way. They acknowledge as god and as the lord of all their | succeeded in establishing an hereditary influence. Many nation the maker of the thunder, to whom they offer oxen Slavonian communities came under the rule of hereditary and other sacrifices of every kind. They do not acknow- chiefs or sovereigns; others elected their chiefs for life; ledge fate, and do not even admit its influence on mortal whilst many retained their primitive democratic form, somemen; and when they apprehend, in sickness or trouble, a what modified by circumstances. The Slavonian chiefs speedy death, they vow to God some bloody sacrifice for their were called Kral or Krol, which signifies king. Kniaz or health or safety; and believe, when they come out of danger, Knez, is now employed for prince; Boyar, a warrior, from that they did so in consequence of their vow. They worship Boy, fight; Lekh, or noble; Voyevoda, i.e. leader of war, also river-nymphs and some other divinities, to whom they perhaps a more modern translation from the Saxon heretog, offer sacrifices, making at the same time divinations. They or German herzog; Pan, in Polish, lord; Zupan, the chief live in miserable huts, standing isolated, and they change of a district, Zupa. All these dignities, whether hereditary their settlements. In a battle many of them fight on foot, or elective, by no means implied absolute authority, and the armed only with a small target and a lance. They do not persons holding them were always subject to the popular wear any armour, and they have not even a shirt or a cloak; will, which decided on public affairs in the assemblies, which but they encounter the enemy only in breeches covering were held in the open air, and called Viecha or Vieche, prothe secret parts. They all speak the same very barbarous bably from the Slavonian word vieshchat, 'to proclaim." language, and do not differ much in their exterior. Their The religion of the antient Slavonians seems to have been complexion is not very white, and their hair is neither fair different from that of the Teutonic nations. The latest acnor black, but dark. They lead, like the Massagetæ, a count of the Slavonian idols and pagan rites is given by the rude and wandering life, and they are always dirty. Their German missionaries, who had an opportunity of observing mind is neither malicious nor fraudulent, and they preserve, the Slavonians of the Baltic coast, or at least derived inwith the simplicity, the manners of the Huns in many things. formation on that subject from eye-witnesses, as well as by Formerly the Slavonians and Antæ had the same name; some Scandinavian authors. both were called Spori, probably because they live in a scattered manner (sporaden) in isolated huts, and they occupy for that reason a large extent of country. They possess the greatest part of the farther banks of the Danube. According to some they feed their flocks wandering about.' This description shows that the Slavonians then lived in a state of barbarism. They were inured to every kind of fatigue and privation, and accustomed to all the expedients of a savage warfare. These qualities made them formidable enemies and invaluable allies to the Greeks. They were rapacious, like all savage tribes, but the cruelty with which they were taxed may be partly ascribed to the provocation of the Greeks, who frequently treated their vanquished enemies with great barbarity. But the Slavonians exhibited, notwithstanding their state of barbarism, virtues of the noblest kind, and a mildness of character unparalleled even among the civilised nations of that time. According to the emperor Mauritius, they treated their prisoners with great humanity, and instead of keeping them in servitude like other nations, they always fixed a limit to it, and gave them the choice of paying a ransom and returning to their country, or remaining with them as freemen and friends. A stranger was welcome among them, and hospitably entertained. The houseowner was answerable to all his nation for the safety of the stranger whom he had received; and he who had not preserved his guest from injury drew upon himself the vengeance of his neighbours.

The matrimonial fidelity of the Slavonian wives and husbands is extolled by foreign authors. The wives were complete slaves, as is generally the case amongst uncivilised nations: the widow was burnt on the same pile with her deceased husband, as it was disgraceful to survive him. It is also said that a Slavonian father might destroy a female child, when he was already overcharged with a large family, but he might not put a male child to death; and that the children might put their parents to death, when from old age and infirmity they were a burthen to them. Their chief occupation was agriculture. They seem to have possessed some knowledge of the arts, and they were exceedingly fond of music. The most antient musical instrument of the Slavonians is a kind of lyre called gusla, which is still preserved among some nations of their race.

