in this hospitality
given to the shooters. Not only were they frequently provided with
drink on the shooting-ground during the shooting-hours, and refreshed
by a collation, but they were at least once, and generally oftener,
entertained in the city, sometimes daily, by the councillors; besides
this, there were evening dances, in which the daughters of the most
distinguished families partook. These hospitalities to the guests, in
the fifteenth century, though very hearty, were also very simple; but
at a later period they became sometimes profuse, and when such a
festival lasted a fortnight, or, as at Strasburg, as much as five
weeks, they must have been very expensive to the givers of the feast;
more than once did critical chroniclers complain of the immoderate
demands on their city coffers. Loud reproaches were made even at
Strasburg, and it was reported of the Loewenbergers, after their
bird-shooting in 1615, that the city had exerted itself far beyond its
powers; for all had been very costly and splendid. In the fifteenth
century, they knew better how to calculate. The great cross-bow
shooting at Augsburg, in 1470, cost the city more than 2200 gulden, a
high sum according to the then value of corn; and yet the influx of
strangers was so great that the Augsburgers afterwards said they had
suffered no loss. But, indeed, the entertainment of the 466 stranger
guests was very simple.

The number of marksmen at the earlier cross-bow shootings was not
large. At Augsburg, in 1425, there were only 130; in 1434, 300; and in
1470, 466. After fire-arms had been introduced, at the great country
meetings, the number of marksmen was double. Thus, in 1485, at St.
Gallen, there were collected 208 cross-bows and 445 guns; and in 1508,
at Augsburg, there were 544 cross-bows and 919 guns. According to the
old arrangements of the shooting, this large number of men protracted
the festival to a great length; consequently, in the sixteenth century,
we find efforts sometimes made to limit the number of invitations, but
to increase the deposits of the shooters; and it appears that a
festival, with from 200 to 300 shooting-guests, was considered most
agreeable; in that case it lasted a week; the individual became of more
importance, and the body of men was easier to guide. Even with a
moderate number of marksmen, the concourse of strangers was
incomparably greater than it would be now. Each marksman was
accompanied by a lad, who waited upon h