234 EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



below Drissa, in the government of Vitebsk, and a small portion of Kovno. Jordan 

 estimates tbem at 1,100,000, and tliey are rapidly increasing by excess of 

 births over deaths. They live as settled agriculturists mostly in isolated 

 farmsteads, so that compact villages, such as those of Esthonia, are rare in their 

 territory. Their language, formerly but little developed, notwithstanding its 

 beauty, is now carefully studied and highly appreciated by those who speak it. 

 According to Schleicher it is related to Lithuanian (of all European tongues the 

 nearest to Sanskrit) as Italian is to Latin. The first scientific grammar, 

 that of Stender, appeared at the end of the last century, and in 1876 there 

 circulated five Lettish journals amongst about 20,000 subscribers. There are 

 numerous translations, including the works of Schiller and Shakspere, and in 

 1844 an important collection of national songs was published by BUtner, since 

 followed by several others, one of the most complete of which was issued by the 

 Moscow Anthropological Society. 



The most striking feature of these songs is their primitive character, German 

 Christian culture has hitherto had but slight influence on a people who retained 

 pagan altars down to the eighteenth century, and even so late as 1835. In their 

 songs they have preserved the names of the old divinities, Perkunas, or Thunder ; 

 Laïmé, or Fortune ; Liga, goddess of pleasure. Marriage, as here described, 

 always takes the form of an abduction, and in these poems traces even occur of an 

 age when marriage with a sister was preferred to the risk attending the abduction 

 of a stranger. 



There are no grand epics, but their simple quatrains still breathe the spirit of 

 a warlike and even victorious epoch when they "burnt the strongholds of the 

 Russians," "challenged the Polack to enter their land," or "met the foe on the 

 deep." But their relations with the Germans and Russians are on the whole 

 described in words of hatred or despair. "0 Riga, R-iga, thou art fair, very fair! 

 but who made thee fair ? The bondage of the Livonians ! " " Oh ! had I but 

 all that money sleeping beneath the waves, I would buy the castle of Riga, 

 Germans and all, and treat them as they treated me ; I w^ould make them dance 

 on hot stones." Despondency is the prevailing tone: "Oh, my God! whither 

 shall I flee ? The woods are full of wolves and bears, the fields are full of 

 despots. Oh, my God ! punish my father, punish my mother, who brought me 

 up in this land of bondage ! " And withal, how much freshness, delicacy, and 

 love in most of these songs, and what depth of thought in the following quatrain, 

 Avhich should be realised in all the Baltic Provinces, and in all the world : " I 

 would not be raised, I would not be lowered, I would but live equal amongst 

 my equals." 



Swedes. — Slavs. — Germans. 



The Swedes already established in Finland also obtained a footing in Esthonia 

 and Livonia. On the Livouian side of the Gulf of Riga have been found several 

 of those groups of stones so peculiarly Scandinavian, representing the decks of 



