Intermarriage
with the Sarmatians have debased.
Tacitus
Certain trees in it exuded gums in such quantities that the sunken forest soil now appears to be filled with it to such a degree, as if it had only been deprived of a very trifling part of its contents by the later eruptions of the sea, and the countless storms which have lashed the ocean for centuries.
" Hence, though found underground, it appears to have been originally the production of some resinous tree.
Hence, too, the reason of the appearance of insects, &c.
in it, as mentioned by Tacitus.
]
266 (return)
[ Norwegians. ]
267 (return)
[ All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. ]
268 (return)
[ Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:—"The fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who border on the Dacians. " (iv. 14. ) From Strabo it appears that the Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by the river. ]
269 (return)
[ The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians wandered about in their wagons. ]
270 (return)
[ "Sordes omnium ac torpor; procerum connubiis mixtis nonnihil in Sarmatarum habitum foedantur. " In many editions the semicolon is placed not after torpor, but after procerum. The sense of the passage so read is: "The chief men are lazy and stupid, besides being filthy, like all the rest.
Intermarriage with the Sarmatians have debased. " &c. ]
271 (return)
[ The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnae as far as the Baltic Sea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German nations made their irruption into Italy, France and Spain, the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterwards they crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains the name of Windismarck, derived from them. This people were also called Slavi; and their language, the Sclavonian, still prevails through a vast tract of country. ]
272 (return)
[ This is still the manner of living of the successors of the Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars. ]
273 (return)
[ Their country is called by Pliny, Eningia, now Finland. Warnefrid (De Gest. Langobard. i. 5) thus describes their savage and wretched state:—"The Scritobini, or Scritofinni, are not without snow in the midst of summer; and, being little superior in sagacity to the brutes, live upon no other food than the raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy skins of which they use for clothing. They derive their name, according to the barbarian tongue, from leaping, because they hunt wild beasts by a certain method of leaping or springing with pieces of wood bent in the shape of a bow. " Here is an evident description of the snow-shoes or raquets in common use among the North American savages, as well as the inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe.
266 (return)
[ Norwegians. ]
267 (return)
[ All beyond the Vistula was reckoned Sarmatia. These people, therefore, were properly inhabitants of Sarmatia, though from their manners they appeared of German origin. ]
268 (return)
[ Pliny also reckons the Peucini among the German nations:—"The fifth part of Germany is possessed by the Peucini and Bastarnae, who border on the Dacians. " (iv. 14. ) From Strabo it appears that the Peucini, part of the Bastarnae, inhabited the country about the mouths of the Danube, and particularly the island Peuce, now Piczina, formed by the river. ]
269 (return)
[ The habitations of the Peucini were fixed; whereas the Sarmatians wandered about in their wagons. ]
270 (return)
[ "Sordes omnium ac torpor; procerum connubiis mixtis nonnihil in Sarmatarum habitum foedantur. " In many editions the semicolon is placed not after torpor, but after procerum. The sense of the passage so read is: "The chief men are lazy and stupid, besides being filthy, like all the rest.
Intermarriage with the Sarmatians have debased. " &c. ]
271 (return)
[ The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnae as far as the Baltic Sea; where is the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German nations made their irruption into Italy, France and Spain, the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterwards they crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria, Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains the name of Windismarck, derived from them. This people were also called Slavi; and their language, the Sclavonian, still prevails through a vast tract of country. ]
272 (return)
[ This is still the manner of living of the successors of the Sarmatians, the Nogai Tartars. ]
273 (return)
[ Their country is called by Pliny, Eningia, now Finland. Warnefrid (De Gest. Langobard. i. 5) thus describes their savage and wretched state:—"The Scritobini, or Scritofinni, are not without snow in the midst of summer; and, being little superior in sagacity to the brutes, live upon no other food than the raw flesh of wild animals, the hairy skins of which they use for clothing. They derive their name, according to the barbarian tongue, from leaping, because they hunt wild beasts by a certain method of leaping or springing with pieces of wood bent in the shape of a bow. " Here is an evident description of the snow-shoes or raquets in common use among the North American savages, as well as the inhabitants of the most northern parts of Europe.
