THE HUMAN SPECIES. 317 



ocalities for their divinities and religious ceremonies.* As 

 already stated, there were two distinct races successively 

 inhabitants of Wineta, and the other neutral trading communi- 

 ties on the south of the Baltic ; the first, composed originally 

 of true Veneti from the Adriatic, strengthened by Celta? from 

 the same quarter, — by Roman outlaws and fugitives, — by 

 Celto-Scytha?, that reached the north by ascending the Sarma- 

 tian rivers, and by Yeta or Goths from the Lake of Ladoga, 

 all cemented together by marriages with Finnic wives, a prac- 

 tice that commenced at least three centuries before the reign 

 of Augustus, and which finished by forming the tribes dena- 

 tionalized by all the immediate people around them into that 

 power, which, under the name of Vandals and Venden, pene- 

 trated, about five centuries later, southward to the seat of their 

 relatives or progenitors.! A second community formed after 

 their departure, and retaining only a part of the former popula- 

 tion, was composed of Finnic Sarmatians still more heteroge- 

 neous ; for the first, arising out of a congregation of merchants, 

 who had taken wives from the Finn or Sclavonic resident 

 tribes, formed a homogeneous community, without tribal dis- 

 tinctions, and assenting to the same pagan divinities ; but the 

 second was an assemblage of clans, which retained their dis- 

 tinct nationalities, lived in separate quarters, and even distinct 

 castles, until they rebelled against the authority of the magis- 

 trates. These people were known to the Huns by the name 

 of Vuinid Fulce, the same as the Celtic, Wenid Vole, and 

 Theotisk Wenden Folk, and the acceptation of Wend or Vend 

 is still retained in the modern Belgic Vent, a man of superior 

 importance, a wanderer, a travelling merchant. Vend, in 

 Gaelic, a head or chief; the fusion of the Finnic Yeta with the 



* Mone gives detailed notices of the nationality, religion, and institu- 

 tions of the Finnic nations of the Baltic. See " Geschichte des Heiden- 

 thums in nordlichen Europa," vol. i. 



t They first appeared in arms against the Romans, in the reign of M. 

 Aurelius, A. D. 173. 



27* 



