off by a diadem of long pins with large heads beautifully chiselled,
and inlaid with beads of metal or glass, these pins being stuck
through a sort of leathern fillet which bound up the hair. So beautiful
are some of the trinkets, that imitations of them in gold are in request
by the ladies of to-day.
[Pg 7]
(1) VESSEL; (2) SPECIMENS OF WOVEN FABRICS FOUND IN
SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS.
(Copied by permission from "Harper's Magazine.")
[Pg 8]
It is curious to find that one of the most extensive lake colonies in
Switzerland is situated in and spread over the vast marshes of
Robenhausen (Zurich) which once formed part of Lake Pfäffikon. The
visitor who is not deterred by the inconvenience of a descent into a
damp and muddy pit some 11 feet deep, where excavations are still
being carried on, finds himself facing three successive settlements,
one above another, and all belonging to the remote stone age.
Between the successive settlements are layers of turf, some 3 feet
thick, the growth of many centuries. The turf itself is covered by a
stratum of sticky matter, 4 inches thick. In this are numbers of relics
embedded, both destructible and indestructible objects being
perfectly well preserved, the former kept from decay through having
been charred by fire. The late Professor Heer discovered and
analysed remains of more than a hundred different kinds of plants.
Grains, and even whole ears of wheat and barley, seeds of
strawberries
and
raspberries,
dried
apples,
textile
fabrics,
implements, hatchets of nephrite—this mineral and the Oriental
cereals show clearly enough that the lakemen traded with the East,
though no doubt through the Mediterranean peoples—spinning-
wheels, corn-squeezers, floorings, fragmentary walls—all these are
found in plenty, in each of the three layers. The topmost settlement,
however, contains no destructible matters, such as corn, fruits, &c.
This is to be accounted for by the fact that the two lower settlements
were destroyed by fire, and the uppermost one by the growth of the
turf, or by the rising marshes. In the latter case there was no friendly
action of fire to preserve the various objects.
The scholar's mind is at once carried back to the account given by
Herodotus of Thrakian lake-dwellers.[3] The people of this tribe, he tells us, built their houses over water, so as to gain facilities for
fishing. They used to let down baskets through trapdoors in the floors
of their huts, and these baskets rapidly filled with all kinds of fish that
had gathered around, tempted by the droppings of food.
[Pg 9]
Though the lakemen depended chiefly on the water for their supply of
food, yet they were hunters, and great tillers of the ground as well as
fishermen. They grew wheat and barley, and kept horses, cattle,
sheep, and goats. The women spun flax and wool, and wove them
into fabrics for clothing. Their crockery was at first of a very primitive
description, being made of black clay, and showing but little finish or
artistic design. But the children were not forgotten, for they were
supplied with tiny mugs and cups.[4]
[Pg 10]
SPECIMENS OF POTTERY FOUND IN SWISS LAKE
DWELLINGS.
(Copied by permission from "Harper's Magazine."
[Pg 11]
With regard to the date when the immigration of lakemen began the
savants are hopelessly at variance. Nor do they agree any better as
to the dates of the stone and bronze epochs into which the history of
the lake settlements divides itself. But as in some of the marshy
stations these two epochs reach on to the age of iron, it is assumed
by many authorities that the lake dwellers lived on to historical times.
This is particularly shown in the alluvial soil and marshes between the
lakes of Neuchâtel and Bienne, Préfargier being one of the chief
stations, where settlements belonging to the stone, bronze, and iron
ages are found ranged one above another in chronological order. In
the topmost stratum or colony, the lakemen's wares are found
mingling pell-mell with iron and bronze objects of Helvetian and
Roman make, a fact sufficient, probably, to show that the lake
dwellers associated with historical peoples. It would be useless as
well as tedious to set forth at length all the theories prevailing as to
the origin and age of the lake dwellings. Suffice it to say that, by
some authorities, the commencement of the stone period is placed at
six thousand, and by others at three thousand years before the
Christian era, the latter being probably nearest the truth. As to the
age of bronze, we may safely assign it to 1100-1000 b.c., for
Professor Heer proves conclusively that the time of Homer—the
Greek age of bronze—was contemporary with the bronze epoch of
the lakemen.[5]
The Lake period would seem to have drawn to a close about 600-700
b.c., when the age of bronze was superseded by that of iron.
