October 1, 1900.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



99^ 



vcrv similar state of affaii-s for the ancient Germans, 

 a mobile people but lightly attached to the soil. He 

 says : "' Laud proportioned to the number of iuluibi- 

 tants is occupied bv the whole community in turn, 

 and aftenvaids divided among them according to rank. 

 The wide exp.uise of plains makes the partition easy. 

 They till fresh fields every yeaa-, and they have still 

 more land than enough ; with the richness and extent 

 of their soil, they do not laboriously exert themselves 

 in planting orchards, inclosing meadows and watering 

 gardens. Corn is the only produce required from the 

 eai-th.' 



Landed property tends to become more and more 

 permanent. Le Play says that, among the Bashkirs, 

 the arable lands and the prairies where they gather 

 hay are allocated to the families, and they transmit them 

 from generation to generation with definite limitations. 

 However, the right exercised over this property by the 

 family is more restricted than it is for the proprietors 

 of the west, and still leaves a fairly large pajft to the 

 right of the community. If portions of the land con- 

 ceded to the families are not tilled during the space 

 of several years those uncultivated lands revert to the 

 community. 



Landed property in becoming fixed is distributed by 

 families, but not every family is capable of owning 

 landed property. Among the Bashkirs the community 

 gives each family a domain of which the greatest part 

 is usually left fallow, because there is not the necessary 

 aptitude for cultivating it. At the expiration of 

 fifteen years the uncultivated land is reabsorbed by the 

 community. The majority of the Bashkirs of Mochmet 

 are in this case — they eliminate landed property from 

 themselves, only the more provident remain proprietors. 

 Thus there is a natural selection. 



This return of unutilised landed property guarantees 

 the possession of the soil to those who can cultivate 

 it. The land cannot be alienated or mortgaged. Often 

 even capable cultivators might be tempted to realise 

 on land in order to pay numerous small debts, as 

 happened when the serfs were suddenly put in jDossession 

 of land in Russia and Hungary. On this occasion the 

 majority of freed serfs were incapable of retaining it, 

 and so a great deal of land fell into the hands of the 

 Jews. 



A distinction must be drawn between projjerty in 

 land and the property of the home. Landed proprietors 

 comprise the more provident individuals, the best trained 

 to work, to economy, to the position of masters. It is 

 the race of true small farmers, the men of the country, 

 strongly attached to the land, and who form the solid 

 foundation of society. The proprietors of homes and 

 their immediate dependencies with garden and orchard 

 comprise the less provident individuals only capable of 

 owning a property corresponding to their daily needs. 



The Family. — Cultivation of the soil does not necessi- 

 tate any essential modification of the organisation of 

 the patriarchal family, and it maintains the moral effects 

 of this fonii of family, the spirit of tradition pushed 

 to routine, respect for pastoral authority, the pre- 

 eminence of the old men, and social stability or rather 

 immobility. 



Certain functions, however, are henceforth fulfilled 

 by agents outside the family; these are (1) religion, (2) 

 the intellectual training, (3) government. In the isola^ 

 ticn of the nomadic life these three functions were, like 

 all the others, fulfilled by the patriarch. But these three 

 functions are not essential to the paternal authority, 



thoy can be removed without diminishing anything of 

 the essentiid function of a father, which is the govern- 

 ment of the family. 



The Bashkirs ai'c Musulmen, and the Mullah of 

 !Mochmct performs in the mosque the ceremonies of his 

 religion that relate to the birth, life, and death of his 

 Hock and to the sacred days of Islamisni. He also acts 

 as advisei-, arbitrator, and often as judge. He teaches 

 the young of both sexes, he even i-enders aid in sickness. 



Government. — As to government, three causes con- 

 tribute to lessen the paternal authority: — - 



1. The necessity of administrating and allocating the 

 communal ground. This necessity docs not exist in the 

 steppe, for grass requires no administration, but in 

 settled communities the land has to be partitioned out. 

 The distribution of land is made by the assembly of 

 the inhabitants, presided over by the Vuibcrni, a sort 

 of mayor of the commune. The Vuibcrni is, after the 

 Mullah, the richest person in Mochmet : he has four 

 wives, and possesses six mai-es and four cows. 



2. The obligation to constinict and maintain the neces- 

 sary buildings for religion and instniction. This is 

 another consequence of a settled condition of life, and 

 requires the combined action of all the families of the 

 community, and it imislies the payment of the instructor. 



3. The necessity to provide for the public peace. As 

 families congregate in a limited ajfca misunderstandings 

 arise, and disputes have to be settled by the intervention 

 of a superior authority. Further, the neighbourhood 

 of nomads is a source of perpetual conflicts — all border 

 countries between steppes and cultivated land develop 

 a race of nomad robbers. Each family cannot defend 

 itself against the raiders, hence a public force has to 

 be constituted, which is supported by a levy, according 

 to circumstances, of recruits, horses, or money. A 

 simple form of government regulates the public affairs 

 of the community. 



Although the soil is allocated by the Vuibcrni the 

 communal forests are under the charge of a Russian 

 official. In Switzerland the forests of each canton are 

 inspected by federal officers, the same obtains in France, 

 otherwise the forests, which really are the accumulated 

 wealth of the community, would fall a prey to the im- 

 provident. 



Thus the law of property varies according to the 

 nature of the chattels. The land may belong to every- 

 body, cultivated laud to provident families, the manage- 

 ment of forests only to the most capable or to a stable 

 government. 



A study of even a small people may thus illustrate 

 the social transformation due to the sole cause of a 

 substitution of cultivation for pastoral life. 



Work becomes hard and exercises restraints. Pro- 

 perty is restricted and is possessed by the most provident 

 families. The family is shorn of some of its functions. 

 Special representatives of religion and education are 

 elected. Government arises. 



What has produced these great changes? Is it 



intense cultivation made over large areas? No; ib is 



the most rudimentary of all cultivation — a simple 



gardening; the growing of a few potatoes, turnips, 



carrots, and onions ! 



« 



ASTRONOMY WITHOUT A TELESCOPE. 



By E. Walter Maunder, f.r.a.s. 



IX.— AURORA. 



It is an old saying, of the truth of which we are often 



