606 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



An interesting fact is that emigrated Luzice Serbs have founded 

 a number of settlements in the United States, especially in Texas, 

 as, for example, Serbin, West-Yewa, Warda, Burleson. 



The language of the upper and lower branches of these peoples, 

 as mentioned above, differed to such an extent that the two must be 

 regarded as distinct dialects. 



THE BOHEMIANS (CECHS) AND SLOVAKS. 



The Bohemians and Slovaks, also, are derived from the western 

 body of the Slavs. The Slovaks can in general be regarded as a part 

 of the same ethnic group, although considerably separated by various 

 conditions. Both parts arose from a common center somewhere near 

 that of the Poles and that of the Elbe Slavs, to the north of the Sudet 

 Mountains, reaching, perhaps, into Moravia. 



The Bohemians and Slovaks came to their present abodes from 

 the north possibly in one, possibty in separate ways. Historical 

 data concerning these facts there are none, but some light on them 

 begins to rise on the basis of archeological researches. According 

 to the latter investigations both branches had settled their respective 

 territories before the latter half of the first millenium B. C., and 

 hence they can well be regarded as autochthonous in their countries. 



Linguistic relations show clearly that both the Bohemians and 

 the Slovaks belong to the same stem as the Poles, the Luzician Serbs 

 and the Elbe Slavs, and that they expanded in connection with these. 



Historical data concerning the Bohemians begins in the seventh 

 century. At that time these people occupied a more extensive terri- 

 tory than they do to-day, reaching in places into what is now Bavaria 

 and on the south to the Donau. They also extended farther than 

 they now do into ancient Pannonia (Hungary) , and the Slovaks occu- 

 pied a large portion of the latter country, connecting in the south 

 with other Slavs. 



As all the other Slavic branches, so also the Bohemians were 

 at the beginning separated into a number of more or less distinct 

 groups. Among these the Cechove (Cechs) exceled in number and 

 power, and, as with the Polane in Poland, the name of the group even- 

 tually became extended over all the other subdivisions, barring the 

 Slovaks. In the ninth and tenth centuries the word Cechove or 

 Cesi was already used in the larger sense, embracing the whole people. 

 The territorial term Bohemi was in like sense employed even earlier. 



The naturalty highly favorable and protected situation of the 

 center of the Bohemians resulted in a rapid and auspicious develop- 

 ment of the people, and had it not been for some of its rulers with 

 their foreign sympathies, the nation would have played an even more 

 important role than it did among the Slavs and would doubtless 

 occupy to-day a different political position. 



