INTRODUCTION

I
The Roumanians and Their Language

Not many years ago, the Roumanians, i.e., the inhabitants of the two principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, were hardly known by name, and it was only through the grave events of which the Lower Danube has been the scene, since the middle of the XIX. century that they are prominently brought to the fore. We know now that they constitute one of the most important elements of the population of Eastern Europe—that they differ essentially from their neighbors, be they Slav, Turk, or Magyar—and that in some way they are descendants of the old Romans, though they live detached from the other nations of the Graeco-Latin family.

The origin of this Latin-speaking nation is still shrouded in mystery. Are they the descendants of the Getae and Latinised Dacians? Or does the blood of Italian colonists brought thither by Emperor Trajan (98-117 A.D.) predominate among them?

The Roumanians of to-day are anxious to purge their language of all Servian, Greek, and Turkish words introduced during the long dominion of the Turks. They endeavor to polish their tongue so that it may rank with Italian, to which it is closely related. About one half of the words of the Roumanian language—as spoken between the Lower Danube and the Carpathian Mountains—are Latin, while the roots of the other constituent elements must be looked for in Slavic, Albanesian, Greek, Hungarian, Turk, and German. There remain, however, several hundred words not traceable to any known tongue, and these are supposed to be a remnant of the ancient Dacian spoken on either bank of the Lower Danube at the period of the Roman invasion, in the beginning of the second century after Christ.

II
“Carmen Sylva,” Roumania’s Poet-queen

In the opening lines of her collection of poems, Carmen Sylva, Roumania’s poet-queen, describes to us whence she derived her euphonious self-chosen title: Carmen—the “Song”—which gave her happiness and ease, and Sylva—the “Wood,”—in which, among the birds, she had learned to sing. The telling of stories in prose and verse has been her greatest delight since she was a child.

Queen Elisabeth of Roumania is a daughter of Prince Hermann of Neuwied, and was born on the 29th of December, 1843. Neuwied was a small principality on the bank of the Rhine, near Ehrenbreitenstein, and her family was an old and honored one, living at the castle of “Monrepos,” a short distance from the quaint old town of Neuwied, on that part of the Rhine, where every rocky height has its romance, and every green valley its legend. In her early youth, the village-children were the only playmates of the little princess. When a mere child she developed a poetic taste and talent. At nine she began to write. At sixteen her tasks were long and severe: She studied history, the languages (Latin, Italian, French, and English), grammar, arithmetic,