tell.


[1] In the Tatar language the word Ural signifies "girdle."




CHAPTER II

SLAVONIC RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS

In speaking of this eastern half of Europe as _Russia_, we have been
borrowing from the future. At the time we have been considering there
was no Russia. The world into which Christ came contained no Russia.
The Roman Empire rose and fell, and still there was no Russia. Spain,
Italy, France, and England were taking on a new form of life through
the infusion of Teuton strength, and modern Europe was coming into
being, and still the very name of Russia did not exist. The great
expanse of plains, with its medley of Oriental barbarism, was to Europe
the obscure region through which had come the Hunnish invasion from
Asia.

This catastrophe was the only experience that this land had in common
with the rest of Europe. The Goths had established an empire where the
ancient Graeco-Scythians had once been. The overthrowing of this
Gothic Empire was the beginning of Attila's European conquests; and the
passage of the Hunnish horde, precisely as in the rest of Europe,
produced a complete overturning. A torrent of Oriental races, Finns,
Bulgarians, Magyars, and others, rushed in upon the track of the Huns,