The Western News

ANCIENT WATER VILLAGES.

Strange Relic of Old Customs Prevails in German Forest.

"One of the most interesting regions in the 'Old Fatherland' is the so-called 'Spreewald,' the forest of the Spree, situated not far from the German capital, in the province of Brandenburg," says Fritz Morris in Technical World Magazine.

"Each village is a little Venice, every house a little island: and these islets are connected by bridges sufficiently raised to allow boats to pass under them. Most of the houses, with their barns and stables, rest on piles; and there is generally a strip of artificial terra firma, either in front or at the rear of every building. By means of these land strips and of the bridges, the slender land communication is kept throughout the district: but most of the business and amusement is carried on through the canals, which not only form the main highways but penetrate and cross and recross the whole region. It is on these lagoons that all traffic is conducted in boats, during the period from spring, when the last vestiges of frost and ice are disappearing, until the end of autumn. You see the letter carrier shoot up and down the canals, performing his duties in his frail craft; the police glide leisurely along the banks, watching everything going on; peasants bring the products of their toil to the nearest towns; children go to and from school, young mothers, dressed in their Sunday clothes, are rowed to church, carrying in their arms a small, queer-looking bundle from which two large eyes in a tiny face stare at the stranger in wonderment--baby is going to be baptized, an important event with this strongly religious town."