ancestral occupations of the hungarians

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American Geographical Society Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians Author(s): E. D. Beynon Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct., 1928), pp. 606-615 Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/207950 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 23:44 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 23:44:55 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

American Geographical Society

Ancestral Occupations of the HungariansAuthor(s): E. D. BeynonSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Oct., 1928), pp. 606-615Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/207950 .

Accessed: 08/05/2014 23:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toGeographical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

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Page 2: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

ANCESTRAL OCCUPATIONS OF THE HUNGARIANS

E. D. Beynon

ANY attempt to reconstruct the life of the Hungarians of the Hon foglalds, or Home-taking, of 896 A. D. must rest largely upon a study of the primitive occupations which have been

preserved into modern times. The past history of the Hungarians before that epochal year is almost purely legendary. The old Hunga- rian literature, if such existed, was completely destroyed at the time of the Christianizing of the Hungarians in the early part of the eleventh century. Copious annals and chronicles remain, it is true; but they are written in the Latin language and deal almost entirely with the political events of the successive reigns. We search in vain in the pages either of Anonymus or Kezei for information as to how the people themselves lived in that far-off day. The earliest writing that has been preserved in the Hungarian language is the Funeral Oration of the early thirteenth century, which does not greatly enlighten us as to how the people lived!

The generally accepted hypothesis of the origin of the Hungarians is that they are a Turanian people of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Ural-Altaic stock and that their closest living relatives are Ostyaks and Voguls who still roam the slopes of the Ural Mountains and the valleys of the Irtish and Ob in Siberia. Hungarian legend places the ancestral home of the Magyar race in "Jugoria," a sort of fabled paradise lying to the east of the Ural Mountains. Every source of information agrees on this, that the primitive Hungarians were hunters, fishers, and herdsmen and that before the Honfoglalas they lived in precisely the same manner as do the nomadic Ostyaks and Voguls of today, though through a false pride many Hungarians, including the great scholar Arminius Vambery, have opposed this hypothesis.

It may be assumed that either through the natural increase in population or through the pressure of predatory tribes from the East life in ancient "Jugoria" ceased to be idyllic-became, in fact, so unbearable that the entire Magyar race decided to move westward and find a more suitable home. Some ancient legends give as the motive of the migration overexploitation of the wild life and pastures of the homeland. When the Carpathians had been crossed and the indigenous tribes had been conquered, the land presumably was parceled out among the conquerors. In appropriate places we may still find evi- dence of the ancestral life. Even to this day the shepherds and herds-

6o6

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Page 3: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

ANCESTRAL OCCUPATIONS 607

men of the Alf6ld, the fishermen on the banks of the Tisza and Dan- ube, and the huntsmen in the fastnesses of the Bukk or Bakony Mountains preserve many of the customs held in common with Ostyaks and Voguls. But Hungary is rapidly becoming westernized, and all trace of the way the primitive Magyars lived will soon be obliterated, save for the cultural objects preserved in museums.

ANCESTRAL HUNTING

Hunting was the most primitive occupation. The greatest number of occupational words common to Hungarian and its cognate Finno- Ugric languages have to do with this activity. The oldest legends make Menr6t-changed by monkish scribes into the Biblical form of Nimrod-the ancestor of the Hungarian people: and this Menr6t was like Nimrod a famous hunter. Vastly fewer remains of primitive hunting, however, have been preserved than of primitive fishing or the pastoral life. While these latter remained sources of livelihood for the common people, hunting became reserved exclusively for the king, the nobles, and their servants. The ancestral Hungarians hunted for food, not as a sport. They were interested in catching the game as quickly and with as little danger as possible; hence they used snares, nets, pits, darts, nooses, and the like. The use of all these became strictly prohibited by severe poaching laws. At the time of the Millennial Exhibition of I896, Nagy Geza, who was appointed to the oversight of this department, lamented his lack of success in securing exhibits of ancestral hunting.

