On these troops devolved the duty of keeping in order all roads, buildings, etc., within their circuit, and nowhere in Hungary and Transylvania were to be found such excellent, well-kept roads, bridges, and buildings as those within the territory of the military frontier.
The men could not marry without permission of their superiors, their sons being, so to say, enrolled as soldiers before their birth; while daughters could only inherit their share of the father’s land on condition of marrying a soldier.
The lot of those born and bred in this species of military bondage has been pathetically rendered in a Hungarian song, of which I offer a translation:
The wild wood was my native home,
Though born unto a soldier’s doom.
Amid the green leaves sighing,
And gentle cushats crying,
My father nurtured me.
But soon as I, a stripling grown,
Could sit a horse’s back alone,