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Full text of "By-ways of Europe"

UC-NRLF 




HI 



K 



OF E 



BAX&KD 




/ ST. SON 



Entered according- to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

Q. P. PUTNAM AND SON, 
m the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 



DEDICATED 

TO MY FRIEND OF MANY YEARS, 
HORACE GREELEY. 



M708774 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER 7 

A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA 21 

BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA 59 

WlNTER-LlFE IN ST. PETERSBURG 85 

THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL 113 

FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT 145 

BALEARIC DAYS, 1 171 

BALEARIC DAYS, II 197 

CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS 227 

THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES 259 

THE GRANDE CHARTREUSE 293 

THE KYFFHAUSER AND ITS LEGENDS 307 

A WEEK ON CAPRI 335 

A TRIP TO ISCHIA 365 

THE LAND OF PAOLI 391 

THE ISLAND OF MADDALENA ; WITH A DISTANT VIEW OF CA- 

PRERA 419 

IN THE TEUTOBURGER FOREST . .... 449 



8 A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 

how or why it was written is my own secret ; " or, to take 
the reader frankly into his confidence, and brave the ready 
charge of vanity or over-estimation of self, by the free 
communication of his message. Generally, the latter course 
is only to anticipate the approval which is sure to come in 
the end, if there is any vitality in an author s work. To 
most critics the personal gossip of an acknowledged name is 
delightful : posthumous confidences also somehow lose the 
air of assertion which one finds in the living man. Death, 
or that fixed renown which rarely comes during life, sets 
aside the conventionalities of literature ; and the very mod 
esty and reticence which are supposed to be a part of 
them then become matters of regret. So there are tran 
sitions in life which seem posthumous to its preceding phases, 
and the present self looks upon the past as akin, indeed, 
but not identical. 

During the past twenty-two years I have written and 
published ten volumes of travel, which have been exten 
sively read, and are still read by newer classes of readers. 
Whatever may be the quality or value of those works, I 
may certainly assume that they possess an interest of some 
kind, and that the reader whom I so often meet, who has 
followed me from first to last (a fidelity which, I must con 
fess, is always grateful and always surprising), will not ob 
ject if, now, in offering him this eleventh and final volume, 
I suspend my role of observer long enough to relate how 
the series came to be written. 

The cause of my having travelled so extensively has 
been due to a succession of circumstances, of a character 
more or less accidental. My prolonged wanderings formed 
no part of my youthful programme of life. I cannot dis 
connect my early longings for a knowledge of the Old 
World from a still earlier passion for Art and Literature. 
To the latter was added a propensity, which I have never 
unlearned, of acquiring as much knowledge as possible 
through the medium of my own experience rather than to 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 9 

accept it, unquestioned, from anybody else. When I first 
set out for Europe I was still a boy, and less acquainted 
with life than most boys of my age. I was driven to the 
venture by the strong necessity of providing for myself 
sources of education which, situated as I was, could not be 
reached at home. In other words, the journey offered me 
a chance of working my way. 

At that time, Europe was not the familiar neighbor-con 
tinent which it has since become. The merest superficial 
letters, describing cities, scenery, and the details of travel, 
were welcome to a very large class of readers, and the nar 
rative of a youth of nineteen, plodding a-foot over the Old 
World, met with an acceptance which would have been 
impossible ten years later. I am fully aware how little 
literary merit that narrative possesses. It is the work of a 
boy who was trying to learn something, but with a very faint 
idea of the proper method or discipline ; who had an im 
mense capacity for wonder and enjoyment, but not much 
power, as yet, to discriminate between the important and 
the trivial, the true and the false. Perhaps the want of 
development which the book betrays makes it attractive 
to those passing through the same phase of mental growth. 
I cannot otherwise account for its continued vitality. 

Having been led, after returning home, into the profes 
sion of journalism, the prospect of further travel seemed 
very remote. I felt, it is true, that a visit to Greece, Egypt, 
and Syria was desirable in order to complete my acquain 
tance with the lands richest in the history of civilization ; 
and I would have been quite willing to relinquish all chance 
of seeing more of the world, had that much been assured 

o 

to me. I looked forward to years of steady labor as a 
servant of the Press ; but, being a servant, and by neces 
sity an obedient one, I was presently sent forth, in the line 
of my duty, to fresh wanderings. The " New York Tribune " 
required a special correspondent in California, in 1849, 
and the choice of its editor fell upon me. After performing 



10 A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 

the stipulated service, I returned by way of Mexico, in 
order to make the best practicable use of my time. Thus, 
and not from any roving propensity, originated my second 
journey. 

When, two years later, a change of scene and of occu 
pation became imperative, from the action of causes quite 
external to my own plans and hopes, my first thought 
naturally, was to complete my imperfect scheme of travel 
by a journey to Egypt and the Orient. I was, moreover, 
threatened with an affection of the throat, for which the 
climate of Africa offered a sure remedy. The journey was 
simply a change of position, from assistant-editor to corres 
pondent, enabling me to obtain the strength which I sought, 
without giving up the service on which I relied for support. 
How it came to be extended to Central Africa is partly 
explained by the obvious advantage of writing from a new 
and but partially explored field ; but there were other influ 
ences acting upon me which I did not fully comprehend 
at the time, and cannot now describe without going too 
deeply into matters of private history. I obeyed an in 
stinct, rather than followed a conscious plan. 

After having completed my African journeys, I traversed 
Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, and finally reached Con 
stantinople, intending to return homewards through Europe. 
There, however, I found letters from my associates of " The 
Tribune," insisting that I should proceed speedily to China, 
for the purpose of attaching myself to the American Ex 
pedition to Japan, under Commodore Perry. I cannot say 
that the offer was welcome, yet its conditions were such 
that I could not well refuse, and, besides, I had then no 
plan of my own of sufficient importance to oppose to it. 
The circumstances of my life made me indifferent, so long 
as the service required was not exactly distasteful, and in 
this mood I accepted the proposition. Eight months stili 
intervened before the squadron could reach China, and I 
determined to turn the time to good advantage, by includ- 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 11 

ing Spain and India in the outward journey. Thus the 
travel of one year was extended to two and a half, and 
instead of the one volume which I had premeditated, I 
brought home the material for three. 

It would be strange if an experience so prolonged should 
not sensibly change the bent of an author s mind. It was 
not the sphere of activity which I should have chosen, had 
I been free to choose, but it was a grateful release from 
the drudgery of the editorial room. After three years of 
clipping and pasting, and the daily arrangement of a chaos 
of ephemeral shreds, in an atmosphere which soon exhausts 
the vigor of the blood, the change to the freedom of Orien 
tal life, to the wonders of the oldest art and to the easy 
record of impressions so bright and keen that they put 
themselves into words, was like that from night to day. 
With restored health, the life of the body became a delight 
in itself; a kindly fortune seemed to attend my steps; I 
learned something of the patience and fatalistic content of 
the races among whom I was thrown, and troubled myself 
no longer with an anxious concern for the future. 

I confess, too, that while floating upon the waters of the 
White Kile, while roaming through the pine forests of 
Phrygia or over the hills of Loo-Choo, I learned to feel 
the passion of the Explorer. Almost had I eaten of that 
fruit which gives its restless poison to the blood. It is 
very likely that, had I then been able to have marked out 
my future path, I might have given it the character which 
was afterwards ascribed to me. 

I will further confess that the unusual favor with which 
those three volumes of travel were received, perhaps, 
also, the ever-repeated attachment of "traveller" to my 
name, and that demand for oral report of what I had seen 
and learned, which threw me suddenly into the profession 
of lecturing, with much the sensation of the priest whom 
Henri Quatre made general by mistake, I will confess, I 
say, that these things did for a time mislead me as to the 



12 A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 

kind of work which I was best fitted to do. I did not see, 
then, that my books were still a continuation of the process 
of development, and that, tried by a higher literary stand 
ard, they stopped short of real achievement. My plan, in 
writing them, had been very simple. Within the limits 
which I shall presently indicate, my faculty of observation 
had been matured by exercise ; my capacity to receive 
impressions was quick and sensitive, and the satisfaction I 
took in descriptive writing was much the same as that 
of an artist who should paint the same scenes. I endeav 
ored, in fact, to make words a substitute for pencil and 
palette. Having learned, at last, to analyze and compare, 
and finding that the impression produced upon my readers 
was proportionate to its degree of strength upon my own 
mind, I fancied that I might acquire the power of bringing 
home to thousands of firesides clear pictures of the remotest 
regions of the earth, and that this would be a service worth 
undertaking. 

With a view of properly qualifying myself for the work, 
I made a collection of the narratives of the noted travel 
lers of all ages, from Herodotus to Humboldt. It was a 
rich and most instructive field of study ; but the first re 
sult was to open my eyes to the many requirements of a 
successful traveller a list which increases with each gene 
ration. I was forced to compare myself with those wan 
derers of the Middle Ages, whose chief characteristic was a 
boundless capacity for wonder and delight, but, alas ! this 
age would not allow me their naive frankness of speech. 
Moreover, I had now discovered that Man is vastly more 
important than Nature, and the more I dipped into anthro 
pological and ethnological works, the more I became con 
vinced that I could not hope to be of service unless I 
should drop all other purposes and plans, and give my life 
wholly to the studies upon which those sciences are based. 
But the latter lay so far away from my intentions so far 
from that intellectual activity which is joyous because it is 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 13 

spontaneous that I was forced to pause and consider the 
matter seriously. 

A writer whose mind has been systematically trained 
from the start will hardly comprehend by what gradual 
processes I attained unto a little self-knowledge. The 
faculties called into exercise by travel so repeated and 
prolonged, continued to act from the habit of action, and 
subsided very slowly into their normal relation to other 
qualities of the mind. They still continued to affect my 
plans, when I left home, in 1856, for another visit to Europe. 
It will, therefore, be easily understood how I came to com 
bine a winter and summer trip to the Arctic Zone with my 
design of studying the Scandinavian races and languages : 
the former was meant as a counterpart to my previous ex 
periences in tropical lands. This journey, and that to 
Greece and Russia, which immediately followed, were the 
receding waves of the tide. While I was engaged with 
them I found that my former enjoyment of new scenes, 
and the zest of getting knowledge at first-hand, were sen 
sibly diminished by regret for the lack of those severe pre 
paratory studies which would have enabled me to see and 
learn so much more. 

I never thought it worth while to contradict a story 
which, for eight or nine years past has appeared from time 
to time in the newspapers that Humboldt had said of me : 
" He has travelled more and seen less than any man living." 
The simple publication of a letter from Humboldt to my 
self would have silenced this invention ; but I desisted, 
because I knew its originator, and did not care to take 
that much notice of him. The same newspapers after 
wards informed me that he had confessed the slander, 
shortly before his death. I mention the circumstance now, 
in order to say that the sentence attributed to Humboldt 
was no doubt kept alive by the grain of truth at the bottom 
of it. Had Ilumboldt actually said: "No man who has 
published so many volumes of travel has contributed so 



14 A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 

little to positive science" he would have spoken the 
truth, and I should have agreed with him. But when, 
during my last interview with that great student of Nature, 
I remarked that he would find in my volumes nothing of 
the special knowledge which he needed, it was very grate 
ful to me when he replied : " But you paint the world as we, 
explorers of science, cannot. Do not undervalue what you 
have done. It is a real service ; and the unscientific travel 
ler, who knows the use of his eyes, observes for us always, 
without being aware of it." Dr. Petermann, the distin 
guished geographer, made almost the same remark to me, 
four or five years afterwards. 

I should have been satisfied with such approval and with 
certain kindly messages which I received from Dr. Barth 
and other explorers, and have gone forward in the path 
into which I was accidentally led, had I not felt that it was 
diverging more and more from the work wherein I should 
find my true content. I may here be met by the thread 
bare platitude that an author is no judge of his own per 
formance. Very well : let me, then, be the judge of my 
own tastes ! On the one hand there was still the tempta 
tion of completing an unfulfilled scheme. Two additional 
journeys one to the Caucasus, Persia, and the more ac 
cessible portions of Central Asia, and the other to South 
America would have rounded into tolerable completeness 
my personal knowledge of Man and Nature. Were these 
once accomplished, I might attempt the construction of a 
work, the idea of which hovered before my mind for a long 
time a human cosmos, which should represent the race 
in its grand divisions, its relation to soil and climate, its 
varieties of mental and moral development, and its social, 
political, and spiritual phenomena, with the complex causes 
from which they spring. The field thus opened was grander 
than that which a mere " tourist " could claim : it had a 
genuine charm for the imagination, and even failure therein 
was more attractive than success in a superficial branch of 
literature. 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 15 

On the other hand, I began to feel very keenly the de 
moralizing influence (if one may apply such a term to intel 
lectual effort) of travel. The mind flags under the strain 
of a constant receptivity : it must have time to assimilate 
and arrange its stores of new impressions. Moreover, 
without that ripe knowledge which belongs to the later 
rather than the earlier life of a man, the traveller misses 
the full value of his opportunities. His observations, in 
many respects, must be incomplete, and tantalize rather 
than satisfy. While he grows weary of describing the ex 
ternal forms of Nature and the more obvious peculiarities 
of races, he has little chance of following the clews to 
deeper and graver knowledge which are continually offered 
to his hands. Where, as in my case, other visions, of very 
different features, obscured for a time but never suppressed, 
beckon him onward, he must needs pause before the desul 
tory habit of mind, engendered by travel, becomes con 
firmed. 

It was easy for me, at this " parting of the ways," to de 
cide which was my better road. While I was grateful for 
the fortune which had led me so far, and through such 
manifold experience, I saw that I should only reach the 
best results of what I had already gained, by giving up all 
further plans of travel. The favor with which my narra 
tives had been received was, in great measure, due to a re 
flection in them of the lively interest which I had taken in 
my own wanderings, to an appetite for external impres 
sions which was now somewhat cloyed, and a delight in 
mere description which I could no longer feel. My activ 
ity in this direction appeared to me as a field which had 
been traversed in order to reach my proper pastures. It 
had been kcoad and pleasant to the feet, and many good 
friends cried to me : " Stay where you are it is the path 
which you should tread ! " yet 1 preferred to press onward 
towards the rugged steeps beyond. It seemed to me that 
the pleasure of reading a book must be commensurate with 



16 A FAMILIAR LETTERvTO THE READER. 

the author s pleasure in writing it, and that those books 
which do not grow from the natural productive force of the 
mind will never possess any real vitality. 

The poet Tennyson once said to me : " A book of travels 
may be so written that it shall be as immortal as a great 
poem." Perhaps so: but in that case its immortality will 
be dependent upon intellectual qualities which the travel 
ler, as a traveller, does not absolutely require. The most 
interesting narrative of exploration is that which is most 
simply told. A poetic apprehension of Nature, a spark 
ling humor, graces of style all these are doubtful merits. 
\Ve want the naked truth, without even a fig-leaf of fancy. 
We may not appreciate all the facts of science which the 
explorer has collected, but to omit them would be to weaken 
his authority. Narratives of travel serve either to measure 
our knowledge of other lands, in which case they stand 
only until superseded by more thorough research, or to ex 
hibit the coloring which those lands take when painted for 
us by individual minds, in which case their value must be 
fixed by the common standards of literature. For the 
former class, the widest scientific culture is demanded : for 
the latter, something of the grace and freedom and keen 
mental insight which we require in a work of fiction. The 
only traveller in whom the two characters were thoroughly 
combined, was Goethe. 

Should I hesitate to confess that to be styled " a great 
American traveller," has always touched me with a sense 
of humiliation ? It is as if one should say " a great Amer 
ican pupil ; " for the books of travel which I have pub 
lished appear to me as so many studies, so many processes 
of education, with the one advantage that, however imma 
ture they may be, nothing in them is forced or affected. 
The journeys they describe came, as I have shown, through 
a natural series of circumstances, one leading on the other: 
no particular daring or energy, and no privation from 
which a healthy man need shrink, was necessary. Danger 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 17 

is oftener a creation of one s own mind than an absolute 
fact, and I presume that my share of personal adventure 
was no more than would fall to the lot of any man, in the 
same period of travel. To be praised for virtues which 
one does not feel to be such, is quite as unwelcome as to 
be censured for faults which are not made evident to one s 
self. 

If I wish that these volumes of mine were worthier of 
the opportunities granted to me, at least I do not regret 
that they were written. Hardly a week passes, but T re 
ceive letters from young men, who have been stimulated 
by them to achieve the education of travel ; and, believing 
as I do that the more broad and cosmopolitan in his views 
a man becomes through his knowledge of other lands, the 
purer and more intelligent shall be his patriotic sentiment 
the more easily he shall lift himself out of the narrow 
sphere of local interests and prejudices I rejoice that I 
have been able to assist in giving this direction to the 
minds of the American youth. It is hardly necessary to 
say that I had no such special intention in the beginning, 
for I never counted beforehand on the favor of the public : 
but the fact, as it has been made manifest to me, is some 
thing for which I am exceedingly grateful. 

In this volume I have purposely dropped the form of 
continuous narrative, which, indeed, was precluded by the 
nature of my material. The papers it contains, each de 
voted to a separate By-way of Europe, were written at 
various times, during two journeys abroad, within the past 
five or six years. I employed the intervals of other occu 
pation, from time to time, in making excursions to outlying 
corners of the Old World, few of which are touched by the 
ordinary round of travel. Nearly all of them, nevertheless, 
attracted me by some picturesque interest, either of history, 
or scenery, or popular institutions and customs. Such 
points, for instance, as Lake Ladoga, Appenzell, Andorra, 
and the Teutoburger Forest, although lying near the fre- 



18 A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 

quented highways and not difficult of access, are very 
rarely visited, and an account of them is not an unneces 
sary contribution to the literature of travel. A few of the 
places I have included St. Petersburg in winter, Capri 
and Ischia cannot properly be classed as " By-ways," 
yet they form so small a proportion of the contents of the 
volume that I may be allowed to retain its title. Being 
the result of brief intervals of leisure, and the desire to 
turn my season of recreation to some good account, the 
various papers were produced without regard to any plan, 
and each is meant to be independent of the others. If I 
had designed to present a tolerably complete description 
of all the interesting By-ways of Europe, I must have in 
cluded Auvergne, Brittany, the Basque provinces of Spain, 
Friesland, the Carpathians, Apulia, Croatia, and Transyl 
vania. 

In laying down the mantle of a traveller, which has been 
thrown upon my shoulders rather than voluntarily assumed, 
I do not wish to be understood as renouncing all the chances 
of the future. I cannot foresee what compulsory influences, 
what inevitable events, may come to shape the course of 
my life : the work of the day is all with which a man need 
concern himself. One thing, only, is certain ; I shall 
never, from the mere desire of travel, go forth to the dis 
tant parts of the earth. Some minds are so constituted 
that their freest and cheerfulest activity will not accom 
pany the body from place to place, but is dependent on 
the air of home, on certain familiar surroundings, and an 
equable habit of life. Each writer has his own peculiar 
laws of production, which the reader cannot always deduce 
from his works. It amuses me, who have set my house 
hold gods upon the soil which my ancestors have tilled for 
near two hundred years, to hear my love of home ques 
tioned by men who have changed theirs a dozen times. 

I therefore entreat of you, my kindly reader, that you 
will not ascribe my many wanderings to an inborn propen- 



A FAMILIAR LETTER TO THE READER. 19 

sity to wander, that you will believe me when I say that 
culture, in its most comprehensive sense, is more to me 
than the chance of seeing the world, and, finally, that 
you will consider whether I have any legitimate right to as 
sume the calling of an author, unless I choose the work 
that seems fittest, without regard to that acceptance of it 
which is termed popularity. If you have found enough in 
my former volumes of travel to persuade you to accompany 
me into other walks of literature, I shall do my best to 
convince you that I am right in the conclusions at which 
I have arrived. If, believing me mistaken, you decide to 
turn away, let us at least shake hands, and, while I thank 
you for your company thus far on my way, still part as 

friends ! 

BAYARD TAYLOR. 
CEDARCROFT, September. 1868. 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 



"Dear T., The steamboat Valamo is advertised to leave on 
Tuesday, the 26th (July 8th, New Style), for Serdopol, at the 
very head of Lake Ladoga, stopping on the way at Schliisselburg, 
Konewitz Island, Kexholm, and the island and monastery of Va- 
laam. The anniversary of Saints Sergius and Herrmann, mir 
acle-workers, will be celebrated at the last named place on Thurs 
day, and the festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul on Friday. 
If the weather is fine, the boat will take passengers to the Holy 
Island. The fare is nine rubles for the trip. You can be back 
again in St. Petersburg by six o clock on Saturday evening. Pro 
visions can be had on board, but (probably) not beds ; so, if you 
are luxurious in this particular, take along your own sheets, pil 
low-cases, and blankets. I intend going, and depend upon your 
company. Make up your mind by ten o clock, when I will call 
for your decision. Yours, 

" P." 

I laid down the note, looked at my watch, and found that 
I had an hour for deliberation before P. s arrival. " Lake 
Ladoga?" said I to myself; " it is the largest lake in Eu 
rope I learned that at school. It is full of fish; it is 
stormy ; and the Neva is its outlet. What else ? " I took 
down a geographical dictionary, and obtained the following 
additional particulars : The name Ladoga (not Lado ga, as 
it is pronounced in America) is Finnish, and means " new." 
The lake lies between 60 and 61 45 north latitude, is 
175 versts about 117 miles in length, from north to 
south, and 100 versts in breadth ; receives the great river 
Volkhoff on the south, the Svir, which pours into it the 
waters of Lake Onega, on the east, and the overflow of 



26 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

speed to her and her passengers. The latter, in spite of 
the rain, thronged the deck, and continually repeated their 
devotions to the shrines on either bank. On the right, the 
starry domes of the Smolnoi, rising from the lap of a linden- 
grove, flashed upon us ; then, beyond the long front of the 
college of demoiselles nobles and the military store-houses, 
we hailed the silver hemispheres which canopy the tomb 
and shrine of St. Alexander of the Neva. On the left, 
huge brick factories pushed back the gleaming groves of 
birch, which flowed around and between them, to dip their 
hanging boughs in the river; but here and there peeped 
out the bright green cupolas of some little church, none of 
which, I was glad to see, slipped out of the panorama with 
out its share of reverence. 

For some miles we sailed between a double row of con 
tiguous villages a long suburb of the capital, which 
stretched on and on, until the slight undulations of the 
shore showed that we had left behind us the dead level of 
the Ingrian marshes. It is surprising what an interest one 
takes in the slightest mole-hill, after living for a short time 
on a plain. You are charmed with an elevation which en 
ables you to look over your neighbor s hedge. I once heard 
a clergyman, in his sermon, assert that " the world was per 
fectly smooth before the fall of Adam, and the present in 
equalities in its surface were the evidences of human sin." 
I was a boy at the time, and I thought to myself, " How 
fortunate it is that we are sinners ! " Peter the Great, how 
ever, had no choice left him. The piles he drove in these 
marshes were the surest foundation of his empire. 

