THE NOBLEMAN'S PARADISE 195
Next came a 'Victory Car' displaying the effigies of hostile countries, and carrying
prisoners of war and captured booty. A woman walked alongside representing the
province of Livonia over which the war had been fought. At her feet lay the conquered
foe. After that, four white horses pulled a chariot to which the Enemy was shackled,
together with his defeated generals, officers and people at large. A placard made fun of
the boastful epithets which he had used before the war had started. The whole float was
surrounded by white-haired old men, carrying sweet-smelling censers. They represented
the decline and lethargy of the Enemy's power.
The fourth group consisted of a hunting-party led by Stanislaw Zolkiewski as Diana.
This was a sign of our soldiers' relaxation after the toils of war.
The fifth and last group was headed by Joachim Ocieski, Starosta of Olsztyn, seated
on a wagon in the guise of Cupid among singing choristers.
Venus rode behind, drawn by a pair of whales, whose jaws, nostrils, and eyes emitted
clouds of aromatic oil. A bevy of goddesses dressed in gold were dragging a reluctant
Paris with them, having bound him with rope. An orchestra went in front, and amidst
great merriment, Venus was handing out apples to couples in the crowd, whilst silver
thalers were continually scattered among the expectant onlookers ...^43
In winter, the kulig or 'sleigh-party' provided a suitable outlet for social ener-
gies. A train of sleighs, pulled by horses and filled with people bedecked in furs
and finery, would set off through the snow on a tour of the district. Led by the
bachelors of the party, with music playing from the leading sleigh and bells jin-
gling in the crisp air, they would proceed from house to house. At every stop
they drank the health of the host, and pressed the girls of the household to join
them. At some point, a longer halt was called, and a ball or banquet improvised.
Then in the night, with the revellers holding flaming brands aloft to light their
way, the revellers would return home.
As many of these instances show, the extravagance of the szlachta in matters
of taste was both material and psychological. Their obvious delight in the pos-
session of valuable objects was matched by their preference for anything which
was rich, loud, strange, or new. It inevitably devalued simplicity and usefulness,
and led to the eventual substitution of foreign fashions for homespun virtues.
Whereas the many Polish noblemen who travelled abroad in the Renaissance
period were able to use their Paduan education or the experiences of the Grand
Tour for the enrichment of a distinctive native culture, their descendants of the
eighteenth century were given to imitating the artistic and intellectual trends of
Paris and Berlin in the most blind and superficial way. The deterioration was
mirrored in linguistic habits. Whereas Kochanowski and his contemporaries
were equally fluent in Polish and Latin, which they used with exact skill on
appropriate occasions, subsequent generations lapsed into an inimitable maca-
ronic mixture of the two, or, if they really wanted to impress, into bad French.
Undeniably, therefore, the noble life-style had its negative aspects. In the
opinion of historians, and of many contemporaries, it was spoiled by the spirit
of excess. It was marked by 'wealth without welfare' and represented in Waclaw
Potocki's striking phrase, bogata nedza - 'rich poverty'. It put ostentation
before substance, good form before good deeds. It was maintained by an estate,