worship of Thor and Woden. He had translated the Bible for them, and had
constructed a Gothic alphabet for that purpose. He had omitted, however
(prudently as he considered) the books of Kings, with their histories of
the Jewish wars. The Goths, he held, were only too fond of fighting
already, and 'needed in that matter the bit, rather than the spur.' He
had now a large number of converts, some of whom had even endured
persecution from their heathen brethren. Athanaric, 'judge,' or alderman
of the Thervings, had sent through the camp--so runs the story--the
waggon which bore the idol of Woden, and had burnt, with their tents and
their families, those who refused to worship.

They, like all other German tribes, were ruled over by two royal races,
sons of Woden and the Asas. The Ostrogoth race was the Amalungs--the
'heavenly,' or 'spotless' race; the Visigoth race was the Balthungs--the
'bold' or 'valiant' race; and from these two families, and from a few
others, but all believed to be lineally descended from Woden, and now
much intermixed, are derived all the old royal families of Europe, that
of the House of Brunswick among the rest.

That they were no savages, is shewn sufficiently by their names, at least
those of their chiefs. Such names as Alaric, 'all rich' or 'all
powerful,' Ataulf, 'the helping father,' Fridigern, 'the willing peace-
maker,' and so forth--all the names in fact, which can be put back into
their native form out of their Romanized distortions, are tokens of a
people far removed from that barbarous state in which men are named after
personal peculiarities, natural objects, or the beasts of the field. On
this subject you may consult, as full of interest and instruction, the
list of Teutonic names given in Muratori.

They had broken over the Roman frontier more than once, and taken cities.
They had compelled the Emperor Gratian to buy them off. They had built
themselves flat-bottomed boats without iron in them and sailed from the
Crimea round the shores of the Black Sea, once and again, plundering
Trebizond, and at last the temple itself of Diana at Ephesus. They had
even penetrated into Greece and Athens, plundered the Parthenon, and
threatened the capitol. They had fought the Emperor Decius, till he, and
many of his legionaries, were drowned in a bog in the moment of victory.
They had been driven with difficulty back across the Danube by Aurelian,
and walled out of the Empire with the A