RIESBECK’s TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.

53

child makes them difregard the other. The punifliment which they incur for fuch afaux-pas is hardly worth mentioning. Murder of infants is extremely uncommon here;without conftraint, without referve, they all yield to the impulfes of nature. The younggirls kifs and fnake hands, in the open church on Sundays, with thofe they love. Ona nightly vilit, however, the lover is rather in a hard fituation ; for however unfriendlythe weather may be, the window or door is not opened to him, until a certain watch-word is given, which confifts commonly of long rhymes, in which he is obliged to ex*prefs, in a myiterious manner, his fufferings and fmart. This cuftom is very old, and inmany of the remote parts of the mountains facred and inviolable. Nor can the con-nection between the parties, however long or however clofe, enable them to difpenfewith it. A young peafantvery feldom forfakes his girl, particularly when, after havingtwo or three children by her, he can marry her.

The inhabitants of thefe mountains are fo contented with their (late, that they con-fsder their country as a kind of Paradife. Thofe who live in Dintner Valley, a fright-ful gap between naked rocks, through which the river Dintner runs, have a faying,

“ When any one falls from heaven he mufl; fall into Dintner Valley.” Which isas much as to fay this valley is the fecond heaven. For a long time I could not ex-plain why the good people entertained fuch a high opinion of a deep glen, where often-for weeks together it l'nows fo much that one can neither come out nor go in, and,which forms fo Ur iking a contrail with many neighbouring and very attracting diftricts.

1 confidered it at firft as irony, but I learnt at laft that it was meant entirely in earned,and that the unlimited freedom which the inhabitants of this extraordinary Paradife en~joy, had given rife to this high hyperbole. They confift folely of fhepherds, miners*and iron melters, who are entirely free from taxes, and on account of their fmall pay-ments to the government and their remotenefs of fituation, are little taken notice of bytheir fuperiors. The taxes paid , in general, by the inhabitants of this country are verymoderate, and the freedom from the extortions under which the reft of Germany groans,contributes, no doubt, greatly to the good humour of the people. Till within a fhorttime, eftates were taxed in proportion to their value, the beginning of this century,which, as you may fuppofe, bears no proportion to the prefent price of things. Theattempt the prefent fovereign has been making to raife a more equitable tax, has occa*fioned fome murmur: there, however, he is not fo much to blame, as his income isproportionally much fmaller than that of the other German princes; and what he has-done, has not only the fandtion of the ftates of the country, but is guaranteed by them,fo that the people have no caufe to fear a farther rife; but what makes him unpopular,,is his exceflive love of hunting, which has occafioned fome adts of oppreffive power, forwhich after all, his fervants and minifters may be more to blame than himfelf. In fe-veral parts of the country, the farmers are prohibited from driving their Iheep to certainpaftures bordering upon woods, left the game in thefe Ihould be deprived of fuftenance.This, to a people who, as I told you before, make all the woollen cloth they wear fromthe fheerings of their own fheep, mull appear an intolerable hardlhip. Prohibitions ofthis kind muft alfo be attended with very bad effedts of another fort. The peafants ofthis country are very averle to all kinds of innovation ; there have been inftances -oftheir declaring fomewhat loudly, that they would put themfelves on the fame footing,with the Swifs ; and yet when their prince dies of old age, they fliew an uncommon af-fedtion for him. O that princes knew how to fet a due value on the affedlions of theirfellow-creatures!

Many ot the peafants of this country ftill wear long beards, and go with their heads-uncovered, and their breads open, at all times of- the year. As they are extremely