Macedonians are the oldest Slavs on this Illyrian peninsula, and
possibly in Europe.
• 1871 •
Today, the Macedonians occupy almost the whole coast of the
White Sea; in the east they mix with the Bulgarians from Thrace,
to the west with the Albanians of Albania and Epirus, and in the
north with Serbia in the borderlands of the Shar Mountains.
Despite all of this, in their customs and in their language, traces
can be found from all those peoples who here and there ruled
over them… Macedonians today are characterized independently
and stand in the middle among Bulgarians and Serbs.
