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A.D. 950, &c.]

above the ambassadors of enemies or strangers; 16 and her princes were dignified with the high and invidious title of Basileus, or emperor. But this friendship was soon disturbed: after the death of Simeon the nations were again in arms, his feeble successors were divided and extinguished, and, in the beginning of the eleventh century, the second Basil, who was born in the purple, deserved the appellation of conqueror of the Bulgarians. His avarice was in some measure gratified by a treasure of four hundred thousand pounds sterling (ten thousand pounds weight of gold), which he found in the palace of Lychnidus. His cruelty inflicted a cool and exquisite vengeance on fifteen thousand captives who had been guilty of the defence of their country. They were deprived of sight, but to one of each hundred a single eye was left, that he might conduct his blind century to the presence of their king. Their king is said to have expired of grief and horror; the nation was awed by this terrible example; the Bulgarians were swept away from their settlements, and circumscribed within a narrow province; the surviving chiefs bequeathed to their children the advice of patience and the duty of revenge.

Emigration

II. When the black swarm of Hungarians first hung over Europe, about nine hundred years after the Christian æra, they were mistaken by fear and superstition for the Gog and Magog of the Scriptures, the signs and forerunners of the end of the world.17 17 Since the introduction of letters

of the Turks

or Hunga

rians,

A.D. 884.

16 The ambassador of Otho was provoked by the Greek excuses, cum Christophori filiam Petrus Bulgarorum Vasileus conjugem duceret, Symphona, id est consonantia, scripto juramento firmata sunt, ut omnium gentium Apostolis, id est nunciis, penes nos Bulgarorum Apostoli præponantur, honorentur, diligantur (Liutprand in Legatione, p. 482). See the Ceremoniale of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, tom. i. p. 82 [p. 139, ed. Bonn], tom. ii. p. 429, 430, 434, 435, 443, 444, 446, 447 [tom. i. p. 740743, 749-752, 767, sqq., ed. Bonn], with the annotations of Reiske.

17 A bishop of Wurtzburg submitted this opinion to a reverend abbot; but he more gravely decided that Gog and Magog were the spiritual persecutors of the church; since Gog signifies the roof, the pride of the heresiarchs, and Magog what comes from the roof, the propagation of their sects. Yet these men once commanded the respect of mankind (Fleury, Hist. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 594, &c.)."

66 6

On this note Dr. Maitland remarks,"I do not know why Gibbon says a bishop of Wurtzburg,' when Fleury and "D'Achery (Fleury's only authority) say "Verdun. The document exists as Epis"tola cujusdam Abbatis Monasterii S. "Germani ad V. Episcopum Virdunen"sem de Hungris.' Neither the bishop "nor the abbot seems to have given any "credit to the notion of the Hungarians being Gog and Magog. In writing to "the abbot, the bishop appears (for I "believe his letter is not extant, and is

"only known by the answer) to have " mentioned that the idea was current in "his diocese, and to have desired him to "look at the prophecy of Ezekiel, and let "him know what he supposed to be its "meaning. That the bishop did not express or imply any belief in the opinion,

may be presumed from the terms in "which the abbot (after saying that it "was current in his part of the world "also) sets it down as mere nonsense— "frivolam esse et nihil verum habere"contrasted with the language of deep

they have explored their own antiquities with a strong and laudable impulse of patriotic curiosity.18 Their rational criticism can no longer be amused with a vain pedigree of Attila and the Huns: but they complain that their primitive records have perished in the Tartar war; that the truth or fiction of their rustic songs is long since forgotten; and that the fragments of a rude chronicle 19 must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign intelligence of the Imperial geographer.20 Magyar is the national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of Scythia, they are distingushed by the Greeks under the proper and peculiar name of Turks, as the descendants of that mighty people who had conquered and reigned from China to the Volga. The Pannonian colony preserved a correspondence of trade and amity with the eastern Turks on the confines of Persia ; and after a separation of three hundred and fifty years the missionaries of the king of Hungary discovered and visited their ancient country near the banks of the Volga. They were hospitably entertained by a people of pagans and savages who still bore the name of Hungarians; conversed in their native tongue, recollected a tradition of their longlost brethren, and listened with amazement to the marvellous tale of their new kingdom and religion. The zeal of conversion was animated by the interest of consanguinity, and one of the greatest of

18 The two national authors from whom I have derived the most assistance are George Pray (Dissertationes ad Annales veterum Hungarorum, &c., Vindobonæ, 1775, in folio) and Stephen Katona (Hist. Critica Ducum et Regum Hungariæ stirpis Arpadianæ, Pæstini, 1778-1781, 5 vols. in octavo). The first embraces a large and often conjectural space; the latter, by his learning, judgment, and perspicuity, deserves the name of a critical historian."