The Neva, in its sudden and continual windings, in its 
clear, cold, sweet water, and its fringing groves of birch, 
maple, and alder, compensates, in a great measure, for the 
flatness of its shores. It has not the slow magnificence of 
the Hudson or the rush of the Rhine, but carries with it a 
sense of power, of steady, straightforward force, like that 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 27 

of the ancient warriors who disdained all clothing except 
their swords. Its river-god is not even crowned with reeds^ 
but the full flow of his urn rolls forth undiminished by 
summer and unchecked beneath its wintry lid. Outlets of 
large lakes frequently exhibit this characteristic, and the 
impression they make upon the mind does not depend on 
the scenery through which they flow. Nevertheless, we dis 
covered many points, the beauty of which was not blotted 
out by rain and cloud, and would have shone freshly and 
winningly under the touch of the sun. On the north bank 
there is a palace of Potemkin (or P6tchomkin, as his 
name is pronounced in Russian), charmingly placed at a 
bend, whence it looks both up and down the river. The 
gay color of the building, as of most of the datchas, or 
country-villas, in Russia, makes a curious impression upon 
the stranger. Until he has learned to accept it as a portion 
of the landscape, the effect is that of a scenic design on the 
part of the builder. These dwellings, these villages and 
churches, he thinks, are scarcely intended to be permanent : 
they were erected as part of some great dramatic spectacle, 
which has been, or is to be, enacted under the open sky. 
Contrasted with the sober, matter-of-fact aspect of dwell 
ings in other countries, they have the effect of temporary 
decorations. But when one has entered within those walls 
of green and blue and red arabesques, inspected their 
thickness, viewed the ponderous porcelain stoves, tasted, 
perhaps, the bountiful cheer of the owner, he realizes their 
palpable comforts, and begins to suspect that all the exter 
nal adornment is merely an attempt to restore to Nature 
that coloring of which she is stripped by the cold sky of 
the North. 

A little further on, there is a summer villa of the Empress 
Catharine a small, modest building, crowning a slope of 
green turf. Beyond this, the banks are draped with foliage, 
and the thinly clad birches, with their silver stems, shiver 
above the rush of the waters. We, also, began to shiver 



28 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

under the steadily falling rain, and retreated to the cabin 
on the steward s first hint of dinner. A table cChote of four 
courses was promised us, including the preliminary zakouski 
and the supplementary coffee all for sixty copeks, which 
is about forty-five cents. The zakouski is an arrangement 
peculiar to Northern countries, and readily adopted by for 
eigners. In Sweden it is called the smorgas, or " butter- 
goose," but the American term (if we had the custom) would 
be " the whetter." On a side-table there are various plates 
of anchovies, cheese, chopped onions, raw salt herring, and 
bread, all in diminutive slices, while glasses of corresponding 
size surround a bottle of hummel, or cordial of caraway- 
seed. This, at least, was the zakouski on board the Yalamo, 
and to which our valiant captain addressed himself, after 
first bowing and crossing himself towards the Byzantine 
Christ and Virgin in either corner of the cabin. We, of 
course, followed his example, finding our appetites, if not 
improved, certainly not at all injured thereby. The dinner 
which followed far surpassed our expectations. The nation 
al shchee, or cabbage-soup, is better than the sound of its 
name ; the fish, fresh from the cold Neva, is sure to be well 
cooked where it forms an important article of diet ; and the 
partridges were accompanied by those plump little Russian 
cucumbers, which are so tender and flavorous that they 
deserve to be called fruit rather than vegetables. 

When we went on deck to light our Riga cigars, the 
boat was approaching Schliisselburg, at the outlet of the 
lake. Here the Neva, just born, sweeps in two broad arms 
around the island which bears the Key-fortress the key 
by which Peter opened this river-door to the Gulf of Fin 
land. The pretty town of the same name is on the south 
bank, and in the centre of its front yawn the granite gates 
of the canal which, for a hundred versts. skirts the southern 
shore of the lake, forming, with the Yolkhoff River and 
another canal beyond, a summer communication with the 
vast regions watered by the Volga and its affluents. The 



A CRUISE OX LAKE LADOGA. 29 

Ladoga Canal, by which the heavy barges laden with hemp 
from Mid-Russia, and wool from the Ural, and wood from 
the Valda! Hills, avoid the sudden storms of the lake, was 
also the work of Peter the Great. I should have gone on 
shore to inspect the locks, but for the discouraging persist 
ence of the rain. Huddled against the smoke-stack, we 
could do nothing but look on the draggled soldiers and 
mujiks splashing through the mud. the low yellow fortress, 
which has long outlived its importance, and the dark-gray 
waste of lake which loomed in front, suggestive of rough 
water and kindred abominations. 

There it was. at last, Lake Ladoga. and now our 
prow turns to unknown regions. We steamed past the 
fort, past a fleet of brigs, schooners, and brigantines. with 
huge, rounded stems and sterns, laden with wood from the 
. Wolkonskoi forests, and boldly entered the gray void of 
fo and rain. The surface of the lake was but slicrhtlv 

O * 

agitated, as the wind gradually fell and a thick mist settled 
on the water. Hour after hour passed away, as we rushed 
onward through the blank, and we naturally turned to our 
fellow-passengers in search of some interest or diversion 
to beguile the time. The heavy-bearded peasants and their 
weather-beaten wives were scattered around the deck in 
various attitudes, some of the former asleep on their backs, 
with open mouths, beside the smoke-stack. There were 
many picturesque figures among them, and. if I possessed 
the quick pencil of Kaulbach. I might have filled a dozen 
leaves of my sketch-book. The bourgeoisie were huddled 
on the quarter-deck benches, silent, and fearful of sea-sick 
ness. But a very bright, intelligent young officer turned 
up. who had crossed the Ural, and was able to entertain us 
with an account of the splendid sword-blades of Zlataoust 
He was now on his way to the copper mines of Pitkaranda. 
on the northeastern shore of the lake. 

About nine o clock in the evening, although still before 
sunset, the fog began to darken, and I was apprehensive 



30 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

that we should have some difficulty in finding the island of 
Konewitz, which was to be our stopping-place for the night. 
The captain ordered the engine to be slowed, and brought 
forward a brass half-pounder, about a foot long, which was 
charged and fired. In less than a minute after the report, 
the sound of a deep, solemn bell boomed in the mist, dead 
ahead. Instantly every head was uncovered, and the rustle 
of whispered prayers fluttered over the deck, as the pil 
grims bowed and crossed themselves. Nothing was to be 
seen ; but, stroke after stroke, the hollow sounds, muffled 
and blurred in the opaque atmosphere, were pealed out by 
the guiding bell. Presently a chime of smaller bells joined 
in a rapid accompaniment, growing louder and clearer as 
we advanced. The effect was startling. After voyaging 
for hours over the blank water, this sudden and solemn 
welcome, sounded from some invisible tower, assumed a 
mystic and marvelous character. Was it not rather the 
bells of a city, ages ago submerged, and now sending its 
ghostly summons up to the pilgrims passing over its crystal 
grave ? 

Finally a tall mast, its height immensely magnified by 
the fog, could be distinguished ; then the dark hulk of a 
steamer, a white gleam of sand through the fog, indistinct 
outlines of trees, a fisherman s hut, and a landing-place. 
The bells still rang out from some high station near at 
hand, but unseen. We landed as soon as the steamer had 
made fast, and followed the direction of the sound. A few 
paces from the beach stood a little chapel, open, and with 
a lamp burning before its brown Virgin and Child. Here 
our passengers stopped, and made a brief prayer before 
going on. Two or three beggars, whose tattered dresses 
of tow suggested the idea of their having clothed them 
selves with the sails of shipwrecked vessels, bowed before 
us so profoundly and reverently that we at first feared they 
had mistaken us for the shrines. Following an avenue of 
trees, up a gentle eminence, the tall white towers and green 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 31 

domes of a stately church gradually detached themselves 
from the mist, and we found ourselves at the portal of the 
monastery. A group of monks, in the usual black robes, 
and high, cylindrical caps of crape, the covering of which 
overlapped and fell upon their shoulders, were waiting, ap 
parently to receive visitors. Recognizing us as foreigners, 
they greeted us with great cordiality, and invited us to take 
up our quarters for the night in the house appropriated to 
guests. We desired, however, to see the church before the 
combined fog and twilight should make it too dark ; so a 
benevolent old monk led the way, hand in hand with P., 
across the court-yard. 

The churches of the Greek faith present a general re 
semblance in their internal decorations. There is a glitter 
of gold, silver, and flaring colors in the poorest. Statues 
are not permitted, but the pictures of dark Saviours and 
saints are generally covered with a drapery of silver, with 
openings for the head and hands. Konewitz, however, 
boasts of a special sanctity, in possessing the body of Saint 
Arsenius, the founder of the monastery. His remains are 
inclosed in a large coffin of silver, elaborately chased. It 
was surrounded, as we entered, by a crowd of kneeling 
pilgrims ; the tapers burned beside it, and at the various 
altars ; the air was thick with incense, and the great bell 
still boomed from the misty tower. Behind us came a 
throng of our own deck-passengers, who seemed to recog 
nize the proper shrines by a sort of devotional instinct, and 
were soon wholly absorbed in their prayers and prostra 
tions. It is very evident to me that the Russian race still 
requires the formulas of the Eastern Church ; a fondness 
for symbolic ceremonies and observances is far more nat 
ural to its character than to the nations of Latin or Saxon 
blood. In Southern Europe the peasant will exchange 
merry salutations while dipping his fingers in the holy 
water, or turn in the midst of his devotions to inspect a 
stranger ; but the Russian, at such times, appears lost to 



32 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

the world. With his serious eyes fixed on the shrine or 
picture, or, maybe, the spire of a distant church, his face 
suddenly becomes rapt and solemn, and no lurking interest 
in neighboring things interferes with its expression. 

One of the monks, who spoke a little French, took us 
into his cell. He was a tall, frail man of thirty-five, with a 
wasted face, and brown hair flowing over his shoulders, like 
most of his brethren of the same age. In those sharp, 
earnest features, one could see that the battle was not yet 
over. The tendency to corpulence does not appear until 
after the rebellious passions have been either subdued, or 
pacified by compromise. The cell was small, but neat and 
cheerful, on the ground-floor, with a window opening on 
the court, and a hard, narrow pallet against the wall. 
There was also a little table, with books, sacred pictures, 
and a bunch of lilacs in water. The walls were white 
washed, and the floor cleanly swept. The chamber was 
austere, certainly, but in no wise repulsive. 

It was now growing late, and only the faint edges of the 
twilight glimmered overhead, through the fog. It was not 
night, but a sort of eclipsed day, hardly darker than our 
winter days under an overcast sky. We returned to the 
tower, where an old monk took us in charge. Beside the 
monastery is a special building for guests, a room in which 
was offered to us. It was so clean and pleasant, and the 
three broad sofa-couches with leather cushions looked so 
inviting, that we decided to sleep there, in preference to 
the crowded cabin. Our supply of shawls, moreover, en 
abled us to enjoy the luxury of undressing. Before saying 
good-night, the old monk placed his hand upon R. s head. 
" We have matins at three o clock," said he ; " when you 
hear the bell, get up, and come to the church : it will bring 
blessing to you." We were soon buried in a slumber 
which lacked darkness to make it profound. At two 
o clock the sky was so bright that I thought it six, and fell 
asleep again, determined to make three hours before I 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 33 

stopped. But presently the big bell began to swing : 
stroke after stroke, it first aroused, but was fast lulling rne, 
when the chimes struck in and sang all manner of inco 
herent and undevout lines. The brain at last grew weary 
of this, when, close to our door, a little, petulant, impatient 
bell commenced barking for dear life. R. muttered and 
twisted in his sleep, and brushed away the sound several 
times from his upper ear, while I covered mine but to 
no purpose. The sharp, fretful jangle went through shawls 
and cushions, and the fear of hearing it more distinctly 
prevented me from rising for matins. Our youth, also, 
missed his promised blessing, and so we slept until the sun 
was near five hours high that is, seven o clock. 

The captain promised to leave for Kexholm at eight, 
which allowed us only an hour for a visit to the Konkamen, 
or Horse Rock, distant a mile, in the woods. P. engaged 
as guide a long-haired acolyte, who informed us that he 
had formerly been a lithographer in St. Petersburg. We 
did not ascertain the cause of his retirement from the 
world : his features were too commonplace to suggest a 
romance. Through the mist, which still hung heavy on 
the lake, we plunged into the fir-wood, and hurried on over 
its uneven carpet of moss and dwarf whortleberries. Small 
gray boulders then began to crop out, and gradually 
became so thick that the trees thrust them aside as they 
grew. All at once the wood opened on a rye-field belong 
ing to the monks, and a short turn to the right brought us 
to a huge rock, of irregular shape, about forty feet in diam 
eter by twenty in height. The crest overhung the base on 
all sides except one, up which a wooden staircase led to a 
small square chapel perched upon the summit. 

The legends attached to this rock are various, but the 
most authentic seems to be, that in the ages when the 
Carelians were still heathen, they were accustomed to 
place their cattle upon this island in summer, as a protec 
tion against the wolves, first sacrificing a horse upon the 



34 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

rock. Whether their deity was the Perun of the ancient 
Russians or the Jumala of the Finns is not stated ; the in 
habitants at the present day say, of course, the Devil. 
The name of the rock may also be translated " Petrified 
Horse," and some have endeavored to make out a resem 
blance to that animal, in its form. Our acolyte, for in 
stance, insisted thereupon, and argued very logically 
" Why, if you omit the head and legs, you must see that it 
is exactly like a horse." The peasants say that the devil 
had his residence in the stone, and point to a hole which 
he made, on being forced by the exorcisms of Saint Arse- 
nius to take his departure. A reference to the legend is 
also indicated in the name of the island, Koriewitz, which 
our friend, the officer, gave to me in French as Chevalise, 
or, in literal English, The Horsefied. 

The stones and bushes were dripping from the visitation 
of the mist, and the mosquitoes were busy with my face 
and hands while I made a rapid drawing of the place. 
The quick chimes of the monastery, through which we 
fancied we could hear the warning boat-bell, suddenly 
pierced through the forest, recalling us. The Valamo had 
her steam up, when we arrived, and was only waiting for 
her rival, the Letuchie (Flyer), to get out of our way. As 
we moved from the shore, a puff of wind blew away the 
fog, and the stately white monastery, crowned with its 
bunch of green domes, stood for a moment clear and bright 
in the morning sun. Our pilgrims bent, bareheaded, in 
devotional farewell ; the golden crosses sparkled an an 
swer, and the fog rushed down again like a falling curtain. 

We steered nearly due north, making for Kexholm, 
formerly a frontier Swedish town, at the mouth of the 
River Wuoxen. For four hours it was a tantalizing strug 
gle between mist and sunshine a fair blue sky overhead, 
and a dense cloud sticking to the surface of the lake. The 
w r estern shore, though near at hand, was not visible ; but 

o * 

our captain, with his usual skill, came within a quarter of 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 85 

a mile of the channel leading to the landing-place. The 
fog seemed to consolidate into the outline of trees ; hard 
land was gradually formed, as we approached ; and as the 
two river-shores finally inclosed us, the air cleared, and 
long, wooded hills arose in the distance. Before us lay a 
single wharf, with three wooden buildings leaning against 
a hill of sand. 

" But where is Kexholm ? " 

" A verst inland," says the captain ; " and I will give you 
just half an hour to see it." 

There were a score of peasants, with clumsy two-wheeled 
carts and shaggy ponies at the landing. Into one of these 
we clambered, gave the word of command, and \vere 
whirled off at a gallop. There may have been some elas 
ticity in the horse, but there certainly was none in the cart. 
It was a perfect conductor, and the shock with which it 
passed over stones and leaped ruts was instantly communi 
cated to the os sacrum, passing thence along the vertebra, 
to discharge itself in the teeth. Our driver was a sun 
burnt Finn, who was bent upon performing his share of 
the contract, in order that he might afterwards, with a bet 
ter face, demand a ruble. On receiving just the half, how 
ever, he put it into his pocket, without a word of remon 
strance. 

" Suomi ? " I asked, calling up a Finnish word with an 
effort. 

" Suomi-ldincn," he answered, proudly enough, though 
the exact meaning is, " I am a Swamplander." 

Kexholm, which was founded in 1295, has attained since 
then a population of several hundreds. Grass grows 
between the cobble-stones of its broad streets, but the 
houses are altogether so bright, so clean, so substantially 
comfortable, and the geraniums and roses peeping out 
between snowy curtains in almost every window suggested 
such cozy interiors, that I found myself quite attracted 
towards the plain little town. " Here," said I to P., is a 



36 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

nook which is really out of the world. No need of a mon 
astery, where you have such perfect seclusion, and the in 
dispensable solace of natural society to make it endurable." 
Pleasant faces occasionally looked out, curiously, at the 
impetuous strangers : had they known our nationality, I 
f;incy the whole population would have run together. 
Reaching the last house, nestled among twinkling birch- 
trees on a bend of the river beyond, we turned about and 
made for the fortress another conquest of the Great 
Peter. Its low ramparts had a shabby, neglected look ; an 
old draw-bridge spanned the moat, and there was no senti 
nel to challenge us as we galloped across. In and out 
again, and down the long, quiet street, and over the jolting 
level to the top of the sand hill we had seen Kexholm in 
half an hour. 

At the mouth of the river still lay the fog, waiting for us, 
now and then stretching a ghostly arm over the woods 
and then withdrawing it, like a spirit of the lake, longing 
and yet timid to embrace the land. With the Wuoxen 
came down the waters of the Saima, that great, irregular 
lake, which, with its innumerable arms, extends for a hun 
dred and fifty miles into the heart of Finland, clasping the 
forests and mountains of Savolax, where the altar-stones 
of Jumala still stand in the shade of sacred oaks, and the 
song of the Kalewala is sung by the descendants of 
Walnamoinen. I registered a vow to visit those Finnish 
solitudes, as we shot out upon the muffled lake, heading for 
the holy isles of Valaam. This was the great point of in 
terest in our cruise, the shrine of our pilgrim-passengers. 
We had heard so little of these islands before leaving St. 
Petersburg, and so much since, that our curiosity was 
keenly excited ; and thus, though too well seasoned by ex 
perience to worry unnecessarily, the continuance of the 
fog began to disgust us. We shall creep along as yester 
day, said we, and have nothing of Valaam but the sound 
of its bells. The air was intensely raw ; the sun had dis- 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 37 

appeared, and the bearded peasants again slept, with open 
mouths, on the deck. 

Saints Sergius and Herrmann, however, were not indf- 
ferent either to them or to us. About the middle of the 
afternoon we suddenly and unexpectedly sailed out of the 
fog, passing, in the distance of a ship s length, into a clear 
atmosphere, with a far, sharp horizon ! The nuisance of 
the lake lay behind us, a steep, opaque, white wall. Before 
us, rising in bold cliffs from the water and dark with pines, 
were the islands of Valaam. Off went hats and caps, and 
the crowd on deck bent reverently towards the consecrated 
shores. As we drew near, the granite fronts of the sepa 
rate isles detached themselves from the plane in which 
they were blended, and thrust boldly out between the divid 
ing inlets of blue water ; the lighter green of birches and 
maples mingled with the sombre woods of coniferas ; but the 
picture, with all its varied features, was silent and lonely. 
No sail shone over the lake, no boat was hauled up between 
the tumbled masses of rock, no fisher s hut sat in the shel 
tered coves only, at the highest point of the cliff, a huge 
wooden cross gleamed white against the trees. 

As we drew around to the northern shore, point came out 
behind point, all equally bold with rock, dark with pines, 
and destitute of any sign of habitation. We were looking 
forward, over the nearest headland, when, all at once, a 
sharp glitter through the tops of the pines struck our eyes. 
A few more turns of the paddles, and a bulging dome of 
gold flashed splendidly in the sun ! Our voyage, thus far, 
had been one of surprises, and this was not the least. 
Crowning a slender, pointed roof, its connection with the 
latter was not immediately visible : it seemed to spring 
into the air and hang there, like a marvelous meteor shot 
from the sun. Presently, however, the whole building ap 
peared, an hexagonal church, of pale-red brick, the 
architecture of which was an admirable reproduction of the 
older Byzantine forms. It stood upon a rocky islet, on 



38 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

cither side of which a narrow channel communicated with 
a deep cove, cleft between walls of rock. 

Turning in towards the first of these channels, we pres 
ently saw the inlet of darkest-blue water, pushing its way 
into the heart of the island. Crowning its eastern bank, 
and about half a mile distant, stood an immense mass of 
buildings, from the centre of which tall white towers and 
green cupolas shot up against the sky. This was the mon 
astery of Valaam. Here, in the midst of this lonely lake, 
on the borders of the Arctic Zone, in the solitude of un 
hewn forests, was one of those palaces which religion is so 
fond of rearing, to show her humility. In the warm after 
noon sunshine, and with the singular luxuriance of vege 
tation which clothed the terraces of rock on either hand, 
we forgot the high latitude, and, but for the pines in the 
rear, could have fancied ourselves approaching some cove 
of Athos or Euboea. The steamer ran so near the rocky 
walls that the trailing branches of the birch almost swept 
her deck ; every ledge traversing their gray, even ma 
sonry, was crowded with wild red pinks, geranium, saxi 
frage, and golden-flowered purslane ; and the air, wonder 
fully pure and sweet in itself, was flavored with delicate 
woodland odors. On the other side, under the monastery, 
was an orchard of large apple-trees in full bloom, on a 
shelf near the water ; above them grew huge oaks and 
maples, heavy with their wealth of foliage ; and over the 
tops of these the level coping of the precipice, with a bal 
ustrade upon which hundreds of pilgrims, who had arrived 
before us, were leaning and looking down. 

Beyond this point, the inlet widened into a basin where 
the steamer had room to turn around. Here we found 
some forty or fifty boats moored to the bank, while the 
passengers they had brought (principally from the eastern 
shore of the lake, and the district lying between it and 
Onega) were scattered over the heights. The captain 
pointed out to us a stately, two-story brick edifice, some 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 39 

three hundred feet long, flanking the monastery, as the 
house for guests. Another of less dimensions, on the hill 
in front of the landing-place, appeared to be appropriated 
especially to the use of the peasants. A rich succession of 
musical chimes pealed down to us from the belfry, as if in 
welcome, and our deck load of pilgrims crossed themselves 
in reverent congratulation as they stepped upon the sacred 
soil. 

We had determined to go on with our boat to Serdopol, 
at the head of the lake, returning the next morning in 
season for the solemnities of the anniversary. Postponing, 
therefore, a visit to the church and monastery, we climbed 
to the summit of the bluff, and beheld the inlet in all its 
length and depth, from the open, sunny expanse of the 
lake to the dark strait below us, where the overhanging 
trees of the opposite cliffs almost touched above the water. 
The honeyed bitter of lilac and apple blossoms in the 
garden below steeped the air ; and as I inhaled the scent, 
and beheld the rich green crowns of the oaks which grew 
at the base of the rocks, I appreciated the wisdom of Ser- 
gius and Herrmann that led them to pick out this bit of 
privileged summer, which seems to have wandered into the 
North from a region ten degrees nearer the sun. It is not 
strange if the people attribute miraculous powers to them, 
naturally mistaking the cause of their settlement on Va- 
laam for its effect. 

The deck was comparatively deserted, as we once more 
entered the lake. There were two or three new passen 
gers, however, one of whom inspired me with a mild inter 
est. He was a St. Petersburger, who according to his own 
account, had devoted himself to Art, and, probably for 
that reason, felt constrained to speak in the language of 
sentiment. " I enjoy above all things," said he to me, 
" communion with Nature. My soul is uplifted, when I 
find myself removed from the haunts of men. I live an 
ideal life, and the world grows more beautiful to me every 



40 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

year." Now there was nothing objectionable in this, ex 
cept the manner of his saying it. Those are only shallow 
emotions which one imparts to every stranger at the slight 
est provocation. Your true lover of Nature is as careful 
of betraying his passion as the young man who carries a 
first love in his heart. But my companion evidently de 
lighted in talking of his feelings on this point. His voice 
was soft and silvery, his eyes gentle, and his air languish 
ing ; so that, in spite of a heavy beard, the impression he 
made was remarkably smooth and unmasculine. I invol 
untarily turned to one of the young Finnish sailors, with 
his handsome, tanned face, quick, decided movements, and 
clean, elastic limbs, and felt, instinctively, that what we most 
value in every man, above even culture or genius, is the 
stamp of sex the asserting, self-reliant, conquering air 
which marks the male animal. 

