with reverent affection, believing in him, trusting him as a superior, but in that hour he knew that he had come to man's estate, and that his uncle, notwithstanding all his dignity and power of self-restraint, had not possessed that root in himself which is the essential element of strength, and which Romish, and above all, monastic training is always trying to eradicate.* and despise me as a traitor to the cause ! you hold so dear. Ah, you are your father's own son. He never seemed to know, even when a child, what it was to feel hatred or resentment for any injury. O, my God! and I suffered myself to be enticed away from my home, and forsook him and my parents, for what?" And poor Father Francis, the very fountains of whose long repressed nature were broken up, gave way to a new passion of grief, and clung to his nephew's embrace and judgment, (that is, to one's superiors,) for the moment, as self-abandoned and is the essential perfection of a religious life." helpless as a child. For a minute Lau- St. Francis and the Franciscans, page 172. rent felt and felt with a keen pang-We must say that as far as renunciation of that he himself was the stronger of the judgment goes, we have never met with a He had looked up to his guardian the very Reverend Pamfilo. writer who attained greater perfection than two. *Utter renunciation of one's own will THE THE LAKE DWELLINGS OF SWITZERLAND. BY TRYON EDWARDS, D. D. HE more thoroughly the surface of our globe is explored, the more the wonders of the past come up to our view. The uncovering of Pompeii, the excavations at Nineveh, the researches of Stephens in Central America, and more recently, the accounts given by Porter of the giant cities of Bashan, each unfolds a story of deep interest, and full of instruction. As the Pyramids of Egypt speak of a nation that was magnificent in splendor, and knowledge, and power, | even before the days of Abraham, so these and similar discoveries tell us of the numbers, and arts, and social life of generations that have long since passed away, and of whom we should have had no knowledge but for these mute and yet eloquent relics of their past existence and history. The "Lake dwellings of Switzerland" are among the wonders of modern discovery. The existence of such dwellings in the past was, indeed, known to classical students. Herodotus tells us of settlements of this kind on Lake Prasias, or Bolbe, (the modern Takhyno,) where, he says, "men lived on platforms, supported on tall piles, standing in the middle of the lake, and approached from the land by a single narrow bridge." *** "Each," he adds, "has his own hut, with each a trap-door giving access to the lake beneath, and they tie their very small children by the foot with a string, to keep them from falling into the water. They feed their horses and other beasts upon fish, which are so abundant in the lake that they have only to open the trapdoor and let down a basket by a rope into the water, when in a little while it may be drawn up full of fishes." And sceptical though we may be, as to the material for feeding of horses, etc., the other parts of the account are doubtless reliable. Dr. B. F. Keller, in his "Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe," translated and arranged by J. E. Lee, F. S. A., and published by the Longmans in London, has given us full accounts of this class of dwellings in Europe, some of them constructed far back in the ages of antiquity, (he sup poses thousands of years ago,) and some of more modern origin. The details, both as to the structures and their inhabitants, are minute and wonderful, and the quantity of materials for the narrative is astonishing, between 3,000 and 4,000 relics having been found on the eastern shore of the Uberlinger Sea alone. From the statements in Dr. Keller's work, and in one or two reviews of it, we propose to condense some account of these Lake Dwellings, which it is hoped may be interesting and instructive, making free use of the materials, and even of the language of others, for the benefit of our readers, who may not have had access to these works.* These dwellings in the lakes of Switzerland are of two kinds; those resting on piles, and those supported on fascines, or large bundles of rods and poles. In the first case, which is much the most common, piles, consisting generally of whole trunks of trees, such as oak, birch, fir, willow, etc., but sometimes of split stems sharpened either by fire or by crude instruments of bronze or stone, were driven into the shallow parts of the lakes, and on these platforms were laid, on which the huts of the people were built. These platforms were for the most part of the rudest kind, consisting of layers of unbarked stems, though occasionally, as in one of the Italian lakedwellings, they were composed of boards split out of the trunks of trees, and joined with something like care and accuracy. In some cases, the piles were strengthened by stones thrown down between them. In the case of the fascine dwellings, which belong to the earliest