to pay tribute from the water and the heath of fish and honey,
and heavy imposts on their arable land, sheaves of corn, grain and
money; and a certain amount of service was required of them. The
greater part were serfs; few were free. And not only the peasants, but
also the artisans and tradesmen of all kinds lived in every gradation
of servitude, ground down by oppression without hope or pleasure in
their work. The Sclave cities only differed from the villages in being
a larger collection of bare huts, surrounded by a moat and wooden
palisades, and usually situated in the vicinity of a nobleman's castle,
under whose protection they lived. In peaceable times markets were held
in the towns. Even till the end of the twelfth century the merchants
often made their payments, as in Poland, with the tails of martins and
skins of squirrels instead of money. But the Silesian mines were
already being worked; they yielded silver and gold, copper and lead,
and mining, which was considered the nobleman's right, was carried on
actively. Mints were erected in all the great market towns, and, as in
Poland, the coinage was changed three times a year; and the princes
derived some of their income from tolls on the market-places, butchers'
stalls, and public-houses.

Such was the country that was then ruled by the royal Piasten families
under the Polish sovereignty, which, however, was often disputed, and
sometimes entirely thrown off. A great dissimilarity might however be
discerned in the different branches of the family. The Piastens of
Upper Silesia united themselves closely with Poland, and kept up the
Sclave habits in their country, so that even at the present day a
Sclave population is to be found there; but the rulers of Lower Silesia
adhered to the Germans. It was their policy to marry the daughters of
the German princes: they set the highest value upon everything German,
and German manners were introduced into the court; their children were
sent to travel in Germany, and often brought up there, so that in the
beginning of the thirteenth century, the Piasten family was held in
great consideration throughout that country; they sought for knighthood
from their relations in the west, and out of courtesy to them dressed
their followers in their colours. They knighted their own nobles with
the German straight sword, instead of using the crooked Sclave sabre;
they preferred getting drunk on malmsey and Rhine wines, instead of the
old m