SEQUOYAH, se-kwo'yä, or GEORGE GIST, or GUESS, Cherokee Indian inventor: b. about 1770; d. near San Fernandino, Northern Mexico, 1842. He exercised his ingenuity in numerous ways,- as silversmith, blacksmith, artist. In 1821 he completed the Cherokee alphabet, for which he received in 1823 a silver medal from the Cherokee general council. This alphabet was perfectly adapted to the peculiarities of the Cherokee tongue, which it expressed as the English alphabet never could. He borrowed many symbols from an English speller. His alphabet was quickly adopted, was very successful, and was employed by the missionaries and, in part, in printing a newspaper, The Phoenix. The giant Sequoia tree named in his honor. Consult Foster, 'Sequoyah, the American Cadmus and the Modern Moses' (Ithaca, N. Y., 1885); Mooney, J., 'Myths of the Cherokee in Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology, Vol. XIX (Washington 1902).

was

SERAC, a term applied to the ridges or ice pinnacles between closely spaced glacial crevSee GLACIER.

asses.

SERAGLIO, sě-räl'yo, Constantinople, Turkey, the former imperial palace of the Osmanli sultans, occupying the extreme eastern part of the city proper, at the entrance of the Bosporus. It stands on the site of ancient Byzantium and is of great historic interest. The existing buildings date from the time of Mahmoud II, and chiefly occupy the summit of a hill, which is surrounded by fine gardens, the whole being enclosed by ruinous walls, partly of mediæval origin. The entrance is on the west, near the church of Saint Sophia, by the Imperial Gate (Babi Humayum, the "Sublime Porte"), which leads into a court lined by the mint, the old church of Saint Irene (now an armory, with many interesting objects), a museum of antiquities (also of some interest), etc. Another gate, the Orta Kapousi, leads from this court into an inner one, which is surrounded by arcades and the former kitchens of the sultan, his wives and officials. The main part of the seraglio is then reached through the Babi Saadet or Gate of Felicity, formerly guarded by eunuchs. Here is the Hall of the Divan, where ambassadors were formerly received, councils held, and justice administered; the treasury, with beautiful and valuable collections; and the harem, where the sultan's wives were housed. There are also kiosks and other buildings within the enclosure. From the time of Mahmoud II, this palace was not regularly occupied by the sultans, and it therefore lost much of its former magnificence and interest. The word seraglio in Western parlance has come to denote a harem or place for the seclusion of concubines.

SERAING, se-răn, Belgium, a town in the province of Liège, three miles southwest of the city of that name, on the Meuse river. The castle, formerly the residence of the Prince Bishops of the Church, was converted into one of the largest iron manufactories on the Continent. These extensive works cover a tract of 270 acres, and employ 10,000 men. The annual output is worth about $9,000,000. All kinds of machinery are manufactured. Connected with the establishment are hospitals, orphan homes, savings banks, schools, etc. VOL 24-37

577

SERAMPORE, sĕr-äm-pōr', or SRIRAMPUR, India, in Bengal, a town on the Hugli River, 12 miles north of Calcutta, and opposite Barrackpur. It has a school, church, college and library, connected with the Baptist Mission. The principal industry is the manufacture of paper and mats. The town under the name of Frederiksnager, belonged to Denmark until 1845, when it was purchased by the English East India Company. Early in the 19th century it was the scene of Baptist missionary activities, and contains the graves of Carey, Ward and others associated with the work. The town is attractive, and a summer resort for citizens of Calcutta. Pop. about 50,000.