age, and are found chiefly in the smaller lakes, the erections consisted of layers or bundles of sticks, or small stems of trees, piled up on each other, from the bottom of the lake to above high water-mark; and on these the platforms for the huts were laid. These are said very much to resemble the crannoges, or "wooden islands," that have been found both in Scotland and Ireland. * See Dr. Keller's work, and comments of Mr. Lee: temporary Review for 1867. with the notes also, the Co When the platform was completed, a bed of mud, loam and gravel was laid upon it, and then beaten down firmly, either by the feet or by wooden mallets, several of which have been found in the vicinity; and sometimes layers of larger pebbles are found near the top, probably to give strength and compactness to this kind of floor. The frame-work of the huts was made of small piles or stakes, between which boards were forced in, forming the "skirting boards" of the dwelling; and the rest of the walls consisted of wattle-work, covered inside and out with loam or clay, to the thickness of two or three inches. The huts, so far as discovered, were in all cases rectangular, though huts of the same age and of kindred races, when built on land, were usually circular in shape. In size they vary from twelve by twenty, to twenty-two by twenty-seven feet, and in some cases much larger. Sometimes they are in groups of five or six standing closely together, while sometimes there is a space of two or three feet between them. They were thatched with straw, reeds, and the bark of trees. In addition to the huts for families, there were also on the platforms, stalls for cattle, and places for fodder and winter stores. Every hut had its hearth, near the centre, consisting of three or four slabs of stone; and from the clay weights for weaving, found in them, it is supposed that most, if not all of them, were furnished with looms. Portions of young trees, with the branches partly lopped off, are not uncommon in these dwellings, used apparently for the suspension of mats, tools, nets, and earthenware vessels, some of which seem to have had handles of rope or bark. The platforms are generally at some distance from the edge of the lake, and when near the main land, were approached by a narrow wooden bridge. Some of them were fortified by palisades. The platforms are built much further into the lake in the later than in the earlier periods; and the huts are always on the side away from the land. As security against enemies was, doubtless, the reason for making and using such dwellings, those that were thatched were placed as far as possible from the danger of burning missiles. And the fact that the bones of the wild swan, which comes to the Swiss lakes only in December and January, have been found among other relics, shows that they were occupied all the year round; differing in this respect from the Irish crannoges, which were used only as places of refuge in times of danger. The number of the lake dwellings in various localities must have been very great. In Lake Neuchâtel alone, Dr. Keller mentions no less than fifty stations. These vary much in size and extent; from the eastern settlement of Moosseedorf, which covers only fifty-five by seventy feet to the twenty-three acres of Sipplegen. The quantity of piles used was enormous. At Robenhausen alone, it is estimated that there must have been at least a hundred thousand. The lake dwellings are of various dates, which, for convenience sake, may be divided into the earlier, middle and later, or as some have named them, those of the stone, the bronze, and the iron ages, respectively. Not that there is any definite and sharp line of demarcation between these periods, but like geological strata, though they are plainly different, they gradually and almost insensibly melt into each other. The settlements in Eastern Switzerland were the earliest, and for the most part, ceased to exist before the second, or bronze period, or at its very beginning; while those in the western part, though beginning in the earliest age, did not reach their full development till the second period. Centuries evidently elapsed between the earliest and the latest of these settlements. In some cases, as at Nidau Steinberg, the erections were going on, and the dwellings were occupied through all the periods. Some of the settlements seem to have been voluntarily abandoned; in some cases they were evidently destroyed by fire. In Bienne and Neuchâtel they appear to have been in use longer than any where else, not being abandoned till after the Romans occupied the country, while the Irish crannoges were more or less used as late as the seventeenth century. The inquiry has been raised, "What was the degree of civilization possessed by the occupants of the earlier lake dwellings?" And fortunately for our curiosity, there are ample materials for replying to the question. The men of the earliest age were both agriculturists and keepers of cattle; they sowed wheat, and millet, and the two-rowed barley, which is still