The hunting methods of the Hungarians have passed through certain well-marked stages. Before the migration from ancient "Jugoria, " the hunter with his horse and dog would hide in the shadow of some colossal tree to shoot the game with his arrow as it approached and then pursue with horse and dog. The most primitive weapon was the arrow, different types of which were employed for the hunting of different animals. It is probable that the agar, or greyhound of Hun- gary, was one of the animals brought by the invading Hungarians from Asia to their new home. Through the centuries the character- istics of this breed have greatly changed, for the original agar was larger, stouter, and had longer hair. In time the Hungarian huntsmen began the use of the lasso, which was thrown from horseback. Still later they employed snares and traps, the use of which has continued to the present time among poachers.

During the seventeenth century the musket began to come into general use for hunting purposes in Hungary; by the beginning of the eighteenth century it had completely superseded the bow and arrow. While the higher nobility used imported firearms, the squires and lower orders of the nobility used home-manufactured muskets until the prohibition of firearms after the War of Independence in I848-I849.

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Page 4: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

6o8 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

FIG. I

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FIG. 2

k

FIG. 3

FIG. i-Hunting the wild boar. The genuine "hunter type" is here depicted. (This and the following photographs are copy- righted by I. Kerny, Budapest.)

FIG. 2-Making the varsa. This net is used for catching eels. FIG. 3-A csik6s, or horse boy, drinking a libation-a survival

of an old pagan custom.

Certain modes of hunt- ing have never been popular with the Hun- garians. The spear, commonly used by ancient German tribes, does not seem to have had great vogue among the Magyar people. The hunting knife was a very late importation into Hungary: until the fifteenth century the sword was used in its stead.

In former days game naturally was far more plentiful in Hun- gary than now. Owing to the nature of the country, most of the good hunting regions were ceded by the Treaty of Trianon ei- ther to Czechoslovakia or to Rumania; yet as long ago as I896, while Hungary still retained her ancient borders, many lamented the dearth of game. Three valuable species were long since extermi- nated from Hungary- the beaver, the elk, and the aurochs. The Bukk, Vertes, and Bakony Mountains-which all remain in present Hun- gary-were anciently vast hunting grounds. A century and a half ago one young noble killed 220 deer in one afternoon.

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Page 5: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

ANCESTRAL OCCUPATIONS 609

In spite of the nobles' love of adventure, much of the hunting was not done by them, but by a separate caste, the Royal Hunters. This caste, scattered all over Hungary, was governed by the Lord Lieutenant of the Hunters and was divided into classes according to the different kinds of animals hunted. An interesting survival of this old regime still remains-the Royal Hunters of Szent Gal in the County of Veszprem. Though the Arpad dynasty which settled these people at Szent Gal has been extinct more than six hundred years, they still wear the ancestral hunting costume and observe the old twelfth- century customs.

In the fastnesses of the Bukk Mountains of the County of Borsod I met one day, not far from Szilvasvarad, the forester of the estate of Marquis Pallavicini. He was a typical hunter of the old time, like those of Szent Gal, descended from the Royal Hunters of the days of the Arp'ads. These men have a different physique from that of other Hungarians. Might it not be that these Royal Hunters were largely composed of the ancestral hunter tribes?

Although the ancient methods of hunting were abolished long ago, they reasserted themselves during the troublous times connected with the r6gime of Count Michael Karolyi in the late autumn of I9I8. The people of the villages crowded into the estates of the nobles. The destruction of game was terrific. The interesting feature of the matter is the way in which the peasants hunted the game from which they had been kept for so many centuries-in the same manner as their ancestors. Snares and pits were used; if a man could secure a horse, he hunted with its aid and used the pistol; or, failing that, he once more made bows and arrows with which to bring down the deer of the nobles.

