Rare French magazine article in 1880: Albanians, the most beautiful race in all of Turkey

A French magazine of June 1880 publishes these two engravings of Albanians, accompanied by a rare text. It's interesting how foreigners saw us at that time, I mean physically. I chose this part:

Albanians are one of the most beautiful races, perhaps the most beautiful in all of Turkey.

They are more closely related to the Greeks than to the Slavs, and resemble the most beautiful types of the Swiss Highlanders in their oval faces, long, thin noses, slender bodies, and elegant forms. The Albanian has the physical qualities of the Swiss and Tyroleans.

Like them, he is a hardy footman, climbing mountains like goats, rifle over shoulder, but, unlike them, he has a liveliness and a Southern gas that add to his extraordinary keenness, which falls immediately in sight.

Like the Greeks, Albanians stand out as people who take life happily, as it comes to them.

National pride appears in their every word, in their gestures, even in their light and sometimes theatrical walk.

(Le Journal de la jeunesse: nouveau recueil hebdomadaire illustré, 13.6.1880).

*Taken from the journalist's Facebook profile

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