arude chronicle(19) must be painfully reconciled with the contemporary though foreign intelligence of the Imperial geographer.(20) Magiar is the national and oriental denomination of the Hungarians; but, among the tribes of Scythia, they are distinguished 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 long-lost 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 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 toward 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 councils 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 Lebedius, 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 prospect of the antiquities of nations. The Hungarian language 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 (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 cantù 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.

(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). The 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.

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

(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 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.

appellation of Ugri or Igours is found on the western confines of China;(23) 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. (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 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)

[A. D. 900, &c.] It is the observation of the Imperial author of the Tactics, (29) that all the Scythian hordes resembled each other in their pastoral and military life, that they all practised the same means of subsistence, and employed the same instruments of destruction. But he adds, that the two nations of Bulgarians and 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 description of the economy, the warfare, and the government that prevail in that stage of society; I may add, that to fishing, as well as to the chase, the Hungarians were indebted for a part of their subsistence; and since they seldom cultivated the ground, they must, at least in their new settlements, have sometimes practised a slight and

(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. Genealogique des Tartars, par Abulghazi Bahadur Kahn, 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. 1. p. 174,) found the Vogulitz in the neighbourhood of Tobolsky. By the tortures of the etymological art, Ugur and Vogul are reduced to the same name; the circumjacent mountains really bear the appellation of Ugrian; and of all the Feunic 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. Leveque (Hist. des Peuples soumis à la Domination de la Russie, tom. i. p. 361-561).

(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, 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. I. iv. p. 236), and attempts, after the manner of Tacitus, to varnish with philosophy their brutal ignorance.

(29) Leo has observed, that the government of the Turks was monarchical, and that their punishments were rigorous (Tactic. p. 896, anɛiveis kai ẞapɛtas). 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).

anskilful husbandry. In their emigrations, perhaps in their expeditions, the host was accompanied by thousands of sheep and oxen, who increased the cloud of formidable dust, and afforded a constant and wholesome supply of milk and animal food. A plentiful command of forage was the first care of the general, and if the flocks and herds were secure of their pastures, the hardy warrior was alike insensible of danger and fatigue. The confusion of men and cattle that overspread the country exposed their camp to a nocturnal surprise, had not a still wider circuit been occupied by their light cavalry, perpetually in motion to discover and delay the approach of the enemy. After some experience of the Roman tactics, they adopted the use of the sword and spear, the helmet of the soldier, and the iron breastplate of his steed: but their native and deadly weapon was the Tartar bow: from their earliest infancy, their children and servants were exercised in the double science of archery and horsemanship; their arm was strong; their aim was sure; and in the most rapid career, they were taught to throw themselves backwards, and to shoot a volley of arrows into the air. In open combat, in secret ambush, in flight or pursuit, they were equally formidable: an appearance of order was maintained in the foremost ranks, but their charge was driven forwards by the impatient pressure of succeeding crowds. They pursued, headlong and rash, with loosened reins and horrific outcries; but if they fled, with real or dissembled fear, the ardour of a pursuing foe was checked and chastised by the same habits of irregular speed and sudden evolution. In the abuse of victory, they astonished Europe, yet smarting from the wounds of the Saracen and the Dane: mercy they rarely asked, and more rarely Lestowed: both sexes were accused as equally inaccessible to pity, and their appetite for raw flesh might countenance the popular tale, that they drank the Good and feasted on the hearts of the slain. Yet the Hungarians were not devoid of those principles of justice and humanity, which nature has implanted in every bosom. The license of public and private injuries was restrained by laws and punishments; and in the security of an open camp, theft is the most tempting and most dangerous offence. Among the Barbarians, there were many, whose spontaneous virtue supplied their laws and corrected their manners, who performed the duties, and sympathized with the affections, of social life.

