Situated3 between 45° 16’ and 48° 42’ latitude4, and 40° to 44° of longitude5 (Ferro), the land covers a space of 54,000 square kilometres, which are inhabited by a population of some 2,170,000 heads.
Of these the proportion of different races may be assumed to be pretty nearly as follows:
Roumanians 1,200,400
Hungarians 652,221
Saxons 211,490
Gypsies 79,000
Jews 24,848
Armenians 8,430
Some one has rather aptly defined Transylvania as a vast storehouse of different nationalities; and in order to account for the raison d’être of so many different races living side by side in one small country, a few words of explanation are absolutely necessary to render intelligible6 the circumstances of daily life in Transylvania, since it is to be presumed that to many English readers the country is still virtually a “land beyond the forest.”
Not being, however, of that ferocious7 disposition8 which loves to inflict9 needless information upon an unoffending public, I pass over in considerate silence such very superfluous10 races as the Agathyrsi, the Gepid?, the Get?, and yet others who successively inhabited these regions. Let it suffice to say that in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian11 era the land belonged to the Dacians, who were in course of time subjugated12 by Trajan, Transylvania becoming a Roman province in the year 105 A.D. It remained under the Roman eagle for something over a century and a half; but about the year 274 the Emperor Aurelian was compelled to remove his legions from the countries over the Danube and abandon the land to the all-ravaging Goths.
{7}
I have only here insisted on the Dacian and Roman occupation of Transylvania, because one or other or both of these peoples are supposed to be the ancestors of the present Roumanian race. The Roumanians themselves like to think they are descended13 directly from the Romans; while Germans are fond of denying this origin, and maintain this people to have appeared in these regions at a much later period. According to the most reliable authorities, however, the truth would seem to lie between these two opposite statements, and the Roumanians to be the offspring of a cross-breed between the conqueror14 and the conquered—between Romans and Dacians.
After the Roman evacuation the country changed hands oftener than can be recorded, and the rolling waves of the V?lkerwanderung passed over the land, each nation leaving its impress more or less upon the surface, till finally the Magyars began to gain something of a permanent hold, towards the eleventh century. This hold, however, was anything but a firm one, for the Hungarian king had alike outward enemies and inward traitors15 to guard against, and was in continual fear lest some affectionate relation should rob him of one of his crown-jewels.
To add to this, the province of Transylvania was but thinly peopled, and ill qualified16 to resist attacks from without. In view, therefore, of all these circumstances, King Geisa II. bethought himself of inviting17 Germans to come and establish colonies in this scantily18 peopled land, promising19 them certain privileges in return for the services he expected. Hungarian heralds20 began, consequently, to appear in German towns, proclaiming aloud in street and on market-place the words of their royal master. Their voices found a ready echo among the people, for this promised land was not absolutely unknown to the German yeomen, who many of them had passed through it on their way to and from the Crusades; besides, this was the time when feudal21 rights weighed most oppressively on unfortunate vassals22, and no doubt many were glad to purchase freedom even at the price of expatriation.
As a German poet sings:
“When castles crowned each craggy height
Along the banks of Rhine,
And ’neath the mailèd warriors’ might
Did simple burghers pine;
“When bowed the common herd23 of men,
Serfs to a lord’s commanding,
{8}
The holy Roman Empire then
For free men had no standing24.
“Then off broke many and away,
Another country questing;
‘We’ll found another home,’ said they—
‘A house on freedom resting.
“‘Hungarian forests, wild and free,
Are refuge for us keeping;
From home and home’s dear ties will we
Emancipate25 us, weeping.’”
Or in the words of another:
“We’ll ride away to the east,
Away to the east we go—
O’er meadows away,
O’er meadows so gay;
It will be better so.
“And when we came to the east,
’Neath the lofty house came we,
They called us in,
O’er meadows so gay,
And bade us welcome be.”
In thus summoning German colonists26 to the country, the Hungarian monarch27 showed wisdom and policy far in advance of his century, as the result has proved. It was a bargain by which both parties were equally benefited, and thereby28 induced to keep the mutual29 compact. The Germans obtained freedom, which they could not have had in their own country, while their presence was a guarantee to the monarch that this province would not be torn from his crown.
In the midst of a population of serfs, and side by side with proud and overbearing nobles, these German immigrants occupied a totally different and neutral position. Without being noble, they were free men every one of them, enjoying rights and privileges hitherto unknown in the country. Depending directly from the King, they had no other master, and were only obliged to go to war when the monarch in person commanded the expedition. For this reason the country inhabited by the Germans was often termed the K?nigsboden, or Kingsland, and on their official seal were engraved30 the words, “Ad retinendam coronam.”
The exact date of the arrival of these German colonists in Transylvania is unknown, but appears to have been between 1141 and{9} 1161. That they did not all come at the same time is almost certain. Probably they arrived in successive batches31 at different periods; for, as we see by history, all did not enjoy exactly the same privileges and rights, but different colonies had been formed under different conditions.
