Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 1 7 



or malicious ; but resemble the Huns in their simple habits In ancient 

 times one name was given both to the Antse and the Sclaveni : they were 

 formerly called in common Spori, as I suppose, because they were scat- 

 tered over the country in cabins separated from each other : owing to this 

 circumstance, they extend themselves over a wide tract of land : most of 

 the territories on one side of the Danube are in their possession."* 



Procopius describes the Sclaveni and the AntaB as inhabiting the northern 

 side of the Danube, whence they made frequent incursions into the provinces 

 on the right bank of that river, frequently plundering in their expeditions 

 some of the most populous and fertile countries of tlie Byzantine empire. 

 It was not until some generations after the time of Procopius, that they 

 gained permanent occupation of these provinces, which their descendants, 

 under the names and divisions of Slavonians, Croats, Servians, Dalmatians, 

 and Bosnians, still continue to inhabit. Of this migration we shall take 

 further notice, after some remarks on the earlier history of the race. 



We have seen that Jordanes mentions the Winidas as inhabiting, in the 

 fifth century of the Christian era, the countries of the upper V^istula, and that 

 he seems to regard them as situated next to the Estii, or Esthonians, a 

 people of Finnish extraction on the Baltic. About three centuries before 

 the age of Jordanes, we find a nation having the same name, or one very 

 nearly resembling it, in the same country, or perhaps a little further to- 

 wards the north. They are termed by Ptolemy, who lived in the time of 

 Hadrian and Antoninus, Ovivtcai, or Wenedffi. The most probable sup- 

 position is, that the Wenedffi of Ptolemy were the same people who were 

 afterwards called Winidae by Jordanes. This opinion has been adopted by 

 some modern writers, while others very confidently affirm, that the Wenedae 

 of Ptolemy were a German people, who left their country to the eastward 

 of the Vistula, during the movements of the Teutonic nations, and that 



* Procop. Hist. Gotth. — This brief outline by Procopius becomes in the version 

 or rather thc'amijlification of Gibbon, a flowing and poetical description. " Four 

 thousand six hundred villages," he says, "were scattered over the provinces of 

 Russia and Poland ; and the huts of the barbarians were hastily built of rough tim- 

 ber, in a country deficient both in stone and iron. Erected, or rather concealed in 

 the depths of forests, on the banks of rivers, or the edge of morasses, we may not 

 perhaps without flattery compare them to the architecture of the beaver, which they 

 resembled in a double issue, to the land and water, for the escape of the savage in- 

 habitant, an animal less cleanly, less diligent, and less social than that marvellous 

 quadruped. The fertility of the soil, rather than the labour of the natives, supplied 

 the rustic plenty of the Sclavonians." With the appearance of profound and accu- 

 rate research, which Gibbon had no necessity of affecting, he informs us that the 

 Kinn here given as the number of Sclavonian villages, is the result of a particular list 

 in a curious MS. fragment of the year 550, found in the library of Milan, which pro- 

 voked and exercised the patience of the Count de Buct. Karamsin, the historian of 

 Russia, has taken pains to examine this MS. document, and he has reported it to be 

 full of error, and wholly unworthy of credit. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. 

 42. Kararasin'H Hist, de la Russie, torn. 1. p. 540. 



No. I.— Vol. I. D* 



