The Human Race

There are, however, reasons for hoping, that Rome, being now released from Papal authority, and having, since the year 1871, become the Capital of Italy and the residence of King Victor-Emmanuel, will gradually cease to feel the preponderance of the sacerdotal element.

Young Romans playing the favorite Italian game, la mora, with its usual accompaniment of gesticulations and shouts, is a very common street scene. The two persons playing this game raise their closed fists in the air, and then, in letting them fall, open as many fingers as they may think proper. At the same time they call out some number. The winner is he, who, by chance, calls out the number represented by the sum of all the fingers exhibited by the two players. If, for example, I call out five, and at the same time open two fingers, whilst my adversary displays three, which added to mine make five, the number called by me, I am winner. The arms of the two players are raised and lowered at the same time, and the numbers are called simultaneously, with great rapidity and regularity, producing a very singular result and one incomprehensible to a stranger.

La mora is played all over Italy.

But it is not alone in the city of Rome that the characteristic features of the ancient Latin race are to be found; the traveller passing through the suburbs of the capital of the Christian World, Frascati or Tivoli, will still encounter vestiges of the old Latins hidden beneath the sad garments of misery. (Fig. 29.)

29. – STREET AT TIVOLI.

It may be said that Rome at the present day is a vast convent. In it the ecclesiastical population holds an important position and plays an important part. This, it is, which imparts to the Eternal City its austerity, not to say, its public sadness and moral languor. We shall therefore close our series of picturesque views of the inhabitants of Modern Rome, by glancing at the costumes of the principal dignitaries of the ecclesiastical order, their representation in fig. 30 being followed by the reproduction of a well-known picture, representing the Exaltation of Pio IX. (fig. 31).

30. – A CARDINAL ENTERING THE VATICAN.

The Latin type, which physically if not morally is met with in a state of purity at Rome, and in the Roman Campagna, has, on the other hand, undergone great modification in the provinces of the North, as well as in those of Southern Italy. Let us first consider the Northern provinces.

Northern Italy, endowed to perfection with natural advantages, washed by two seas, watered by the tributaries of a large river, possessing land of extraordinary fertility, nourishes a race in which the Latin blood has mingled with that of the German and Gaul. In Tuscany and the neighbourhood are, as we have said, the descendants of the old Etruscans, and further north are the offspring of Germanic and Gallic races.

The designs which adorn the Etruscan sarcophagi, originally brought, it is said, from Northern Greece, have preserved the physical form and appearance of these people. They are bulky, and of heavy make.

The men wear no beard, and are clothed with a tunic which in some cases is thrown over the back of the head. Some hold in the left hand a small goblet, and in the right, a bowl. They repose in an easy posture, resting the body on the left side, as do also the women. The women wear a tunic, sometimes fastened below the breast by a broad girdle, which is furnished with a circular clasp, and a peplum which in many cases covers the back of the head. They hold in one hand an apple, or some fruit of the same appearance, and in the other a fan. This is the portrait of the Etruscan which has been handed down to us.

Tuscany, of all Italy, is that portion which most strongly represents the mildness, the order, and the industrious activity of modern Italy. The natural richness of the soil is there enhanced by a capable system of cultivation. The arts peacefully flourish in this land of great painters, sculptors, and architects. The habits of the people, both of the upper and lower classes, are gentle and peaceful. There is here a state of general prosperity added to a fair amount of education. The poor man here, does not, as in other countries, foster a complaining and hostile feeling against the rich; all entertain a consciousness of their own dignity; all are affable and polite. The general good feeling is manifested in word and deed, and the religious tone is moderate and tolerant. Women are loved and respected, and this respect corresponds in religion with the worship of the Virgin.

31. – EXALTATION OF POPE PIUS IX.

