RUSSIAN IMMIGRATION. 69 



vasion used by the fierce Asiatic tribes in their incursions westward. 

 Wars of the Eomans against the Dacians and successive invasions of 

 Goth and Hun forced the Lithuanians to seek a new home out of the 

 path of invasion and conflict. 



They migrated northward, probably during the third and fourth 

 centuries, and following the valley of the Vistula spread out over ter- 

 ritory extending from the mouth of the "Vistula to the shore of Lake 

 Peipus and southward to the great marshes of Pinsk. Their early 

 history is necessarily hazy, depending upon tradition and scientific 

 deduction. From the tenth century their history is fairly clear and 

 about this time we find the Lithuanian nation divided into three main 

 branches, viz., Borussians, Letts and Samoghitians. 



The Borussians, who occupied territory in the vicinity of Konigs- 

 berg, East Prussia, soon fell under German influence and lost their 

 political existence, leaving only their name corrupted into Prussia. 



The Letts occupied the country now known as the Baltic provinces 

 of Eussia. They mixed with and dominated the Livs and Esths (Fin- 

 nish tribes occupying Livonia and Esthonia) and with these tribes 

 became subject to a German religious order with a military organiza- 

 tion known as the Sword Brothers of Livonia. 



The Samoghitians, or Lithuanians proper, occupied territory south 

 of the Baltic provinces. There they formed an independent state and 

 resisted successfully all efforts of German crusader, Slav and Tartar 

 to subjugate them. In the fourteenth century the king of Lithuania 

 ruled the country occupied to-day by Poles, Lithuanians and white 

 Eussians. In 1386 Yagello, king of Lithuania, married Yadviga, 

 queen of Poland, was baptized into the Latin church and crowned 

 king of Poland. Lithuania during this reign reached the zenith of ' 

 her power and extended her dominions to the Eiver Moskwa on the 

 east and to the Black Sea on the south. The union with Poland was 

 nominal at this time, but a real union took place in 1569 when, by 

 the treaty of Lublin, Lithuania ceased to exist politically. From that 

 time to the present the history of Lithuania has been that of Poland. 



The absorption of the Livs and other Finnish elements by the 

 Letts has made that branch of the Lithuanian race more or less of a 

 mixed type. The Borussians, or Lithuanians of Prussia, rarely emigrate. 



The uninviting nature of the country occupied by the Samo- 

 ghitians or Lithuanians proper and its inaccessibility, owing to vast 

 tracts of marsh and forest land, helped to preserve the racial charac- 

 teristics, and the Samoghitian is to-day a distinct type bearing no 

 resemblance to surrounding races. A typical Lithuanian has the 

 features of a Greek and the complexion of a Norseman. They are >fCl^^ ' 

 tall and splendidly proportioned, towering over their Slavic neighbors./ \ ' ' 

 The stature and fine physique of the Eussian Imperial Guard are due* " 

 to the fact that it is recruited almost entirely in the Lithuanian prov- 



