Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/73

Rh used by the fierce Asiatic tribes in their incursions westward. Wars of the Romans against the Dacians and successive invasions of Goth and Hun forced the Lithuanians to seek a new home out of the path of invasion and conflict.

They migrated northward, probably during the third and fourth centuries, and following the valley of the Vistula spread out over territory extending from the mouth of the Vistula to the shore of Lake Peipus and southward to the great marshes of Pinsk. Their early history is necessarily hazy, depending upon tradition and scientific deduction. From the tenth century their history is fairly clear and about this time we find the Lithuanian nation divided into three main branches, viz., Borussians, Letts and Samoghitians.

The Borussians, who occupied territory in the vicinity of Königsberg, East Prussia, soon fell under German influence and lost their political existence, leaving only their name corrupted into Prussia.

The Letts occupied the country now known as the Baltic provinces of Russia. They mixed with and dominated the Livs and Esths (Finnish tribes occupying Livonia and Esthonia) and with these tribes became subject to a German religious order with a military organization known as the Sword Brothers of Livonia.

The Samoghitians, or Lithuanians proper, occupied territory south of the Baltic provinces. There they formed an independent state and resisted successfully all efforts of German crusader, Slav and Tartar to subjugate them. In the fourteenth century the king of Lithuania ruled the country occupied to-day by Poles, Lithuanians and white Russians. In 1386 Yagello, king of Lithuania, married Yadviga, queen of Poland, was baptized into the Latin church and crowned king of Poland. Lithuania during this reign reached the zenith of her power and extended her dominions to the River Moskwa on the east and to the Black Sea on the south. The union with Poland was nominal at this time, but a real union took place in 1569 when, by the treaty of Lublin, Lithuania ceased to exist politically. From that time to the present the history of Lithuania has been that of Poland.

The absorption of the Livs and other Finnish elements by the Letts has made that branch of the Lithuanian race more or less of a mixed type. The Borussians, or Lithuanians of Prussia, rarely emigrate.

The uninviting nature of the country occupied by the Samoghitians or Lithuanians proper and its inaccessibility, owing to vast tracts of marsh and forest land, helped to preserve the racial characteristics, and the Samoghitian is to-day a distinct type bearing no resemblance to surrounding races. A typical Lithuanian has the features of a Greek and the complexion of a Norseman. They are tall and splendidly proportioned, towering over their Slavic neighbors. The stature and fine physique of the Russian Imperial Guard are due to the fact that it is recruited almost entirely in the Lithuanian