Polynesian. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu], Hawaii) 1844-1864, 1856-11-22


they contain, and the important reflections they
suggest, but also model, for future or ac-
tua student of our own people. BY way Of intro
duclng Rlehl TO those who are uuacquainteG with
his writings, will give rapid sketch from his
picture of the German Peasantry, and perhaps this
indication of the mode in which he treats partic-
ular branch of his subject, may prepare them to
follow rs with more interest when we enter on the
general purpose and contents Of his works.
The condition of the tenant-farmers and small
propnetors in Germany is, we imagine, about on
a par, not, certainly in material prosperity, but in
mental culture and habits, with that of the Eng
lish farmers who were beginning to be thought
oldfashioned nearly fifty years ago, and if We
add to these the farm servants and labOrers. we
shall have class approximatng IN its character
istics to the Bauerathum, or peaslntry, described
by Riehl.
In Germany, perhaps more than in any other
country, it is among the peasantry that we must
look for the historical type of the national ply
Sique. In the towns this type has become 50 mod
flied to express the personality of the individual,
that even family likeness Is often but family
marked. But the peasants may still be d.-tin-
guished into groups, by their physical Pecuarties.
In one part Of the untry we find longer-Ieg-
ged, in another, broadershouldered race, which
has inherited these peculiarities for centuries.
For example, in certain districts of Hesse are
seen long faces with high foreheadS long. straight
noses, and small eyes, with Grched eyebrows and
large eyelids On comparing these pbysiognomIes
with the sculptures in the church of 81. Elizabeth,
at Marburg executed in the thirteenth century, it
will be found that the same old HesSian type of
face has subsisted unchanged with this distinction
only, that the sculptures represent princes and
mobiles, whose features then bore the stamp of
their race, while that stamp is now to be found
only amoag the peasants. painter who wants to
draw med aval characters with historic truth. must
seek his models among the peasantry. This
plains why the old German painters give the heads
OF their subjects a greater uniformity of type
than the painters of our day; the race had not at
tanned to high degree OF NATURALIZATION in
features and expression. 1t indicates, too, that
the cultured man acts more an individual; the
peasant more as one Of a group. Hans drives the
plough, lives, and thinks Just as kunz does; and
1t Is this fact, that many thousands Of men are as
like each other in thoughts and habits as so
many sheep or oysters, which constitutes the
weight of the peasanry in the social and political
scale.
In the cultivated world each individual has his
style Of speaking and writing. But among the
peasantry it is the race the district, the province
that has It's style; namely its dialect, its phraseol
ogy its proverbs, ard its Songs, which belong alike
to the entire body Of tie people. This provincial
style of the peasant Is again, IKE his physique, a
81
utmost tenaciiv. In certain parts of Hungary.
there are still descendants Of German colonists of
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who 90
about the country as reapcrS, retaining their old
Saxon songs and manners, while the more cult
waited German emigrants in 4 very short time
forget their own language, and sPeak. Hunga-
rian.
The peasants adherence to the traditional has
much greater inconvenience than that entailed by
4 paucity of proper names. Ia the Black Forest
and in Iiuttenberg you will see him in the dog
days wearing 4 thick fur cap, because 1t is an
historical fur caP-a cap worn by his grandfather.
In the Veteran, that peasant girl Is considered
the hanGsomcst who wears the most pettCCHtS. !
To 90 10 field labor in seven pc;ticoats can be
anything but convenient or agreeable, but it Is
the additionally correct thing. and German
peasant gill would think herself as unfavorably
conspicuous in an untraditional costume, an
English servant-gir would now think herself IN /
a "insC v-wolsey apron or a thick muslin cap. /
In many districts, no medical advice would III
duce the rustic 10 renOunce the tight leather belt
with which he Injuries his digestive functions you
could more easily persuade him to smile on new I
system than on the unhistorcal Inyen- /
ton of braces. In the eighteenth century, in
spite of the phllanthropic preachers of potatoes,
the peasant for years threw his potatoes 20 the .
pigs and dogs, before he could be persuaded TO .
put them on his own table. However, the unwI- /
lingneSs OF the peasant to adopt innovations has
not unreasonable foundation in the fact, that for
him experiments are practical, not theoretical. /
and must be made with expense Of money instead /
Of brains-a fact that is not, perhaps sufficiently
taken into account by agricultural theorists, who !
complain of the farmers obs.lnacv. The peas q
ant has the smallest possible faith in theoretIc .
owledge; he thinks 1t rather dangerous than "
otherwise, as is well indicated by Lower Rhen-
sh proverb-'' One Is never too old to lean, said .
an old woman so she learned to be a WITCH
a droll instance of peasant conservatism is told \
Of village on the Taunus, whose inhabitants,
from time immemorial had been famous for cud-
Ceiling. For this historical offense the magis-
trates of the district had always inflicted the
equally historical punishment Of shutting up the
most inCorrigIble offenders, not IN prison, but IN
their own Pig-sty. In recent times, however, the
government, wishing to correct the rudenesS OF
hese peasants appointed an nlighiened man
Is a ma gistrate, who at once abolished the orig
nal penalty aforementioned. But this rclaxa-
ion Of punishment was so far from beng wei
come to the villagers, that they presented a petl-
ion praying that more energetic man might be
given them as a ma gistrate, who would have the
courage to punish according to law and justice,
B. as had been befOTetIme' And the magistrate I
who abolished incarceration in the pig-sty could
never obtain the respect of the neIghborhoOd.
This happened no longer ago than the beginning
IF the present century.
Riehl well observes that the feudal system,
which made the peasant the bondman of his lord,
vas an immense benefit in a country, the greater
part of which had still to be colon zed,-rescued
he peasant from vagabondage, and laid the toun-
lation of persisency and endurance IN future gen
,rations. Ii free German peasantry belongs or
Y to modern times, 1t Is to his ancestor who was
erf, and even, in the earliest times, slave, that
he peasant owes the foundatian of his indePend-
,nce, namely, his capabiIity, of settled exist
,nce,-nay, his unreasOnlng FersIstency, when
las its important function IN the development OF
he race.