The Way of the Warriors - Hadak Útja (the origin of the Milky Way) The Legend of Csaba Fred Hamori In Hungarian mythology the youngest son of Attila (Etele) was called Csaba, which in Turkic and old Hungarian also meant shepherd, the "shepherd of the people". This legend is about the mythical guardianship he symbolizes for the people of Transylvanian Hungarians who treat him as their ancestor and guardian "angel" in a loosely translated sense. The Transylvanian-Hungarian anthem even calls to him for his protection. After the death of Attila in 453AD, his elder son Aladár, rushed to take the reins of government. The Germanic chiefs and their allies were able to surprise and kill him before he reached his destination. His brothers, scattered over the country, were pushed out by the rebellion of the Gepids, Sverves and Visigoths (Germanic tribes). Dengezik ruled from the area of the Don and Dniper rivers, a still large Hun Empire, constantly fighting the Gepids, Goths and Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire). In 469 he died in battle. The Hun nations however continued in this region. Attila's youngest son Chaba (historic Irnak), whose mother was the daughter of the Byzanteen general Honorius, relinquished the Carpathian basin with his depleted nation, to rejoin his eastern relations. They returned to strengthen themselves, so they may be strong enough to return and also to cleanse Attila's holy sword in the waves of the circular sea, to restore it's magical powers. At the border territory of Transylvania, he left 3,000 young warriors under the leadership Örmedzur, to keep guard over the land. These men were the ancestors of the Seklers. (Segel=border guard). The field of Chigle was their home, which today is the country of Csík in Transylvania. Before their separation Chaba prayed to their god Damacsek, that whenever his people were in trouble the forces of nature shall warn him, and he will return to protect them, even from the ends of the earth. The message carriers of earth, water, air, and fire will reach him wherever he might be. They barely reached the other side of the Carpathian mountains, before the neighbors of the Sekel rose against them. The earth began to tremble and the crowns of the pine trees shake and sent the news to the departing men of the imminent danger of their brothers. So a party of their armies returned and scattered their enemies. One year latter the residents of the valley again became jelous of the tranquility of the Sekel's and they threatened them with their armies. The stream ran screaming into the river, the river to the sea, carrying the message for help, which arrived in time and saved them. Three years later new nations surrounded the Sekel, and it soon became a contest of life and death. The breeze would not be fast enough to reach their kinsmen, staying at this time among kinsmen in Greece, but sitting on the wings of the windstorm or the plains, it found them far in the southwest and for the third time helped them to achieve victor over their enemies. After a while, Chaba and his people left Greece and returned to Scythia. He took with him his mother who he presented to the nobility of Scythia. The Hun nobility looked down on him for he was not a pure noble Hun blood and even more so after he married a Choresmian woman. His clan grew into a tribe in Scythia and is believed to be the Aba clan which returned to Hungary with Arpad's Magyar confederacy. Meanwhile in Transylvania, a long time elapsed, the young saplings became giant old trees, the weapons of the young warriors were handed down to their grandchildren. From the boarder guards a new nation developed. From the border lands a new country developed, which were led by their chiefs, the Rabon-bán. (Bán is marsgrave in Hungarian) It was a long time before new neighbors came to being who dared to threaten them. This however did not take forever to happen and again a tremendous army arose and attacked the Sekels, who in time began to waiver. But the traveling star of the Sekel's did not sleep, remembering the promises to the gods, carried their message in burning light from the earth to the halls of heaven, to the long dead hero Chaba. Down below, the last of the battles was in preparation, with a handful of the survivors facing the enemy, when all at once the drumbeat of the hooves of their steeds and the clatter of arms and armor was heard from above, and the brilliant starry army paraded in the heavens above. The brothers, who in times of danger returned three times in the past, have again returned in just a nick of time again. Like silent ghosts in a long line they crossed the heavens and flew down to earth, where the snow capped mountains reach to the sky. No one could escape the ones who cannot be wounded. Panic struck the sea of attackers and they fled in all directions. Since then the Sekel has been at guard on the frontier and soon perhaps this trust will no longer be required... (Through most of Hungarian history their special charge was boarder-guardsmen.) The path of the shining ghostly army, on which they came and went, became permanent and unremoveable from the dome of heaven, caused by the hooves of their horses, which are visible during midnight as the milky strip shinning in the sky. This strip of light, the "Way of the Souls" from thereafter we called the "way of the hosts", reminding us of Chaba and his heroic father Attila. When, under the leadership of Arpad, the Magyar brother nation appeared in the east, to take over the inheritance of Attila, they immediately made alliance with them. They were kept in their tasks as boarder guards for the new nation, with special priviledges and their own lands and leaders. They have never waivered in their duties to the present, as Rumanians and Russians have taken their lands, they are still there.