After some fifteen or twenty miles from the island, we 
approached the rocky archipelago in which the lake ter 
minates at its northern end a gradual transition from 
water to land. Masses of gray granite, wooded wherever 
the hardy northern firs could strike root, rose on all sides, 
divided by deep and narrow channels. " This is the scheer? 
said our captain, using a word which recalled to my mind, 
at once, the Swedish skdr, and the English skerry, used 
alike to denote a coast-group of rocky islets. The rock 
encroached more and more as we advanced ; and finally, 
as if sure of its victory over the lake, gave place, here and 
there, to levels of turf, gardens, and cottages. Then fol 
lowed a calm, land-locked basin, surrounded with harvest- 
fields, and the spire of Serdopol arose before us. 

Of this town I may report that it is called, in Finnish, 
Sordovala, and was founded about the year 1640. Its his 
tory has no doubt been very important to its inhabitants, 
but I do not presume that it would be interesting to the 
world, and therefore spare myself a great deal of laborious 
research. Small as it is, and so secluded that Ladoga 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 41 

seems a world s highway in comparison with its quiet 
harbor, it nevertheless holds three races and three lan 
guages in its modest bounds. The government and its 
tongue are Russian ; the people are mostly Finnish, with 
a very thin upper-crust of Swedish tradition, whence the 
latter language is cultivated as a sign of aristocracy. 

We landed on a broad wooden pier, and entered the 
town through a crowd which was composed of all these 
elements. There was to be a fair on the morrow, and from 
the northern shore of the lake, as well as the wild inland 
region towards the Saima, the people had collected for 
trade, gossip, and festivity. Children in ragged garments 
of hemp, bleached upon their bodies, impudently begged 
for pocket-money ; women in scarlet kerchiefs curiously 
scrutinized us ; peasants carried bundles of freshly mown 
grass to the horses which were exposed for sale ; ladies 
with Hungarian hats, crushed their crinolines into queer 
old cabriolets ; gentlemen with business faces and an as 
pect of wealth smoked paper cigars ; and numbers of 
hucksters offered baskets of biscuit and cakes, of a disa 
greeable yellow color and great apparent toughness. It 
was a repetition, with slight variations, of a village fair any 
where else, or an election day in America. 

Passing through the roughly paved and somewhat dirty 
streets, past shops full of primitive hardware, groceries 
which emitted powerful whiffs of salt fish or new leather, 
bakeries with crisp padlocks of bread in the windows, 
drinking-houses plentifully supplied with qvass and vodki, 
and, finally, the one watch-maker, and the vender of paper, 
pens, and Finnish almanacs, we reached a broad suburban 
street, whose substantial houses, with their courts and 
gardens, hinted at the aristocracy of Serdopol. The inn, 
with its Swedish sign, was large and comfortable, and a 
peep into the open windows disclosed as pleasant quarters 
as a traveller could wish. A little farther the town ceased, 
and we found ourselves upon a rough, sloping common, at 



42 BY-WA1S OF EUROPE. 

the top of which stood the church with its neighboring 
belfry. It was unmistakably Lutheran in appearance. 
very plain and massive and sober in color, with a steep 
roof for shedding snow. The only attempt at ornament 
was a fanciful shingle-mosaic, but in pattern only, not in 
color. Across the common ran a double row of small 
booths, which had just been erected for the coming fair ; 
and sturdy young fellows from the country, with their rough 
carts and shaggy ponies, were gathering along the high 
way, to skirmish a little in advance of their bargains. 

The road enticed us onwards into the country. On our 
left, a long slope descended to an upper arm of the harbor, 
the head of which we saw to be near at hand. The op 
posite shore was fairly laid out in grain-fields, through 
which cropped out here and there, long walls of granite, 
risino- higher and higher towards the west, until thev cul- 

O O S 

minated in the round, hard forehead of a lofty hill. There 
was no other point within easy reach which promised much 
of a view ; so, rounding the head of the bay, we addressed 
ourselves to climbing the rocks, somewhat to the surprise 
of the herd-boys, as they drove their cows into the town to 
be milked. 

Once off the cultivated land, we found the hill a very 
garden of wild blooms. Every step and shelf of the rocks 
was cushioned with tricolored violets, white anemones, and 
a succulent, moss-like plant with a golden flower. Higher 
up there were sheets of fire-red pinks, and on the summit 
an unbroken carpet of the dwarf whortleberry, with its 
waxen bells. Light exhalations seemed to rise from the 
damp hollows, and drift towards us; but they resolved 
themselves into swarms of mosquitoes, and would have 
made the hill-top untenable, had they not been dispersed 
by a sudden breeze. We sat down upon a rock and con 
templated the wide-spread panorama. It was nine o clock, 
and the sun, near his setting, cast long gleams of pale 
light through the clouds, softening the green of the fields 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 43 

and forests where they fell, and turning the moist evening 
haze into lustrous pearl. Inlets of the lake here and there 
crept in between the rocky hills; broad stretches of 
gently undulating grain-land were dotted with the houses, 
barns, and clustered stables of the Finnish farmers ; in the 
distance arose the smokes of two villages ; and beyond all. 
as we looked inland, ran the sombre ridges of the fir-clad 
hills. Below us. on the right, the yellow houses of the 
town shone in the subdued light the only bright spot in 
the landscape, which elsewhere seemed to be overlaid with 
a tint of dark, transparent gray. It was wonderfully silent. 
Xot a bird twittered ; no bleat of sheep or low of cattle 
was heard from the grassy fields : no shout of children, or 
evening hail from the returning boats of the fishers. Over 
all the land brooded an atmosphere of sleep, of serene, 
perpetual peace. To sit and look upon it was in itself a 
refreshment like that of healthy slumber. The restless 
devil which lurks in the human brain was quieted for the 
time, and we dreamed knowing all the while the vanity 
of the dream of a pastoral life in some such spot among 
as ignorant and simple-hearted a people, ourselves as un 
troubled by the agitations of the world. 

We had scarce inhaled or, rather, insuded. to coin a 
word for a sensation which seems to enter at every pore 
the profound quiet and its suor^estive fancies for the space 
of half an hour, when the wind fell at the going down of 
the sun. and the humming mist of mosquitoes arose again. 
Returning to the town, we halted at the top of the common 
to watch the farmers of the neighborhood at their horse- 
dealing. Very hard. keen, weather-browned faces had 
they, eyes tight-set for the main chance, mouths worn thin 
by biting farthings, and hands whose hard fingers crooked 
with holding fast what they had earned. Faces almost of 
the Yankee type, many of them, and relieved by the twink 
ling of a humorous faculty or the wild gleam of imagina 
tion. The shaggy little horses, of a dun or dull tan-color, 



4i BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

seemed to understand that their best performance was re 
quired, and rushed up and down the road with an amazing 
exhibition of mettle. I could understand nothing of the 
Finnish tongue except its music ; but it was easy to per 
ceive that the remarks of the crowd were shrewd, intelli 
gent, and racy. One young fellow, less observant, ac 
costed us in the hope that we might be purchasers. The 
boys, suspecting that we were as green as we were evi 
dently foreign, held out their hands for alms, with a very 
unsuccessful air of distress, but readily succumbed to the 
Russian interjection "proch ! " (be off !) the repetition of 
which, they understood, was a reproach. 

That night we slept on the velvet couches of the cabin, 
having the spacious apartment to ourselves. The bright 
young officer had left for the copper mines, the pilgrims 
were at Valaam, and our stout, benignant captain looked 
upon us as his only faithful passengers. The stewards, in 
deed, carried their kindness beyond reasonable anticipa 
tions. They brought us real pillows and other con 
veniences, bolted the doors against nightly intruders, and 
in the morning conducted us into the pantry, to wash our 
faces in the basin sacred to dishes. After I had com 
pleted my ablutions, I turned dumbly, with dripping face 
and extended hands, for a towel. My steward understood 
the silent appeal, and, taking a napkin from a plate of 
bread, presented it with alacrity. I made use of it, I con 
fess, but hastened out of the pantry, lest I should happen 
to see it restored to its former place. How not to observe 
is a faculty as necessary to the traveller as its reverse. 
I was reminded of this truth at dinner, when I saw the 
same steward take a napkin (probably my towel!) from 
under his arm, to wipe both his face and a plate which he 
carried. To speak mildly, these people on Lake Ladoga 
are not sensitive in regard to the contact of individualities. 
But the main point is to avoid seeing what you don t like. 

We got off at an early hour, and hastened back to Va- 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 45 

laam over glassy water and under a superb sky. This 
time the lake was not so deserted, for the white wings of 
pilgrim-boats drew in towards the dark island, making for 
the golden sparkle of the chapel dome, which shone afar 
like a light-house of the day-time. As we rounded to in 
the land-locked inlet, we saw that the crowds on the hills 
had doubled since yesterday, and, although the chimes 
were pealing for some religious service, it seemed prudent 
first to make sure of our quarters for the night. Accord 
ingly we set out for the imposing house of guests beside 
the monastery, arriving in company with the visitors we 
had brought with us from Serdopol. The entrance-hall 
led into a long, stone-paved corridor, in which a monk, be 
wildered by many applications, appeared to be seeking re 
lief by promises of speedy hospitality. We put in our 
plea, and also received a promise. On either side of the 
corridor were numbered rooms, already occupied, the for 
tunate guests passing in and out with a provoking air of 
comfort and unconcern. We ascended to the second story, 
which was similarly arranged, and caught hold of another 
benevolent monk, willing, but evidently powerless to help 
us. Dinner was just about to be served; the brother in 
authority was not there ; we must be good enough to wait 
a little while ; would we not visit the shrines, in the 
mean time ? 

The advice was sensible, as well as friendly, and we fol 
lowed it. Entering the great quadrangle of the monas 
tery, we found it divided, gridiron-fashion, into long, nar 
row court-yards by inner lines of buildings. The central 
court, however, was broad and spacious, the church occu 
pying a rise of ground on the eastern side. Hundreds of 
men and women Carelian peasants thronged around 
the entrance, crossing themselves in unison with the con 
gregation. The church, we found, was packed, and the 
most zealous wedging among the blue caftans and shining 
flaxen heads brought us no farther than the inner door. 



4G BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

Thence we looked over a tufted level of heads that seemed 
to touch intermingled tints of gold, tawny, sz7m--blond, 
and the various shades of brown, touched with dim glosses 
through the incense-smoke, and occasionally bending in 
concert, with an undulating movement, like grain before 
the wind. Over these heads rose the vaulted nave, daz 
zling with gold and colors, and blocked up, beyond the in 
tersection of the transept, by the ikonostast, or screen 
before the Holy of Holies, gorgeous with pictures of saints 
overlaid with silver. In front of the screen the tapers 
burned, the incense rose thick and strong, and the chant 
of the monks gave a peculiar solemnity to their old Scla 
vonic litany. The only portion of it which I could under 
stand was the recurring response, as in the English Church, 
of " Lord, have mercy upon us ! " 

Extricating ourselves with some difficulty, we entered a 
chapel-crypt, which contains the bodies of Sergius and 
Herrmann. They lie together, in a huge coffin of silver, 
covered with cloth of gold. Tapers of immense size burned 
at the head and foot, and the pilgrims knelt around, bend 
ing their foreheads to the pavement at the close of their 
prayers. Among others, a man had brought his insane 
daughter, and it was touching to see the tender care with 
which he led her to the coffin and directed her devotions. 
So much of habit still remained, that it seemed, for the 
time being, to restore her reason. The quietness and reg 
ularity with which she went through the forms of prayer, 
brought a light of hope to the father s face. The other 
peasants looked on with an expression of pity and sym 
pathy. The girl, we learned, had but recently lost her 
reason, and without any apparent cause. She was be 
trothed to a young man who was sincerely attached to her, 
and the pilgrimage was undertaken in the hope that a mir 
acle might be wrought in her favor. The presence of 
the shrine, indeed, struck its accustomed awe through her 
wandering senses, but the effect was only momentary. 






A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 47 

I approached the coffin, and deposited a piece of money 
on the offering-plate, for the purpose of getting a glimpse 
of the pictured faces of the saints, in their silver setting. 
Their features were hard and regular, flatly painted, as if 
by some forerunner of Cimabue, but sufficiently modern to 
make the likeness doubtful. I have not been able to obtain 
the exact date of their settlement on the island, but I be 
lieve it is referred to the early part of the fifteenth century. 
The common people believe that the island was first visited 
by Andrew, the Apostle of Christ, who, according to the 
Russian patriarch Nestor, made his way to Kiev and Nov 
gorod. The latter place is known to have been an impor 
tant commercial city as early as the fourth century, and 
had a regular intercourse with Asia. The name of Valaam 

o 

does not come from Balaam, as one might suppose, but 
seems to be derived from the Finnish varamo, which sig 
nifies " herring-ground." The more I attempted to unravel 
the history of the island, the more it became involved in 
obscurity, and this fact, I must confess, only heightened my 
interest in it. I found myself ready to accept the tradition 
of Andrew s visit, and I accepted without a doubt the grave 
of King Magnus of Sweden. 

On issuing from the crypt, we encountered a young 
monk who had evidently been sent in search of us. The 
mass was over, and the court-yard was nearly emptied of 
its crowd. In the farther court, however, we found the 
people more dense than ever, pressing forward towards a 
small door. The monk made way for us with some diffi 
culty for, though the poor fellows did their best to fall 
back, the pressure from the outside was tremendous. 
Having at last run the gauntlet, we found ourselves in the 
refectory of the monastery, inhaling a thick steam of fish 
and cabbao-e. Three long tables were filled with monks 

O O 

and pilgrims, while the attendants brought in the fish on 
large wooden trenchers. The plates were of common white 
ware, but the spoons were of wood. Officers in gay uni- 



48 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

forms were scattered among the dark anchorites, who oc 
cupied one end of the table, while the bourgeoisie, with 
here and there a blue-caftaned peasant wedged among 
them, filled the other end. They were eating with great 
zeal, while an old priest, standing, read from a Sclavonic 
Bible. All eyes were turned upon us as we entered, and 
there was not a vacant chair in which we could hide our 
intrusion. It was rather embarrassing, especially as the 
young monk insisted that we should remain, and the curious 
eyes of the eaters as constantly asked, "Who are these, 
and what do they want ? " We preferred returning through 
the hungry crowd, and made our way to the guests house. 

Here a similar process was going on. The corridors 
were thronged with peasants of all ages and both sexes, 
and the good fathers, more than ever distracted, were in 
capable of helping us. Seeing a great crowd piled up 
against a rear basement-door, we descended the stairs, and 
groped our way through manifold steams and noises to a 
huge succession of kitchens, where cauldrons of cabbage 
were bubbling, and shoals of fish went in raw and came 
out cooked. In another room some hundreds of peasants 
were eating with all the energy of a primitive appetite. 
Soup leaked out of the bowls as if they had been sieves ; 
fishes gave a whisk of the tail and vanished ; great round 
boulders of bread went off, layer after layer, and still the 
empty plates were held up for more. It was grand eating, 
pure appetite, craving only food in a general sense : no 
picking out of tidbits, no spying here and there for a fa 
vorite dish, but, like a huge fire, devouring everything that 
came in its way. The stomach was here a patient, unques 
tioning serf, not a master full of whims, requiring to be 
petted and conciliated. So, I thought, people must have 
eaten in the Golden Age : so Adam and Eve must have 
dined, before the fall made them epicurean and dyspeptic. 

We degenerate through culture found the steams of 
the strong, coarse dishes rather unpleasant, and retreated 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 49 

by a back way, which brought us to a spiral staircase. We 
ascended for a long time, and finally emerged into the gar 
ret of the building, hot, close, and strawy as a barn-loft. 
It was divided into rooms, in which, on the floors covered 
deep with straw, the happy pilgrims who had finished their 
dinner were lying on their bellies, lazily talking themselves 
to sleep. The grassy slope in front of the house, and all 
the neighboring heights, were soon covered in like manner. 
Men, women, and children threw themselves down, drawing 
off their heavy boots, and dipping their legs, knee-deep, 
into the sun and air. An atmosphere of utter peace and 
satisfaction settled over them. 

Being the only foreign and heterodox persons present, 
we began to feel ourselves deserted, when the favor of Ser- 
gius and Herrmann was again manifested. P. was suddenly 
greeted by an acquaintance, an officer connected with the 
Imperial Court, who had come to Valaam for a week of de 
votion. He immediately interested himself in our behalf, 
procured us a room with a lovely prospect, transferred his 
bouquet of lilacs and peonies to our table, and produced 
his bottle of lemon-syrup to flavor our tea. The rules of 
the monastery are very strict, and no visitor is exempt from 
their observance. Not a fish can be caught, not a bird or 
beast shot, no wine or liquor of any kind, nor tobacco in 
any form, used on the island. Rigid as the organization 
seems, it bears equally on every member of the brother 
hood : the equality upon which such associations were orig 
inally based is here preserved. The monks are only in 
an ecclesiastical sense subordinate to the abbot. Other 
wise, the fraternity seems to be about as complete as in the 
early days of Christianity. 

The Valamo, and her rival, the Letuchie, had advertised 
a trip to the Holy Island, the easternmost of the Valaam 
group, some six miles from the monastery, and the weather 
was so fair that both boats were crowded, many of the 
monks accompanying us. Our new-found friend was also 
4 



50 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

of the party, and I made the acquaintance of a Finnish 
student from the Lyceum at Kuopio, who gave me descrip 
tions of the Saima Lake and the wilds of Savolax. llun- 
ning eastward along the headlands, we passed Chernoi 
Noss (Black-Nose), the name of which again recalled a 
term common in the Orkneys and Shetlands noss, there, 
signifying a headland. The Holy Island rose before us, 
a circular pile of rock, crowned with wood, like a huge, 
unfinished tower of Cyclopean masonry, built up out of the 
deep water. Far beyond it, over the rim of the lake, glim 
mered the blue eastern shore. As we drew near, we found 
that the tumbled fragments of rock had been arranged, 
with great labor, to form a capacious foot-path around the 
base of the island. The steamers drew up against this 
narrow quay, upon which we landed, under a granite wall 
which rose perpendicularly to the height of seventy or 
eighty feet. The firs on the summit grew out to the very 
edge and stretched their dark arms over us. Every cran 
ny of the rock was filled with tufts of white and pink 
flowers, and the moisture, trickling from above, betrayed 
itself in long lines of moss and fern. 

I followed the pilgrims around to the sunny side of the 
island, and found a wooden staircase at a point where the 
wall was somewhat broken away. Reaching the top of the 
first ascent, the sweet breath of a spring woodland breathed 
around me. I looked under the broken roofage of the 
boughs upon a blossoming jungle of shrubs and plants which 
seemed to have been called into life by a more potent sun. 
The lily of the valley, in thick beds, poured out the deli 
cious sweetness of its little cups ; spikes of a pale-green 
orchis emitted a rich cinnamon odor ; anemones, geraniums, 
sigillarias, and a feathery flower, white, freckled with pur 
ple, grew in profusion. The top of the island, five or six 
acres in extent, was a slanting plane, looking to the south, 
whence it received the direct rays of the sun. It was 
an enchanting picture of woodland bloom, lighted with 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 51 

sprinkled sunshine, in the cold blue setting of the lake, 
which was visible on all sides, between the boles of the 
trees. I hailed it as an idyl of the North a poetic 
secret, which the earth, even where she is most cruelly 
material and cold, still tenderly hides and cherishes. 

A peasant, whose scarlet shirt flashed through the bushes 
like a sudden fire, seeing me looking at the flowers, 
gathered a handful of lilies, which he offered to me, saying, 
" Prekrasnie " (beautiful). Without waiting for thanks, he 
climbed a second flight of steps and suddenly disappeared 
from view. I followed, and found myself in front of a nar 
row aperture in a rude wall, which had been built up under 
an overhanging mass of rocks. A lamp was twinkling 
within, and presently several persons crawled out, crossing 
themselves and muttering prayers. 

" What is this ? " asked a person who had just arrived. 

" The cave of Alexander Svirski," was the answer. 

Alexander of the Svir a river flowing from the Onega 
Lake into Ladoga was a hermit who lived for twenty 
years on the Holy Island, inhabiting the hole before us 
through the long, dark, terrible winters, in a solitude 
broken only when the monks of Valaam came over the ice 
to replenish his stock of provisions. Verily, the hermits 
of the Thebaid were Sybarites, compared to this man ! 
There are still two or three hermits who have charge of 
outlying chapels on the islands, and live wholly secluded 
from their brethren. They wear dresses covered with 
crosses and other symbols, and are considered as dead to 
the world. The ceremony which consecrates them for 
this service is that for the burial of the dead. 

I managed, with some difficulty, to creep into Alexander 
Svirski s den. I saw nothing, however, but the old, smoky, 
and sacred picture before which the lamp burned. The 
rocky roof was so low that I could not stand upright, and 
all the walls I could find were the bodies of pilgrims who 
had squeezed in before me. A confused whisper surrounded 



52 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

me in the darkness, and the air was intolerably close. I 
therefore made my escape and mounted to the chapel, on 
the highest part of the island. A little below it, an open 
pavilion, with seats, has been built over the sacred spring 
from which the hermit drank, and thither the pilgrims 
thronged. The water was served in a large wooden bc-wl, 
and each one made the sign of the cross before drinking. 
By waiting for my turn I ascertained that the spring was 
icy-cold, and very pure and sweet. 

I found myself lured to the highest cliff, whence I could 
look out, through the trees, on the far, smooth disk of the 
lake. Smooth and fair as the ^Egean it lay before me, and 
the trees were silent as olives at noonday on the shores of 
Cos. But how different in color, in sentiment ! Here, 
perfect sunshine can never dust the water with the purple 
bloom of the South, can never mellow its hard, cold tint of 
greenish-blue. The distant hills, whether dark or light, 
are equally cold, and are seen too nakedly through the 
crystal air to admit of any illusion. Bracing as is this 
atmosphere, the gods could never breathe it. It would 
revenge on the ivory limbs of Apollo his treatment of 
Marsyas. No foam-born Aphrodite could rise warm from 
yonder wave ; not even the cold, sleek Nereids could breast 
its keen edge. We could only imagine it disturbed, tem 
porarily, by the bath-plunge of hardy Vikings, who must 
have come out from it red and tingling from head to heel. 
" Come ! " cried P., " the steamer is about to leave ! " 
We all wandered down the steps, I with my lilies in my 
hand. Even the rough peasants seemed reluctant to leave 
the spot, and not wholly for the sake of Alexander Svirski. 
We were all safely embarked and carried back to Yalaam, 
leaving the island to its solitude. Alexis (as I shall call 
our Russian friend) put us in charge of a native artist who 
knew every hidden beauty of Valaam, and suggested an 
exploration of the inlet, while he went back to his devo 
tions. We borrowed a boat from the monks, and im- 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 53 

pressed a hardy fisherman into our service. I supposed 
we had already seen the extent of the inlet, but on reach 
ing its head a narrow side-channel disclosed itself, passing 
away under a quaint bridge and opening upon an inner 
lake of astonishing beauty. The rocks were disposed in 
every variety of grouping sometimes rising in even ter 
races, step above step, sometimes thrusting out a sheer 
wall from the summit, or lying slantwise in masses split off 
by the wedges of the ice. The fairy birches, in their thin 
foliage, stood on the edge of the water like Dryads undress 
ing for a bath, while the shaggy male firs elbowed each 
other on the heights for a look at them. Other channels 
opened in the distance, with glimpses of other and as beau 
tiful harbors in the heart of the islands. " You may sail 
for seventy-five versts," said the painter, " without seeing 
them all." 

The fearlessness of all wild creatures showed that the 
rules of the good monks had been carefully obeyed. The 
wild ducks swam around our boat, or brooded, in conscious 
security, on their nests along the shore. Three great 
herons, fishing in a shallow, rose slowly into the air and 
flew across the water, breaking the silence with their hoarse 
trumpet note. Further in the woods there are herds of 
wild reindeer, which are said to have become gradually 
tame. This familiarity of the animals took away from the 
islands all that was repellent in their solitude. It half re 
stored the broken link between man and the subject forms 
of life. 