At Florence and in Tuscany we meet that Italian urbanity, which, by the French, who are unable to understand it, is improperly termed obsequiousness. This attribute of the Italian is very far from servile; it comes from the heart. A universal kindly feeling welcomes the stranger, who experiences much pleasure among this conciliatory and friendly people, and with difficulty tears himself away from this happy country, where all seem bathed in an atmosphere of art, sentiment, and goodness.

Southern Italy will show us a very different picture from that we have just described. The proximity to Africa has here much altered the physical type of the inhabitants, while the yoke of a long despotism has much lowered the social condition, through the misery and ignorance it has produced. The mixture of African blood has changed the organic type of the Southern Italian to such an extent, as to render him entirely distinct from his northern compatriots; the exciting influence, which the mate has over the senses, imparting to his whole conduct a peculiar exuberance. Hence there is much frivolity and little consistency in his character.

In the town and neighbourhood of Naples we meet a combination of the features we have just considered. Let us betake ourselves for a moment thither, and take a rapid view of the strange population, which from early dawn is to be met in the streets, singing, begging, or going about their day’s work.

Fig. 32 shows us a shop of dealers in macaroni in the market-place (mercatello), and fig. 33 the indispensable water-carrier.

The most favourable time for examining the great variety of types which unite in the population of Southern Italy, is on the occasion of the public festivals which are so numerous at Naples. This curious mixture may be investigated in the crowds of people who frequent the festival of Piedigrotta, where are to be found examples of every Greek and Latin race.

32. – A MACARONI SHOP AT NAPLES.

Here are to be seen the Procidan women (isle of Procida, near Naples), who still retain the ancient simar, the kerchief which falls loosely around the head, and the classic profiles with straight noses (fig. 34). In Southern Italy, these daughters of ancient Greece still wear the golden diadem and silver girdle of Homer’s matrons. The Capuan woman throws around her head a veil similar to that of the sibyls and vestals. The Abruzzan women wear their hair in knots in the manner shown in Greek statues. The men of these parts, moreover, clothe themselves in sheepskins during the winter, and wear sandals, fastened with leathern thongs. The Etruscans, the Greeks, the Romans, and even the Normans, have left their traces in this country, whose population forms such a curious mixture.

33. – NEAPOLITAN ICED-WATER SELLER.

34. – NEAPOLITAN PEASANT WOMAN.

Not less remarkable are, in this beautiful country, the peasantry of the mountains and the sea-coast. The most varying forms and the richest colours are to be met with, from the coarse cloth drawers and shirt of the fisherman, to the brilliant costume of certain of the Abruzzi, from the Phrygian cap of the Neapolitans to the peaked hat of the Calabrians – a slender, tall, and sunburnt people.

In the midst of this motley assemblage of every variety of dress and colour, the graceful acquajolo (fig. 36), that is, the stall of the dealer in oranges and iced water, forms a most picturesque object.

35. – ITINERANT TRADER OF NAPLES.

Walachians.– From the consideration of the types of mankind in Italy, we naturally pass to those of their neighbours, the inhabitants of Walachia and Moldavia.

Under the title, Walachians or Moldo-Walachians, are comprehended the people of Walachia, Moldavia, and some of the neighbouring provinces.

The Walachians proceed from the fusion of the Roman colonies, established by Trajan, and of some Greek settlements, with the ancient Slavonic inhabitants of these countries. The language of this people corresponds with their triple origin, for it possesses the characteristics of Latin, Greek, and Slavonic.

36. – AN ACQUAJOLO, AT NAPLES.