Although the Slavonians who appeared on the borders of the Greek empire were rude and uncivilised, those who lived on the southern shores of the Baltic had towns and enjoyed the advantages of a considerable commerce. Their chief cities were Arcona, on the island of Rügen, which contained the most celebrated fane of their worship, and Vineta, at the mouth of the river Oder. Adam of Bremen, who wrote in 1067, and Helmold, state that all the Slavonians were idolaters, but that no nation was more hospitable and honest than they; that the original form of government was democratical, that the fathers of families had great authority over their wives and children, and that they met together occasionally to consult on the affairs of their community. With the progress of time, and probably also from the necessities created by their coming into contact with more civilised nations, the Slavonians introduced permanent authorities and chiefs. Aristocracies were formed, either by military leaders, or by the more wealthy and cunning persons, who

According to the above-mentioned authors, the Slavonians of the Baltic acknowledged two principles, one of good, and the other of evil. They called the former Biel Bog, or the white god,' from whom all that was good proceeded; and the second Cherni Bog, or 'black god, who was the cause of all evil. This latter was represented in the form of a lion. The most celebrated Slavonian idol, whose temple was at Arcona, was Sviatovid, that is, 'holy sight.' He was held in great veneration by the Slavonians, and even the kings of Denmark, who then professed Christianity, frequently sent him offerings. This idol represented a man larger than life, dressed in a short garment made of manycoloured wood. He had two chests and four heads. He stood with his feet on the ground, held in one hand a bow, and in the other a horn, which was filled once every year on a solemn occasion with mead. Near the idol were placed, as belonging to him, a bridle and saddle, and a sword richly ornamented with silver. His festival was celebrated on a certain day after harvest, when the priest brought out to the assembled multitude the horn which the idol held in his hand, and from the decrease of the liquid poured into it the year before the result of the next harvest was prognosticated. The mead of the last year was poured at the idol's feet, and his horn was replenished, with appropriate ceremonies and prayers. The remainder of the day was spent in feasting; abstemiousness on that day was considered sinful, and the greatest excess in drinking and eating was accounted an act of devotion.

The Slavonians paid a tax to the temple of the idol, and gave him the third part of their booty. There were also three hundred horsemen belonging to the idol, who deposited in his temple all the spoils that they made. These different donations were employed to ornament the temple, or deposited in the treasury, which contained a great number of chests filled with coin, rich stuffs, and other precious things. There was a white horse consecrated to the same idol, which was led and mounted only by the priest. The Slavonians believed that Sviatovid occasionally rode upon this horse, in order to combat the enemies of their faith; and its moving with the right or left foot over lances placed on the ground, decided the most important undertakings. The temple of Sviatovid was destroyed in the twelfth century by Waldemar, king of Denmark. Some German chroniclers believe that Sviatovid was the same as St. Vitus, whom the Slavonians had adopted after having heard of his great miracles; but this is evidently an error founded on the similarity of names.*

There were also several other divinities worshipped by the Slavonian idolaters, such as Porenut, whose idol had four faces, and a fifth on his breast, supposed to have been the god of seasons, from the word pora, season;' Porevit, represented with five hands; Rughevit, supposed to be the god of war, whose idol had seven faces, seven swords suspended at his side, and an eighth in his hand. All these three were in the island of Rügen, the last asylum of Slavonian idolatry.

This account of the Slavonian deities is founded, as already observed, on the report of writers who had either seen the The most detailed account of Sviatovid and his worship is given by Saxe

Grammaticus.

SLA

idols or derived their information from hearsay. The only genuine monuments of Slavonian idolatry which have reached our times are the idols dug up about the end of the seventeenth century in the village of Prillwitz, on the banks of the lake Tollenz, in the territory of Mecklenburg. This village is supposed to occupy the site of the Slavonian town of Retra, which was destroyed by the Saxons in the middle of the twelfth century, and was celebrated in its time for its temples and idols. These archæological treasures remained unknown to the learned world till 1771, when Mr. Masch, chaplain of the duke of Mecklenburg, published a description of them with engravings. These antiquities were found in two metal vessels, supposed to have served for sacrifices, and which were so placed that one formed a cover to the other they had engraved on them several inscriptions, but unfortunately they were both melted for the casting of a bell before they were examined by any person competent to judge of the inscriptions. The contents of these vessels were not only idols, but also several objects employed in the performance of sacrifices. They are all of brass, with The greatest part of more or less admixture of silver. them have inscriptions in Runic characters: one of them however, exhibiting the attributes of autumn, has the Greek inscription OПOPA. The greater part of these idols have Slavonian names, such as Radegast, Cherni Bog, Zibag, &c. (Bog in Slavonian signifies God); several of them however have Lithuanian names, and must belong to the Lithuanian and Prussian idolaters, who probably sought refuge among the Slavonians from their common enemies the Christians. Both Slavonian and Lithuanian idols correspond to the descriptions given of them by the old chroniclers. The Slavonian divinities usually have more than one head: many of them have on some part of their body either a human face, signifying the good principle, or a lion's head, denoting the evil principle. Many have also the figure of a beetle on them, which might denote an Egyptian origin They are in general only a few inches long.

