T is entirely optional with the student of history to credit or not the interpretation of the tradition of Lech's arrival in Poland, 550, also the history of his descendants, and of the first king or duke, Piast, called from the plough to the throne, whose dynasty lasted five centuries, 840-1370, as well as the equally obscure accounts of the Bohemian Tschech, of Libussa and Priemislaus, who likewise came from the plough to dominion. The foundation of the Polish state, as well as the Bohemian, was laid in unknown times, and by unknown founders, but certainly by Sclavonic races. Bohemia was henceforth rich in vassals, and even a part of the German empire. Poland acknowledged also sometimes its supremacy, yet with reluctance, and often asserted its independence.

Among the princes of Poland, Miecislaw (Mjesko) is memorable for being the first who received baptism, 963, thus rendering Christianity triumphant in his kingdom. The emperor, Otto M., by founding the bishopric of Posen, secured the dominion of the Romish rite, and fortified the supremacy of the German empire. It was not until the close of this period, that Wenceslaus II., 1305, united most of the Polish provinces into one kingdom. Wladislaus Lokietek (the dwarf) established the union of Great and Little Poland upon a durable foundation, 1309. The principality-after 1235, the grand duchy -of Lithuania was independent of Poland. Its inhabitants were Letti, not Sclavi. It was long of little importance. The Lithuanian rulers first found an opportunity to enlarge their country by conquest when Russia was trodden down by the Mongols.

Some merchants of Bremen, driven by a storm upon the coast of Livonia, settled at Uexkul, 1158, and founded a bishopric. Soon afterward the order of Sword-Brothers was founded (1201) by Bishop Albert to maintain the dominion and confirmation of Christianity. This order dominated Livonia, Esthonia, Courland, and Semigallia, and imposed the yoke of slavery upon the inhabitants. In the year 1237, the order of the Sword-Brothers united with that of the German Knights, thereby increas ing the power of both.

THE NATIONS OF THE LOWER DANUBE.

Beyond the limits of the Hungarian kingdomwhich gradually approximated to the other European states in laws, manners, and institutions-as far as those of the Greek territory, and beyond the Black Sea, as far as the Don, the spectacle of Asiatic barbarism, the wild thronging of wandering, pasturing, and desolating hordes remained. The Bulgarians ruled for many centuries, not only over Lower-Moesia, which is still called after them Bulgaria, between the Lower Danube and Mount Hæmas, but according to the change of the fortune of war, also over Servia, Bosnia, and other provinces, even to the north of the Danube, and to the south of the Hamus mountains. But they also were subjected alternately by the Russians, the Greeks, and Hungarians, and never obtained firmly established or truly political power. Their kingdom-although somewhat humanized by the adoption of Christianity (according to the Greek rite)remained in its essential form merely the possession

of a horde, acquired by the force of arms, dependent upon momentary success of war, without national institutions, or the vital germ of nationality. We shall see them in the following period subjugated again by the Hungarians, then by the Ottomans.

The Chazars, although at the commencement of this period in possession of a formidable power, which extended from the boundaries of Pannonia, as far as the Don, and far up into the Sarmatian countries, were overthrown in a short space of time. Already towards the close of the ninth century, they lost much territory by the successful arms of the still wilder Petscheneges or Pecinaci. At the commencement of the eleventh they were pletely subjugated by the combined power of the Russians and Greeks.

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The Comans established themselves in part over the ruins of the Chazaric dominion. One wave more in the wild stream of the migration of nations, known only by their particular name, not by their character, customs, or influence. The shock of the Mongols shivered their power. They vanish ingloriously from history. The Nogaian Tartars took possession of the countries north of the Black Sea; the Dacian countries fell to the Wallachians, who had resided there previously, in subjection, as a free possession. At the commencement of the fourteenth century, 1315, the Waiwode Rade founded here the Wallachian state, properly so called, and the Moldavian was founded about the same time by the Waiwode Bogdan.

