Tyrol and the Tyrolese : the people and the land in their social, sporting, and mountaineering aspects

Preface

TO

THE SECOND EDITION.

In laying the second edition of "Tyrol and the Tyrolese" before the pubHc, it becomes my duty — one of the most pleasant that fall to the lot of an author-— to express my sense of gratitude for the kind praise bestowed on my book.

In preparing the second edition, I have taken pains to remedy the errors and misprints that had crept in, and nothing would be left for me to say were it not my wish to touch upon a charge brought . by my reviewers, not against me, but, what is tantamount to it in my eyes, against the people of "the land in the mountains."

This race, my critics say, are, according to the account I give of them, a treacherously cruel people. It is naturally difficult to refute a charge of this kind in the face of the ample evidence of the rough and shaggy coat that hides the finer points of the

6 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

Tyrolese character from the gaze of the stranger. I must beg them, however, to remember that in bringing out the national character as fully as I did I was mainly prompted by the wish to convey a perfectly truthful picture to my reader's mind. This desire led me, I am afraid, to dwell too long upon the dark sides of the question : roughness and a certain freedom of morals.

Eye-gouging and biting off one's opponent's fingers, rarely as these casualties occur now-a-days in Tyrol, are undoubtedly cruel and reprehensible expedients in a free fight; but let me ask my critics would they call the English a treacherous and cruel people because in England kicking a wife to death or brutally ill-treating a defenceless man are daily occurrences?

The amount of respect shown to the female sex is generally considered to be a true criterion for the nobleness of man's character; and if this rule is allowed to hold good for nations at large, I have to own. Englishman as I am, that the Tyrolese need not dread a comparison. Whatever be the faults of the staunch old race dwelling in the recesses of the T)n:olese Alps, treacherous or cowardly cruelty certainly does not rank amongst them.

London : July 1877.

PREFACE

TO

THE FIRST EDITION.

A CERTAIN VALUE may, I hope, be imparted to this volume by the fact that I have Hved for many years in the Tyrol, and being by parentage half an Austrian, and as well acquainted with the German language as with my mother tongue, am therefore more likely to gain a true insight into the lives and characters of the Tyrolese than most writers on the same subject, who have not this advantage.

My love for sport and a sound bodily constitution have gone hand in hand in enabling me to acquire an accurate acquaintance with the rough fashions of this picturesque country; and while they have brought me across many an odd character lost to the world in some out-of-the-way nook among these little-known mountains and valleys, I have had many adventures, some of which I have endeavoured to relate in the following pages.

8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

It seems that some question had been raised relative to the spelHng of the word Tyrol. Without wishing to enter more fully into the merits of the controversy, I may mention that Tyrol was up to the beginning of this century, with hardly any exception, spelt with a "y." It is only within the last fifty or sixty years that the letter "i'' has supplanted it, and at present we find that the word is generally spelt Tirol. The fact that a number of geographical names have undergone in this half century precisely the same change as the word Tyrol, and that the "foreign" letter "y'' is hardly ever used by Germans, does not render the spelling of the word Tirol less incorrect, for we must remember throughout this whole question that the derivation of Tyrol is not, as many suppose, from "Terioles," but from **Tyr," a "fortress in the mountains," in which sense we find it in use as early as the ninth century.

I may finally remark that two of the chapters in this volume have appeared in the shape of sketches in the "Alpine Journal."

Chapter I. A Glimpse At The Landscape And The People

Number of old Castles — Landscape in North Tyrol and South Tyrol- Delineation of the national Peculiarities and Characteristics — Interesting History of Tyrol — The Tyrolese celebrated in the Middle Ages as first-rate Soldiers— Innate Love of the People for their Native Soil — Whence the Tyrolese travel — Incidents of their Travel — Defferegger Customs — Trading with Cattle in Russia — The Poesy of the Country tinted with the Sentiment of the "Minnesanger" — The defiant and chivalrous Bearing of the Tyrolese — The Blackcock Feather — "Turning" it— The Robbler— The Use of the Knife— The Tyrolese Wirth or Innkeeper, the exceptional Position of these Men — The Hardships that fall to the lot of Tyrolese Peasants— " The Wildheuer"— The danger of their Occupation— " Hinter-Dux " — Great Weights carried over precipitous Mountains — Advantages of wearing the national Costume — Odd Incidents that have occurred to the Author — The Alp-hut; its Interior; its primitive Utensils— Merry Life "on high" — The creative Genius of the Tyrolese — Their musical Talents , quick Ear, ^ and fine Voices — Their Unwillingness to exhibit their Musical Talents before Strangers — Passionate Love for the Mimic Art — Passion Plays and Theatres — An odd Play , , 15 lO CONTENTS.