The chief Slavonian divinities represented by these idols are Radegast, having the head of a lion, surmounted by a bird; Woda, represented as a warrior, perhaps the Scandinavian Odin, &c.

These monuments of Slavonian idolatry present a wide field for investigation, and they prove that the nation with whose religious worship they are connected was not a stranger to the arts. It is difficult to ascertain whether the divinities of Lithuanian and Scandinavian origin, which were foreign to the Slavonians, were adopted by them, or only found an asylum with their worshippers when expelled from their countries by the progress of Christianity.

The Slavonian population of Pomerania, Mecklenburg, the island of Rügen, the March of Brandenburg, and of Saxony, on the left bank of the Elbe, was either exterminated or so completely Germanised, that the language of their country is completely superseded by the German; but there are traces of this language being used in official documents in the country about Leipzig as late as the beginning of the fourteenth century. The names of many towns and villages situated in those parts of Germany are evidently of Slavonian origin. The following are the Slavonian nations now in existence:

1. The Bohemians and Moravians, who inhabit Bohemia and Moravia, and are scattered in some parts of Hungary and Silesia.

2. The Poles, who inhabit the territory of antient Poland, Silesia, and Prussia.

3. The Muscovites or Great Russians, who have a considerable admixture of Finnish blood, and have become They inhabit the north-eastern provinces of somewhat orientalised by the dominion of the Tartars in Russia. Russia in Europe.

4. The Russians, who are quite distinct from the Great Russians or Muscovites, are divided into Little Russians, who inhabit the antient Polish provinces of the Ukraine, Podolia, and Volhynia, now incorporated with Russia, a part of the kingdom of Poland, Gallicia or Austrian Poland, and some parts of Northern Hungary; and White Russians, who inhabit a part of Lithuania, and chiefly the provinces of Mohilof and Witepsk, which were acquired by Russia at the first dismemberment of Poland, in 1772, as well as a part of the government of Smolensk.

5. The Slovacks, who inhabit the north of Hungary. 6. The Croats, who inhabit the south-west of Hungary. 7. The Illyrians, who inhabit the Austrian provinces of Carinthia, Carniola, and Dalmatia.

8. The Servians, who inhabit Servia, to whom may be added the Montenegrins.

9. The Bulgarians and Bosnians in Turkey, of whom a part have embraced Mohammedanism, while others profess the Christian religion according to the Eastern church. 10. The Syrbes or Wends, who inhabit Lusatia, and whose settlements are about 25 miles from Dresden.

Slavonian Tongue.-It has been observed that Procopius, who described the Slavonians in the fifth century, says that they and the Antæ used the same language, and a similar opinion is expressed about the Slavonians of the eighth century, by Eginhard, the historian of Charlemagne. It is The eastern Slavonians worshipped Perun, or the god of however impossible to admit the perfect universality of the same language among a race composed of so many tribes, thunder; Volos, the god of the flocks; Koleda, the god of festivals, whose festival was celebrated on the 24th of December, and occupying such a vast extent of country. The evidence and it is remarkable that the common people in many parts of of the writers above mentioned, who have not transmitted to us any monument of the Slavonian language, and proPoland and Russia on that account even now call Christmas, Koleda; Kupala, the god of the fruits of the earth, re-bably did not understand it, cannot be admitted as concluceived sacrifices on the 23rd of June, and in many parts of Russia and Poland, St. John, whose festival falls on the same day, is called John Kupala. Dittmar, a German writer, pretends that the pagan Slavonians did not believe in the immortality of the soul; but this statement is sufficiently refuted by several customs and ceremonies which they observed for the repose of the dead.

In the ninth century the Slavonians occupied a large part of Eastern Europe. They extended from the Black Sea along the Danube and to the westward of that river on the shore of the Adriatic, occupying the antient Roman provinces of Pannonia, Dacia, Illyricum, and Dalmatia. The Slavonian settlements reached from the northern part of the Adriatic bordering on the Tyrol and Bavaria to the upper part of the Elbe, and they occupied the country between that river and the Saal, as well as all the right bank of the Elbe, extending over the southern shore of the Baltic from Jutland to the mouths of the Vistula. From the Vistula (with the exception of the coast of the Baltic in habited by another race) the Slavonians spread over all the country between that river and the Danube. Thus they possessed the countries which now constitute the greater part of the Austrian dominions, Hungary, the provinces bordering on Italy and the Tyrol, Bohemia and Moravia, a great part of Saxony, the March of Brandenburg, Silesia, Pomerania, and the island of Rügen, to which must be added the territory which constituted antient Poland, and a great part of the present Russian empire.

