64 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Slavic Long Village. Trebnitz, Prussian Saxony. 



lages; yet August Meitzen, the eminent statistician, has just issued a 

 great four- volume work, in which this has been done with conspicuous 

 success.* It appears that the Slavic peoples in allotting land almost 



always followed 

 either one of two 

 plans. Sometimes 

 they disposed the 

 houses regularly 

 along a single 

 straight street, the 

 church near the 

 center, with small 

 rectangular plots 

 of garden behind 

 each dwelling. 

 Outside this all land was held in common. Such a village was that 

 of Trebnitz, whose ground plan is shown in our first cut on this 

 page. In other cases it was customary to lay out the settlement in 

 a circular form, con- 

 stituting what is 

 known as the Slavic 

 round village. In 

 such case there is 

 but one opening to 

 the common in the 

 center, and the hold- 

 ings in severalty ex- 

 tend outward in tri- 

 angular sectors. Be- 

 yond these, in turn, 

 lie the common pas- 

 ture and woodlands. 

 Our second diagram 

 represents one of 

 these village types. 

 Contrast either of 

 these simple and sys- 

 tematic settlements with the one plotted in our third map. This 

 Germanic village is utterly irregular. The houses face in every 

 direction, and streets and lanes cross and recross in delightfully hop- 

 skotch fashion. Nor is the agrarian organization of this Germanic 



* Siedelung und Agrarwesen der Westgermanen und Ostgermanen, der Kelten, Romer, 

 Finnen und Slawen, Berlin, 1895. Other papers on the same subject are given in our 

 Bibliography. 



Slavic Round Village. Witzeetze, Hanover. 



