impression of the arts of Greece.[1] The white Huns, a name
which they derived from the change of their complexions, soon
abandoned the pastoral life of Scythia. Gorgo, which, under
the appellation of Carizme, has since enjoyed a temporary
splendour, was the residence of the king, who exercised a legal
authority over an obedient people. Their luxury was maintained by the labour of the Sogdians; and the only vestige of
their ancient barbarism was the custom which obliged all the
companions, perhaps to the number of twenty, who had shared
the liberality of a wealthy lord, to be buried alive in the same
grave.[2] The vicinity of the Huns to the provinces of Persia
involved them in frequent and bloody contests with the power
of that monarchy. But they respected, in peace, the faith of
treaties; in war, the dictates of humanity ; and their memorable victory over Peroses, or Firuz, displayed the moderation, as
well as the valour, of the Barbarians.
The Huns of the Volga
The second division of
their countrymen,[3] the Huns, who gradually advanced towards
the North-west, were exercised by the hardships of a colder
climate and a more laborious march. Necessity compelled them
to exchange the silks of China for the furs of Siberia; the imperfect rudiments of civilized life were obliterated; and the
native fierceness of the Huns was exasperated by their intercourse with the savage tribes, who were compared, with some
propriety, to the wild beasts of the desert. Their independent
spirit soon rejected the hereditary succession of the Tanjous;
and, while each hord as governed by its peculiar mursa, their
tumultuary council directed the public measures of the whole
nation. As late as the thirteenth century, their transient
residence on the Eastern banks of the Volga was attested by the
name of Great Hungary.[4] In the winter, they descended with
- ↑ Justin (xli. 6) has left a short abridgment of the Greek kings of Bactriana. To their industry I should ascribe the new and extraordinary trade, which transported the merchandises of India into Europe, by the Oxus, the Caspian, the Cyrus, the Phasis, and the Euxine. The other ways, both of the land and sea, were possessed by the Seleucides and the Ptolemies. See I'Esprit des Loix, l. xxi.
- ↑ Procopius de Bell. Persico, 1. i. c. 3, p. 9.
- ↑ [There is no evidence that the Huns of the Volga had migrated from the borders of China.]
- ↑ ln the thirteenth century, the monk Rubruquis (who traversed the immense plain of Kipzak, in his journey to the court of the Great Khan) observed the remarkable name of Hungary, with the traces of a common language origin, Hist, des Voyages, torn. vii. p. 269.
fruitful country which he desolated. In the next century, the same provinces of Chorasmia and Mawaralnahr were described by Abulfeda (Hudson, Geograph. Minor, torn. iii.). Their actual misery may be seen in the Genealogical History of the Tartars, p. 423-469.
