Hunni
（
Οὖννοι, Χοῦνοι). An Asiatic people who dwelt for some
centuries in the plains of Tartary, and were formidable to the Chinese Empire long before they
were known to the Romans. It was against them, in fact, that the famous Chinese wall was
built. A portion of the nation crossed into Europe, and were allowed by Valens to settle in
Thrace, A.D. 376. Under their king, Attila (A.D. 434-453), they devastated the fairest
portions of the Empire; but a few years after Attila's death their power was completely
destroyed by the Turks.
The Huns were probably remotely descended from the Hiung-nu, a race of Turkish
(“Turanian”) stock, though fable declared them to be the offspring
of the Scythian witches and the unclean and infernal spirits with whom these witches consorted
in the desert. They are described as being dark, stunted, and uncouth, with shrill voices.
Like the Mongolians, they were a race of horseman, fighting with bone-tipped javelins and with
slings and lassoes. They ate meat nearly raw, and herbs; and wore the hides of wild beasts.
See De
Guignes, Histoire Générale des Huns
(1756); Neumann,
Die Völker des südlichen
Russland (2d ed. 1855); Thierry,
Histoire d'Attila (4th
ed. 1874); and Howorth, in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute
(English) for 1872-74.
