ey call the good
Spirit _Bielo Bog_, the white god; the evil Spirit _Tcherno Bog_, the
black god. The _Div_ of the old Russians seem to be likewise akin to
the _Dev_ of the Hindoo; the goddess of life, _Shiva_, of the Polabae,
to the Indian _Shiva_; as the names of the Slavic personification of
death, _Morjana_, _Morena_, _Marzana_, evidently stand in connection
with the Indian word for death, _Marana_. Strabo describes some of the
idols of the Rugians, in which we meet again the whole significant
symbolization of the East. The custom prevalent among many Slavic
nations, of females burning themselves with the corpses of their
husbands, seems also to have been brought from India to Europe.

There are, however, other features of their mythology which belong to
them exclusively, and which remind us rather of the sprightly and
poetical imagination of the Greeks. We allude to their mode of
attributing life to the inanimate objects of nature, rocks, brooks and
trees; of peopling with supernatural beings the woods which surrounded
them, the mountains between which they lived. The _Rusalki_ of the
Russians, the _Vila_ of the southern Slavic nations, the _Leshie_ of
several other tribes, nymphs, naiads, and satyrs, are still to be
found in many popular tales and songs. If, however, we have compared
them to the poetical gods of the Greeks, we must not forget to add,
that their character has less resemblance to these gods, (who indeed
appear only as ordinary men with higher powers, more violent passions,
and less limited lives.) than it has to the northern Elf; and the
German Nix and mountain Spirit--without heart and soul themselves, but
always intermeddling with intrusive curiosity in human affairs,
however void of real interest in them; revengeful towards the most
trifling offence or the least neglect; and beneficent only to
favourites arbitrarily chosen.[7]

The earliest historians mention the Slavi as divided into several
tribes and as speaking different dialects. There are no very ancient
remains of their language, except those words or phrases, which
we find scattered through the works of foreign writers; and these
mostly perverted by their want of knowledge. Besides these we have
the names of places, of festivals, partly still existing, and of some
dignitaries, _Knes_, _Zupan_, etc. There are, indeed, among the
popular songs of the Bohemians, Servians, Russians, and several other
tribes, many which are evidently derived