Although the Slavs probably settled in Europe at an earlier period than the Germans, they have yet preserved the institutionsand customs of a primitive age for a greater length of time than the latter people. On their first appearance in history, theyare described as a nation living chiefly on the produce of their herds, of gentle though brave disposition, and remarkablyfond of music. They had not, that is, yet emerged from the pastoral system, although they had in part renounced a nomadiclife. The land belonged to the gmina the German gemeinde , or communewhich effected annually in its general assembly( vietza ) the partition of the soil among all the members of the clan. The yearly possession was allotted to the patriarchalfamilies in quantities proportional to the number of individuals composing them. Each family was governed by a chief, or gospodar , whom it elected for itself. (1)The feature which the old Slav historian, Nestor, especially praises in them, is the force of family sentiment, which, be tellsus, was the basis of society. He adds that it was preeminently the national virtue. He who broke away from family ties wasregarded as a criminal who had violated the most sacred laws of nature. The individual could exercise no rights except asmember of the family. The family was in fact the elementary social unit, and in its bosom reigned community withoutconfusion; omnia erant eis communia , says an old chronicle.
The ancient national poems, whose discovery at Königinhof in Bohemia has given the great impulse to the Tchek literarymovement, enable us to grasp this ancient family constitution. In the poem called Libusin Sud , or the Judgment of Libusa,two brothers, Staglav and Hrudos, quarrel about an inheritance, and this appears so monstrous that the Moldau mourns anda swallow laments over it on the heights of the Visegrad. The queen Libusa pronounces judgment: "Brothers, sons of Klen,"she says, "descendants of an ancient family which came into this blessed country in the train of Tchek, after crossing threerivers, you should agree as brothers on the subject of your inheritance, and you shall hold it in common according to thesacred traditions of our ancient law. The father of the family governs the house, the men till the ground, the women makethe garments. If the head of the house dies, all the children retain the property in common and choose a new chief, who ongreat days presides in the council with the other fathers of families."In Poland, in Bohemia, and even among the Slavonians of Carinthia and Carniola, these family communities disappeared iathe middle ages under the influence of the civil law, which; dating from an epoch when private property was established inall its rigour, was destined gradually to undermine the ancient communism, by means of the adverse decisions of the jurists.
The southern Slays escaped the influence of the civil law, by reason of the perpetual wars which devastated their territory,and more especially in consequence of the Turkish invasion. Beaten, isolated, and thrown back on themselves, their onlythought was the religious preservation of their traditional institutions, and of their local autonomy. This is the cause of theirfamily communities surviving to our own times, without being subjected to the influence either of the Roman law, or of thatof feudalism. At the present day they still form the basis of agrarian organization among all the southern Slays, from thebanks of the Danube to beyond the Balkans. In Slavonia, in Croatia, in Servian Voivodia, in the Military Confines, in Servia,Bosnia, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Montenegro, the ancient institution presents itself with identicalcharacteristics. In Bosnia the Mohammedan beys themselves often live in community even in cities, as at Serajevo.
Except in the towns, and in the very restricted portion of the Dalmatian littoral, where owing to Venetian influence theRoman law has found its way, the vicissitudes of history, which have subjected one half of the Slav empire of Douchan tothe Turks and the other half to Hungary, and the difference of political institutions consequent upon this division, havewrought no harm to rural customs, which have continued to exist in obscurity, without attracting the attention of theconquerors. It is only recently that the system of family communities has been regulated by law, as for example in Servia.
Otherwise it only exists by virtue of custom; but everywhere its principles are the same, because the national traditions aresimilar. As M. Utiesenovitch remarks, the queen Libusa might erect her throne of justice in every part of the Southern Slavdistrict, and pronounce, amid the applause of the village chiefs, the same judgment as in days gone by on the slope ofVisegrad, in the legendary dispute between the brothers Staglav and Hrudos.
