quantities of this cereal, as well as barley, rye and oats are
exported. The total export of cereals in 1808 was valued at
L. 70,800. Sheep and goats form almost the only wealth of
the mountaineers of northern Albania; large cattle are found
only on the plains. The slopes of Pindus afford excellent
pasture for the flocks of the Vlach shepherds. The export of
raw hides and wool is considerable; in 1898 these commodities
were valued respectively at L. 90,400 and L. 24,000. The lakes
and rivers of Albania abound in fish. The scoranze (Alb.
seraga), a kind of sardine, is taken in great quantities in
Lake Scutari; it is salted and smoked for home consumption and
exportation. Sea-fishing is almost wholly neglected.
There are salines at Avlona and other places on the coast.
Commerce anid Industries.--The exports in 1898 were estimated
at L. 480,000, the imports at L. 1,360,000, the former comprising
agricultural produce, live stock, hides, wool, cheese, eggs,
poultry, olive oil, valonia, sumach leaves, timber, skins of wild
animals, silk, tobacco and salted fish, the latter manufactured
articles, cloth, hardware, furniture, firearms, gunpowder,
sugar, coffee, &c. The monopoly of Albanian commerce formerly
Dossessed by Venice has descended to Austria-Hungary; the
trade with other countries, except Italy, is inconsiderable.
Owing to the poverty of the people, cheap Austrian goods
find a readier sale than the more expensive and solid British
manufactures. The maritime traffic is largely conducted
by the steamers of the subsidized Austrian-Lloyd company,
Trieste being the principal commercial centre; the coasting
trade is carried on by small Greek and Turkish sailing
vessels. The trade of the northern and western districts has
to some extent been diverted to Salonica since the opening of
the railways from that town to Mitrovitza and Monastir. The
development of commerce is retarded by lack of communications;
the country Dossesses no railways and few roads. Several
railway lines have been projected, but there is no great
probability of their construction under existing political
conditions. The Via Egnatia, the great Roman highway to the
east, is still used; it runs from Durazzo (Dyrrhachium) to
Elbassan and Ochrida. Iannina is connected by carriage-roads
with Monastir, Agii Saranta and Preveza. As a rule, however,
bridle-paths supply the only means of communication. The
native industries are inconsiderable, and many of them are
in a languishing condition. The manufacture of highly ornate
firearms, yataghans and other weapons at Scutari, Jakova
and Prizren has declined, owing to the importation of modern
rifies and revolvers. Gold and silk embroidery, filigree
work, morocco and richly-braided jackets are produced for
home use and for sale in Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro.
Population----The population of Albania may be estimated
at between 1,600,000 and 1,500,000, of whom 1,200,000 or
1,100,000 are Albanians. Of the other races the Slavs
(Serbs and Bulgars) are the most numerous, possibly numbering
250,000. Servian settlements exist in various parts of
northern Albania; there is a strong Bulgarian colony in the
neighbourhood of Dibra and Ochrida; farther south, Mount Zygos
and the Pindus range--the ``Great Walachia'' of the middle
ages---are inhabited by Vlachs or Tzintzars, who possibly number
70,000. Some Turkish colonies are also found in the south-eastern
districts. There is a considerable Greek-speaking population
in Epiros (including many Mahommedan Albanians), which must,
however, be distinguished from the genuine Greeks of Iannina,
Preveza and the extreme south; these may be estimated at
100,000. The population of the vilayet of Scutari is given
as 237,000, that of the vilayet of Iannina as 552,000. The
principal towns are Scutari (Albanian Shkoder, with the
definite article Shkodr-a), the capital of the vilayet
of that name, pop. 32,000; Prizren, 30,000; Iannina (often
incorrectly written Ioannina), capital of the southern
vilayet, 22,000; Jakova, 12,000; Dibra, 15,000; Prishtina,
11,000; Ipek (Slav. Petch), 15,000; Berat, 15,000; Ochrida,
11,000; Tirana, 12,000; Argyrokastro, 11,000; Kortcha (Slav.
Goritza), 10,000; Elbassan (perhaps ancient Albanopolis),
8000; Metzovo, 7500; Preveza, 6500; Avlona, 6000; Durazzo,
5000; Parga, 5000; Butrinto, 2000; and Kroia, the ancient
fortress of Scanderbeg, 5000. All these, except Elbassan,
Metzovo and Kroia, are described in separate articles.
