SLAVS, slavz, the general designation for a group of peoples inhabiting eastern and cen tral Europe and forming one of the most im portant branches of the Indo-European family of nations. The name is derived from the native term Slovenia, the origin of which is obscure, some connecting is with slovo, word, speech, and others with slava, glory. In support of the former etymology is the fact that the Slavic term for foreigner is nientsy, dumb, marking the differentiation between those whose speech was intelligible to the Slav ear, that is, the Slays themselves, and those who made use of an incomprehensible tongue. The connection be tween Slav and slave, though supported by the analogy of servus and Serb, is nevertheless merely fanciful. The Slavic group comprises the following nationalities: Russians (includ ing the Great Russians, the Little Russians, or Ruthenians, and the White Russians), Bul garians, Serbo-Croatians, Slovenians, Czechs (comprising the Bohemians, the Moravians and the Slovaks), Wends or Sorbs (consisting of the inhabitants of Upper and Lower Lusatia, and Poles with the allied Kashuhes). The Polabians, a Slavic people formerly living on the Elbe, have been extinct since the middle of the 18th century. The early history of the Slays is veiled in obscurity, and only an approximate idea as to their original home is to be obtained. In Pliny and Tacitus the name Venedm (whence the modern Wenden) appears as the designation of a group of non-Germanic tribes living to the northeast of the Carpathian Mountains and ex tending to the shores of the Baltic and the lake country of the Finns. Ptolemy in the 2d century of our era gives a description of the peoples residing between the Vistula and the Don which would undoubtedly tend to connect a part at least of these tribes with the Slav family. Roughly the home of the Slays in the first centuries of the Christian era may be given as extending from the Vistula and the Carpathians northeastward to the headwaters of the Volga and along that stream to its junction with the Oka, and southeastward to the Bug and Dnieper, comprising thus the southwestern third of the present Russia. South and south east of the Baltic, however, were the Lithau nians, a non-Slavic people, though nearest to the Slays of all Indo-European stocks. In the 6th century Procopius and Jardanes speak of two great Slavic nations, the Sclaveni and the Antes, as established on the left bank of the Danube and to the north. From this it would seem that in the 3d or 4th century the Slav peoples be gan to migrate from their homes southward, and westward, under pressure probably of the Baltic tribes to the north. In the 5th century they took possession of the country between the Vistula and the Elbe, left unoccupied by the southward migration of the Germanic Burgun dians, Goths, Suevi, etc. Slav tribes entered Bohemia and Moravia about the same time, while others advanced from beyond the Car pathians and made themselves masters of western Hungary, whence they passed into Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. At the begin ning of the 7th century the Slays on the Danube crossed into Mcrsia and overran Thracia and Macedonia. At the same time Serbs and Croats made their homes in the ancient Illyri cum and Dalmatia. A second great wave of
Slav migration, starting from the original home north of the Carpathians, spread east and north, pushing the Finns before them. Under Scandi navian rulers these tribes became the nucleus of the Russian nation. Of this wide area of con quest they have lost in the process of time the regions of the Oder and the Elbe, Upper Austria and part of Carinthia and Styria, of all of which they were deprived by the Ger mans; large parts of Transylvania and Hungary which fell to Rumanians and Mazyars; and parts of the regions south of the Danube which later passed to the Greeks and the Turks.
The ancient Slays were almost exclusively an agricultural people, averse to all war, and living in complete tribal independence under a fully developed patriarchal system which at a later time became blended with a communal form of government. They were the latest of all the European peoples to enter the sphere of modern civilization, their religion and their literature being, as compared with the other nations, of recent date. The eastern branch of the Slays received its civilization and religion from Byzantium, the western Slays from Rome. Christianity made rapid headway among them in spite of the fact that they seem to have pos sessed a well developed nature-cult about which, however, we possess no definite information. Our materials are limited to the names of vari ous deities worshipped among the northern Slays, while as to the mythology of the southern branches of the race even such data is wanting. Among the gods of the Russian blays were Pernu, identified by some with Thor, the north ern god of Thunder, Dazbig (the day god), Wolos, Stribog and others. Svintovint or Sviatovit was the great god of the Baltic Slays (Riigen), and some who maintain that along with their idol-worship the Slays possessed a belief in a supreme God would assign to Svintovint that role. Grimm erects Svintovint, Pernu and a god named Radegast into a trinity with functions corresponding to the classic Jupiter, Vulcan and Mercury respectively. Other deities worshipped by the Slays were Prava, the god of justice; Rugevit, of war; Triglaw; Lado and Lada, divinities of order and love; Dievana (Diana), goddess of the woods, and Prija, the Scandinavian Freya. Among the Silesian Slays the principles of light and darkness were typified by the Bielobog and the Chornobog, the white god and the black god. The mythology of the Slays was rich in deities of a lower order, in nymphs, naiads and mountain sprites, in goddesses of birth and fate, divinities of the hearth and the field, in evil demons and vampires. The forms of the Sla vonic deities recall to mind those of India. Svintovint was represented as four-headed, Pernu as four-faced, etc. There is some testi mony to a belief entertained by some of the Slays in the immortality of the soul and a resur rection beyond the grave. Their principal cele brations were the kobiada, a feast held at the beginning of the year, when an interchange of presents was customary; the kupalo, a feast that took place in honor of the sun at the time of the summer solstice; and the trizna, cele brated in honor of the dead. The functions of priest and ruler were combined in the same person.