Part 12
One is sorry, none the less, not to have witnessed the boisterous procession of cattle returning from their summer pastures, the woodlands changing to gold, and that first September hoar-frost which melts at noon, when drops of moisture glisten on every spider-web; sorry not to have seen the gay fungus-people starting out of the dank earth. And here are plums on their trees, almost ripe. Such a crop there never was. Another week, and they would have been ready to be converted into the first of those ambrosial tarts which are smothered, at the last moment, under a deluge of whipped cream and then devoured so dutifully that, on rising from table, you cannot but feel a kind of bewildered reverence for the capacity of the human stomach. Only another week: how provoking!
No matter. We have had a breath of fresh air together.
THE END
INDEX
_Index_
_Adneter Kalk_, pink marble, 143, 181
Aldertree, connected with name of province, 153
Alemannic settlement of province, 62; specimen of dialect, 139
_Algäu-schiefer_, Liassic shale, 145, 148
Alpila, alp, 62
Alpine rose (rhododendron), 6, 136, 143
Anna, the old nurse, her passion for idiots and corpses, 39-40; for wolf-stories, 214; gets it hot, 95; shakes chocolate from a tree, 213; not old at all, 214
Ants, unreliable workmen, 124
Aretius, botanist, 240
Arlberg, mountain pass, boundary of province, 53; railway under, 150; derivation of name, 153; wine transport over, 197
Aurora borealis, 5
Badger, a tame, 28; its fat, 116
Bädle inn (Nüziders), 186
Bädle inn (Tiefis), 135
Baedeker, 150
_Bährenloch_, artificial cavern, 26-28, 125, 184
Bats, as pets, 28
Bears, 188
Beautification Society, of Bludenz, 27, 186; of Blumenegg, 172
Beaver, shot on the Elbe, 129
Beds, local, their discomforts, 3; double, their uses, 222
Bergmann, Prof. Joseph, 53
Berlepsch, H. A., 188
Bernhardt, B. (Velcurio), the first married priest, 169
Birds, various, 125-130, 181, 235, 239
_Blaufelchen_, 206-208. _See_ Coregonus.
Bludenz, town, 6, 23, 29, 48, 53, 59, 112, 114, 145, 147, 152, 157, 187, 235; destroyed by fire, 132; its museum, 139; height above sea-level, 184
Bludesch, village, 44, 46, 48, 60, 163, 190, 234; derivation of name, 62; its former vineyards, 198; old school-house, 215; Krone inn, 216
Blumenegg, castle-ruin, origin of name, 72; its charm and history, 74-80; waterfall, 75, 172; popular reception of its lords, 55; their enactments, 136; contrasted with Jagdberg ruin, 174
Boar, wild, 187
Bock, Hieronymus, botanist, 73
Bolshevism, manufacture of, 113
Brand, village, 157
Bratz, village, 111
Bregenz, town, 53, 129, 187; museum and libraries, 151, 181, 198, 214, 216; Protestant cemetery, 200; ostensible reasons for going there, 198; real reason, 206
Bregenzerwald, district, 32, 53, 187
Brehm, A. E., 184
Bruhin, Th. A., monk-naturalist, 91-93; on woodpecker, 129; on _salamandra maculosa_, 184; on wild beasts of province, 187, 188; Professor at Meherau, 199
_Brunnenmacher_ (father) mountaineer, presumably hirsute, 25; (son) mountaineer, indubitably hirsute, 25; his smile and his blasphemies, 25, 26; takes author in hand, 28, 128
Buchboden, village, 91
Bulrushes, 100, 231
Bürs, village, 126, 127, 179, 185
Bürserberg, village, 126
Butter, smuggled into Switzerland, 114
Butterflies, various, 7, 117, 118, 169; frozen on snowfield, 158
Capercailzie, 60-61
Castle-ruins, their charming designations, 72
Celtic inhabitants of province, 62, 151, 152; hill-fort, 151; place-names, 169
Cement, an abomination, 77, 132, 225
Cemeteries, poetic German names for, 71
Chamois, 101, 144, 145; shoots taken by Swiss, 33; how to bag, 157
“Château aux fenêtres.” _See_ Jordan
_Chronicon Hirsaugiense_, destroyed by fire, 78
Cider, getting tipsy on, 237
Climate, grows damper, 197
Clutterbuck, Mr., a droll personage, 224
Cocoa, an abomination, 10
Cockchafer. _See_ Engerlinge.
