" Esmi,'' I am — says the Lithuanian: — says the Hindoo of the Himalayas. ^'- Eimi" I go — says the Lette of the Baltic: " Almi" is t'he Indian word for expressing the same idea. On the Niemen, Divas is the word for God; on the Ganges, Daivas signifies the same. It is unnecesary to know more Sanscrit than can be learned from Ruckert's poems, to be struck by the extraordinary Indian character of the pronunciation, language, and tones of the Lithuanian and Lette. The languages are the same in form; the pronouns, adverbs, and numerals are similar; the names of the commonest animals, of the different parts of the human body, &c., are the same in the Sanscrit as in the Lithuanian. Indeed whole Sanscrit sentences may easily be put togethei', which the
372 THE LETTES — THEIR ORIGIN.
peasant of the Niemeii will at once understand. From these and many other proofs there can hardly remain a doul)t that the Lithuanians and Lettes must have come more directly from the primeval birthplace of the human race than any other European nation.
But what extraordinary force or necessity has transplanted thus far into the west, this fragment of the original stem ? Why did this tribe wander two thousand miles away from its birthplace ? Why has it remained thus changelessly fixed in its narrow little nook of land, while all the nations round were incessantly changing and advancing ? Where, in the land of the Himalaya, lies the Indian home, whence this pastoral people wandered, or were di'iven forth ? Does any part of them still remain there ? These questions are for us involved in impenetrable darkness.
The oldest historians of these tribes of the Baltic describe them as governed by a supreme High Priest, called the " Krihvo^'' and by subordinate priests the " Veidelotenr Groves of oak and other trees are named as the residences of these priests, and the temples of the deities they worshipped. This caste of priests was probably of Hindoo origin and chaiacter, and lasted until Christendom and its popes expelled the heathenism of the north. The Prussians in the south, and the Lettes in the north, were then both subjected by foreigners, but the fragment that remained of the original race, and still preserved its independence, seemed to strengthen in the struggle with the Christian Russians from the north, and the German knights from the south. The courage and military skill which they had gained during their wars with the Teutonic chivalry, they turned agahist their Russian neighbours in the 13th and 14th centuries. Lithuanian armies penetrated to the shores of the Dnieper and the Black Sea. In the loth century they became so powerful by the marriage of their chief Yagello with the Polish princess Hedwig, that the German order were forced to yield, and for 200 years all the Lithuanian races were united under one Polish head. When Poland began to decline, in the 17th and 1 8th centuries, the Lithuanian part of her empire was the first to be torn from her. It was conquered first by Prussia, and ultimately by Russia, under whom are again united all the Lettish and Lithuanian races, with the exception of the very small portion which belongs to Prussia.
There are four great periods in the history of the Lettes :
1. Their dark j^rimeval history down to their settlement in Europe.
2. Their early European period of independence under their priests.
3. The time of Lithuanian and Polish greatness.
4. Their period of utter degradation and slavery under Russian and German masters.
The country bordering on the Niemen, and on its various tributary rivers, is inhabited by Lithuanians. The country round the mouth of the Dvvina, the whole of Courland, and the southern half of Livonia, is inhabited by Lettes. The difference between these two brandies of the same race is evidently of very long standing-, and dates back perhaps to a period antecedent to their settlement in Europe. They have both the same national character, the same domestic arrangements, the same costume, and, for the most part, similar manners and customs. Both nations manifest but little energy, strength, and resolution ; but, notwitlistanding there is so much that tliey have in connnon, thoic are still manv distijictions. The Lettes liave never shown the greatness and strength, nor shared the glory of the Lithuanians, in their )aliny days. They are of a softer, gentler, more timid and yielding nature than the latter. They have never been able to defend themselves in war, and for many hundred years have been a peaceable, harndess nation of herdsmen ; but they are also more humane and civilized than their sterner and stronger brethren ; and the Lettish peasant of the present day entertains no small contempt for the Lithuanian.