HE standard of independence was raised in the extreme west of the African province by the fugitive Edris, a Fatimite. His son, bearing the same name, built the city of Fez, 788, the seat of a far extending kingdom. A little later, under Haroun Alraschid, Ibrahim, his lieutenant, the son of Aglab, founded, 805, in Cairvan, a particular kingdom, embracing the ancient territory of Carthage, the capital of which was Tunis. This kingdom was attacked, 908, by Mahadi Obeidollah, a descendant of Ali and Fatime. He was victorious over the houses of Aglab and Edris, and he captured Fez. Mahadi's descendants elevated themselves to brilliant fortune. Moez-Leddin-Allah, his grandson, 969, traversed the desert to Egypt, conquered it, and founded at Cahira (Cairo), which he built in the region of the ancient Memphis, the seat of a dominion that existed two hundred years, 972. The princes of his house-called by preference the Fatimites-bore the title of Caliphs, and were doubly hostile, religiously, as well as politically, to the Abbassides at Bagdad. They conquered Syria and Palestine; but they left to the indigenous princes the countries in the west, upon the extensive coast of Africa.

Jussuf Ebn Zeiri, whom Moez had left as governor, made his power hereditary, with the preservation of the appearance of dependence upon the Fatimites. This pretence soon ceased. The Zeirites revered Omar and Semra. In the time of their high estate, the Zeirites ruled from Fez as far as the boundary of Egypt. But they were overthrown

by the Siculian power, and more practically by their internal enemies, the Morabeths. The Morabeths, zealots for the faith, a mixed race of Berbus and . Arabs, proceeded from the countries bordering on the desert in the middle of the eleventh century, 1056, at the call of the prophet Abdallah.

Abubeker, son of Omar, was their chief; he called himself Emir al Moslemin. His successor, Jussuf Ben Teschsin, 1069, built Morocco upon a soil abounding in springs, and protected all around by a vast desert. It became the seat of the kingdom. Jussuf crossed also the strait to Spain, and united the conflicting Emirates there under his sceptre.

This powerful kingdom of the Morabeths (called also Almoravides) was destroyed by zeal for faith. Mahadi Mahomet, a descendant of Ali, as he pretended, was expelled from Morocco on account of religious innovation. Then he preached his doctrine to the tribes around, and led his followers victoriously against the Morabeths, 1120. Abdol Mumen, his friend and successor, took Morocco, and terminated the dominion of the Morabeths, 11461163. Soon all the countries as far as the boundary of Egypt submitted to the Almohades. Arabian Spain also followed the fortune of the new-inspired.

One century after Abdol Mumen's death, the dominion of his family ceased, 1269. In the extreme west an independent kingdom was founded, 1213, by Abdol Hak, who at first was invested with authority by the Almohades. The sovereigns of this kingdom called themselves Merinides, who continued to rule far into the following period. Besides the Merinides, various other dynasties flourished.

F the numerous Asiatic dynasties, the most distinguished were founded by native, i.e., Arabian, Syrian, or Persian princes.

Already, under the caliph Al Mamun, the dominion of the Thaherides arose in Chorasan, 820, but after fifty years it was overthrown by the robber-chief, Jacob Ebn Leith, the son of a copper-smith (Soffar), 872, whose descendants were called the Soffarides.

Nasr and Ismael, great-grandsons of Saman, founded, 892, in Mawaralnahar, i.e., the country between the Oxus and the Iaxartes, a power built upon the ruins of the Soffaridian dominion. Bokhara was the capital. Many nations of the steppes acknowledged the law of the Samanides. But luxury and relaxation undermined this throne erected by wild courage. It was overthrown by the Gaznevides, 998.

At the time of the Samanides, the Dilemites ruled in the southern provinces of the Caspian sea. Their kingdom was destroyed by the Buides.

These Buides have their origin from the fisherman, Buja Ebn Shetsa. The thrones of the two elder brothers stood in Shiras and Ispahan, the youngest ruled in Kerman, 933. The caliph of Bagdad acknowledged their power. A Buide was appointed by the trembling Emir Al Omrah, and ruled as such also over Bagdad. The descendants of these Buides remained powerful until the middle of the eleventh century. The Gaznevides terminated their power in Persia, 1039, but the Seldjukes in Bagdad, 1056.

