MILITARY CONSTITUTION—CARLSTADT FRONTIER—BANAL FRONTIER—SLAVONIA—BANAT FRONTIER.

The border of the Austrian empire from Povile on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to the Northern frontiers of Dalmatia, and thence through Croatia, Slavonia, the Banat and Transylvania, to Bukowina, has a military constitution peculiar to itself. In this tract, containing nearly a million of inhabitants, the men capable of bearing arms must always hold themselves in readiness to abandon the plough and home, for the purpose of averting the dangers with which they are threatened by rapacious neighbours, or by commodities impregnated with pestilence.

The inhabitant of the frontiers, at once a husbandman and a soldier, holds his lands on condition of taking up arms when required. In Transylvania he is the absolute proprietor of the ground he cultivates: in the Banat, Slavonia and Croatia, he is bound by certain restrictions somewhat like those of the feudal tenures of old, without however being obstructed in the enjoyment of the fruits of his industry.

The perfidy of an individual draws down punishment on himself alone: his family still retains its right to the possession of his lands, and this right also devolves to females when they marry of their own choice, and continue to reside upon them; nay even when there is not a male left in the house capable of bearing arms, still the land is not taken away.

As all the males capable of bearing arms are not called out at once, and every house cannot furnish the number proportioned to the land belonging to it, some other method of equalizing the burdens has been found necessary. To this end a moderate tax is levied upon the land, and from this fund a certain allowance is made to each person while in actual service. Towards the repairing and keeping up of the public works, such as buildings, roads and the like, each inhabitant of the frontiers performs gratuitously a certain quantity of labour proportionate to the extent of his land.

Agriculture and the breeding of cattle are the principal resources of the inhabitants of the frontiers. In order that the most necessary trades may not be wanting, particular places are appointed where the mechanic, artist, tradesman and merchant may exercise their respective professions without being subject to military duty. These places are called military communities, and have regular municipal institutions like other towns.

The rest of the frontier territory is divided into regimental districts, of which seventeen are appropriated to infantry, one to cavalry, and one to the Pontoneers or Watermen. Each regimental district contains on an average from forty to fifty thousand souls. Out of the males fit for service in each district two battalions are formed in time of peace. The house to which each man on duty belongs, furnishes him with food and clothing, and the state with arms and ammunition. In peace his chief occupation consists in protecting the frontiers from the incursions of the Turks, the depredations of banditti, and the introduction of the plague and contraband goods.

These men are stationed in watch-houses partly of masonry and partly elevated on high poles, which are erected along the whole frontier at such moderate distances that one post can alarm and assist the other in case of emergency. This chain of posts is strengthened, when the danger of attack or of infection by the plague becomes more imminent.

CARLSTADT FRONTIER. THE VICE-HARAM-BASSA OF THE SZERESSANS.

Besides the frontier cordon there is in the Carlstadt and Banal frontier a chosen band of clever, trusty, and tried guards called by the ancient appellation of Szeressans. They go according to circumstances either singly or in companies, on foot or on horseback to discover the most secret plans and stratagems of their rapacious Turkish neighbours, which they seldom fail to counteract and frustrate, and are particularly ingenious in the discovery of concealed plunder.

The chief of these Szeressans is styled Haram-Bassa. When fully equipped, he wears a sort of red uniform coat and waistcoat, blue pantaloons, and a sharp-pointed cap of green cloth, turned up with a red and white striped stuff. His arms consist of a musquet, with which he hits his man with never failing certainty at the distance of three hundred paces, a pair of pistols for nearer objects, a Turkish knife and a sword for close quarters; and on busy days there is none of these weapons perhaps but what he employs. In bad weather a wide red mantle with a hood covers both his person and his arms.

The second in command, called Vice-Haram-Bassa, is represented in the annexed plate. He is armed like his superior, but appears here in his ordinary dress. His pipe is his constant companion. His horse, with his red mantle thrown carelessly over the saddle when he dismounts, is his constant companion and grazes by his side. The horse in this country is seldom allowed a feed of oats; grass in summer and hay in winter constitute the whole of his subsistence. But little attention is paid to him in other respects, nay more frequently the horse is teased and ill used by his master; hence he is generally unsteady and shy, and a stranger must use great caution in riding him. These animals are small, hardy, and sure-footed, and are extremely useful for carrying moderate loads over the mountains, and for riding in steep, rugged, and scarcely beaten roads. They have their own pace which the rider must let them pursue, or he is more likely to be dismounted than to make them stir from the spot.

