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Show DOWN THE DALMATIAN COAST Stiange Superstitions of the Mixed People That Live Along the Adriatic. A much mixed, backward, and strangely superstitious people are those who dwell along the eastern shores of the Adriatic sea, according to a bulletin of the National Geographic Geo-graphic society. Greek colonies and Eoman municipia ; Byzantian officials and sick Franks abandoned on the rocks of Zara by Crusaders; Italians exiled during the centuries of strife among their petty states or brought thither by trade ventures ; the flood of Slavonian and, later, of Ottoman, invasion in-vasion ; all these are the elements of the people living along Austria-Hungary's seacoast. Franks, Byzantians, Croats, Bosniaks, Turks, Hungarians, Genoese, Neapolitans, Germans, and, of first importance, Venetians have ruled various parts of this coast at different times. The heavy ground-tone ground-tone of this shore people is Slavonian, but there is besides a jumble of almost every other racial element From Trieste downward, the Slavonians Slavon-ians predominate. Latin writers noted that the Slavonian tribes knew no form of monarchal government, but that all matters of the tribe were dealt with by a common national council. And today the Individual Dalmatian and Istrian is one of sturdiest independence. These Slavonians worshiped a god of thunder, sacred gropes, nymphs, and genii, special-powered beings of all descriptions; and they still do many odd fetish services, though more Christian Chris-tian peoples, of more simple and abun dant faith, are not to be found. Vampires, diabolical ghosts, witches, "vilen," and vengeful spirits are held in great respect throughout this country, coun-try, and the folklore is rich in their doings and in the common mortal's philosophy of self-preservation in a world filled with such discouraging things. The "alp," or nightmare, is a bitter old maid, recognizable by her garb, who sits on the back or breast of the sleeper and torments him, mayhap fatally. She cannot, for some reason or other, sit upon the sleeper's side, and the true Dalmation never thinks of sleeping in any other way than on his side. The vampire pursues its peculiar Dalmatian orgies in the guise of a man or 1 woman, lately dead and of faulty existence, and is said to be merely a human skin filled with blood and covered with a shroud. Witches are bad-weather creatures ; their evil is unfettered only with the storm and mist. To kill them, one throws three grains of corn and a wax candle at the lightning before the thunder sounds. Thus, they are best killed while the storm is yet a great way off. "Vilen" are maids with horse's hoofs. Mostly these "vilen," or wood creatures, are good and tolerant of human happiness, but they have a fatal tendency for stealing handsome, new-born children. The newly arrived baby, therefore, In a Dalmatian district frequented by "yllen" is closely watched until baptism, bap-tism, when the abductors are power l less. |