Walachia and Moldavia form the ancient Dacia. The Walachians, originally subject to the kingdom of Bulgaria and to that of Hungary, formed, in 1290, an independent state, the first prince of which was called Rodolph the Black. About 1350 one of their colonies occupied Moldavia under the leadership of a prince named Dragosch. But the Walachian state was never very firmly constituted, and in 1525 the battle of Mohacz reduced it finally under Turkish rule. The Turks did not disturb the internal government of the Walachians, but obliged their prince (hospodar) to pay an annual tribute to the Porte, and to maintain Turkish garrisons in all their strongholds. But Walachia, being situated between the Ottoman empire on one side, and Hungary, Poland, and Russia, on the other, became the scene of most of the struggles between its formidable neighbours. It was trampled over by both Christian and Mussulman, and this terrible situation resulted in ruin and exile to its unfortunate inhabitants. The hospodars who occupied the thrones of Walachia and Moldavia were appointed by the court of Constantinople, who sold this dignity to the highest bidder. The hospodars were then only a species of pacha; their court was formed after the pattern of those of the Byzantine emperors, but they did not possess the military power of the Turkish pachas.

This situation has changed since 1849, when a treaty was concluded between the Porte and Russia. By the terms of this treaty, the dignity of hospodar was maintained during the lifetime of its possessor. New events have happened, and, since the year 1860, the political protection of the Danubian Principalities is shared between Russia, the Porte, Prussia, and Austria. The Prince of Hohenzollern, who now occupies the throne of Moldo-Walachia, is of Prussian birth.

The two principalities of Moldavia and Walachia enjoy their nationality and independence on condition of paying a yearly tribute to the Porte.

None of their forts are now to receive a Turkish garrison.

The prince is assisted by a council formed of the leading boyards, and this council forms a high court of appeal for judicial affairs. In modern times, Couza was the best known prince of Walachia, although political events or popular discontent led to his early fall.

The public safety is attended to by a sort of indigenous police, commanded by the head spathar.

37. – WALACHIAN.

The inhabitants of Walachia are remarkable for patience and resignation; without these qualities, it would have fared hard with them during the calamities which have at all times befallen their country. They are men of a mild, religious, and sober temperament. But, since they are unable to enjoy the result of their labour, they do as little work as possible. The milk of their kine, pork, a little maize, and beer of an inferior quality, with a woollen dress, is all they require. On fête days, however, the peasants appear in brilliant costumes, which we represent here (figs. 37, 38, 39).

“The Walachians,” says M. Vaillant, “are generally of considerable height, well-made, and robust; they have oblong faces, black hair, thick and well-arched eyebrows, bright eyes, small lips, and white teeth. They are merry, hospitable, sober, active, brave, and fitted to make good soldiers. They profess Christianity according to the rites of the Greek church. This people, which has so long inhabited countries devastated by warfare, shows at the present time a strong disposition to develop itself.”

38. – LADY OF BUCHAREST.

Towns are rare in Walachia, the country being still far in arrear of the surrounding civilization, in consequence of its political subordination to Turkey, and its bad internal organization. The country of the Danube, indeed, has practically but one large town, that is, Bucharest. There are thus, in this land, no centres from whence light could emanate; it is in an incomplete state of civilization, which can be improved only by an internal revolution, or by the collision which, sooner or later, must come, of its powerful adjacent empires.

39. – WALACHIAN WOMAN.

“However,” says Malte-Brun, “nature seems to await human industry with open arms; there are few regions upon which she has lavished her gifts as she has here. The finest river in Europe bathes the southern frontier of these provinces, and opens a way into fertile Hungary, and the whole Austrian empire, offering, moreover, a communication between Europe and Asia, by the Black Sea; but this is all in vain, for hardly a single vessel glides over its waves. Its rocks, its shoals, the Turkish garrisons on its banks, and above all, the plague, inspire fear. Other fine rivers flow from the summit of the Carpathian mountains, and fall into the Danube; but they serve only to supply fish during Lent, and, being left to themselves, menace the surrounding country, which, if better regulated, they would fertilize. The Aluta, Jalovitza, and Ardschis, are navigated only by flat-bottomed boats. Immense marshes encumber the low parts of Walachia, and their exhalations produce a continuance of bilious fevers. The most superb forests, in which splendid oaks grow side by side with beeches, pines, and firs, cover not only the mountains, but many of the large islands in the Danube. These, instead of being used in the construction of fleets, merely furnish the wood used in paving the streets or roads; for idleness and ignorance find no means of raising the blocks of granite and marble, of which the Carpathians offer such abundance. The summit of Mount Boutchez attains a height of more than six thousand feet, and all the mineral wealth of Transylvania seems to take its origin in Upper Walachia. Copper mines have been opened at Baya di Roma, and iron mines in the district of Gersy, one especially in the neighbourhood of Zigarescht, where a bed of rocks presents the phenomenon of an almost continual igneous fermentation.

