been guarded, and almost concealed,
by the impenetrable forests of Transylvania. [62] [62a]

[Footnote 56: As we are possessed of the authentic history of the
Huns, it would be impertinent to repeat, or to refute, the fables which
misrepresent their origin and progress, their passage of the mud or
water of the Maeotis, in pursuit of an ox or stag, les Indes qu'ils
avoient decouvertes, &c., (Zosimus, l. iv. p. 224. Sozomen, l. vi.
c. 37. Procopius, Hist. Miscell. c. 5. Jornandes, c. 24. Grandeur et
Decadence, &c., des Romains, c. 17.)]

[Footnote 56a: Art added to their native ugliness; in fact, it is
difficult to ascribe the proper share in the features of this hideous
picture to nature, to the barbarous skill with which they were
self-disfigured, or to the terror and hatred of the Romans. Their noses
were flattened by their nurses, their cheeks were gashed by an iron
instrument, that the scars might look more fearful, and prevent the
growth of the beard. Jornandes and Sidonius Apollinaris:--

Obtundit teneras circumdata fascia nares,
Ut galeis cedant.

Yet he adds that their forms were robust and manly, their height of a
middle size, but, from the habit of riding, disproportioned.

Stant pectora vasta,
Insignes humer, succincta sub ilibus alvus.
Forma quidem pediti media est, procera sed extat
Si cernas equites, sic longi saepe putantur
Si sedeant.]

[Footnote 57: Prodigiosae formae, et pandi; ut bipedes existimes
bestias; vel quales in commarginandis pontibus, effigiati stipites
dolantur incompte. Ammian. xxxi. i. Jornandes (c. 24) draws a strong
caricature of a Calmuck face. Species pavenda nigredine... quaedam
deformis offa, non fecies; habensque magis puncta quam lumina. See
Buffon. Hist. Naturelle, tom. iii. 380.]

[Footnote 58: This execrable origin, which Jornandes (c. 24) describes
with the rancor of a Goth, might be originally derived from a more
pleasing fable of the Greeks. (Herodot. l. iv. c. 9, &c.)]

[Footnote 59: The Roxolani may be the fathers of the the Russians,
(D'Anville, Empire de Russie, p. 1--10,) whose residence (A.D. 862)
about Novogrod Veliki cannot be very remote from that which the
Geographer of Ravenna (i. 12, iv. 4, 46, v. 28, 30) assigns to the
Roxolani, (A.D. 886.) * Note: See, on the origin of the Russ, Schlozer,
Nordische Geschichte, p. 78--M.]

[Footnote 60: The text of Ammianus seems to be imperfect or corrupt;
but the nature of the gro