Coffee, how to roast, 34
Constance, lake of, 6, 53, 129, 152, 198
_Coregonus_, a delectable fish, 206
Costumes, local, 53
Cotterill, H. B., 85
Cotton mills, family property, 61, 64
Cows, explode from over-eating, 208
Crayfish, 44
_Crétins_, not discoverable hereabouts, 39
Currency, effects of its depreciation, 109-15
Dachshund, lady-dog, sets a bad example, 4
Dalaas, village, 139, 149, 180
Dalla Torre, Prof. quoted, 93
Dolls, massacre of, 217
_Dorfberg_, an ancient road, 40, 41
Dornbirn, borough, 188
Douglass, John, why he settled in Austria, 62; his way with beggars, 64, 66
Douglass, John Sholto, climbs the Zimba, 21-23; president of provincial Alpine Club, 24; carries on business of his father, 66; his paper on Rothe Wand, 137; fatal accident, 138, 144, 148-150; writings, 150-154; Lünersee hut called after him, 159; discovers mammoth-tusk, 181; his disciplinary measures, 222, 223
Drei Schwestern, mountain, 245
Druso, Drusenfluh, etc., pre-Roman names, 153
Drusus, Roman general, 62, 152
Düns, village, 169
Edelweiss, 8, 245
Edelraute, plant, 143
Education, in France, 14; a sound, 40
Elephant-trap, a disused, 117
Elk, discovery of skull and horns of, 139
Els alp, 147
Elser Schröfen, cliffs, crossing their talus, 145-147; due to disrupture, 147
_Engerlinge_, cockchafer-larvæ, destructive to crops, 110
Erratic blocks, 180, 189, 190, 234
Eulenloch, dell, 44
Falling in love, with a mountain, 30
Falster, torrent, 72; derivation of name, 63
Feldbächle, stream, 61, 235; going to bed in, 63. _See_ Montiola.
Feldkirch, town, 53, 73, 115, 150, 152, 169; former vineyards at, 197
Fire, destruction of villages by 42, 71, 126-128
Fishery regulations of 1690, 136
Florimont. _See_ Blumenegg.
Flowers, favorite, 73, 180
Fön wind, derivation of name, 63; responsible for outbreaks of fire, 71, 134; transports butterflies, 158
Fontanella, village, 62
Food, local specialties, 11-12
“Forêt nordique,” tract of wood, 135, 136
Forests, their charm, 41, 42, 102
Formaletsch, mountain, 139
Formarin lake, 139, 143, 144, 155, 181; derivation of name, 63
Fossils, where found, 181
Fox, as pet, 28; civil behavior of a, 182
Frastafeders, castle-ruin, 63
Frastanz, village, 137, 245; battle of, 220
Freiburger hut, 181
Freytag, Gustav, 80
Furkla alp, 6, 147
Gais, locality, 62, 66, 224
Galgen-tobel, torrent, 29, 147, 184
Gamperdona, alp, 244; derivation of name, 63
Gamsboden, mountain, 143 _seq._
Garnets, hunting for, 54, 180
Gasünd, hamlet, 126
Geiger, Dr., prescribes only camomile, 46
Gentians, 240
Gesner, Conrad, 240
Gleziska, meadow, 213, 214
Gluttony, when to be discouraged, 12; when permissible, 13
Goats, legislation regarding, 136
Goitre, 43
Grabherr, Joseph, on Blumenegg rule, 136
Grand-aunts, the delight of childhood, 41, 47, 96, 218
Grandfather, maternal, a feudal monster, always spick-and-span, 200; excavates in imagination the Acropolis of Athens, 201, 202; tells Prince Consort how to handle Queen Victoria, 202; sometimes mistaken for an angel, 203; dominates his harim, 204, 205; vicious to the last, 205
