A STRANGE TRIBUNAL OF BAVARIA. By George H. Westley. T N the list of peculiar institutions of the the top of which was a hand with two fing Old World which have passed out of ers uplifted, like the hand of one in the act existence, is the Haberfeldtreiben of Upper of taking an oath. The original of this was Bavaria. This was a singular sort of tribu said to have been given to the first Haber nal, a court of expose, one may term it, meister by the Emperor Charlemagne. which had its beginning away back in the Each Meister had his council, composed ninth century, and flourished down to so of eight chosen men called Elders. Then came the Haberer or ordinary members, all recent a year as 1868. of whom, and the officers as well, had to be The word Haberfeldtreiben signifies lit erally " driving over the oat-field," and for men of spotless character. On being ad its application to the institution we must mitted into the body, each person had to look far back into history. There we find contribute three gulden to the general fund, that it was the practice of this body in the and all were sworn to secrecy and bound to olden days, to punish those who were found obey their leader's call at any moment. guilty before it by driving them barefoot These Haberer being distributed in all di and in their night clothes over the stubble rections and in every locality, nothing in the oat-fields, with pursuers close behind escaped their observation, and improper plying birch rods to urge them to greater things done in secret places were almost certain to be made known, to the confusion speed. Without entering into any analysis of the and disgrace of the delinquent. The crimes and offences which came early condition of law and society in Ba varia, which brought this peculiar institution within the jurisdiction of the Haberfeld into being, let us proceed at once to ex treiben were these : incontinence, usury, amine its function and methods. A young slander, the use of false weights and meas peasant of the country, writing to a friend ures, the adulteration of food and beer, and, in Germany in 1867, gives us the former in according to one writer on the subject, a nutshell: "It is an old custom, coming " the introduction of machinery whereby hu down from the time of Karl the Great," man labor is rendered unnecessary." he writes, " and its use is to correct the bad But the most curious feature of this tri conduct of the upper classes, and of some bunal was its method of procedure. The of the other people who cannot be reached meetings were held an hour before mid by the ordinary means of law. As there night and on some spot secure from interrup arc more rogues now than there used to tion, usually some half-ruined chapel. The be," he adds, " we have had lately more eight elders seated themselved in a semi ' drivings into the oat-field.'" circle, with the Meister on a raised seat ir. The Haberfeldtreiben had its representa the middle. In his right hand the latter held tives in all the villages and towns in Upper his staff, and in his left some ears of corn. Bavaria. Each district had a president or Everything being ready, he opened the pro Habermeister, and he had numerous subor ceedings by saying in a loud voice: — dinates. The president's staff of office was "It is thus resolved, ye Elders of the a sort of sceptre with a ball at one end, on Leisach, Mangfall, and Schlierach! Ac
