26 Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 



southern part of the mark of Brandenburg. The Germans have ever 

 termed them AVends. 



After this conquest, and the division of their territory in the tenth 

 century, they became much intermixed with German colonists, particularly 

 in the woody and mountainous districts, which the indolent Slavonians had 

 left uncultivated. It thus happened, that in Osterland and the Ertzge- 

 birge, more villages are fouud with German than with Slavonian names. 

 Yet the original language maintained its ground, for a considerable time, 

 in the district inhabited by Sorabians or Wends, until about the fourteenth 

 century, when its use in courts of justice was forbidden, and it became 

 wholly lost, with the exception of some words which are preserved here 

 and there. In the two Lusatias, however, owing to the long connection 

 between these districts and Bohemia, the old tongue is still preserved. 

 Also in Meissen, near the frontier of Upper Lusatia, tliere are many vil- 

 lages inhabited by Wends. Lusitzi, whence the name Lusatia, means, in 

 the Slavonic, a low swampy land. 



TheLusatian or Wendish language, as it is termed, is still a living idiom, 

 and spoken, especially in Upper Lusatia, by great numbers. It is a written 

 language, and a variety of German books have been translated into it. 



4. The Northekn Wends. 



The northern Wends are in some respects a more interesting people 

 than the preceding branch of the Slavish race. Their history presents in 

 early periods, more numerous points of relation to that of the Germans, 

 than are to be found in the annals of any other tribe of the same family. 



The Wends formerly possessed the whole northern maritime region of 

 Germany, with the sea coast from Holstein to Kassubon. They were 

 divided into a number of tribes j the principal divisions being the Obotrites 

 in the west, and the Wiltzes, or Luititzians, towards the east. Both these 

 nations have long ceased to exist as separate races. The last person who 

 spoke the Wendish in Pomerania, died in 1404. In some districts of 

 Lunenburg, remains of the Obotrites were preserved till a late period. 

 These people were the Linones, named from the river Leyne. The tribe 

 termed Polabes, from Labe, the Elbe, and the Slavonian preposition po, on, 

 who lived near Ratzeburg, was extinct much more early j and the Linones 

 are commonly teimed, though improperly, by their name. 



The Slavonians of northern Germany formed, during many ages, power- 

 ful and independent states; and their numbers were so great, as to bear a 

 considerable proportion to those of the native, or Teutonic inhabitants. 

 The history of the Obotrites, and other tribes of the same family, holds a 

 conspicuous place in the annals of the middle ages. The southern shore 

 of the Baltic was long almost entirely in their possession. Hamburg be- 

 longed to the Obotrites ; and Wineta, at the mouth of the Oder, was 

 a city of great extent and wealth, and the principal emporium of 

 * Mithridates, th. 2. 



