14 Ethnogrophical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 



he could not well prevent, the circulation of the Scriptures in a language 

 intelligible to the people. 



The oldest historians, or chronicle-writers, among the Slavonian tribes 

 are, as we might suppose, from the recent origin of letters among them, of 

 far later date than the English, French, and German iiistorians. Nestor 

 and Dalimil were the authors of the two most celebrated chronicles known 

 among the Slavonic nations. The former of these was a Russian, the latter 

 a Bohemian. Nestor is universally considered as the father of Russian 

 history. The Russians have indeed, like other nations, fabulous legends, 

 which reach np to a period of higher antiquity. According to Bishop 

 Joachim, Slaven, a grand-son of Japhet, built in Russia the city of Slavensk, 

 where a long line of princes reigned before the time of Rurik, the real 

 founder of the Russian monarchy. But these stories are as unworthy of 

 credit as the tales of our Jeffrey. Nestor was a writer of a different class, 

 and almost deserves a place by the side of the venerable Bede. He was 

 an ecclesiastic of the monastery of Petschersky, and died in the year 1056. 

 He was a man of great mental activity, and collected information from all 

 sources on which it was attainable. He consulted the oldest men of Kief, 

 and the best informed persons of various towns in Russia. He collected 

 the oral traditions of earlier times, examined the monuments and tombs of 

 ancient princes, and the registers of the churches. His annals were edited 

 not long ago by the learned Herr Von Schlotzer, the author of some well- 

 known works on the liistory of the northern nations. The chronicles of 

 Nestor are accounted authentic, but they do not carry back the history of 

 the Russians into periods of any remote antiquity. 



Dalimil, the Bohemian chronicler, was much later than Nestor, and a 

 writer of quite different character. His whole chronicle is in Bohemian 

 rhymes, and was a very popular work among his countrymen for two cen- 

 turies after it was written. It was composed at the monastery of Buntzlaw, 

 and brings down the Bohemian history to the coronation of King John, in 

 1311, soon after which it was written. The writer was an ardent patriot, 

 full of hatred towards the Germans, whom he regarded as the oppressors 

 of his country ; and he magnifies the achievements of every warrior of the 

 genuine Slavic race. The prevalence of Teutonic manners, and the German 

 language, was a common matter of complaint among the Bohemians, and 

 two bad Latin hexameters, by Abbot Peter Von Konigral, are cited by 

 Dobrovvsky, in which this ascendancy is apparent : — 



" Turba Bohemorum canit hoc, quod scivit eorum 

 Lirigiia, sed ipsorum pars maxima Teutonicorum 

 Cantat Teutonicum." 



As the historical records of the Slavonic nations, and even the use of 

 letters among the tribes of people belonging to that race, are comparatively 

 of so recent a date, we must look to other quarters for information respect- 

 ing the early events connected with this people. Some data are found in 