The sunset light was on the trees when we started, but 
here in the North it is no fleeting glow. It lingers for 
hours even, fading so imperceptibly that you scarcely know 
when it has ceased. Thus, when we returned after a long 
pull, craving the Lenten fare of the monastery, the same 
soft gold tinted its clustering domes. We were not called 
upon to visit the refectory, but a table was prepared in our 
room. The first dish had the appearance of a salad, with 



51 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

the accompaniment of black bread. On carefully tasting, 
I discovered the ingredients to be raw salt fish chopped 
fine, cucumbers, and beer. The taste of the first spoon 
ful was peculiar, of the second tolerable, of the third de 
cidedly palatable. Beyond this I did not go, for we had 
fresh fish, boiled in enough water to make a soup. Then 
the same, fried in its own fat, and, as salt and pepper were 
allowed, we did not scorn our supper. 

The next day was the festival of Peter and Paul, and 
Alexis had advised us to make an excursion te a place 
called Jelesniki. In the morning, however, we learned 
that the monastery and its grounds were to be consecrated 
in solemn procession. The chimes pealed out quick and 
joyously, and soon a burst of banners and a cloud of in 
cense issued from the great gate. All the pilgrims 
nearly two thousand in number thronged around the 
double line of chanting monks, and it was found necessary 
to inclose the latter in a hollow square, formed by a linked 
chain of hands. As the morning sun shone on the bare 
headed multitude, the beauty of their unshorn hair struck 
me like a new revelation. Some of the heads, of lustrous, 
flossy gold, actually shone by their own light. It was 
marvelous that skin so hard and coarse in texture should 
produce such beautiful hair. The beards of the men, also, 
were strikingly soft and rich. They never shave, and thus 
avoid bristles, the down of adolescence thickening into a 
natural beard. 

As the procession approached, Alexis, who was walking 
behind the monks, inside the protecting guard, beckoned 
to us to join him. The peasants respectfully made way, 
two hands unlinked to admit us, and we became, unex 
pectedly, participants in the ceremonies. From the south 
side the procession moved around to the east, where a litany 
was again chanted. The fine voices of the monks lost but 
little of their volume in the open air ; there was no wind, 
and the tapers burned and the incense diffused itself, as in 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 55 

the church. A sacred picture, which two monks carried 
on a sort of litter, was regarded with particular reverence 
by the pilgrims, numbers of whom crept under the line of 
guards to snatch a moment s devotion before it. At every 
pause in the proceedings there was a rush from all sides, 
and the poor fellows who formed the lines held each other s 
hands with all their strength. Yet, flushed, sweating, and 
exhausted as they were, the responsibility of their position 
made them perfectly proud and happy. They were the 
guardians of cross and shrine, of the holy books, the monks, 
and the abbot himself. 

From the east side we proceeded to the north, where 
the dead monks sleep in their cemetery, high over the 
watery gorge. In one corner of this inclosure, under a 
group of giant maples, is the grave of King Magnus of 
Sweden, who is said to have perished by shipwreck on the 
island. Here, in the deep shade, a solemn mass for the 
dead was chanted. Nothing could have added to the im- 

o 

pressiveness of the scene. The tapers burning under the 
thick-leaved boughs, the. light smoke curling up in the 
shade, the grave voices of the monks, the bending heads 
of, the beautiful-haired crowd, and the dashes of white, 
pink, scarlet, blue, and gold in their dresses, made a pic 
ture the solemnity of which was only heightened by its 
pomp of color. I can do no more than give the features ; 
the reader must recornbine them in his own mind. 

The painter accompanied us to the place called Jelesniki, 
which, after a walk of four miles through the forests, we 
found to be a deserted village, with a chapel on a rocky 
headland. There was a fine bridge across the dividing 
strait, and the place may have been as picturesque as it 
was represented. On that side of the islands, however, 
there was a dense fog, and we could get no view beyond a 
hundred yards. We had hoped to see reindeer in the 
woods, and an eagle s nest, and various other curiosities ; 
but where there was no fog there were mosquitoes, and 
the search became discouraging. 



56 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

On returning to the monastery, a register was brought 
to us, in which, on looking back for several years, we could 
find but one foreign visitor a Frenchman. We judged, 
therefore, that the abbot would possibly expect us to call 
upon him, and, indeed, the hospitality we had received ex 
acted it. We found him receiving visitors in a plain but 
comfortable room, in a distant part of the building. He 
was a man of fifty-five, frank and self-possessed in his man 
ners, and of an evident force and individuality of character. 
His reception of the visitors, among whom was a lady, was 
at once courteous and kindly. A younger monk brought 
us glasses of tea. Incidentally learning that I had visited 
the Holy Places in Syria, the abbot sent for some pictures 
of the monastery and its chosen saints, which he asked rne 
to keep as a souvenir of Valaam. He also presented each 
of us with a cake of unleavened bread, stamped with the 
cross, and with a triangular piece cut out of the top, to 
indicate the Trinity. On parting, he gave his hand, which 
the orthodox visitors devoutly kissed. Before the steamer 
sailed, we received fresh evidence of his kindness, in the 
present of three large loaves of consecrated bread, and a 
bunch of lilacs from the garden of the monastery. 

Through some misunderstanding, we failed to dine in 
the refectory, as the monks desired, and their hospitable 
regret on this account was the only shade on our enjoy 
ment of the visit. Alexis remained, in order to complete 
his devotions by partaking of the Communion on the fol 
lowing Sabbath ; but as the anniversary solemnities closed 
at noon, the crowd of pilgrims prepared to return home. 
The Valamo, too, sounded her warning bell, so we left the 
monastery as friends where we had arrived as strangers, 
and went on board. Boat after boat, gunwale-deep with 
the gay Carelians, rowed down the inlet, and in the space 
of half an hour but a few stragglers were left of all the 
multitude. Some of the monks came down to say another 
good-bye, and the under-abbot, blessing R., made the sign 
of the cross upon his brow and breast. 



A CRUISE ON LAKE LADOGA. 57 

When we reached the golden dome of St. Nicholas, at 
the outlet of the harbor, the boats had set their sails, and 
the lake was no longer lonely. Scores of white wings 
gleamed in the sun, as they scattered away in radii from 
the central and sacred point, some north, some east, and 
some veering south around Holy Island. Sergius and 
Herrmann gave them smooth seas, and light, favorable 
airs ; for the least roughness would have carried them, 
overladen as they were, to the bottom. Once more the 
bells of Valaam chimed farewell, and we turned the point 
to the westward, steering back to Kexholm. 

Late that night we reached our old moorage at Konewitz, 
and on Saturday, at the appointed hour, landed in St. 
Petersburg. We carried the white cross at the fore as we 
descended the Neva, and the bells of the churches along 
the banks welcomed our return. And now, as I recall 
those five days among the islands of the Northern Lake, 
I see that it is good to go on a pilgrimage, even if one is 
not a pilgrim. 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 



" Pushed off from one shore, and not yet landed on the other." 

Russian Proverb, 



THE railroad from Moscow to Nijni-Novgorod had been 
opened but a fortnight before. It was scarcely finished, 
indeed ; for, in order to facilitate travel during the con 
tinuance of the Great Fair at the latter place, the gaps in 
the line, left by unbuilt bridges, were filled up with tempo 
rary trestle-work. The one daily express-train was so 
thronged that it required much exertion, and the freest use 
of the Envoy s prestige, to secure a private carriage for our 
party. The sun was sinking over the low, hazy ridge of 
the Sparrow Hills as we left Moscow : and we enjoyed one 
more glimpse of the inexhaustible splendor of the city s 
thousand golden domes and pinnacles, softened by lumi 
nous smoke and transfigured dust, before the dark woods 
of fir intervened, and the twilight sank down on cold and 
lonely landscapes. 

Thence, until darkness, there was nothing more to claim 
attention. Whoever has seen one landscape of Central 
Russia is familiar with three fourths of the whole region. 
Nowhere else not even on the levels of Illinois are 
the same features so constantly reproduced. One long^ 
low swell of earth succeeds to another ; it is rare that any 
other woods than birch and fir are seen ; the cleared land 
presents a continuous succession of pasture, rye, wheat, 
potatoes, and cabbages ; and the villages are as like as 
peas, in their huts of unpainted logs, clustering around a 
white church with five green domes. It is a monotony 
which nothing but the richest culture can prevent from be 
coming tiresome. Culture is to Nature what good manners 
are to man, rendering poverty of character endurable. 

Stationing a servant at the door to prevent intrusion at 



62 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

the way-stations, we let down the curtains before our win 
dows, and secured a comfortable privacy for the night, 
whence we issued only once, during a halt for supper. I 
entered the refreshment-room with very slender expecta 
tions, but was immediately served with plump partridges, 
tender cutlets, and green peas. The Russians made a 
rush for the great samovar (tea-urn) of brass, which shone 
from one end of the long table ; and presently each had 
his tumbler of scalding tea, with a slice of lemon floating 
on the top. These people drink beverages of a tempera 
ture which would take the skin off Anglo-Saxon mouths. 
My tongue was more than once blistered, on beginning to 
drink after they had emptied their glasses. There is no 
station without its steaming samovar ; and some persons, 
I verily believe, take their thirty-three hot teas between 
Moscow and St. Petersburg. 

There is not much choice of dishes in the interior of 
Russia ; but what one does get is sure to be tolerably good. 
Even on the Beresina and the Dnieper I have always fared 
better than at most of the places in our country where 
" Ten minutes for refreshments ! " is announced day by day 
and year by year. Better a single beef-steak, where ten 
derness is, than a stalled ox, all gristle and grease. But 
then our cooking (for the public at least) is notoriously the 
worst in the civilized world ; and I can safely pronounce 
the Russian better, without commending it very highly. 

Some time in the night we passed the large town of 
Vladimir, and with the rising sun were well on our way to 
the Volga. I pushed aside the curtains, and looked out, 
to see what changes a night s travel had wrought in the 
scenery. It was a pleasant surprise. On the right stood a 
large, stately residence, embowered in gardens and orch 
ards ; while beyond it, stretching away to the southeast, 
opened a broad, shallow valley. The sweeping hills on either 
side were dotted with shocks of rye ; and their thousands 
of acres of stubble shone like gold in the level rays. Herds 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 63 

of cattle were pasturing in the meadows, and the peasants 
^serfs no longer) were straggling out of the villages to their 
labor in the fields. The crosses and polished domes of 
churches sparkled on the horizon. Here the patches of 
primitive forest were of larger growth, the trunks cleaner 
and straighter, than we had yet seen. Nature was half 
conquered, in spite of the climate, and, for the first time 
since leaving St. Petersburg, wore a habitable aspect. I 
recognized some of the features of Russian country-life 
which Puschkin describes so charmingly in his poem of 
" Eugene Onagin." 

The agricultural development of Russia has been greatly 
retarded by the indifference of the nobility, whose vast 
estates comprise the best land of the empire, in those prov 
inces where improvements might be most easily intro 
duced. Although a large portion of the noble families 
pass their summers in the country, they use the season as 
a period of physical and pecuniary recuperation from the 
dissipations of the past, and preparation for those of the 
coming winter. Their possessions are so large (those of 
Count Scheremetieff, for instance, contain one hundred and 
thirty thousand inhabitants) that they push each other too 
far apart for social intercourse ; and they consequently live 
en deshabille, careless of the great national interests in their 
hands. There is a class of our Southern planters which 
seems to have adopted a very similar mode of life fami 
lies which shabbily starve for ten months, in order to make 
a lordly show at " the Springs " for the other two. A most 

accomplished Russian lady, the Princess D , said to 

me, " The want of an active, intelligent country society 
is our greatest misfortune. Our estates thus become a sort 
of exile. The few, here and there, who try to improve the 
condition of the people, through the improvement of the 
soil, are not supported by their neighbors, and lose heart. 
The more we gain in the life of the capital, the more we 
are oppressed by the solitude and stagnation of the life of 
the country." 



64 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

This open, cheerful region continued through the morn 
ing. The railroad was still a novelty; and the peasants 
everywhere dropped their scythes and shovels to see the 
train pass. Some bowed with the profoundest gravity- 
They were a fine, healthy, strapping race of men, only of 
medium height, but admirably developed in chest and 
limbs, and with shrewd, intelligent faces. Content, not stu 
pidity, is the cause of their stationary condition. They 
are not yet a people, but the germ of one, and, as such, 
present a grand field for anthropological studies. 

Towards noon the road began to descend, by easy 
grades, from the fair, rolling uplands into a lower and 
wilder region. When the train stopped, women and chil 
dren whose swarthy skin and black eyes betrayed a mix 
ture of Tartar blood, made their appearance, with wooden 
bowls of cherries and huckleberries for sale. These bowls 
were neatly carved and painted. They were evidently held 
in high value ; for I had great difficulty in purchasing one. 
We moved slowly, on account of the many skeleton 
bridges ; but presently a long, blue ridge, which for an 
hour past had followed us in the southeast, began to curve 
around to our front. I now knew that it must mark the 
course of the Oka River, and that we were approaching 
Nijni-Novgorod. 

We soon saw the river itself; then houses and gardens 
scattered along the slope of the hill ; then clusters of 
sparkling domes on the summit ; then a stately, white- 
walled citadel ; and the end of the blue ridge slanted down 
in an even line to the Volga. We were three hundred miles 
from Moscow, on the direct road to Siberia. 

The city being on the farther side of the Oka, the rail 
road terminates at the Fair, which is a separate city, oc 
cupying the triangular level between the two rivers. Our 
approach to it was first announced by heaps of cotton- 
bales, bound in striped camel s-hair cloth, which had found 
their way hither from the distant valleys of Turkestan and 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 65 

the warm plains of Bukharia. Nearly fifty thousand camels 
are employed in the transportation of this staple across 
the deserts of the Aral to Orenburg, a distance of a 
thousand miles. The increase of price had doubled the 
production since the previous year, and the amount which 
now reaches the factories of Russia through this channel 
cannot be less than seventy-five thousand bales. The ad 
vance of modern civilization has so intertwined the interests 
of all zones and races, that a civil war in the United States 
affects the industry of Central Asia ! 

Next to these cotton-bales which, to us, silently pro 
claimed the downfall of that arrogant monopoly which has 
caused all our present woe, came the representatives of 
those who produced them. Groups of picturesque Asians 
Bashkirs, Persians, Bukharians, and Uzbeks appeared 
on either side, staring impassively at the wonderful appa 
rition. Though there was sand under their feet, they 
seemed out of place in the sharp north-wind and among 
the hills of fir and pine. 

The train stopped : we had reached the station. As I 
stepped upon the platform. I saw, over the level lines of 
copper roofs, the dragon-like pinnacles of Chinese build 
ings, and the white minaret of a mosque. Here was the 
certainty of a picturesque interest to balance the uncer 
tainty of our situation. We had been unable to engage 
quarters in advance : there were two hundred thousand 
strangers before us, in a city the normal population of 
which is barely forty thousand ; and four of our party were 
ladies. The Envoy, indeed, might claim the Governor s 
hospitality ; but our visit was to be so brief that we had 
no time to expend on ceremonies, and preferred rambling 
at will through the teeming bazaars to being led about 
under the charge of an official escort. 

A friend at Moscow, however, had considerately tele 
graphed in our behalf to a French resident of Nijni, and 
the latter gentleman met us at the station. lie could give 



66 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

but slight hope of quarters for the night, but generously 
offered us his services. Droshkies were engaged to convey 
us to the old city, on the hill beyond the Oka ; and, crowded 
two by two into the shabby little vehicles, we set forth. The 
sand was knee-deep, and the first thing that happened was 
the stoppage of our procession by the tumbling down of the 
several horses. They were righted with the help of some 
obliging spectators ; and with infinite labor we worked 
through this strip of desert into a region of mud, with a 
hard, stony bottom somewhere between us and the earth s 
centre. The street we entered, though on the outskirts of 
the Fair, resembled Broadway on a sensation-day. It was 
choked with a crowd, composed of the sweepings of Europe 
and Asia. Our horses thrust their heads between the shoul 
ders of Christians, Jews, Moslems, and Pagans, slowly shov 
ing their way towards the floating bridge, which was a jam 
of vehicles from end to end. At the corners of the streets, 
the wiry Don Cossacks, in their dashing blue uniforms and 
caps of black lamb s-wool, regulated, as best they could, 
the movements of the multitude. It was curious to notice 
how they, and their small, well-knit horses, the equine 
counterparts of themselves, controlled the fierce, fiery 
life which flashed from every limb and feature, and did 
their duty with wonderful patience and gentleness. They 
seemed so many spirits of Disorder tamed to the service 
of Order. 

It was nearly half an hour before we reached the other 
end of the bridge, and struck the superb inclined highway 
which leads to the top of the hill. We were unwashed 
and hungry ; and neither the tumult of the lower town, nor 
the view of the Volga, crowded with vessels of all descrip 
tions, had power to detain us. Our brave little horses bent 
themselves to the task ; for task it really was, the road 
rising between three and four hundred feet in less than half 
a mile. Advantage has been taken of a slight natural ra 
vine, formed by a short, curving spur of the hill, which 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 67 

encloses a pocket of the greenest and richest foliage a 
bit of unsuspected beauty, quite invisible from the other 
side of the river. Then, in order to reach the level of the 
Kremlin, the road is led through an artificial gap, a hundred 
feet in depth, to the open square in the centre of the city. 

Here, all was silent and deserted. There were broad, 
well-paved streets, substantial houses, the square towers 
and crenelated walls of the Old Kremlin, and the glittering 
cupolas of twenty-six churches before us, and a lack of 
population which contrasted amazingly with the whirlpool 
of life below. Monsieur D., our new, but most faithful 
friend, took us to the hotel, every corner and cranny of 
which was occupied. There was a possibility of breakfast 
only, and water was obtained with great exertion. While 
we were lazily enjoying a tolerable meal, Monsieur D. was 
bestirring himself in all quarters, and came back to us ra 
diant with luck. He had found four rooms in a neighboring 
street ; and truly, if one were to believe De Custine or 
Dumas, such rooms are impossible in Russia. Charmingly 
clean, elegantly furnished, with sofas of green leather and 
beds of purest linen, they would have satisfied the severe 
eye of an English housekeeper. We thanked both our 
good friend and St. Macarius (who presides over the Fair) 
for this fortune, took possession, and then hired fresh drosh- 
kies to descend the hill. 

On emerging from the ravine, we obtained a bird s-eye 
view of the whole scene. The waters of both rivers, near 
at hand, were scarcely visible through the shipping which 
covered them. Vessels from the Neva, the Caspian, and 
the rivers of the Ural, were here congregated ; and they 
alone represented a floating population of between thirty 
and forty thousand souls. The Fair, from this point, re 
sembled an immense flat city, the streets of booths being 
of a uniform height, out of which rose the great Greek 
church, the Tartar mosque, and the curious Chinese roofs. 
It was a vast, dark, humming plain, vanishing towards the 



68 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

west and northwest in clouds of sand. By this time there 
was a lull in the business, and we made our way to the 
central bazaar with less trouble than we had anticipated. 
It is useless to attempt an enumeration of the wares ex 
posed for sale : they embraced everything grown, trapped, 
dug, or manufactured between Ireland and Japan. We 
sought, of course, the Asiatic elements, which first met us 
in the shape of melons from Astrakhan, and grapes from the 
southern slopes of the Caucasus. Then came wondrous 
stuffs from the looms of Turkestan and Cashmere, tur 
quoises from the Upper Oxus, and glittering strings of Si 
berian topaz and amethyst, side by side with Nuremberg 
toys, Lyons silks, and Sheffield cutlery. About one third 
of the population of the Fair was of Asiatic blood, embra 
cing representatives from almost every tribe north and west 
of the Himalayas. 

This temporary city, which exists during only two months 
of the year, contained two hundred thousand inhabitants 
at the time of our visit. During the remaining ten months 

O ^ 

it is utterly depopulated, the^bazaars are closed, and chains 
are drawn across the streets to prevent the passage of ve 
hicles. A single statement will give an idea of its extent : 
the combined length of the streets is twenty-five miles. 
The Great Bazaar is substantially built of stone, after the 
manner of those in Constantinople, except that it incloses 
an open court, where a Government band performs every 
afternoon. Here the finer wares are displayed, and the 
shadowed air under the vaulted roofs is a very kaleidoscope 
for shifting color and sparkle. Tea, cotton, leather, wool, 
and the other heavier and coarser commodities, have their 
separate streets and quarters. The several nationalities 
are similarly divided, to some extent ; but the stranger, of 
course, prefers to see them jostling together in the streets, 
a Babel not only of tongues, but of feature, character, 
and costume. 

Our ladies were eager to inspect the stock of jewelry 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 69 

especially those heaps of exquisite color with which the 
Mohammedans very logically load the trees of Paradise ; 
for they resemble fruit in a glorified state of existence. 
One can imagine virtuous grapes promoted to amethysts, 
blueberries to turquoises, cherries to rubies, and green 
gages to aqua-marine. These, the secondary jewels (with 
the exception of the ruby), are brought in great quantities 
from Siberia, but most of them are marred by slight Haws 
or other imperfections, so that their cheapness is more ap 
parent than real. An amethyst an inch long, throwing the 
most delicious purple light from its hundreds of facets, 
quite takes you captive, and you put your hand in your 
pocket for the fifteen dollars which shall make you its pos 
sessor ; but a closer inspection is sure to show you either 
a broad transverse flaw, j or a spot where the color fades 
into transparency. The white topaz, known as the " Sibe 
rian diamond," is generally flawless, and the purest speci 
mens are scarcely to be distinguished from the genuine 
brilliant. A necklace of these, varying from a half to a 
quarter of an inch in diameter, may be had for about 
twenty-five dollars. There were also golden and smoky 
topaz and beryl, in great profusion. 

A princely Bashkir drew us to his booth, first by his 
beauty and then by his noble manners. He was the very 
incarnation of Boker s " Prince Adeb." 

" The girls of Damar paused to see me pass, 
I walking in my rags, yet beautiful. 
One maiden said, He has a prince s air ! 
I am a prince ; the air was all my own." 

This Bashkir, however, was not in rags, he was elegantly 
attired. His silken vest was bound with a girdle of gold 
thread studded with jewels, and over it he wore a caftan, 
with wide sleeves, of the finest dark-blue cloth. The round 
cap of black lamb s-wool became his handsome head. His 
complexion was pale olive, through which the red of his 
cheeks shone, in the words of some oriental poem, " like 



70 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

a rose-leaf through oil ; " and his eyes, in their dark fire 
were more lustrous than smoky topaz. His voice was mel 
low and musical, and his every movement and gesture a 
new exhibition of human grace. Among thousands, yea, 
tens of thousands, of handsome men, he stood preeminent. 

As our acquaintance ripened, he drew a pocket-book 
from his bosom, and showed us his choicest treasures : tur 
quoises, bits of wonderful blue heavenly forget-me-nots ; a 
jacinth, burning like a live coal, in scarlet light ; and 
lastly, a perfect ruby, which no sum less than twenty-five 
hundred dollars could purchase. From him we learned 
the curious fluctuations of fashion in regard to jewels. 
Turquoises were just then in the ascendant; and one of 
the proper tint, the size of a parsnip-seed, could not be had 
for a hundred dollars, the full value of a diamond of equal 
size. Amethysts of a deep plum-color, though less beauti 
ful than the next paler shade, command very high prices ; 
while jacinth, beryl, and aqua-marine stones of exquisite 
hue and lustre are cheap. But then, in this depart 
ment, as in all others, Fashion and Beauty are not conver 
tible terms. 