cultivated in the East; nearly one hundred bushels of grain, of various kinds, were found in a single place. All the crops seem to have been spring crops, and the tilling of the ground was of the simplest kind, consisting in tearing it up by the most crude and inefficient tools, such for instance as stag's horns, or the crooked branches of trees. They also extensively cultivated what is known as the short flax; though no traces of hemp have been found in their dwellings. Corn was sometimes ground for food, the stones used for that purpose being frequently found in their abodes; while, in other cases, it was crushed and roasted, being made into small cakes which were baked on hot stoves covered with glowing embers. Barley was used in the same way, while wheat and millet were both ground and crushed. Corn was also used for porridge; and some remains of this mixture are believed to have been found in pipkins, which fell into the lake at Meilen when the settlement was burned. This ancient people, however, were not only agriculturists, but cattle-keepers. They had cows, sheep, pigs and goats. The dog, too, was then as now, the companion and servant of the shepherds and herdsmen. And cats, says our author, "purred by the hearth, and killed rats and mice, while their kittens played with balls of string, just as if they belonged to the nineteenth century.' Remains of the horse have been found in most settlements; and they also had cows of a small species, the original stock, probably, of the brown cow, which is still found in the mountainous parts of Switzerland. At Auvernier and other places, a horn-shaped vessel of coarse-grained black clay has been found, having five small holes in it, one above another, exactly similar to the vessels now used in the valleys of Jura for making cheese; and this is supposed to have been used by the inhabitants of the lake dwellings for the same purpose in their day. Swine seem to have been abundant, especially toward the close of the earlier age. And in addition to the domestic animals which they used for food, they also supplied themselves by hunting with the elk or moose, the wild boar, the hare, the stag, (the horns of which were used for tools,) and some suppose, with the bison. Poultry seems not to have been kept. A large part of their food consisted of fish, as is evident from the immense quantities of scales that have been discovered, and which seem to have been scraped off with flint flakes. The skeletons of large pikes have been found; and in some of the earlier settlements, the actual fishing nets that they used, and hooks made from the tusks of the boar. There are, also, relics of the darts, or javelins, on which they, probably, in part, relied for taking fish. Fruit, again, was by no means neglected. Large quantities of water-chestnuts have been found; also raspberries, from which the juice had been pressed; elderberries, blackberries, now and then strawberries; both the crab and large apple, pears, plums, sloes, and cherries of several kinds. Grape stones have been discovered only at Castione, near Parma, though sickle-like vine-pruning knives have been met with at two or three places. The only product of the kitchen garden as yet found, are peas, and those only at a single place. The occupants of these early lake dwellings were not unskilled in the various handicraft arts connected with their every day life. At Waugen, where the implements and tools of bone, stone and wood are of the most miserable kind, cloth, both platted and woven, was manufactured in an excellent manner, while in other places the stone celts exhibit great skill of workmanship, some of them being highly ornamental in form and appearance. The carpenters of the second period were, of course, superior to those of the first, but the latter were far from being unskilled or inefficient. The early pottery was rude and coarse, though sometimes finer materials and greater finish are discovered; but there are no traces of vessels with long narrow necks, like the bottles, flasks, and jugs which were so abundant in Roman times. Linen, thicker or thinner, was the principal article of dress and clothing. At Robenhausen a portion of fringe was found, with several specimens of cloth, some of complicated pattern, and all evincing some refinement of life, and even a tendency to luxury. Here, too, was found a last, precisely like those used by the modern shoemaker, except that it is not hollowed out to correspond to the foot. At another settlement near by, were found the remains of actual embroidery, and a kind of cloth resembling a coarse pattern of checked muslin. In the first period, but few if any ladies' ornaments are found; but in the second, ornamental hair-pins, combs, armlets, bracelets, finger and earrings occur; and Dr Keller thinks he finds traces of crotchet work and of needles adapted to it, even in the earliest age. There are also evidences that the use of metals was not unknown even in the earliest age, crucibles of clay mixed with other materials having been