[159] A kind of grain still widely cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; sometimes known as German wheat.
[160] The unit of weight was the pound. Charlemagne replaced the old Gallic pound by the Roman, which was a tenth less.
[161] The unit of measure was the muid. Charlemagne had a standard measure (modius publicus) constructed and in a number of his capitularies enjoined that it be taken as a model by all his subjects. It contained probably a little less than six pecks. A smaller measure was the setier, containing about five and two-thirds pints.
[162] Clergymen attached to the church on or near the estate.
[163] "Attached to the royal villa, in the center of which stood the palace or manse, were numerous dependent and humbler dwellings, occupied by mechanics, artisans, and tradesmen, or rather manufacturers and craftsmen, in great numbers. The dairy, the bakery, the butchery, the brewery, the flour-mill were there.... The villa was a city in embryo, and in due course it grew into one, for as it supplied in many respects the wants of the surrounding country, so it attracted population and became a center of commerce."—Jacob I. Mombert, Charles the Great (New York, 1888), pp. 401-402.
[164] An ancient Gallic land measure, equivalent to about half a Roman jugerum (the jugerum was about two-thirds of an acre). The arpent in modern France has varied greatly in different localities. In Paris it is 4,088 square yards.
[165] The same as "pachak." The fragrant roots of this plant are still exported from India to be used for burning as incense.
[166] A kind of cabbage. The edible part is a large turnip-like swelling of the stem above the surface of the ground.
[167] A plant used both as a medicine and as a dye.
[168] "All the cereals grown in the country were cultivated. The flower gardens were furnished with the choicest specimens for beauty and fragrance, the orchards and kitchen gardens produced the richest and best varieties of fruit and vegetables. Charles specified by name not less than seventy-four varieties of herbs which he commanded to be cultivated; all the vegetables still raised in Central Europe, together with many herbs now found in botanical gardens only, bloomed on his villas; his orchards yielded a rich harvest in cherries, apples, pears, prunes, peaches, figs, chestnuts, and mulberries. The hill-sides were vineyards laden with the finest varieties of grapes."—Mombert, Charles the Great, p. 400.