In the next booth there were two Persians, who unfolded 
before our eyes some of their marvelous shawls, where you 
forget the barbaric pattern in the exquisite fineness of the 
material and the triumphant harmony of the colors. Scar 
let with palm-leaf border, blue clasped by golden bronze, 
picked out with red, browns, greens, and crimsons strug 
gling for the mastery in a war of tints, how should we 
choose between them ? Alas ! we were not able to choose ; 
they were a thousand dollars apiece ! But the Persians 
still went on unfolding, taking our admiration in pay for 
their trouble, and seeming even, by their pleasant smiles, 
to consider themselves well paid. "When we came to the 
booths of European merchants, we were swiftly impressed 
with the fact that civilization, in following the sun west 
ward, loses its grace in proportion as it advances. The 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 71 

gentle dignity, the serene patience, the soft, fraternal, 
affectionate demeanor of our Asiatic brethren vanished 
utterly when we encountered French and German sales 
men ; and yet these latter would have seemed gracious 
and courteous, had there been a few Yankee dealers 
beyond them. The fourth or fifth century, which still 
exists in Central Asia, was undoubtedly, in this particular, 
superior to the nineteenth. No gentleman, since his time, 
I suspect, has equaled Adam. 

Among these Asiatics Mr. Buckle would have some dif 
ficulty in maintaining his favorite postulate, that tolerance 
is the result of progressive intelligence. It is also the 
result of courtesy, as we may occasionally see in well- 
bred persons of limited intellect. Such, undoubtedly, 
is the basis of that tolerance which no one who has had 
much personal intercourse with the Semitic races can have 
failed to experience. The days of the sword and fagot are 
past; but it was reserved for Christians to employ them 
in the name of religion alone. Local or political jealous 
ies are at the bottom of those troubles which still occur 
from time to time in Turkey ; the traveller hears no insult 
ing epithet, and the green-turbaned Imam will receive 
him as kindly and courteously as the skeptical Bey edu 
cated in Paris. I have never been so aggressively assailed, 
on religious grounds, as at home, never so coarsely and 
insultingly treated, on account of a presumed difference 
of opinion, as by those who claim descent from the Cava 
liers. The bitter fierceness of some of our leading 

c> 

reformers is overlooked by their followers, because it 
springs from " earnest conviction " ; but in the Orient 
intensest faith coexists with the most gracious and gentle 
manners. 

Be not impatient, beloved reader ; for this digression 
brings me naturally to the next thing we saw at Novgorod. 
As we issued from the bazaar, the sunlit minaret greeted 
us through whirling dust and rising vapor, and I fancied I 



72 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

could hear the muezzin s musical cry. It was about time 
for the asser prayer. Droshkies were found, and we rode 
slowly through the long, low warehouses of " caravan tea " 
and Mongolian wool to the mound near the Tartar encamp 
ment. The mosque was a plain, white, octagonal building, 
conspicuous only through its position. The turbaned faith 
ful were already gathering ; and we entered, and walked 
up the steps among them, without encountering an un 
friendly glance. At the door stood two Cossack soldiers, 
specially placed there to prevent the worshippers from 
being insulted by curious Christians. (Those who have 
witnessed the wanton profanation of mosques in India by 
the English officers will please notice this fact.) If we 
had not put off our shoes before entering the hall of wor 
ship, the Cossacks would have performed that operation 
for us. 

I am happy to say that none of our party lacked a 
proper reverence for devotion, though it was offered through 
the channels of an alien creed. The ladies left their 
gaiters beside our boots, and we all stood in our stockings 
on the matting, a little in the rear of the kneeling crowd. 
The priest occupied a low dais in front, but he simply led 
the prayer, which was uttered by all. The windows were 
open, and the sun poured a golden flood into the room. 
Yonder gleamed the Kremlin of Novgorod, yonder rolled 
the Volga, all around were the dark forests of the North, 
yet their faces were turned, and their thoughts went south 
ward, to where Mecca sits among the burning hills, in the 
feathery shade of her palm-trees. And the tongue oJ 
Mecca came from their lips, " Allah ! " " Allah aJchbar ! " as. 
the knee bent and the forehead touched the floor. 

At the second repetition of the prayers we quietly with 
drew ; and good Monsieur D., forgetful of nothing, sug 
gested that preparations had been made for a dinner in the; 
great cosmopolitan restaurant. So we drove back again 
through the Chinese street, with its red horned houses, tho 



BETWEEN EUEOPE AND ASIA. 73 

roofs terminating in gilded dragons tails, and, after press 
ing through an immense multitude enveloped in tobacco- 
smoke and the steam of tea-urns, found ourselves at last in 
a low room with a shaky floor and muslin ceiling. It was 
an exact copy of the dining-room of a California hotel. 
If we looked blank a moment, Monsieur D. s smile reas 
sured us. He had given all the necessary orders, he said, 
and would step out and secure a box in the theatre before 
the zakouski was served. During his absence, we looked 
out of the window on either side upon surging, whirling, 
humming pictures of the Great Fair, all vanishing in per 
spectives of dust and mist 

In half an hour our friend returned, and with him 
entered the zakouski. I cannot remember half the appe 
tizing ingredients of which it was composed : anchovies, 
sardines, herrings, capers, cheese, caviare, pate de foie, 
pickles, cherries, oranges, and olives, were among them. 
Instead of being a prelude to dinner, it was almost a 
dinner in itself. Then, after a Russian soup, which always 
contains as much solid nutriment as meat-biscuit or Arc 
tic pemmican, came the glory of the repast, a mighty 
sterlet, which was swimming in Volga water when we took 
our seats at the table. This fish, the exclusive property of 
Russia, is, in times of scarcity, worth its weight in silver. 
Its unapproachable flavor is supposed to be as evanescent 
as the hues of a dying dolphin. Frequently, at grand din 
ner-parties, it is carried around the table in a little tank, 
and exhibited, alive, to the guests, when their soup is 
served, that its freshness, ten minutes afterwards, may be 
put beyond suspicion. The fish has the appearance of a 
small, lean sturgeon ; but its flesh resembles the melting 
pulp of a fruit rather than the fibre of its watery brethren. 
It sinks into juice upon the tongue, like a perfectly ripe 
peach. In this quality no other fish in the world can ap 
proach it ; yet I do not think the flavor quite so fine as 
that of a brook-trout. Our sterlet was nearly two feet 
long, and may have cost twenty or thirty dollars. 



74 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

AVith it appeared an astonishing salad, composed of 
watermelons, cantaloupes, pickled cherries, cucumbers, and 
certain spicy herbs. Its color and odor were enticing, and 
we had all applied the test of taste most satisfactorily 
before we detected the curious mixture of ingredients. 
After the second course, a ragout of beef, accompanied 
with a rich, elaborate sauce, three heavy tankards of 
chased silver, holding two quarts apiece, were placed upon 
the table. The first of these contained kvass, the second 
kislischi, and the third hydromel. Each one of these national 
drinks, when properly brewed, is very palatable and re 
freshing. I found the kislischi nearly identical with the 
ancient Scandinavian mead : no doubt it dates from the 
Varangian rule in Russia. The old custom of passing the 
tankards around the table, from mouth to mouth, is still 
observed, and will not be found objectionable, even in these 
days of excessive delicacy, when ladies and gentlemen are 
seated alternately at the banquet. 

The Russian element of the dinner here terminated. 
Cutlets and roast fowls made their appearance, with bottles 
of Riidesheimer and Lafitte, followed by a dessert of su 
perb Persian melons, from the southern shore of the 
Caspian Sea. 

By this time night had fallen, and Monsieur D. sug 
gested an immediate adjournment to the theatre. AVhat 
should be the entertainment ? Dances of almehs, songs of 
gypsies, or Chinese jugglers? One of the Ivans brought a 
programme. It was not difficult to decipher the word 
" MAKBET L " and to recognize, further, in the name of 
" Ira Aldridge " a distinguished mulatto tragedian, to 
whom Maryland has given birth (if I am rightly informed) 
and Europe fame. AVe had often heard of him, yea, seen 
his portrait in Germany, decorated with the orders con 
ferred by half a dozen sovereigns ; and his presence here, 
between Europe and Asia, was not the least characteristic 
feature of the Fair. A mulatto Macbeth, in a Russian 
theatre, with a Persian and Tartar audience ! 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 75 

On arriving, we were ushered into two whitewashed 
boxes, which had been reserved for our party. The man 
ager, having been informed of the Envoy s presence in 
Nijni-Novgorod, had delayed the performance half an hour, 
but the audience bore this infliction patiently. The building 
was deep and narrow, with space for about eight hundred 
persons, and was filled from top to bottom. The first act 
was drawing to a close as we entered. King Duncan, with 
two or three shabby attendants, stood in the court-yard of 
the castle, the latter represented by a handsome French 
door on the left, with a bit of Tartar wall beyond, and 
made his observations on the " pleasant seat " of Macbeth s 
mansion. lie spoke Russian, of course. Lady Macbeth 
now appeared, in a silk dress of the latest fashion, ex 
panded by the amplest of crinolines. She was passably 
handsome, and nothing could be gentler than her face and 
voice. She received the royal party like a well-bred lady, 
and they all entered the French door together. 

There was no change of scene. With slow step and 
folded arms, Ira Macbeth entered and commenced the 
soliloquy, " If it were done," etc., to our astonishment, in 
English ! He was a dark, strongly built mulatto, of about 
fifty, in a fancy tunic, and light stockings over Forrestian 
calves. His voice was deep and powerful ; and it was very 
evident that Edmund Kean, once his master, was also the 
model which he carefully followed in the part. There 
were the same deliberate, over-distinct enunciation, the 
same prolonged pauses and gradually performed gestures, 
as I remember in imitations of Kean s manner. Except 
that the copy was a little too apparent, Mr. Aldridge s 
acting was really very fine. The Russians were enthusias 
tic in their applause, though very few of them, probably, 
understood the language of the part. The Oriental audi 
tors were perfectly impassive, and it was impossible to guess 
how they regarded the performance. 

The second act was in some respects the most amusing 



76 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

thing I ever saw upon the stage. In the dagger-scene, 
Ira was, to my mind, quite equal, to Forrest ; it was impos 
sible to deny him unusual dramatic talent ; but his com 
plexion, continually suggesting Othello, quite confounded 
me. The amiable Russian Lady Macbeth was much better 
adapted to the part of Desdemona : all softness and gen 
tleness, she smiled as she lifted her languishing eyes, and 
murmured in the tenderest accents, " Infirm of purpose ! 
give me the dagger ! " At least, I took for granted that 
these were her words, for Macbeth had just said, " Look 
on t again I dare not." Afterwards, six Russian soldiers, 
in tan-colored shirts, loose trousers, and high boots, filed 
in, followed by Macduff and Malcolm, in the costume of 
"Wallenstein s troopers. The dialogue one voice Eng 
lish, and all the others Russian proceeded smoothly 
enough, but the effect was like nothing which our stage 
can produce. Nevertheless, the audience was delighted, 
and when the curtain fell there were vociferous cries of 
"Awa ! A ira ! Aldreetch ! Aldreetch ! " until the swarthy 
hero made his appearance before the foot-lights. 

Monsieur D. conducted our friend P. into the green 
room, where he was received by Macbeth in costume. He 
found the latter to be a dignified, imposing personage, who 
carried his tragic chest-tones into ordinary conversation. 
On being informed by P. that the American minister was 
present, he asked, 

" Of what persuasion ? " 

P. hastened to set him right, and Ira then remarked, in 
his gravest tone, "I shall have the honor of waiting 
upon him to-morrow morning ; " which, however, he failed 
to do. 

This son of the South, no doubt, came legitimately (or, 
at least, naturally) by his dignity. His career, for a man 
of his blood and antecedents, has been wonderfully success 
ful, and is justly due, I am convinced, since I have seen 
him, to his histrionic talents. Both black and yellow skins 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 77 

are sufficiently rare in Europe to excite a particular in 
terest in those who wear them ; and I had surmised, up to 
this time, that much of his popularity might be owing to 
his color. Rut he certainly deserves an honorable place 
among tragedians of the second rank. 

& O 

We left the theatre at the close of the third act, and 
crossed the river to our quarters .on the hill. A chill mist 
hung over the Fair, but the lamps still burned, the streets 
were thronged, and the Don Cossacks kept patient guard 
at every corner. The night went by like one unconscious 
minute, in beds unmolested by bug or flea ; and when I 
arose, thoroughly refreshed, I involuntarily called to mind 
a frightful chapter in De Custine s " Russia," describing the 
prevalence of an insect which he calls the persica, on the 
banks of the Volga. He was obliged to sleep on a table, 
the legs whereof were placed in basins of water, to escape 
their attacks. I made many inquiries about these terrible 
persicas, and finally discovered that they were neither more 
nor less than cockroaches ! called Prossald (Prus 
sians) by the Russians, as they are sometimes called Schwa- 
ben (Suabians) by the Germans. Possibly they may be 
found in the huts of the serfs, but they are rare in decent 
houses. 

We devoted the first sunny hours of the morning to a visit 
to the citadel and a walk around the crest of the hill. On 
the highest point, just over the junction of the two rivers, 
there is a commemorative column to Minim, the patriotic 
butcher of Novgorod, but for whose eloquence, in the year 
1610, the Russian might possibly now be the Polish Em 
pire. Vladislas, son of Sigismund of Poland, had been 
called to the throne by the boyards, and already reigned in 
Moscow, when Minim appealed to the national spirit, per 
suaded General Pojarski to head an anti-Polish movement, 
which was successful, and thus cleared the way for the 
election of Michael Romanoff, the first sovereign of the 
present dynasty. Minim is therefore one of the historic 
names of Russia. 



78 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

When I stood beside his monument, and the finest land 
scape of European Russia was suddenly unrolled before 
my eyes, I could believe the tradition of his eloquence, 
for here was its inspiration. Thirty or forty miles away 
stretched the rolling swells of forest and grain-land, fading 
into dimmest blue to the westward and northward, dotted 
with villages and sparkling domes, and divided by shining- 
reaches of the Volga. It was truly a superb and imposing 
view, changing with each spur of the hill as we made the 
circuit of the citadel. Eastward, the country rose into 
dark, wooded hills, between which the river forced its way 
in a narrower and swifter channel, until it disappeared 
behind a purple headland, hastening southward to find a 
warmer home in the unfrozen Caspian. By embarking on 
the steamers anchored below us, we might have reached 
Perm, among the Ural Mountains, or Astrakhan, in less 
than a week ; while a trip of ten days would have taken us 
past the Caucasus, even to the base of Ararat or Demavend. 
Such are the splendid possibilities of travel in these days. 

The Envoy, who visited Europe for the first time, de 
clared that this panorama from the hill of Novgorod was 
one of the finest things he had seen. There could, truly, 
be no better preparation to enjoy it than fifteen hundred 
miles of nearly unbroken level, after leaving the Russian 
frontier ; but I think it would be a noted landscape any 
where. Why it is not more widely celebrated I cannot 
guess. The only person in Russia whom I heard speak of 
it with genuine enthusiasm was Alexander II. 

Two hours upon the breezy parapet, beside the old 
Tartar walls, were all too little ; but the droshkies waited 
in the river-street a quarter of a mile below us ; our return 
to Moscow was ordered for the afternoon ; there were ame 
thysts and Persian silks yet to be bought, and so we sighed 
farewell to an enjoyment rare in Russia, and descended the 
steep foot-path. 

P. and I left the rest of the party at the booth of the 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 79 

handsome Bashkir, and set out upon a special mission to 
the Tartar camp. I had ascertained that the national 
beverage of Central Asia might be found there, the gen 
uine koumiss or fermented milk of the mares of the Uralian 
steppes. Having drunk palm-wine in India, samshoo in 
China, sdki in Japan, pulque in Mexico, bouza in Egypt, 
mead in Scandinavia, ale in England, bock-bier in Germany, 
mastic in Greece, calabogus in Newfoundland, and soda- 
water in the United States, I desired to complete the bibu 
lous cosmos, in which koumiss was still lacking. My friend 
did not share my curiosity, but was ready for an adventure, 
which our search for mare s milk seemed to promise. 

Beyond the mosques we found the Uzbeks and Kirghiz, 
. some in tents, some in rough shanties of boards. But 
they were without koumiss : they had had it, and showed 
us some empty kegs, in evidence of the fact. I fancied a 
gleam of diversion stole over their grave, swarthy faces, as 
they listened to our eager inquiries in broken Russian. 
Finally we came into an extemporized village, where some 
women, unveiled and ugly, advised us to apply to the 
traders in the khan, or caravanserai. This was a great 
barn-like building, two stories high, with broken staircases 
and creaking floors. A corridor ran the whole length of 

& O 

the second floor, with some twenty or thirty doors opening 
into it from the separate rooms of the traders. We ac 
costed the first Tartar whom we met, and he promised, 
with great readiness, to procure us what we wanted. He 
ushered us into his room, cleared away a pile of bags, 
saddles, camel-trappings, and other tokens of a nomadic 
life, and revealed a low divan covered with a ragged carpet. 
On a sack of barley sat his father, a blind graybeard, 
nearly eighty years old. On our way through the camp I 
had noticed that the Tartars saluted each other with the 
Arabic, " Salaam aleikoom ! " and I therefore greeted the 
old man with the familiar words. He lifted his head : his 
face brightened, and he immediately answered, "Aleikoom 
salaam, my son ! " 



80 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

" Do you speak Arabic ? " I asked. 

" A little ; I have forgotten it," said he. But thine is 
a new voice. Of what tribe art thou ? " 

" A tribe far away, beyond Bagdad and Syria," I an 
swered. 

" It is the tribe of Damascus. I know it now, my son. 
I have heard the voice, many, many years ago." 

The withered old face looked so bright, as some pleas 
ant memory shone through it, that I did not undeceive the 
man. His son came in with a glass, pulled a keg from 
under a pile of coarse caftans, and drew out the wooden 
peg. A gray liquid, with an odor at once sour and pun 
gent, spirted into the glass, which he presently handed to 
me, filled to the brim. In such cases no hesitation is per 
mitted. I thought of home and family, set the glass to my 
lips, and emptied it before the flavor made itself clearly 
manifest to my palate. 

" Well, what is it like ? " asked my friend, who curiously 
awaited the result of the experiment. 

" Peculiar," I answered, with preternatural calmness, 
" peculiar, but not unpleasant." 

The glass was filled a second time ; and P., not to be 
behindhand, emptied it at a draught. Then he turned to 
me with tears (not of delight) in his eyes, swallowed very 
hard two or three times, suppressed a convulsive shudder, 
and finally remarked, with the air of a martyr, " Very 
curious, indeed ! " 

" Will your Excellencies have some more ? " said the 
friendly Tartar. 

" Not before breakfast, if you please," I answered ; 
" your koumiss is excellent, however, and we will take a 
bottle with us," which we did, in order to satisfy the 
possible curiosity of the ladies. I may here declare that 
the bottle was never emptied. 

The taste was that of aged buttermilk mixed with am 
monia. We could detect no flavor of alcohol, yet were 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 81 

conscious of a light exhilaration from the small quantity 
we drank. The beverage is said, indeed, to be very in 
toxicating. Some German physician has established a 
" koumiss-cure " at Piatigorsk, at the northern base of the 
Caucasus, and invites invalids of certain kinds to come 
and be healed by its agency. I do not expect to be one of 
the number. 

There still remained a peculiar feature of the Fair, 
which I had not yet seen. This is the subterranean net 
work of sewerage, which reproduces, in massive masonry, 
the streets on the surface. Without it, the annual city of 
two months would become uninhabitable. The peninsula 
between the two rivers being low and marshy, frequently 
overflowed during the spring freshets, pestilence would 
soon be bred from the immense concourse of people : hence 
a system of cloaca, almost rivaling those of ancient Rome. 
At each street-corner there are wells containing spiral 
staircases, by which one can descend to the spacious sub 
terranean passages, and there walk for miles under arches 
of hewn stone, lighted and aired by shafts at regular inter 
vals. In St. Petersburg you are told that more than half 
the cost of the city is under the surface of the earth ; at 
Nijni-Novgorod the statement is certainly true. Peter the 
vireat at one time designed establishing his capital here. 
Could he have foreseen the existence of railroads, he would 
certainly have done so. Nijni-Novgorod is now nearer to 
Berlin than the Russian frontier was fifty years ago. St. 
Petersburg is an accidental city ; Nature and the destiny 
of the empire are both opposed to its existence ; and a time 
will come when its long lines of palaces shall be deserted 
for some new capital, in a locality at once more southern 
and more central. 

Another walk through the streets of the Fair enabled 
me to analyze the first confused impression, and separate 
the motley throng of life into its several elements. I sha;. 
not attempt, however, to catch and paint its ever-changing. 



02 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

fluctuating character. Our limited visit allowed us to see 
only the more central and crowded streets. Outside of 
these, for miles, extend suburbs of iron, of furs, wool, and 
other coarser products, brought together from the Ural, 
from the forests towards the Polar Ocean, and from the 
vast extent of Siberia. Here, from morning till night, the 
beloved kvass flows in rivers, the strong stream of shchee 
(cabbage-soup) sends up its perpetual incense, and the 
samovar of cheap tea is never empty. Here, although im 
portant interests are represented, the intercourse between 
buyers and sellers is less grave and methodical than in the 
bazaar. There are jokes, laughter, songs, and a constant 
play of that repartee in which even the serfs are masters. 
Here, too, jugglers and mountebanks of all sorts ply their 
trade ; gypsies sing, dance, and tell fortunes ; and other 
vocations, less respectable than these, flourish vigorously. 
For, whether the visitor be an Ostiak from the Polar Cir 
cle, an Uzbek from the Upper Oxus, a Grim-Tartar or 
Nogai, a Georgian from Tiflis, a Mongolian from the Land 
of Grass, a Persian from Ispahan, a Jew from Hamburg, a 
Frenchman from Lyons, a Tyrolese, Swiss, Bohemian, or 
an Anglo-Saxon from either side of the Atlantic, he meets 
his fellow- visitors to the Great Fair on the common ground, 
not of human brotherhood, but of human appetite; and all 
the manifold nationalities succumb to the same allurements. 
If the various forms of indulgence could be so used as to 
propagate ideas, the world would speedily be regenerated , 
but as things go, " cakes and ale " have more force than 
the loftiest ideas, the noblest theories of improvement ; and 
the impartial observer will make this discovery as readily 
at Nijni- Novgorod as anywhere else. 

Befo.re taking leave of the Fair, let me give a word to 
the important subject of tea. It is a much-disputed ques 
tion with the connoisseurs of that beverage which neither 
cheers nor inebriates (though, I confess, it is more agree 
able than koumiss), whether the Russian " caravan tea" 



BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA. 83 

really superior to that which is imported by sea. After 
much patient observation, combined with serious reflection, 
I incline to the opinion that the flavor of tea depends, not 
upon the method of transportation, but upon the price paid 
for the article. I have tasted bad caravan tea in Russia, 
and delicious tea in New York. In St. Petersburg you 
cannot procure a good article for less than three roubles 
($2.25, gold) per pound ; while the finer kinds bring 
twelve and even sixteen roubles. Whoever is willing to 
import at that price can no doubt procure tea of equal ex 
cellence. The fact is, that this land-transportation is slow, 
laborious, and expensive ; hence the finer kinds of tea are 
always selected, a pound thereof costing no more for car 
riage than a pound of inferior quality ; whence the supe 
rior flavor of caravan tea. There is, however, one variety 
to be obtained in Russia which I have found nowhere else, 
not even in the Chinese sea-ports. It is called " imperial 
tea," and comes in elegant boxes of yellow silk emblazoned 
with the dragon of the Hang dynasty, at the rate of from 
six to twenty dollars a pound. It is yellow, and the decoc 
tion from it is almost colorless. A small pinch of it, 
added to ordinary black tea, gives an indescribably delicious 
flavor the very aroma of the tea-blossom ; but one cup 
of it, unmixed, is said to deprive the drinker of sleep for 
three nights. 

