The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1877-05-11
The Prussian Wends.

people once numerous, warlike, and pow
erful, and the region where they sought q
refuge centuries ago from the cOnquering
arms OF the Germans. It 10, indeed, the
only colony which retains anything of the
ancient speech and habits. Elsewhere the
Wends accepted the German religion,
language, and laws, and gradually lost
their distinctive character, as in Pomera-
mia, Mecklenburg, and other provinces;
or, as in the Mark of Bradenburg and in
Lausitz, they fought almost to the point
of determination, and offered moral re-
sistance when that of arms no longer
availed. The Northern Wends accord
ingly cease to have history of their own
after one or two centuries. Those of the
Elbe and the Spree alone survive in the
little colony of the Lausitz swamps, and
in the memory of brave but useless
struggle for altar and home. Their strange
repugnance to the new civilization, the
brave, prolonged, and desperate warfare
which they waged against it, the sullen
and apparently organic incapacity to dis
card their peculiar habits and character
even after they have ceased to defend
them by force, suggest 80 many points of
resemblance to the North American In
dians; and in the fate of both peoples
there is the same element of plaintive and
romantic sadness which appeals to every
generous heart.
The Wends were carried into Northern
Germany by the vast movement of peoples
which took place in the fourth and fifth GEN.
turtles of the Christian era. AS fast as
the Suevi, Franks, and other original Ger
man tribes swept over the Rhine and
down upon the fair domains Of the Ro-
man Empire, their places were filled by
other barbarians from the vast plains of
Asia. In the adjustment of these races
in the West it happened that the Sclaves
or Sclavonians acquired nearly the whole
region from the Elbe eastward, including
Silesia, Poland, Prussia, and much of
what is now Russia. These were not,
indeed, all Wends. This term seems to
have been given by the Saxons to such
Sclaves as were their immediate neigh
bors in Northern Germany, and was hard
ly derived from any corresponding dis
tinction made by the Sclaves themselves.
The Wends were also further subdivided
into local families, such as the Lutritans
and Abotritans.
BY the fifth century the Wends were
firmly settled in their new homes. In
culture and refinement, in the arts and
conveniences of life, in agriculture,
trade. and other industries, they were
not behind the Saxons, their neigh
bors. They lived in towns and villages,
and possessed rude system of civil gov
eminent. Their domestic institutions re-
vealed but too often their Oriental ORR
gin, and in no respect more painfully
than the position given to woman. She
was little more than mental. Polygamy
prevailed. Mothers often strangled their
female infants to save them from more
painful life; and in the same way decrepit
parents were put to death by their sons,
as in Moore's Utopia, because they were
burdens upon the public, and violent
end insured happier life beyond the
grave. But they were remarkably hon
est people, abhorred thief or liar, and
were kind to the poor.
They were no less warlike than their
German predecessors. On land or sea,
mounted or on foot, in the open field, in
the swamps, or behind their fortified
towns, they fought clumsily, but bravely
and desperately. Their weapons were
not unlike those of their neighbors in
style and quality.
Their religion was a species of poly
theism. They believed, indeed, in one
Supreme God-Belbog; but he seems to
have been Sclavic Jove among lesser
divinities, such rs Czernbag, the evil
spirit, and Radegast, the god of war.
Other branches Of the Sclaves had other
gods, for no universal system existed.
The priests enjoyed great honor and pow
er, aud they were the most resOlutein OPP
position to the Germans. That which
the latter first demanded was conversion
to Christianity-a demand which could
not be agreeable to the interpreters of the
rival religion.
During two centuries the Wends and
Saxons lived at peace, and even in friend
ship. The commerce of the former,
which began with petty local traffic, rose
to scale almost imposing along the
Baltic coast. 1t is said that three hun
dred ships were sometimes seen in the
harbor of Wenita. Traders focked
thither from Denmark, from Germany,
from other Sclavonic lands, and even
from the Orient, bringing metallic wares,
cloths, Jewels, and coins, and carrying
away amber, furs, and similar goods. In
the middle of the eleventh century the
city of Wenita was captured by the Danes,
and Wendish commerce then rapidly de-
cayed and died.-Harper's Magazine.
A LUCKY PRINcE.-The German Crown
Princes eldest son, Prince William, has