mountainous district north-east of Scutari. Owing to the proximity of the capital this group is comparatively subject to the Turkish power, and pays a small annual tribute; the chiefs, who assess and collect the tribute, form a kind of administrative council; the confederation has also an official representative council at Scutari, called the Jibal, under the presidency of a Serkardé or Moslem official. (3) The Dukajin, whose territory lies between that of the last-named group and the district of Jakova, include the Pulati, Shalla, Shoshi and other tribes; they are more independent and more savage than the Mi-shkodrak, and have never paid tribute from time immemorial. (4) The Puka group, known as “the Seven Baryaks of Puka,” dwell on the south side of the river Drin; they are nominally administered by a Turkish kaimakam, who is a mere spectator of their proceedings. (5) The Malsia Jakovs, a group of two Catholic and three Moslem tribes, extend in the direction of Jakova, where they maintain an official representative; they are entirely exempt from taxation. (6,7) The Malsia-Lezhs, who occupy the Alessio highlands, and the Malsia Krues, who inhabit the region north of Kroïa, live in a state of extreme poverty and pay no tribute; the Malsia Krues are much addicted to brigandage. To these seven groups, which are included under the general appellation of Malissori, or “highlanders,” may be added the Malsia of Dibra, who extend to the west and north of that town, and form a large separate group; they are notorious for their fierce lawless character, and maintain themselves by plundering the Bulgarian peasants in their neighbourhood. In general the attitude of the Albanians in the north-eastern districts towards the Slavonic peasantry may be compared with that of the Kurds towards the Armenians. In the region east of Kroïa the Mat tribe, which occupies the upper valley of the Matia, presents an entirely different organization; their district is governed by four wealthy families, possessing hereditary rank and influence. Towards the south the tribal organization becomes looser and is gradually supplanted by a kind of feudal system; among the powerful aristocratic houses may be mentioned the Vliores at Avlona, who are stated to own over 150 sq. m. of land, and the Toptans at Tirana. The principal landowners, who reside in fortified houses, are all Moslems; their estates are cultivated on the métayer system. Since the time of Ali Pasha, who broke the power of the local chieftains, southern Albania has been subject to the central Turkish power; before that period the mountaineers of Suli and Khimara enjoyed an independence similar to that of the Gheg tribes.
Religions.—The great majority of the Albanians, probably more than three-fifths, are Moslems. The conversion of the Christian population to Islam appears to have taken place during the 16th and 17th centuries. Like the Cretan Moslems and the Bulgarian Pomaks, the Albanian Mahommedans retain many Christian traditions and customs; it is said that many thousands of them secretly adhere to their original faith. In the vilayet of Scutari they form about 55% of the population; central Albania is almost entirely Moslem; in southern Albania, however, there is a considerable Christian population, whose limits practically coincide with those of the Greek-speaking districts. Of the Christian population (about 600,000), some 110,000 are Roman Catholic Ghegs, some 90,000 are Orthodox Tosks, and some 400,000 are Orthodox Slavs, Greeks and Vlachs. The Roman Catholic Ghegs appear to have abandoned the Eastern for the Western Church in the middle of the 13th century. Their bishops and priests, who Wear the moustache in deference to popular prejudice, are typical specimens of the church militant. Some of the Gheg tribes, such as the Puka, Malsia Jakovs and Malsia Krues, are partly Roman Catholic, partly Moslem; among fellow-tribesmen the difference of religion counts for little. The Mirdites are exclusively Roman Catholic, the Mat-i exclusively Moslem. At the head of the Roman Catholic hierarchy are the archbishops of Scutari (with three suffragans), Prizren and Durazzo; the mitred abbot of St Alexander is the spiritual chief of the Mirdites. The Orthodox Church has metropolitans at Prizren, Durazzo, Berat, Iannina and Kortcha; the Bulgarian exarchate maintains a bishop at Dibra. Of the Albanians in Sicily the great majority (44,791) remain faithful to the Greek Church; in Italy 116,482 follow the Latin ritual, and 38,192 the Greek. All the Albanians in Greece belong to the Orthodox Church.
Education.—Education is almost non-existent, and the vast majority of the population, both Christian and Moslem, are totally illiterate. Instruction in the Albanian language is prohibited by the Turkish government for political reasons; a single exception has been made in the case of an American school for girls at Kortcha. There are Turkish primary and secondary schools in some of the towns; in the village mosques instruction in the Koran is given by the imāms, but neither reading nor writing is taught. The aristocratic Moslem families send their sons to be educated in Constantinople or Vienna. At Scutari a college and a seminary are maintained by the Jesuits, with the aid of the Austrian government; the Franciscans have several primary schools, and three lay schools are supported by the Italian government; in all these institutions Italian is the language of instruction. There are two Servian seminaries at Prizren. In southern Albania there are Greek schools in the towns and a large Greek gymnasium at Iannina. The priests of the Greek Church, on whom the rural population depend for instruction, are often deplorably ignorant. The merchant families of Iannina are Well educated; the dialect spoken in that town is the purest specimen of colloquial Greek.
Language.—Albanian is peculiarly interesting as the only surviving representative of the so-called Thraco-Illyrian group of languages which formed the primitive speech of the peninsula. It has afforded an attractive study to philologists, amongst whom may be mentioned Malte-Brun, Leake, Xylander, Hahn, Miklosich and G. Meyer. The analysis of the language presents great difficulties, as, owing to the absence of literary monuments, no certainty can be arrived at with regard to its earlier forms and later development. The groundwork, so far as it can be ascertained, and the grammar are Indo-European, but a large number of words have been borrowed from the Latin or Italian and Greek, and it is not always easy to decide whether the mutilated and curtailed forms now in use represent adopted words or belong to the original vocabulary. There is also a considerable admixture of Turkish and Slavonic words. Notwithstanding certain points of resemblance in structure and phonetics, Albanian is entirely distinct from the neighbouring languages; in its relation to early Latin and Greek it may be regarded as a co-ordinate member of the Aryan stock. It possesses seven vowels; among the consonants are the aspirated d and t, as in Greek, and many other sounds, such as b, d, sh, zh (French j), and hard g, which are wanting in Greek, but exist in the Slavonic languages. There are three declensions, each with a definite and indefinite form; the genitive, dative and ablative are usually represented by a single termination; the vocative is formed by a final o, as memmo from memme, “mother.” The neuter gender is absent. There are two conjugations; the passive formation, now wanting in most Indo-European languages, has been retained, as in Greek; thus kerko-iy, “I seek,” forms kerko-n-em, “I am sought.” The infinitive is not found; as in Greek, Rumanian and Bulgarian, it is replaced by the subjunctive with a particle. The two auxiliary verbs are kăm, “I have,” and yăm, “I am.” An interesting and characteristic feature of the language is the definite article, which is attached to the end of the word: e.g. mik (“friend,” amicus), mik-u (“the friend”); kien (“dog”), kien-i; Shkumb, Shkumb-i. The suffix-article likewise appears in Rumanian and Bulgarian, but in no other Latin or Slavonic language; it is in each case a form of the demonstrative pronoun. Another remarkable analogy between the Albanian and the neighbouring languages is found in the formation of the future; the Albanian do (3rd pers. sing. of dova, “I will”), like the Greek θὰ, is prefixed without change to all persons of the verb: a similar usage in Servian and Bulgarian, as well as in Rumanian (especially the Macedonian dialect), is peculiar to these languages in the Slavonic and Latin groups. These and other points of similarity, possibly only accidental, have led to the conjecture that the primitive Illyrian language may have exerted some kind of influence on
