baric nations that dwelt northward of the Black Sea and the Roman
Empire, tribe after tribe of savage warriors broke in upon the barriers
of civilized Europe. The Huns crossed the Tanais into Europe in 375, and
rapidly reduced to subjection the Alans, the Ostrogoths, and other
tribes that were then dwelling along the course of the Danube. The
armies of the Roman Emperor that tried to check their progress were cut
to pieces by them, and Pannonia and other provinces south of the Danube
were speedily occupied by the victorious cavalry of these new invaders.
Not merely the degenerate Romans, but the bold and hardy warriors of
Germany and Scandinavia, were appalled at the number, the ferocity, the
ghastly appearance, and the lightning-like rapidity of the Huns. Strange
and loathsome legends were coined and credited, which attributed their
origin to the union of

"Secret, black, and midnight hags"

with the evil spirits of the wilderness.

Tribe after tribe and city after city fell before them. Then came a
pause in their career of conquest in Southwestern Europe, caused
probably by dissensions among their chiefs, and also by their arms being
employed in attacks upon the Scandinavian nations. But when Attila--or
Atzel, as he is called in the Hungarian language--became their ruler,
the torrent of their arms was directed with augmented terrors upon the
West and the South, and their myriads marched beneath the guidance of
one master-mind to the overthrow both of the new and the old powers of
the earth.

Recent events have thrown such a strong interest over everything
connected with the Hungarian name that even the terrible renown of
Attila now impresses us the more vividly through our sympathizing
admiration of the exploits of those who claim to be descended from his
warriors, and "ambitiously insert the name of Attila among their native
kings." The authenticity of this martial genealogy is denied by some
writers and questioned by more. But it is at least certain that the
Magyars of Arpad, who are the immediate ancestors of the bulk of the
modern Hungarians, and who conquered the country which bears the name of
Hungary in A.D. 889, were of the same stock of mankind as were the Huns
of Attila, even if they did not belong to the same subdivision of that
stock. Nor is there any improbability in the tradition that after
Attila's death many of his warriors remained in Hungary, and that their
descendants afterward joined the Hu