Monsieur D. brought our last delightful stroll through 
the glittering streets to an untimely end. The train for 
Moscow was to leave at three o clock ; and he had ordered 
an early dinner at the restaurant. By the time this was 
concluded, it was necessary to drive at once to the station, 
in order to secure places. Vie were almost too late ; the 
train, long as it was, was crammed to overflowing ; and 
although both station-master and conductor assisted us, the 
eager passengers disregarded their authority. With great 
difficulty, one compartment was cleared for the ladies ; in 
the adjoining one four merchants, in long caftans, with 



84 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

sacks of watermelons as provision for the journey, took 
their places, and would not be ejected. A scene of con 
fusion ensued, in which station-master, conductor, Mon 
sieur D., my friend P., and the Russian merchants were 
curiously mixed ; but when we saw the sacks of water 
melons rolling out of the door, we knew the day was ours 
In two minutes more we were in full possession ; the doors 
were locked, and the struggling throngs beat against them 
in vain. 

With a grateful farewell to our kind guide, whose rather 
severe duties for our sake were now over, we moved away 
from the station, past heaps of cotton-bales, past hills of 
drifting sand, and impassive groups of Persians, Tartars, 
and Bukharians, and slowly mounted the long grade to 
the level of the upland, leaving the Fair to hum and whirl 
in the hollow between the rivers, and the white walls and 
golden domes of Novgorod to grow dim on the crest of the 
receding hill. 

The next morning, at sunrise, we were again in Mos 
cow. 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 



As September drew to an end, with only here and there 
a suggestion of autumn in chrome-colored leaves on the 
ends of birch-branches, we were told that any day might 
suddenly bring forth winter. I remembered that five years 
before, in precisely the same season, I had travelled from 
Upsala to Stockholm in a violent snow-storm, and there 
fore accepted the announcement as a part of the regular 
programme of the year. But the days came and went; 
fashionable equipages forsook their summer ground of the 
Islands, and crowded the Nevskoi Prospekt ; the nights 
were cold and raw ; the sun s lessening declination was 
visible from day to day, and still Winter delayed to make 
his appearance. 

The Island drive was our favorite resort of an afternoon ; 
and we continued to haunt it long after every summer 
guest had disappeared, and when the datchas and palaces 
showed plank and matting in place of balcony and window. 
In the very heart of St. Petersburg the one full stream of 
the Neva splits into three main arms, which afterwards 
subdivide, each seeking the Gulf of Finland at its own 
swift, wild will. The nearest of these islands, Vassili Os- 
trow, is a part of the solid city : on Kammenoi and Apte- 
karskoi you reach the commencement of gardens and 
groves ; and beyond these the rapid waters mirror only 
palace, park, and summer theatre. The widening streams 
continually disclose the horizon-line of the Gulf; and at 
the farthest point of the drive, where the road turns 
sharply back again from the freedom of the shore into 
mixed woods of birch and pine, the shipping at Cronstadt 
and sometimes the phantoms of fortresses detach 



88 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

themselves from the watery haze, and the hill of Pargola, 
in Finland, rises to break the dreary level of the Ingrian 
marshes. 

During the sunny evenings and the never-ending twi 
lights of midsummer, all St. Petersburg pours itself upon 
these islands. A league-long wall of dust rises from the 
carriages and droshkies in the main highway ; and the 
branching Neva-arms are crowded with skiffs and diminu 
tive steamers bound for pleasure-gardens where gypsies 
sing and Tyrolese yodel and jugglers toss their knives and 
balls, and private rooms may be had for gambling and 
other cryptic diversions. Although with shortened days 
and cool evenings the tide suddenly took a reflux and the 
Nevskoi became a suggestion of Broadway (which, of all 
individual streets, it most nearly resembles), we found an 
indescribable charm in the solitude of the fading groves 
and the waves whose lamenting murmur foretold their 
speedy imprisonment. We had the whole superb drive to 
ourselves. It is true that Ivan, upon the box, lifted his 
brows in amazement, and sighed that his jaunty cap of 
green velvet should be wasted upon the desert air, when 
ever I said, " Na Ostrowa" but he was too genuine a Rus 
sian to utter a word of remonstrance. 

Thus, day by day, unfashionable, but highly satisfied, we 
repeated the lonely drive, until the last day came, as it al 
ways will. I don t think I shall ever forget it. It was the 
first day of November. For a fortnight the temperature 
had been a little below the freezing-point, and the leaves 
of the alder-thickets, frozen suddenly and preserved as in 
a great out-door refrigerator, maintained their green. A 
pale blue mist rose from the Gulf and hung over the 
islands, the low sun showing an orange disk, which touched 
the shores with the loveliest color, but gave no warmth to 
the windless air. The parks and gardens were wholly de 
serted, and came and went, on either side, phantom-like in 
their soft, gray, faded tints. Under every bridge flashed 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 89 

and foamed the clear, beryl-green waters. And nobody in 
St. Petersburg, except ourselves, saw this last and sunniest 
flicker of the dying season ! 

The very next day was cold and dark, and so the weather 
remained, with brief interruptions, for months. On the 
evening of the 6th, as we drove over the Nikolai Bridge 
to dine with a friend on Vassili Ostrow, we noticed frag 
ments of ice floating down the Neva. Looking up the 
stream, we were struck by the fact that the remaining 
bridges had been detached from the St. Petersburg side, 
floated over, and anchored along the opposite shore. This 
seemed a needless precaution, for the pieces of drift-ice 
were hardly large enough to have crushed a skiff. How 
surprised were we, then, on returning home, four hours 
later, to find the noble river gone, not a green wave to be 
seen, and, as far as the eye could reach, a solid floor of ice, 
over which people were already crossing to and fro ! 

Winter, having thus suddenly taken possession of the 
world, lost no time in setting up the signs of his rule. The 
leaves, whether green or brown, disappeared at one swoop ; 
snow-gusts obscured the little remaining sunshine ; the in 
habitants came forth in furs and bulky wrappings ; oysters 
and French pears became unreasonably dear ; and sledges 
of frozen fish and game crowded down from the northern 
forests. In a few days the physiognomy of the capital was 
completely changed. All its life and stir withdrew from 
the extremities and gathered into a few central thorough 
fares, as if huddling together for mutual warmth and en 
couragement in the cold air and under the gloomy sky. 

For darkness, rather than cold, is the characteristic of 
the St. Petersburg winter. The temperature, which at 
Montreal or St. Paul would not be thought remarkably 
low, seems to be more severely felt here, owing to the ab 
sence of pure daylight. Although both Lake Ladoga and 
the Gulf of Finland are frozen, the air always retains a 
damp, raw, penetrating quality, and the snow is more fre- 



90 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

quently sticky and clammy than dry and crystalline. Few, 
indeed, are the days which are not cheerless and depress 
ing. In December, when the sky is overcast for weeks to 
gether, the sun, rising after nine o clock, and sliding along 
just above the horizon, enables you to dispense with lamp 
light somewhere between ten and eleven; but by two in 
the afternoon you must call for lights again. Even when 
a clear day comes, the yellow, level sunshine is a combina 
tion of sunrise and sunset, and neither tempers the air nor 
mitigates the general expression of gloom, almost of de 
spair, upon the face of Nature. 

The preparations for the season, of course, have been 
made long before. In most houses the double windows 
are allowed to remain through the summer, but they must 
be carefully examined, the layer of cotton between them, 
at the bottom, replenished, a small vessel of salt added to 
absorb the moisture and prevent it from freezing on the 
panes, and strips of paper pasted over every possible crack. 
The outer doors are covered with wadded leather, over 
lapping the frames on all sides. The habitations being thus 
almost hermetically sealed, they are easily warmed by the 
huge porcelain stoves, which retain warmth so tenaciously 
that one fire per day is sufficient for the most sensitive 
constitutions. In my own room, I found that one armful of 
birch-wood, reduced to coal, every alternate morning, created 
a steady temperature of 64. Although the rooms are 
always spacious, and arranged in suites of from three to a 
dozen, according to the extent and splendor of the residence, 
the atmosphere soon becomes close and characterized by 
an unpleasant odor, suggesting its diminished vitality ; for 
which reason pastilles are burned, or eau de Cologne re 
duced to vapor in a heated censer, whenever visits are an 
ticipated. It was a question with me, whether or not the 
advantage of a thoroughly equable temperature was counter 
balanced by the lack of circulation. The physical depress 
ion we all felt seemed to result chiefly from the absence 
of daylight. 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 91 

One winter picture remains clearly outlined upon my 
memory. In the beginning of December we happened 
once to drive across the Admiralty Square in the early 
evening twilight, three o clock in the afternoon. The 
temperature was about 10 below zero, the sky a low roof 
of moveless clouds, which seemed to be frozen in their 
places. The pillars of St. Isaac s Cathedral splendid 
monoliths of granite, sixty feet high had precipitated the 
moisture of the air, and stood silvered with rime from base 
to capital. The Column of Alexander, the bronze statue 
of Peter, with his horse poised in air on the edge of the 
rock, and the trees on the long esplanade in front of the 
Admiralty, were all similarly coated, every twig rising 
as rigid as iron in the dark air. Only the huge golden 
hemisphere of the Cathedral dome, and the tall, pointed 
golden spire of the Admiralty, rose above the gloom, and 
half shone with a muffled, sullen glare. A few people, 
swaddled from head to foot, passed rapidly to and fro, or 
a droshky, drawn by a frosted horse, sped away to the en 
trance of the Nevskoi Prospekt. Even these appeared 
rather like wintry phantoms than creatures filled with warm 
blood and breathing the breath of life. The vast spaces of 
the capital, the magnitude of its principal edifices, and the 
display of gold and colors, strengthened the general aspect 
of unreality, by introducing so many inharmonious ele 
ments into the picture. A bleak moor, with the light of a 
single cottage-window shining across it, would have been 
less cold, dead, and desolate. 

The temperature, I may here mention, was never very 
severe. There were three days when the mercury fluctu 
ated between lo and 20 below zero, five days when it 
reached 10 below, and perhaps twenty when it fell to zero, 
or a degree or two on either side. The mean of the five 
winter months was certainly not lower than -f-12. Quite 
as much rain fell as snow. After two or three days of 
sharp cold, there was almost invariably a day of rain or 



92 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

fog, and for many weeks walking was so difficult that we 
were obliged to give up all out-door exercise except 
skating or sliding. The streets were either coated with 
glassy ice or they were a foot deep in slush. There is more 
and better sleighing in the vicinity of Boston almost any 
winter than in St. Petersburg during the winter of 1862-3. 
In our trips to the Observatory of Pulkova, twelve miles 
distant, we were frequently obliged to leave the highway 
and put our sled-runners upon the frosted grass of the 
meadows. The rapid and continual changes of temperature 
were more trying than any amount of steady cold. Grippe 
became prevalent, and therefore fashionable, and all the 
endemic diseases of St. Petersburg showed themselves in 
force. The city, it is well known, is built upon piles, and 
most of the inhabitants suffer from them. Children look 
pale and wilted, in the absence of the sun, and special care 
must be taken of those under five years of age. Some 
little relatives of mine, living in the country, had their 
daily tumble in the snow, and thus kept ruddy ; but in the 
city this is not possible, and we had many anxious days be 
fore the long darkness was over. 

As soon as snow had fallen and freezing weather set in, 
the rough, broken ice of the Neva was flooded in various 
places for skating-ponds, and the work of erecting ice-hills 
commenced. There were speedily a number of the latter 
in full play, in the various suburbs, a space of level 
ground, at least a furlong in length, being necessary. They 
are supported by subscription, and I had paid ten rubles 
for permission to use a very fine one on the farther island, 
when an obliging card of admission came for the gardens 
of the Taurida Palace, where the younger members of the 
Imperial family skate and slide. My initiation, however, 
took place at the first-named locality, whither we were con 
ducted by an old American resident of St. Petersburg. 

The construction of these ice-hills is very simple. They 
are rude towers of timber, twenty to thirty feet in height. 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 93 

the summit of which is reached by a staircase at the back, 
while in front descends a steep concave of planking upon 
which water is poured until it is covered with a six-inch 
coating of solid ice. Raised planks at the side keep the 
sled in its place until it reaches the foot, where it enters 
upon an icy plain two to four hundred yards in length (in 
proportion to the height of the hill), at the extremity of 
which rises a similar hill, facing towards the first, but a 
little on one side, so that the sleds from the opposite ends 
may pass without collision. 

The first experience of this diversion is fearful to a per 
son of delicate nerves. The pitch of the descent is so 
sheer, the height so great (apparently), the motion of the 
sled so swift, and its course so easily changed, even the 
lifting of a hand is sufficient, that the novice is almost 
sure to make immediate shipwreck. The sleds are small 
and low, with smooth iron runners, and a plush cushion, 
upon which the navigator sits bolt upright with his legs 
close together, projecting over the front. The runners 
must be exactly parallel to the lines of the course at start 
ing, and the least tendency to sway to either side must be 
instantly corrected by the slightest motion of the hand. 

I engaged one of the mujiks in attendance to pilot me 
on my first voyage. The man having taken his position 
well forward on the little sled, I knelt upon the rear end, 
where there was barely space enough for my knees, placed 
my hands upon his shoulders, and awaited the result. He 
shoved the sled with his hands, very gently and carefully, 
to the brink of the icy steep : then there was a moment s 
adjustment: then a poise: then sinking of the heart, 
cessation of breath, giddy roaring and whistling of the air, 
and I found myself scudding along the level with the speed 
of an express train. I never happened to fall out of a 
fourth-story window, but I immediately understood the sen 
sations of the unfortunate persons who do. It was so 
frightful that I shuddered when we reached the end of the 



94 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

course and the man coolly began ascending the steps of 
the opposite hill, with the sled under his arm. But my com 
panions were waiting to see me return, so I mounted after 
him, knelt again, and held my breath. This time, knowing 
what was coining, I caught a glimpse of our descent, and 
found that only the first plunge from the brink was threat 
ening. The lower part of the curve, which is nearly a 
parabolic line, is more gradual, and the seeming headlong 
fall does not last more than the tenth part of a second. 
The sensation, nevertheless, is very powerful, having all the 
attraction, without the reality, of danger. 

The ice-hills in the Taurida Gardens were not so high, 
and the descent was less abrupt: the course was the 
smooth floor of an intervening lake, which was kept clear 
for skating. Here I borrowed a sled, and was so elated at 
performing the feat successfully, on the first attempt, that 
I offered my services as charioteer to a lady rash enough 
to accept them. The increased weight gave so much ad 
ditional impetus to the sled, and thus rendered its guidance 
a more delicate matter. Finding that it began to turn even 
before reaching the bottom, I put down my hand suddenly 
upon the ice. The effect was like an explosion ; we struck 
the edge of a snow-bank, and were thrown entirely over it 
and deeply buried on the opposite side. The attendants 
picked us up without relaxing a muscle of their grave, re 
spectful faces, and quietly swept the ice for another trial. 
But after that I preferred descending alone. 

Good skaters will go up and down these ice-hills on their 
skates. The feat has a hazardous look, but I have seen it 
performed by boys of twelve. The young Grand Dukes 
who visited the Gardens generally contented themselves 
with skating around the lake at not too violent a speed. 
Some ladies of the court circle also timidly ventured to try 
the amusement, but its introduction was too recent for the**? 
to show much proficiency. On the Neva, in fact, the English 
were the best skaters. During the winter, one of them 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 95 

crossed the Gulf to Cronstadt, a distance of twenty-two 
miles, in about two hours. 

Before Christmas, the Lapps came down from the North 
with their reindeer, and pitched their tents on the river, in 
front of the Winter Palace. Instead of the canoe-shaped 
pulk, drawn by a single deer, they hitched four abreast to 
an ordinary sled, and took half a dozen passengers at a 
time, on a course of a mile, for a small fee. I tried it once, 
for a child s sake, but found that the romance of reindeer 
travel was lost without the pulk. The Russian sleighs are 
very similar to our own for driving about the city : in very 
cold weather, or for trips into the country, the kibitka, a 
heavy closed carriage on runners, is used. To my eye, 
the most dashing team in the world is the troika, or three- 
span, the thill-horse being trained to trot rapidly, while 
the other two, very lightly and loosely harnessed, canter 
on either side of him. From the ends of the thills 
springs a wooden arch, called the duga, rising eighteen 
inches above the horse s shoulder, and usually emblazoned 
with gilding and brilliant colors. There was one magnifi 
cent troika on the Nevskoi Prospekt, the horses of which 
were full-blooded, jet-black matches, and their harness 
formed of overlapping silver scales. The Russians being 
the best coachmen in the world, these teams dash past each 
other at furious speed, often escaping collision by the 
breadth of a hair, but never coming in violent contact. 

With the approach of winter the nobility returned from 
their estates, the diplomatists from their long summer va 
cation, the Imperial Court from Moscow, and the previous 
social desolation of the capital came speedily to an end. 
There were dinners and routs in abundance, but the sea 
son of balls was not fairly inaugurated until invitations had 
been issued for the first at the Winter Palace. This is 
usually a grand affair, the guests numbering from fifteen 
hundred to two thousand. We were agreeably surprised at 
finding half-past nine fixed as the hour of arrival, and 



96 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

took pains to be punctual ; but there were already a hun 
dred yards of carriages in advance. The toilet, of course, 
must be fully completed at home, and the huge pelisses of 
fur so adjusted as not to disarrange head-dresses, lace, crin 
oline, or uniform: the footmen must be prompt, on reach 
ing the covered portal, to promote speedy alighting and 
unwrapping, which being accomplished, each sits guard for 
the night over his own special pile of pelisses and furred 
boots. 

When the dresses are shaken out and the gloves 
smoothed, at the foot of the grand staircase, an usher, in a 
short bedizened red tunic and white knee-breeches, with a 
cap surmounted by three colossal white plumes, steps before 
you and leads the way onward through the spacious halls, 
ablaze with light from thousands of wax candles. I always 
admired the silent gravity of these ushers, and their slow, 
majestic, almost mysterious march until one morning 
at home, when I was visited by four common-looking Rus 
sians, in blue caftans, who bowed nearly to the floor and 
muttered congratulations. It was a deputation of the Im 
perial ushers, making their rounds for New Year s gifts ! 

Although the streets of St. Petersburg are lighted with 
gas, the palaces and private residences are still illuminated 
only with wax candles. Gas is considered plebeian, but it 
has probably also been found to be disagreeable in the 
close air of the hermetically sealed apartments. Candles 
are used in such profusion that I am told thirty thousand 
are required to light up an Imperial ball. The quadruple 
rows of columns which support the Hall of St. George are 
spirally entwined with garlands of wax-lights, and immense 
chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling. The wicks 
of each column are connected with threads dipped in some 
inflammable mixture, and each thread, being kindled at 
the bottom at the same instant, the light is carried in a few 
seconds to every candle in the hall. This instantaneous 
kindling of so many thousand wicks has a magical effect 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 97 

At the door of the great hall the usher steps aside, 
bows gravely, and returns, and one of the deputy masters 
of ceremonies receives you. These gentlemen are chosen 
from among the most distinguished families of Russia, and 
are, without exception, so remarkable for tact, kindness, 
and discretion, that the multitude falls, almost uncon 
sciously, into the necessary observances ; and the perfection 
of ceremony, which hides its own external indications, is 
attained. Violations of etiquette are most rare, yet no 
court in the world appears more simple and unconstrained 
in its forms. 

In less than fifteen minutes after the appointed time the 
hall is filled, and a blast from the orchestra announces the 
entrance of the Imperial family. The ministers and chief 
personages of the court are already in their proper places, 
and the representatives of foreign nations stand on one 
side of the door-way in their established order of prece 
dence (determined by length of residence near the court), 
with the ladies of their body on the opposite side. 

Alexander II. was much brighter and more cheerful 
than during the preceding summer. His care-worn, pre 
occupied air was gone ; the dangers which then encom 
passed him had subsided ; the nobility, although still chaf 
ing fiercely against the decree of emancipation, were slowly 
coming to the conclusion that its consummation is inevita 
ble ; and the Emperor began to feel that his great work 
will be safely accomplished. His dark-green uniform well 
becomes his stately figure and clearly chiseled, symmetri 
cal head. He is Nicholas recast in a softer mould, wherein 
tenacity of purpose is substituted for rigid, inflexible will, 
and the development of the nation at home supplants the 
ambition for predominant political influence abroad. This 
difference is expressed, despite the strong personal resem 
blance to his father, in the more frank and gentle eye, the 
fuller and more sensitive mouth, and the rounder lines of 
jaw and forehead. A free, natural directness of manner 

7 



98 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






and speech is his principal characteristic. He wears easily, 
almost playfully, the yoke of court ceremonial, temporarily 
casting it aside when troublesome. In two respects he 
differs from most of the other European rulers whom I 
have seen : he looks the sovereign, and he unbends as 
gracefully and unostentatiously as a man risen from the 
ranks of the people. There is evidently better stuff than 
kings are generally made of in the Romanoff line. 

Grace and refinement, rather than beauty, distinguish 
the Empress, though her eyes and hair deserve the latter 
epithet. She is an invalid, and appears pale and some 
what worn ; but there is no finer group of children in 
Europe than those to whom she has given birth. Six sons 
and one daughter are her jewels ; and of these, the third 
son, Vladimir, is almost ideally handsome. Her dress was 
at once simple and superb a cloud of snowy tulle, with 
a scarf of pale-blue velvet, twisted with a chain of the 
largest diamonds and tied with a knot and tassel of pearls 
resting half-way down the skirt, as if it had slipped from 
her waist. On another occasion, I remember her wearing 
a crown of five stars, the centres of which were single 
enormous rubies and the rays of diamonds, so set on invis 
ible wires that they burned in the air over her head. The 
splendor which was a part of her role was always made 
subordinate to rigid taste, and herein prominently distin 
guished her from many of the Russian ladies, who carried 
great fortunes upon their heads, necks, and bosoms. I 
had several opportunities of conversing with her, generally 
upon Art and Literature, and was glad to find that she 
had both read and thought, as well as seen. The honored 
author of " Evangeline " numbers her among his apprecia 
tive readers. 

After their Majesties have made the circle of the diplo 
matic corps, the Polonaise, which always opens a Court 
ball, commences. The Grand Dukes Nicholas and Mi 
chael (brothers of the Emperor), and the younger mem- 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 99 

hers of the Imperial family, take part in it, the latter evi 
dently impatient for the succeeding quadrilles and waltzes. 
When this is finished, all palpable, obtrusive ceremony is 
at an end. Dancing, conversation, cards, strolls through 
the sumptuous halls, fill the hours. The Emperor wanders 
freely through the crowd, saluting here and there a friend, 
exchanging badinage with the wittiest ladies (which they 
all seem at liberty to give back, without the least embar 
rassment), or seeking out the scarred and gray-haired 
officers who have come hither from alKparts of the vast 
empire. He does not scrutinize whether or not your back 
is turned towards him as he passes. Once, on entering a 
door rather hastily, I came within an ace of a personal col 
lision ; whereupon he laughed good-humoredly, caught rne 
by the hands, and saying. " It would have been a shock, 
n est-ce pas ? " hurried on. 

To me the most delightful part of the "Winter Palace 
was the garden. It forms one of the suite of thirty halls, 
some of them three hundred feet long, on the second story. 
In this garden, which is perhaps a hundred feet square by 
forty in height, rise clumps of Italian cypress and laurel 
from beds of emerald turf and blooming hyacinths. In 
the centre, a fountain showers over fern-covered rocks, 
and the gravel-walks around the border are shaded by tall 
camellia-trees in white and crimson bloom. Lamps of 
frosted glass, hang among the foliage, and diffuse a mellow 
golden moonlight over the enchanted ground. The cor 
ridor adjoining the garden resembles a bosky alley, so 
completely are the walls hidden by flowering shrubbery. 

