SLOVAKIAN Ballads, 392.--_The Mother's Curse_, 392--_Sun and Moon_, 394.
POLISH POPULAR POETRY, 394.--Formerly neglected, 395--Ancient hymn, 396.--Ballads, characteristics, 396.--_Invasion of the Tartars_, 397.--Orphan ballads, 399.--_Poor Orphan Child_, 399.
POPULAR POETRY OF THE VENDES, 400.--Characteristics, 401.--_The Orphan's Lament_, 401.--_Good Advice for Lads_, 402.--Dying out, 404.
On the Orthography and Pronunciation of Slavic proper names, see the note on p. 151; also the note under the letter V in the Index.
The earliest history of the Slavic nations is involved in a darkness, which all the investigations of diligent and sagacious modern historians and philologians have not been able to clear up. The analogy between their language and the Sanscrit, seems to indicate their origin from India; but to ascertain the time at which they first entered Europe, is now no longer possible. Probably this event took place seven or eight centuries before the Christian era, on account of the over-population of the regions on the Ganges.[1] Herodotus mentions a people which he called Krovyzi, who lived on the Ister. There is even now a tribe in Russia, whose name at least is almost the same.[2] Strabo, Pomponius Mela, Pliny, Tacitus, and several other classical and a few oriental writers, allude to the Slavic nations occasionally. But the first distinct intelligence we have of them, is not older than the middle of the sixth century.[3] At this period we see them traversing the Danube in large multitudes, and settling on both the banks of that river. From that time they appear frequently in the accounts of the Byzantine historians, under the different appellations of the Slavi, Sarmatae,[4] Antae, Vandales, Veneti, and Vendes, mostly as involved in the wars of the two Roman empires, sometimes as allies, sometimes as conquerors; oftener, notwithstanding their acknowledged valour and courage, as vassals; but chiefly as emigrants and colonists, thrust out of their own countries by the pressing forward of the more warlike German or Teutonic tribes. Only the first of the above mentioned names is decidedly of Slavic origin;[5] the second is ambiguous; and the last four are later and purely geographical, having been transferred to Slavic nations from those who had previously occupied the territory where the Romans first became acquainted with them.