LITHUANIA. 2G3 



If, on the other hand, a nation consisthig almost entirely of shrewd, intelligent 

 persons, full of poetic fire, with a strong feeling of personal dignity, has never 

 produced a single great poet or eminent genius in the intellectual world, it 

 was probably because a sense of self-reliance was wanting in a comparatively 

 small race, beset, and at last overwhelmed, by enemies. They no longer retained 

 a feeling of national existence. Their ancient religious organization, surviving 

 till the close of the fourteenth century, betrays a remarkable spirit of submission. 

 Although divided into numerous tribes, they had a religious head, who regulated 

 the observances and doctrines for all. This " pope," or lirive-krirei/to, dwelt in 

 the sacred grove of Remove, in Prussian Lithuania, surrounded by a hierarchy of 

 ra'idelots, or minstrel priests, and invisible to the profane, with whom he com- 

 municated only through messengers provided with insignia before which all fell 

 prostrate. Expelled by the Teutonic Knights, this high priest took refuge first in 

 the district about the confluence of Niémen and Dubissa, below where now stands 

 Kovno, and then in a place near Yilna, which has remained sacred even in 

 Christian times. Even down to the last century certain households still cherished 

 domestic snakes as sacred animals, sharing in the morning milk with the children. 



A nation of husbandmen, waggoners, and woodmen closely attached to the 

 traditional customs, the Lithuanians resign themselves readily to fate, without 

 seeking to anticipate their destiny. They formerly gave a royal dynasty to 

 Poland, but they ended by gradually accepting the supremacy of their allies. 

 They welcomed the priests sent them by the Poles, and conformed to the Catholic 

 belief, although not without a show of opposition. In the same way they received 

 the nobles and became serfs. The land passed entirely into the hands of a 

 southern aristocracy, and amid the silence of an enslaved people it was long 

 supposed that Lithuania formed an integral part of Poland, both ethnically and 

 politically. "■ Lithuanian phlegm " has become proverbial, nor has any other people 

 so resignedly submitted to the vicissitudes of life. Many at the age of forty or fifty 

 shake ofi" the cares of property, resigning their possessions to a son or son-in-law, 

 and becoming guests where they had been masters. 



Besides the Lithuanians the country is occupied by some Germans and Letts 

 near the Baltic and Dvina ; by Poles, especially in the province of Vilna ; by 

 Black, White, and Little Russians ; in the towns by swarms of Jews ; lastly, by 

 a few communities of Tatars, tanners and traders, now speaking Polish, but 

 retaining their Mohammedan practices. But while the Tatars have lost their 

 national speech, the Karaïtic Jews still sj)eak the Tatar dialect of the Crimea. 



Tenure of Land, 



An economical revolution similar to that of Poland has been effected since the 

 large proprietors have been compelled to allow the peasantry to purchase a 

 portion of their estates. After the insurrection of 1863 the Government enforced 

 the redemption of the peasants' lands on conditions varying with the circumstances 

 of each district. In Kovno out of 318,800 peasants, 110,800 menials and day 



