1It is well enough known that no cities are inhabited by the peoples of the Germans, and that they cannot even bear dwellings joined to one another. 1They live apart and scattered, as a spring, a plain or a grove has taken their fancy. 2They lay out their villages not in our fashion, with buildings connected and joined together: each surrounds his house with an open space, either as a safeguard against the risks of fire or from ignorance of building. 3Not even stones or tiles are used among them: for everything they use rough timber, with no regard for appearance or delight. 3Certain parts they plaster more carefully with an earth so pure and gleaming that it resembles painting and coloured designs.
4They are also accustomed to dig out underground caves and load them on top with much dung, as a refuge from winter and a store for their crops, because places of this kind soften the severity of the frosts, and if ever an enemy comes, he plunders what is in the open, but what is hidden and buried either goes unnoticed or escapes him for the very reason that it has to be searched for.