Ethnographical Memoir on the Nations of Slavonian Race. 27 



the Baltic trade, long before the era, at which the history of the North 

 opens itself to our survey. Ruins of marble and alabaster mark the spot 

 where Vineta sank into the sea. Julin, which succeeded to its opulence, 

 rejected (/hristianity. " Suddenly," says Von Miiller, " lightning set fire 

 to its wooden streets, and the whole city was consumed. The Obotrites, 

 in Mecklenburg, likewise adhered for a long time to paganism ; and they 

 several times relapsed into idolatry, after giving encouragement to mis- 

 sionaries, and displaying the outward appearances of compliance with their 

 eSbrts. Charlemain prevailed upon them to receive instruction in the 

 religion of the civilized world, and defended them against the Saxon 

 AVittikind, whose hostility was provoked by their acquiescence. But when 

 the influence and predominant power of the Carlovingian princes was 

 withdrawn, paganism resumed its sway ; and nearly three centuries after- 

 wards, we find it not completely rooted out on the shores of the Baltic, 

 Such was the obstinacy with which the Wends adhered to their ancient 

 superstition, that the arms of the Teutonic knights were for a long period 

 vainly employed in the attempt to exterminate their idolatry. The ancient 

 customs of the Slavi, together with their national independence, were 

 preserved to a later period in Mecklenburg, than in any other part of 

 Germany ; and it is said, that that country derives its present name, 

 Mecklenburg, from the Mickli, an order of priests among the idolatrous 

 \Vends. 



It has been a question at what period the Slavonian nations obtained a 

 footing in Germany, in which they appear to have spread themselves over 

 so many extensive regions, either subjugating, or entirely rooting out, the 

 original inhabitants. Schlotzer, who has enumerated thirty-three Slavo- 

 nian tribes or nations, in different parts of Germany, supposed that 

 many of them may have been settled there from ancient times. Most 

 modern writers have been of a contrary sentiment; and among the old 

 historians, we find no ground for Schlotzer's opinion. On the contrary, all 

 the ancient writers speak of the Vistula as the boundary of Germany and 

 Sarmatia, and place the Venedae, and the other nations foreign to the 

 Teutonic race, to the eastward of that river. It was, in all likelihood, 

 subsequently to the southward movements of the tribes of northern Ger- 

 many, that the Wends crossed the Vistula, and occupied the countries 

 which liad belonged to the Suevi and other Teutonic nations. In the 

 territory of the Vandals, they succeeded to the very name of that people. 

 The AVcnds of the middle ages were called Vandals; and the kings of 

 Denmark, who made conquests in that country, assumed the title of 

 sovereigns of Vandalia. With respect to the periods at which the different 

 Slavonian tribes gained possession of the German provinces, we may re- 

 ceive the opinion of Gattercr as the most proi)able. This writer supposes 

 that they established themselves in Bohemia, Moravia, Saxony, and 

 Thuringia, in 534; and in Stiria and Pomerauia, between the years 569 

 and 588. 