SERAO, sã-rä'o, Matilda, Italian novelist: b. Patras, Greece, 1856, the daughter of an Italian political exile and a Greek mother. She became a schoolmistress at Naples, and her experiences struggling with poverty during this period are related in the introduction to 'Leggende Napolitaine) (1881). At the same time she assisted her father in editing his newspaper, and contributed short stories of Neapolitan life to Il Piccolo and other local publications. She first attracted attention by Novelle,' a short story, followed by her first popular novel 'Fantasia' (1883). From 1880 to 1886 she lived in Rome interested in literary work with D'Annunzio, Scarfoglio and others, and published Cuore Inferno) (1881); Fiordi Passione) (1883); Piccole Anime (1883); La Virtù de Checchina) (1884); and 'La Conquista di Roma' (1885). She married Scarfoglio and with him founded the short-lived Il Corriere di Roma; later returning to Naples where she edited Il Corriere de Napoli and subsequently founded Il Mattino and Il Giornio, which attained large circulations. She actively continued her book production. (Ventre di Napoli' appeared (1885); Paese di Cuccagna' (1891); Addio Amore'; 'All 'Erta Sentinella'; "Castigo'; 'La Ballerina'; Suor Giovanna della Croce'; 'Paese die Gesu,' between 1892 and 1902; Storia di due anime' (1904); 'Dopo il perdono (1906); 'I capelli de Sasone'; 'Sterminator Vesevo' (1910); Evvivia la Vita'; 'Ella non respose'; and others. English translations of her chief works have appeared. Her early work distinguished for the vigor of its realism, acute sensibility and accurate, observation, developed these traits with clearer insight and deeper psychological analysis in her later works. See LA BALLERINA; PAESE DI CUCCAGNA. Consult Croce, B., 'Matilde Serao' in La Critica (Vol. 1; Naples 1903); Dornis, J., Le roman Italien contemporain) (3d ed., Paris 1909).

SERAPEUM, the designation of Egyptian temples dedicated to the god Scrapis. The Serapeum at Memphis was the most famous. It

was the cemetery of the Apis, and close to the Apeum, where the bull dwelt while in life. Within its precincts also were the dwellings of the priests, and a hospital for the sick, who flocked here to be cured by the dreams vouchsafed them by the god. The approach to the temple from the city was through an avenue of sphinxes. The ruins of the edifice, as well as the dromos of sphinxes, which had already become partially buried in the sand in the days of Strabo, were discovered by M. Mariette in 1850. After excavating a length of 7,000 feet, and uncovering 141 sphinxes, he discovered at the end of the avenue a semi-circle adorned with statues of the sages, poets, and philosophers of ancient Greece, and this is supposed to have formed part of the library of the Serapeum. Near this a trensverse avenue led on the right to a temple of Apis, erected by Nectanebos, and on the left to the Serapeum itself. Further excavations disclosed the subterranean tombs of the mummies of the Apis. This great cemetery divided itself into two parts, the one, a vaulted gallery, containing 20 sepulchral chambers, of dates ranging from Rameses II to Psammetichus I; and the other, a souterrain, divided into a number of galleries, begun in the 52d year of Psammetichus I, and continued till the beginning of the Roman Empire. The bull mummies of this division were deposited in gigantic monolith sarcophagi of Syenitic granite, sometimes as high as 12 feet, with a length of 15 feet, and weighing upward of 60 tons. The dead bull was treated as a deceased human being, and the sarcophagi were accompanied by sepulchral vases and by the usual sepulchral figures offered to the dead. Votive tablets were placed over the lintels of the doors of the chambers, and as one of these always contained the date of the birth or discovery, the enthronement, and death or burial of the particular Apis, they have become of great importance in determining the chronology of the 19th and subsequent dynasties. They end with Ptolemy Euergetes II (177 B.C). The discovery of 146 papyri now in various museums), dating from the 18th to the 24th year of Ptolemy Philometor, shows that the temple was under the direction of prefects, delegates, vicars, sub-administrators and storekeepers. Two priestesses also served Æsculapius and Serapis, and certain male devotees lived in celibacy and seclusion within the precincts of the temple, which they never left. A large number of bronze figures and various other antiquities were also discovered among the ruins. The tablets found numbered 1,200, and altogether about 7,000 objects were discovered, nearly half of them referring to the worship of the Apis. See EGYPT.