40. – NOBLE BOSNIAK MUSSULMAN.

“The Aluta and other rivers bring down nuggets of gold, which are collected by the Bohemians, or Ziguans, and which indicate the presence of mines as rich as those of Transylvania; but no one thinks of looking for them. Only the salt quarries are worked, among which that of Okna Teleago furnishes 150,000 cwt. per annum. The climate, notwithstanding two months of hard winter and two months of excessive heat, is more favourable to health and agriculture than that of any of the adjacent countries. The pastures, filled with aromatic plants, supply nourishment even to the herds of neighbouring provinces, and could support even more than these. The wool of their sheep has already attained considerable value. It is estimated that Walachia contains two and a half millions of sheep, which are of three-fold variety – the zigay, with short and fine wool; the zaskam, with long coarse wool; the tatare, which forms a mean between the two foregoing varieties. Horses and oxen are exported. Fields of maize, wheat, and barley; forests of apple, plum, and cherry trees; melons and cabbages, excellent, although enormous, bear witness to the productive nature of the soil. Many of its wines sparkle with a generous fire, and with care might be brought to equal the well-known Hungarian vintages. A thousand other natural advantages are found there, but they are of little avail to a people without energy or enlightenment.”

Slavonian Family

This family comprehends the Russians, Finns, Bulgarians, Servians, and Bosniaks, that is to say, the inhabitants of Slavonia; and the Magyars, or Hungarians, the Croats, the Tchecks, the Poles, and the Lithuanians, that is, the people who inhabit the countries intervening between the Baltic and Black Seas.

Before describing these people individually, we shall give in a general manner the characteristics of the family to which they all belong.

The Slavonian family includes the European peoples who have preserved in the greatest perfection the type of the primitive Aryan race. They are tall, vigorous, and well made, and while in this respect they recall the Caucasian type, they yet possess the most distinct marks of the Mongolian type. The cheek bones are high, the nose is depressed at the root, and turned up towards the extremity, which is almost invariably thick. The oval form of the cranium is very marked; the chest is of considerable capacity, and the shoulders and arms are large, but the lower extremities are in proportion much smaller.

Mr. William Edwards has thus described the organic type of the Slavonians: —

“The form of the head, viewed from the front, represents pretty nearly a square, since the height is about equal to the breadth, while the top is perceptibly flattened, and the direction of the jaw is horizontal. The nose is less long than the space between its basis and the chin: from the nostrils to the root, it is almost straight, that is, there is no decided curve; but if such curve were appreciable, it would be slightly concave, so as to give the tip a tendency to rise; the lower portion is rather broad, and the extremity rounded. The eyes, which are slightly hollow, are exactly in the same line, and if they present any marked characteristic, it is that they are rather small in proportion to the head. The eyebrows, which are scanty, are nearly contiguous at the inner angle, whence they are directed obliquely outwards. The mouth, which is small with thin lips, is much nearer the nose than the chin. A singular characteristic which must be taken in connection with the above, and which is very general, consists in the absence of beard except upon the upper lip.”

