From A.D. 526 to A.D. 550, Bohemia belonged to the great Thuringian empire. The notion that it was then Germanic (except in its political relations) is gratuitous. Nevertheless, Schaffarik’s account is, that the ancestors of the present Tshekhs came, _probably_, from White Croatia: which was either north of the Carpathians, or on each side of them. According to other writers, however, the parts above the river Kulpa in Croatia sent them forth. In Bohemian the verb _ceti=to begin_, from which Dobrowsky derives the name _Czekh=the beginners_, _the foremost_, _i.e._ the first Slavonians who passed westwards. The powerful Samo, the just Krok, and his daughter, the wise Libussa, the founder of Prague, begin the uncertain list of Bohemian kings, A.D. 624-700. About A.D. 722, a number of petty chiefs become united under P’remysl, the husband of Libussa. Under his son Nezamysl, occurs the first Constitutional Assembly at Wysegrad; and in A.D. 845, Christianity was introduced. But it took no sure footing till about A.D. 966. Till A.D. 1471, the names of the Bohemian kings and heroes are Tshekh--Wenceslaus, Ottokar, Ziska, Podiebrad. In A.D. 1564, the Austrian connexion and the process of Germanizing began. Now, in considering the heroic age of Tshekh literature, Schaffarik himself, though firmly holding the doctrine of a previous Germanic population, remarks, that “there is no trace of any remnant of the German spirit having survived in Bohemia. The remains of such Germanic population as there were, must have been a weak remnant, and soon have become lost in the Slavonic nationality. Even the stronger most probably withdrew to the lonely hills.” _Moravia._--The history and ethnology of Moravia is nearly that of Bohemia, except that the Marcomannic Germans, the Turks, Huns, Avars, and other less important populations may have effected a greater amount of intermixture. Both populations are Tshekh, speaking the Tshekh language--the language, probably, of the ancient Quadi. _Austrian Silesia._--The basis of the population is Sorabian, _i.e._ akin to the Srbie, and Serskie of Lusatia. Like Gallicia, however, it has become Polish in language wherever it is not German. _Dalmatia._--The bulk of the present population is Slavonic, closely allied to the Servians, Bosnians, Herzegovnians, and Montenegriners. The foreign elements, however, are considerable. First came the Roman conquest; then the Avar; then Germanic, then Arab, and then Venetian influences. Besides this there were Mongol inroads, and an absolute conquest of the neighbouring countries of Bosnia and Herzegovna by the Turks.