Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 August 1887 — The Huns. [ARTICLE]

The Huns.

The Muns were a people of Northern As a,, who, in the fifth century, invaded and conquered a great part of Europe. They were probably of Mongolian or Tartar stock, and the theory generally adopted by historians is that the Huns were directly descended from the Hi-ong-nou, whose ancient seat was an extensive and barren territory north of the great wall of China. These people so overran the Chinese about 200 B. C. that the great wall was built to keep them out. Their power wag broken by subsequent wars with the Chinese, in which the fatter, under the valiant Emperor You-ti, were successful. After this they were engaged in conflict with another powerful nomadic tribe of Northern Asia, and were so reduced in strength and shortened in supplies that they (divided their numbers and some 50,000 migrated to the east shore of the Caspian fcea, where they settled and became known as the “White Huns.” Later the ma : n body of the nation moved westward and settled on the shores of the Volga. In the third oentury they .crossed the river and invaded the territory of the Alani, a pastoral people living between the Volga and Don Kivers, conquered the race, and united it with themselves. In the following century, we find the combined nations invading the dominion of the Goths, which then extended from the Baltic to the Euxine. The invaders were successful, and what was left of the conquered Gothic nation was forced to seek an asylum within the bounds of the Koman Empire. The Huns settled on the banks of the Don and the Dneiper, soon became involved in war with the Koraans, and in the fifth century, under Attila, attained a high degree ot power, and included or governed all the tribes from the Volga ,to (the Rhine. Attila also seized the territory south of .the Danube, crossed the Khine, and threatened the existence of the Frankish Empire. The Prank* called the Romans to their aid, and at Chaloas-sur-Marne was fought in June, 451, the bloodiest' battle known to European history, in which the Huns were defeated. Attila’s army is said to have been 700,000 strong, and probably the armies allied against him aggreted nearly as large a force. But the Hunnish Empire, after Attila’s death, fell to pieces, and the people themselves were swallowed up by other tribes. Historians are not agreed on the question whether the modern Hungarians or Magyars a~e descendants from the race of the Huns or not. The White Huns of the Caspian shore, at

about the time the other part of the tribe was invading Europe, spread themselves over all of Eastern Lersia and the Indian border. Homan historians describe the Huns as hideous in appearance, with broad shoulders, flat noses, and small black eves, deeply buried in the head. Hideous legends were coined concerning their ancestry, ascribing it to the union of the witches of h'cythia with infernal sp rits, and such was the terror inspired by the repulsive appearance and savage manners of the barbarous race that these tales were readily believed. —lnter Ocean.