Grandmother, paternal, applies Gregory’s Powder with unexpected result, 97; her attitude towards tobacco, 100; insists upon recitations of “Marmion” and gets them, 103; devours roly-poly _pour encourager les autres_, 104
Grimm’s Fairy Tales, occasionally inane, 17
Gross Litzner, mountain, 144
Gstinswald, forest, 72, 73
Halde Wässerle, spring, 184
Halden zu Haldenegg, von der, noble family, 216
Haller, A. von, 221, 240
Hanging Stone, cliff, 73, 77, 134, 180, 186, 187
Hard, village, 129
Hare, how to shoot, 127; how not to cook, 207
Hay-huts, change in style of building, 45, 214, 239
Hexenthurm, rock-needle, 138
Hinedo, Peter, author, 14
Hirsch-sprung (Stag’s Leap), meadow, 42, 44, 45
Hochgerach, mountain, 6
Hohenems, borough, 181
Hoher Frassen, mountain, 6, 137; death on, 24
Honstetter, Karl, taxidermist, 129
Horse-flies, a pest, 61
Hüttenwanzen, not wanted hereabouts, 25
Ibex, a Swiss, 129
Idiots, 13, 37; indifferent specimens of, 38; types of the old school, 39
Ill, river, 53, 55, 59; recently embanked, 54; its prehistoric shore, 148; new bridges over, 230
Jagdberg, castle-ruin, 172-176, 235, 240
Jakob, a villager worth watching, 236
Jordan, ruined mansion, 163 _seq._, 189
Josefinum, refuge for children, 172 _seq._
Jumbo the jovial, not like the rest of them, 91
Kanisfluh, mountain, 138, 245
Kaufmann, Angelika, 32, 199
Keilpolster, an abomination, 3
Kirschwasser, present price of, 244
Kloster alp, awful experience on, 7
Krupsertobel, torrent, 29
Kuhloch, natural arch, 126
Lämmergeier, 29, 129
Lagutz, alp, 129, 155; derivation of name, 63
Lake dwellings, former, destroyed by fire, 71; persist into Roman times, 151; relics of, 152; their grape-cultivation, 198
Lamb, Charles, 86
_Landregen_, a persistent drizzle, 3, 33
Lasko, dog, his well, 229, 230, 231, 234
Lasko the Second, dog, 231
Latz, hamlet, 185
Lauterach, village, 152
Lech, river, 53
Lech, village, 33, 101, 155
Lindau, island, 152
Lindenspeur, G. L. von, builder of Jordan mansion, 163, 174; fond of windows, 165
Lorüns, village, 181, 184
Ludesch, village, 72, 73, 78, 115, 189, 239; its rifle range, 32, 116; derivation of name, 62
Ludescherberg, hamlet, 6, 100
Lünersee, lake, its shelter-hut, 24, 159
Lutz, river, 53, 58, 59, 72, 73; recently embanked, 54; derivation of name, 62; its prehistoric shore, 116; old bridge over, 230
Lynx, 187
MacDougal, Skye-terrier, specializes in cats, 233, 234
Mammoth tusk, 181
Mangili, Prof., 9
Maple trees, 99
Marmot, lives in colonies, 8, 143; its fat, 8; ingratitude of a hibernating, 9; freakish dentition of a, 10; derivation of popular name, 63
Marshes, their vegetation, 44, 240
Martens, 115
Marul, village, 129, 147, 155
Mattli, sportsman and station-master, 127-128; on last wolf, 187
Mauren, village, 151
Mehrerau, convent, 199
Mellau, village, 138
Midwives, raise their tariff, 115
Milton, his botany, 85, 86
Minerals, where found, 180
Moles, destruction of, 110, 115
Mondspitze, Mountain, 6
Montavon, valley, 9, 23, 53, 244
Montiola, brook, 61-64, 125, 135, 137, 235; its source, 136, 138. _See_ Feldbächle.
