5 - Two Books on the Antiquities of the Prussians (1518)

Summary

The Prussians, dwelling in the whole length and breadth of this land, do not however cultivate it; either from ignorance of agricultural matters; or, not prevented by the goodness of the soil, they become afraid of their neighbours in their guilt, and they are thus compelled to come outside. Because they do not yet know a diet generated from the earth, they feed on the flesh of wild animals and anything raw for food, and milk for drink, which they even mix with horse blood (and that to the point of drunkenness). They do not fix their houses in one place, but have them in caves or from the bark of trees, whence they are called “bark houses’; and thus they protect themselves and their children from showers and cold. For a considerable while, nothing was sacred to them; but at last they were so far seduced into insanity that they devoutly worshipped snakes, wild animals, and trees (of which we shall speak more in what follows). They know neither laws nor magistrates; and as much as is permitted to each one, that much he dares to do. Their life differs in no way from that of wild beasts. Shipwrecked people, or those tossed up out of the sea from a storm, are more civilized; and even though there is assistance for them all around, there is remarkable filthiness and filthy poverty among the rest. For them there were neither arms nor iron, and if ever they came together in conflict, they used charred stakes and poles. …

This people, as I said in passing concerning their customs, used to have princelings whose laws they obeyed; and they used to cultivate fields and know commerce. The fashion of clothing among them used to be wool for men, while women wore linen tunics, and a collar of bronze or brass encircled their necks; and from their ears they suspended earrings—a frivolous thing, which is not even abandoned today. They inhabit houses constructed in the manner of halls, and villages are alien to the Sarmatians; everything is both without any wall or protective ditch—except what may have been taught by foreigners, thanks to their coming there on account of trade.