in her language and customs. The social condition of the middle and upper classes bears traces of the libertinage of their barbarian conquerors of the Mussulman as well as of the Christian faith. The peasantry are a hardy and thrifty race, and in the highest circles of society the influence of Queen Carmen Sylva has been throughout beneficent. As her marriage left no heir, the succession to the throne passed to Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern (born in 1865), the nephew of the king.

Language and Literature.-Roumanian (or Wallachian) is one of the Romance Languages (q.v.), a daughter of the Latin; but, though the language is unmistakably Romance in type, the vocabulary is mixed, the number of Latin roots being variously estimated at more or less than half of the total, the next greatest element being Slavonic words (amounting, according to some authorities, to even more than the Latin roots), with some hundreds of Turkish, Greek, and Albanian words. Most Roumanians speak what is practically the same language-the Daco-Roumanian-throughout the kingdom, in Transylvania, in the Banat, and other parts of Hungary, Bukowina, and Bessarabia. The Macedo-Roumanian, south of the Danube and amongst the Balkans and Pindus, is largely modified by Greek; and the Istro-Roumanian, spoken by 2000 or 3000 in Istria and Croatia, has been much Slavonised.

Roumanian literature may be said to date from the 17th century, though the first Roumanian book, a psalter, was printed in 1577. The chronicles of the 17th century are the earliest specimens of national literature; but Greek was long the language of the educated, and it is only since the beginning of the 19th century that there is a popular Roumanian literature, the most interesting part of it being the songs. Of these Alexandri (q.v.), himself the most notable of native Roumanian poets, made a full collection (1866). Other names are Alexandrescu, Eminescu, and Scherbanescu. There are German translations by Carmen Sylva (q.v.), Kotzebue, and others. Dora D'Istria (see GHIKA) wrote mainly in French. Among authorities on

There have been few trustworthy books published on Roumania, the most recent in English being by Samuelson, Roumania Past and Present (Lond. 1882), and in German by Bergner, Rumänien (Breslau, 1887), both illustrated. Others are Wilkinson, The Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (Lond. 1820); Engel, Geschichte der Moldau und Walachei (Halle, 1801); Hammer-Purgstall, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches (Pesth, 1834-36); Lauriani, Ueberblick der Geschichte der Rumanen (Bucharest, 1846); Neigebauer, Moldau und Walachei (Breslau, 1854); Obedenare, La Roumanie économique (Paris, 1876); Aurelian and others, Notice sur la Roumanie (Paris, 1867); Kogalnitschan, Histoire de la Dacie, &c. (Berlin, 1854); Pic, Ueber die Abstammung der Rumänen (Leip. 1880); Raicewich, Moldau und Walachei (Vienna, 1879); Roesler, Rumänische Studien (Leip. 1871); Teutschländer, Michael der Tapfere (Wien, 1879); Zallony, Essai sur les Phanariotes Office, consular, and other reports: 1873 (Green), 1876 (Marseilles, 1824). There are also very useful Foreign (Vivian), 1877 (Sanderson), 1878 (Bonham), 1883 (White), 1885 (Sanderson), 1888 (Lascelles, Kennedy, Sanderson), 1889, 1890 (Lascelles, Sanderson), and several Board of Trade Returns containing information on the subject.

Roumelia (Turk. Rum Ili, land of the Romans-the inhabitants of the Western Roman empire, or Byzantine Greeks, being known to the Turks as Romans), a name which once applied generally to the whole of ancient Thrace and part of Macedonia. The province aptly enough called Eastern Roumelia is now incorporated with Bulgaria (q.v.). In central Asia Rum or Rumi means the peoples of western Asia; but the Sultan of Turkey is Rum-Padishah. In Turkey itself Rum means now usually the Greek nation and the Greek Church.