Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852Various
General
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXV, June, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
The third officer--the brother of the two others--who was a republican,
a philosopher, a philanthropist, a lover of peace, and who had no
ambition, was Napoleon Bonaparte, afterward Emperor of the French, and
King of Italy!
What an eclogue for Bernardin de Saint Pierre--Two Kings and an Emperor!
A PRIMITIVE PEOPLE.
The history of Transylvania is, perhaps, one of the wildest and most
romantic that ever told the story of a nation. It describes a people
perfectly primitive and pastoral, and living under institutions
as patriarchal as those existing at the time of Lot or Abraham.
Transylvania, long annexed to the Austrian monarchy, was in old times
looked upon as the rightful prize of the strong hand; and was, by
turns, seized and plundered by Turks, Austrians, and Hungarians. For
a short time it chose its own princes, who aspired to be kings of
Hungary. Their presumption met with the penalty of utter annihilation.
To understand these peasants properly, the reader may, perhaps, be
allowed to compare them to the Highland clansmen of Scotland at the
same period. Far before any authentic records, a people have dwelt in
Transylvania, who knew nothing beyond the deep valleys in which they
lived; they held no intercourse with the rest of the world, or even
with their neighbors, the other inhabitants of the country; and they
formed as many little separate republics as there were valleys. Each
clan had, and even still has, its chief, who generally fills, also,
the functions of judge and priest. In the morning and the evening they
have public prayers; but, although like their lords, they belong to
the reformed religion, they have no one among them specially intrusted
with the cure of souls. When they marry their daughters, they make
great ceremony and feasting, to which all comers are welcome. On these
occasions, too, they sometimes pay a visit to the lord of the valley,
that he may share in their simple rejoicing; but, at other times, they
are shy of strangers, and few of them wander far beyond their native
place. The agent, or the lord himself, usually visits them once a
year; or, perhaps, more frequently the patriarch of the tribe goes
to the lord and tells him of the number of his cattle, and of their
increase, of what must be sold and what must be kept. Certain of the
peasants leave the depths of their valley toward the end of summer,
and drive their flocks and herds into Wallachia, along the banks of
the mighty Danube. Here are found immense forests; and here, in spite
of winter, the sheep may glean fresh and plentiful pasturage. The
owners of the woods are paid, in return, a certain sum yearly. In the
spring, merchants and cattle-dealers come down from Constantinople, who
buy their sheep and goats; and it is to this sale that the lords of
Transylvania look for the greatest part of their incomes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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