with song. Together with the gods they reverenced other beings, such as the Vilen or Samovilen (in Thracia, Samodivy), Budenice, Rojenice, Judi, Vijulici, spirits and female wizards (brodnice). Research, however, has not said the last word upon this point, and the personalities of many heathen gods are doubtful. 4. THE POSITION AND POLITICAL SITUATION OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVS THE districts south of the Danube and north of the Adriatic were under the rule of the Byzantine emperor, though Byzantine rulers were rarely able to exercise any real supremacy. Immigrant tribes from time to time nominally recognised the rights of the Byzantine emperors to these lands, and troubled themselves no further upon the matter. We may even question whether such immigrants always secured the consent of the emperor to their settlement upon Roman territory, a fact which |