Travels in Southeastern Europe

The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.

THE STORY OF THE PEOPLE. 19 dark lands beyond the Danube. It was the day of the shifting of the nations, and they moved in resistless thousands. Of the many who came and killed and plundered, but claim no territories to-day, we have no space to tell; but the coming of the Slavs is an all-important fact in the history of the Balkans. These early days are dim, and dates are uncertain; all that it is safe to say is that Slav tribes were drifting over the Danube probably as early as the third century A.D., and settling in the fat lands that form modern Servia and Bulgaria. By the end of the sixth century this dribbling immigration became an invasion. Slavs poured in in irresistible numbers; they disputed the lands with the original inhabitants, driving them before them to the mountains, as the Saxons did the Britons, and settled as village communities on the undulating, well-watered plains. These Slavs are described as an agricultural, herdtending people. Like the people they displaced, they were divided into clans, which were ruled by independent chiefs (Zhupans), who quarrelled freely among themselves, but met and discussed matters of common interest, and were loosely held together by a headman elected by themselves, who recognised the suzerainty of the Byzantine Emperor. This tribal state, which is common to the childhood of most races, would not be noteworthy in this brief sketch were it not for the strange fact that neither Slav nor Albanian has yet quite outgrown it, and it has proved a source of weakness which has largely influenced the fate of each. By the end of the seventh
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About this Item

Title
The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham.
Author
Durham, Mary Edith, 1863-1944.
Canvas
Page 19
Publication
London :: Nelson,
[1905]
Subject terms
Eastern question (Balkan)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel.

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https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001
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https://quod.lib.umich.edu/b/bosnia/ans3900.0001.001/26

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"The burden of the Balkans / by M. Edith Durham." In the digital collection Travels in Southeastern Europe. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/ans3900.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 1, 2025.
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