SERAPHIM, a plural Hebrew noun which occurs only in one passage of the Bible, Isaiah vi, 2-6, where it denoted certain heavenly creatures of human form but having each six wings, with one pair of which they covered the face, with another pair the feet, and with the third pair did fly. Their station was above the throne of the Most High, and one cried to another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts." The prophet was in terror, conscious of his unworthiness and that he was a "man of unclean lips." Thereupon one of the Seraphim, taking from the altar a live coal in his hand, with it touched Isaiah's lips, purifying them and purging

SERAPION, physician of Alexandria, of the sect of the Empirici, who flourished about the 3d century. He occupied himself almost exclusively with inquiries into the nature of drugs, and was a keen opponent of Hippocrates.

SERAPIS, sĕ-rā'pis, or SARAPIS, an Egyptian divinity whose worship was introduced into Egypt in the reign of Ptolemy I. It is related by Plutarch and Tacitus that Ptolemy having seen in a dream the image of a god, which he was ordered to remove from the place in which it stood, sent to Sinope, on the suggestion of a traveler named Sosibius, and brought thence a colossal statue, which he sent up to Alexandria. It was declared to represent the god Serapis, affirmed by Manetho to be Pluto or the Jupiter of Sinope. A magnificent temple was built at Alexandria for the reception of the statue of Serapis, and this temple-the Serapeum was the last hold of the pagans in that city after the introduction of Christianity. Another temple of this god at Memphis, beside the Apis cemetery, was discovered by Mariette in 1850. (See SERAPEUM.) The Egyptians themselves never acknowledged him in their pantheon, but he was the principal deity in the Greek and Roman towns, and was considered to be either Osiris, Esculapius, Jupiter or Pluto. Forty-two temples are said to have been erected to him in Egypt under the Ptolemies and Romans; his worship extended also to Asia Minor, and in 146 A.D. it was introduced to Rome by Antoninus Pius. The image of Serapis perished with his temple at Alexandria, which was destroyed in 389 by the order of Theodosius.

SERASKIER, sĕr-as-ker', the name given to the commanders-in-chief of the Turkish armies, and particularly to the Minister of War. As applied in the latter sense the seraskier has very extensive powers, and is second only to the grand vizier.

SERBIA (Kraljevina Srbija), a kingdom in the Balkan Peninsula, now a constituent part of Jugoslavia, between lat. 42° 26′ and 44° 59' N. and between long. 19° 18′ and 22° 52′ E. It is bounded north by Slavonia and Banat, the natural boundaries being the rivers Save and the Danube, east by Rumania and Bulgaria, west, after the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 and in conformity with the Treaty of Bucharest (1913), by Bosnia (from which it is separated by the river Drina), Montenegro and Albania, and south by Greece. Its area is 42,098 square miles, of which 23,448 square miles were added after the Balkan and World Wars.

Topography, etc.-The greater part of the country with Shumadiya (forest-covered land) as its centre, forms a high plateau in which intermingle the four mountain systems: the Dinaric Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkans and the Rhodopes. The Carpathian system is slop

ing gradually from Banat into Serbia across the Danube where it is broken by a very narrow defile, below Orsova, called "Djerdap" (Iron Gate) and consists chiefly of schist and other crystalline rocks and partly also of chalky limestone interrupted accidentally by certain species of rock of volcanic origin intermingled with different ores and coal. The high plateau formed in the northeast by the Golubinje mountains, between the rivers Morava and Timok, the precipitous heights in the mountain range Lukavitza (with Rtanj 1566 metres), the deep gorges and snow-covered summits of the Suva Planina and Shar Planina, offer most picturesque and romantic scenery. The mountain range in western Serbia with the Kopaonik, Jastrebac, Jadar, Rudnik, Cer, Ovchar, Kablar, Cer, etc., encircle central Serbia, which is densely covered by woods (oak, beech, pine, etc.). The Macdva and Morava valleys are considered the most fertile and beautiful regions of the kingdom. The rivers for the most part flow to the north, and none of them is navigable although the Morava, which traverses the land and divides it in almost two equal parts, and the Drina have large volumes of water. The Danube and the Save are navigable for small boats, and their banks are for the most part very low; thus they irrigate abundantly the adjacent valleys. Among the tributaries of the Danube the most important are the Save, the Morava, the Timok (which with the Danube separate Serbia from Rumania), the Mlava, the Pek and Porechka. Of the tributaries of the Morava the principal are the Nishava and the Ibar. The newly acquired territories of Old Serbia and Macedonia are watered by the Vardar, which might eventually be joined to Morava and form thus a most important waterway from Belgrade to Salonica, the Bregalnica, the Drim (or Drin), the Crna and the Treska.

