of ancient Germany, who were neighbours of the Daci or Getæ. Dr Prichard considers it as doubtful whether these divisions of Pliny were founded on the history and genealogy of the people, or were simply geographical arrangements.* In the opinion of the author of the Mithridates, the whole Germanic nation has, from the earliest times, been divided into two great races, whose descendants may be easily distinguished from each other by the difference of language, or rather of dialect, which distinguishes the Teutonic idioms. The Upper German dialect is that harsh and deeply-toned language abounding in gutturals and imperfectly articulated consonants, and in deep diphthongal sounds which stand in the place of the softer dentals and palatines, and of the open vowels of the Lower German languages. The classical German or High Dutch, though a softened and refined idiom, so far partakes of the character of the Upper German, as to be still one of the harshest languages of Europe. This difference of dialect, it has been observed, is so general and so strongly marked, that it cannot be supposed to have originated in Germany, but argues a very ancient separation of the two races before they quitted their abodes in Upper Asia.t The Suevi, and the tribes allied to them, who inhabited the northeastern region of ancient Germany, Bohemia, Prussia, and part of Poland, (which countries they have since abandoned to nations of the Slavonic race,) spoke the Upper German dialect, as did the tribes comprehended among the Vandali by Tacitus and Pliny, and a part of the Ingævones. The relative positions of the different branches of the Teutonic race underwent a considerable change, however, by a great movement at an early period. Long before the Christian era they, along with the Cimbri, began to migrate towards Gaul and Italy. Another movement took place during the second century, and they made many distant conquests. The Allemanni fixed themselves in the south of Germany, where they have preserved in Swabia the ancient name of the Suevic race, and from whom are descended the present inhabitants of Switzerland, Alsace, Swabia, the Upper and Middle Rhine. From the Longobardi, who obtained possession of the eastern parts of Germany, came the Bavarians, all the Teutonic people of the Austrian States, and the remains of the Old Lombards in the Vicentine and Veronese. All the tribes in the western parts of ancient Germany belong to the lower or western German race, of which stock the old Franks, the Saxons, and the Frisians, were the three most celebrated. The old Franks have lost their German speech, and have acquired that of the conquered Neustrian Gauls. The descendants of the Saxons, mixed with Angles and Jutes, speak English in the British isles, and in Germany the Lower Saxon, or Platt-Deutsch. The Low Countries and the Seven United Provinces were peopled by the Frisian stock. The first inhabitants of Scandinavia • Researches, vol. ii. p. 154. + Ibid. p. 155. re J PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. XV were probably descended from the lower German stock, though the Heruli who penetrated into Norway, and the Gutæ or Goths of Sweden belong undoubtedly to the Teutonic race.* The first habitation of the Finns appears to have been on the sides of the Table mountains. Certain it is, that as far back as history can trace, the countries to a considerable distance on both sides of the Great Uralian chain, were possessed, in the earliest times of which we have any trace, by a variety of nations connected by marks of a common origin, who regarded their Slavonian neighbours, their earliest invaders and conquerors, as branches of one race. Klaproth has proposed to distin guish this stock of men by the term Uralian: "All," he says, "that we know of them by history and philological researches, indicates their origin from the Uralian chain, whence they descended towards the west and the east." He adds, that before the movements among the northern nations they appear to have been spread, at least in Europe, much further towards the south than in modern times; and probably reached as far as the Euxine, where they were comprehended with other nations under the vague appellation of Scythians.