Chapter II. Priesthood And Superstition

Tyrol one of the Strongholds of the Roman Catholic Faith — The Position of the Priest — His good and bad influence on the Populace— Low Scale of Morality — Restrictions that cumber Marriage in the Lower Classes — Woman the most devout Disciple of Priesthood — Brutal Fights of former years — How a Tyrolese Priest will dress up commonplace Events in the Garb of a Miracle — Instances— "Volksaberglaube" — A Peasant will never mention the word Devil— Nor does he make any Difference between Protestant and Jew — Elementary Visitations connected with the Evil One — How to keep off the Wicked Spirit — Bells rung when a Thunderstorm is approaching — The Bell of "Rodenegg"- Considered the most efficient Charmer of Lightning — Gross Superstition — Instances that have occurred to the Author — LocalLegends — The Natives believe in them — Castle Braunsberg in the > " Ulten Valley "—The Tower " Hilf-mir-Gott " and its Legend . 53

CHAPTER IIL

A peasant's WEDDING.

Pressing Invitation Xo a Peasant's Wedding in the Brandenberg Valley — Depth of Snow rendering the Approaches to the Valley difficult — Dancing on the Eve of the Wedding— Zither and Hackbrettel — Schnaddahiipfler— The Dances of the Peasantry— Summary Expulsion of quarrelsome Rivals — Marriage Service — Mode of Invitation to the wedding Banquet — The Rifle-match — The Target— Splendid Shots among the Natives — The "running Stag" — Supper— Number of Guests — Boisterous Mirth — The Game of " Fingerhackeln " — Amazing eating capacities of the Brandenbergers — The "Ehrengang" — Acting of the presiding Godmother— The usual wedding Presents— Money — Pieces of Furniture, or in other parts Cradles— The Ehrentanz—

CONTENTS. I I

Strange Custom of singing Rhymes in praise of the Occasion — Laughable Incidents— The Musicians at a Wedding — How they are paid — Cooling oneself after dancing a la Brandenberg —The feat of dancing thirty-two Hours, as performed by the Author— Return Home— Great Depth of Snow — Unpopularity of modernized Weddings in the Country — Instances thereof 74

Chapter IV. The Woodcutter

Survival of an Ancient Type of Population— The "Holzhacker" — Number of men employed by Government in the "Forstwesen" — Younger Sons generally away from Home — Why, and the Laws of Inheritance that cause it — The Daughter's Share— Various Products for which several Tyrolese Valleys are celebrated — Tyrol once the richest Mining Country — Strange Ignorance of the Woodcutters ; "Is London a Village in Welsh-Tyrol?"— The Woodcutter's Vocation and the manifold Dangers attendant upon it — Votive Tablets — Odd Wording of the same— Instances — Drifting the Wood and the danger attendant upon it — Recital of the Author's Experience of Woodcutter's Hospitality — Their Hut— Their Conversation — Suspicious Tea — Poaching Anecdotes — How they live— Their Amusements — Accidents in the Mountains — Tardiness of Medical Help — Playing the Poacher — The Author's Experience— A hasty Retreat 105

Chapter V. The Chamois And The Chamois Stalker

Ignorance of the Public respecting the Habitat of the Chamois — Causes thereof— The three large private Preserves in Tyrol , containing some 2,500 to 3,000 Chamois — Number of parochial Preserves — The Cha-

1 2 CONTENTS.

mols— Its Habitat -Agility and amazingly keen Sight and Scent — The Chase of this Animal— Great Hardihood necessary— The Hunter must rely entirely upon himself— His outward Appearance— The Chamois and its Chase for ever a rich Mine of Anecdote and Myth— Pliny ; his story of the Chamois — Modern descriptions teeming with nonsensical pieces of Superstition— The Swiss Hotel-keeper's Trick — The Chamois-stalker free from mercenary Motives— An instance of Woman's Faithfulness to her Lover — A noted Poacher — An Instance of the Author's Experience — Schwaz— Zwerchbachhiitte — Cold Night-quarters — Miraculous Vitality of the Chamois — Dangerous Descent— Return Home — Success not always met with at a cost of so little Time and Trouble — Number of times the Author has returned unsuccessful— Occurrence in the "Kaisergebirg"— A perilous Drop — Battues — The End of the Chamois-stalker — A silent but grand Tombstone . . . 135

