BULGARIANS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1814, 29 July 1913, Page 6

BULGARIANS.

i TRAITS & ARCTIC ORIGIN. [Br C. W. Tanner.] Offshoot of the Samoyedes. The Balkan war presents several interesting studies, 0110 of which is the tremendous influence of ancestral blood. Even after long periods in the life of a people, and in spite of the admixture of strangers, tlio Mood of tho original stock seems never actually to disappear. This is exemplified in tho case of the Bulgarians. They seem to be first noticed in history about 120 B.C. Since that tinio Europeans have often forgotten them, but always at intervals their attention has been drawn with a sudden jolt to this peculiar people. The Bulgarians ware believed by early historians to bo of a Satuoyede, or Eskimo luce, and this seems to be proved by what is known about them personally, for otherwise nothing is known of their first origin. They have no separate language or literature of their own. They speak the languages of the people they have met—a mixture of Servian, Russian, Turkish, and Persian, which has become a patois that they flatter themselves can now be called a Bulgarian language. Their literature consists of folklore only, and thoir poetry of myths. In the course of historical knowledge they have occasionally subjugated people in their immediate neighbourhood, and in turn have been conquered by their neighbours, but they never assimilated with other peoples, though they might speak their languages, and they never wandered away from that pari of the eaTtli wliidh thoy are now occupying. In spite of contact with strangers, in spite of a stormy political existence, in spito of prosperity or poverty the old Samoyede blood never seems to have been lost:. The Eskimo type is still distinct. Tift high cheekbones, the narrow eyes, the roundish face are still prevalent amongst the people. It was raid before the war by a traveller that the only thing a Bulgarian officer was afraid of was getting fat—surely an inheritance from his old blubber-eating ancestors.

Europe no Home for Them, Centuries may come and go. but the strangers in a strange land will always be strangers. The Greeks havo stated that their late allies cannot be considered as a civilised nation, and the dread of the Bulgarians and their power was the cause of ths union of the two allies against t!he third. Contact with civilisation has made no change. The natural instincts still remain, and they still retain the old brutal ferocity of their ancient origin. The present war of Servia and Greece against Bulgaria is only following a natural law. The European will not allow a Sauioyedo raoe to attain supremacy. The two are distinct in blood, and not being, of merely rival tribes. Such may be friends and allies for convenience, but the European always" insists upon being on top. Unchanged in 2000 Years. ' Whatever may ba the filial result, of the war as regards Bulgaria, it will be like her history. Her territories may be curtailed, and she may be ruled by foreign kings, but always the Bulgarians will be a distinct people. As opportunity serves she will rise and stretch herself, and tlien bo driven back to her old confines. This people has' resisted assimilation, by peace or war, for over 2000 years. The old Samovede ancestry is still strong within them.- They are a persistent race, that has drifted down to the south from tlie land of snows, and remains like a berg that has stuck on a bar and will not melt.