In the mountains of Croatia the horses are seldom employed for draught; and it is at the risk of life or goods that they are harnessed to any vehicle. If, however, by coaxing, this point has been accomplished, and the driver has set them a-going, he cannot answer for their proceeding. Each pulls a different way; the rotten harness, perhaps, botched together at the moment when it is wanted, snaps at the least strain; the drivers, generally as numerous as the horses, are as far from agreeing as the latter. The utmost confusion of course arises on the least accident. The men invoke all the saints and all the devils to their assistance: in the most fortunate event, the vehicle is left behind, but more commonly it is broken to pieces. Whoever, therefore, values a whole skin will do well not to trust himself in this mountainous region to any vehicle without the greatest precaution. On the high road from Carlstadt to Zeng the traveller will find horses trained to draw, but not in the by-roads in the interior of the country.

In their manners and way of life, as well as in their clothing and arms, the people of the frontiers hold an intermediate[Pg 89]
[Pg 90] place between the Oriental and the European. The husbandman goes out armed to his agricultural labours, and with trembling he commits the seed to the bosom of the earth. Unless he keeps constantly on the watch the green corn is either cut down or fed off; and when the farmer has reaped his scanty crop he is frequently obliged to fight his way home with it.

In winter the frontiers are more safe, and the duty of guarding them is less arduous than in summer. The footmarks in the snow betray the retreat of the robber, and there is no friendly thicket to shelter him: he is therefore not very willing to venture forth amid tempests and intense cold for the sake of a precarious and uncertain gain. On the other hand, the inclemency of the weather renders the service of the frontier posts more severe. Nothing but the iron constitutions of these men could withstand the incessant changes of temperature. One day perhaps a furious north or north-east wind brings snow, covers all the roads and freezes every limb: the next an equally tempestuous south-east, produces a thaw and suddenly inundates the country. The houses, slight and unsubstantial, suffer from both, and the roofs and out-buildings are destroyed by the fury of the storm.

Amid these incessant changes, the winter in these elevated regions is unhealthy and destructive. When the storm keeps all inhabitants closely imprisoned in the smoky huts, the frontier-man on duty at his post, frequently receives a visit from a hungry wolf prowling about in quest of prey. Thus engaged in an incessant conflict with a rude nature and savage neighbours, is it surprising that these people should have advanced no farther than a half-civilized state!

UNMARRIED FEMALE OF THE DRAGATHAL.

The features and dress of the unmarried female of the Dragathal belong to Italy; but the Croat and the Wende are here mingled with the Italian. Language, manners, and costume indicate the intermixture of nations between Trieste and Zeng, and exhibit in visible gradations the transition from one to another.

The districts of the regiments of Licca and Ottochacz are intersected by bare, craggy mountains, which form a broken elevated tract not unlike in appearance to the deserts of South Africa. These mountains consist chiefly of chalk, naked and rugged at the top, and bearing lower down a scanty vegetation. The valleys and plains are covered with a thin layer of mould, but are in part as dreary as the mountains which surround them.

The elevated situation, the vicinity of the sea, and the want of wood, expose this country to the fury of the tempests and to all the caprices of the weather. For weeks together bleak north and north-east winds prevail; all at once they change to milder, but equally violent gales from the south and south-east. As the temperature suddenly varies with the change of the wind, from the most intense cold to thaw, or a mild day is succeeded by a frosty night, so also the falls of rain or snow are generally sudden and excessive.

In these parts the cottages must be built low, and the nearly flat roof of boards, fastened with long projecting wooden pins, must be farther secured by very heavy stones—a precaution employed for the same reason among the mountains of Switzerland. The soil must never be lightened for the reception of the seed, otherwise it would scarcely fail to be blown away like dust. The poor, shallow, hard ground therefore can scarcely be expected to produce good crops; and such as it does bear are exposed to other dangers before they attain maturity. Millet, the favourite grain of the husbandman, is frequently cut off by a single frost in the beginning of September.