Chapter VI. The Golden Eagle And Its Eyrie

The Eagle the Tiger of his Race — Tactics of the Bird in seizing his Prey — Difficulties of shooting an Eagle surpassed by those that attend the Extraction of a young Bird from its Eyrie — Hansel my Informant — The Author's Transformation into a Native — The Drift-keeper and his Wife, buxom Moidl — A novel Nuptial Couch— Going over the Details of the Exploit with six woodcutter Friends — Our Departure — The last "Joddler"— Gaining the Summit of the Falknerwand— The Ledge — Mode of lowering ourselves to it— Various precautionary Measures observed by us— Hanging in Mid-air— My Arrival at the Eyrie— Great Surprise — Bagging the young Eagles — Accident on departing from the Ledge— Strange mystery that saved the Author's Life — A ludicrous Position — Weathering an Alpine Thunderstorm as a Pendant — A hungry Party — Our Descent from the Peak and return Home— The Eagles' Breakfast— Prodigious Appetite — Feathering the Eagles — Value of a Crop— Revisiting the captive Birds — Untamable Ferocity of the Eagle .,.,.,,.,., 163

CONTENTS. 13

Chapter VII. An Encounter With Tyrolese Poachers

An Inn in the Bavarian Highlands — Cause of the "Herr Oberforster's " Excitement — Invasion of the Bavarian Preserves by a bold Quartet of Tyrolese "Wilddiebe" — Deadly Animosity existing between Tyrolese and Bavarian Highlanders — Shot by Bavarians — Our Departure — Strange Position of ** Johann" — The Poacher's Retreat — The Author's Post of Observation — Subtle Stratagem of the head Forester — Blowing up the Door — The Fight inside the Hut — The wounded Forester and the dying Poacher — Conveying Wounded and Prisoners home — Painful Incidents of the Night — The conscience-stricken Keeper — Details of the Fight— Reckless Daring of Poachers succeeds frequently in vanquishing a superior force of Keepers 186

Chapter VIII. A Tyrolese Smuggler And His Life

Smuggling formerly one of the chief Resources of the Inhabitants of frontier Valleys— Bold, reckless, and cunning, they defied the Law — Nowadays the Decrease of Duty renders Smuggling unremunerative— The Tactics to be followed in drawing out a "Schwarzer" — Johann an interesting Type — How the Author made his Acquaintance— Dangerous Situation in a Smuggler's Den — Strange Meeting — My curt Vis-a-vis — His History — His Father's Life — Heroic Conduct in time of War — The Battle of Berg Isel — Recommencing Trade — "Halt! or we shoot" — Getting rid of a Grenzwachter— Playing the pigheaded Peasant- Grand Opening— " Obedience and no School" — My First Expedition — Ruse to take in the Bavarian Grenzwachter — Joddling a useful Art — Playing the poor " Wurzengraber "— The Fight— A terrific Struggle- Leaving Home— Embarking in the Cattle Trade — "Nanni" the coldhearted — Again a Smuggler — Never to leave Home again . 208

1 4 CONTENTS.

Chapter IX. The Blackcock

The Capercali and the Blackcock — Formerly plentiful in Scotland — Blackcock Shooting difficult Sport — When the Blackcock is shot in Tyrol — The Love Song — Its three distinct Notes— Keen Sight and Ear of the Game — Setting out on a Blackcock shooting Expedition — "Lois" — His Home — Starting once more — Snowhoops and Crampons in use^— A novel Sledge and speedy Descent — Taking up Position — " Early to Bed and early to Rise" — Approach of the Blackcock — Anspringen — How I failed — Spotting a second Cock — Snowed-up Quarters — Novel Mode of entering a Habitation — How the Day was passed — Simple but wholesome Fare — The pine Marten — Two Tumbles, one of them fatal —Fate of the second Blackcock— the "Schneider's" Feelings . 237