[A. D. 889.] After a long pilgrimage of flight or victory, the Turkish hordes approached the common limits of the French and Byzantine empires. Their first conquests and final settlements extended on either side of the Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the measure of the Roman province of Pannonia, or the modern kingdom of Hungary.(30) That ample and fertile land was loosely occupied by the Moravians, a Sclavonian name and tribe, which were driven by the invaders into the compass of a narrow province. Charlemagne had stretched a vague and nominal empire as far as the edge of Transylvania; but after the failure of his legitimate line, the dukes of Moravia forgot their obedience and tribute to the monarchs of oriental France. The bastard Arnulph was provoked to invite the arms of the Turks; they rushed through the real or figurative wall, which his indiscretion had thrown open; and the king of Germany has been justly reproached as a traitor to the civil and ecclesiastical society of the Christians. During the life of Arnulph, the Hungarians were checked by gratitude or fear; but in the infancy of his son Lewis they discovered and invaded Bavaria; and such was their Scythian speed, that in a single day a circuit of fifty miles was stripped and consumed. In the battle of Augsburgh the Christians maintained their advantage till the seventh hour of the day: they were deceived and vanquished by the flying stratagems of the Turkish cavalry. The conflagration spread over the provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia; and the Hungarians (31) promoted the reign of anarchy, by forcing the

(30) See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321–352.

(31) Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertæ sævitiam, &c. is the preface of Liutprand (1. i. c. 2), who frequently expatiates on the calamities of his own times. See l. i. c. 5, l. ii. c. 1, 2, 4, 5,

stoutest barons to discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. The origin of walled towns is ascribed to this calamitous period: nor could any distance be secure against an enemy, who, almost at the same instant, laid in ashes the Helvetian monastery of St. Gall, and the city of Bremen, on the shores of the Northern Ocean. Above thirty years the Germanic empire or kingdom was subject to the ignominy of tribute; and resistance was disarmed by the menace, the serious and effectual menace, of dragging the women and children into captivity, and of slaughtering the males above the age of ten years. I have neither power nor inclination to follow the Hungarians beyond the Rhine; but I must observe with surprise, that the southern provinces of France were blasted by the tempest, and that Spain, behind her Pyrenees, was astonished at the approach of these formidable strangers.(32) The vicinity of Italy had tempted their early inroads; but, from their camp on the Brenta, they beheld with some terror the apparent strength and populousness of the new-discovered country. They requested leave to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendour; and the pre-eminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames: forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of the people, they spared about two hundred wretches, who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a vague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual excursions from the Alps to the neighbourhood of Rome and Capua, the churches that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany: "O save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians!" But the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land of Calabria. (33) A composition was offered and accepted for the head of each Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in the Turkish camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the sides of the East the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks; and one of the boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, on their retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the majesty of the Cesars. (34) The remote and rapid operations of the same campaign appear to magnify the power and numbers of the Turks; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse would often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica and Constantinople. At this disastrous

66

6, 7, 1. iii. c. 1, &c., 1. v. c. 8. 15, in Legat. p. 485. His colours are glaring, but his chronology must be rectified by Pagi and Muratori.

(32) The three bloody reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona (Hist. Ducum, &c. p. 107-499). His diligence has reached both natives and foreigners, yet to the deeds of mischief or glory, I have been able to add the destruction of Bremen (Adam Bremensis, i. 43).

(33) Muratori has considered with patriotic care the danger and resources of Modena. The citizens besought St. Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession, the rabies flagellum, &c.

Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi,

Ab Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis.

The bishop erected walls for the public defence, not contra dominos serenos (Antiquitat. Ital. med. Ævi. tom. i. dissertat. i. p. 21, 22), and the song of the nightly watch is not without elegance or use (tom. iii. diss. xl. p. 709). The Italian annalist has accurately traced the series of their inroads. (Annali d'Italia, tom. vii. p. 365. 367. 393. 401. 437. 440, tom. viii. p. 19. 41. 52, &c.)

