The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1894-11-01

Tn IIerders and Peasants of Landes l Sc
stills In Their Avocations In Belgium
They Had Festival Which Bore some
Resemblance to our Football Game.
The curious district Of the Landes be.
tween Bordeaux and Bayohne mainly
consists Of hcaths and pine woods, in
lspcrsed with few patches, growing
barley and "a little maize
The surface Of the ground is duh
gray or ash colarod sand, and over this
unmomi>inF pasture wander scattered
. flacks Of lanltv. coarse wooded, i'll CON
ditioned sheep. tended by shepherds,
who from tame immemorial have been
noted for walking on Suits, by the as
sistanee Of which they are not only able
to stalk over the prickly bushes and
avoid the disagrceable contingency Of
filling their Shoe, with sand, but they
attain an elevation not afforded by the
level surface of the ground and from
their artificial altitude 90 overlook
their flocks and prevent their sheep
from straying. They also carry long
pole that, when stuck into the earth,
forms a support against which the shcp-
herds can re-t and knit stockings all
day long. Altogether the appearance Of
this extraordinary tripod, Of which the
apex Is human something in sheep
skin, is weird, not 10 say alarming
BY the aid Of their wooden legs the
peasants of the Landes, with very slight
exertion and without an exceptionally
rapid movement, will go over the
ground at a pace which would keep a
horse at hard trot. Nature, however,
is u power not to be trifled with and
which sooner or later visits with yisi-
BILE censure the violation Of biological
rules. Consequently the artificially long
shanked inhabitants of the Landos are
somewhat diminutive in stature and
are said to he not veEy long lived race.
These poor people have to endure Sc
we're priyations, among which chronic
want of water is the cruelest, but of
late years steps have been taken to rem
edy the evil arising from the circum-
stance that all the streams III the
Grandes Landcs are brackish.
The railway through this desolate re-
gion was built by English engineers,
who imported a contingent Of English
nayvics to assist i'll the most laborious
part of the work. Obviously navy on
stills would be "A grotcsque anomaly.
The English workmcn, therefore, wore
French wooden shoes, or sabots, which
they carefully stuffed with wool or
straw to keep out the sand, but the con
tractors took care that their employees,
when they had finished their toll,
should not be constrained to walk long
distances through the sandy Wilderness,
and the men were lodged in Il kind Of
travelling village placed on trucks and
pushed on the rails day by day as fast
as tho limo advanced food and fresh
water being sent to them from "a dis
lance sometimes of 40 or 80 miles. 1t
must not, however. be supposed that
walking on stills is a custom indigo
nous to the French Landes. In the mid
die ages laborers from Flanders We're
supported to the Garonne for the purpose
of draining the Marshes and their pres
ence in this part of France is commem-
grated in place still known as Bruet
or Bruges These Flemings probably
brought with them their stills, tho an
cient Flemish name Of which was
"schaetse, ~ which would in process Of
time he naturalized AS the French
"cchasses. -
There was formerly an annual festi-
val held ut Namur, in Belgium, called
the battle of the stills, and which, to
all seeming, was unique in Europe. The
youth OF the town were divided into two
amicably hostile camps under the re-
spectivo names of "Melans" and I'd Au-
resses, said to represent two very an
Gent families of Namur, the relation
between whom in bygone times was Of
the nature of that which existed be-
tween the Capulcts and Montagues of
Verona. On each side there We're from
800 to 600 comhatants, all mounted on
stills Each army had its commandant
and its regimental officers, together
with its distinctive cockade and flags,
which last during the action floatod
from the windows of the hotel de Vile
AT the signal for the battle to begin
the combatants advanced to the sound
of trumpets from two opposite extremi-
ties of the Grand place, and the engage
ment began i'll right earnest, the object
of the wooden legged warriors being to
knock each other oyer, in which lauda-
Bile endeavor they'were cheered by the
smiles and waited kisses of the prettiest
maidens of Namur. They were only to
use their stills and their elbows to trip
their opponents up, and at a given
time the "Hola!" or Cease kickingP
was sounded, and the army which had
knocked over the largest number of legs
was declared tho victor.
This fantastic exhibition was wit
messed in the course of generations by
the Emperor Charles V, by Peter the
Great of Russia and Napoleon I, but
the magistrates of Namur toward the
close of the eighteenth century sup
pressed the battle of stills as u yearly
function because it frequently led to a
slightly undesirable occurrence of crack
ed skulls and fractured arms and legs
France and Flanders cannot, however,
lay claim to Il monopoly of silt walk
ing, 1t is indeed very ancient man.
ner of locomotion, but in countries not
Astounding in marshes or in extensive
sandy wastes stills have not been turn
ed to any practical use and have usu-
ally only formed part of the stock in
trade of showmen and mountebanks' for
the amusement of the frequenters of