MORAVIA.
COSTUMES OF THE INHABITANTS--ACCOUNT OF THE HAUNACKS--PEASANTS
OF THE FRONTIERS.
The costume of the inhabitants of Moravia resembles more or less that
of the people of the contiguous countries. In the centre of the
province the men generally wear jacket, waistcoat, and pantaloons of
one colour, hussar boots, and a hat, the broad brim of which is cocked
behind and slouched before.
The women dress nearly in the style of the Austrian peasants, but in
winter they wear over the laced corset and gown a sort of hussar
jacket of cloth bordered with fur, while gaiters or boots defend their
feet and legs from cold and damp.
Near Olmütz there is a small tract of country, extending about five
square German miles, and inhabited by a tribe of people called
Haunacks, or Haunachians, who are supposed by the native statistical
writers to be the pure descendants of the aboriginal inhabitants of
Moravia. They derive their name from the small river Hauna. Their
history is rather obscure, but they are undoubtedly a Slavonic tribe.
In stature they are short, but strong and muscular; and being simple,
temperate, and plain in their habits, they attain in general a very
advanced age. By the neighbouring Germans they are reproached as being
slothful and averse to bodily labour; while they themselves boast of
the fertility of their soil, and look down with contempt upon the
other inhabitants of Moravia as an inferior set of beings, to whom
nature has been more niggardly of her gifts. Their mode of living is
frugal and highly primitive. The flesh of the hog joined with
hasty-pudding is their favourite viand, and beer their only beverage.
The young women are remarkable for the grace and elegance of their
forms, and the neat adjustment of their dresses, which are extremely
picturesque and show off to great advantage the considerable share of
personal beauty with which the wearers are gifted. Their summer dress
consists of a large white linen cap, the lappets of which, bordered
with lace and embroidered with red silk, fall over their shoulders.
Their long hair is suffered to float in tresses; or, when the cap is
laid aside, is gracefully twisted and tied over the head with knots of
ribbons. A coloured corset, laced before shows the shape to advantage.
Their well turned ankles are set off with white or red stockings, and
black shoes with red heels.
[Illustration: PEASANT of the MOUNTAINS of MORAVIA.]
The dress of the men consists of a round hat adorned with ribbons of
various colours; a waistcoat commonly green, embroidered with red
silk, encompassed by a broad leathern girdle, with brown pantaloons
attached to the vest by means of large buckles; and boots. This is
their summer costume, but in winter they cover the head with a large
and singularly shaped fur cap, and throw over their shoulders an
undressed sheep or wolf-skin, in the absence of which they wear a
brown woollen cloak with a large hood, like that of a Capuchin Friar.
On the frontiers of Hungary the costume of the peasant of Moravia
partakes of the style of dress usual in the former country. A
broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat covers his head; the short coat, which
in shape resembles the surcoat of the ancient knights, is girt round
the waist by a leathern girdle: and he carries his bundle slung behind
him from a shoulder-belt. He wears tight pantaloons, and stockings,
round which are twisted the strings that fasten his sandals, as
represented in the engraving.