THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



65 



a 



sung " ; 



Germanic Village. Geusa, Prussian Saxony. 



village by any means simple. Divided into small plots or " hides," 

 so called, a certain number of each kind are, or were once, assigned 

 by lot in rotation to the heads of households. These " hides " were 

 scattered all about the village, so that a peasant might be cultivating 

 twenty or more 

 parcels of land at 

 one time. The or- 

 ganization was 

 highly complex, 

 including o r d i - 

 nances as to the 

 kind of crops to be 

 raised, and other 

 similar matters of 

 detail. We shall 

 not attempt even 

 to outline such 



" Huf enverf as- 

 for us it 

 must suffice to 

 note the complex- 

 ity of the type, as opposed to the Slavic form. 



Our map, close at hand, shows the geographical distribution of 

 these several village types. The circumscribed area of the original 

 Germanic settlements is rather remarkable. It shows how far the 

 Slavs penetrated in number sufficient thus to transform the land- 

 scape. It will be observed that on this map the small squares and 

 triangles denote the areas into which the German tribes transplanted 

 their peculiar institutions. That they were temporarily held in 

 check by the Romans appears from the correspondence between the 

 Roman wall, shown by a heavy black line on the map, and the 

 southern boundary of the Germanic villages. Of course, when 

 they spread abroad, a considerable change in the agrarian organiza- 

 tion was induced by the fact that the emigrants went as a conquer- 

 ing class. The institutions became less democratic, rather approach- 

 ing the feudal or manorial type; but they all preserved sufficient 

 peculiarities to manifest their origin. Such hybrid village types, 

 covering all northern France and eastern England, are as good 

 proof of Teutonization as we could ask.* 



It will be observed that all the village types we have so far il- 

 lustrated are closely concentrated and compact. A remarkably sud- 

 den change in this respect takes place west of the original Germanic 



* Vide map in Meitzen's Atlas to volume iii of his great work, Anlage 66a. 

 vol. lii. — 6 



