24 Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 



under the Emperor Heraclius, Slavonian tribes obtained possession of 

 Servia and Dalmatia. About the same time, several clans arrived in 

 Bulgaria, to whom the Bulgarians, as conquerors of the country, assigned 

 lands in 679. The colonies of this people extended from the Euxlne to 

 the Adriatic. The Croats became a powerful nation, and were ruled by 

 sovereigns of their own : they had possession of nearly all the eastern 

 coast of the Adriatic, and exercised piracy for many years in that sea, and 

 in the Mediterranean. 



Of the Western Branch of the Slavonian Race. 



To the western division of the Slaves, belong the Bohemians, the Poles, 

 the Sorabians, and tlie northern Wends. Each of these four nations is 

 subdivided into tribes differing more or less from each other in dialect. 



I have observed that all the eastern Slavonians, including the Russians, 

 as well as the detached tribes who passed from the main body of the 

 nation across the Krapak, and settled alternately to the southward of the 

 Danube, derived the rudiments of literature, and the light of Christianity 

 and of civilization, from instructors of the Greek church. The western 

 Slaves, on the other hand, are wholly indebted to the church of Rome for 

 these inestimable blessings ; and their scribes adopted the Latin alphabet, 

 so modified, that it might be rendered serviceable to people who used the 

 Slavonian speech. 



I. The Bohemians. 



The language of the Bohemians has been the most cultivated among all 

 these dialects. Christianity was introduced among the Bohemians during the 

 latter part of the ninth century, and doubtless with it the knowledge of 

 letters. The oldest specimen, howevei", that is extant of the Bohemian 

 language, is a short hymn of Bishop Adalbert; which, somewhat modified, 

 is still sung in some of the churches of Bohemia : it is given by Do- 

 brows'ky, in the work already cited. The earliest Bohemian chronicler 

 was Dalemil, who wrote his chronicle in rhyme, about 1310. In the 

 same century, the first Bohemian version was made, of which a copy in a 

 parchment manuscript is preserved in the Royal Library of Dresden. 

 From that time the culture of the Bohemian language and manners im- 

 proved after German models, and attained the highest pitch under 

 Rudolph n. The interval between 1577 and 1(510, was the Augustan 

 age of Bohemia. The literature, together with the national spirit of the 

 people, fell into decay at the close of that period, and became almost extinct 

 during the thirty-years' war. The Bohemians were termed by other 

 Slaves, Tschech or Chechi, which, according to Dobrowsky, means the 

 Foremost, describing, apparently, the local position of this tribe in relation 

 to the great body of the nation. Bohemia, as it is well known, is the 

 name, not of the people, but of the country, which obtained this term when 