† Though it appears certain that some tribes of this stock have crossed the Ural into Europe; yet, as remarked by Dr Prichard, there is no historical ground for supposing that the western branch of the Tschudic race, namely, the Finnish nations, ever inhabited this range of hills. According to Gatterer, the Finnish nations, whom he looks upon as the remains of the old Scythians, and who all speak only one principal language, though divided into various dialects, include the following tribes:-1. The Finns themselves, properly so called, both of Swedish and Russian Finland, who give themselves the name of Suoma-luinen, but are termed by the Russians Tschuchonetz, or Tschuchna: 2. The Laplanders, in the northernmost region of Norway, Sweden, and Russia; by the Russians they are termed Lopari, but they call them selves Sabme and Almag: 3. The Ishores, in Ingermannland, or Ingria, so named from the Ishora, or river Inger: 4. The Esthonians, in Eastland, who are termed Tschud in the Russian annals, and by the Finns are called Viro-lainen: 5. The Livonians near Salis, in the circle of Riga, and in Courland, on the shore of Angern: 6. The Votes or Votiaks on the river Viatka, in the territory of Kasan and Oremburg, who name themselves Ud, or Mordi, and are termed by the Tartars Ar; they speak a less mixed dialect, approaching very nearly to that of the Tscheremisses, and more closely to that of the Permians: 7. The Tscheremisses, or, as they term themselves, Mari, on the left side of the Volga, in the Kasan and Oremburg territory, whose language is much intermixed with that of the Tartars: 8. The Morduines, called by the Russians Mordwa, who term themselves Moksha, dwell in the Oremburg territory; their language varies greatly from that before Prichard, vol. ii. p. 157. + Asia Polyglotta, p. 182. mentioned, and a particular tribe of them, termed Erzja, have a dialect somewhat peculiar: 9. The Permians, called in the Icelandic Sagas, Beormahs; and the Syrjanes; both of these nations live upon the rivers Vitchegda and Vim, call themselves Komi, and speak a pure Finnish dialect: 10. The Vogouls, called by the Permians, Vagol, and in the Russian annals Vogulitsch and Ugritsch, are the first people in Siberia, living partly in the mountains of Yugori, and partly along the flat countries on both sides of them; their language corresponds with the Hungarian and proper Finnish, but most nearly with that of the Khondish Ostiaks: 11. The Khondish Ostiaks, or as they name themselves, Chondichui, that is, people of the Khonda, live on the lower Irtish, and lower Obi, near Surgut, Tobolsk, and Beresof; their language is most nearly allied to that of the Permians and Vogouls: 12. The Hungarians, who name themselves Madjar, and speak a Finnish dialect.* According to Prichard, the Tschudish race may be most conveniently divided into three branches. The first, or Finnish branch, may be considered as comprehending all the tribes of Finnish extraction, whose abodes are to the westward of the White Sea and the great Russian lakes; as the Laplanders, the Finnlanders, Esthonians, Karelians, the Lievi, or Lifi, in Courland, the Finns of Olonetz, and the remains of the same race on the river Inger above mentioned. The second, or Permian branch, may include the people of Permia, the Syronians and Votiaks, comprehending the old Beormahs, as well as the nations termed by Klaproth Volgian Finns, namely, the Mordouins, Mokshas, Tscheremisses, and other tribes in the adjoining parts of the Russian empire. The third, or Uralian branch, includes the Vogouls, in the countries near the Uralian chain, the Ostiaks of the Obi, and lastly, the Hungarians, who, notwithstanding their remote separation, are proved, by the affinity of their language, to belong to the Siberian, or Eastern department of the Tschudish race. Distinct from the Teutonic and Tschudish or Finnish races were the Scythæ, who inhabited the country between the Danube and the Tanais or Don. Some foreign writers of great learning and research, among whom Professor Gatterer stands conspicuous, have attempted to show, but apparently without success, that the remains of the Tschudish race are descended from this celebrated people. Pinkerton and others have endeavoured to derive the Goths and Germans, and even the Greeks, from the Scythians; but although the result of their labours affords abundant proofs of deep reading and patient investigation, they do not seem to have sufficiently established their hypothesis. We are rather disposed to concur in the opinion of a third class of writers who look upon the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, and the other Slavonian nations as the representatives of the ancient Scythians. Dr Prichard, who ranks Einleitung in die Synchronistische Universalhistorie. Göting. 1771. Gyarmathi, p. 281. PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION. xvii in the last mentioned class, thinks, notwithstanding, that the Tartars in the countries bordering on the Black Sea, have the best right to be considered as the true descendants of the Scythians, since they inhabit the same limits, and have preserved, from the earliest period of their history, a national character and manners remarkably similar to those of the old Scythians.