discovered, containing lumps of melted bronze, and in one case a lump of pure unmelted copper. And Even in the earliest period, of which we are speaking, there is evidence in the lake dwellings, that their occupants must have had a somewhat extensive intercourse, either direct or indirect, with other tribes or nations. Many of the celts that have been found, are made of nephrite, which occurs only in Egypt, China, and other parts of Asia. some glass beads, found in one of the very early settlements, are of the same form and color with those found in the early Egyptian graves, and in the ancient burial places of the West, thus indicating trade either directly, or through intervening people, with the Phenicians or the Egyptians, most probably the former. And though many of the flints used in this period are like those of the Swiss Jura, yet all the finer kinds must have been brought from France or Germany; and a piece of amber found at Meilen, apparently points in the same direction, though it may have come from the shores of Lake Constance. One great manufactory of flint instruments seems to have been on the west side of the Neberlinger Sea, where pieces of all sizes are so abundant that it was the main source of the supply of flints to Switzerland before the invention of lucifer matches. Another large manufactory was at Wanwyl, where the floor of one of the buildings had sunk a good deal, as Dr. Keller supposes, from the number of people gathered there for work, and also from the weight of the raw material heaped up there for making stone implements. Another confirmation of the trade of these people is found in the weeds of their cornfields; for the Cretan catch-fly (the silene cretica of Linnæus,) which is not indigenous to Switzerland and Germany, and so the common blue-bottle, (the centaurea cyanus of Linnæus,) the original home of which is Sicily, are found in the cornfields of the lake dwellings, thus indicating the source from which corn must have come into their hands. What has thus far been said of the inhabitants of the lake dwellings of the earlier day, applies to a great extent to those of the second and third periods, except that there was a gradual, though slow advance in their manufactures, and that a growing skill and dexterity in flint working, and so in some kinds of pottery, are manifest in the later periods. If the races through all the periods were the same, then, from the few remains of skeletons that have been found, they appear to have been about the average size and height; one skeleton measuring five feet nine inches. From the hilts of the bronze swords already mentioned as being in the museum at Copenhagen, it is plain that their hands must have been remarkably small, for few men of the present day could use the weapons at all. As to their language, the relics found give us no information, except that the three capital letters C. S. and I., found on an old shield at Marin, show that they were acquainted with and probably made use of the Roman characters. As to their amusements, great numbers of singular disk-shaped stones, like what are called sling-stones, seem to indicate that the game of stone-hurling was a favorite with them, as it is among the Indian tribes of this country to the present day. Balls, too, from six to eight tenths of an inch in diameter, having about a quarter ground away on one side, are supposed to have been used in some kind of game. The only objects. found that are thought to be connected with their religion, are some figures of the crescent moon, with zig-zag and line ornaments on one side. These however, are not found in the earliest, but only in the later periods. They are supposed to have been used as a kind of charm to propitiate the invisble powers, and to cure diseases and avert evil; and were probably placed in some open space, or over the doors of their dwellings, so that the ornamental side was exposed to view. From the fact that three of them were found in a single small excavation, and quite a number of them in some of the lake dwellings, it is probable that no house was without what they deemed so important a protection. As to the nationality of the lake settlers, there have been two theories; one, that the earlier races were conquered and driven out by the later; the other, that they were all of the same race, the only changes being those of the gradual advance which might be expected from the progress of time and the improvement it brings. Though in some things wide differences are found between the productions of the various periods, yet when carefully examined, the points of agreement are so many and striking that they can only be accounted for by the existence of kindred feelings and habits and tastes. The similarity of the dwellings through all the periods, the gradual intermixture of bronze and iron, the shape of the celts and other implements of stone and bronze, so alike in style and form, and the various articles of pottery—all show only such differences as mark the gradual development of one and the same race, |