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CHAPTER XV.BURGHER STRONGHOLDS.Soon after leaving Schässburg, the road passes close to the grounds of a Hungarian nobleman's seat, which was destroyed in the revolution. Bordering the highway, the walls of a summer-house are still standing, in their half- demolished state. The place of the battered-in windows is boarded over, and planks on the roof keep out the elements. Doors and blinds have all been wrenched off. It is left thus, partly from inability to repair the damage, and more so that it may serve as a standing reproach,-a monument of Wallack vandalism and ferocity. A Hungarian always dwells on and cherishes his wrongs, and, like the Irish, never loses an opportunity of putting them forward Irish, prominently. I am certain that summer-house will stand as it is, for every passer to see, till it drops to pieces of itself. During the revolution, the cruelties and pillage that Hungarians
had to endure were often fearful. The Wallack population-a wild
horde-excited by passion and their priests, when once let loose were
not to be restrained. Cowardly by nature, as it was natural the should
be from their servile position for centuries, as sooon
as they got the upper hand and had nothing to fear, they revelled in cruelty. A sudden change seemed to have
come over them. They murdered, plundered, and burnt
indiscriminately. To have arms in their hands, to be the
masters after having so long been the slaves, to have a
certain importance, and, above all, the opportunity to plunder, intoxicated them, and made them mad. I am not
sure if the Wallack is naturally cruel ; I rather think not. He is, in ordinary life, too indolent to take much trouble
to be so. But once aroused,-the devil that is in us once awakened, he becomes another being altogether. Thus, in
the revolution, having once smelt blood, he never lost its scent ; and hunted down his victims with a ferocious
longing for its savour. These men killed for the mere pleasure of killing. They took life, like the King of
Dahomey, for the exquisite excitement it gave. Nor could they have enough. Children, women, old men were
slaughtered indiscriminately. All that could not be carried away was destroyed. Iron was what they cared most to
get ; and this circumstance is characteristic not only of them but of the state of the country, and shows the value
set on an article in common use almost everywhere else. To obtain it, they tore up floors or knocked down walls ;
in short, a house or town where they had been, if not burned, was completely gutted. The dread they inspired was
as great as the sound of the Indian warwhoop would cause in some English settlement. They were daring only
when supported by regular troops, or when they were in overwhelming numbers, or had to do with the helpless.
The horrors you still hear of, which they committed during the revolt are appalling and at Enyed, Abrudbanya and other places, besides country
sions in number, are abundant proofs of their destructiveness. They proved the truth of the poet's words-
One would think that two populations could hardly exist in close connection with each other, after one had received such fearful injury as the Hungarians have done. And yet it is so. The Magyar noble continues to reside in the Wallack town or village, surrounded by the men whose relations, or who themselves gutted his dwelling, set fire to his granaries, and murdered his kindred or retainers. There is no doubt that a patriarchal hospitality is an inherent feature in the character of the Hungarian gentleman. He is so used to exercise it, that he cannot refuse it even to his adversary. I remember once walking out of the courtyard of a mansion belonging to a nobleman who had suffered cruelly during the civil war. His cellars were deluged ankle-deep with the choicest wine, his gardens destroyed, his house pillaged. He had just before been showing me a list of the Hungarians who, in some fearful way or other, had met with unjustifiable treatment at the hands of the wild hordes of Wallacks. The day and place were noted down ; the name and age and sex of the individuals were also given me. It was a black record of what humanity is capable of when un humanized. These atrocities were therefore fresh in my host's memory; yet when, as we passed the gates, a Wallack peasant came, hat in hand, humbly asking for half a quarter of corn for his family, it was given readily, and, I may say, kindly. Nor was it granted in a way which might lead to the supposition that it was only given in order to conciliate, respective of future contingencies. On the contrary, his bearing, though kind, was quite that of a lord to his dependant. Such gifts are continually asked for, and rarely, if ever, refused; although the altered relation of the peasantry to the lord of the manor since the enfranchisement of the soil removes all right to any such claim. On my observing it was