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 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 91 secure refuge in the mountains of Caucasus, between the Euxine and the Caspian ; where they still preserve their name and their independence. Another colony advanced, with more intrepid courage, towards the shores of the Baltic ; associated themselves with the Northern tribes of Germany ; and shared the spoil of the Roman provinces of Gaul and Spain. But the greatest part of the nation of the Alani embraced the offers of an honourable and advantageous union ; and the Huns, who esteemed the valour of their less fortunate enemies, proceeded, with an increase of numbers and confidence, to invade the limits of the Gothic empire. The great Hermanric, whose dominions extended from the Their vie Baltic to the Euxine, enjoyed, in the full maturity of age and the cjoths. reputation, the fruit of his victories, when he was alarmed by the formidable approach of an host of unknown enemies,^^ on whom his barbarous subjects might, without injustice, bestow the epithet of Barbarians. The numbers, the strength, the rapid motions, and the implacable cruelty of the Huns were felt and dreaded and magnified by the astonished Goths ; who beheld their fields and villages consumed with flames and deluged with indiscriminate slaughter. To these real terrors they added the surprise and abhorrence which were excited by the shrill voice, the uncouth gestures, and the strange deformity, of the Huns. These savages of Scythia were compared (and the picture had some resemblance) to the animals who walk very awkwardly on two legs ; and to the misshapen figures, the Termini, which were often placed on the bridges of antiquity. They were distin- guished from the rest of the human species by their broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eyes, deeply buried in the head ; and, as they were almost destitute of beards, they never enjoyed either the manly graces of youth or the venerable as- pects of age.^*^ A fabulous origin was assigned worthy of their form and manners ; that the witches of Scythia, who, for their foul and deadly practices, had been driven from society, had ^ As we are possessed of the authentic history of the Huns, it would be im- pertinent to repeat, or to refute, the fables, which misrepresent their origin and progress, their passage of the mud or water of the Magotis, in pursuit of an ox or stag, les Indes qu'ils avoient d&ouvertes, &c. Zosimus, 1. iv. p. 224 [c. 20 ; after Eurapius], Sozomen, 1. vi. c. 37, Procopius [leg. Paulus], Hist. Miscell. c. 5 [leg. Bk. 12 (p. 933, ap. Migne, vol. 95)], Jornandes, c. 24, Grandeur et Decadence, &c.,i des Remains, c. 17. S9 Prodigiosae formae, et pandi ; ut bipedes existimes bestias ; vel quales in commarginandis pontibus, effigiati stipites dolantur incompti. Ammian. xxxi. i. Jornandes (c 24) draws a strong caricature of a Calmuckface. Species pavendd nigredine. . . quaedam deformis offa, non facies ; habensque magis puncta quEim lumina. See Buffon, Hist. Naturelle, torn. iii. p. 380.