nais_,
Zerbst 1817. _Polnisch-Deutsches Taschenwoerterbuch,_ von Jordan,
Leipzig 1845.--Standard works for the language are the etymological
dictionaries: G.S. Bantkie _Slownik dokladny iez. pol. i. niem_.
Breslau 1806, and Linde's _Slownik iez. pol_. Wars. 1807-14. For other
philological works, see Schaflarik's _Geschichte der Slav. Spr_. p
410.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER III.

LANGUAGES OF THE SORABIAN-VENDES IN LUSATIA, AND OF OTHER VENDISH
TRIBES NOW EXTINCT.

The north-eastern part of Germany, as far west as the Elbe and Saale,
was, from the fifth to the tenth century, almost exclusively inhabited
by nations of the Slavic race. Various Teutonic tribes--among them the
Burgundians, the Suevi, Heruli, and Hermunduri--had before this taken
up their temporary residence along the Baltic, between the Vistula and
the Elbe. In the great migration of the Asiatic-European nations,
which for nearly two centuries kept in motion all Europe from the Icy
Ocean to the Atlantic, and extended even to the north of Africa, the
warlike German nations moved towards the south-west, and Slavic tribes
traversing the Danube and Vistula, in immense multitudes, took
possession of the countries which they left. Those who came over the
northern Vistula, settled along the coasts of the Baltic as far west
as to the Elbe and Saale, and as far south as to the Erzgebirge (Ore
Mountains) on the borders of Bohemia.

These Slavic tribes were called by the Germans, _Wenden_, Lat.
_Venedi_, for which we prefer in English the form of _Vendes_, rather
than that of Wends. It appears indeed that this name was formerly
applied by the Germans indiscriminately to all the Slavic nations with
which they came in contact; for the name _Winden_, Eng. _Vindes_,
which is still, as we have seen, the German appellation for the
Slovenzi, or the Slavic inhabitants of Southern Germany, is evidently
the same in a slightly altered form. The name of _Wenden_, Vendes,
became, however, in the course of time, a specific appellation for the
northern German-Slavic tribes; of which, at the present day, only a
few meagre remnants are left. They were nevertheless once a powerful
nation. Five independent branches must be distinguished among them.

We first name the _Obotrites_, the former inhabitants of the present
duchies of Mecklenburg, and the adjacent country, west, north, and
south. They were divided into the Obotrites proper, the Wagrians