Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-05-16
NO. 30.

sitZ, they fought almost TO the point Of
exterminatiOn. and offered a moral re-
sistance when that of arms no longer
availed. The Northern Wends accord
ingly cease 10 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 a 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 il, the sullen and apparently
organic incapacity TO discard their pc
culiar habits and character even after
they ceased TO defend them by force,
suggest so many points of resemblance
10 the North American Indians; and in
the fate of both people there is the same
element of plaintive and romantic sad
ness which appeals 10 every generous
| heart.
| The Wends were carried into North
| elm Germany by the vast movement of
peoples which took place in the fourth
and fifth centuries of the Christian era.
As fast as the Suevi, Franks, and other
| original German tribes swept over the
Rhine and down upon the fair domains
of the Roman Empire, their places were
filled by other barbarians from the vast
plains of Asia. In tho adjustment of
| these races in the West il 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 Rus
sia. These were not, indeed all Wends.
This term seems to have been given BY
the Saxons to such Sclaves as were
their immediate neighbors in Northern
Germany, and was hardly derived from
any corresponding distinction made by
the Sclaves themselves. The Wends
were also further subdivided into local
families, such as the Lutritans and Alb
otritans.
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 Saxon, their neighbors.
They lived in towns and villages, and
possessed rude system of civil gov
ernment. Their domestic institutions
revealed but too often their Oriental
origin, and in no respect more pain
fully than the position given 10 woman.
Polvgamv prevailed. Mothers often
strangled their female infants TO save
them from a more painful life; and in
the same way decrepit parents were
put to death by their sons, as in More's
Utopia, because they were burdens upon
the public. and violent end insured a
happier life beyond the grave. But
they were remarkably honest people,
abhOrred a 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 forti-
fled towns, they fought clumsily, but
bravely and desperately Their weap-
ons were not unlike those of their
neighbors in style and quality.
Their religion was species of poly
theism. They believed, indeed, in one
supreme GOd-Belbog: but he seems TO
have been a Sclavic JOve among lesser
divinities. such a. CZernbeOg. 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
power. and they were the most resO-
lutte in opposition To the Germans.
That which the latter first demanded
was conversion TO ChriStianity-a de-
mand which could not be agreeable To
the Interpreters of the rival religion.
During two centuries the Wends end
SaXons lived at peace, and even in
friendship. The commerce of the for
mer. which began with petty local
traffic. rose TO Il scale almost imposing
along the Baltic coast. Ii i said thar
three hundred ships We're sometimes
seen in their harbor of Wenita. Traders
fiOcked 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 Wend-
Sh commerce then rapidly decayed and
lied -HTrpsT's MggGzfEs-