(34) Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that they besieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople (Pray, dissertat. x. p. 239. Katona, Hist. Ducum, p. 354-360); and the fact is almost confessed by the Byzantine historians (Leo Grammaticus, p. 506. Cedrenus, tom. ii. p. 629); yet, however glorious to the nation, it is denied or doubted by the critical historian, and even by the notary of Bela. Their skepticism is meritorious; they could not safely transcribe or believe the rusticorum fabulas: but Katona might have given due attention to the evidence of Liutprand, Bulgarorum gentem atque Graco. rum tributariam fecerant (Hist. L. ii. c. 4, p. 435).

era of the ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the South; the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen sometimes trod the same ground of desolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag.(35)

[A. D. 934.] The deliverance of Germany and Christendom was achieved by the Saxon princes, Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in two memorable battles, for ever broke the power of the Hungarians.(36) The valiant Henry was roused from a bed of sickness by the invasion of his country; but his mind was vigorous, and his prudence successful. "My companions," said he, on the morning of the combat, " maintain your ranks, receive on your bucklers the first arrows of the Pagans, and prevent their second discharge by the equal and rapid career of your lances." They obeyed and conquered; and the historical picture of the castle of Merseburgh, expressed the features, or at least the character, of Henry, who, in an age of ignorance, intrusted to the finer arts the perpetuity of his name. (37) At the end of twenty years, the children of the Turks who had fallen by his sword invaded the empire of his son; and their force is defined, in the lowest estimate, at one hundred thousand horse. They were invited by domestic faction; the gates of Germany were treacherously unlocked; and they spread far beyond the Rhine and the Meuse, into the heart of Flanders. But the vigour and prudence of Otho dispelled the conspiracy; the princes were made sensible, that unless they were true to each other, their religion and country were irrecoverably lost; and the national powers were reviewed in the plains of Augsburgh. They marched and fought in eight legions, according to the division of provinces and tribes; the first, second, and third were composed of Bavarians; the fourth of Franconians, the fifth of Saxons, under the immediate command of the monarch; the sixth and seventh consisted of Swabians; and the eighth legion, of a thousand Bohemians, closed the rear of the host. The resources of discipline and valour were fortified by the arts of superstition, which, on this occasion, may deserve the epithets of generous and salutary. The soldiers were purified with a fast; the camp was blessed with the relics of saints and martyrs; and the Christian hero girded on his side the sword of Constantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and waved the banner of St. Maurice, the præfect of the Thebæan legion. But his firmest confidence was placed in the holy lance,(38) whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, and which his father had extorted from the king of Burgundy, by the threats of war and the gift of a province. The Hungarians were expected in the front; they secretly passed the Lech, a river of Bavaria that falls into the Danube; turned the rear of the Christian army; plundered the baggage, and disordered the legions of Bohemia and Swabia. The battle was restored by the Franconians, whose duke, the valiant Conrad, was pierced with an arrow as he rested from his fatigues: the Saxons fought under the eye of their king; and his victory surpassed, in merit and importance, the triumphs of the last two hundred years. The loss of the Hungarians was still greater in the flight than in the action; they were encom(35)

λεονθ' ως δηρινθητην

Ότι ουρεος κορυφησι περι κτάμενης ελάφοιο
Αμφω πειναοντε μεγα φρονέοντε μαχεσθον.

(36) They are amply and critically discussed by Katona (Hist. Ducum. p. 360–368. 427--470). Liutprand (1. ii. c. 8, 9,) is the best evidence for the former, and Witichind (Annal. Saxon. 1. iii.) of the latter: but the critical historian will not even overlook the horn of a warrior, which is said to be preserved at Jazberin.

(37) Hunc vero triumphum, tam laude quam memoria dignum, ad Meresburgum rex in superiori cœnaculo domûs per wypadav, id est, picturain notari, precepit, adeo ut rem veram potius quam verisimilem videas: a high encomium (Liutprand, 1. ii. c. 9). Another palace in Germany had been painted with holy subjects, by the order of Charlemagne; and Muratori may justly affirm, nulla sæcula fuere in quibus pictores desiderati fuerint (Antiquitat. Ital. medii Ævi, tom. ii. dissert. xxiv. p. 360, 361). Our domestic claims to antiquity of ignorance and original imperfection (Mr. Walpole's lively words,) are of a much more recent date. (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. i. p. 2, &c.)

(38) See Baronius, Annal. Eccles. A. D. 929, No. 2--5. The lance of Christ is taken from the best evidence, Liutprand (1. iv. c. 12), Sigebert, and the acts of St. Gerard: but the other military relics depend on the faith of the Gesta Anglorum post Bedam, 1. ii. c. 8.