Our Saxon ancestors, four centuries later, made the British Isles echo with the songs in which they chanted the praises of this "War Man," this "Man of Hosts," who was the "Deliverer of Germany." Hermann had not consolidated his people, but he had arrested their conquest and subjugation by the Romans. Many, many centuries were to roll away before his dream of unity was to be realized. What sort of people were these ancient Germans, for whom Hermann hoped so much almost nineteen hundred years ago? They were pagan barbarians, without one gleam of civilization to illumine the twilight of their existence. They had no art, no literature, nor even an alphabet. They were fierce and cruel; but they had simple, uncorrupted hearts. They were brave, truthful, hospitable, romantic, with instincts singularly just, and a passion for the mysterious realities of an unseen world. War and hunting were their pursuits, the family and domestic ties were strong and abiding, and over all else, religion was supreme. Like their Scandinavian kinsmen, they worshiped the gods of their ancient Aryan ancestors in sacred groves; and offered sacrifices, sometimes human, to _Wotan_, and _Donar_, or _Thor_, the Thunderer, for whom they named Thursday, Thorsday, or _Donners-tag_, and in honor of one of their goddesses, _Freyja_, another was called Frei-tag, or Friday. The decrees of fate were read in the flights of birds, or heard in the neighing of wild horses, and then interpreted to the people by priestesses, who, clad in snow-white robes, presided also at the terrible sacrifices. CHAPTER III. During the three centuries after Hermann had arrested the flood of Roman conquest, a civilization of the simplest sort was slowly developing in Germany, where society was divided into the _free_ and the _unfree_ classes. The tribes in the south differed greatly from those in the north. They had no settled homes, nor ownership in land. This was divided among them every year by lot; one-half of the people remaining yearly at home to till the soil, and the other half giving their entire time to the wars which were as perennial as the growing crops of grain. In the north, however, where lived the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon race, conditions very different prevailed. There the lands were bestowed in perpetuity upon the most powerful members of the tribes, and by them handed down to their sons. The unfree class tilled the soil, and were thus the serfs of a ruling class, and only freemen could bear arms. There were no cities in ancient Germany, only villages which were composed of rude huts. A collection of these villages formed a group which was called a _Hundred_. Every Hundred had its chief, who was elected by the people; and the one chosen by the combined will of all these Hundreds was the chief or King of the tribe.