Chapter X. A Winter Ascent Of The Gross Glockner

Hardy Tyrolese — Effeminate Tourists get laughed at — Amazing Depth of Snow — Recital of an Attempt to rescue a snowed-up Couple — A Shooting Expedition — Surprised by a Heavy Snowfall — Lena, the Daughtei: of the Distiller — How we passed the Day— Lena inTrousers— A twenty hours' March— The Gross Glockner — "Thomas Groder" the Glockner- Wirth — The mad Englishman — Reaching Kals— Desponding News — "Impossible" — "Die we can but once" — Dividing the Stores — Seemingly a Fool's Errand— Our first Acquaintance with the Snow — The Jorgen Hut — Our Supper — The last Meal— The Avalanches — Persuasion necessary — The Sunrise— Coming upon Ice — Cutting steps with a Shovel — A rare Phenomenon — The Saddle— Dangerous Work across the Knifeback — Reaching the Top— Unique View - Heiligen Blut — Its discomfited Inhabitants — "A slip, and we are all killed" — Our Return —Five famishing Mortals 256

TYROL AND THE TYROLESE.

CHAPTER I. A Glimpse at the Landscape and the People

It may well amaze even those who have been whirled in the train through the two or three chief valleys of Tyrol, to learn that this country, with a population considerably less than half that of Yorkshire, contains five hundred and thirty -seven old castles.

These Tyrolese castles form so picturesque a feature in scenery nearly always grand and striking, that the indulgent reader will excuse my inviting him to visit one of their number ere I lay before him the results of my experience amongst the people. To this end he will kindly accompany me up the steep path leading to the ponderous ironbarred old gate giving entrance to one of the most ancient and historically interesting of Tyrolese castles — the home of this volume, — and after ascending endless flights of stairs, find himself comfortably l6 TYROL AND THE TYROLESE.

seated in an armchair in front of the broad old-fashioned window overlooking the whole of the country near.

Lying at your feet is a goodly stretch of the smiling, exquisitely verdant valley of the Inn, skirted by two parallel rows of noble peaks terminating in the far distance with the glistening glacier world of the Oetz and Stubai Thaler.

As your eye glances down the giddy height and follows the upward course of the broad swift Inn at your feet, as it winds like a band of silver through green meadows, eight old castles, the remains of what were once feudal strongholds, occupying the eminences of hills, or perched like swallows' nests on the precipitous slopes of the adjacent mountains, become discernible. Interspersed between these hoary relics rise the amazingly slender, needle-shaped spires of three churches, the houses belonging to each village clustering round the sacred edifice. Of the broadroofed houses, hidden behind groves of apple or nut-trees, little is to be seen; and of such as are visible, the greater part are of the velvety brown timber which is so sunny and pleasing to the eye. Only the blue rings of smoke curling up in the gloriously-tinted evening sky indicate the presence of human habitations secreted behind bowers of trees. Fancy a dark green background of precipitously rising mountains,

THE LANDSCAPE AND THE PEOPLE. I 7

covered with sombre pine forest, terminating in the gray diffs that form the eminences, thereby bringing the rich vegetation of the verdant valley into close contrast with the sternness of the impending peaks, and you have the type of a peaceful sunny North Tyrolese landscape.

I say North Tyrolese, for Tyrol, divided into halves by the high snow-peaked main chain of the Alps, represents, taken as a whole, two geographically distinct countries. North Tyrol can be identified to all practical purposes with the German cantons of Switzerland, having an Alpine climate, while the South, with its vineyards and its genial air, is akin to fertile Italy. This perfect dissimilarity of Northern to Southern Tyrol renders a cursory glance at the physical appearance of the latter indispensable in order to form a faithful conception of the whole country.

Removing our chair of observation to a window of any one of the numerous castles of Meran in South Tyrol, we have, though at a distance of scarcely more than seventy-five miles, as the crow flies, from our former point of view, a landscape before our eyes as different from the first as it well can be.

To the painter's palette supplied with various shades of green and gray sufficient to depict North Tyrolese scenery, we have to add the blue, yellow, and mauve of Italian landscape.

The number of castles in our picture has increased from eight to five and twenty or thirty. The rich verdant pasturages are supplanted either by scrubby brushwood scorched to a sombre brown, or by large expanses of vineyards, while the dark green peaceful pine forests have been replaced by the stunted fir of a brownish tint, or by the ashy white dolomite rocks, unrelieved by a single patch of green. 'In the valleys again the simple cherry and apple-tree have given way to the far more variegated and luxurious vegetation of a warmer zone, producing of course a greater diversity in colours than is created in the northern parts by the two or three shades of green peculiar to Alpine vegetation.

