historian Johannes Lucius suggested that it actually meant "Black Latins", compared to "White Romans" in coastal areas. The 18th-century writer Alberto Fortis in his book Viaggio in Dalmazia ("Journey to Dalmatia", 1774), in which he wrote extensively about the Morlachs, thought that it derived from the Slavic more ("sea") – morski Vlasi meaning "Sea Vlachs". 18th-century writer Ivan Lovrić, observing Fortis' work, thought that it came from "more" (sea) and "(v)lac(s)i" (strong) ("strongmen by the sea"), and mentioned how the Greeks called Upper Vlachia Maurovlachia and that the Morlachs would have brought that name with them. Cicerone Poghirc and Ela Cosma offer a similar interpretation that it meant "Northern Latins", derived from the Indo-European practice of indicating cardinal directions by colors. Other theories suggest that it refers from the Morea peninsula, or, according to Dominik Mandić, from African Maurs. Origin and culture The etymology of the exonym points to a connection with Vlachs, but as stated in Fortis' work Viaggio in Dalmazia, they were at that time Slavic-speaking. Because of migrations from various parts of the Balkans, the name had passed to later communities. The Morlach people were both of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic faith. According to Dana Caciur the Morlach community from the Venetian view as long as they share a specific lifestyle can represent a mixture of Vlachs, Croatians, Serbs, Bosnians, etc. Venetian term "Morlach" in the 16th century usually referred to the whole subject population of the Ottoman hinterland regardless of their ethnic identity and whether or not they were peasants, stockherders or military colonists. Fortis spotted the physical difference between Morlachs; those from around Kotor, Sinj and Knin were generally blond-haired, with blue eyes, and broad faces, while those around Zadvarje and Vrgorac were generally brown-haired with narrow faces. They also differed in nature. Although they were often seen by urban dwellers as strangers and "those people" from the periphery, in 1730 provveditore Zorzi Grimani described them as "ferocious, but not indomitable" by nature, Edward Gibbon called them "barbarians", and Fortis praised their "noble savagery", moral, family, and friendship virtues, but also complained about their persistence in keeping to old traditions. He found that they sang melancholic verses of epic poetry related to the Ottoman occupation, accompanied with the traditional single stringed instrument called gusle. Fortis gave translation of folk song Hasanaginica at the and of his book. Manfred Beller and Joep Leerssen identified