strange these people should come for favours to those whom they had so despoiled and ill-used, my Hungarian acquaintance replied: Such requests are of daily occurrence. Directly they are in want of something, they come to ask me for it,maize, barley, straw, whatever it may be. If they have not got it, we cannot, you know, refuse to give to them." In the course of my narration, I shall have occasion to speak of the atrocities inflicted on the Hungarians by the Wallack population during the war. Once I dined with a venerable old gentleman, who told me that his brother had been harnessed by them to a plough, and made to till with a horse as yoke-fellow. Afterwards he was buried alive, head downwards, in a hole. Other prisoners had been buried up to the shoulders in the earth, the head and neck rising above the surface. Then with scythes these were mowed, like so many daisies or blades of grass. Notwithstanding such things, the hate felt by the Hungarian gentleman towards the German population is far more intense, far deeper and implacable than towards the Wallacks.*15_1 , " They knew no better, they are an igno- rant race ; moreover they were hounded on to do as they did by the Government." This is the excuse always put forward if you express your horror at their deeds. Such explanation serves a double purpose. Thus to shift the But the above assertion is one of the hobbies, and a favourite one, of the Hungarian party. The Wallacks were the allies of the Government, just as the population of Spain were the allies of the English, and consequently the foes of those opposed to them. But because the Spaniards often committed as great cruelties on the French soldiers who fell into their hands as the Wallack population on the Hungarian inhabitants, it would be hardly justifiable to make the Duke of Wellington answerable for such acts. And in the American war surely neither party wished their allies, the Red Indians, to scalp or roast their adversaries. It is most regrettable that this notion should be so cherished; for it naturally serves to widen the separation already existing between the Hungarians and Austria. It shows, however, how innate the antipathy must be, how polar the instincts of the two people, thus to make the one party forgive such recent outrage, in order to intensify its hate against the other foe, and to stimulate its longing for vengeance when the expected day of reckoning at last shall come. As regards political and social questions, the Hungarian party has drawn up its own thirty-nine articles, to which all who intend to go with them must first sub scribe. There can be no compromise. Either the whole or nothing. "He who is not with me is against me." Such, if not the proclaimed, is the tacitly recognized principle. Now, one of these articles is, that the Saxons feel inimically towards the Hungarian population. This notion, like certain others, may not be given up, because it is part of a whole. For the same reason, fair inquiry is not made to test its truth; for discovery of its falsity would derange the whole programme already laid down. On this point, however, the Hungarians are consistent they keep to it, as to every other article of their poli tical creed, with an unswerving fidelity, despite any re presentation, assurance, proof. Indeed, the last is not what they want. Proofs on many matters would rather put them out. They have decided that a certain state of things, which they describe, exists. They assume as in controvertible truths, particular views of their own with regard to their grievances,-many undoubtedly real, but many also assumed; their rights, their strength and weakness, the strength and weakness, intentions, opinions, policy of their opponents. In every step taken by Government, the animus, which is invariably shown to be inimical, is affirmed beforehand, and by this assertion all abide. If, in the field, their generals had acted in the same way, then would hardly have attained the successes they did. They did not make their own plan of what the enemy would surely do, but they watched to see what he really did, and manoeuvred accordingly. This system on the part of the Hungarians, so thoroughly wilful as it is, cannot but greatly lessen the high opinion which one might otherwise entertain of them as men of political sagacity. Once launched in a cause, there is no doubt that greater devotedness, fidelity, selfsacrifice, or more daring valour or chivalrous courage, is nowhere to be found than among these men. But they are too self-blinded to be wise politicians. As party leaders, their fiery eloquence and dashing heroism cause them to accomplish much; and the smallest party is powerful, because each member is so staunch. But these are advantages when action has begun. In the faculty of clear-sighted deliberation, in the power to discriminate between the desirable and the attainable, in that wisdom which inclines to compromise rather than