as completely as local methods of husbandry permit; and yet the native Kaffirs go in large numbers—­28,000 out of a total population of 220,000 in 1895—­to work in the mines of Kimberley and the Witwatersrand.  They also return in time with their savings.[1333] Similarly the Battaks of the rugged mountain-rimmed plateau of western Sumatra emigrate in increasing numbers to the lowlands, and hire themselves out for a term of years on the Dutch plantations.[1334]

Another interesting and once rather widespread phase of this temporary emigration appears in the mercenary troops formerly drawn from mountain regions.  After the Burgundian wars of the fifteenth century, the Swiss became the mercenaries of Europe, and in 1503 were first employed as papal life-guards.  They served the kings of France from Louis XL till the tragedy of the Tuileries in 1792; and in that country and elsewhere they made the name “Switzer” a synonym for guard or attendant,[1335] till in 1848 the mercenary system was abolished.  The pressure of population at home and the military spirit of the Scotch Highlanders once led the young Gaels to seek their fortunes in military service abroad, as in the army of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden.[1336] Gurkhas from Himalayan Nepal, an independent state, are employed in considerable numbers in the Indian army to-day, and constitute one of the most reliable divisions of the native troops.  In January, 1901, there were 12,797 Gurkhas drawing pay from the Indian government as soldiers, besides 6000 more employed as military police, porters, and in other capacities.[1337] Similarly ancient Arcadia, the mountain core of Peloponnesus, was a constant hive of mercenaries.

[Sidenote:  Permanent emigration.]

Often, however, permanent emigration is the result, robbing the mountain population of its most enterprising element, Piedmontese, Bergamese, and Frioulians from the Italian Alps leave their country in large numbers.  Many of them find work in Marseilles and other towns of southern France, infusing an Italian strain into the population there and making serious competition for the local French.  A proverb says there is no country in the world without sparrows and Bergamese.[1338] Geneva, once the citadel of Calvinism, is to-day a Catholic town, owing to the influx of Catholic laborers from Alpine Savoy.  The overflow of the redundant population of this mountain province has given the Swiss canton a character diametrically opposed to its traditions.[1339] The Chinese provinces of Chili and Manchuria have been largely populated by immigrants from the barren mountain peninsula of Shantung; Manchuria has thereby been converted from an alien into a native district.[1340]