DWELLERS IN THE FREE FOREST FORCED TO FLEE BEFORE 



THE GERMAN GUNS 



PAUL AYRES. in the New York Globe, tells a most 

 interesting story about the people who for hun- 

 dreds of years inhabited the Free Forest the 

 I'.uschkanters based on facts brought together by W. 

 M. Bocquet and E. Hasten, historians of the region of 

 Dixmude and Ypres. Not only have the people of the 

 lines of Belgium been driven from their homes by the 

 big guns of the relentless Hun, but these people, who for 

 cent ur i e s have lived as freely as the gypsies, have been 

 driven from their ancient stronghold by the fierce bom- 

 bardment of the forest of Houthulst. We quote : 



"The forest of Houthulst, which is called in Flanders 

 the 'Vrybusch' (the 'Free Wood') formerly extended 

 from Ypres to Wynendaele and from Roulers to Dix- 

 mude. The earliest known mention of it is upon a map 

 by Abbe Nicolas de Corbie, which dates from 1096. 

 Reduced in extent from century to century, this forest 

 in 1829 entered into the hands of two private owners, 

 who when they wished to enforce their rights, met with 

 desperate resistance from the Buschkanters. Regular 

 battles were fought in the forest between the public 

 forces and the owners, the victory falling to the former. 

 And so it was necessary to take into consideration the 

 demands of the Buschkanters, to grant them privileges 

 and to admit their right to remain in the forest, which, 

 according to their beliefs, was the rightful property of 

 the poor. 



"The Buschkanters are broom and brush manufactur- 

 ers, wooden shoemakers, and also poachers. The forest of 

 Houthulst is their domain. They reign therein as absolute 

 masters. They are a thick-set race, with dark curly hair 

 and beards, somber eyes under heavy brows, round heads 

 and olive complexions. Thus they have nothing in common 

 with the French type, but appear to be the direct descend- 

 ants of the Mongolians, the most ancient of the races 

 known to have inhabited Belgium. They were there first, 

 and so completely are they still the men of the Stone Age 

 that they continue to use instruments of polished stone 

 dating from past centuries at least they did before 

 the war. 



"In appearance the Buschkanter is like a tramp, al- 

 though his expression is frank and honest. As a rule 

 he wears green or garnet-colored embroidered slippers, 

 dark velvet trousers, braided along the seams, a short 

 vest trimmed with two rows of pearl buttons, a colored 

 neckerchief, and a cap worn well down on the back of 

 his head, leaving uncovered his long, dark curls that 

 glisten with oil. 



"His wife wears a bright-colored skirt and bodice. 

 Neither hat nor bonnet covers her carefully oiled hair. 

 To indicate her love of luxury, gold pendants adorn her 

 ears and breast. On kermis days the Buschkanters come 

 down to the village, where there is much feasting, which 

 ends generally in sanguinary disputes. 



"In the Houthulst forest they live according to their 

 own established laws, regardless of other social rules. 

 The ground on which they erect their huts is theirs by 

 right of conquest. According to tradition, when a clans- 

 man wishes to build his home he seeks a favorable spot 

 in the forest, to which he secretly conveys the tools he 

 requires for its construction, and then he calls together 

 the other members of his clan and informs them of his 

 intentions. If it is found that in a single night the build- 

 ing is far enough advanced for a bundle of brushwood 

 to be burned in the chimney the hut and the ground im- 

 mediately becomes his property. 



"But this was not a very difficult task, for the home 

 of the Buschkanter is little better than a hovel, the frame 

 standing on four wooden piles driven into the ground, 

 while the walls are constructed from the branches of 

 trees, the interstices being filled with straw and dried 

 ferns. Over all is spread a coating of clay which is 

 finally whitewashed. 



"The cabin consists of one room, containing a fire- 

 place, composed of three stones, which form a triangle 

 around a hole in the earth. The floor is of beaten earth, 

 like that of a barn. In the center of the room is the trunk 

 of a tree, on which at meal-time a plank of wood is 

 placed to serve as a table. Chairs are lacking, but there is 

 a meal-tub, and on the wall a poacher's gun. 



"The Buschkanters live on the products of the forest. 

 It furnishes them with an abundance of game and the 

 material they require to carry on their industries. Free 

 of any tax, they cut down the trees, and, with the brooms, 

 brushes and wooden shoes which they manufacture, they 

 go from village to village, from door to door, in quest of 

 purchasers. Thus they travel through Flanders, Wal- 

 lonia and northern France and some even continue into 

 Germany and Russia. 



"With their load of brooms on their backs, their 

 brushes dangling from their necks and belts, the eternal 

 accordion, which never leaves them and which they play 

 in their hours of ease, they wander far and wide, return- 

 ing always to their wives and parents in the forest at 

 Christmas and Easter. From the cities through which 

 they pass they borrow words which their tribesmen 

 finally adopt. Thus their dialect is a mixture of Flemish, 

 Walloon, French, German and Spanish. 



"In the year that immediately preceded the war the 

 Buschkanters had begun to adopt more civilized meth- 

 ods. A brush factory, fitted up with modern machinery, 

 was installed in Houthulst, and a large industry was 

 carried on by the men of the forest. But the war came 

 and drove them from their haunts, scattering them in 

 various directions. The forest itself, the ancient forest 

 of these free men, has been destroyed by cannon. The 

 end of the Buschkanters is in a way the end of ancient 

 Flanders." 



