turned eastwards to join, they proffered their assistance against the Gepidæ, on condition of Pannonia, if evacuated, being ceded to them. The destruction of the Gepidæ of Pannonia was followed by the bright period of Avar history, the reign of Baian. The pride of this barbarian inflamed the anger of the Emperor Maurice, who broke his power by the arms of his general Priscus,--broke, but not annihilated. On the 29th of June, A.D. 626, thirty thousand of the vanguard of the Avars insulted the patricians of Constantinople under their own walls, strong in their own barbarian valour, and strong in an even-handed alliance, against the common enemy, with the great king, Chosroes, then at war with Heraclius. "You see," was his answer to the _standing_ patricians, "the proofs of my perfect union with the great king; and his lieutenant is ready to send into my camp a select band of three thousand warriors. Presume no longer to tempt your master with a partial and inadequate ransom; your wealth and your city are the only presents worthy of my acceptance. For yourself, I shall permit you to depart, each with an under-garment, and a shirt, and, at my entreaty, my friend Sarbar will not refuse a passage through his lines. Your absent prince, even now a captive or a fugitive, has left Constantinople to its fate; nor can you escape the arms of the Avars and Persians, unless you could soar into air like birds, or unless like fishes you could dive into the waves." Fortunately for the empire of the east the crown was worn by Heraclius; and in the eleventh hour, the Avars and the Persians were repulsed. The next century was a century of internal quarrels, whilst their enemies--and this means every tribe of European origin--became stronger. The baptism of one of the Avar kings, took place in A.D. 795; the conquest of Hungary by Charlemagne the year following. What the great German left half done, the Slavonians of the parts around consummated,--and when the first Russian historian composed the annals of his nation, the expression, _they have been cut off, son and father, like the Avars_, was the bye-word most expressive of utter annihilation. Now the whole history of the Avars, as well as their locality and alliances, is Turk; and their ruler is regularly spoken of as the _Khaghan_, or _Khan_, of the Avars. The Turk affinity of the Avars has never been doubted. _The Alani._--The locality, the history, and all _à priori_ evidence make the Alans Turkish;--two facts only, that I know of, militate, even in the smallest way, against their being so. 1. The well-known alliance between the Alani and Vandals; a fact of value only in the eyes of him who believes that none but ethnologically related tribes enter into offensive and defensive alliances.