Ages.  While the larger groups of invaders passed on to the west, these dropped out and moved southward into the Balkan peninsula, where their descendants still remain.  We must not think that these are pure races.  There has been much intermixture, and to-day all of the groups contain a strong Slavic element, although some are rather unwilling to admit it.  There is besides a Turkish element in the population, as the result of the long period of Turkish rule, especially in those districts where many of the original inhabitants accepted Mohammedanism, as in Albania and Macedonia.

THE SLAVS.—­The Serbs, a Slavic race, form the chief part of the population in Serbia and Montenegro, as well as in Bosnia and other parts of southern Austria-Hungary.  Together with the Croats and Slovenes of southern Austria-Hungary, the Serbs are called the Jugo-Slavs (yoo’go-slavz) or South-Slavs (jugo means “south”) to distinguish them from the Czechs, Poles, and Russians of the north.  There is, however, a strong feeling of relationship between these two great Slavic groups.

THE BULGARS.—­The Bulgars are descended from a non-Slavic race allied to the Tatars and Finns.  They came into the Balkan region on the heels of some of the early migrations and seized the land now called Bulgaria; there, however, they mingled with the native Slavic people whom they conquered, and whose language they adopted.  There are, besides, many Bulgarians in the Dobrud’ja—­the district lying between the lower Danube and the Black Sea.  Likewise in the province of Macedonia, the Bulgarians form the largest element in the population.

THE ROUMANIANS.—­Roumania is the old Roman province of Dacia, and the Roumanians claim to be descendants of colonists which the Romans sent into that province as an outpost against invasion.  It is certain that the language spoken by the Roumanians is much like Latin, but, as a recent writer says, the language is closer to Latin than the Roumanians are to Romans.

THE ALBANIANS.—­The Albanian people are descended from the most ancient of all the races in the Balkan peninsula; their language is the oldest language spoken in Europe.  For centuries they were nominally subject to Turkey; but the Turks never really succeeded in conquering them, though many of the Albanians became Mohammedans.

THE GREEKS.—­Though the Greeks are descended in part from the people who inhabited their country in ancient times, and though they speak a modern form of the old Greek language, it is certain that the present inhabitants are a much mixed race.  They are largely Slav, but hold a strong feeling for the great past of their country.  This gives them an unusually strong national rallying point.  In many ways the Greeks are the most progressive of the Balkan races.