Moralists, their limitations, 86
Münster, Sebastian, 169
Nauders, village, 188
Nenzing, village, 53, 58, 60, 172, 188, 244
Nüziders, village, 148, 186; destroyed by fire, 71, 134
“Nymphe pudique,” fountain, 46, 234
Oak, a memorable, 77
Obdorf, village, 184
Ortler, mountain, 159
Ovid, blunders in botany, 85
Palladas, grammarian, English rendering of his epigram, 167
Peasants, their grievances, 111; catch pneumonia supervising cows at pasture, 209
Petrifying brook, a marvel, 41, 64, 189, 213
Pines, a region of stunted, 59
Pines, dwarf, their local names, 6, 153; deserve protection, 7
Piz Buin, mountain, 150
Piz Linard, mountain, 150
_Plumeau_, an abomination, 3
Plum-tarts, how to eat, 245
Poets, should avoid towns, 84; generally born naked, 168; talk nonsense about pomegranates, 206
Potatoes, how to cook, 11; local names of, 72
“Pré des papillons,” meadow, 169, 170, 239
Prime, Miss, her dismal experiences as governess, 221 _seq._
Procter, Adelaide, 198
Prudishness of countryfolk, 236
Quadera, meadow, 62, 74
Quadertatsch, an amiable beast, subject to accidents, 182, 184
Quinet, Edgar, 202
R., Mr., a young brigand, studies the English language, 12 _seq._; starts a love affair. 42 _seq._; progress of English studies, 165; progress of love affair, 130, 190, 241
Radona-tobel, torrent, 149
Raggal, village, 7, 100, 155; Eldorado of idiots, 37; derivation of name, 63
Ramsay, Dean, 221
Rellsthal, valley, 23, 159
Rhætian inhabitants of province, 62, 151
Rhætikon, mountain-group 7, 21, 99, 182
Rhæto-Roman names, 6, 62-63, 72, 111, 152, 153, 179
Rhine, upper, 6, 53; regulating its river-bed, 54, 152
Riedbach, streamlet, 44, 235; its source, 45, 234
Roedeer, 156, 187
Röns, village, 169
Romans, occupy province, 60, 62, 151; cultivate vine, 198
Romansh names. _See_ Rhæto-Roman.
Rosenegg, castle-ruin, 72, 179-182
Rothe Wand, mountain, 137, 143, 148, 150
Rothenbrunnen, mineral spring, 136
“Ruisseau des écrevisses,” 44, 45, 135. _See_ Riedbach.
“Runde Scheible,” how they came to disappear from the landscape, 48
Rungalin village, 26, 184, 188; derivation of name, 63
Säntis mountain, tragedy on, 29
Sagliain, glacier, 150
St. Anne, church, 37, 55, 172
St. Anton, village, 180
St. Gallenkirch, village, 9
St. Gebhard, chapel, 200
St. Gerold, hamlet and convent, 91-93; its vineyard, 197
St. Martin, church, 186; its Gothic ornaments, 214
St. Nicholas, church, 48, 190
St. Peter, convent, 152
Salamander, alpine, 182; maculated, 184
Sarotla alp, 23, 24
Satteins, village, 95
Scesaplana, mountain, 24, 29, 62, 74, 244; its summit, 158
Scesa-tobel, torrent, 59, 127, 148, 181
Schattenburg, castle-ruin, 72
Schlee, Johann Georg, his _Relation of Rhetia_, 76; on wild beasts, 187, 188
Schlehen. _See_ Schlee.
