FOREIGN AND mSCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



teigu ml MMimmm lintitrs. 



Rural Life in Hungary.— Messrs. Editors: 

 It was in the beginning of May that I reached a 

 village in the central part of Hungary, lying in 

 the great plain which stretches from the Theiss 

 to the foot of the Carpathians, on the eastern 

 borders. It will be unadvisable, for obvious 

 reasons, for me to give the name of the village 

 more particularly. Suffice it to say it was a 

 town in the very center of the land, entirely in- 

 habited by the Bauer, and with no nobleman 

 owning a foot of ground in the limits. It was 

 quite probable I was one of the first travelers — 

 certain the first American — who had ever en- 

 tered it. It was so far removed from the great 

 routes, that only two or three in the whole 

 population could be found who even spoke 

 German. A better example of a sun pie Hun- 

 garian village could not probably be met with 

 in the land. I bad reached there, as I travel- 

 ed every where in the interior of Hungary, in a 

 private carriage from the last gentleman whom I 

 was visiting. This is the universal custom in the 

 country, and is a part of that generous hospitality 

 which comes so strikingly before the stranger, 

 everywhere in Hungary. It is almost a neces- 

 sary politeness, as the public conveyances are 

 few, and it is not easy for a stranger to hire others. 



I was furished with a letter to the clergjnnen, 

 and though his German was somewhat limited, 

 he received me with the heartiest welcome, and 

 by the aid of mingled Latin, Hungarian, and 

 gestures, we managed to understand each other 

 moderately well. He entered at once heartily 

 into my design of seeing Hungary — even the 

 country life — and in the afternoon took me on a 

 long walk through the village. 



It appears the Bauer here had never been, at 

 least for many hundred years, under feudal ex- 

 actions. Though they were not allowed till 

 1818 to vote for members of the National Par- 

 liament, they had the right to elect their own 

 town-officers" and the only burdens upon them 

 were the duty of military service to the State, 

 and certain light taxes. Under such a system, 

 with their own judges, their o^^^l aldermen, and 

 managing independently the affairs of their town- 

 ship, there had grown up a very sturdy, free 

 population in the village . There were no nobles 

 there — no rich landholders, but there was no 

 poverty and no slavishness. As I walked 

 around among them, they seemed to me like 

 men — free, independent men — moi-e than any 

 population almost I had ever met. 



As I learned afterwards, there are large dis- 

 tricts in various parts of Hungary, where the 

 Bauer have enjoyed such ft-ee institutions. I 

 had heard that this village was famous for its 



andsome men, and I found it did not at all 



its reputation. In every part, in our walk, 



tall, vigorous, well-formed men, whom 



in any other land one would stop to gaze at, 

 though here they are scarcely remarkable. 

 The more I saw of this people here, and also in 

 other parts of Inner Hungary, the more I was 

 struck with the advantages to a nation of a free 

 agricultural life. There was a certain richness 

 and heartiness of feeling, a certain manliness in 

 them, such as one would seldom see in a manu- 

 facturing class. They came before me like the 

 early patriarchs — simple, dignified men, with a 

 courteous hospitality and a poetry too, which 

 we must believe marked those fathers of our 

 race. It was very striking here, in this village, 

 to see middle-aged men with their flowing beards, 

 meeting one another with a kiss. Then the 

 Bauer, wherever we visited, met us with such 

 real courtesy — poured out their best before us, 

 and always insisted on going out even to the 

 last gate, to accompany us. It seems, too, as 

 if their life, on these vast plains, with their 

 herds, so solitary, in the starry nights, and amid 

 such grand scenery — and their pursuits, so often 

 in the free air, had given ihem a wild, poetic 

 turn, which history shows us to have belonged 

 to the early shepherds and farmers on the Chal- 

 dee plains. 



No where did Kossuth's poetic eloquence find 

 such a passionate response as among these farm- 

 ing-peasants of the Hungarian plain. His ap- 

 peals to the great Being who watches over the 

 rights of his creatures, and whom he called the 

 God of Hungary, seemed to them to come 

 from some one almost superhuman. As he 

 spoke of freedom, of brotherhood, of the 

 wrongs of their fatherland, and the disgrace of 

 slavery, they answered with tears and with 

 shouts of enthusiasm. Through the villages of 

 Central Hungary there was scarcely a peasant 

 who could grasp scythe or whip, who did not 

 march out at his call to join the Hungarian 

 array. 



An agricultural population usually strikes one 

 as inferior to a manufacturing in activity of 

 thought ; but this fault does not appear among 

 these farmers of the Hungarian plain. The in- 

 cessant political life and movement, through 

 their whole history, in Hungary, have, beyond 

 anything, educated the people. And one could 

 see that these men had not grown dull or inac- 

 tive at all in their secluded life. 



But especially could you observe the advan- 

 tage of their pursuits in their full, vigorous, 

 manly forms. It was a pleasure to look at men 

 so healthy, and enjoying such a fullness of life, 

 without too the usual sensuality which accom- 

 panies great strength and overflowing health. 



Now that I am speaking of this, I would say 

 that I took considerable pains in Hungary to 

 notice the diet and habits of eating of the peo- 

 ple, as connected with this remarkable vigor of 