Climate and Soil.-On the whole the climate in Serbia is centro-European, although the country is situated in the same latitude as northern and central Italy. Alongside the Save and the Danube the climate is rather temperate, the average annual temperature being+13° C., varying between 8, 34° and 15, 63°, but the more one goes to the south the more rigid winters prevail, which may be explained by the mountainous configuration of the soil of central and southern Serbia. Severe winters prevail in the region between the Suva Planina and Rudnik, lasting sometimes five to six months, and very low temperatures have been recorded, the lowest, however, being -25° C. Rains are abundant, especially in the spring and autumn, and most frequent in October, but summers are often alarmingly droughty, so that the peasantry often have recourse to superstitious ("dodole") and religious processions imploring Nature for rain. The most important winds are the Severatz (north wind) and the Koslava (east wind), neither of which, however, is as trying as in most other Mediterranean countries. The soil of Serbia is very fertile; all kinds of cereals growing in abundance, notwithstanding the very primitive manner in which they are cultivated. Of all the cereals maize is most widely cultivated for it serves as the principal food of the population. Wheat of a high quality is also grown and constitutes Serbia's chief

rites

579

article of exportation. Of no less importance are barley and oats which grow in abundance and serve chiefly as food for horses. All kinds of fruit are cultivated, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, etc., but the most important are olums of which there are many varieties, especially in the districts of Kruseval, Macva, Sabac, Obrenovac and Kragnjerac. Plums are exported to a large extent, fresh and dried, also crushed and preserved in their own juice pekmez (marmalade). Exceller.t brandy "Slivovica" is made in a primitive manner from the surplus of plums and is highly esteemed in western Europe. A great area of southern Serbia is covered by vineyards producing delicious grapes, but Serbian wines have no quality on account of the very primitive method employed in this industry and they are for the most part exported to France for improvement whence they are reexported over the world under the name of "Bordeaux." Flax and more especially hemp grow mostly in the central districts of Vranja and Vlasotinci and are acknowledged to be of the best quality known in the world. Tobacco of delicious flavor and aroma grows in Serbian Macedonia and the districts of Nish and Alexinac, but this industry is wholly monopolized by the government which makes the use of tobacco almost prohibitive.

Mining. The mining industry in Serbia seems to be the oldest and the most developed, for there are archæologic remains in the mercury mines of Mount Avela, in the district of Belgrade, indicating that they have been worked from the Neolithic Age, and according to history silver mining constituted in the Middle Ages the principal source of wealth of the Nemanjichi's kingdom. As for gold there are remarkable formations in the diluvial and alluvial deposits of the rivers Timok and Pek, as also in the quartz veins and crystalline masses found in the department of Negotin and in the Majdanpek and Deli-Jovan. The Black River is famous for its alluvial washings, containing gold in trachytic rocks. But the most important of all Serbian ores are undoubtedly the unusually rich deposits of copper found in Bor, district of Pozharevatz, mostly in the shape of anticular masses of various pyrites but also, and especially at Majdanpek, in conjunction with iron sulphates, zinc and lead. Other important copper deposits have been found, and to some extent worked, in the mountains of Maljen, Povlen, Subovar and Vis. Lead ores are found in many parts in the valley of the Sava River (Podrinje), but none is of any great importance. However the Serbian government has built factories for smelting lead in the mountain of Krupanj. Zinc ores are frequent in Kuchajna and Rudnik, and nickel in connection with chrome oxide occurs in small quantities near the town of Kraljevo in the mountain of Suvobar. The most important mines of brown coal are those at Senje, and coal-beds of the Tertiary period and Tertiary lignite are to be found almost everywhere along the rivers Drina, Sava and Morava. There are several mines of liasic coal, mixed with sandy clay, at Dobra, Zajechar and along the river Timok, but the working of them is wholly inadequate and primitive. The quarrying industry (granite, lithographic stone, millstone and marble), and mineral waters is very sadly neg

