THE BALTIC PROVINCES. 283 



composed the Kalevipoëg, " Sons of Kalevi," a poem, however, which contains 

 nothing but simple traditions put into modern verse — no original songs, such as 

 those of the Karelian Kaleva. At present six or eight journals appear in Revel, 

 Dorpat, and St. Petersburg, in which social and political questions are discussed 

 in the national tongue. 



The people who give their name to Livonia, or Liefland, have nearly ceased to 

 be, and scarcely any traces of them remain in the province itself. In the twelfth 

 century the German invaders found the Lives on both banks of the Dvina, and 

 geographical names enable us to verify their former presence in the region 

 stretching from the coast to Sebej, in the government of Vitebsk. But in 1846 

 the language had so far disappeared that it was found barely possible to compose 

 a short grammar and dictionary by taxing the memory of a few aged persons. 

 In this way the Livonian dialect, like the Ehste of Finnic stock, was preserved to 

 science. The only Lives still surviving as a distinct nationality occupy some of 

 the coast forests not in Livonia, but in the peninsula of Kurland, terminating at- 

 Cape Domesnœs. They number about 2,000, but their speech is so mixed 

 with Lettish words and phrases, that it is little better than a jargon. On the 

 other hand, the Lettish itself betrays in Livonia decided Finno-Livonian 

 influences. 



The Krevinian, another Finnish dialect also spoken in Kurland by a few 

 thousand individuals near Bauske, south of Mitau, has completely disappeared 

 since the beginning of the century, leaving nothing behind it except an incomplete 

 glossary. In 1846 Sjogren could discover no more than ten Krevinians who 

 retained a faint recollection of their national speech. The same fate has over- 

 taken the Kûrs, the Kors of Russian records, who gave their name to Kurland. 

 They are supposed to have been originally Finns, but in the twelfth century had 

 already been assimilated to the Letts, as have nearly all the descendants of the 

 Lives. There are still a few families between Goldingen and Hasenpoth, north- 

 east of Libau, who claim descent from the " Kur Kings." These " Kings," 

 mentioned for the first time in 1320, were free peasants, exempt from statute 

 labour, taxes, and military service. They are generally believed to descend from 

 Kur princes who had voluntarily submitted to the Germans. They marry only 

 amongst themselves, but lost their privileges in 1854, and in 1865 had been 

 reduced to about 400 in seven villages. 



The Letts. 



The Letts, who have supplanted the Lives, are of Aryan speech, akin to the 

 Lithuanians and to the old Borussians, or Prussians, now assimilated to the 

 Germans. They call themselves Latvis — that is, Lithuanians — and their old 

 Russian name, Letgola, evidently the same word as Lat win- Galas, means " end 

 of Lithuania." Their purest and formerly most warlike tribe is that of the Semi- 

 galians, or Jeme-Galas ; that is. Men of the " Land's End." They occupy an exten- 

 sive tract, including South Livonia, nearly all Kurland, the right bank of the Dvina 

 161 



