The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

234 RUSSIA IX EUROPE.below Drissa, in the government of Vitebsk, and a small portion of Kovno.Jordanestimates them at 1,100,000, and they are rapidly increasing by excess ofbirths over deaths. They live as settled agriculturists mostly in isolatedfarmsteads, so that compact villages, such as those of Esthonia, are rare in theirterritory. Their language, formerly but little developed, notwithstanding itsbeauty, is now carefully studied and highly appreciated by those who speak it.According to Schleicher it is related to Lithuanian (of all European tongues thenearest to Sanskrit) as Italian is to Latin. The first scientific grammar,that of Stender, appeared at the end of the last century, and in 1876 therecirculated five Lettish journals amongst about 20,000 subscribers. There arenumerous translations, including the works of Schiller and Shakspere, and in1844 an important collection of national songs was published by Biitner, sincefollowed by several others, one of the most complete of which was issued by theMoscow Anthropological Society.The most striking feature of these songs is their primitive character.GermanChristian culture has hitherto had but slight influence on a people who retainedpagan altars down to the eighteenth century, and even so late as 1835. In theirsono-s they have preserved the names of the old divinities, Perkunas, or ThunderLai'me, or Fortune ; Liga, goddess of pleasure. Marriage, as here described,always takes the form of an abduction, and in these poems traces even occur of anao-e when marriage with a sister was preferred to the risk attending the abductionof a stranger.There are no grand epics, but their simple quatrains still breathe the spirit ofa warlike and even victorious epoch when they "burnt the strongholds of theRussians," "challenged the Polack to enter their land," or "met the foe on thedeep." But their relations with the Germans and Russians are on the wholedescribed in words of hatred or despair. "O Riga, Riga, thou art fair, very fairbut who made thee fair ? The bondage of the Livonians !" " Oh ! had I butall tbat money sleeping beneath the waves, I would buy the castle of Riga,Germans and all, and treat them as they treated me ; I would make them danceon hot stones." Despondency is the prevailing tone: "Oh, my God! whithershall I flee? The woods are full of wolves and bears, the fields are full ofdespots. Oh, mv God ! punish my father, punish my mother, who brought meup in this land of bondage " ! And withal, how much freshness, delicacy, andlove in most of these songs, and what depth of thought in the following quatrain,which should be realised in all the Baltic Provinces, and in all the world :" Iwould not be raised, I would not be lowered, I would but live equal amongstmy equals."Swedes.— Slavs. — Germans.The Swedes already established in Finland also obtained a footing in Esthoniaand Livonia. On the Livonian side of the Gulf of Riga have been found severalol those groups of stones so peculiarly Scandinavian, representing the decks of