16 Ethnogrnphical Memoir on the Nations of Slavojiiun Race. 



catalogo gentis dicere coepimus, ab una stirpe exorti, tiia nunc nomina 

 reddidere ; id est Veneti, Antes, Sclavi j qui quamvis nunc ita facientibus 

 peccatis nostris ubique desaeviant, tameii tunc omnes Hermaniici imperio 

 serviere : Ha3Stoium quoque similiter nationem, qui longissitiiam ripam 

 Oceani Germanici insident, idem ipse prudentiae virtute snbegit." Jordanes 

 in these passages, includes the wliole Slavonic race, under the name of 

 Winidae, which is almost exactly the term given by the Germans in general 

 to all the Slavonic people. Wenden or \\'^ends, and sometimes Winds, is 

 the appellation which is applied to the Slavi by their Teutonic neiglibours, 

 as uniformly as tliat of Welscher was given to the Celtae, and in later times 

 to the Italians. The appellation of Winidae is afterwards changed for that 

 of Veneti by Jordanes, who evidently regards the two names as synonymous, 

 or as variations of the same word. Whether the Winidae, or Wends, were 

 in reality the same people as the Veneti, who are placed by earlier writers 

 in the same region, has been disputed. I shall make some further observa- 

 tions on this subject. Jordanes reckons the Antes and Sclavi, or Sclavini, 

 as sub-divisions of the people, who are termed collectively Winidae. It 

 may be observed that the Sclavi are placed by him in the north, in a 

 region far removed from the Sclavonians of the Illyrian conntry. The race 

 of Wends, in the time of Hermanric, seems to have bordered on the Estii, 

 or Esthonians, who possessed the eastern shores of the Baltic. 



Procopius describes the same race under a parallel division ; he terms 

 the principal tribes Antes and Sclaveni, — S/v.Xct/3jyj'oi, — but calls them col- 

 lectively by a name not elsewhere found, viz. Spori, or STropoi.* " These 

 nations," he says, " the Sclaveni and the Antae, are not ruled by one chief, 

 but live of old under a popular government, and therefore their proceed- 

 ings, both in prosperity and adversity, are referred to common deliberation. 

 All other affairs from ancient usage are conducted in a similar manner 

 among both these barbarous tribes." They dwell in miserable cabins, 

 erected at considerable distances from each other, and not unfrequently 

 change the places of their habitation. When they go to war, most of them 

 march against their enemies with little bucklers and darts in their hands, 

 and without breastplate. Some of them have not even a coat or cloak, 

 and wear no covering but greaves about their thighs, and in this state come 

 to conflict with their opponents. Both tribes have the same language, 

 which is extremely barbarous ; nor do they differ in any respect from each 

 other in person : they are all of remarkably good stature and powerful. 

 Their complexions and hair are neither white nor yellow, nor entirely in- 

 clined to black, but all of them are somewhat ruddy. They also live like 

 the Massagetae, in a hardy manner, neglectful of comforts, and like them 

 are always covered with a squalid filthiness. Tiiey are by no means cruel 



* Spori is probably an erroneous orthography of Sorhi, a name common to seve- 

 ral tribes of the Slavonian family. 



