olk. Son lhiat's y reeriaght, as y phooar, as y ghloyr, son dy bragh.-From the Bible Society's Manks New Testament, London, 1815.

KYMRIC BRANCH.

WELSH.

1Ein Tad, yr hwn wyt yn y nefoedd, sancteiddier dy enw; 2deled dy deyrnas; gwneler dy ewyllys, megis yn y nef, felly ar Ꭹ ddaear hefyd; 'dyro i ni heddyw ein bara beunyddiol; a maddeu i ni ein dyledion, fel y maddeuwn ninnau i'n dyledwyr; ac nac arwain ni i brofedigaeth, eithr gwared ni rhag drwg. Canys eiddo ti yw y deyrnas, a'r nerth, a'r gogoniant, yn oes oesoedd.-From the Welsh New Testament, Wyddgrug, 1835.

४.

ARMORICAN (BREYZAD).

1Hon Tad, pehini a so en eon, hoch ano bezet sanctifiet; 2roet deomp ho ruanteles; 3ho bolonte bezet gret en duar, evel en eon; 'roet deomp hon bara pebdeziec; a pardonet deomp hon offansu, evel ma pardonomp dar re pere ho devus hon offanset; "ne bermettet ket e cuessemp e tentation ebet; 7oguen hon delivret a zruc.-From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. ii. spec. 118.

TSHUDIC LANGUAGES.

SUOMIC BRANCH.

FINNIC.

1Isä meidän, joka olet taiwaisa, pyhitetty oikon sinum nimes; lähestykön sinun waldakundas; 3olkon sinun tahtos niin maasa, kuin taiwasa; anna meille tänäpänä meidän jokapäiwäinen leipämme; ja anna meille meidän welkamme andexi, niinkuin mekin andexi annamme meidän welwollistemme; ja älä johdata meitä kiusauxeen; 7mutta päästä meitä pahasta. Sillä sinun on waldakunda, ja woima, ja kunnia, ijankaikkisesti.-From the Bible Society's N. Test., pub. at Turusa, 1815.

8

ESTHONIC (DORPAT DIALECT)

'Meije Issa, taiwan, pühhändatus sago sinno nimmi; 2 sinno rikkus tulgo; sinno tahtminne sündko, kui taiwan

nida ka ma pääl; 'meije päiwalikko leiba anna meile täämba; 5nink anna meile andis meije süda, nida kui ka meije andisanname ommille süüdleisille; "nink ärrasaatko meid kiusatusse sisse; enge pästa meid ärra kurjast. Sest sinno perralt om rikkus, nink wäggi, nink auwustus, iggawetsel ajal. From the Bible Society's Esthonic N. Test., pub. Mitau, 1815.

LAPPIC.

1Attje mijen, jukko leh almesne, ailesen sjaddes to namma; 2pätes to rik; sjaddes to wiljo ko almesn, nau ai ädnamen naln; 'mijen färten peiwen laipeb wadde miji udne; ja luoite miji mijen laikoit andagas, nau ko ai mije luoitebe mijen welkolatjita; "ja ale sislaide mijeb kättjelebmai; 7walla warjele mijeb pahast. Jutte to le rik, ja faomo, ja härlogwuot, ekewen aikai.-From the Lappic Bible, pub. at Hernösandesne, 1811.

8

PERMIC BRANCH.

TSHEREMISSIC.

1Atjà memnàn, ílscha kjuschnasótaschta, ljum tünin swjatoi lísha; 2i tólsha tünin schmàk; lisha tünin wolja, kusè tünjaschtá, tugè rokaschta; kíndam memnánam kashdakétschelscham pu malanà tagátscha; kodà malanà sulukwlajam memnanam, kusè i me kodalnà menàp parmawljanam; it púrta memnàm oltalmáschka; siorlaja memnàm schoitan getschen. 8 Tùnin úla ischmak, koàt, tschelja, ikschta nin.From Adelung's Mithridates, vol. iv. spec. 60.

55

M. MALLET'S PREFACE.

HISTORY has not recorded the annals of a people who have occasioned greater, more sudden, or more numerous revolutions in Europe than the Scandinavians *, or whose antiquities, at the same time, are so little known. Had, indeed, their emigrations been only like those sudden torrents of which all traces and remembrance are soon effaced, the indifference that has been shown to them would have been sufficiently justified by the barbarism they have been reproached with. But, during those general inundations, the face of Europe underwent so total a change, and during the confusion they occasioned, such different establishments took place; new societies were formed, animated so entirely with a new spirit, that the history of our own manners and institutions ought necessarily to ascend back, and even dwell a considerable time upon a period, which discovers to us their chief origin and source.

