Social grouping in Transylvania shows that the dominating Hungarian class consists largely of city dwellers and government employees. These are the characteristics of an immigrant population which is not solidly rooted to the land. The Szekler alone among Magyars are tillers of the soil and in intimate contact with the land on which they live. Few of the Rumanians are landowners. The estates held by an insignificant number of their kinsmen generally form part of ecclesiastical domains and are of restricted size. They own however a relatively large proportion of Transylvania’s forested areas, which the Hungarian ruling class is endeavoring to acquire by imitating Prussian methods of absorption of Polish lands. The Germans and Hungarians who founded settlements on the Transylvanian plateau were unable to impose their language on the inhabitants of the mountainous region. Rumanian, representing the easternmost expansion of Latin speech, is in use today on the greatest portion of this highland[162] as well as in the fertile valleys and plains surrounding it between the Dniester and the Danube. A portion of Hungary and the Russian province of Bessarabia is therefore included in this linguistic unit outside of the kingdom of Rumania.[163] Beyond the limits of this continuous area, the only important colony of Rumanians is found around Metsovo in Greece where, in the recesses of the Pindus mountains and surrounded by the Greeks, Albanians and Bulgarians of the plains, almost half a million Rumanians[164] have managed to maintain the predominant Latin character of their language.[165] Rumanian is derived directly from the low Latin spoken in the Imperial era. In syntax and grammar it reproduces Latin forms of striking purity. Words dealing with agricultural pursuits, however, are generally of Slavic origin. The closeness of Rumanian to Latin can be gathered from the following two specimens of Wallachian verse and their Latin rendering: 1. _Rumanian_ Bela in large valle amblà Erba verde lin calcà; Cantà, qui cantand plangeà, Quod tódi munti resunà; Ea in genunchi se puneà, Ochi in sus indireptà; Ecce, asi vorbe faceâ; “Domne, domne, bune domne.” _Latin_ Puella in larga valle ambulabat, Herbam viridem leniter calcabat, Cantabat et cantando plangebat, Ut omnes montes resonarent: Illa in genua se ponebat, Oculos sursum dirigebat; Ecce, sic verba faciebat: “Domine, domine, bone domine.” 2. _Rumanian_ Nucu, fagu, frassinu Mult se certà intra séne. “Nuce,” dice frassinu, “Quine vine, nuci college, “Cullegend si ramuri frange “Vaide dar de pelle a tua; “Dar tu fage, mi vecine, “Que voi spune in mente tene: “Multe fere saturasi; “Qui prébéne nu amblasi; “Quum se au geru apropiat “La pament te au si culcat, “Si in focu te au si aruncat, ... _Latin_