Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/72

 Readings in Eiiropean History The Goths decide to cross the Danube. not fit for common use. Nor is there even to be found among them a cabin thatched with reeds ; but they wander about, roaming over the mountains and the woods, and accustom themselves to bear frost and hunger and thirst from their very cradles. . . . There is not a person in the whole nation who cannot remain on his horse day and night On horseback they buy and sell, they take their meat and drink, and there they recline on the narrow neck of their steed, and yield to sleep so deep as to indulge in every variety of dream. And when any deliberation is to take place on any weighty matter, they all hold their common council on horseback. They are not under kingly authority, 1 but are contented with the irregular government of their chiefs, and under their lead they force their way through all obstacles. . . . None of them plow, or even touch a plow handle, for they have no settled abode, but are homeless and lawless, perpet- ually wandering with their wagons, which they make their homes ; in fact, they seem to be people always in flight. . . . This active and indomitable race, being excited by an unrestrained desire of plundering the possessions of others, went on ravaging and slaughtering all the nations in their neighborhood till they reached the Alani. . . . [After having harassed the territory of the Alani and having slain many of them and acquired much plunder, the Huns made a treaty of friendship and alliance with those who survived. The allies then attacked the German peoples to the west] In the meantime a report spread far and wide through the nations of the Goths, that a race of men, hitherto unknown, had suddenly descended like a whirlwind from the lofty mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth, and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way. And then the greater part of the population resolved to flee and to seek a home remote from all knowledge of the new 1 The Huns in Attila's time had a king and appear to have lived in houses and huts. See account given by Priscus below, pp. 46 sqq.