It has been said that the Slavonians of the present day are the old Scythians mixed with the Sarmatians, but their origin is not so simple as this. These people originally bore the name of Venedians or Servians. They occupied, at the commencement of the Christian era, the banks of the Danube and Hungary proper, whence they extended as far as the Dnieper and the Baltic. Their name of Servians is derived from a people mentioned by Ptolemy, under the name of Σερϐοι, who dwelt in the regions around the Baltic (Palus-Meotis), and belonged to the Sarmatian nation. The Sarmatians advanced by degrees from the banks of the lower Don, which was their country, to the centre of Poland, where they mixed with the Venedians. The Sarmatians were allied to the Scythians of Europe, who were an Indo-European nation, considered by Diodorus of Sicily, and Pliny, to have come originally from Media.

41. – RUSSIAN SENTINEL, RIGA.

It will be seen that the rather complicated pedigree of the Slavonians, is connected with gradual displacements of Asiatic populations. This then explains the fact that they possess the Caucasian type in a remarkable degree of purity, but altered by the admixture of Mongolian blood.

A certain love of separatism, and a tendency to rebel under the yoke of authority, have been the misfortune of these people. At an early period they separated into rival nationalities, possessing but little capacity for self-government. Anarchy was their political condition, and to this must be attributed the misfortunes of Poland and Hungary, nations which, at the present day, are almost effaced from the Map of Europe.

The Slavonians occupy a large portion of Eastern Europe; formerly they had advanced as far as the centre of Germany. The descendants of the German Slavonians are found in the Venedians of Lusatia, the Tchecks or inhabitants of Bohemia, and the inhabitants of Carinthia and Carniola. The purest type of the Slavonian race is to be found in the Servians, inhabitants of Servia, Herzegovina and Hungarian Slavonia. The Bosniaks and Montenegriners are also Slavonians. They formerly sent to Croatia colonists under the name of Uscoks (emigrants.)

The Croats are Slavonians who descended, about the ninth century, from the region of the Carpathians in Illyria, and who absorbed the previous original Pannonian and Dalmatian population.

A branch quite distinct from this great race, and which might be considered as forming a separate stock, is represented by the Lithuanians, a people whose mild and indolent nature would seem to imply a mixture at some remote period, with Finn, or, perhaps also, with Gothic blood.

Russia is occupied at the present day by a Slavonian race mixed with the Scandinavians and the primitive inhabitants of the soil. The Slavonians who occupied Poland spread from the banks of the Dnieper to the foot of the Oural mountains, while the immigration of the Varegians, a Scandinavian people, brought a northern influence into this country. These Varegians absorbed the Slavonians whom they found in this country, and the Tchoudans who had summoned them. Under this twofold action arose the Russian nation, which is mentioned by Greek writers for the first time in 839, and the elements of which were subsequently modified in various respects by the infusion of Turkish and Mongolian blood. Russia took its name from the country situate around Upsal, which was the native district of the Scandinavian emigrants (Rios-Lagen, the Ruotsimaa of the Finns).

42. – RUSSIAN DEVOTEES, RIGA.

The population of Russia Major appears to be chiefly composed of a Finnish-Slavonic race. Among the inhabitants of Russia Minor (Cossacks of the Ukraine), the Polish element predominates. Among these Russians we shall find the stock of those who established themselves farther north in Russia Major, the population of which eventually absorbed them. The Bielo-Russians, or inhabitants of White Russia, who occupy the greater portion of the provinces of Mohilew, Minsk, Witepsk, Grodno, and Wilna, constitute a race intermediate between the Russians and the Poles.

The latter first appear in history with the dynasty of the Piasts, about 860. The Slovachians, who extend to the north-west of Hungary as far as Austrian Galicia, belong, as well as the Tchecks, to this same Polish branch. The Ruthenians, settled to the north of Transylvania, proceeded from the mixture of the first Slavonians established in this country with the Poles who emigrated in the twelfth century from Galicia or Red Russia.

Such is the vast collection of populations united under the name of the Slavonian family.

It is difficult to analyze the habits of a race, which, for centuries, has been divided between oppression and slavery. We will, however, endeavour to do so, and shall commence with the Northern Slavonians.