Schlins, village, 169; its pleasanttavern, 172, 235
Schlosstobel, torrent, 63, 72
Schmalz, a desirable condiment, 11, 114
Schmatzen, a noise forbidden at dinner, 92-93
Schnapps (spirits), varieties of, 33
Schnepfenstrich, tract of forest, 60
Schreiber, E., _quoted_, 184
Schubert, Fräulein, gets the sack, 215
Shelter-huts in mountains, degenerate into hotels, 24
Silberthal, valley, 34
Silvretta, glacier, 150
Sippins, dog, specializes in fleas and beer, 232
Sister of author, leads him astray, 63, 94, 237
Skittles played with skulls, 214
Sliding on fir-branches, its risks, 5-6
Solidarity, a catchword, 175-176; its grotesque results, 231
Som, schoolmaster, 215, 216
Sonnenberg, castle-ruin, 72, 186
Sonntag, village, 136
Sporting pictures, their uses, 4, 176
Spuller lake, 139, 144
Squirrel, with malformed teeth, 10; death of a tame, 28; declining in numbers, 238
Statuette of bronze, a remarkable, 152
Stelvio pass, crossing on high bicycles, 159
Steub, Ludwig, 101; _quoted_, 153
Storrbach, torrent, 72
Strassburger (now Mannheimer) hut, 24, 157, 158
Strassenhaus, railway-station, 127
Sulzfluh, mountain, 29
Sulz-Röthis, village, 197
Suser, consequences of drinking, 235
Switzerland, projected annexation to, 33
Tabalada, stream, 62, 224
Tattermandl, derivation of name, 184. _See_ Quadertatsch.
Tavern, our residence, its food and comforts, 3, 4, 11, 12, 107, 108; its proprietors, 31-34; prices at, 112
Theocritus, seldom caught napping, 85
Thirty Years’ War, 55, 77
Thüringen, village, 134, 184; derivation of name, 169
Thüringerberg, village, 94, 95, 190
Tiberius, Emperor, 62, 152
Tiefis, village, 33, 40, 49, 71, 103; visit to its tavern, 42; another visit, 130; another, 190; another, 241; destroyed by fire, 130
Tilisuna lake, 63
Tourists, their climbing feats, 23-24, 157, 159
Townbred persons, often incomplete, 83-86
Trout, how to catch, 224
Tschallenga, mountain, 55, 83
Tschudi, F. von, 188
Tschusi, R. von, 129
Tuckwell, Rev. W., 85
Valbona, mountain, 62
Val d’Aosta, 39
Valduna, lunatic asylum, 38; interviews at, 190-196
Valentschina (Walserthal), 76
Vallis Drusiana (Walgau), derivation of name, 62, 152, 153
Valtellina, 39
Valuta, its workings, 113
Vandans, village, 159
Verdigris, dining off, 47
Vermunt, Maz, 63
Village, statistics of our, 13
Vineyards, no longer planted, 197
Violets, yellow, 143; red and white, 163
Vonbun, Dr. J. F., _quoted_, 139.
Vorarlberg, province, 6, 53, 153; projected annexation to Switzerland, 33; sends students to Wittenberg, 169
Vorarlbergische Chronik, 132; _quoted_, 32
Walchner, H., 129
Walgau, central valley of province. _See_ Vallis Drusiana.
Walserthal, valley, 79, 91, 136, 244; famous for idiots, 37; when colonized, 53; dialect and costume, _ibid._
Wasserkälb (_Gordius_), 232
Watts, Dr. Isaac, _quoted_, 12
Weisses Kreuz, hotel, its manager worth making love to, 207
Widderstein, mountain, 245
Wildkirchle, rock-needle, 137, 138
Wine, qualities and prohibitive price of, 43, 109; decline in local production of, 196; wine-bibbing in olden days, 198
Wolf, the last, 187; why extinct in Alps, 188; wolf-stories, 214
Wolfart, Lord of Blumenegg, 80
Wood of the ----, a once awesome forest, 170, 238
Woodcock shooting, 60
Woodlands, administration of, 135, 136
Zalim alp, 24, 157
Zimba, mountain, 41, 138; first ascent of, 21-22; its victims, 23
Zimmerman, Dr., responsible for cataclysm, 7
“Zoologist,” referred to, 10
Zürich, derivation of name, 169
Zürs, alp, 33
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Called “Latschen” hereabouts, because they are “gelegt”--pressed earthwards by winter snows; or else by the old Rhætic name of “Zuondra” which we sometimes twist into “Sonderinen.” They are more generally known as “Legföhren.” These groves of _Pinus pumilio_ deserve careful protection; they shield the meadows below from the devastating effects of cloudbursts in the upper regions, from stone-cataracts and--by welding all successive snowfalls into that first one which lies anchored among their twisted limbs--from avalanches.
