238 GERMANY. 



The proininciation is far less distinct tban in Northern Germany. The transition 

 from Bavarian to Swabian is very abrupt, but in the north the change takes place 

 gradually, and the patois spoken near the frontier does not much differ from High 

 German. 



Education is progressing, but of all the countries of Germany Bavaria is 

 the most backward in that respect. Old customs maintain their ground more 

 firmly than elsewhere, for the population is almost wholly agricultural, nearly six- 

 sevenths of the inhabitants living in villages or isolated homesteads. The 

 Bavarian is a stay-at-home, he travels little, and furnishes but a small contingent 

 to the host of emigrants who annually leave Germany.* Commerce and industry 

 are not sufficiently developed to attract immigrants, and the number of populous 

 towns is small. 



About three-fourths of the inhabitants are Roman Catholics. Protestants are 

 numerous in the district extending from Niirnberg to the Swabian plateau, and 

 many Jews have established themselves amongst them. In districts like that 

 around Nordlingen Catholics and Protestants can frequently be distinguished by 

 their dress, the former preferring bright, the latter sombre colours. A Catholic 

 will thus ornament his hat with a yellow or green ribbon, whilst a Protestant is 

 content to wear a black one. Tlie decorations of the houses in the Bavarian 

 highlands recall the fact of our being in a strictly Catholic country. A small 

 basin with holy water is fastened near the door ; a crucifix occupies a sort of 

 household altar ; the initials of the names of the Three Holy Kings — C '-p M "t* B 

 — are written upon the wall ; and a paper dove, representing the Holy Ghost, is 

 suspended from the ceiling. 



The old Passion Plays still survive in the Swabian and Alemannic districts of 

 Bavaria. In the village of Ober-Ammergau, close to the Tyrol, these " mysteries " 

 are performed once every ten years, more than four hundred actors taking part in 

 them. The young man who plays the character of Christ is exempted from military 

 service, so that nothing may interfere with his " study." The other actors, too, 

 identify themselves with their parts, and the entire performance impresses by its 

 realism. The villagers of the whole of Upper Bavaria are very fond of theatricals, 

 and until quite recently they not only performed religious mysteries, but also 

 mediaeval secular pieces and pantomimes, and even modern dramas adapted by 

 some local poet. Government, instead of encouraging these dramatic representa- 

 tions, set its face against them, and the priests in many villages confiscated the 

 theatrical properties, and burnt them as " accursed objects." 



Towns. 



WuRTTEMBERG. — There are several towns in the upper valley of the Danube 

 which belong to Wiirttemberg, and not to Bavaria. Tuttlingen (7,231 inhabitants) 

 rises on the Danube, where that river is a mere rivulet, but several important 



* Birthplaces of tho inhabitants (187-5) :— Bavaria, 4,906,000, ur 97-7 per cent.; other parts of 

 Germany. 0S,000, or l'a per cent. ; foreign countries, 53,000. 