ANCESTRAL FISHING

Through the centuries the simple fisher folk of Hungary have changed but little, far less than those who'follow other ancestral occu- pations. From prehistoric times they have preserved practically the same utensils and modes of fishing, practicing on the shores of the Balaton' and Ferto lakes and on the Danube, Tisza, Maros, K6ros, and smaller rivers the customs they had carried on beside the Ob and later on the Volga.

The conversion of Hungary to Christianity greatly enhanced the importance of the fisherman's occupation. The need of a fish diet through Lent led the cooks of the nobles to devise all manner of fish dishes. In a cookbook of i68o two hundred and thirteen such recipes are given. To augment the supply from rivers and lakes artificial fishponds were introduced, even before the battle of MohAcs, which

1 After the abolition of serfdom in the mid-nineteenth century the landlords insisted on the pay- ment of rent for the ancient privilege of fishing in Lake Balaton: difficulties ensued and the people's fishing rights were completely abolished with the entailment of much hardship.

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Page 6: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

6io THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

was fought in I526. At the present time there is no more flourishing industry in Hungary than that connected with the artificial fishponds. Joint-stock companies with a capital of millions of korona have en- gaged in some of these projects, as that on the so-called " Bad Lands" of the Hortobagy near Debreczen. There is scarcely a noble who does not have an artificial fishpond on his estate, from which he expects

~~~~~~L _

FIG. 4-Fisherman's hovel on the hank of the Tisza, showing the influence of modern commerce. The hoat is no longer hollowed out of an oak trunk, canvas now covers the hut instead of woven reeds; the nets have heen greatly modernized.

to derive the largest portion of the year's profits. While long ago trout were raised in this way, it was found in time that carp could be raised and fattened more quickly and could find a readier market among a certain class of the population of great cities, both in Hun- gary and in Poland. Nothing savors less of the romantic past than the efficient business management of the carp-raising industry.

On the other hand the fisher folk along the rivers and lakes use almost the same fishing methods as d'id their ancestors of a thousand years ago. They do not send the fish they catch to foreign markets; what they have caught the night before they bring to the early morning market in the city nearest them. In all Hungary I saw nothing more picturesque than the stalls of the fishmongers in the market place of Szeged. Even in the selling of fish a very ancient custom is pre- served. The fish are fastened to an ihany, or wicker frame, so that the buyer may carry them home more comfortably. Hungarian ethnologists point out that a contrivance similar to the ihazny is sculptured on Egyptian monuments.

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Page 7: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

ANCESTRAL OCCUPATIONS 6i i

Every phase of the life of these fishermen is primitive in the ex- treme. The hut in which they live has one of two forms-either a tall, conical and pointed structure, the so-called pakaszkunyho', made of reeds and resembling the capped hut, kontyos kunyho', of the shep- herds, or the form illustrated in Figure 4, which now consists of canvas fastened over a rough framework where formerly it was made entirely

FIG. 5-Shepherds watching their flocks on the plain of Hortobflgy.

of reed and wickerwork. The latter form of hut is quite low and is left permanently open on one side but affords at least a partial pro- tection from the wind and rain. The low hut in its original form was probably that used by the ancestral Hungarians.

The fisherman's canoe, le'lekveszto", consisted of an oak trunk from which the center had been burned out, a prehistoric type. Unfor- tunately this interesting survival is no longer used because it recently became impossible for the fishermen to find oak trunks large enough; while commerce has made it possible to buy boards and nails for the construction of a practical if less picturesque craft. The oar used by the fishermen of the Tisza, and especially by those of Szeged, is most interesting. The blade is shaped like a tobacco leaf. Other tribes have copied it but not accurately, their oars rather resembling a willow leaf. It is only on the banks of the Ob that we can find tribes using precisely the same kind of oar as that of Szeged.

The organization of the fishermen was rather significant. Com- panies, or hcala'szbokrok, were formed with collective responsibility and collective privileges of fishing. Usually eight or ten men belonged to each of these companies. The waters-both lakes and rivers-were