to haughty antagonism, where nothing is to be gained by it, the Hungarian party of to-day seems to me wholly wanting. That high degree of self-consciousness, the sense of personality, which will carry the Hungarian through so many active dangers, are the very qualities which are his ruin when he is wanted to reflect calmly on a consecutive course of action. His inordinate "pride,"*15_2 then, makes him magnify his own importance and his own power, and consequently to underrate those of his opponents. He is dazzled, and does not see clearly the objects before him. But enough of this for the present. I shall have occasion later to dwell more at length on the subject. A short distance from Schässburg, a low line of hill borders one side of the road. You discern, on a knoll surrounded by a few trees, a stone monument, erected over the grave of a Russian general, who fell here in 1849, in a battle with the Hungarians under Bem. A strong body of Russian cavalry attacked the Hungarian army in the rear, and forced it to fall back on Schtissburg. In this battle, the great poet of Hungary, Alexander Petöfi, lost his life. His end, however, is involved in mystery. With his brother-combatants, he went, on the morning of the battle, into the fight ; but from that day to this, he was never seen or heard of more. Search was made for his body among the slain, but it could nat be found. Nor could tidings be obtained of him from others Petöfi was a wonderfully productive poet,-a true genius in the best and fullest sense of the word. Poetry and life were one with him. His first works were wild, and without the restraints of self-imposed law ; but soon a longing for something better showed itself, and in his later poems we find the most beautiful pictures of calm happiness. Of his poetry it has been said, "it is not that of Anacreon, nor of Propertius, nor of Petrarch, but possessing somewhat of all three." His grand imagery, his fire and boldness, make him the favourite of his countrymen; and in many a room I found his portrait on the walls, and his works among the last-read books lying upon the table. On my way, I stopped at Kaisd, a German settlement, to pay the clergyman a visit, and to see the ruin of a castle. The village looked less neat than the generality, owing to the brick buildings being not yet plastered and whitewashed; but on going into the houses, the characteristics were the same as elsewhere. It was very agreeable to turn into the "manse," and alighting from my carriage, enter neat fair-sized rooms, with books, prints, flowers, grand piano-forte, and all the appearances of comfortable social life. On the walls were good views of Athens, Rome, Naples. As usual, I received a hearty welcome, and an invitation to remain the night instead of going on, as was my intention, that same afternoon. We first looked at the church, which had been built in 1492, and then started for the ruin. At a pleasant walk's distance rose a hill, where on the summit stood the towers and walls of what had once been a proud stronghold. A large circuit of high wall enclosed the steep; there was a strong outwork on one side, and a massive gateway, which admitted you first into a passage, and then into the large area within the fortress. Perched on its domineering height, it had quite the air of a baronial residence. I asked to what Chief or noble it had belonged. "To neither," said my companion. "We Saxons went away from home to enjoy our liberties, and to be where there were no feudal lords. No, that is a burg of the burgesses : they built it ; here they took refuge in case of attack, with their corn and valuables ; here still the corn is kept, lest, when the families are at work in the fields, fire should break out and destroy it all." One is so accustomed, in Western Europe, to associate our fine old castles with feudal lords, that I not unnaturally supposed there must be the same connection here. But in Transylvania, burg and burgher belong together; and there is another union between them than that of etymology. The peasants themselves built this defiant stronghold, carrying up water, lime, and stone for its erection. A winding road is cut round the hill to enable carriages to reach the top ; for even where we mounted, it is so steep that it is hardly possible to go straight upwards. On the north, the hill falls abruptly down into a deep hollow ; from this side, therefore, the place was impregnable. One of the towers was called the Pfarrer Thurm, another the Schul Thurm (the Pastor's Tower, the School Tower), indicating their purpose. For the population remained up here beleaguered sometimes for months ; and the children were taught, and church service was observed as usual. A well had been dug, three hundred feet deep. It was very lonely in that desolate place; and a solitary sheep wandered about, uttering, from time to time, a melancholy bleat. In one tower, up to which you went by a narrow