The Illyrians are unquestionably the ancestors of the modern Albanese or Arnauts. This opinion was expressed long ago, but has been disturbed in a very strange way by objections; the one, that this people could not have maintained itself among so many other nations, during great immigration, is worth nothing. This objection gave rise to the belief that the Albanese were an Asiatic people. Their language is quite peculiar and akin to no other, neither to the Celtic, as I formerly believed, nor to any other. In the earlier times, it is true, Celts did enter Illyricum, and so did afterwards the Bulgarians and other nations, whence it cannot be denied that northern and Asiatic nations did establish themselves in the country. But I have discovered a proof which clearly shows, that the modern Albanese are the same people as the ancient Illyrians. The name of the town of Dimalon, the strongest among the Illyrian places, with two acras on two heights, connected by a wall, as described by Polybius, shows this; the Albanese still call it so. Now I have found in several glossaries, that the word _mal_ signifies a hill, and _di_ two, so that _dimal_ is a double hill. This proof is quite convincing. The origin and nationality of the Illyrians have given rise to the oddest conjectures. As the Dalmatian Slavonians have adopted the name Illyrians, the Slavonian language spoken in Dalmatia, especially at Ragusa, is likewise called Illyrian, and this designation has acquired general currency. In the sixteenth century, about the time of the reformation, a Slavonian Bible was printed at Tübingen, and called Illyrian. This opinion is firmly rooted among the learned in Carniola, and we even find it entertained by the excellent Kopitar, librarian at Vienna, and a very distinguished man, who possesses great discernment and very extensive knowledge; but he cannot get over the notion, that the ancient Illyrians were Slavonians. This is, as it were, an article of the religious creed of the Slavonians, just as the modern Greeks fancy that their language is identical with the most ancient Greek. Wherever this singular opinion has once become established, an angel from heaven would not be able to upset it; learned men show an obstinacy on this point, which is really a psychological curiosity. This opinion goes so far with them, that they look upon St. Jerome, who was an Illyrian, as a Slavonian, and ascribe to him the Slavonian translation of the Bible; for the same reason, they call the artificial Glagolitian alphabet, which is derived from the Cyrillian, invented in the ninth century, likewise Slavonian. Cyrillus and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavonian nations, must have been eminent men, for, with a wonderfully fine feeling for their language, they invented an alphabet, as well defined and complete as possible; this is the modern Servian alphabet, which is the foundation of that of all the Slavonic languages. The Russian alphabet is the most complete