19 The author of this Chronicle is styled the notary of king Bela. Katona has assigned him to the xiith century, and defends his character against the hypercriticism of Pray. This rude annalist must have transcribed some historical records, since he could affirm with dignity, rejectis falsis fabulis rusticorum, et garrulo cantû joculatorum. In the xvth century these fables were collected by Thurotzius, and embellished by the Italian Bonfinius. See the Preliminary Discourse in the Hist. Critica Ducum, p. 7-33.

The

20 See Constantine de Administrando Imperio, c. 3, 4, 13, 38-42. Katona has nicely fixed the composition of this work to the years 949, 950, 951 (p. 4-7). critical historian (p. 34-107) endeavours to prove the existence, and to relate the actions, of a first duke Almus, the father of Arpad, who is tacitly rejected by Constantine.

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their princes had formed the generous, though fruitless, design of replenishing the solitude of Pannonia by this domestic colony from the heart of Tartary.21 From this primitive country they were driven to the West by the tide of war and emigration, by the weight of the more distant tribes, who at the same time were fugitives and conquerors. Reason or fortune directed their course towards the frontiers of the Roman empire; they halted in the usual stations along the banks of the great rivers; and in the territories of Moscow, Kiow, and Moldavia, some vestiges have been discovered of their temporary residence. In this long and various peregrination they could not always escape the dominion of the stronger, and the purity of their blood was improved or sullied by the mixture of a foreign race; from a motive of compulsion or choice, several tribes of the Chazars were associated to the standard of their ancient vassals, introduced the use of a second language, and obtained by their superior renown the most honourable place in the front of battle. The military force of the Turks and their allies marched in seven equal and artificial divisions: each division was formed of thirty thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven warriors, and the proportion of women, children, and servants supposes and requires at least a million of emigrants. Their public counsels were directed by seven vayvods, or hereditary chiefs; but the experience of discord and weakness recommended the more simple and vigorous administration of a single person. The sceptre, which had been declined by the modest Lebedias, was granted to the birth or merit of Almus and his son Arpad, and the authority of the supreme khan of the Chazars confirmed the engagement of the prince and people; of the people to obey his commands, of the prince to consult their happiness and glory.

With this narrative we might be reasonably content, if the penetration of modern learning had not opened a new and larger Their Fennic prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian lan- origin. guage stands alone, and as it were insulated, among the Sclavonian dialects; but it bears a close and clear affinity to the idioms of the Fennic race,22 of an obsolete and savage race, which formerly occupied the northern regions of Asia and Europe. The genuine appellation

21

Pray (Dissert. p. 37-39, &c.) produces and illustrates the original passages of the Hungarian missionaries, Bonfinius and Æneas Sylvius.

22 Fischer, in the Quæstiones Petropolitana, de Origine Ungrorum, and Pray, Dissertat. i. ii. iii., &c., have drawn up several comparative tables of the Hungarian

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of Ugri or Igours is found on the western confines of China; 23 a their migration to the banks of the Irtish is attested by Tartar evidence ; 24 a similar name and language are detected in the southern parts of Siberia; 25 and the remains of the Fennic tribes are widely, though thinly, scattered from the sources of the Oby to the shores of Lapland.2 1.26 The consanguinity of the Hungarians and Laplanders would display the powerful energy of climate on the children of a common parent; the lively contrast between the bold adventurers who are

with the Fennic dialects. The affinity is indeed striking, but the lists are short; the words are purposely chosen; and I read in the learned Bayer (Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. x. p. 374) that, although the Hungarian has adopted many Fennic words (innumeras voces), it essentially differs toto genio et naturâ.

23 In the region of Turfan, which is clearly and minutely described by the Chinese Geographers (Gaubil, Hist. du Grand Gengiscan, p. 13; De Guignes, Hist. des Huns, tom. ii. p. 31, &c.).

24 Hist. Généalogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi Bahadur Khan, partie ii. p. 90-98. 25 In their journey to Pekin, both Isbrand Ives (Harris's Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. p. 920, 921) and Bell (Travels, vol. i. p. 174) found the Vogulitz in the neighbourhood of Tobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological art, Uur and Vogul are reduced to the same name; the circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and of all the Fennic dialects, the Vogulian is the nearest to the Hungarian (Fischer, Dissert. i. p. 20-30; Pray, Dissert. ii. p. 31-34).