According to the most painstaking investigations made by Mr. Heierli,
of
[Pg 12]
Zurich, now the greatest authority on the subject in Switzerland, the
lakemen left their watery settlements about the date just given, and
began to fix their habitations on terra firma. Various tombs already
found on land would bear witness to this change. When these
peculiar people had once come on shore to live they would be
gradually absorbed into neighbouring and succeeding races, no
doubt into some of the Celtic tribes, and most likely into the Helvetian
peoples. Thus they have their part, however small it may be, in the
history of the Swiss nation. It must be added that the Pfahl-bauer are
no longer held to have been a Celtic people, but are thought to have
belonged to some previous race, though which has not as yet been
ascertained.
But enough has been written on the subject, perhaps. Yet, on the
other hand, it would have been impossible to pass over the lakemen
in silence, especially now when the important discoveries of similar
lake settlements in East Yorkshire have drawn to the subject the
attention of all intelligent English-speaking people.[6]
FOOTNOTES:
There are two distinct kinds of settlement, but we are here dealing with the
first or earlier kind.
Herod, v. 16.
The lake tribes of the bronze age, however, not only understood the use of
copper and bronze, but were far more proficient in the arts than their
predecessors. Some of the textile fabrics found are of the most
complicated weaving, and some of the bronze articles are of most
exquisite chiselling, though these were probably imported from Italy, with
which country the lake dwellers would seem to have had considerable
traffic. The earliest specimens of pottery are usually ornamented by mere
rude nail scratchings, but those of the bronze period have had their straight
lines and curves made by a graving tool. In fact, the later tribes had
become lovers of art for its own sake, and even the smallest articles of
manufacture were decorated with designs of more or less elaboration and
finish.
The products of the soil seem to have been the same amongst the
lakemen as amongst Homer's people. Both knew barley and wheat, and
neither of them knew rye. In their mode of dressing and preparing barley
for food the two peoples concurred. It was not made into bread, but
roasted to bring off the husk. And roasted barley is still a favourite article of
diet in the Lower Engadine. The Greeks ate it at their sacrifices, and
always took supplies of it when starting on a journey. So Telemachus asks
his old nurse Eurykleia to fill his goat skin with roasted barley when he sets
out in search of his father. And young Greek brides were required to
complete the stock of household belongings by providing on their marriage
day a roasting vessel for barley.
Those who wish to see pretty well all that can be said on the matter should
read the valuable article in The Westminster Review, for June, 1887.
[Pg 13]
II.
THE HELVETIANS.
The history of a country often includes the history of many peoples,
for history is a stage on which nations and peoples figure like
individual characters, playing their parts and making their exits,
others stepping into their places. And so the Swiss soil has been
trodden
by
many
possessors—Celts,
Rhætians,
Alamanni,
Burgundians, Franks. These have all made their mark upon and
contributed to the history of the Swiss nation, and must all figure in
the earlier portions of our story.
Dim are the glimpses we catch of the early condition of the
Helvetians, but the mist that enshrouds this people clears, though
slowly, at the end of the second century before Christ, when they
came into close contact with the Romans who chronicled their deeds.
The Helvetians themselves, indeed, though not ignorant of the art of
writing, were far too much occupied in warfare to be painstaking
annalists. At the Celto-Roman period of which we are treating,
Helvetia comprised all the territory lying between Mount Jura, Lake
Geneva, and Lake Constance,
[Pg 14]
with the exception of Basle, which included Graubünden, and
reached into St. Gall and Glarus. It was parcelled out amongst many
tribes, even as it is in our own day. The Helvetians, who had
previously occupied all the land between the Rhine and the Main, had
been driven south by the advancing Germans, and had colonized the
fertile plains and the lower hill grounds of Switzerland, leaving to
others the more difficult Alpine regions. They split into four tribes, of
which we know the names of three—the Tigurini, Toygeni, and
Verbigeni. The first named seem to have settled about Lake Morat,
with Aventicum (Avenches) as their capital. Basle was the seat of the
Rauraci; to the west of Neuchâtel was that of the Sequani; whilst
Geneva belonged to the wild Allobroges. The Valais[7] district was inhabited by four different clans, and was known as the "Pœnine
valley," on account of the worship of Pœninus on the Great St.
Bernard, where was a temple to the deity. In the Ticino were the
Lepontines, a Ligurian tribe whose name still lingers in "Lepontine
Alps." The mountain fastnesses of the Grisons (Graubünden) were
held by the hardy Rhætians, a Tuscan tribe, who, once overcome by
the Romans, speedily adopted their speech and customs. Romansh,
a corrupt Latin, holds its own to this day in the higher and remoter
valleys of that canton.