The Albanians are apparently the most ancient race in
southeastern Europe. History and legend afford no record
of their arrival in the Balkan Peninsula. They are probably
the descendants of the earliest Aryan immigrants, who were
represented in historical times by the kindred Illyrians,
Macedonians and Epirots; the Macedonians and Epirots are
believed by Hahn to have formed the core of the pre-Hellenic
Tyrrheno-Pelasgian population which inhabited the southern
portion of the peninsula and extended its limits to Thrace and
Italy. The Illyrians were also ``Pelasgian,'' but in a wider
sense. Of these cognate races, which are described by the
Greek writers as barbarous or non-Hellenic, the Illyrians
and Epirots, he thinks, were respectively the progenitors
of the Ghegs, or northern, and the Tosks, or southern,
Albanians. The Via Egnatia, which Strabo (vii. fragment 3)
describes as forming the boundary between the Illyrians and
Epirots, practically corresponds with the course of the
Shkumb, which now separates the Ghegs and the Tosks. The
same geographer (v. 2. 221) states that the Epirots were also
called Pelasgians; the Pelasgian Zeus was worshipped at Dodona
(Homer, Il. xvi. 234), and the neighbourhood of the sanctuary
was called Pelasgia (Herodotus ii. 56). The meaning of the
term ``Pelasgian'' is, however, too obscure to furnish a
basis for ethnographical speculation; in the time of Herodotus
it may have already come to denote a period rather than a
race. The name Tosk is possibly identical with Tuscus,
Etruscus, while the form Tyrrhenus perhaps survives in
Tirana. The large number of Slavonic local names in
Albania, even in districts where no trace of a Slavonic
population exists, bears witness to the extensive Servian
and Bulgarian immigrations in the early middle ages, but
the original inhabitants gradually ousted or assimilated the
invaders. The determination with which this remarkable race
has maintained its mountain stronghold through a long series
of ages has hitherto met with scant appreciation in the outside
world. While the heroism of the Montenegrins has been lauded
by writers of all countries, the Albanians---if we except
Byron's eulogy of the Suloits---still remain unsung. Not
less noticeable is the tenacity with which isolated fragments
of the nation have preserved their peculiar characteristics,
language, customs and traditions. The Albanians in Greece and
Italy, though separated for six centuries from the parent stock,
have not yet been absorbed by the surrounding populations.
The Albanians, both Ghegs and Tosks, call themselves Shkupetar,
and their land Shkupenia or Shkuperia, the former being
the Gheg, the latter the Tosk form of the word. Shkupetar
has been variously interpreted. According to Hahn it is a
participial from shkyipoij, ``I understand,'' signifying
``he who knows'' the native language; others interpret it
with less probability as ``the rock-dweller,'' from shkep,
shkip, N. Alb. shkamp, ``rock.'' The designations Arber
(Gr. 'Arbanites, Turk. Arnaoiit), denoting the people,
and Arbenia or Arberia, the land, are also, though less
frequently, used by the Albanians. A district near Kroia
is locally known as Arbenia; the Tosk form Arberia strictly
applies only to the mountain region near Avlona. The region
inhabited by a more or less homogeneous Albanian population
may be roughly marked out by a line drawn from the Montenegrin
frontier at Berane to Mitrovitza and the Servian frontier
near Vranya; thence to Uskub, Prilep, Monastir, Florina,
Kastoria, Iannina and Parga. These limits, however, are
far from including all the members of a widely scattered
race. The Albanians in Greece, whose settlements extend over
Attica, Boeotia, the district of Corinth and the Argolid
peninsula, as well as southern Euboea and the islands of Hydra,
Spetzae, Poros and Salamis, descend from Tosk immigrants in
the 14th century. They played a brilliant part in the War
of Independence (1821-1829), and to-day supply the Greek
army with its best soldiers. They were estimated by Leake at
200,000. A large number still speak the Albanian langaage;
many of the older men, and a considerable proportion of the
women, even in the neighbourhood of Athens, are ignorant of
Greek. The Albanian settlements in southern Italy and Sicily
were founded in 1444, 1464 and 1468; minor immigrations
followed in the three succeeding centuries. In southern Italy
there are 72 Albanian communes, with 154,674 inhabitants;
in Sicily 7 communes, with 52,141 inhabitants. The Italian
and Sicilian Albanians are of Tosk descent, and many of them
still speak a variation of the Tosk dialect. There are also
several Albanian settlements in European Turkey and Asia
Minor, some founded by military colonists who received grants
of land from successive sultans, others owing their origin
to enforced migrations after insurrections in Albania. The
only genuine division of the Albanian race is that of Ghegs
and Tosks; the Liaps, who inhabit the district between the
Viossa and the sea, and the Tshams or Chams, who occupy the
coast-land south of the Kalamas, are subdivisions of the Tosk
family. The name Gheg (Gege-a) is not adopted by the Ghegs
themselves, being regarded as a nickname; the designation Tosk
(Toske-a) is restricted by the Tosks to the inhabitants
of a small region north of the lower Viossa (Toskeria).
National Characteristics.---While the other primitive
populations of the peninsula were either hellenized or latinized,
or subsequently absorbed by the Slavonic immigration, the
Albanians to a great extent remained unaffected by foreign
influences. Retaining their original language and preserving
the customs and institutions of remote antiquity, they present
a distinct type, and differ in many essential particulars from
the other nations of the peninsula. The Ghegs especially,
notwithstanding their fierce and lawless character, their
superstition, ignorance and predatory propensities, possess
some noteworthy qualities rarely found in eastern Europe:
simple, brave, faithful, and sometimes capable of devoted
attachment, these wild mountaineers make excellent soldiers and
trustworthy retainers; they have long furnished a bodyguard to
the sultan and, like the Tosks, are much employed as kavasses
and attendants at foreign embassies and consulates in the
East. The native disposition of the Tosks has been modified
by intercourse with the Greeks and Vlachs; while the Gheg
devotes his attention exclusively to fighting, robbery and
pastoral pursuits, the Tosk occasionally occupies himself with
commercial, industrial or agricultural employments; the Gheg
is stern, morose and haughty, the Tosk lively, talkative and
affable. The natural antipathy between the two sections of the
race, though less evident than in former times, is far from
extinct. In all parts of Albania the vendetta (gyak, jak)
or blood-feud, the primitive lex talionis, is an established
usage; the duty of revenge is a sacred tradition handed down
to successive generations in the family, the village and the
