to about six millions. In Bohemia the Czekh is not the only language spoken; all around the frontier, and especially in the west, German prevails largely. The present Margravate of Moravia, a province of Austria, is but a part of what it was when first settled by a Slavic race nearly related to the Czekhes of Bohemia. It extended then far into Hungary, and the ancient limits of the land of these so-called Pannonic Slaves are the same which at present mark the extent of the language. Hence there existed, also, some slight distinction between the two dialects, the Czekh and the Slovakian. A considerable number of Slaves in the Russian province of Silesia are said to speak the same languages slightly modified. The Czekh proper, that is, the written language of Bohemia, seems to have but little changed from the time of its first introduction, if we may judge from the old names of towns, mountains and rivers, which still exist. It possesses, moreover, like most of the Slavic dialects now spoken, quite a number of old documents; these are, however, only in part yet published. The oldest MSS., belonging still to the days of Paganism in Bohemia, are the Judgment of Libussa of the ninth century, the authenticity of which was at first doubted, and the so-called Königinhof MS., containing epic and lyric poems of the thirteenth century. The oldest monuments of the Christian age are the names of the days which are pure Slavic, and, perhaps, the Lord's Prayer. By such means the different forms of the Czekh, at various periods, may be studied in continuous successions from the ninth century to our day. Additional evidence has been found in these numerous documents belonging to the different dialects of this family, that the Church-Slavic is only BOHEMIAN-MORAVIAN. 351 one of many contemporary dialects, and not a common mother tongue. The Bohemian shows even now a well-preserved and still unusually perfect grammar and structure; political reverses, however, and German influence seem to have arrested it in its course of development. Many forms of nouns and adjectives, especially those in i, of which the Bohemian has a large number, show a defective inflection; the same is the case with the personal terminations of the verb. Here also the final i, the result of a contraction of vowels, is too frequent for euphony, and impedes inflection. The Czekh does not object to combinations of consonants, but it does not carry the modification of these letters into vowels to the same extent as the sister language, the Polish. The accent is always on the first syllable of a word; but the language has the special merit of observing, with great regularity, short or long vowels. The two forms of 7, peculiar to the Polish and other dialects, have been lost in the Bohemian. The literature of this remarkable dialect, the first of modern Slavic languages that was cultivated, is uncommonly rich and valuable; and the works it contains are of all Slavic tongues, alone of great importance to Protestants, because they have preserved the memory of Huss and of Jerome of Prague. The Bible and its doctrines have been studied by the Bohemians with a zeal and a devotion which led unfortunately, at last, to long contests for liberty of conscience and to their destruction as a nation. The Moravian has suffered less than the Bohemian, and presents thus, even now, the fuller and purer forms of olden times. It is divided into numerous dialects, as the population is divided into tribes or races which differ not only in language but also in costume and manners. Such dialects are the Ho rakian, Hanakian, Moravian, Slovakian, and the Wallachian, spoken near the frontiers of Poland. The same division into dialects characterizes the Slovakian, the language of the Slovaks, who were conquered by the Magyars and driven into the mountains, where they have successfully preserved the race and the idiom of the original Slavic settlers of Europe. The language, however, is the only remnant of their national existence; they are a subjugated race, and, in every other respect, a part of the Hungarian nation. This and the fact that they are surrounded by various other nations, accounts for the great diversity of dialects. As they approach the different idioms of their neighbors, they partake of their peculiarities; but in all that is genuine and old, the full beauty of a noble ancient tongue may still be perceived. Unfortunately, the Bohemian has been adopted as their literary language, although their own tongue is far superior to the former in its abundance of full vowels and a number of ancient forms and expressions. The Sorabian or Vendish, which was formerly spoken through the whole land of the Polabic Sorabians-an ancient name of the Slaves generally-is now confined to parts of Lusatia from Loban in the south to Lübben in the north, and a small portion of Brandenburg. These Vindes are descendants of a Slavic race that settled early in the very heart of Germany under various names of their own, whilst the Germans called them all Vendes or Vindes. They are now represented by a small population, amounting to scarcely two hundred thousand, who speak the two dialects of Upper and Lower Lusatia. Both dialects are much subdivided, and contain a large admixture of German. They are very nearly related to the Bohemian, though the language of Lower Lusatia approaches the Polish more; they have a considerable literature, principally consisting of Bible translations and religious writings. The Polabian is now spoken by so few, that it is frequently considered an extinct language. It was originally the idiom. used by the numerous Slavic tribes that lived in the valley of the Elbe (po, upon; Labe, Elbe). They extended in the north to the Baltic, including the islands on the coast of Pomerania; in the east they were bounded by Poles and Czekhes; the rivers Saale and Elbe were their limits westward, although they sent out branches far into Thuringia and to the river Main. They appear in history as Weteli or Wiltzi in Pomerania, as Obotrites in Mecklenburg, as Wagrians, Drewanians, &c. The dialect of the last-named tribe, alone, is now spoken by a few survivors of this ancient race. Protected by almost inaccessible marshes, and living in most sterile sand plains, they resisted long the effects of time and invasion; a few dictionaries, prayers and popular songs, are, however, their whole literature. CHAPTER LIV. GERMANIC GROUP. Low German.-Scandinavian-Icelandic-Swedish-Danish and NorwegianAnglo-Saxon-English-Frisian-Low German proper Dutch- Platt Deutsch. - GERMANIC is used as a collective name, including all the descendants of the ancient nation, known to the Romans already as Goths, but under that name to distinguish them from the Celtic Gauls. Whether it is derived from the Latin germanus or from the German Erman, Hermann (Irminsûl), has not yet been decided. The name includes, therefore, the English as a descendant of the Anglo-Saxon dialect of the German, the Scandinavian in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and northern islands, and the German proper. The latter is, in German, called Deutsch from the old form thinda (Ivos), and its derivative thindiskô, ẻIvɩkôs; meaning most probably the people, by excellence, like the Latin gens and gentiles. This has given rise to the English term Dutch, so constantly misapplied to German, but origin .lly, and properly, only meant for the Dutch of Holland. Jacob Grimm, who is here, as in all philology, master and highest authority, mentions four characteristic features of this group, which distinguish it from the languages of other nations. The Ablaut, or radical change of vowels as it |