tlie Austro-Hungarian Empire. 331 



superintending cooking on the large raised hearth, or busying 

 themselves in various kinds of work. The husbands are out at 

 work, the children swarm on all sides. The people sleep out of 

 doors very commonly in the summer, but in winter there must 

 be fearful packing before all the members of this composite 

 household find resting-place. It is very much the custom for 

 the grooms and stock-men to sleep in the stables and byres 

 among their animals, and this of course helps to relieve the 

 houses from the charge of being over-crowded. I saw but little 

 of the dwellers in cellars, but inspected one of those strange 

 habitations at Mezohegyes. It consisted of a low hovel over an 

 excavation in the ground of some five or six feet in depth, in 

 which human beings found a home. 



Wages are paid partly in money and partly in kind. A portion 

 of land is devoted to the labourers under the name of the conven- 

 tion field. There is also a peculiar system of paying labourers 

 with a proportion of the produce they have assisted to cultivate 

 or manipulate. In Vienna, Mr. Shuttleworth informed me that 

 the rate of wage was much the same as in England. At Messrs. 

 Sigl's I found that a good fitter would make 2J^ fl. (5^.) per 

 day by piece-work, and would receive AlS. per day by time 

 wages. A turner will have 7^. to 85., a blacksmith A:S. ; a head 

 blacksmith will make Gi'. to 75., and an unskilled labourer 2s. to 

 28. 6f/. Mr. Topham, an English engineer, who has established 

 works in Berthegasse, Vienna, gave me a similar account of the 

 wages paid in 1873. 



Turning to the country, the first case is that of Schwarzwasser, near Pres- 

 burg, an estate of Count John Palfly's, where I found that payment was made 

 both in money and in kind. Under the former system a man received from 

 Is. 2\d. to Is. lOd. per day in the field, and 2s. 5cZ. to 3s. in the vineyards. 

 When paid partly in money and partly in kind, a shepherd received 4?. 8s. in 

 money, 3"38 bushels of wheat, 33"8 bushels of rye, 3"38 bushels of barley, 

 I5 klafter (6 ft. x 6 ft. x 3 ft.) of wood, ^''^ths acre of land, 30 lbs. of salt, and 

 lodging. 



This would represent the wages of an ordinary shepherd ; but a head 

 shepherd might receive double this amount, or more. 



On Tarnok estate, also near Presburg, a man's wage ranges from Is. 0\d. 

 to Is. lOd, and a woman's from Tic?, to Is. Ohd. Shepherds receive Q>1., 

 61 bushels of wheat, 33'8 bushels of rye, 6J bushels of barley, 3 cord of wood, 

 36 lbs. of salt, ^ths acre of land, the keep of one cow, run out for two sows, and a 

 cottage. A stock-man receives 4?. 12s., 61 bushels of wheat, 33"8 bushels of 

 rye, 61 bushels of barley, 3 cord of fire-wood, 29 lbs. of salt, xoths acre of land, 

 run for one sow, and a cottage. 



On Nyarosd estate, also near Presburg, the labourers are paid in money 

 alone, and shepherds and teamsmen receive their wages partly in kind. A 

 labourer's wage is 10c?. in winter, and Is. 8(/. in summer, and a woman's "Id. 

 to Is. Zd. per day. A shepherd's wage is estimated at from Is. Old. to Is. 3c/. 

 per day throughout the year, and a herdman's at Is. Zd. to Is. 8c/. These 

 figures are exactly confirmed by the report from the neighbouring fann of 

 Vahnosfaln. 