All these tribes, except the two last mentioned, belonged to the great
and martial family of the Celts, and of them all the wealthiest, the
most valiant, and
[Pg 15]
the most conspicuous were the Helvetians.[8] Of the life and disposition of these Helvetians we know but little, but no doubt they
bore the general stamp of the Celts. They managed the javelin more
skilfully than the plough, and to their personal courage it is rather than
to their skill in tactics that they owe their reputation as great warriors.
But in course of time their character was greatly modified, and, owing
probably to their secluded position, they settled down into more
peaceful habits, and rose to wealth and honour, combining with their
great powers a certain amount of culture. They practised the art of
writing, having adopted the Greek alphabet, and gold, which was
possibly found in their rivers, circulated freely amongst them. To
judge from the relics found in Helvetian tumuli the Helvetians were
fond of luxuries in the way of ornaments and fine armour, and they
excelled in the art of working metals, especially bronze. They had
made some progress in agriculture, and in the construction of their
houses, and more especially of the walls that guarded their towns,
which struck the Romans by their neatness and practicalness. Nor
would this be to be wondered at if the old legends could be trusted,
which tell us that Hercules himself taught the Helvetians to build, and
likewise gave them their laws; an allusion, no doubt, to the fact that
culture came to them from the east, from the peoples around the
Mediterranean. Besides many hamlets, they had founded no fewer
than four hundred villages and twelve towns, and seem to have been
well able to select for their settlements the most picturesque and
convenient spots. For many of their place-names have come down to
us, in some cases but little changed. Thus of colonies we have
Zuricum (Zurich), Salodurum (Soleure), Vindonissa (Windisch),
Lousonium (Lausanne), and Geneva; of rivers navigable or otherwise
useful, Rhine, Rhone, Aar, Reuss, Thur; of mountains, Jura and
perhaps Camor. Disliking the hardships of Alpine life the Helvetians
left the giant mountains to a sturdier race.
[Pg 16]
JOHANNISSTEIN, WITH RUINS OF CASTLE OF
"HOHENRHÆTIA," NEAR THUSIS, GRAUBÜNDEN. (From a
Photograph.)
[Pg 17]
The nature of their political code was republican, yet it was largely
tinctured with elements of an aristocratic kind. Their nobles were
wealthy landed proprietors, with numerous vassals, attendants, and
slaves. In case their lord was impeached these retainers would take
his part before the popular tribunal. The case of Orgetorix may be
cited. He was a dynastic leader, and head over one hundred valley
settlements; his name appears on Helvetian silver coins as Orcitrix.
He was brought to trial on a charge of aspiring to the kingship, and no
fewer than a thousand followers appeared at the court to clear him,
but vox populi vox dei, and the popular vote prevailed. Orgetorix was
sentenced to die by fire, a punishment awarded to all who
encroached upon the popular rights.
Their form of religion was most probably that common to all the Celts,
Druidical worship. Invested with power, civil and spiritual, the Druids
held absolute sway over the superstitious Celtic tribes. Proud as the
Celts were of their independence, they yet were incapable of
governing themselves because of the perpetual dissensions amongst
the tribes; and
[Pg 18]
they were overawed by the intellectual superiority of a priesthood that
professed all the sciences of the age—medicine, astrology,
soothsaying, necromancy—and had taken into its hands the
education of the young. The common people were mere blind
devotees, and rendered unquestioning obedience to the decrees of
the Druids. Druidism was, in fact, the only power which could move
the whole Celtic race, and could knit together the Celts of the Thames
and those of the Garonne and Rhone, when they met at the great
yearly convocation at Chartres, then the "Metropolis of the Earth."
Human sacrifice was one of the most cruel and revolting features of
the Druidical religion.
