THE HUMAN SPECIES. 32S 



Syrians of Russia, and even the Ghoorkas of the Himalayas 

 are accounted Zwergi, or of dwarf race. 



THE HUNS. 



The Huns, originally from Yoguria, being kindred of the 

 Wogules and Ostiaks, held the region between Tomsk and 

 Tobolsk, till they moved westward to the confines of Europe. 

 De Guines and Klaproth differ on their origin more in degree 

 than fundamentally. They are first noticed in the time of 

 Augustus, by Dion. Periegetes. In the second century they 

 occupied the extensive region between the Caspian Sea and the 

 Borysthenes, having propelled or incorporated the Gepidoe and 

 the eastern Goths. They advanced in A. D. 375, to beyond the 

 borders of the Danube, and became the most formidable power 

 of Asia and Europe ; for, in the fifth century, under Attila, they 

 had sway from the borders of China to the Rhine, his capital 

 city being Buda, or Hunnic Ettelvar. They ravaged with 

 their armies all Germany and the north of France, and pene- 

 trated to the gates of Rome. At that period most of the 

 nomad tribes of Asia were in his service ; hence the nation 

 might have been called ferocious and ill-favored ; but here also 

 the Caucasian element had already so greatly influenced the 

 external form of the Ispans,or higher chiefs, that these were not 

 inferior to any other privileged races of Europe.^ The proper 



*Tlie goat face of Attila, with horns and beard, represented on a Latin 

 medal, together with the assertion that he called himself "Flagelluni 

 Dei," is mere monkish quibbling upon the names Atzel, Attel, Attains, 

 carried to the Hebrew Atzail, a wandering goat ; hence in Arabic, Azalin, 

 Satan. Attila's profile on a coin is shown, with lengthened features, a pair 

 of wings at the shoulders, and his private symbol 5S£ occurs beneath the 

 figure of a horse on the reverse, so much in the manner of Hindoo Bactrian 

 art that there can be little doubt of its authenticity. He died in 453. A 

 coin, given for one of Attila, or Ath-tila, king of Sweden, circa 548, is 

 more properly applied to the Hunnic sovereign ; for he is figured on horse- 

 back, carrying in his hand the trident or tripula, a real Bactrian weapon ; 

 yet there he is styled Gauta og Suethiot Kongr. See GenswolfFruna Kefli ; 

 also profiles of Hyatili princes among coins in Wilson's Aria Antiqua. 