But I ought not barely to assert this. Permit me to support the assertion by proofs. For this purpose, let us briefly run over all the different revolutions which this part of the world underwent, during the long course of ages which its history comprehends, in order to see what share the nations of the north have had in producing them. If we recur back to the remotest times, we observe a nation issuing step by step from the forests of Scythia t, incessantly increasing

* Than the Teutons, or people of the Teutonic race, would have been a more appropriate expression; the tribes belonging to the Germanic branch of this race having unquestionably "caused more numerous revolutions in Europe" than those belonging to the Scandinavian branch.—ED.

There is not a vaguer term in ancient geography than that of Scythia. Taken in its most extensive signification, it would embrace all the countries lying between the present river Don in the west, the great desert of Gobi in the East, the Hindoo Kosh mountains on the south, and the plains of

and dividing to take possession of the uncultivated countries which it met with in its progress. Very soon after, we see the same people, like a tree full of vigour, extending long branches over all Europe; we see them also carrying with them, wherever they came, from the borders of the Black Sea to the extremities of Spain, of Sicily, and Greece, a religion simple and martial as themselves, a form of government dictated by good sense and liberty, a restless unconquered spirit, apt to take fire at the very mention of subjection and constraint, and a ferocious courage, nourished by a savage and vagabond life. While the gentleness of the climate softened imperceptibly the ferocity of those who settled in the south, colonies of Egyptians and Phenicians mixing with them upon the coasts of Greece, and thence passing over to those of Italy, taught them at last to live in cities, to cultivate letters, arts and commerce. Thus their opinions, their customs and genius, were blended together, and new states were formed upon new plans. Rome, in the mean time arose, and at length carried all before her. In proportion as she increased in grandeur, she forgot her ancient manners, and destroyed, among the nations whom she overpowered, the original spirit with which they were animated. But this spirit continued

Siberia on the north, in which direction the boundaries might be limited or extended to suit any particular theory, this region being for the ancients terra incognita. We would also venture to say that there is scarcely a nation or tribe known in European history that has not, by one writer or other, been called Scythian. We could cite works in which Pelasgi, Thracians, Celts, Goths, Saxons, Finns, Huns, Magyars, Turks, Tatars, and various other nations are respectively designated as Scythians, or of Scythian origin. Jamieson in his "Hermes Scythicus" gravely informs us that" with respect to their (the Scythians) origin, the most general opinion is, that they were the descendants of Magog, the second son of Japhet!!!" The confusion of ideas that long prevailed on this subject arose from writers applying the term "Scythians" ethnographically instead of geographically, applying it to designate a distinct race like the terms Teutons, Slavonians, Celts, &c., and not an assemblage of nations of various origin, such as we comprehend under the terms Europeans, Africans, Asiatics, &c. It is only in the latter signification that the word can be tolerated at the present day. When our author, therefore, talks of "a nation issuing from the forests of Scythia" he must be understood to mean the various races of Asiatic origin, some of them, as we have shown in our preceding remarks, remotely cognate, that spread themselves over Europe at an epoch far beyond the bounds of authentic history, as well as others who may have "trod upon the heels of their fathers" at a more recent period.-ED.

unaltered in the colder countries of Europe, and maintained itself there like the independency of the inhabitants. Scarce could fifteen or sixteen centuries produce there any change in that spirit. There it renewed itself incessantly; for, during the whole of that long interval, new adventurers issuing continually from the original inexhaustible country, trod upon the heels of their fathers towards the north, and, being in their turn succeeded by new troops of followers, they pushed one another forward, like the waves of the sea. The northern countries, thus overstocked, and unable any longer to contain such restless inhabitants, equally greedy of glory and plunder, discharged at length, upon the Roman empire, the weight that oppressed them. The barriers of the empire, ill defended by a people whom prosperity had enervated, were borne down on all sides by torrents of victorious armies. We then see the conquerors introducing, among the nations they vanquished, viz. into the very bosom of slavery and sloth, that spirit of independence and equality, that elevation of soul, that taste for rural and military life, which both the one and the other had originally derived from the same common source, but which were then among the Romans breathing their last. Dispositions and principles so opposite, struggled long with forces sufficiently equal, but they united in the end, they coalesced together, and from their coalition sprung those principles and that spirit which governed, afterwards, almost all the states of Europe, and which, notwithstanding the differences of climate, of religion, and particular accidents, do still visibly reign in them, and retain, to this day, more or less the traces of their first common origin.

It is easy to see, from this short sketch, how greatly the nations of the north have influenced the different fates of Europe; and if it be worth while to trace its revolutions to their causes, if the illustration of its institutions, of its police, of its customs, of its manners, of its laws, be a subject of useful and interesting inquiry; it must be allowed, that the antiquities of the north, that is to say, every thing which tends to make us acquainted with its ancient inhabitants, merits a share in the attention of thinking men. But to render this obvious by a particular example; is it not well known that the most flourishing and celebrated states of Europe owe originally to the northern nations, whatever