at once abolished the original penalty above mentioned.
But this relaxation of punishment was so far from being welcome to the
villagers that they presented a petition praying that a more energetic
man might be given them as a magistrate, who would have the courage to
punish according to law and justice, "as had been beforetime." And the
magistrate who abolished incarceration in the pig-sty could never obtain
the respect of the neighborhood. This happened no longer ago than the
beginning of the present century.

But it must not be supposed that the historical piety of the German
peasant extends to anything not immediately connected with himself. He
has the warmest piety toward the old tumble-down house which his
grandfather built, and which nothing will induce him to improve, but
toward the venerable ruins of the old castle that overlooks his village
he has no piety at all, and carries off its stones to make a fence for
his garden, or tears down the gothic carving of the old monastic church,
which is "nothing to him," to mark off a foot-path through his field. It
is the same with historical traditions. The peasant has them fresh in
his memory, so far as they relate to himself. In districts where the
peasantry are unadulterated, you can discern the remnants of the feudal
relations in innumerable customs and phrases, but you will ask in vain
for historical traditions concerning the empire, or even concerning the
particular princely house to which the peasant is subject. He can tell
you what "half people and whole people" mean; in Hesse you will still
hear of "four horses making a whole peasant," or of "four-day and
three-day peasants;" but you will ask in vain about Charlemagne and
Frederic Barbarossa.

Riehl well observes that the feudal system, which made the peasant the
bondman of his lord, was an immense benefit in a country, the greater
part of which had still to be colonized--rescued the peasant from
vagabondage, and laid the foundation of persistency and endurance in
future generations. If a free German peasantry belongs only to modern
times, it is to his ancestor who was a serf, and even, in the earliest
times, a slave, that the peasant owes the foundation of his independence,
namely, his capability of a settled existence--nay, his unreasoning
persistency, which has its important function in the development of the
race.

Perhaps the very worst result of that unreasoning persistency is the
peasant's inv