SAXON BURGHER IN OLDEN TIMES.
Also the question of what precise part of the German father-land was the home of these outwanderers is enveloped32 in some obscurity. They have retained no certain traditions to guide us to a conclusion, and German chronicles of that time make no mention of their departure. The Crusades, which at that epoch33 engrossed34 every mind, must have caused these emigrations to pass comparatively unnoticed. Only a sort of vague floating tradition is preserved to this day in some of the Transylvania villages, where on winter evenings some old grandam, shrivelled and bent35, ensconced behind the blue-tiled stove, will relate to the listening bairns crowding around her knees how, many, many hundred years ago, their ancestors once dwelt on the sea-shore, near to the month of four rivers, which all flowed out of a yet larger and mightier36 river. In this shadowy description probably the river Rhine may be recognized, the more so that in the year 1195 these German colonists are, in a yet existing document, alluded37 to as Flanderers. The name of Sachsen (Saxons), as they now call themselves, was, much later, used only as their general designation;{10} and it is more than probable, from certain differences in language, customs, and features, that different colonies proceeded from widely different parts of the original mother-country.
Although the Hungarian kings generally kept their given word right nobly to the immigrants, yet these had much to suffer, both from Hungarian nobles jealous of the privileges they enjoyed, and from the older inhabitants of the soil, the Wallachians, who, living in a thoroughly38 barbaric state up in the mountains, used to make frequent raids down into the valleys and plains, there to pillage39, burn, and murder whatever came into their hands. If we add to this the frequent invasions of Turks and Tartars, it seems a marvel40 how this little handful of Germans, brought into a strange country and surrounded by enemies on all sides, should have maintained their independence and preserved their identity under such combination of adverse42 circumstances. They built churches and fortresses44, they formed schools and guilds45, they made their own laws and elected their own judges; and in an age when Hungarian nobles could scarcely read or write, these little German colonies were so many havens46 of civilization in the midst of a howling wilderness47 of ignorance and barbarism.
The German name of Transylvania—Siebenbürgen, or Seven Forts—was long supposed to have been derived48 from the seven principal fortresses erected49 at that time. Some recent historians are, however, of opinion that this name may be traced to Cibinburg, a fortress43 built near the river Cibin, from which the surrounding province, and finally the whole country, was called the land of the Cibinburg—of which, therefore, Siebenbürgen is merely a corruption50.
Transylvania remained under the dependence41 of the Magyars till the year 1526, when, after the battle of Mohacs, which ended so disastrously51 for the Hungarians, Hungary was annexed52 to Austria, and Transylvania became an independent duchy, choosing its own regents, but paying, for the most part, a yearly tribute to Turkey.
After something more than a century and a half of independence, Transylvania began to feel its position as an independent State to be an untenable one, and that its ultimate choice lay between complete subjection to either Turkey or Austria. Making, therefore, a virtue53 of necessity, and hoping thereby to escape the degradation54 of a conquered province, Transylvania offered itself to Austria, and was by special treaty enrolled55 in the Crown lands of that empire in 1691.
Finally, in 1867, when the present emperor, Francis Joseph, was crowned at Pesth, Transylvania was once more formally united to Hungary, and, like the rest of the kingdom, divided into komitats, or counties.
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1
geographical
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| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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3
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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6
intelligible
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| adj.可理解的，明白易懂的，清楚的 | |
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ferocious
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| adj.凶猛的，残暴的，极度的，十分强烈的 | |
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8
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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9
inflict
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| vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担 | |
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10
superfluous
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| adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的 | |
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11
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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12
subjugated
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| v.征服，降伏( subjugate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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14
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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15
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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16
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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17
inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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18
scantily
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| adv.缺乏地；不充足地；吝啬地；狭窄地 | |
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19
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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20
heralds
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| n.使者( herald的名词复数 )；预报者；预兆；传令官v.预示( herald的第三人称单数 )；宣布（好或重要） | |
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21
feudal
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| adj.封建的，封地的，领地的 | |
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22
vassals
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| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
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23
herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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24
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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25
emancipate
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| v.解放，解除 | |
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26
colonists
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| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
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27
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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28
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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29
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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30
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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31
batches
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| 一批( batch的名词复数 )； 一炉； （食物、药物等的）一批生产的量； 成批作业 | |
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32
enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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34
engrossed
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| adj.全神贯注的 | |
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35
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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36
mightier
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| adj. 强有力的，强大的，巨大的 adv. 很，极其 | |
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37
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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39
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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40
marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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41
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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42
adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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43
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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44
fortresses
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| 堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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45
guilds
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| 行会，同业公会，协会( guild的名词复数 ) | |
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46
havens
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| n.港口，安全地方( haven的名词复数 )v.港口，安全地方( haven的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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48
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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49
ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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50
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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51
disastrously
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| ad.灾难性地 | |
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52
annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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53
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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54
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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55
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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