Under such circumstances, the fruitful and middling years could not make amends for the unfavourable seasons even to an industrious people, and much less to the inhabitants of these frontiers, who are apt to consider labour as not belonging to their vocation. The government is in consequence frequently obliged to step in to their relief, and to save them by abundant supplies from starvation.

Regularity and perseverance are not virtues of these people. Like men in a state of nature they are fond of variety and of extremes. Military service, hunting, the transport of wares on horses, and traffic on the cordon are occupations which they like: domestic and agricultural employments are too tedious and quiet, and these therefore in general fall to the share of the women.

If, however, one of these men goes out at all to the fields, he first chats away some hours by the side of the fire in the middle of the floor; and when he is urged to repair to his work, he coolly replies, that a wise man never leaves his house till the sun is over his fields. He is remiss at every kind of labour; whether he is using the hoe, the axe, the trowel, or the spade, he handles it as though he were afraid of hurting the implement. To him work is worse than severe want. The wife on the other hand is incessantly employed. All the apparel worn by herself, her husband, and her children, is, with some trifling exceptions, her own work. She spins, dyes, and weaves the linen and woollen stuffs for this purpose, and makes them up into garments, besides washing and attending to her house and kitchen. The shoes alone, made of untanned hide, are the work of the man. Hard labour and early marriages cause the women to lose all the charms of youth much sooner than in many other countries.

The character of the country from Trieste to Zara is uniformly the same. The width of the plain, which intervenes between the sea and the range of naked mountains, alone distinguishes the nature of the country in this long tract, and determines the degree of vegetation peculiar to each spot. The Draga of the Fiume is destitute of the majesty of wood, and of the refreshing verdure of extensive pasturages. The olive, the fig-tree and the vine indeed here furnish their valuable fruit, but they confer neither affluence nor the appearance of it.

UNMARRIED FEMALE OF OTTOCHACZ.

The annexed plate represents an unmarried female of Ottochacz. She wears a long open jacket without sleeves, neatly embroidered on the edges, and her hair, carefully plaited in tresses, is covered with a cap of red cloth. The apron universally exhibits a variety of gay colours. Married women are distinguished from virgins by wearing one of these aprons behind as well as before, and a large cloth resembling a mantle over the head and shoulders.

In Upper Croatia, in the county of Warasdin, for example, the dress of the women considerably resembles the above, but is more elegant. On the head is placed a large square of white linen, forming a roll in front, one fold falling over the back and two lying on the shoulders. The margins are adorned with borders of coarse lace two or three inches deep. The vest is of woollen cloth, fitted to the body, without sleeves, and descending below the knees, where it is trimmed with a few coloured stripes, generally red and bordered by fringe or lace. The white shift-sleeves hang large and loose, and are likewise ornamented with coarse lace. The vest is of two kinds, either opening on the sides or before, so as to display the laced front of a bodice held together by clasps, formed of bunches of coloured glass beads. Below the vest about two inches of a white petticoat appear, and below this another petticoat neatly plaited; and beneath all, boots either of black or yellow leather. They likewise wear coarse linen shawls folded round their shoulders and arms.

BANAL FRONTIER.

The districts of the two Banal regiments are situated on the decline of the mountains into the plain. They present a great diversity of ground and scenery. Considerable forests, beautiful valleys, and extensive pastures succeed each other; and notwithstanding the change of country, the character of the inhabitants remains the same.

The indigence and want of activity prevailing among the people of these districts has been ascribed, and not unjustly, to the excessive magnitude of the houses. The village of Boroevich was formerly at least inhabited almost exclusively by the family after which it was named, and there were houses which contained from fifty to one hundred inmates. Such houses furnished many men for the service, but at the same time they were nurseries of discontent and crimes.

Before the division of families was authorized by law, the father of each with his immediate offspring remained in the original habitation. On the marriage of any of his descendants, the new couple built themselves a tenement contiguous and a chamber without a window. Here they slept and deposited what belonged to them exclusively. The father still retained and managed the general property. In his house were the common fire and table for the whole family, no individual being allowed to cook for himself. This separation, however, promoted neither peace nor prosperity: the law therefore interfered and fixed the principles for the partition of too large family-communities. Time will soon show how much the industry and morality of these people have been improved by this measure, without any prejudice to the service.

