Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-07-03
THE vENDs.

Inc SpreeWaId IS a district about
sixty miles from Berlin, where Sclayic
race, called Vends, with different man
ners, customs and language from the
Germans, exist. They are branch of
the Russian family of races which was
spread over much country in Saxony
They have different language, and
though there is but small part of it
written, yet the Bible has been printed
in it. They live now in the marshy
lands Of the river Spree, and there is
no more picturesque country in Ger
many. Very few travellers go to see
it, but it will amply repay visit. You
90 about in boats, rs the country is
entirely cut up by canals, and much of
it is inaccessible in any other way.
An hour and a half's hard walking,
says Berlin correspc ndent, brought
us to Beng, where, after dinner of
kalbsbraten,( roast veal) and glass of
beer, / found a man who consented,
for 81, to row me into the Spree forest.
He procured kahn, long, narrow,
fiat-bottomed boat, eight inches deep.
and throwing some hay into it, told
me to lie down. Then, standing up,
he pushed the boat along with
pole, lodging around corners and
passing other boats with indesc -ibable
skill. He was a VenG, was this rover,
and peculiar-looking genius he was.
His broad straw hat came low down
on his jovial face, sun-browned and
red. His white cotton shirt was
open at the neck. His feet were bare
and red. His pantaloons were rolled
half way to his knees, and his arms
were destitute of sleeves. A trembling
black pipe hung between his teeth,
and this shook as though about to fall
whenever his muscles sweIled in a
heavy push of the boat.
He was a jolly fellow of forty. and
shall not soon forget my visit to his
home before starting. 1t was small
affair of two rooms, and garnet
reached by a ladder. 1t was made of
wood, and it's roof was of thatch nearly
foot thick. Such a roof he told me
will last thirty years. In this little
den he lived with his father and
mother, and his wife and his daughter.
The women were plainly dressed in
the Vendish style, and the daughter, a
strapping girl of twenty. was quite a
beauty. Her arms and feet were bare.
She wore red skirt, and velveteen
bodice of blue, cut very low in the
neck and having sleeves not over an
inch long, out of which came pair of
arms of red and white enough color
to have been one of Ruben's models.
Tor. hnr
rosy, plump and open. Her hair showed
forehead of Greek cast, and it was
gathered back into a knot under the
very picturesque cap peculiar to the
Vends - half hood, half bonnet.
adorned at the end with two long
strings, which fioated down the back.
Such is Vendish beauty in her every
day costume.
My host asked me to eat with them,
and though | had just had my dinner
the affair was SO novel that / took my
seat with the others at the table.
There were no plates, knives or forks.
The sole eatables were pot of mush.
very like that we make of corn meal
n America, and a dish of lettuce.
The mush was put on the table in the
same iron pot in which it had been
boiled, and we ate it with iron table
spoons, which each dipped in from
time to time. The salad was eaten in
the same way. A spoonful of mush
and a spoonful of salad, they worked
away until the pot was as clean as the
famous platter of Jack Spratt and his
fat-eating wife. Remember this was
the big meal of the day, the breakfast
and supper in Germany being less than
the noon meal The father made no
apology for his scanty table, and he
evidently thought it good enough for
any one.
/ laid down in the boat and COM
posed myself for the journey. Now,
we would go through the luXuriant
meadows, or which, for it was harvest
time, the young men and the pic
tureSque damsels were cutting the
grass, loading it on boats and pushing
| it on the canals to their barns. The
banks of the smaller canals are SO near
that you can almost pick the flowers
/ that adorn them as you go laZilv
through Now you shoot off into a
great forest, and for miles your eyes
can hardly see the sun through the
leafy trees which make an arbor over
you. Houses and villages are passed
now and again, and every human soul
you meet, from the child to the old
Z