[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 from the pagan period; but as
they have been preserved only by tradition, we must of course assume,
that their diction, has been changed almost in the same proportion as
the language of common life. Hence, national songs, before they have
been fixed by letters, are always to be considered as much safer
proofs for the genius than for the language of a people.
It is, however, probable that at least _one_ Slavic idiom was
cultivated to a certain degree in very ancient times; for from the
single circumstance, that Cyril's translation of the Bible, written in
the middle of the ninth century, bears the stamp of uncommon
perfection in its forms, and of great copiousness, it is sufficiently
evident, that the language must have been the means of expression for
thinking men several centuries before.
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