le also lived in circumstances which
seemed pitiable to the King's officers, especially on the borders of
Pomerania, where the Wendish Cassubians dwelt. Whoever approached a
village there saw gray huts with ragged thatch on a bare plain without
a tree, without a garden--only the wild cherry-trees were indigenous.
The houses were built of poles daubed with clay. The entrance door
opened into a room with a great fireplace and no chimney; heating
stoves were unknown. Seldom was a candle lighted, only pineknots
brightened the darkness of the long winter evenings. The chief article
of the wretched furniture was a crucifix with a holy water basin
below. The filthy and uncouth people lived on rye porridge, often on
herbs which they cooked like cabbage in a soup, on herrings, and on
brandy, to which women as well as men were addicted. Bread was baked
only by the richest. Many had never in their lives tasted such a
delicacy; few villages had an oven. If the people ever kept bees they
sold the honey to the city dwellers, they also trafficked in carved
spoons and stolen bark; in exchange for these they got at the fairs
their coarse blue cloth coats, black fur caps, and bright red
kerchiefs for the women. Looms were rare and spinning-wheels were
unknown. The Prussians heard there no popular songs, no dances, no
music--pleasures which even the most wretched Pole does not give up;
stupid and clumsy, the people drank their wretched brandy, fought, and
fell into the corners. And the country nobility were hardly different
from the peasants; they drove their own primitive plows and clattered
about in wooden shoes on the earthen floors of their cottages. It was
difficult even for the King of Prussia to help these people. Only the
potato spread quickly; but for a long time the fruit-trees which had
been planted by order were destroyed by the people, and all other
attempts at promoting agriculture met with opposition.

Just as poverty-stricken and ruined were the border districts with a
Polish population. But the Polish peasant in all his poverty and
disorder at least kept the greater vivacity of his race. Even on the
estates of the higher nobility, of the starosts, and of the crown, all
the farm buildings were dilapidated and useless. Any one who wished to
send a letter must employ a special messenger, for there was no post
in the country. To be sure, no need was felt of one in the villages,
for most of the nobility knew no more of reading