UNMARRIED FEMALE OF GLINA.

In the annexed representation of a young female of Glina, we again observe the red cap, but of a different form from that shown in the last engraving. In this instance it merely covers the crown of the head, the hair of which is tressed on each side and turned up behind. The tresses are frequently adorned with shells, metal rings, and other trinkets, and the costume in general resembles in cut and fashion that of the upper frontiers.

WOMAN OF DUBITZA.

False tresses, hanging down low and covered with a handkerchief, give a peculiar character to the head-dress of the women in the environs of Dubitza. The apron is fastened on by a belt decorated with coins; the wide, open sleeves of the chemise are neatly bordered with embroidery, and over it is worn a long open jacket.

The river Unna here forms the boundary between the Turkish and Austrian empires. The decayed fortress of Dubitza itself, on the right bank of that river, belongs to the former. Nature has rendered the valley watered by the Unna one of the most fertile and delightful of the abodes of man. The hills gently rise on each bank of the river, which has a strong navigable current, and vegetation finds a rich soil to their very tops. The climate too is mild; but man is the only obstacle to the improvement of these advantages. The Turks and Turkish subjects in this valley have long been reckoned the most pestilent disturbers of the tranquillity of their neighbours. Being eternally at variance among themselves, it is not surprising that they should annoy the inhabitants of the Austrian frontiers.

SLAVONIA.

In many parts of the Banal frontier the country and its inhabitants strongly remind the spectator of the upper regimental districts, but the scene is totally changed on entering Slavonia. These frontiers are marked by great rivers and by sandy and muddy marsh-land. Here the husbandman does not dread the fury of tempests, but the inundation of waters. The genial warmth of a climate more than mild produces a profusion of the finest fruits. The soil supplies man with abundance of corn and wine, and animals[Pg 95]
[Pg 96] with rich herbage. The very forests support besides various species of game hundreds of thousands of monstrous swine, great numbers of which are sent to the capital, and thus contribute not only to the subsistence but to the opulence of the inhabitants. The river Save, which forms the Southern boundary of the country, and facilitates commercial communication, protects the Slavonian from the incursions of his predatory neighbours better than fortifications and sentinels. What nature affords and industry acquires, he therefore enjoys in peace and security. He is in consequence much more civilized and assiduous than his neighbours on the Western frontiers; his dress is neater, his food and implements are superior, his cattle are better treated and better fed; in short every thing about him denotes greater affluence.

For the sake of greater security, and to accelerate civilization, the scattered houses were collected into villages upon the road. The inhabitants now enjoy in peace the benefit of this regulation; and the traveller blesses that power, which commanded the roads to be planted with trees which, while they afford him a refreshing shade from the intense heat, supply the inhabitants with food for the lucrative silk-worm.

Attempts have been made in other parts of Hungary to rear this insect, and with considerable success, owing to the encouragement afforded by government. The greatest yearly produce was in 1801, when the royal silk-establishments yielded about eighteen thousand pounds weight, and those of private individuals about three thousand. By far the greater part comes from the military frontiers.

CLEMENTINIAN WOMEN.

At the beginning of the last century emigrants from Bosnia, calling themselves Clementinians, settled in the villages of Hertkovze and Nikinze in the Peterwardein regiment. Their earlier history and the origin of their name are involved in obscurity: but so much is certain, that their ancestors migrated thither from Albania, and were there converted to the Catholic religion. They differ from their neighbours in language, customs, religious ceremonies, way of life and physiognomy.

The frontispiece to this volume represents females belonging to this tribe. The figure in the middle exhibits a bride in her wedding attire: on her left stands one of her companions in her usual holiday apparel: and both are listening attentively to the instructions of the industrious housewife on the left of the print. From the coronet of feathers which adorn the head of the bride, and reminds us of the natives of Guinea and Mexico, to the neat slipper of fish-skin which covers the foot, all is of native material and workmanship. The women spin, weave, dye, and make all their apparel and personal ornaments with peculiar neatness. They attend with truly commendable assiduity to the household concerns, while the men till the ground. Distinguished by purer morals, and therefore more highly respected, they consider it beneath them to mingle their blood with that of the other inhabitants of the frontiers; but conduct themselves invariably as a peaceable tribe among unsettled and turbulent neighbours.

