III. The Slav peoples may be divided into three great linguistic groups—eastern, western, and southern.[384] The eastern group comprises the Great Russians or Vielkorousses (Figs. [102] to [105]), the Little Russians or Malorousses, otherwise called Ukrainians or Ruthenians, and the Bielorousses or White Russians. The latter inhabit the upper basins of the Dnieper, the Dwina, and the Vistula as far as the river Pripet (a tributary of the Dnieper), which separates them from the Little Russians. As to the boundary between these and the Great Russians, it follows an undulating line from the town of Souraj towards the Don, then a little to the north of the province of Kharkov, and thence to the south as far as the shores of the Sea of Azov. The Little Russians of eastern Galicia and Bukovina are known by the collective name of Ruthenians, or the local names of Gorales (mountaineers), Huzules, Boïki, Tukholtsi, etc. The colonisers of eastern and northern Russia have been Great Russians; the Little Russians have founded colonies in the south-east of Russia.
The western Slav group is composed of Poles of Russian Poland, western Galicia, Posen, and eastern Prussia (Mazours, Kashoobs), whose language is somewhat common in Lithuania; of Wends or Lujichanes or Sorobes, of the kingdom of Saxony and the Prussian province of Saxony (several thousands are in process of being germanised), of Czechs or Bohemians of Bohemia, and of a part of Moravia, of Slovaks, of Moravia and Hungary.
As to the southern group, it comprises the Slovenes or Slovintsi of Carniola and the interior of Istria (Austria-Hungary), and the Serbo-Croats, known by the name of Khorvates in Hungary, of Serbs in Servia, of Morlaks, Uskoks, etc., in Dalmatia, of Herzogovinians, Bosnians, Montenegrins, or Tsrnagortsi in other parts of the Balkan peninsula. The Servian tongue is also spoken in a portion of Macedonia. The Slav colonies which still existed some centuries ago in Greece and Thessaly must have been formed largely of Serbo-Croats. We must, lastly, include in this group the Bulgarians, a people of Turco-Finnish origin, slavonised for at least ten centuries; their habitat is in Bulgaria, Rumelia, a part of Macedonia, and several localities of Turkey. There exist several Bulgarian colonies in Russia (Crimea, northern shore of the Sea of Azov).
No greater homogeneity is shown by the Slav group than by the two great preceding ones, from the point of view of corporeal structure, and it is useless to look for a “Slav type.” Among the Slav peoples there is an interblending, as far as is known at present, of three principal and three secondary races, without taking into account the Turco-Ugrian elements. The traits of the secondary Vistulian race appear especially among the Poles of Prussia and Russia; the Eastern race is most marked in the White Russians, but is also met with among the Great Russians, the Mazours, and the Wends; the Adriatic race characterises the Serbo-Croats, as well as certain Czechs and Ruthenians; the sub-Adriatic race is well represented by a section of the Czechs, while numerous elements of the Western race are met with among the Slovaks, the Little Russians, and certain Great Russians.
Joined to the three great linguistic groups of Aryan peoples which we have just characterised are three others, less considerable but not less interesting, their manner of speech perhaps being nearer to the primitive Aryan tongue. These are the Letto-Lithuanian, Helleno-Illyrian, and Celtic groups.
The peoples of the first group are the Letts of Livonia and Kurland (Russia), and the Lithuanians peopling the provinces of Vilna, Grodno, the north of Russian Poland, as well as western Prussia, where they are germanised for the most part.
The majority of the Letts belong to the Northern or Sub-northern race, while the Lithuanians exhibit elements of the Sub-northern and Eastern race.
FIG. 104.—Russian woman of the district of Veréïa
(gov. Moscow), 20 years old, Eastern race (?).
(Phot. Bogdanoff, Coll. Museum of Nat. Hist., Paris.)