324 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



names, Balamir, Bleda, Iring, and Atzel, the Lombardy Atzo, 

 Ailfred, and other words, show the Gothic element pervading 

 usages and objects of social convenience ; and the courts of 

 their kings, if the old Burgundian (Frankish) legends may be 

 credited, were as hospitable, as polished, and as splendid, as 

 those of the Greek and Latin sovereigns of that time. The 

 Huns subjected or associated the Haiatili, white Huns, Heph- 

 tal of the Armenians, a partial kindred, with the Yuchi and 

 Sacai, who came from beyond the Oxus, and were seated in 

 Meweram and Khawarism, with the capital Gogo, probably Ker- 

 keng. They invaded Affghanistan, Scinde and Persia, in 428 ; 

 but, driven back by Baharam-Ghor, were extended on the north 

 of the Caspian ; but, if the conjecture of Professor Wilson be 

 admitted, they were still powerful east of the Indus, since they 

 took and destroyed the vast city of Valhabi, in Gujrat, in the 

 year 524 of our era. 



When the Hunnic empire had declined, we find a large force 

 of their cavalry under the command of Iliphred and Apsich, in 

 the service of the Byzantine emperor, forming the left wing of 

 the army at the battle of Solacon, in the year 586, where 

 Philippicus defeated the Persians. 



Other Finnic nations, debris of the Hunnic empire, such as 

 the Avares, became predominant in Eastern Europe in the 

 sixth century. In conjunction with the Lombards, they de- 

 stroyed the power of the Gepidae, a tribe of Yeta, who had again 

 risen to independence, defeated Sigebert, king of the Franks, 

 and rendered the Bulgarians tributary; but, in the next cen- 

 tury, revolting under the conduct of Conviat, these in their turn 

 became puissant, and long held sway in Maesia, on the south 

 of the Danube. 