lected despite the most liberal concessions which the government grants to those who wish to exploit them.

Commerce and Industries.- As Serbia is pre-eminently an agricultural and cattle-breeding country the principal articles of exportation are cereals of all description, fruit (fresh and dried), cattle, sheep, wool, pigs and products thereof, wax. honey, and certain domestic dyes. But the foreign commerce in Serbia has been greatly hindered by the insufficient mileage of railways, navigable rivers and other ways of communication; most especially has Serbian commerce suffered on account of the absence of an outlet to the sea. Under the new régime Serbia enjoys the great advantage of seaports. Austria-Hungary was the natural consumer of Serbian products, but that powerful monarchy at all times exercised a rigorous policy toward Serbia, limiting the number of heads of Serbian cattle and pigs to a small minimum and subjecting the same to most vexing regulations, which led directly at first to the Tariff War in 1905 and then to the European War of 1914. The principal articles of importation into Serbia are paper and paper products, colonial ware, metallic products, clothes, glass and china, and machinery of all description. Before the outbreak of the European War Serbia had conIcluded treaties of commerce with all the most important countries, granting to the United States of America the clause of the most favored nation. Besides their agricultural and pastoral pursuits the Serbian population busy themselves with the manufacture of raw materials and some domestic industries, which are not only primitive but show a marked decadence. This is chiefly due to the apparent superiority and comparatively low prices of imported products over those made by the peasants themselves. Women work the wool, the hemp and the flax from which they make, with an admixture of cotton not only linen for shirts and underwear but even the cloth for outer clothing of both men and women of the family, while men- and especially those who have no large landed property show great mechanical skill in shoe-making, for industry and other most elementary handicrafts. Much more could be said of the textile industry which is developed to a considerably high degree and which has earned a world-wide reputation for the Serbian rugs (manufactured chiefly in Pirot) woven on hand looms by women. Those rugs are much sought for on account of their solid workmanship, their original domestic designs and, most especially, their bright and permanent, natural coloring. But the most successful industry is flour-milling, which has been developed considerably owing to the natural advantage of water power and to the fact that the duty imposed by the late Dual-monarchy of AustriaHungary on Serbian cereals was so high that the peasantry were forced to export them in the form of flour. The brewing industry is also prosperous in Serbia for it supplies almost the entire home consumption, but beer is not by any means a popular or widespread drink among Serbian peasants. Sugar refining, manufacture of cheese, meat-packing, and, to some extent, timber and metal industry constitute almost the entire employment of the land. With the exception of a few factories on the banks of the

Danube and the Save, there are only small factories in the interior of Serbia; among those mention should be made of that at Vranjska Banja for treatment of hemp, at Leskovatz and Parachin for textiles. But on the whole industries in Serbia are only in their infancy, and the government realizing the great advantages which domestic industries bring to a country, is always prepared and even eager to grant most liberal concessions to persons, whether Serbian or foreign citizens, desiring to establish a new industry. The government grants to such enterprises not only free land necessary for the construction of factories and lodgings for workmen, but even exempts them from paying any custom duties on machinery, raw materials, and half-wrought articles of which they may have need in such factories. Furthermore the government sells to such industrials coal at the cost price and reduces the railway rates by 25 per cent from the fixed tariff.