Leaving the Imperial family, and the kindred houses of 
Leuchtenberg, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg, all of which 
are represented, let us devote a little attention to the 
ladies, and the crowd of distinguished, though unroyal per 
sonages. The former are all decolletees, of course, even 
the Countess , who, I am positively assured, is ninety- 
five years old ; but I do not notice much uniformity of 



100 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

taste, except in the matter of head-dresses. Chignons have 
not yet made their appearance, but there are huge coils 
and sweeps of hair a mane-like munificence, so disposed 
as to reveal the art and conceal the artifice. The orna 
ments are chiefly flowers, though here and there I see 
jewels, coral, mossy sticks, dead leaves, birds, and birds - 
nests. From the blonde locks of yonder princess hang 
bunches of green brook-grass, and a fringe of the same 
trails from her bosom and skirt : she resembles a fished-up 
and restored Ophelia. Here passes a maiden with a 
picket-fence of rose coral as a berthe, and she seems to 
have another around the bottom of her dress ; but, as the 
mist of tulle is brushed aside in passing, we can detect 
that the latter is a clever chenille imitation. There is an 
other with small moss-covered twigs arranged in the same 
way ; and yet another with fifty black-lace butterflies, of 
all sizes, clinging to her yellow satin skirt. All this swim 
ming and intermingling mass of color is dotted over with 
sparkles of jewel-light ; and even the grand hall, with its 
gilded columns and thousands of tapers, seems but a sober 
frame for so gorgeous a picture. 

I can only pick out a few of the notable men present, 
because there is no space to give biographies as well as 
portraits. That man of sixty, in rich civil uniform, who 
entered with the Emperor, and who at once reminds an 
American of Edward Everett both in face and in the pol 
ished grace and suavity of his manner, is one of the first 
statesmen of Europe Prince Alexander Gortchakoff. 
Of medium height and robust frame, with a keen, alert eye, 
a broad, thoughtful forehead, and a wonderfully sagacious 
mouth, the upper lip slightly covering the under one at the 
corners, he immediately arrests your attention, and your eye 
unconsciously follows him as he makes his way through the 
crowd, with a friendly word for this man and an elegant 
rapier-thrust for that. His predominant mood, however, 
is a cheerful good nature ; his wit and irony belong rather 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 101 

to the diplomatist than to the man. There is no sounder or 
more prudent head in Russia. 

But who is this son of Anak, approaching from the cor 
ridor? Towering a full head above the throng, a figure of 
superb strength and perfect symmetry, we give him that 
hearty admiration which is due to a man who illustrates 
and embellishes manhood. In this case we can give it 
freely ; for that finely balanced head holds a clear, vig 
orous brain ; those large blue eyes look from the depths 
of a frank, noble nature ; and in that broad breast beats 
a heart warm with love for his country, and good-will for 
his fellow-men, whether high or low. It is Prince Su- 
voroff, the Military Governor of St. Petersburg. If I 
were to spell his name " Suwarrow," you would know who 
his grandfather was, and what place in Russian history he 
fills. In a double sense the present Prince is cast in an 
heroic mould. It speaks well for Russia that his qualities 
are so truly appreciated. He is beloved by the people, and 
trusted by the Imperial Government : for, while firm in his 
administration of affairs, he is humane, while cautious, 
energetic, and while shrewd and skillful, frank and 
honest. A noble man, whose like I wish were oftener to 
be found in the world. 

Here are two officers, engaged in earnest conversation. 
The little old man, with white hair, and thin, weather- 
beaten, wrinkled face, is Admiral Baron Wrangel, whose 
Arctic explorations on the northern coast of Siberia are 
known to all geographers. Having read of them as a boy, 
and then as things of the past, I was greatly delighted at 
finding the brave old Admiral still alive, and at the privi 
lege of taking his hand and hearing him talk in English 
as fluent as my own. The young officer, with rosy face, 
brown moustache, and profile strikingly like that of Gen 
eral McClellan, has already made his mark. He is Gen 
eral Ignatieff, the most prominent young man of the em 
pire. Although scarcely thirty-five, he has already filled 



102 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

special missions to Bukharia and Peking, and took a lead 
ing part in the Treaty of Tien-tsin. At the time of which 
I write, he was Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and 
Chief of the Asiatic Department. 

I might mention Count BludofF, the venerable President 
of the Academy of Sciences ; General Todleben ; Admiral 
Liittke ; and the distinguished members of the Galitzin, 
Narischkin, Apraxin, Dolgorouky, and Scheremetieff fami 
lies, who are present, but by this time the interminable 
mazourka is drawing to a close, and a master of ceremonies 
suggests that we shall step into an adjoining hall to await 
the signal for supper. The refreshments previously fur 
nished consisted simply of tea, orgeat, and cooling drinks 
made of cranberries, Arctic raspberries, and other fruits ; 
it is two hours past midnight, and we may frankly confess 
hunger. 

While certain other guests are being gathered together, 
I will mention another decoration of the halls, peculiar to 
St. Petersburg. On either side of all the doors of com 
munication in the long range of halls, stands a negro in 
rich oriental costume, reminding one of the mute palace- 
guards in the Arabian tales. Happening to meet one of 
these men in the Summer Garden, I addressed him in 
Arabic ; but he knew only enough of the language to in 
form me that he was born in Dar-Fur. I presume, there 
fore, they were obtained in Constantinople. In the large 
halls, which are illustrated with paintings of battles, in all 
the Russian campaigns from Pultowa to Sebastopol, are 
posted companies of soldiers at the farther end a differ 
ent regiment to each hall. For six hours these men and 
their officers stand motionless as statues. Not a move 
ment, except now and then of the eyelid, can be detected ; 
even their respiration seems to be suspended. There is 
something weird and uncanny in such a preternatural 
silence and apparent death-in-life. I became impressed 
with the idea that some form of catalepsy had seized and 



WINTEK-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 103 

bound them in strong trance. The eyeballs were fixed: 
they stared at me and saw me not : their hands were glued 
to the weapons, and their feet to the floor. I suspect there 
must have been some stolen relief when no guest happened 
to be present, yet, come when I might, I found them un 
changed. When I reflected that the men were undoubtedly 
very proud of the distinction they enjoyed, and that their 
case demanded no sympathy, I could inspect and admire 
them with an easy mind. 

The Grand Chamberlain now advances, followed by the 
Imperial family, behind which, in a certain order of pre 
cedence, the guests fall into place, and we presently reach 
a supper-hall, gleaming with silver and crystal. There 
are five others, I am told, and each of the two thousand 
guests has his chair and plate. In the centre stands the 
Imperial table, on a low platform : between wonderful 
epergnes of gold spreads a bed of hyacinths and crocuses. 
Hundreds of other epergnes, of massive silver, flash from 
the tables around. The forks and spoons are gold, the 
decanters of frosted crystal, covered with silver vine-leaves ; 
even the salt-cellars are works of art. It is quite proper 
that the supper should be substantial ; and as one such en 
tertainment is a pattern for all that succeed, I may be al 
lowed to mention the principal dishes : creme de Vorge, pate 
de foie gras, cutlets of fowl, game, asparagus, and salad, 
followed by fruits, ices, and bon-bons, and moistened with 
claret, Sauterne, and Champagne. I confess, however, that 
the superb silver chasing, and the balmy hyacinths which 
almost leaved over my plate, feasted my senses quite as 
much as the delicate viands. 

After supper, the company returns to the Hall of St. 
George, a quadrille or two is danced to promote digestion, 
and the members of ihe Imperial family, bowing first to 
the diplomatic corps, and then to the other guests, retire 
to the private apartments of the palace. Now we are at 
liberty to leave, not sooner, and rapidly, yet not with 



104 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

undignified haste, seek the main staircase. Cloaking and 
booting (Ivan being on hand, with eyes like a lynx) are 
performed without regard to head-dress or uniform, and 
we wait while the carriages are being called, until the 
proper pozlannik turns up. If we envied those who got off 
sooner, we are now envied by those who still must wait, 
bulky in black satin or cloth, in sable or raccoon skin. It 
is half past three when we reach home, and there are still 
six hours until sunrise. 

The succeeding balls, whether given by the Grand 
Dukes, the principal members of the Russian nobility, or 
the heads of foreign legations, were conducted on the 
same plan, except that, in the latter instances, the guests 
were not so punctual in arriving. The pleasantest of the 
season was one given by the Emperor in the Hermitage 
Palace. The guests, only two hundred in number, were 
bidden to come in ordinary evening-dress, and their Im 
perial Majesties moved about among them as simply and 
unostentatiously as any well-bred American host and host 
ess. On a staircase at one side of the Moorish Hall sat a 
distinguished Hungarian artist, sketching the scene, with 
its principal figures, for a picture. 

I was surprised to find how much true social culture ex 
ists in St. Petersburg. Aristocratic manners, in their per 
fection, are simply democratic ; but this is a truth which is 
scarcely recognized by the nobility of Germany, and only 
partially by that of England. The habits of refined society 
are very much the same everywhere. The man or woman 
of real culture recognizes certain forms as necessary, that 
social intercourse may be ordered instead of being arbitrary 
and chaotic ; but these forms must not be allowed to limit 
the free, expansive contact of mind with mind and charac 
ter with character which is the charm and blessing of society. 
Those who meet within the same walls meet upon an equal 
footing, and all accidental distinctions cease for the time. I 
found these principles acted upon to quite as full an ex 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 105 

tent as (perhaps even more so than) they are at home. 
One of the members of the Imperial family, even, expressed 
to me the intense weariness occasioned by the observance 
of the necessary forms of court life, and the wish that they 
might be made as simple as possible. 

I was interested in extending my acquaintance among 
the Russian nobility, as they, to a certain extent, represent 
the national culture. So far as my observations reached, T 
found that the women were better read, and had more 
general knowledge of art, literature, and even politics, than 
the men. My most instructive intercourse was with the 
former. It seemed that most men (here I am not speak 
ing of the members of the Imperial Government) had each 
his specialty, beyond which he showed but a limited in 
terest. There was one distinguished circle, however, 
where the intellectual level of the conversation was as high 
as I have ever found it anywhere, and where the only title 
to admission prescribed by the noble host was the capacity 
to take part in it. In that circle I heard not only the 
Polish Question discussed, but the Unity or Diversity of 
Races, Modern and Classic Art, Strauss, Emerson, and 
Victor Hugo, the ladies contributing their share. At a 
soiree given by the Princess Lvoff, I met Richard Wagner, 
the composer, Rubinstein, the pianist, and a number of 
artists and literary men. 

A society, the head of which is a court, and where ex 
ternals, of necessity, must be first considered, is not the 
place to seek for true and lasting intimacies ; but one may 
find what is next best, in a social sense cheerful and 
cordial intercourse. The circle of agreeable and friendly 
acquaintance continually enlarged ; and I learned to know 
one friend (and perhaps one should hardly expect more 
than that in any year) whom I shall not forget, nor he me, 
though we never meet again. The Russians have been 
unjustly accused of a lack of that steady, tender, faithful 
depth of character upon which friendship must rest. Let 



106 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

us not forget that one of Washington Irving s dearest 
friends was Prince Dolgorouki. 

Nevertheless, the constant succession of entertain ments, 
agreeable as they were, became in the end fatiguing to 
quiet persons like ourselves. The routs and soirees, it is 
true, were more informal and unceremonious : one was not 
obliged to spend more than an hour at each, but then one 
was not expected to arrive before eleven o clock. We fell, 
perforce, into the habits of the place, of sleeping two or 
three hours after dinner, then rising, and after a cup of 
strong tea, dressing for the evening. After Carnival, the 
balls ceased ; but there were still frequent routs, until 
Easter week closed the season. 

I was indebted to Admiral Luttke, President of the Im 
perial Geographical Society, for an invitation to attend its 
sessions, some of which were of the most interesting char 
acter. My great regret was, that a very imperfect knowl 
edge of the language prevented me from understanding 
much of the proceedings. On one occasion, while a paper 
on the survey of the Caspian Sea was being read, a tall, 
stately gentleman, sitting at the table beside me, obligingly 
translated all the principal facts into French, as they were 
stated. I afterwards found that he was Count Panin, Min 
ister of Justice. In the transactions of the various literary 
and scientific societies, the Russian language has now en 
tirely supplanted the French, although the latter keeps its 
place in the salons, chiefly on account of the foreign ele 
ment. The Empress has weekly conversazioni, at which 
only Russian is spoken, and to which no foreigners are 
admitted. It is becoming fashionable to have visiting- 
cards in both languages. 

Of all the ceremonies which occurred during the winter, 
that of New Year s Day (January 13th, N. S.) was most 
interesting. After the members of the different legations 
had called in a body to pay their respects to the Emperor 
and Empress, the latter received the ladies of the Court, 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 107 

who, on this occasion, wore the national costume, in the 
grand hall. We were permitted to witness the spectacle, 
which is unique of its kind and wonderfully beautiful. The 
Empress, having taken her place alone near one end of 
the hall, with the Emperor and his family at a little dis 
tance on her right, the doors at the other end three hun 
dred feet distant were thrown open, and a gorgeous pro 
cession approached, sweeping past the gilded columns, and 
growing with every step in color and splendor. The ladies 
walked in single file, about eight feet apart, each holding 
the train of the one preceding her. The costume consists 
of a high, crescent-shaped head-dress of velvet covered with 
jewels ; a short, embroidered corsage of silk or velvet, with 
open sleeves ; a full skirt and sweeping train of velvet or 
satin or moire, with a deep border of point-lace. As the 
first lady approached the Empress, her successor dropped 
the train, spreading it, by a dexterous movement, to its 
full breadth on the polished floor. The lady, thus re 
leased, bent her knee, and took the Empress s hand to kiss 
it, which the latter prevented by gracefully lifting her and 
saluting her on the forehead. After a few words of con 
gratulation, she passed across the hall, making a profound 
obeisance to the Emperor on the way. 

This was the most trying part of the ceremony. She 
was alone and unsupported, with all eyes upon her, and it 
required no slight amount of skill and self-possession to 
cross the hall, bow, and carry her superb train to the op 
posite side, without turning her back on the Imperial pres 
ence. At the end of an hour the dazzling group gathered 
on the right equaled in numbers the long line marching up 
on the left and still they came. It was a luxury of color, 
scarcely to be described, all flowery and dewy tints, in 
a setting of white and gold. There were crimson, maroon, 
blue, lilac, salmon, peach-blossom, mauve, magenta, silver- 
gray, pearl-rose, daffodil, pale orange, purple, pea-green, 
sea-green, scarlet, violet, drab, and pink, and, whether 



108 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

by accident or design, the succession of colors never 
shocked by too violent contrast. This was the perfection 
of scenic effect ; and we lingered, enjoying it exquisitely, 
until the last of several hundred ladies closed the radiant 
spectacle. 

The festival of Epiphany is celebrated by the blessing 
of the waters of the Neva, followed by a grand military 
review on the Admiralty Square. We were invited to 
witness both ceremonies from the windows of the Winter 
Palace, where, through the kindness of Prince Dolgorouki, 
we obtained favorable points of view. As the ceremonies 
last two or three hours, an elegant breakfast was served 

to the quests in the Moorish Hall. The blessing of the 

^ 

Neva is a religious festival, with the accompaniment of 
tapers, incense, and chanting choirs, and we could only see 
that the Emperor performed his part uncloaked and bare 
headed in the freezing air, finishing by descending the 
steps of an improvised chapel and well (the building an 
swered both purposes), and drinking the water from a hole 
in the ice. Far and wide over the frozen surface similar 
holes were cut, where, during the remainder of the day, 
priests officiated, and thousands of the common people 
were baptized by immersion. As they generally came out 
covered with ice, warm booths were provided for them on 
the banks, where they thawed themselves out, rejoicing 
that they would now escape sickness or misfortune for a 
year to come. 

The review requires a practiced military pen to do it 
justice, and I fear I must give up the attempt. It was a 
" small review," only about twenty-live thousand troops be 
ing under arms. In the uniformity of size and build of 
the men, exactness of equipment, and precision of move 
ment, it would be difficult to imagine anything more per 
fect. All sense of the individual soldier was lost in the 
grand sweep and wheel and march of the columns. The 
Circassian chiefs, in their steel skull-caps and shirts of chain 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. 109 

mail seemed to have ridden into their places direct from 
the Crusades. The Cossacks of the Don, the Ukraine, and 
the Ural, managed their little brown or black horses (each 
regiment having its own color) so wonderfully, that, as we 
looked down upon them, each line resembled a giant cater 
pillar, moving sidewise with its thousand legs creeping as 
one. These novel and picturesque elements constituted 
the principal charm of the spectacle. 

The passing away of winter was signalized by an increase 
of daylight rather than a decrease of cold. The rivers 
were still locked, the ice-hills frequented, the landscape 
dull and dead ; but by the beginning of February we could 
detect signs of the returning sun. When the sky was clear 
(a thing of rarest occurrence), there was white light at noon 
day, instead of the mournful yellow or orange gloom of the 
previous two months. After the change had fairly set in, 
it proceeded more and more rapidly, until our sunshine was 
increased at the rate of seven or eight minutes per day. 
When the vernal equinox came, and we could sit down to 
dinner at sunset, the spell of death seemed to be at last 
broken. The fashionable drive, of an afternoon, changed 
from the Nevskoi Prospekt to the Palace Quay on the 
Neva ; the Summer Garden was cleared of snow, and its 
statues one by one unboxed ; in fine days we could walk 
there, and there coax back the faded color to a child s 
face. There, too, walked Alexander II., one of the crowd, 
leading his little daughter by the hand ; and thither, in a 
plain little caleche, drove the Empress, with her youngest 
baby on her lap. 

But when the first ten days of April had passed and 
there was still no sign of spring, we began to grow impa 
tient. How often I watched the hedges around the Michai- 
loffsky Palace, knowing that the buds would there first 
swell ! How we longed for a shimmer of green under the 
brown grass, an alder tassel, a flush of yellow on the willow 
wands, a sight of rushing green water ! One day, a week or 



110 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

so later, we were engaged to dine on Vassili Ostrow. I had 
been busily occupied until late in the afternoon, and when 
we drove out upon the square, I glanced, as usual, towards 
Peter the Great. Lo! behind him flashed and glittered 
the free, the rejoicing Neva! Here and there floated a 
cake of sullen ice, but the great river had bared his breast 
to the sun, which welcomed him after six months of ab 
sence. The upper pontoon-bridges were already spanned 
and crowded with travel, but the lower one, carried away 
before it could be secured, had been borne down by the 
stream and jammed against and under the solid granite 
and iron of the Nikolai Bridge. There was a terrible 
crowd and confusion at the latter place; all travel was 
stopped, and we could get neither forward nor backward. 
Presently, however, the Emperor appeared upon the scene ; 
order was the instant result; the slow officials worked 
with a will ; and we finally reached our host s residence 
half an hour behind the time. As we returned, at night, 
there was twilight along the northern sky, and the stars 
sparkled on the crystal bosom of the river. 

This was the snapping of winter s toughest fetter, but it 
was not yet spring. Before I could detect any sign of re 
turning life in Nature, May had come. Then, little by 
little, the twigs in the marshy thickets began to show yel 
low and purple and brown, the lilac-buds to swell, and some 
blades of fresh grass to peep forth in sheltered places. 
This, although we had sixteen hours of sunshine, with an 
evening twilight which shifted into dusky dawn under the 
North Star! I think it was on the 13th of May that I 
first realized that the season had changed, and for the last 
time saw the noble-hearted ruler who is the central figure 
of these memories. The People s Festival a sort of 
Russian May-day took place at Catharinenhof, a park 
and palace of the famous Empress, near the shore of the 
Finnish Gulf. The festival, that year, had an unusual sig 
nificance. On the 3d of March the edict of Emancipation 



WINTER-LIFE IN ST. PETERSBURG. Ill 

was finally consummated, and twenty-two millions of serfs 
became forever free : the Polish troubles and the menace 
of the Western powers had consolidated the restless nobles, 
the patient people, and the plotting revolutionists, the or 
thodox and dissenting sects, into one great national party, 
resolved to support the Emperor and maintain the integ 
rity of the Russian territory : and thus the nation was 
marvelously strengthened by the very blow intended to 
cripple it. 

At least a hundred thousand of the common people 
(possibly, twice that number) were gathered together in 
the park of Catharinenhof. There were booths, shows, 
flying-horses, refreshment saloons, jugglers, circuses, bal 
loons, and exhibitions of all kinds : the sky was fair, the 
turf green and elastic, and the swelling birch-buds scented 
the air. I wandered about for hours, watching the lazy, 
contented people, as they leaped and ran, rolled on the 
grass, pulled off their big boots and aired their naked legs, 
or laughed and sang in jolly chorus. About three in the 
afternoon there was a movement in the main avenue of the 
park. Hundreds of young mujilcs appeared, running at 
full speed, shouting out, tossing their caps high in the air, 
and giving their long, blonde locks to the wind. Instantly 
the crowd collected on each side, many springing like cats 
into the trees; booths and shows were .deserted, and an 
immense multitude hedged the avenue. Behind the leap 
ing, shouting, cap-tossing avant-garde came the P^mperor, 
with three sons and a dozen generals, on horseback, canter 
ing lightly. One cheer went up from scores of thousands; 
hats darkened the air ; eyes blazing with filial veneration 
followed the stately figure of the monarch, as he passed by, 
gratefully smiling and greeting on either hand. I stood 
among the people and watched their faces. 1 saw the 
phlegmatic Slavonic features transformed with a sudden 
and powerful expression of love, of devotion, of gratitude, 
and then I knew that the throne of Alexander II. rested 



112 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

on a better basis than tradition or force. I saw therein an 
other side of this shrewd, cunning, patient, and childlike 
race, whom no other European race yet understands and 
appreciates a race yet in the germ, but with qualities 
out of which a people, in the best sense of the word, may 
be developed. 

The month of May was dark, rainy, and cold ; and when 
I left St. Petersburg, at its close, everybody said that a few 
days would bring the summer. The leaves were opening, 
almost visibly from hour to hour. Winter was really over, 
and summer was just at the door ; but I found, upon reflec 
tion, that I had not had the slightest experience of spring. 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 



THE traveller who first reaches the Lake of Constance 
at Lindau, or crosses that sheet of pale green water to one 
of the ports on the opposite Swiss shore, cannot fail to 
notice the bold heights to the southward which thrust 
themselves between the opening of the Rhine Valley and 
the long, undulating ridges of the Canton Thurgau. These 
heights, broken by many a dimly hinted valley and ravine, 
appear to be the front of an Alpine table-land. Houses 
and villages, scattered over the steep ascending plane, 
present themselves distinctly to the eye ; the various green 
of forest and pasture land is rarely interrupted by the gray 
of rocky walls ; and the afternoon sun touches the topmost 
edge of each successive elevation with a sharp outline of 
golden light, through the rich gloom of the shaded slopes. 
Behind and over this region rise the serrated peaks of the 
Sentis Alp, standing in advance of the farther ice-fields of 
Glarus, like an outer fortress, garrisoned in summer by 
the merest forlorn hope of snow. 

The green fronts nearest the lake, and the lower lands 
falling away to the right and left, belong to the Canton of 
St. Gall ; but all aloft, beyond that frontier marked by the 
sinking sun, lies the Appenzeller Ldndli, as it is called in 
the endearing diminutive of the Swiss German tongue, 
the Little Land of Appenzell. 

