THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



453 



THE BURSTING OE THE HUN TEMPEST 



Suddenly there burst upon Europe the 

 tempest of the Huns, a Finno-Altaic 

 people who had been long located in the 

 great Asiatic plains beyond the Caspian. 

 Their numbers prodigiously increasing, 

 they expanded toward the west. 



In the fourth century after Christ, as 

 if under a sudden impulse, the whole 

 multitude, in great carts and on horse- 

 back, carrying all their possessions, 

 started for Europe. Crossing the Volga, 

 they forced the Alans, a formidable peo- 

 ple of mixed blood, to join them. 



The Goths, a Teutonic people from 

 Scandinavia, at that time occupied all the 

 territory between the Don and Theiss. 

 Their two branches — the Visi-Goths, or 

 Western Goths, and the Ostro-Goths, or 

 Eastern Goths — had united, and together 

 constituted the mightiest power in Eu- 

 rope outside of Rome. This Empire the 

 Huns overwhelmed. 



The Ostro-Goths submitted, biding 

 their time till the tempest passed. The 

 Visi-Goths sought an asylum south of the 

 Danube, in the Eastern Roman Empire, 

 of which Constantinople was the newly 

 founded capital. 



The Huns bivouacked for half a cen- 

 tury in the center of Europe. On the 

 Danube they founded as their capital the 

 town of Buda, which with Pest on the 

 opposite bank is still the capital of the 

 Hungarians. 



Words cannot express the horror with 

 which the Huns were regarded -by Ro- 

 mans and Teutons alike. Their tiny 

 eyes piercing flat, bony faces, their low, 

 pointed foreheads, their broad, squat 

 noses, their immense flaring ears, their 

 tattooed and painted skin, their gro- 

 tesque and distorted forms, made them 

 seem monsters rather than men. Blood- 

 thirsty and indifferent to suffering, des- 

 titute of human affection or feeling, they 

 were reported to be the offspring of 

 demons and witches, to have foul spirits 

 at their command, and to be masters of 

 infernal magic. 



The so-called barbarian invasions of 

 Europe are rightly reckoned as beginning 

 with this irruption of the Huns. Many 

 migrations had already taken place. 



Many peoples had assailed the Roman 

 provinces since Brennus and his Gauls 

 ravaged Italy and republican Rome ; 

 but each of those invasions and attacks 

 had been an isolated event, coming and 

 passing, the consequences of which were 

 relatively small. None had set the en- 

 tire continent in commotion. 



DISORDER EOLUOWED THE HUNS 

 EVERYWHERE 



Before the coining of the Huns, out- 

 side the Roman Empire there had been 

 disorder, but a disorder localized and 

 confined. For centuries after the Huns, 

 everywhere, from Scandinavia and the 

 Vistula to northern Africa, continuous 

 and ever-changing disorder reigned su- 

 preme. Populations, incessantly dis- 

 placed, crowded upon one another.- Celts, 

 Slavs, Teutons, Huns, and Romans mixed 

 and were lost in the wild confusion. 



Attila, King of the Huns, roused his 

 people to resume their career of conquest 

 in the west. His 700,000 fighting men 

 comprised not only Huns, his chief re- 

 liance, but contingents from all the sub- 

 jugated peoples and such other auxili- 

 aries as his skill could attract. The tot- 

 tering western Empire rallied in one su- 

 preme effort under iEtius, "the last Ro- 

 man general," and brought into the field 

 every man whom piety or patriotism or 

 hope of reward could enlist. 



The enormous hosts met on that undu- 

 lating plain that lies between Chateau- 

 Thierry and Chalons. At stake were not 

 primarily the interests of a State, but the 

 independence and civilization of the men 

 then alive. This is rightly reckoned one 

 of the decisive battles of the world. 

 Though fought almost fifteen centuries 

 ago, these last tragic years give a keen 

 and renewed significance to that battle 

 of Chalons, the first dread battle of the 

 Marne. 



Attila did not long survive his defeat. 

 The subject Teutonic and Slavic tribes 

 regained their independence. The hordes 

 of Huns dispersed; some remained on 

 the right bank of the Danube, in the 

 Hungary of today ; some settled in the 

 Dobrudja ; some wandered back and were 

 absorbed in the kingdoms of their kin, 



