The earliest inhabitants of Rumania are tall, dark brachycephs--the Cevenoles of Deniker’s classification. This original element has been repeatedly diluted by Slavic and Tatar percolation. The Roman conquest, which together with the “pax Romana” brought civilization to the land, was not an ethnical victory. The Romans, a mere minority of leaders, ruled in the land much after the fashion in which the British govern India at present. But this occupation of the land by men representing a superior civilization sufficed to stamp the speech of Rome upon Rumania. Rumania’s past differed from that of the other Balkan nations. During the centuries in which the destiny of the ancient world was controlled largely by Byzantine statesmen, Moldavia and Wallachia seldom took part in the quarrels that pitted Slavs against Greeks. Balkan conflicts seemed then to be restricted to the populations living south of the Danube. Excellent relations were maintained between the rulers of Rumanian principalities and the Byzantine court. It was always felt at Constantinople, throughout the centuries of bitter struggle against Islam’s waxing might, that the voivodes’ aid against the Turks was assured. After the terrible blow inflicted on Christendom by the fall of Constantinople, the two principalities of the northern Danubian bank managed to preserve autonomy. This is a highly significant fact in Rumanian history, for it meant that the country was spared the effects of racial blendings or upheavals consequent to the Ottoman occupation of southeastern Europe. Religious and national antagonism between the various elements of the Christian populations under the Sultan’s rule were incessantly fostered by the Turks as a means of consolidating their own sovereignty. The rôle played by Rumania during the long period of Christian servitude entitles the country to the gratitude of the other Balkan states. The land beyond the Danube became a haven to which victims of Mohammedan persecution repaired whenever possible. Noblemen despoiled of their estates, traders menaced with execution for having claimed payment of debts incurred towards them by the followers of the Prophet, students whose only crime consisted of having interpreted Christian doctrines to their co-religionists, all found refuge under the banner of the cross flying on the north bank of the Danube. Hungary itself has incurred a heavy debt of obligation to Rumania, for both Moldavia and Wallachia served as a buffer against which Turkish blows directed at Magyar power spent themselves in vain. The province of Bukovina, once the borderland between Rumanians and Ruthenians, has become in modern times the meeting place of both peoples. According to recent Austrian statistics its population is as follows: