LITHUANIANS and LETTS, two kindred peoples of Indo European origin, now constituting independent republics, on the shores of the Baltic Sea, and in the basins of the Niemen and the Duna. The two races number about 4,250,000, of whom 2,000,00o are Letts. Ptolemy mentions (iii. 5) two clans, the Galindae and Sudeni, who probably belonged to the western subdivision of this group, the Borussians. In the loth century the Lithuanians under the name of Litva, with two other branches of the same stem—the Borussians and the Letts—occupied the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, a tract bounded by Finnish tribes in the north, and by Slays elsewhere.
In this forested, marshy country the Lithuanians maintained their national character notwithstanding the vicissitudes of their history. Their chief priest, Krive-Kriveyto (the judge of the judges), under whom were seventeen classes of priests and elders, worshipped in the forests; the Waidelots brought their offerings to the divinities at the foot of oaks; even now, the veneration of great oaks is a widely spread custom in the villages of the Lithua nians, and even of the Letts.
By the loth century the Lithuanians were divided into three main branches :—the Borussians or Prussians; the Letts (who call themselves Latvis, the name given to them in Russian chronicles, Letygola, being an abbreviation of Latvin-galas, "the confines of Lithuania") ; and the Lithuanians, or rather Lituanians, Litva or Letuvininkai—subdivided into Lithuanians proper, and Zhmud (Zmudz, Samogitians or Zemailey), the "Lowlanders." To this group belong the Yatvyags, or Yadzvings, a warlike, black-haired people who inhabited the forests at the upper tributaries of the Niemen and Bug. Nestor's chronicle distinguishes also the Zhem gala, later known as Semigallia, who in the loth century inhabited the left bank of the Duna. Several authors consider also as Lith
uanians the Kors of Russian chronicles, or Courons of Western authors, who inhabited the peninsula of Courland, and the Golad, a clan settled on the banks of the Porotva, tributary of the Moskva river, which seems to have been thrown far from the main stem during its migration to the north. The Krivichi, who inhabited what was the government of Smolensk, may belong to the same stem.
These peoples are subdivided into numerous independent clans and villages, separated from one another by forests and marshes.
The Lithuanians are well built, with elongated faces and fine features, very fair hair, blue eyes and delicate skin. Their chief occupation is agriculture, and especially are they given to apicul ture and cattle breeding.
The Letts of Courland are mainly Lutherans. Some are Roman Catholics, others belong to the Greek Church. All Lithuanians have maintained much of their heathen practices and creed; the names of pagan divinities, very numerous in the former mythol ogy, are continually mentioned in songs, and also in common speech. See LATVIA AND LITHUANIA.