JJ792. Kfitiquities in Scatlancl.i 209 



power of any individual to render his own place o£ 

 residence sufficiently strong to resist the attacks o£ 

 any invading power ; and, therefore, it would become 

 the interest of the whole community to, fortify, in 

 the best fafliion they could, some places of strength. 

 to which the whole community could retire for- 

 safety, in times of danger. So long as they con- 

 tinued to migrate from one ^region to another, in. 

 hordes, this place of strength would be only a tern- 

 pprary fortification, of the nature of a camp ; and this 

 seems to have beea the stage to which the Germans, 

 had arrived in the time of Tacitus. But in a more 

 barren country, .where .grain qould only be jaised- 

 with ease on those spots which had been already 

 coiltivated, and in a state of society somewhat more 

 advanced in civilization, when some idea of private 

 property -began to take place, the mian who, at a 

 great deal. of trouble^ -had cleared a small spot for, 

 himself, and. erected an habitation that could stand 

 for more than one season, would look out for a place, 

 of strength not far from himself, to which he could- 

 retise- occasionally in cases of danger, which he would 

 fortify in a durable and substantial manner.. In this- 

 stage of. society, have, in all probability, these viLri-: 

 fied fortifications been reared, which served, not as- 

 a place of continued residence to. any one, but mere-. 

 ]y as a place of temporary retreat, when any na- 

 tional danger threatened which individuals, were not 

 able to repel. 



But when, at an after period, honours and fiefs 

 became hereditary, when particular families waxed 

 great in power, and each chieftan, at tl>e head of his 

 clan, became a sort of petty sovereign in his own dis-. 

 VOL. X. D D f 



