Austria: containing a Description of the Manners, Customs, Character and Costumes of the People of that EmpireShoberl, Frederic
History
Austria: containing a Description of the Manners, Customs, Character and Costumes of the People of that Empire
Shoberl, Frederic
Austria -- Social life and customs
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 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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