covered stair be side the wall, dwelt the old keeper and his wife. Luther's room in the Wartburg was very like it. The broad top of one of the towers formed a sort of platform; and here were still some rusty weapons which, when the Turks came into the land, were distributed for use. A kettledrum, covered over, stood there to give signal to the neighbours, in case fire should be seen in the village below. And a huge battered speaking trumpet leant against the wall, the purpose of which probably had been to parley with the besiegers, or to rouse the inhabitants when danger was approaching. In former times, no Wallack was allowed to have his corn in the castle, but since 1848 he is permitted to deposit it there. Yet now even the men may not enter the precincts ; to women and children only admittance is given. This is probably on account of the fear of incendiarism-a means of revenge the Wallack readily resorts to, when opposed in his wishes. The village, or rather market-town of Kaisd, with somewhat less than 2000 inhabitants, possesses 6000 joch of forest for their special use. This is generally, if not always the case. On one fixed day in the week, the inhabitants are allowed to fetch the wood necessary for household purposes,-each having a certain quantity as signed him. Widows are allowed two days in the week, as they, being alone in the world, would not be able in one day to fetch sufficient for their wants. For whoever has horses and carts one day is appointed; for those who have none, another. Among the Saxons there are many such laws, indicative of the thought taken for the poor and helpless. The vintage of a widowed woman begins, for example, the first of all; for if it were deferred, she, poor soul, would get no one to help her. Many a poor man, having no pasture-land, is allowed to drive his cattle on the meadow of another. He is looked on as a fellow-burgher, and treated as such, with a full share of all the privileges. A true democracy exits among them: no man is immensely rich, but no one is very poor, and none are beggars. Indeed, Transylvania, taken altogether, may be said to be the poorest land, as regards money, in the monarchy, although the richest in natural products; but for want of communication and capital to turn those varied gifts of nature to account, nothing is done with them, and the inhabitants are little the better for this accumulation of unused wealth. The talent, hidden in the napkin, lies there profitless. At the death of a parent, it was the custom among the Saxons, that the youngest child should be allowed to "küren," or have the first choice of all the property. He selects the house, for example ; for, being the weakest, it was accorded him as a means of helping one who stood most in need of help.*15_3 When a piece of land was sold, the next neighbour or a near relation of him to whom it belonged had the right to take it at the same price as he had given who last bought it. Thus land was preserved in a family, as the owner, when better off, might re-purchase it, and opportunity be given to a man of small means to advance his fortune by enlarging his estate at moderate cost. Here, as indeed in all the German villages and market towns, were formerly but few Wallacks. Originally they served as herdsmen, and when the season for their services was over they went away again. By degrees one remained, and then more. They formed no part of the community, and had nothing to do with its rights, its privileges, or its possessions. To speak plainly, they were the slaves of the other inhabitants, inasmuch as When once they had got a footing, there was no being rid of them. Populous colonies soon. sprang up around the original solitary hut; and, as an appendage to the German or Hungarian village, a supplementary Wallack settlement of nearly equal size is now everywhere to be seen. ; Where the houses of the German or Hungarian end, there the others begin,-differing from them so much in build, arrangement, and general appearance, that it is impossible to mistake one for the other. The line of demarcation is as distinct as possible. Here a range of roomy, substantial, stone or brick-built houses stand side by side in a long even row. The windows are sufficiently large, and have green blinds before them. A flight of stone steps leads perhaps to the entrance ; or a verandah, as in Hungarian dwellings, forms a sort of large porch in front and on one side of the house. Now comes a succession of unwieldy dwellings. The walls bulge in different places; there is no sharpness in the forms; all indicates a low grade of civilization. The windows are small; the gate, uncouthly painted, is put together with wooden nails ; you probably do not perceive a single thing in which iron has been employed. The whole house is wattled, and when finished is whitewashed over. It is exactly the architecture that a wrecked mariner, or a wanderer in the forest with nothing but