26 The eight tribes of the Fennic race are described in the curious work of M. Levêque (Hist. des Peuples soumis à la Domination de la Russie, tom. i. p. 361-561).

of the Finnish race, while the most important of the western branches are the Finns and Lappes. Ugria is called Great Hungary by the Franciscan monk Piano Carpini, who travelled in 1426 to the court of the Great Khan. From Ugria the Hungarians were expelled by the Turkish tribes of Petcheneges and Chazars, and sought refuge in the plains of the lower Danube, where they first appeared in the reign of the Greek emperor Theophilus, between 829 and 842. They called themselves Magyars, but the Russians gave them the name of Ugri, as originating from Ugria; and this name has been corrupted into Ungri and Hungarians. Although it is difficult to believe that the present Magyars, who are the foremost people in eastern Europe, are of the same race as the degraded Voguls and Ostiaks, this fact is not only attested by historical authority, and the unerring affinity of language; but, when they first appeared in the central parts of Europe, the description given of them by an old chronicler of the ninth century (quoted by Zeuss, p. 746) accords precisely with that of the Voguls and Ostiaks. They are represented as fishermen and hunters, skilled in the use of bows and arrows, but unlike the equestrian and nomadic hordes of the Turkish race. Some writers have ascribed the great difference which

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exists between the Magyars and the other tribes of the same race to intermixture with Turkish or Tatar nations, but we would rather account for it, with Dr. Prichard, by the influence of external circumstances exercised during ten centuries, and by the change of habits induced by the events of history. They exchanged "their abode in the most rigorous climate "of the old continent, a wilderness where "Ostiaks and Samoiedes pursue the chace "during only the mildest season, for one in "the south of Europe, amid fertile plains, "which abound in rich harvests of corn "and wine. They laid aside the habits of "rude and savage hunters, far below the "condition of the nomadic hordes, for the "manners of civilised life." F. H. Müller, Der Ugrische Volkstamm, Berlin, 1837-39, 2 vols. 8vo.; Zeuss, Die Deutschen und die Nachbarstämme, p. 745, seq.; Prichard, Physical History of Mankind, vol. iii. p. 324.-S.

a Gibbon has here confounded the Ugri, the inhabitants of Ugria, to the south of the Uralian mountains (see preceding note), with the Igours, or Ouigours, as they are more correctly called, a Mongolian tribe, who were the first of the Mongolian race to make use of the art of writing. See Editor's note, vol. iii. p. 307, 308.-S.

intoxicated with the wines of the Danube, and the wretched fugitives who are immersed beneath the snows of the polar circle. Arms and freedom have ever been the ruling, though too often the unsuccessful, passion of the Hungarians, who are endowed by nature with a vigorous constitution of soul and body.27 Extreme cold has diminished the stature and congealed the faculties of the Laplanders; and the Arctic tribes, alone among the sons of men, are ignorant of war and unconscious of human blood: a happy ignorance, if reason and virtue were the guardians of their peace! 28

manners of

Bulgarians,

It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics, 29 that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their pastoral Tactics and and military life, that they all practised the same means of the Hunsubsistence, and employed the same instruments of destruc-arians and tion. But he adds that the two nations of Bulgarians and A.D. 900, &c. Hungarians were superior to their brethren, and similar to each other, in the improvements, however rude, of their discipline and government: their visible likeness determines Leo to confound his friends and enemies in one common description; and the picture may be heightened by some strokes from their contemporaries of the tenth century. Except the merit and fame of military prowess, all that is valued by mankind appeared vile and contemptible to these barbarians, whose native fierceness was stimulated by the consciousness of numbers and freedom. The tents of the Hungarians were of leather, their garments of fur; they shaved their hair and scarified their faces in speech they were slow, in action prompt, in treaty perfidious; and they shared the common reproach of barbarians, too ignorant to conceive the importance of truth, too proud to deny or palliate the breach of their most solemn engagements. Their simplicity has been praised; yet they abstained only from the luxury they had never known: whatever they saw they coveted ; their desires were insatiate, and their sole industry was the hand of violence and rapine. By the definition of a pastoral nation I have recalled a long descrip

27 This picture of the Hungarians and Bulgarians is chiefly drawn from the Tactics of Leo, p. 796-801, and the Latin Annals, which are alleged by Baronius, Pagi, and Muratori, A.D. 889, &c.

28 Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, tom. v. p. 6, in 12mo. Gustavus Adolphus attempted, without success, to form a regiment of Laplanders. Grotius says of these Arctic tribes, arma arcus et pharetra, sed adversus feras (Annal. 1. iv. p. 236); and attempts, after the manner of Tacitus, to varnish with philosophy their brutal ignorance.

"Leo has observed that the government of the Turks was monarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous. (Tactic. p. 796 [c. xviii. § 46] devis nai Bagrias). Rhegino (in Chron. A.D. 889) mentions theft as a capital crime, and his jurisprudence is confirmed by the original code of St. Stephen (A.D. 1016). If a slave were guilty, he was chastised, for the first time, with the loss of his nose, or a fine of five heifers; for the second, with the loss of his ears, or a similar fine; for the third, with death; which the freeman did not incur till the fourth offence, as his first penalty was the loss of liberty (Katona, Hist. Regum Hungar. tom. i. p. 231, 232).

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