142 : 9. Ripley, p. 355 and the authorities quoted. The word Slave originally signified illustrious or renowned in Slavic language, but in Europe was a word of disdain for the backward Slavs. See T. Peisker, The Expansion of the Slavs, Hist., vol. II, p. 421, n. 2.
142 : 13. See pp. 143–144 of this book.
142 : 23. Russian populations. Ripley, based on Anutschin, Taranetzki, Niederle, Zakrewski, Talko-Hyrncewicz, Olechnowicz, Matiezka, Kharuzin, Retzius, Bonsdorff, etc. Consult his chap. XIII, especially pp. 343–346 and 352. Olechnowicz and Talko-Hyrncewicz both remark on the dolichocephaly and blondness of the upper classes of Poland.
143 : 1. Keane, 2, pp. 345–346; Beddoe, 1, p. 35; Freeman, 1, pp. 107, 113–116, 155–158.
143 : 3. Avars. See the authorities just given; also Eginhard, The Life of Charlemagne; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chaps. XLII, XLV and XLVI.
143 : 4. Hungarians. That the Hungarians as such were known earlier than this date appears from a passage in Jordanes, written about 550 A. D. See the History of the Goths, V, 37, where he says: “Farther away and above the sea of Pontus are the abodes of the Bulgares, well known from the disaster our neglect has brought upon us. From this region, the Huns, like a fruitful root of bravest races, sprouted into two hordes of people. Some of these are called Altziagiri, others, Sabiri; and they have different dwelling places. The Altziagiri are near Cherson, where the avaricious traders bring in the goods of Asia. In summer they range the plains, their broad domains, wherever the pasturage for their cattle invites them, and betake themselves in winter beyond the sea of Pontus. Now the Hunuguri are known to us from the fact that they trade in marten skins. But they have been cowed by their bolder neighbors.” Also on the Hunuguri see Zeuss, p. 712.
143 : 5 seq. The invasion of the Avars and the Magyars. See Freeman, 1, pp. 107, 113, 115–116; Beddoe, 1, p. 35; and Ripley, p. 432.
143 : 13 seq. Haddon, 3, chap. III, Europe, especially p. 40; and A. Lefèvre, Germains et Slavs, p. 156. Minns, in an article on the Slavs, says: “Pliny (N. H., IV, 97) is the first to give the Slavs a name which can leave us in no doubt. He speaks of the Venedi (cf. Tacitus, Germania, 46, Veneti); Ptolemy (Geog., III, 5, 7, 8) calls them Venedæ and puts them along the Vistula and by the Venedic Gulf, by which he seems to mean the Gulf of Danzig; he also speaks of the Venedic mountains to the south of the sources of the Vistula, that is, probably the northern Carpathians. The name Venedæ is clearly Wend, the name that the Germans have always applied to the Slavs. Its meaning is unknown. It has been the cause of much confusion because of the Armorican Veneti, the Paphlagonian Enetæ, and above all the Enetæ-Venetæ at the head of the Adriatic.... Other names in Ptolemy which almost certainly denote Slavic tribes are the Veltæ on the Baltic. The name Slav first occurs in Pseudo-Cæsarius (Dialogues, II, 110; Migne, P. G., XXXVIII, 985, early 6th century), but the earliest definite account of them under that name is given by Jordanes (Getica [History of the Goths], V, 34, 35), about 550 A. D.: ‘Within these rivers lies Dacia, encircled by the Alps as by a crown. Near their left ridge, which inclines toward the north, and beginning at the source of the Vistula, the populous race of the Venethi dwell, occupying a great expanse of land. Though their names are now dispersed amid various clans and places, yet they are chiefly called Sclaveni and Antes. The abode of the Sclaveni extends from the city of Noviodunum and the lake called Mursianus, to the Dnâster, and northward as far as the Vistula. They have swamps and forests for their cities. The Antes, who are the bravest of these peoples dwelling in the curve of the sea of Pontus, spread from the Dnâster to the Dnâper, rivers that are many days’ journey apart.’” See also Zaborowski, 1, pp. 272 seq.
The name Wends, as has been said, was used by the Germans to designate the Slavs. It is now used for the Germanized Polaks, and especially for the Lusatian Wends or Sorbs. It is first found in English used by Alfred. Canon I. Taylor, in Words and Places, p. 42, says: “The Sclavonians call themselves either Slowjane, ‘the intelligible men,’ or else Srb which means ‘kinsmen,’ while the Germans call them Wends.”
Haddon, 3, p. 47, says: “The Slavs, who belong to the Alpine race, seem to have had their area of characterization in Poland and the country between the Carpathians and the Dnieper; they may be identified with the Venedi.”