[2] He has surprised me, of late, by a new acquirement: a considerable familiarity with Polish history. They only began to teach it quite recently, he says; and thereby hangs a tale. It would seem that an ukase has gone forth from educational headquarters in Paris, to the effect that the youth of the entire country is to be brought up in the belief that the Poles, the old friends of France, are a prodigy among nations; every phase of their contemptible politics and degrading parliamentary wrangles during the last few centuries has to be regarded as of epoch-making importance--as opposed to the futile history of their enemies on the East. Nothing, in short, is good enough for Poland; nothing bad enough for Russia. And all because a misguided pack of French capitalists, after those Toulon celebrations, lent their millions to Russia, expecting to receive the usual three hundred per cent profit which is not yet forthcoming and, let us hope, never will be. An interesting example by what means “patriotic” convictions are nurtured, and for what ends.
[3] We walked up to the _Bährenloch_ last week. The path is neglected and quite overgrown in places; the cave seems to have lost its popularity since the war. I was glad to see that old yew tree--rather a rare growth hereabouts--still clinging to the rock near its entrance. We went in with candles and saw one bat fluttering about; I felt no great desire to take it home with me. The pets one kept! Guinea-pigs, first of all, _Meerschweinle_ which, in a burst of infantile humor, I used to call _Immermehrschweinle_, alluding to their miraculous fecundity. Not a bad joke, now I think of it. And the last was a black squirrel, that ended in pitiable fashion. I took it out of its nest and brought it up on the bottle, like a baby. It grew to be my companion all the time, free to come and free to go, and there was nothing I could not do with it; we were really devoted to each other. Afterwards, having to leave the country, I gave it in charge of a certain female relative who also loved it. The cage was placed on the top of one of those enormous stoves of green majolica tiles. Winter came, and the maid lighted the fire, forgetful of the cage above. Then she remembered, and rushed back into the room. Too late! The poor beast had meanwhile been slowly, quite slowly, roasted to death. No more pets after that.
[4] Here is a local and contemporary appreciation of this glory of art. “Mit höchstem Rechte verdient hier die aus dieser Landschaft gebürtige Angelika Kaufmann eine Stelle. Dieses mit den seltensten Vorzügen des Genies ausgestattete Frauenzimmer macht wirklich in der Malerei Epoche, und lebt diesmal als eine der berühmtesten Künstlerinnen des sich neigenden achtzehnten Jahrhunderts, in glücklicher Ehe in Rom, zur Ehre ihres Vaterlandes, das auf sie stolz seyn darf.” (Vorarlbergische Chronik. Bregenz, Brentano, 1793, p. 81.)
[5] Professor Joseph Bergmann, in an extremely learned booklet (“Untersuchungen über die freyen Walliser oder Walser.” Vienna, Carl Gerold, 1844) has proved that our Walsers, an industrious people of Burgundian stock, emigrated hitherward from the Swiss Canton Wallis (Valais) at the end of the thirteenth century and settled in this wild valley and its surroundings. It is they who brought it to its present high state of prosperity. They have kept their Swiss accent to this day, with certain idioms of their own--not every Englishman can translate “Wie tüschalat’s Bobbe so schö im Pfülfli!”--and their costume is more strange than beautiful. In olden days nearly every settlement here (Bludenz, Feldkirch, Nenzing, etc.) had its own costume. There are only three left now; that of the Walserthal, the Montavon, and Bregenzerwald.
[6] I cannot suggest what Tabalada means unless it be what I think it is--a comical perversion of its Romansh name Aulat=_aqua lauta_, a name appropriate up to a few years ago, for it was the most crystalline water I ever saw, till we forced some of the discolored Ill to flow into it, for factory purposes at Gais. And the real name of the “Feldbächle” is Montiola-bach, which is also Latin; all that hilly region where it rises used to be called Montiola; indeed, a great number of the place-names I shall be mentioning have origin in Romansh, which is such a detestable word that I mean to call it Rhæto-Roman in future.