sive, except to prove that all the Slavonians, who were divided into various tribes or nations, could easily understand each other. The truth of this fact cannot be doubted; for notwithstanding the lapse of ages, during which many Slavonian nations have remained completely isolated from several of their kindred populations, and have lived in constant intercourse with nations of an entirely foreign race, their respective dialects preserve a strong similarity, so that a Slavonian inhabiting the shores of the Frozen Sea may frequently understand the language of those who live on the coasts of the Adriatic. This fact is moreover corroborated by the circumstance that the monuments of the different Slavonian languages, though written several centuries ago, exhibit a much greater similarity among themselves than is the case with those languages in our time. We may therefore conclude that at some unrecorded period all the Slavonian race had the same tongue, which began to split into different dialects at the same time when the race, increasing in numbers, began to divide into various tribes; and that the differences among those dialects grew in the same proportion as the surrounding tribes who spoke them became more estranged from each other by physical, political, and religious causes. The Slavonian tongue is generally considered to have an Indian origin, and this supposition is founded on the great number of Sanscrit roots which it contains, as well as on some traces of a similar origin exhibited in the religion of the antient Slavonians, of which the most striking circumstances are the burning of widows on the funeral pile of

their deceased husbands, the idol of Sviatovid, represented | place during the time of those disputes between the patriwith four heads, and other resemblances of a like kind. The arch of Constantinople and the pope of Rome which led to most antient written Slavonian language is that into which the final separation of the Eastern from the Western church. Cyrillus and Methodius translated the Scriptures in the Among many causes of dispute, the dominion over the ninth century, and which must have been the dialect of the newly converted Slavonian nations formed an important Slavonians who inhabited the banks of the Danube, for subject of contention between Rome and Constantinople. whom this translation was made from the Septuagint, and Cyrillus and Methodius, although they introduced among for which an alphabet, formed on the model of the Greek | their new converts the rites of the Eastern church, and the one, was introduced by the translators. worship in the vernacular tongue, acknowledged the supremacy of the pope, and not that of the Greek patriarch, as is evident from the approbation of their proceedings, which they sought and obtained from pope John VIII., before whom they were accused of deviating from the line of conduct followed by Roman missionaries in the conversion of pagan nations.

