nquished Huns was diversified by the various influence
of character and situation. Above one hundred thousand persons,
the poorest, indeed, and the most pusillanimous of the people, were
contented to remain in their native country, to renounce their peculiar
name and origin, and to mingle with the victorious nation of the Sienpi.
Fifty-eight hords, about two hundred thousand men, ambitious of a more
honorable servitude, retired towards the South; implored the protection
of the emperors of China; and were permitted to inhabit, and to guard,
the extreme frontiers of the province of Chansi and the territory of
Ortous. But the most warlike and powerful tribes of the Huns maintained,
in their adverse fortune, the undaunted spirit of their ancestors. The
Western world was open to their valor; and they resolved, under the
conduct of their hereditary chieftains, to conquer and subdue some
remote country, which was still inaccessible to the arms of the Sienpi,
and to the laws of China. The course of their emigration soon carried
them beyond the mountains of Imaus, and the limits of the Chinese
geography; but we are able to distinguish the two great divisions of
these formidable exiles, which directed their march towards the Oxus,
and towards the Volga. The first of these colonies established their
dominion in the fruitful and extensive plains of Sogdiana, on the
eastern side of the Caspian; where they preserved the name of Huns, with
the epithet of Euthalites, or Nepthalites. Their manners were softened,
and even their features were insensibly improved, by the mildness of the
climate, and their long residence in a flourishing province, which might
still retain a faint impression of the arts of Greece. 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 splendor, was the
residence of the king, who exercised a legal authority over an obedient
people. Their luxury was maintained by the labor 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. 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