iff THE BALTIC baltic provinces are at the present time busily engaged in male ing history so that the following facts may be of interest esthonia kur livonia are the districts principally involved in all three the aristocracy is german in language and race but composes only a small part of the population in esthonia the vast majority of the inhabitants are estas a finnish people of bralo altaic stock alhonia and kurland are in habited chiefly by the letts closely allied to the lithuanians the rus constitute but a small fraction of the inhabitants of the district in the thirteenth century the heathen peoples dwelling on the shores of the baltic were subjugated by the knighted sword bearers and teutonic 1 nights who introduced the german tion with the lithuanians the letts constitute i separate division of the aryan or indo european family the old prussians belonged to the letto lithuanian these letto lithuanians are phys icalla well built the face is mostly elongated the features fine the very fair hair blue eyes and delicate skin distinguish them from the poles and russians their dress is usually plain in comparison with that of the po es and grayish colors predominate in it their langhage langi age has great simi larity to the sanskrit the popular poetry of both the letts and uth is rich in both idyllic and lyric songs imbi ed with the kenderest ten derest love and melancholy and a most po edical feeling for matuie and are remarkable for their absolute chastity the national character is fully ex pressed in them not carlil e at all but melancholy and soc able in the song there is an added char act tl e hatred which the peo pie feel toward the german ers despite the tact that the people are either lutherans or roman or greek catholics the names of the old pagan divinities very numero is in their tor mer mythology are continually men tinned in songs and au in common speech the forests of livonia and kurland have played an important part in their history their chief priest worshiped in the forests the people brought their offerings to their divinities at the foot of mighty oaks and even during the fourteenth cen tury the an inextinguishable fire was maintained to this day traces of the worship of oak trees may be seen