Gigantic chestnut and nut-trees, ivy-clad ruins and venerable old castles in a good state of preservation in the foreground, with gardens and vineyards, surmounted by ashy-toned cliffs, in the background, are the characteristics of South Tyrolese scenery.

If, with regard to the Tyrolese themselves, the experience of many years spent in Tyrol gives me a right to express an opinion varying somewhat from those of many authors, I must say that I have found the Tyrolese in matters of daily life a highly intelligent, bold, and excessively hardworking people, distinguished, even from the inhabitants of other mountainous countries, by great patriotism and by an innate unquenchable love for their native soil, enhanced by a strangely chivalrous feeling of manly independence. Regarding their warlike spirit — fostered, to a great extent, by their strong attachment to the Hapsburg dynasty — we need but refer to the endless wars in which the Tyrolese were involved from the very earliest times down to the present day. In the Middle Ages the country was hardly ever in a state of peace from external or internal foes. Not only was it surrounded on four sides by dire enemies, the Venetians, Italians, Swiss, and Bavarians; but the broad Inn and the sunny Adige valley, connected by one of the lowest passes over the Alps, formed the chief high road between civilised Italy and rough Germany. Not only was this highway, paved by Nature herself, used for commerce, accompanied, however, by a calamitous system of rapacious highwaymanry, but it was also constantly crossed and recrossed by victorious or defeated armies marching to or returning from Italy. Whether these armies were hostile or friendly to the Tyrolese, the results were always disastrous to it.

There are, indeed, few countries that have suffered from war and its dire calamities so much as Tyrol, and though its affairs occupy but a small space in the history of Europe, yet to the student

2* they afford quite as rich a field for his researches as the history of many a mighty and powerful kingdom.

Great heroism distinguished the Tyrolese on every occasion, generally indeed bringing them out the victors against odds. Their great power of endurance, superior muscular force, indomitable courage, and a certain love for fighting and hard knocks, have, since the time when the generals of Charles V. and Maximilian recruited their best soldiers from the country, gained them high repute, quite apart from their deadly marksmanship, which even Napoleon's best generals and picked troops could not withstand.

Nothing demonstrates their innate love for their native soil more signally than the fact that, while in other countries a portion of the inhabitants emigrate to more propitious territories, a genuine Tyrolese very rarely indeed leaves his country for good. When their great purpose of life, the accumulation of small fortunes, as pedlars, musicians, or in other vocations, is accomplished, they never fail to return to their home, and, settling down in their native valley, enjoy the well-earned fruits of their industry.

There is something veiy pleasing in this attachment to the home soil, which carries a man steadfastly through difficulties, and incites him to overcome the ups and downs of a wandering life, and lands him at last, after twenty or five and twenty years' toil, in the promised land of his desires. It seems strange to meet in some remote corner of Tyrol men who, in the course of their constant travels, have acquired a certain polish of manners as well as a quite unlooked-for intelligence of thought and aptitude of expression.

To be addressed by one of these travelled Tyrolese, dressed may be in the very roughest of national costumes, perhaps even without a coat on his back or shoes to his feet, in the North German dialect, or in French or English, is indeed surprising.

Some of the men, particularly those who have travelled in the character of Tyrolese singers, have visited the four quarters of the globe. Many who are known to me have exhibited their musical talents at the courts of all the potentates of Europe, and a few even in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. One of the latter, Ludwig Rainer,* owner of a charming hotel on the beautiful shores of the Achensee in Tyrol, related to me once his various adventures while travelling in the United States. He had been there three times. The first time he fell into the hands of scoundrels who rid

* He and his troupe exhibited themselves, I think, on two occasions before our Queen, and several times>t the Paris and St. Petersburg courts.

him of every penny he had put by; from the second trip he returned not much the richer; and only the third time did he manage to amass the comfortable fortune he is reputed to possess.

Another man, now a well-to-do peasant, related to me in capital English, interspersed however with copious Yankee slang, how he had once been blown up on a Mississippi steamboat; while a third, owner of a small inn in the Pusterthal, on my asking him how he had come by his lacerated face, told me that while out bear-shooting in one of the Northern States of America, he had been suddenly attacked by a female bear, and not having time to draw his knife, he had succeeded in throttling the animal. The man's gigantic build and resolute demeanour was to me the best proof of his veracity.

The traveller who wanders through the Defferegger valley, a remote Alpine glen high up among the mountains, may, in certain months of the year, see a very singular sight.