In Gauer, or Gohr, the south-western part of Balkh, native princes, called Ghurides-descendants of the Sassanides as they boasted-rose against the

Turkish masters of Gazna, and Hussein conquered (about 1150) Gazna. Mahomet Ghori, his third. successor, conquered Chorasan and Delhi, 1205. But soon after this success, the throne of the Ghurides was prostrated by the sword of the Charessemides, 1215.

Among the kingdoms founded in the Syrian countries, our attention is particularly attracted by that of the Ismaelians.

Hassan Ebn Sabak, 1090, collected the adherents of Ismael, son of Giafar al Sadek (the Just), the sixth Imam, and great-grandson of Abubeker, into one people, whose religious zeal and courage founded a kingdom that extended far beyond the high country of Northern Persia (called Ghebal, the mountains). The princes of this kingdom called themselves Scheiks-al-Ghebal (the princes-or the old men-of the mountains), and remained powerful until the time of the Mongols, 1255.

For

According to the common opinion, the Assassins, in Syria, are a race of the Ismaelians. In the times of the Crusades, we find, upon the summits of Lebanon, a people extremely formidable by religious fanaticism, contempt of death, and blind obedience towards their lord, whose prince, as the Ismaelitish, was called the "Old Man of the Mountain." The name "Assassins" is merely an expression of abhorrence of the murders committed by them. upon the command of their chief, the Assassins proceeded with deadly arms to fall upon their victim, wherever and whenever they should find him. Near or far from their kingdom, and even into the countries of Europe, they pursued their devoted victim, and murdered him before all the people, murdered kings and princes in the midst of their guards.

Turks.

The first origin of this people is obscure and enigmatical. The Turks, as the Huns and Mongols, have come from the great chain of mountains, the summits of which rise in the centre of Asia, and whence nations, as rivers, have flowed, and flow, towards all the regions of the world. The Turks were destined to be the slaves of a powerful horde, the Schenschang, or the Geugens. They were condemned to work in the mines of Altai for the iron which made their tyrants powerful. In 650 a bold leader came to the front, named Bertezena, who established their liberation. The Schenschang were blotted out from the page of history, and the Turks inundated the East and the West. Disabul, a renowned warrior, was the khan of the Turkish hordes in the East. The Chinese annalists lament that the swords of the new enemies mowed down their armies as grass, that only submission or tribute appeased their rage, and it appears that they subjugated a great part of Siberia. In the West they conquered the celebrated people the Hayathalites, or White Huns, and even caused terror to the Persians. The first and powerful empire of the Turks was overthrown by intestine divisions, by the insidious policy of the Chinese, and by the sword of the Tartar Hoei-ke, about 750. It is not outside the range of probability that several of the barbarous nations of the steppes, that came

The name, however, of the Turks continued to live in Central Asia. When the victorious Arabs, after overthrowing the Persian kingdom, penetrated into the countries of the Oxus and laxartes, they met with the Turkish hordes, and came into various relations of war and peace with them. The caliphs formed armies, especially body-guards, out of Turkish captives, or of such as voluntarily entered their service, and thus prepared danger and ignominy for themselves, and grandeur and power for the Turks. Whilst the caliph himself, in Bagdad, trembled at the caprices and insolence of his bodyguards, the Turkish favorites who were sent into the provinces as governors, or common adventurers, slaves of Turkish origin, erected independent thrones, under similar circumstances probably, and with similar success, as native usurpers.

In Egypt, in 869, Achmed, Tulun's son, made himself independent. The caliph Maktodi reconquered Egypt, 905. Another Turkish slave, Mahomet Ykschid, in 935, renewed the revolt, but the Ykschids maintained the throne only one generation, the Fatimites overturning it in 969.

The dominion of the Gaznevides, founded by Mahmud,999, was of more consideration. The house-slave of a vizier of a Samanidian ruler, he elevated himself from the office of a governor in Gazna, to the rank of an independent ruler of Chorasan, and in all the countries from the Caspian Sea to the mouth of the Indus, and from the Iaxartes to the vicinity of the Tigris. This doughty ruler made twelve campaigns in Hindustan, crushed many nations, and conquered the greater part of the anterior peninsula.