his axe, would resort to, were he to build himself a dwelling. In the yard are large bee-hive-looking thatched receptacles for various stores. All that is used is what nature alone furnishes : straw from the field, the willow-branch and osier from the water-side, wood roughly hewn out of the forest. Nothing that art has produced is to be found here. The implements used within, the inhabitants have made themselves in a wonderful primal fashion. Would you ever guess what that frame of coarse logs, held together by plugs, is used for? Well, that is a loom, and in it the wife weaves the thick white woollen stuff in which her husband is clothed. How she manages it is more than I can tell; but she does it. She is an industrious creature, busy always. As she walks home from the forest with a load of wood at her back, the distaff is stuck into her girdle, and she spins the wool she shore the other day from her little flock. In the winter she will be squatting at that marvellous machine of homemake, plying the shuttle steadily. It is she, too, who span the linen shirt her lord wears over his nether garments, and those garments are also of her tailoring. They are not well cut, it is true, and they hang in all sorts of folds, and the sewing, I dare say, is not very regular; but with such uncouth needles and thread who would do it better ? The sandals he has on he made himself, being simply a piece of thick leather, the ends and sides lapped over round the foot, and held fast by a thong of great length that is wound round the leg. The strip of stuff in which the foot is swathed before putting on the sandal is also a bit of homespun shirt or jacket, so that the whole man is encased in home produce and home manufacture. On his head he wears a cap made of the skin of one of his own sheep or lambs. And the bright kratinza which his wife wears, that too -soft as it is and of fine texture, and with well-sorted brilliant colours-was made by her in that incomprehensible primitive machine which they call a loom. It is, moreover, of their own wool, and the broad girdle with its pretty pattern, is her make and design too. She even made the dyes given to the wool; but these were all pro- cured from vegetable substances. For one colour a certain plant was sought that grew among the rocks ; for bright yellow the buds of willows were taken, and so on till each hue and every gradation wanted had been obtained. The carpets woven in some parts of the country by the more skilful among the women are so handsome that they would be prized as an ornament in any London or Paris drawing-room. The taste with which they choose and arrange the colours is admirable, and the designs, always Eastern in character, are also entirely their own. The combination of tints, as well as of forms, in the different patterns is endless ; and this invention seems as easy to them as the execution of the mosaic web. By some chance, or rather mischance, the girls in one village had got a worsted embroidery pattern or two of Western Europe, and as these were new to them they thought them more beautiful than their own. Some table-covers they had made after these had a large wreath of roses in the centre, beautifully done certainly, but not to be compared to the peculiar adjustment of lines and colours which their own fancy suggested, and which bore a decided characteristic stamp. I told them for the future to keep to their own designs, assuring them that they would be more admired than these commonplace patterns. They were surprised at the value I set on the former, and the small admiration their later work called forth. In needle-work they show much skill, and seem to take great pleasure in it. The sleeves and collar of the shift are always embroidered; and the table-cloths and towels hung up for ornament in their rooms have a broad mosaic border of bright red, for the Roumain like the Russian (Slavonic) peasant is fond of adorning his chamber. The Wallacks make also baskets of reeds, which are in general use throughout the province. Simple as they are, they are neat and pretty; and with that taste for arabesques which these people seem to have, some of them are embellished by tasteful open work, giving the common fabrication an air of elegance. They cost about twopence ; and a merchant to whom I showed them in Bavaria ordered a large number, and sold them all in a day or two at a fair profit. But even in executing this little commission, I had evidence of the dilatoriness and imperfection of arrangement which characterize Transylvania. After the order was at last sent off, it was three months on the road, and when it did arrive many of the baskets were gnawed to pieces by the mice. My afternoon and evening were most pleasantly passed. My host had travelled much,-had been in Italy and Sicily, and was moreover an attentive observer of what he saw. Here, too, in Transylvania, he had made many a tour through the woods and valleys, and could tell me much that was interesting. He verified my opinion as to the extreme fertility of the soil. Not even in the South had he seen such luxurious growth as here. In some places near Schassburg the land had not been manured for thirty years, and yet every year maize was sown.