The annual total emigration of the male population of this valley compels the women to do the work of the men. There is probably not a single man above eighteen or twenty, and below sixty or seventy years of age, in that valley for four of the spring and summer months.

You see women fell trees, drive their heavilyladen carts, till the ground, gather fodder, chop^ wood; and if you enter one of the village inns you will see rows of women, their short pipes in their mouths, and elbows leaning on the table, drinking their pint of Tyrolese wine after their hard work.

A year or two ago I happened one Sunday evening to be present when one of the female occupants of the bar-room in the chief inn of St. Jacob — I being the only man present — read to her companions a letter she had received that day from her husband, who at the time of writing was at Salt Lake City, among the Mormons. Though he was only a simple pedlar in hosiery, his graphic but inexpressibly quaint description of the city and of the customs of its inhabitants was highly amusing. Very singular and laughable it was to watch the effects of this description on the minds of the simple women, who had never heard of such a thing as the plurality of wives. Such a state of things seemed to them the height of human iniquity. Some thought the Mormons utter barbarians, while others, evidently applying the rule to their own homes, swore they would rather be killed than suffer any female rivals in their houses.

The Defferegger folk collect the necessary means to purchase their stock in trade by raising jointstock companies. The man who contributes the largest sum of money to one of these modest commercial enterprises is also entitled to the proportionate amomit of the net gains. They keep no books, nor have they any security in hand for the money invested; mutual confidence, engendered by a certain esprit de corps ^ with strict honesty among themselves, is the base upon which these companies are built. In their business transactions with strangers while on their tours they exhibit a sharpness quite unlooked for, and their simple exterior and dull speech disguise in most cases a very remarkable shrewdness.

Twenty or thirty years ago a very brisk and re- "munerative cattle trade existed between two Tyrolese valleys and Russia. The traders in this business used to drive their droves of twenty or thirty head themselves from Tyrol to Central and Eastern Russia. When they could, they took advantage of a watercourse, as, for instance, down the Danube to the Black Sea, thence along the coast by land to Taganrog, and thence either north or north-east. The large fairs at Nishnei Novgorod and Orenburg were visited by them, and very frequently they penetrated far into Asiatic Russia. Their journey thither often occupied eight or nine months, so that one venture entailed an absence from home of eighteen months or two years. The prices which they realised for the highly-prized Tyrolese cattle used for breeding purposes were naturally very high; 500 ducats per head (about 250/.) was by no means an unusual figure for a beast which they had bought in their native valley for some eight or nine pounds.

The risks from accidents, disease, or natural causes were of course correspondingly high, and some men in one venture lost their all by the murrain destroying their drove, while others grew rich and prosperous ip two or three expeditions of this kind.

Now all this is changed. The Russians are loth to pay fancy prices, and prefer getting their breeding cattle from England at a quarter of the former cost; but it nevertheless gives us an idea of the intrepidity and commercial intelligence that prompted so highly venturesome and hazardous transactions.

Many a time have I been asked by some middle-aged rustic if I have ever been in Wolgsk, or Uralsk, or Orenburg, or Astrachan, and on my giving him a negative answer I have had to put up with the retort, Hhen you have been nowhere.' One or two villages in the two valleys that monopolised the Russian cattle-trade are entirely peopled by families who have grown rich in this trade, and who are now slowly descending the social ladder, step by step, till they reach the level of peasants, the stock from which they sprang seventy or eighty years ago.

The Tyrolese peasant has been often compared with a small freeholder in England, though of course the latter, in comparison with a Tyrolese cultivator, lives in the style of a prince or king. A peasant proprietor who owns three or four acres of tolerable land maintains himself and his family in a simple but comfortable manner; he and his son being sufficient for the labours of such a farm, while his wife and daughters spin and make the greater part of the family clothing.

There is however one very striking difference in the circumstances of a small cultivator in England and a peasant in Tyrol.

In the latter country all the cultivators are of one and the same class, and therefore one has the same chance as another; while in England there are cultivators on a large scale able to apply to the soil capital and skill with greater advantage and economy than the small proprietor.

I have said that the Tyrolese exhibit a chivalrous independence of character arising from an innate confidence in their own powers. I might qualify this observation by remarking that a kindly goodnatured courteousness towards the female sex, and a bold, half defiant, half saucy bearing among themselves are, generally speaking, marked characteristics of the young Tyrolese rustics.