The prizes for the winners consisted of gold medals specially minted for the occasion. Figure 3 (b1. 46) shows such a drill.
Public and banquets were indulged in by all classes that could afford them. The halls of the guilds rivalled those of the nobles in the splendor of such feasts, at which intellectual entertainment was coupled with the gratification of the palate. As the good masters and grave senators had not yet begun to cultivate oratory, a class of speech makers existed whose duty it was to respond to the toasts and occasionally to gratify the cars of the guests by the recitation of poetry, which was applauded in proportion to the limited requirements of the occasion. These officials carried a baton with which they rapped on the table to command attention; they wore medallions, usually of carved and painted wood, though sometimes of silver, which were fastened upon them as tes timonials of proficiency in their art. Figure 4 is the portrait of one of them, a certain Michael \Veber, who was one of the best known charac ters of Nuremberg, during the second half of the seventeenth century. Sometimes poets-laureate were found among these speech-makers.
Besides general feasts, most cities had special ones, as the "shepherds' dance" of Munich and the masquerade procession of Nuremberg-, etc. The latter feast is said to have been granted by the emperor Charles IV. to the butchers' guild of Nuremberg as a reward for its not haying taken part in a certain great trades' rebellion. Annually on the appointed days they paraded the streets masked, clad in uniform and striking costumes, and conducted by captains who generally belonged to the tipper classes. The procession was headed by grotesque figures, such as the Kindlcin fresscrs, " child-eaters," a huge cannon from which old women were fired, a ship filled with devils and fools, etc. This sport died out about the middle of the sixteenth century, but it was considered of sufficient importance to be fully described, and the names of the captains, illustra tions of the costumes, etc. were preserved in manuscripts, many of which are extant in Nuremberg. Figure 2 is copied from one of them.
National have seen how in the course of their development the German people preserved and manifested their original disposition in their ways of feeling, thinking, and acting, in the utter ance of their joys and sorrows, in their relations toward science and arts, trade, commerce, and agriculture, in the character of their religious wants, and in the expression of their poetic qualities. But civilization
tends to overcome one-sided individuality and to advance toward pure universal humanity. Accordingly, it happened very early that social circles were formed, which, upon the highest point attainable, imagined themselves in possession of a bond that was to unite all nations in a common brotherhood. Such circles sprung up in Germany as well as elsewhere, and, aided, of course, by foreign developments, adopted the prevailing social tone, which, though forced to yield to that of the suc ceeding age, was for the time absolutely dominant. The development of a nation must, in fact, tend in the direction thus indicated; so far as it departs therefrom it falls away from true progress. An exclusively national civilization only marks the point where a people has stopped in its march toward universal culture.
National is from this point of view that such pectiliari ties as "national costumes" are to be explained. They belong in whole or in part to older, unprogressive styles, and, apart from influences of climate, contact with other races, and similar circumstances, they exhibit no special, independent development in individual countries or provinces. The connection of cause and effect cannot always be determined, but wherever national peculiarities of costume have been preserved, enough indications exist to demonstrate the truth of our opinion that national costumes are the result, not of development, but of cessation of develop ment.
Figures i to 19 (pl. 47) present a number of such restored costumes. The rustic population was, as a general thing, unwilling to adopt long pantaloons, because the French Revolution, which was so offensive to their conservative and even aristocratic ideas, had introduced them. Con sequently, in many districts short knee breecheswere retained, as by the peasant of the Black Forest (fig. I); by the Tyrolese (fig. 4), who, being compelled to climb mountains, wore them not quite as low as the knees; by the Norwegian peasant (fig. 7); and by the Jutland fisherman (fig. 8).