Slovenes

Slovenes (SLOVENCI, SLOVINTZY), a Slav people of the Austrian provinces of Istria and Carniola and the districts bordering on Styria and Carinthia; speak a Serbo-Croatian dialect and number (1890) 1,180,000 (showing an increase of 36,000 since the previous census of 1880), now mostly Roman Catholics. Like the kindred Croatians, the Slovenes are physically a fine race, tall, well-made, generally with dark-brown hair and moderately round head. Though now yielding to Serbo-Croatian, the Slovene language has been long cultivated, and has had two literary periods: a Protestant in the 16th century, followed in the 17th and 18th by a Catholic reaction when most of the works of the early reformers were burnt by the Jesuits.