* Before the Scythians entered Europe, they appear, according to all the ancient accounts, to have inhabited the country eastward of the Araxes and the Caspian Sea, and probably also the north of Media. From their settlements in the east they were forced, at an early period, into Europe by the Massagetæ, a powerful nation, whose queen, Tomyris, is said to have cut off the head of Cyrus the Great, whom she had vanquished in battle and made prisoner. "The nomadic Scythians (says Herodotus), living in Asia, being overmatched in war by the Massagetæ, passing the river Araxes, emigrated into the Cimmerian territory; for that country which the Scythæ now inhabit, is said to have belonged of old to the Cimmerii." As Homer never mentions the Scythians, and speaks of the Cimmerians as a nation existing in his time, it is supposed that this emigration of the Scythians must have taken place subsequently to the Trojan war. But although the Scythians may not have been known under that name to the Greeks in the time of Homer, the descriptive epithets applied in the Iliad to the inhabitants of the countries possessed by the Scythians, seem to indicate that the Scythæ had fixed their abode in Europe before the age of Homer. A Having crossed the great Caucasian chain, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas, the Scythians gradually extended themselves over the country described by Herodotus and others, as ancient Scythia, from which they expelled the Cimmerii or ancient Celtic inhabitants. part, however, of the Cimmerii, protected by the strength of their position, or overlooked by the invaders, long maintained themselves in a corner of the Tauric Chersonesus. They were, however, expelled from this ancient abode by the Scythians about six hundred and forty years before the Christian era, and, crossing the Cimmerian Bosphorus, entered Asia over the mountains of Caucasus.§ Originally the term Scythæ was confined to the people who possessed the country between the Danube and the Don; but in process of time, the name was applied by the Greeks to all the nations which, like the Scythians, properly so called, lived in the Nomadic state. But it is of the Scythæ, as a distinct European nation, that we are now speaking. Major Rennell, who has thrown great light upon the statements of Herodotus, thus explains the opinion of the historian. "The country of Scythia he (Herodotus) places next in order to Thrace, going northeastward along the shores of the Euxine and Mæotis. Where Thrace Researches. + Herod. Clio. 201, 215, 216. Herodot. Lib. I. and IV. mans; ends Scythia begins, says he, Melp. 99. It will appear, however, that the Scythians of Herodotus were the Sarmatæ and Getæ of the Roand his Massagetæ the Scythians of the same people, as well as of the Greeks in general, from the date of Alexander's expedition. The ancients distinguished two countries by the name of Scythia, the one extending along the north of the Euxine, the other beyond the Caspian and Jaxartes. The western, or Euxine Scythia, was the one invaded by Darius Hystaspes; on which occasion the Ionians, by preserving his bridge of boats on the Danube, secured his retreat; and the eastern Scythia, called also the country of the Massagetæ, was the one invaded by Cyrus, in which, according to our author, he lost his life. So that the proper Scythians of Herodotus were those at the Euxine, and those of succeeding writers at the Caspian (or rather Aral) and Jaxartes."* From the description of ancient Scythia, as given by Herodotus, it appears that it was bounded on the east by the Tanais or Don, and consequently was confined within the limits of Europe. Scythia proper, as included between the Danube and the Don, comprehended almost the whole of the Ukraine, including the country of the Nogay Tartars and the Don Cossacks; but the course of its northern boundary cannot be traced. + Rennell supposes it to have passed from the southern confines of Polish Prussia eastward, and along the direction of the river Sem, from the Borysthenes to the Tanais.‡ The neighbours of the Scythians were, on the east, the Sauro matæ or Sarmata, who are supposed to have been a branch of the same race, as Herodotus says they spoke a dialect of the Scythian language. On the north-west were the Neuri; on the west the Agathyrsi; on the side of Poland northward the Androphagi; and on that of Russia the Melanchlani. These last mentioned nations were probably distinct from the Scythian stock. The Scythian nation is divided by Herodotus into three parts: the Scythæ Georgi, or agricultural Scythians; the Scythe Nomades, or wandering pastoral Scythians; and the Scythæ Basileii, or Royal Scythians. The first portion, from their inhabiting the country near the Bo. rysthenes, were called Borysthenitæ by the Greeks; but they denomi. nated themselves Olbiopolitæ. These possessed the western division of ancient Scythia, and their territory extended about eleven or twelve days' journey up the river. The Scythæ Nomades, whose manners corresponded with those of the modern Tartars of the same region, were to the eastward of the Borysthenitæ, and still further eastward were the Scythæ Basileii, who considered themselves of a nobler extraction than the rest of the Scythian nation. To the term Scythæ, as denoting the people who possessed the Sci Rennell's Geographical System of Herodotus, pp. 46, 47. + Ibid. p. 52. |