Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 52.djvu/77

Rh village by any means simple. Divided into small plots or "hides," so called, a certain number of each kind are, or were once, assigned by lot in rotation to the heads of households. These "hides" were scattered all about the village, so that a peasant might be cultivating twenty or more parcels of land at one time. The organization was highly complex, including ordinances as to the kind of crops to be raised, and other similar matters of detail. We shall not attempt even to outline such a "Hufenverfasiung"; for us it must suffice to note the complexity of the type, as opposed to the Slavic form.

Our map, close at hand, shows the geographical distribution of these several village types. The circumscribed area of the original Germanic settlements is rather remarkable. It shows how far the Slavs penetrated in number sufficient thus to transform the landscape. It will be observed that on this map the small squares and triangles denote the areas into which the German tribes transplanted their peculiar institutions. That they were temporarily held in check by the Romans appears from the correspondence between the Roman wall, shown by a heavy black line on the map, and the southern boundary of the Germanic villages. Of course, when they spread abroad, a considerable change in the agrarian organization was induced by the fact that the emigrants went as a conquering class. The institutions became less democratic, rather approaching the feudal or manorial type; but they all preserved sufficient peculiarities to manifest their origin. Such hybrid village types, covering all northern France and eastern England, are as good proof of Teutonization as we could ask.

It will be observed that all the village types we have so far illustrated are closely concentrated and compact. A remarkably sudden change in this respect takes place west of the original Germanic