*15_4 In the neighbouring vale of the Kokel, near Udvarhely, all vegetation thrives luxuriantly. Trees are to be found not two miles from the. source of the river, 114 feet long, and which at the extremity are one foot in diameter ; others 140 feet in length, and half a foot thick at the top. These trees are eighteen feet in circumference at the base. There are beech, white fir, and pine in abundance, but In all parts of Transylvania the hop grows wild. It is sufficiently good for brewing purposes, though generally other hops are mixed with it. The plant thrives so well here that I wonder no one has thought of cultivating it for exportation. As I made a point of inquiring everywhere what the country around produced, and what the resources which might be turned to good account, it was quite surprising how frequent was the information that such and such things were to be had, but that nobody made use of them. All around here, for instance, was clay fitted for pottery; and a little further on the road to Reps was basalt in plenty, of which excellent millstones might be made, and a sure sale obtained for them in the bordering eastern lands. But both have been allowed to lie where they are unemployed. It is the same everywhere throughout the land. In the evening, the clergyman was kind enough to ask the young wife of a Saxon peasant to come across, that I might see her in bridal array. She wore the dress she had at her wedding, a day or two before. It was bright and pretty. The staid matronly head-gear looked strangely at variance with that childish face. The young thing was but fifteen, and it seemed a farce to treat her as a married woman. She was more like a little school-girl who was mumming on a holiday, and I felt inclined to give her a cake, to pat her on the head and tell her to be a good child. As I had a long journey before me, I started at daybreak the next morning for Reps, where the first halt was to be made. The road is not pretty; the country is bare, r and once only we passed a wood of beech and oak. But cornfields extended on every side. At a turn in the road you suddenly see before you, crowning the ridge on your left, strange, dark, uncouth shapes sticking up into the sky. You cannot but stop to gaze and try to make out the forms. At first it is not easy to discover whether they are rocks or masonry, but at last you see that they are castle walls, which abruptly ending where the line of hills suddenly sink down into a hollow, produce that sharp line which at first so puzzled you. Then, again, wall rises above wall in an oblique line winding round the eminence, swathing it, so to say, in its repeated folds. But it is only from this side and this particular point of view that it has so strangely wild a character. Further on you see the flourishing town, and, as background, the rock with its protecting fastness, and strong gateway, and towers, and bastions and advanced works to guard a weak point. This was another of those burghs built by the Saxon settlers for their protection. The whole is of considerable extent, and must have been of great strength. For besides the steepness of the site, the high walls rising one behind the other at distant intervals would have made it difficult to gain an entrance. Sometimes these rose out of the solid rock, and time having amalgamated all in one harmonious tint, it was not well possible to say where nature ended and where the work of men's hands began. I was not long in going up to the castle, for every ruin has for me an irresistible fascination. Once within the precincts, you wound your way upwards as in the windings of a shell, stopped every now and then by a gateway, or what had been one. And so you went on, leaving a wall behind you and having still another to pass- to escalade it would have been a formidable task what was to be their refuge and their stronghold. And well did they do their work ; the walls even now give evidence of their massive solidity; and the skill with which the parts were distributed, and advantage taken of the inequalities of the ground, show a knowledge no one would look for among peaceful husbandmen. The more I saw of these places, and thought of their origin, the more extraordinary did they appear. For me they were always wonderful memorials. Once when the Tartars were here, and the inhabitants fled for safety to their castle, a woman lagging behind, fell into the hands of the foe. Her husband, peering over the walls, saw her being led away by one of the horde and after gazing at the pair for a time, exclaimed with a sigh, " Alas, poor Tartar!" Text Archive Home | Book Details | Table of Contents |