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Page 8: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

612 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

divided among them. The fragment of a mast or a so-called guard tree, orfa, was set on the shore of the borders of each company's territory. Men of no other company were allowed to fish there. This division of the waters among the companies of fishermen corresponded closely to the division of the boundless waste of the Alf6ld among the shepherds.

The modes of fishing were numerous. The most primitive con- trivance was the vejsze, a sort of cane or reed fence with wedge-shaped pickets on the points of which crooked hooks were placed. This was fastened to the mud in the bottom by weights and could not be moved. For sturgeon fishing in the Danube, cables were placed across the river and provided with baited hooks every few feet to catch the fish as they came upstream from the Black Sea. Probably the most skillful fishing with hook and line, and at the same time the most primitive, was that employed by the fishermen in the great marshes known as the Ecsedi L'ap in the County of Szatmar and the Sarret in the County of Bihar; but these marshes have now been drained. An interesting method, which also has gone out of existence, was the latott halaszcat, or sight fishing of the Balaton. A watch would be stationed on the promontory of Tihany on the lookout for a school of fogas, the finest fish in Hungarian waters. The signal given, his companions would surround the school with their nets. In the shallower streams the large fish which lay sleeping and basking in the sunlight were har- pooned. In winter on the Balaton fish were caught with nets through the ice. The people of two or three villages would all turn out on this occasion, which was regarded as one of the chief holidays of the year.

Different types of large nets were used, but the most distinctively Hungarian form was the kuszakecze, a three-cornered dragnet fastened to a wooden frame and dragged after a canoe. Stones around the wooden frame helped to weight the net down; but the net itself was kept in position by nine horse bones-on each side four metacarpal bones and in the center a tibia. The bones were perforated and through the perforation attached to the sinews of the net. The nets shown in the foreground of Figure 4 are modern adaptations. Somewhat similar to the kuszakecze is the long, conical varsa, used for trapping either fish or eels (Fig. 2).

All of these methods of ancestral fishing are rapidly passing into oblivion. While great care is taken of the artificial fishponds, the natural fishing grounds have been allowed to become almost " fished out." Steam navigation has done much to ruin the fisherman's occupation. The main reason, however, for the decline in ancestral fishing is that which has largely destroyed primitive pastoral life-the drainage of the Alfold and the regulation of its many waters into a few channels.

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Page 9: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

FIG. 6

FIG. 7

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FIG. 8

FIG. 6-A landscape scene in the Bugacz Pussla, or steppe, of Kecskem6t. Practically the entire herd is of aboriginal Hungarian cattle. This breed, which was brought to Hungary from Asia at the time of the Invasion, is white, long-horned, and exceedingly hardy.

FIG. 7-A cserbny, or herdsman's house, in the Bugacz Puszta. This cseriny is roofed and so shows a wide deviation from the primitive type.

FIG. 8-The market of the bridge of the Hortob1gy, near the famous inn. This market, which was held annually on June I7, was attended by merchants from as far as Budapest and Vienna.

613

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Page 10: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

614 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW

PASTORAL LIFE

More than any other ancestral occupation the pastoral life was a direct continuation on the plains of Hungary of the old life led on the steppes of Asia. The nomadic Hungarians of the Period of the Invasion brought their flocks and herds with them from the old home of their race. It is practically impossible any longer to find the native Hun- garian breed either of horses or of pigs; but to this day many of the herds of cattle, many of the flocks of sheep, many of the watchdogs are direct descendants of animals brought into the country in 896.