The Celts were a peculiarly gifted people, though differing greatly
from the contemporary Greeks and Romans. They had been a
governing race before the Romans appeared on the stage, and
wrested from them the leading part. They had overrun the whole
world, so to speak, casting about for a fixed home, and spread as far
as the British Isles, making Gaul their religious and political centre,
and settled down into more peaceful habits. Driven by excess of
population, or their unquenchable thirst for war, or simply their
nomadic
habits—one
cannot
otherwise
account
for
their
retrogression—they migrated eastwards whence they came—to Italy,
Greece, and Asia Minor—demanding territory, and striking terror into
every nation they approached by their warlike habits. They knocked
at the gates of Rome, and the Galatians were conspicuous by their
atrocities.[9] Brilliant
[Pg 19]
qualities and great national faults had been their peculiar
characteristics. Quick-witted they were, highly intelligent, ingenious,
frank, versatile; attaching much value to gloire, and esprit; susceptible
of and accessible to every impression, skilled handicraftsmen; but
inclined to be vain, boastful, and fickle-minded, averse to order and
discipline, and lacking in perseverance and moral energy. This,
according to both ancient and modern writers, was their character.
They failed to create a united empire, and to resist their deadly
enemy, Rome.
What they did excel in was fighting. Dressed in gaudy costume—wide
tunic, bright plaid, and toga embroidered with silver and gold—the
Celtic noble would fight by preference in single combat, to show off to
personal advantage, but in the brunt of battle he threw away his
clothing to fight unimpeded. Bituitus, king of the Arverni, attired in
magnificent style, mounts his silver chariot, and, preceded by a
harper and a pack of hounds, goes to meet Cæsar in battle, and win
his respect and admiration.
The Helvetians were peaceful neighbours to Italy so long as they did
not come into direct contact with the Romans, but on the Rhine they
were engaged in daily feuds with the German tribes, who had driven
them from their settlements in the Black Forest, and had continued
their raids beyond the river. For the sake of plunder, or from mere
restless habits, the Germans had left their northern homes on the
Baltic and North Seas, the Cimbri, and their brethren, the Teutons
and others, and were slowly moving southward, repelling or being in
turn repelled. The most
[Pg 20]
daring crossed the Rhine, and made their way straight through the
lands of the Belgians and Helvetians towards the South, thereby
anticipating the great dislocation of peoples which was to take place
but five hundred years later, when the Roman Empire, sapped at the
root, crumbled to pieces, unable longer to resist the tide of barbarian
invasion.
On one of these expeditions the Cimbri, giving a glowing account of
sunny Gaul, and the booty to be obtained there, were joined by the
Helvetian Tigurini, whose leader was the young and fiery Divico (b.c.
107). They started with the intention of founding a new home in the
province of the Nitiobroges in Southern Gaul; but when they had
reached that territory they were suddenly stopped on the banks of the
Garonne by a Roman army under the consul Cassius and his
lieutenant Piso. But, little impressed by the military fame of the
Romans, the Tigurini, lying in ambush, gave battle to the forces of
great Rome, and utterly routed them at Agen, on the Garonne,
between Bordeaux and Toulouse. It was a brilliant victory; both the
Roman leaders and the greater part of their men were slain, and the
rest begged for their lives. The proud Romans were under the
humiliating necessity of giving hostages and passing under the
yoke—a stain on the Roman honour not to be forgotten; but the
victors, being anything but diplomats, knew no better use to make of
their splendid victory than to wander about for a time and then go
home again.
A few years later (102 and 101 b.c.) the Tigurini, Toygeni, Cimbri, and
Teutons joined their forces on
[Pg 21]
a last expedition southwards. The expedition ended in the destruction
of these German tribes. The Toygeni perished in the fearful carnage
at Aquæ Sextiæ, and the Cimbri later on at Vercellæ. When the
Tigurini heard of this last-mentioned disaster they returned home.
Cæsar had been appointed governor of the Province (Provence)
which extended to Geneva, the very door of Helvetia; on the Rhine
the Germans continued to make their terrible inroads. Thus there was
but little scope for the stirring Helvetians, and the soil afforded but a
scanty supply of food; so they turned their eyes wistfully in the
direction of fair Gaul. Meeting in council they decided on a general
migration, leaving their country to whoever might like to take it. Then
rose up Orgetorix, one of their wealthiest nobles, and supported the
plan, volunteering to secure a free passage through the neighbouring
provinces of the Allobroges and Ædui. The 28th of March, b.c. 58,
was the day fixed for the departure, and Geneva was to be the
meeting-place; thence they were to proceed through the territory of
the Allobroges. For two years previously they were to get ready their
provisions, and to collect carts, horses, and oxen, but before the
period had expired Orgetorix was accused of treason, and being
unable to clear himself, put an end to his own life to escape public
obloquy. This episode made no difference in the general plan. The
Helvetians, indeed, insisted on its being carried out. Setting fire to
their towns and villages to prevent men from returning, they started
on their adventurous jo