BANAT FRONTIER.

The sandy surface of that part of the Banat which lies between the Danube and the Lower Nera, is very little elevated above the level of those rivers, by which, when they are swollen, it is in a great measure inundated. In the south-east corner of the German Banat regiment, the loose sand is drifted into moving hills. It has not unfrequently buried fields and houses, and occasioned the gradual desertion of whole villages; but by judicious plantations it is now confined within narrower limits. One of the most fertile of tracts, the granary of the frontiers, is thus enclosed between dry sand and morasses. A motley mixture of settlers, Germans, Hungarians, Slavonians of various tribes, and Walachians, live together in a small district of the German Banat regiment, and mostly retain the language, costume, manners and way of life of their respective ancestors.

PEASANT OF THE BANAT FRONTIER.

The coat and pantaloons of the Walachian, the original native of the country, in his holiday dress, are of white cloth, the ornaments being neatly worked by the women in coloured worsted. In fashion this dress resembles the costume of his progenitors, the ancient Dacians, as delineated on Trajan’s pillar. The head is covered either with a round hat, or the still more ancient sheep-skin cap.

The Walachian styles himself a Roman in his language, which is a medley of corrupt Latin and Illyrian; but it is very rarely that Roman valour can be discovered in him. He dislikes the military profession, and it is very long before he becomes habituated to its hardships: but yet none endures with greater fortitude, sufferings and privations which cannot be avoided. His wants are very moderate. He cheerfully and thoughtlessly consumes what he has as long as it lasts, and afterwards fasts with exemplary resignation. He does not always duly respect the property of others, but cheerfully shares what he possesses with those who need relief.

WOMAN OF THE BANAT.

The Walachian women, like those of Croatia, being obliged to perform the operations of agriculture as well as to attend to the domestic concerns, lose at an early age all traces of beauty. Those of the pleasant valley of Saska, are distinguished by more polished manners, a more healthy look, and superior cleanliness and neatness in dress, from the inhabitants of the plains.

In the mountains contiguous to this valley are coppermines wrought by German settlers, the example of whose industry and consequent comforts has not been wholly lost on their Walachian neighbours.

The head-dress, somewhat resembling a soldier’s cap, and the two aprons, one before and the other behind, distinguish the matron from the unmarried female. In addition to all her other occupations, the wife is obliged to take her infant children with her wherever she goes, whether to her work in the fields, to church, or to visit a neighbour. The infant is laid in a low open box, to which are attached cords, by means of which it is slung over the shoulder of the mother.

If a tree happens to be near, the box is suspended from it by the cords, and the infant swings as in a hammock, while the mother does her work in the fields.

The house, built of wood and earth, affords but scanty room for the family of the Walachian and the young cattle which lodge under the same roof. He was formerly an utter stranger to stables, barns, and granaries. Like the Tartar, when his old situation no longer suited him, he drove his cattle farther, packed up his habitation and his furniture and utensils, and fixed his abode in another place. Pains were long taken to excite in him a taste for more solid and spacious dwellings, in the hope of habituating him to a permanent residence and its advantages; and they have not been unsuccessful. In the upper valley of the Nera and of the Almasch, on the woody hills bordering which the Walachian long roved about for the sake of the pasturage they afforded, are now to be seen regular villages, with houses of masonry, barns and stables.

The cultivation of corn and the breeding of cattle are almost the only resources of their inhabitants. The people of the Almasch, however, pursue another occupation of a peculiar kind, that is, the feeding of snails, which they collect in the woods in spring, keeping them in particular spots in their gardens surrounded with ditches till winter, and then selling them. They are known far and near by the name of Caransebes snails.

Dr. Bright saw at Keszthely a pen for snails, which are in request in Hungary as well as in Germany, as an article of food. This pen was formed by boards two feet high, the upper edge of which was spiked with nails an inch long and half an inch asunder. This barrier the animals never attempt to pass. The snail, the helix pomatia, is in great demand at Vienna, where sacks of them are regularly exposed in the market for sale.