The Hungarians settled in their new home by tribes and clans rather than as individuals. Their animals were collective property, and hence the land pastured by them was left unfenced. At first only a small portion of the unfenced pasturage was set aside for tillage and the raising of grain, the so-called okortilalmas. Many survivals of this old state of affairs are yet to be found. Even now the villagers have communal rights to their forest and pasture lands, though they own the animals individually. There are, however, great cities like Debreczen which have corporate ownership of flocks and herds. Debreczen, as a city and apart from the property of its individual owners, owns 41,ooo animals, of which I I ,OVO cattle, 4900 horses, 2300 sheep, and 2100 pigs are thoroughbred. These are pastured on the Great Plain of the Hortob'agy, also the property of the city. Apart from the area needed for the city's herds and flocks there are extensive tracts rented to individual citizens for pasturing their animals.

As the majority of the people exchanged the pastoral for the agricultural life a definite class developed, the pdsztorok, a term much wider than our "shepherd" as it includes those who tended horses, cattle, and pigs as well as sheep. B'atky Zsigmond, in describing this class, goes so far as to say that " they formed a state within the state. "

This at any rate is true: they remained apart from the villages both winter and summer. A halo of romance has encircled their life; but to us the most interesting thing about them is that they live today in almost the same way as Arpad's people lived in 896.

The principal division of these pasztorok was fourfold. Those who tended horses were called csikosok, a name which literally means "coltherds." Their class was the flower of the life of the plains; they were the heroes of the folksongs; they were and still are the attraction of the girls of the villages that surround the plain. The tenders of cattle were the gulyasok, or herdsmen, a class but slightly inferior. Those who tended sheep were the juhaszok, and the swine- herds were known as kondasok. The life of these men out on the plains was patriarchal in the extreme. Especially in the case of the gulyasok and csiko'sok the little group formed a sort of organized state. At the head was the foszamado, or head herdsman, literally chief accountant. Under him was the szamado' bojtdr, chief of the young herdsmen, who

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Page 11: Ancestral Occupations of the Hungarians

ANCESTRAL OCCUPATIONS 6I5

stood midway between the ruling flszamado' and the common herdsmen, many of whom entered this life at as early an age as ten years. Finally there was the lakos, or housekeeper, usually some older, reliable man.

The csereny, or dwelling place of the herdsmen, probably retains almost the same form as that used by the ancestral Hungarians. It is merely a four-cornered enclosure, open on top and on one side. The walls on the other sides are made of reeds and canes woven together. Such a structure could be easily pulled down and quite as easily put up again. It suited a perfectly nomadic people: and these little communities of herdsmen were, and to some extent still are, nomadic. Because of accumulation of manure and other litter it has been the custom to take down the csereny and move elsewhere at least every eight days.

A bit of thatch put over one corner-that farthest removed from the open side-formed the so-called tent which protected the property of the herdsmen, their chests, saddles, wallets of bacon, and the like. Inside the enclosure, but beside one wall, was the szolgafa, a trestle from which was hung the iron kettle with its finely carved wooden spoon. This was the kitchen. Outside the enclosure was the gunyapad, on which rough bench the szamado6 often slept. In front of the csereny were poles to which cows were tethered at milking time. No picture of this primitive habitation would be complete without the talyiga or two-wheeled provision cart (Fig. 7).

The evolution of the csereny is very interesting. Its most primitive form gave place in time to the roofless but horseshoe-shaped vasalo6 of the Hortob'agy and to the cone-peaked kontyos kunyho of the Ecseg Puszta of Turkeve. In time thatched roofs came into use, and the thatched sides gave place to boards, the habitation becoming a rather squalid hut.

Each class of the pa'sztorok has its distinctive dress. The most striking, naturally, is that worn by the csikosok. His love of ornamenta- tion extends not only to his own clothes but also to the trappings of his horse and all the articles large and small with which he is sur- rounded. While the artistic instinct seems more marked in the csikos and the juhasz than in the other two classes, it is to a large extent common to all who follow pastoral life. The life itself, partly slothful, partly adventurous, seemed to stimulate greatly the desire to make things beautiful. When one sees the delicate and beautiful figures carved by these men in their spare time on the handles of their wooden spoons and ladles, on their saltcellars, on their whip handles, canes, and other articles, one is amazed at the artistic ability displayed. As this art will soon be a thing of the past, collections of these things should be made before they are all lost or destroyed.

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