A CORNER OF OLD WURTTEMBERG 939 
each other, and are scattered in long 
rows on each side of the road running 
through them. Such villages are known 
as “reihen dorfer” (row villages), and 
are of much later date than the “ingens” 
and ‘“‘heims,” being attributed to the 11th 
century, before which time the Black 
Forest region had been practically unin- 
habited except for the ‘“‘weilers” on its 
borders. The “reihen doérfer” do not 
appear to possess any specific endings, 
although “hardt’ (wood) is a very com-_ 
mon one, as Langenhardt, Ebershardt. 
CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSES 
The typical house, though subject to 
many variations, in the closed village and 
more particularly in the towns, which 
were originally fortified, and in which 
space was therefore limited, is lofty, five 
or six stories high, built with massive 
wooden uprights and beams, the inter- 
stices forming the walls being filled with 
rubble and plaster. The house is built, 
therefore, upon what may be called a 
vertebrate plan, and foreshadows the 
epoch of skyscrapers, which are essen- 
tially similar in design, but in which steel 
replaces the wood of former days as the 
skeleton which supports the structure. 
The steep, tiled roofs slope down over 
the three upper stories, so that they are 
all practically attics. The ground floor 
is generally used as a stable and cow- 
shed, the fenceless system of farming 
precluding the pasturing of cattle and 
sheep, which have to be stall-fed. The 
next two stories are occupied by the 
family, and the upper three stories form- 
ing the attic are devoted to storage of 
hay and grain, hauled up by pulleys 
and ropes. All agricultural produce is 
brought into the village or town instead 
of being stacked outside in the fields, a 
custom which may be attributed to the 
insecurity of early times, and has been 
perpetuated, although today there is no 
especial need for it. 
The town of Calw is the best spot in 
the Nagold Thal for a study of, these 
quaint, lofty wood and plaster houses. 
some of them dating back to the 17th 
century, and the village Geckingen, a 
visit to which should not be omitted, has 
some beautiful examples. 
The typical house in the “reihen dor- 
fer,’ on the west side of the Nagold. is 
not so lofty, and the walls are usually 
faced with shingles, as is the custom in 
Switzerland. Since the houses are much 
further apart than in the closed villages, 
there is not the same reason for econo- 
mizing space, and the barns and stables 
are usually separate from the house. 
RELIGIOUS SEGREGATION IN THE 
TOWNS 
In histories we read that Wirttemberg 
has a population of two millions, of 
whom two-thirds are Protestant and one- 
third Catholic; but a bald statement of 
this sort gives one no idea of the real 
distribution of religious belief, which to 
one coming fresh to the subject appears 
to be of a most extraordinary character. 
Leaving out of consideration the larger 
towns, which are mainly Protestant, but 
naturally show considerable intermin- 
gling of religions, we find that the small 
towns and villages are either overwhelm- 
ingly Catholic or overwhelmingly Pro- 
testant, 95 to 99 per cent on one side 
or the other, and on following up the 
boundaries between old and new Wirt- 
temberg it becomes clear that the Protest- 
ant villages are in old and the Catholic 
in new Wurttemberg. 
So sharply defined are the dividing 
lines that one may, in many places, walk 
from one village 99 per cent Protestant 
to another two or three miles off and 
find 99 per cent Catholics. The sketch- 
map shows the boundary line of Old 
Wurttemberg, just south of Nagold, with 
the names of the gemeinde and the num- 
ber of Protestants (evangelicals) and 
Catholics in each. 
For an explanation of the astonishing 
figures given in the map, one has to go 
back to the time of the Reformation, in 
the 16th century, when the religion of the 
people had to conform to that of their 
rulers. If the ruler remained Catholic 
he burnt all his Protestant subjects, and 
if he embraced the new tenets he burnt 
all the Catholics. As a matter of fact, 