In

Education and Religion.- Illiteracy in Serbia is very high, there being only about 20 per cent of the entire population who can read and write. Elementary schools are now to be met with it in nearly every little village and primary education is free and compulsory. larger towns there are "gymnasia" (Real and classic) corresponding somewhat to the American high schools. In Belgrade there is a university with faculties of philosophy, law and engineering, a military academy, a state academy of commerce and a theological seminary. All these schools are entirely maintained by the state, and there are very few private educational institutions. The Royal Serbian Academy of Science publishes and rewards the works of deserving writers, scientists and artists, and spreads knowledge all over the country by means of its excellent periodical Glas Akedemije Nauka. Prior to the 7th century the Serbians, and indeed all the Southern Slavs, were pagans, but there is only a slender material available concerning their worship of nature. Soon after the Serbian immigration into the Balkan Peninsula, during the 7th and 8th centuries, Christianity which was already deeply rooted with the Byzantines, easily destroyed the ancient_faith, not, however, without great struggle. Owing to the absence of competent interpreters of the Christian faith, and to the unintelligible manner and language in which it was enforced, as it were, on the population, great numbers of survivors of paganism remained in the Serbian provinces; most especially around the river Neretva. In the course of some thousand years Greco-Oriental myths and legends, ancient Illyrian and Roman propaganda and Christian legends and apocryphal writings, exercised so great an influence upon the ancient religion of the people that it is impossible to unravel from the tangled skein of such evidence as is available a purely Southern-Slavonic mythology, and throughout the Middle Ages, nay even to this day, the ancient worship of popular pagan divinities has persisted.

According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus the Serbians adopted the Christian faith at two different periods, first during the reign of the Emperor Heraclius, who had requested the Pope to send a number of priests to convert those peoples to the Christian faith. Yet the

un

Dalmatian Serbs remained pagans as late as the reign of Pope John IV (640-642). The Croatians already belonged to the Roman Church at the time when its priests were converting the Serbians to Christianity between the years 642 and 731, i.e., after the death of Pope John IV and before Leon of Isauria had broken off his relations with Rome. The second conversion of those Serbians who remained pagans was effected about 879, by the Emperor Basil I. The Grand Zupan Stefan Nemanja overthrew that subjection, but the Pope again succeeded, after Nemanja's death, in imposing his hegemony, only to be definitely overthrown by Nemanja's son Stefan Prvovenchani. The first Serbian archbishop was Rastko (later Saint Sava), Nemanja's youngest son, who was crowned by the Royal Wreath which King Stefan Prvovenchani obtained from the Pontifex Maximus. But the great Serbian ruler, Emperor Dushan the Mighty, brought the Serbian Church to its apogee when he elevated (in 1346) the Serbian archbishopric to the degree of Patriarchate, an act which drew upon it an anathema from the ever-jealous Patriarchate of Constantinople. When the Serbian Empire was lost on the battlefield of Kosovo (1389), and subjugated by the Osmanli Turks, the Church became a centre of nationalism, and in the course of nearly five centuries of Ottoman dominion, planned the insurrection against the oppressors. But the dominion was bearable, and Serbian patriarch Arsenije Crnojovich fled to Austria-Hungary, together with 37,000 Serbians. His example was followed by one of his successors (1738) whose name was also Arsenije. In the beginning of the 19th century the Greek Phanariots associated themselves with the tyrannic Pachas in the Serbian lands and gave a mortal blow to the Serbian Patriarchate of Pech (Ipek) and abolished even the Serbian episcopal see. But Prince Milos Obrenovich of Serbia succeeded in restoring the autonomy of the Church, giving the entire rule to the archbishop of Belgrade, Melentius, with the title of Metropolitan of Serbia. The election of the Metropolitan, however, was subject to the approval of the Patriarch of Constantinople who was to receive also a tribute in money; and it was only in 1879 that the Serbian Church became entirely independent. The present state religion in Serbia and Montenegro is the Eastern-Orthodox, and it maintains a union with the Universal Eastern Church. Serbia is divided in eparchies, the eparchs being elected by the Council of Bishops, which has the highest ecclesiastical authority. There are the High Ecclesiastic Judicial Court, the diocesan ecclesiastic courts, the department arch-priests and the deans of districts, and the parish priests. Public worship by other denomination (Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Mohammedans) is allowed in Serbia by the law, but the authorities of all religions are placed under the control of the Minister of Public Instruction and Public Worship.

