THE BLACK FOREST.
19
This may be ascribed to various causes, tbe rnost prominent of wbicb is probably tbe siniilar nature of their occu- pations. — Tbus also , though their national costume appa- rently differs in alinost every parish, yet a great uniformity will be found to prevail on the whole, both in point of material, and of cut. — Tbe food is the same all over the Black Forest, and mostly consists of potatoes, rye- or wheaten bread, butter, milk, sourcrout, and pork: the last mentioned dish tbe mountaineer eonsiders as bis bigbest luxury. Tbe peculiar branches of Industry bowever, met with in tbe Black Forest, belong cliiefly to tbe Badish part of it, wbere an activity prevails in Ae huts of the mountaineers, wbicb will hardly be found anj wbere eise. This industry too is of quite a peculiar kind, originating, as it is, not with the commercial calculations of single speculators, but with the active mind and the capacities of a whole rare.
The first branch of industry to be mentioned bere is tbe Glass-trade. The records we pQssess of it go back as far as the year 1083, when Paul, abbot of St.Peter nearNeu- kirch, erected tbe first glass-works in tliat profound valley which leads from the Turner hills to the Wildgutacb. The few wants of the neighbouriug districts were soon supplied, yct shortly after the opening of this establishment numbers of men from the neigbbourhood carne thitber, who bought large quantities of glass-ware, packed them in baskets and with these on their backs set out to the Breisgau, the Alsace, and the provinces of the Lower Rhine. They immediately formed a Company which soon extended farther, wheu otber establishments of the same kind were erected in the Black Forest. As these glass-pedlers went to more distant regions they took with them assortments of mixed merchandise: such as straw-mats aud hats, iron spoons , and wooden wäre, made in the forest; and wliere they went they were
2 "