Although the above-mentioned alphabet was adopted for the translation of the Scriptures, it is impossible to admit that the Slavonians were, previously to their conversion to Christianity, totally unacquainted with the use of letters, and indeed the Bohemian chronicles speak of legislative tables (deski pravodatne) in the seventh century. (Palatzky, Geschichte von Böhmen, vol. i., p. 182.) The antient Sla- The confirmation granted by pope John VIII. to the navonian name for a wizard (czarnoknijnik), signifying one tional mode of worship introduced by Cyrillus and Methooccupied with black books, leads to the supposition that the dius, was rather a concession extorted by circumstances, and antient Slavonian conjurors made use of certain writings particularly by apprehension lest the missionaries, in case of in performing their incantations. Martinus Gallus speaks refusal, should transfer their obedience from Rome to Conof Polish chronicles previous to the introduction of Christi- stantinople, than a real approbation of the use of the vernaanity, which were destroyed by Christian missionaries.cular language in the divine service, a principle considered Dithmar of Merseburg, who wrote in the eleventh century, by the Western church as prejudicial to its polity, the object positively states that the Slavonian idols had inscriptions on of which is not only unity of dogma, but also uniformity of them, a statement fully confirmed by the discovery of the ritual; and indeed although some successors of John VIII. monuments of the antient Slavonian worship found at assented to the Slavonian mode of worship, they constantly Prillwitz. It is true that the above-mentioned inscriptions endeavoured to abolish it, or at least to limit its use. This were Runes borrowed from the Scandinavians, and one of tendency became much stronger when the final separation them was Greek, which may lead to the conclusion that the between the Eastern and the Western churches removed Slavonians employed foreign characters, but they tend to the reasons which the latter had for conciliating the nations show that they were not strangers to the art of writing. that were wavering between the two churches. Rome The conversion of the south-eastern Slavonians by Greek declared an unrelenting hostility against every ritual which missionaries was a circumstance highly favourable to their deviated from that which it had established, and the counnational language, as the Eastern church left to the newly cil of Salona, held in 1060, proclaimed Cyrillus a heretic, converted nations the use of the vernacular tongue in the and his alphabet a diabolical invention. The kingdom of performance of divine service, instead of introducing the Grand Morayia was destroyed by the pagan Hungarians Latin, as was the case with the Western church. The about the middle of the tenth century, and the Slavonian conversion of the majority of the Slavonians was effected population either fled to other countries inhabited by their principally by the exertions of Cyrillus and Methodius. As own race, or remained under the yoke of their conquerors, carly as the seventh century a great number of Slavonians who, having embraced Christianity from the Western has been converted to Christianity, and were followers church, promoted the papal views as to the Slavonian worof the Eastern church. This seems to have been par- ship. In Bohemia the same worship struggled for some ticularly the case with those who had settled within the time against the Roman ritual, till its last stronghold, the confines of the Greek empire, whilst those who lived beyond convent of Sazava, was abolished in 1094, and the Slaits borders remained either in a complete state of idolatry vonian books were destroyed by the zealous promoters of or exhibited only some individual conversions. Among the Roman ritual. In Poland, where Christianity was estathe Slavonian states of that time, the most important was blished in 966 by Bohemian priests, when the national that of Grand Moravia, which must however not be con- mode of worship was still prevailing in that country, and founded with the province that now bears this name: it where Christianity had partly penetrated, even before its extended over part of Hungary and some adjacent countries, final triumph, from Moravia and Greece, the same mode of and it was converted, though it appears rather nominally worship struggled for some time against the Roman ritual, than really, about the beginning of the ninth century, by and seems to have been continued in some parts as late as the missionaries of the West; for the Papal records prove the fourteenth century. that Moravia about 820-830 was under the spiritual authority of the archbishop of Passau. Nestor, a monk of Kief, one of the oldest Slavonian chroniclers, says that the princes of Moravia sent, about 863, a message to the Greek emperor Michael, stating that their country was baptised, but that they had no teachers to instruct the people and to translate for them the sacred books, and accordingly they requested him to send them men capable of performing such a task. The emperor complied with their request, and sent them the two brothers named Cyrillus and Methodius, natives of Thessalonica, who were distinguished by their learning as well as piety, and possessed a thorough knowledge of the Slavonian tongue.

The missionaries, having arrived in Moravia, translated the Scriptures, or at least a part of them, into the Slavonian tongue of the country; they also invented the letters, which, being called the Cyrillic alphabet, are still used, with some few variations, by the Slavonians who follow the tenets of the Eastern church, who also employ in the performance of divine service the same Slavonian idiom into which the Scriptures were translated, and which is now become the sacred tongue of those nations. Cyrillus and Methodius, having completed the translation, established the worship in the vernacular language, founded schools, and organised everything necessary for the promotion of the Christian religion. They extended their labours beyond the frontiers of Moravia, and converted Bohemia, A.D. 873. It is even supposed that they visited Poland, and there can scarcely be a doubt that their disciples were active in that country.

The apostolical labours of Cyrillus and Methodius took

The Slavonian service and the use of the Cyrillic letters, which were completely superseded by the Latin worship and letters among the Slavonians who followed the Western church, remained in full vigour among those who belonged to the Eastern church. This was the case with the Servians and other Slavonians of the Danube, the population of Muscovy, and of many provinces of Lithuania and Poland. And it is moreover used by the Wallachians, who inhabit Moldavia, Wallachia, and several parts of Hungary, although their language is derived from the Latin and has only a slight admixture of the Slavonic. Several Slavonian nations, which had originally followed the Eastern church, but submitted to the supremacy of Rome after the union of Florence, were allowed to retain the Slavonian liturgy and the use of the Cyrillic letters. The most antient manuscripts written in the Cyrillic alphabet are the gospel of Ostromir, written in 1056, which is preserved at St. Petersburg, and a Sbornik, or collection of religious tracts, of the year 1073, now at Moscow. An inscription in the same letters, preserved in a church at Kief, is supposed to date from the reign of Vladimir the Great. The first printed works with the same characters are a book of prayers, entitled 'Oktoikh,' &c., printed at Cracow in 1491, and another work of a similar description, at Venice in 1493.

Besides the Cyrillic letters, there is another alphabet used by some Slavonian populations of Dalmatia and Illyria, which is called the Glagolite character, and the use of which, as well as of the liturgy in the Slavonian language, has been allowed by the Roman see to these nations. The invention of that alphabet has been ascribed to St. Hicro