Finance. The principal revenues are derived from direct and indirect taxes imposed on every citizen and owner of property, customs duties, excise, state monopolies of salt, sugar, tobacco, matches and petroleum. Prior to the Treaty of Berlin, Serbia had practically no debts but the construction of the International railway from Ostend to Constantinople forced

581

Serbia to construct her part and to enter into European financial markets and to conclude, in a rapid succession, the following loans: (1) Russian loan ($1,200,000); (2) Lottery Loan of 1881 (2 per cent) $4,945,000; (3) Loan from the Serbian State Mortgage Bank (5 per cent) $1,455,000; (4) Primary loan of 1888, $1,835,000; (5) Unified loan of 1895 (4 per cent) $67,580,000; (6) Railway loan of 1899 (5 per cent) $960,000; (7) Monopoly loan of 1902 (5 per cent) $2,300,000; (8) State loan of 1906 (42 per cent) $18,835,000. The war loans of 191218 are yet unknown but they certainly exceed $1,000,000,000. The State Budget in recent years has exceeded annually $60,000,000 onethird of which is generally expended by the war office.

Railroads and Transportation.- Railways in Serbia have a total length of about 1,000 miles consisting of the following lines: (1) Belgrade-Nish; (2) Belgrade-Semendria; (3) Nish-Vranja-Risbovatz-Uskub-Gjevgeli; (4) Stalat-Uritze; (5) Nish-Pirot-Tzaribrod; (6) Belgrade-Valjevo; (7) Nish-Knjazevatz; Paratyin-Zaietchar-Negotin; (9) Uskub-Mitrovitza; (10) Monastir-Greek frontier. Navigation on the Danube and the Save is of enormous importance in Serbian economic life. Apart from the steamships (about 15 in number) owned by the Serbian government and private companies, there are two foreign navigation companies, one Austrian and the other Russian. Roads and highways connecting principal towns in Serbia are fairly well constructed but the roads between smaller towns and villages are in very bad condition chiefly owing to the mountains and the rocky nature of the soil. The rivers Morava and Vardar, which traverse the country, are navigable only for very small boats.

History. The region inhabited at present by the Serbian race (Serbia proper, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Istria, Backka, Banat, Syrmia (Srem), the Sandjak of Novi Bazaar and Macedonia, was originally populated mostly by Thracian and Illyrian tribes, and ruled at first by Macedonia, then, during the 1st century, by the Romans. In this fertile and picturesque country flourishing towns sprang up on the banks of the Danube (Singidunum, to-day Belgrade) and the Morava (Naessus-Nish), but during the following centuries, lying as it does close to the great highway through Europe, it was overrun in succession by the Huns, East Goths and Langobards, and brought, about A.D. 550, under the sway of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, only to be torn from his successors by the Avars, who again laid it waste. It was at the beginning of the 7th century that the Serbians descended from the Carpathian slopes to the shores of the Black Sea, thence moved westward along the northern bank of the Danube, and, crossing the river, settled mostly in the same territories which they inhabit at the present time. Under what circumstances and under what leaders they effected their migration is unknown, but the ancient inhabitants of these regions (Latins, Illyrians, Thracians, Greeks, and the Pelasgs) seem to have been easily driven toward the Adriatic Coast. Their emperor, Heraclius (610-641), unable to oppose an effective resistance, ceded to the Serbians all the provinces which they had occupied and peace