If, leaving the Lake of Constance by the Rhine Valley, 
you ascend to Ragatz and the Baths of Pfeffers, thence 
turn westward to the Lake of Wallenstatt. cross into the 
valley of the Toggenburg, and so make your way northward 
and eastward around the base of the mountains back to 
the starting point, you will have passed only through the 



116 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

territory of St. Gall. Appenzell is an Alpine island, wholly 
surrounded by the former canton. From whatever side 
you approach, you must climb in order to get into it. It is 
a nearly circular tract, falling from the south towards the 
north, but lifted, at almost every point, over the adjoining 
lands. This altitude and isolation is an historical as well 
as a physical peculiarity. When the Abbots of St. Gall, 
after having reduced the entire population of what is now 
two cantons to serfdom, became more oppressive as their 
power increased, it was the mountain shepherds who, in 
the year 1403, struck the first blow for liberty. Once free, 
they kept their freedom, and established a rude democracy 
on the heights, similar in form and spirit to the league 
which the Forest Cantons had founded nearly a century 
before. An echo from the meadow of Griitli reached the 
wild valleys around the Sentis, and Appenzell, by the mid 
dle of the fifteenth century, became one of the original 
states out of which Switzerland has grown. 

I find something very touching and admirable in this 
fragment of hardly noticed history. The people isolated 
themselves by their own act, held together, organized a 
simple yet sufficient government, and maintained their 
sturdy independence, while their brethren on every side, 
in the richer lands below them, were fast bound in the 
gyves of a priestly despotism. Individual liberty seems to 
be a condition inseparable from mountain life ; that once 
attained, all other influences are conservative in their char 
acter. The cantons of Unterwalden, Schwytz, Glarus, and 
Appenzell retain to-day the simple, primitive forms of 
democracy which had their origin in the spirit of the peo 
ple nearly six hundred years ago. 

Twice had I looked up to the little mountain republic 
from the lower lands to the northward, with the desire and 
the determination to climb one day the green buttresses 
which support it on every side ; so, when I left St. Gall on 
a misty morning, in a little open carriage, bound for Trogen, 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 117 

it was with the pleasant knowledge that a land almost un 
known to tourists lay before me. The only summer visit 
ors are invalids, mostly from Eastern Switzerland and 
Germany, who go up to drink the whey of goats milk ; 
and, although the fabrics woven by the people are known 
to the world of fashion in all countries, few indeed are the 
travellers who turn aside from the near highways. The 
landlord in St. Gall told^ me that his guests were almost 
wholly commercial travellers, and my subsequent experi 
ence among an unspoiled people convinced me that I was 
almost a pioneer in the paths I traversed. 

It was the last Saturday in April, and at least a month 
too soon for the proper enjoyment of the journey ; but on 
the following day the Landsgemeinde, or Assembly of the 
People, was to be held at Hundwyl, in the manner and with 
the ceremonies which have been annually observed for the 
last three or four hundred years. This circumstance de 
termined the time of my visit. I wished to study the 
character of an Alpine democracy, so pure that it has not 
yet adopted even the representative principle, to be with 
and among a portion of the Swiss people at a time when 
they are most truly themselves, rather than look at them 
through the medium of conventional guides, on lines of 
travel which have now lost everything of Switzerland ex 
cept the scenery. 

There was bad weather behind, and, I feared, bad 
weather before me. " The sun will soon drive away these 
mists," said the postilion, " and when we get up yonder, 
you will see what a prospect there will be." In the rich 
valley of St. Gall, out of which we mounted, the scattered 
houses and cloud-like belts of blossoming cherry-trees 
almost hid the green ; but it sloped up and down, on 
either side of the rising road, glittering with flowers and 
dew, in the flying gleams of sunshine. Over us hung 
masses of gray cloud, which stretched across the valley, 
hooded the opposite hills, and sank into a dense mass over 



118 BY-WAYS OF EUEOPE. 

the Lake of Constance. As we passed through this belt, 
and rejoiced in the growing clearness of the upper sky, I 
saw that my only prospect would be in cloud-land. After 
many windings, along which the blossoms and buds of the 
fruit-trees indicated the altitude as exactly as any barom 
eter, we finally reached the crest of the topmost height, the 
frontier of Appenzell and the battle-field of Voglisegg. 
where the herdsman first measured his strength with the 
soldier and the monk, and was victorious. 

"Whereabouts was the battle fought?" I asked the 
postilion. 

" Up and down, and all around here," said he, stopping 
the carriage at the summit. 

I stood up and looked to the north. Seen from above, 
the mist had gathered into dense, rounded clouds, touched 
with silver on their upper edges. They hung over the lake, 
rolling into every bay and spreading from shore to shore, 
so that not a gleam of water was visible ; but over their 
heaving and tossing silence rose, far away, the mountains 
of the four German states beyond the lake. An Alp in 
Vorarlberg made a shining island in the sky. The postil 
ion was loud in his regrets, yet I thought the picture best 
as it was. On the right lay the land of Appenzell not a 
table-land, but a region of mountain ridge and summit, of 
valley and deep, dark gorge, green as emerald up to the 
line of snow, and so thickly studded with dwellings, grouped 
or isolated, that there seemed to be one scattered village 
as far as the eye could reach. To the south, over forests 
of fir, the Sentis lifted his huge towers of rock, crowned 
with white, wintry pyramids. 

" Here, where we are," said the postilion, " was the firsl 
battle ; but there was another, two years afterwards, over 
there, the other side of Trogen, where the road goes down 
to the Rhine. Stoss is the place, and there s a chapel built 
on the very spot. Duke Frederick of Austria came to help 
the Abbot Kuno, and the Appenzellers were only one to 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 119 

ten against them. It was a great fight, they say, and the 
women helped not with pikes and guns, but in this way : 
they put on white shirts, and came out of the woods, above 
where the fighting was going on. Now, when the Austrians 
and the Abbot s people saw them, they thought there were 
spirits helping the Appenzellers (the women were all white, 
you see, and too far off to show plainly), and so they gave 
up the fight after losing nine hundred knights and troopers. 
After that, it was ordered that the women should go first 
to the sacrament, so that no man might forget the help they 
gave in that battle. And the people go every year to the 
chapel, on the same day when it took place." 

I looked, involuntarily, to find some difference in the pop 
ulation after passing the frontier. But I had not counted 
upon the leveling influence which the same kind of labor 
exercises, whether upon mountain or in valley. So long 
as Appenzell was a land of herdsmen, many peculiarities 
of costume, features, and manners must have remained. 
For a long time, however, Outer-Rhoden, as this part of 
the Canton is called, has shared with that part of St. Gall 
which lies below it the manufacture of fine muslins and 
embroideries. There are looms in almost every house, and 
this fact explains the density of population and the signs 
of wealth on every hand, which would otherwise puzzle 
the stranger. The houses are not only so near together 
that almost every man can call to his neighbors and be 
heard, but they are large, stately, and even luxurious, in 
contrast to the dwellings of other country people in Eu 
rope. The average population of Outer-Rhoden amounts 
to four hundred and seventy-five persons to the square 
mile, being nearly double that of the most thickly settled 
portions of Holland. 

If one could only transport a few of these houses to the 
United States ! Our country architecture is not only hid 
eous, but frequently unpractical, being at worst shanties, 
and at best city residences set in the fields. An Appenzell 



120 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

farmer lives in a house from forty to sixty feet square, and 
rarely less than four stories in height The two upper sto 
ries, however, are narrowed by the high, steep roof, so that 
the true front of the house is one of the gables. The roof 
projects at least four feet on all sides, giving shelter to bal 
conies of carved wood, which cross the front under each 
row of windows. The outer walls are covered with upright, 
overlapping shingles, not more than two or three inches 
broad, and rounded at the ends, suggesting the scale armor 
of ancient times. This covering secures the greatest warmth ; 
and when the shingles have aquired from age that rich 
burnt-sienna tint which no paint could exactly imitate, the 
effect is exceedingly beautiful. The lowest story is gen 
erally of stone, plastered and whitewashed. The stories are 
low (seven to eight feet), but the windows are placed side 
by side, and each room is thoroughly lighted. Such a 
house is very warm, very durable, and, without any appa 
rent expenditure of ornament, is externally so picturesque 
that no ornament could improve it. 

Many of the dwellings, I was told, could not be built 
with the present means of the population, at the present 
prices of labor and material. They date from the palmy 
days of Appenzell industry, before machinery had reduced 
the cost of the finer fabrics. Then, one successful manu 
facturer competed with another in the erection of showy 
houses, and fifty thousand francs (a large sum for the 
times) were frequently expended on a single dwelling. 
The view of a broad Alpine landscape, dotted all over 
with such beautiful homes, from the little shelf of green 
hanging on the sides of a rocky gorge and the strips of 
sunny pasture between the ascending forests, to the very 
summits of the lower heights and the saddles between 
them, was something quite new in my experience. 

Turning around the point of Voglisegg, we made for 
Trogen, one of the two capitals of Outer-Rhoden, which 
lay before us, across the head of the deep and wild St. 



THE LITTLE LAXD OF APPENZELL. 121 

Martin s Tobel. (Tobel is an Appenzell word, correspond 
ing precisely to the gulch of California.) My postilion 
mounted, and the breathed horse trotted merrily along the 
winding level. One stately house after another, with a 
clump of fruit-trees on the sheltered side, and a row of 
blooming hyacinths and wall-flowers on the balcony, passed 
by on either side. The people we met were sunburnt and 
ugly, but there was a rough air of self-reliance about them, 
and they gave me a hearty " God greet you ! " one and all. 
Just before reaching Trogen, the postilion pointed to an 
old, black, tottering platform of masonry, ristng out of a 
green slope of turf on the right. The grass around it 
seemed ranker than elsewhere. 

This was the place of execution, where capital criminals 
are still beheaded with the sword, in the sight of the people. 
The postilion gave me an account, with all the horrible de 
tails, of the last execution, only three years ago, how the 
murderer would not confess until he was brought out of 
prison to hear the bells tolling for his victim s funeral, 
how thereupon he was sentenced, and but I will not re 
late further. I have always considered the death penalty 
a matter of policy rather than principle ; but the sight of 
that blood-stained platform, the blood-fed weeds around it, 
and the vision of the headsman, in his red mantle, looking 
down upon the bared neck stretched upon the block, gave 
me more horror of the custom than all the books and 
speeches which have been said and written against it. 

At Trogen I stopped at the principal inn, two centuries 
old, the quaint front painted in fresco, the interior neat and 
fresh as a new toy a very gem of a house ! The floor 
upon which I entered from the street was paved with flat 
stones. A solid wooden staircase, dark with age, led to the 
guests room in the second story. One side of this room 
was given up to the windows, and there was a charming 
hexagonal oriel in the corner. The low ceiling was of 
wood, in panels, the stove a massive tower, faced with por- 



122 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

celain tiles, the floor polished nearly into whiteness, and all 
the doors, cup-boards, and tables, made of brown nut-wood, 
gave an air of warmth and elegance to the apartment. All 
other parts of the house were equally neat and orderly. 
The hostess greeted me with, " Be you welcome ! " and set 
about preparing dinner, as it was now nearly noon. In the 
pauses of her work she came into the room to talk, and 
was very ready to give information concerning the country 
and people. 

There were already a little table and three plates in the 
oriel, and wKile I was occupied with my own dinner I did 
not particularly notice the three persons who sat down to 
theirs. The coarseness and harshness of their dialect, 
however, presently struck my ear. It was pure Appenzell, 
a German made up of singular and puzzling elisions, and 
with a very strong guttural k and g, in addition to the ch. 
Some knowledge of the Alemannic dialect of the Black 
Forest enabled me to understand the subject of conversa 
tion, which, to my surprise, was the study of the classics ! 
It was like hearing an Irishman talk of Shelley s " Witch 
of Atlas " in the broadest Tipperary brogue. I turned and 
looked at the persons. They were well dressed young men, 
evidently the best class of Appenzellers possibly tutors 
in the schools of Trogen. Their speech in no wise differed 
from that of the common herdsmen, except that they were 
now and then obliged to use words which, being unknown 
to the people, had escaped mutilation. I entered into con 
versation, to ascertain whether true German was not pos 
sible to them, since they must needs read and write the 
language ; but, although they understood me, they could 
only partly, and with evident difficulty, lay aside their own 
patois. I found this to be the case everywhere throughout 
the Canton. It is a circumstance so unusual, that, in spite 
of myself, associating a rude dialect with ignorance, I was 
always astonished when those who spoke it showed culture 
and knowledge of the world. 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 123 

The hostess provided me with a guide and pack-bearer, 
and I set out on foot across the country towards Hundwyl. 
This guide, Jakob by name, made me imagine that I had 
come among a singular people. He was so short that he 
could easily walk under my arm ; his gait was something 
between a roll and a limp, although he stoutly disclaimed 
lameness ; he laughed whenever I spoke to him, and an 
swered in a voice which seemed the cuneiform character 
put into sound. First, there was an explosion of gutturals, 
and then came a loud trumpet-tone, something like the 
Honk ! honk ! of wild geese. Yet, when he placed his squat 
figure behind a tavern table, and looked at me quietly with 
his mouth shut, he was both handsome and distinguished 
in appearance. We walked two miles together before I 
guessed how to unravel his speech. It is almost as difficult 
to learn a dialect as a new language, and but for the key 
which the Alemannic gave me, I should have been utterly 
at sea. Who, for instance, could ever guess that a?Ma g si, 
pronounced " amaxi " (the x representing a desperate gut 
tural), really stands for einen Mann gewesen ? 

The road was lively with country people, many of whom 
were travelling in our own direction. Those we met in 
variably addressed us with "God greet you ! " or " Guat 
ti!" which it was easy to translate into "Good-day!" 
Some of the men were brilliant in scarlet jackets, with 
double rows of square silver buttons, and carried swords 
under their arms ; they were bound for the Landsgemeinde, 
whither the law of the Middle Ages still obliges them to 
go armed. When I asked Jakob if he would accompany 
me as far as Hundwyl, he answered, " I can t ; I daren t 
go there without a black dress, and my sword, and a cylin 
der hat." 

The wild Tobels, opening downward to the Lake of Con 
stance, which now shimmered afar through the gaps, were 
left behind us, and we passed westward along a broken, 
irregular valley. The vivid turf was sown with all the 



124 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

flowers of spring, primrose, violet, buttercup, anemone, 
and veronica, faint, but sweetest-odored, and the heralds 
of spring in all lands. So I gave little heed to the weird 
lines of cloud, twisting through and between the severed 
pyramids of the Sentis, as if weaving the woof of storms. 
The scenery was entirely lovely, and so novel in its popu 
lation and the labor which, in the long course of time, had 
effaced its own hard traces, turning the mountains into 
lifted lawns and parks of human delight, that my own slow 
feet carried me through it too rapidly. We must have 
passed a slight water-shed somewhere, though I observed 
none ; for the road gradually fell towards another region 
of deeply cloven Tobels, with snowy mountains beyond. 
The green of the landscape was so brilliant and uniform, 
under the cold gray sky, that it almost destroyed the per 
spective, which rather depended on the houses and the 
scattered woods of fir. 

On a ridge, overlooking all this region, was the large 
village of Teufen, nearly as grand as Trogen in its archi 
tecture. Here Jakob, whose service went no further, con 
ducted me to the " Pike " inn, and begged the landlady to 
furnish me with " a Ma " in his place. We had refresh 
ments together, and took leave with many shakings of the 
hand and mutual wishes of good luck. The successor was 
an old fellow of seventy, who had been a soldier in Hol 
land, and who with proper exertion could make his speech 
intelligible. The people nowhere inquired after my busi 
ness or nationality. When the guide made the latter 
known, they almost invariably said, " But, of course, you 
were born in Appenzell ? " The idea of a traveller coming 
among them, at least during this season of the year, did 
not enter their heads. In Teufen, the large and hand 
some houses, the church and schools, led me, foolishly, to 
hope for a less barbarous dialect ; but no, it was the same 
thing everywhere. 

The men in black, with swords under their arms, in- 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 125 

creased in number as we left the village. They were prob 
ably from the furthest parts of the Canton, and were thus 
abridging the morrow s journey. The most of them, how 
ever turned aside from the road, and made their way to 
one farm-house or another. I was tempted to follow their 
example, as I feared that the little village of Hundwyl 
would be crowded. But there was still time to claim pri 
vate hospitality, even if this should be the case, so we 
marched steadily down the valley. The Sitter, a stream 
fed by the Sentis, now roared below us, between high, 
rocky walls, which are spanned by an iron bridge, two 
hundred feet above the water. The roads of Outer- 
Rhoden, built and kept in order by the people, are most 
admirable. This little population of forty-eight thousand 
souls has within the last fifteen years expended seven hun 
dred thousand dollars on means of communication. Since 
the people govern themselves, and regulate their expenses, 
and consequently their taxation, their willingness to bear 
such a burden is a lesson to other lands. 

After crossing the airy bridge, our road climbed along 
the opposite side of the Tobel, to a village on a ridge thrust 
out from the foot of the Hundwyl Alp, beyond which we 
lost sight of Teufen and the beautiful valley of the Sitter. 
We were now in the valley of the Urnasch, and a walk of 
two miles more brought us to the village of Hundwyl. I was 
encouraged, on approaching the little place, by seeing none 
except the usual signs of occupation. There was a great 
new tank before the fountain, and two or three fellows in 
scarlet vests were filling their portable tubs for the even 
ing s supply ; a few children came to the doors to stare at 
me, but there was no sign that any other stranger had 
arrived. 

" I ll take you to the Crown," said the guide ; " all the 
Landamanner will be there in the morning, and the music ; 
and you ll see what our Appenzell government is." Tho 
landlady gave me a welcome, and the promise of a lodging, 



126 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

whereupon I sat down in peace, received the greetings of 
all the members of the family, as they came and went, and 
made myself familiar with their habits. There was only 
one other guest in the house, a man of dignified face 
and intellectual head, who carried a sword tied up with an 
umbrella, and must be, I supposed, one of the chief offi 
cials. He had so much the air of a reformer or a philoso 
pher that the members of a certain small faction at home 
might have taken hirn for their beloved W. P. ; others 
might have detected in him a resemblance to that true 
philanthropist and gentleman W. L. G. ; and the believers 
in the divinity of slavery would have accepted him as 

Bishop . As no intt eductions are required in Ap- 

penzell, I addressed myself to him, hoping to open a prof 
itable acquaintance ; but it was worse than Coleridge s ex 
perience with the lover of dumplings. His sentiments 
may have been elevated and refined, for aught I knew, but 
what were they? My trumpeter Jakob was more intel 
ligible than he ; his upper teeth were gone, and the muti 
lated words were mashed out of all remaining shape against 
his gums. Then he had the singular habit of ejaculating 
the word Ja! (Yes!) in three different ways, after answer 
ing each of my questions. First, a decided, confirmatory 
Ja ! then a pause, followed by a slow, interrogative Ja ? as 
if it were the echo of some mental doubt ; and finally, after 
a much longer pause, a profoundly melancholy, despond 
ing, conclusive Ja-a-a ! sighed forth from the very bottom 
of his lungs. Even when I only said, " Good-morning ! 
the next day, these ejaculations followed, in the same order 
of succession. 

One may find a counterpart to this habit in the Wa al 
of the Yankee, except that the latter never is, nor could it 
well be, so depressing to hear as the Ja of Appenzell. 

In the evening a dozen persons gathered around one of 
the long tables, and drank a pale, weak cider, made of ap 
ples and pears, and called " Most." I gave to one, with 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 127 

whom I found I could converse most easily, a glass of red 
wine, whereupon he said, " It is very impudent in me to 
take it." 

Upon asking the same person how it was that I could 
understand him so much more readily than the others, he 
answered, " O, I can talk the written language when I try, 
but these others can t." 

" Here," said I, pointing to the philosopher, " is one who 
is quite incomprehensible." 

" So he is to me." 

They were all anxious to know whether our American 
troubles were nearly over ; whether the President had the 
power to do further harm (he had too much power, they 
all thought) ; and whether our Congress could carry out 
its plan of reconstruction. Lincoln they said, was the best 
man we ever had ; when the play of " Lincoln s Death " 
was performed in the theatre at St. Gall, a great many 
Appenzellers hired omnibuses and went down from the 
mountains to see it. 

I was aroused at daybreak by the chiming of bells, and 
soon afterwards muskets began to crack, near and far. 
Then there were noises all over the house, and presently 
what seemed to be a procession of horses or elephants be 
gan to thunder up and down the wooden stairs. In vain I 
tried to snatch the last and best morning nap ; there was 
no end to the racket. So I arose, dressed, and went forth 
to observe. The inn was already transformed, from top to 
bottom, into a vast booth for meat and drink. Bedding 
and all other furniture had disappeared ; every room, and 
even the open hall on each story, was filled with tables, 
benches, and chairs. My friend of the previous evening, 
who was going about with a white apron on and sleeves 
rolled up, said to me : u I am to be one of the waiters to 
day. We have already made places for six hundred." 

There were at least a dozen other amateur waiters on 
hand and busy. The landlord wore a leathern apron, and 



128 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

went from room to room, blowing into the hole of a wooden 
tap which he carried in his hand, as if thereby to collect 
his ideas. A barrel of red and a barrel of white wine 
stood on trestles in the guests room, and they were already 
filling the schoppins by hundreds and ranging them on 
shelves, honestly filling, not as lager-bier is filled in New 
York, one third foam, but waiting until the froth subsided, 
and then pouring to the very brim. In the kitchen there 
were three fires blazing, stacks of Bratwurst on the tables, 
great kettles for the sour-krout and potatoes ; and eggs, let 
tuce, and other finer viands, for the dignitaries, on the 
shelves. " Good morning," said the landlady, as I looked 
into this sanctuary, " you see we are ready for them." 

While I was taking my coffee, the landlord called the 
waiters together, gave each a bag of small money for 
change, and then delivered a short, practical address con 
cerning their duties for the day, who were to be trusted 
and who not, how to keep order and prevent impatience, 
and, above all, how to preserve a proper circulation, in or 
der that the greatest possible number of persons might be 
entertained. He closed with : " Once again, take notice 
and don t forget, every one of you, Most 10 rappen (2 
cents), bread 10, Wurst 15, tongue 10, wine 25 and 40," etc. 

In the village there were signs of preparation, but not a 
dozen strangers had arrived. Wooden booths had been 
built against some of the houses, and the owners thereof 
were arranging their stores of gingerbread and coarse con 
fectionery ; on the open, grassy square, in front of the par 
sonage, stood a large platform, with a handsome railing 
around it, but the green slope of the hill in front was as 
deserted as an Alpine pasture. Looking westward over 
the valley, however, I could already see dark figures mov 
ing along the distant paths. The morning was overcast, 
but the Hundwyl Alp, streaked with snow, stood clear, and 
there was a prospect of good weather for the important 
clay. As I loitered about the village, talking with the 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 129 

people, who, busy as they were, always found time for a 
friendly word, the movement in the landscape increased. 
Out of firwoods, and over the ridges and out of the fold 
ings of the hills, came the Appenzellers, growing into 
groups, and then into lines, until steady processions began 
to enter Hundwyl by every road. Every man was dressed 
in black, with a rusty stove-pipe hat on his head, and a 
sword and umbrella in his hand or under his arm. 

From time to time the church bells chimed ; a brass 
band played the old melodies of the Canton ; on each side 
of the governing Landamman s place on the platform stood 
a huge two-handed sword, centuries old, and the temper of 
the gathering crowd became earnest and solemn. Six old 
men, armed with pikes, walked about with an air of im 
portance : their duty was to preserve order, but they had 
nothing to do. Policeman other than these, or soldier, was 
not to be seen ; each man was a part of the government, 
and felt his responsibility. Carriages, light carts, and hay 
wagons, the latter filled with patriotic singers, now began 
to arrive, and I took my way to the " Crown," in order to 
witness the arrival of the members of the Council. 

In order to make the proceedings of the day more intel 
ligible, I must first briefly sketch certain features of this 
little democracy, which it possesses in common with three 
other mountain cantons the primitive forms which the 
republican principle assumed in Switzerland. In the first 
place the government is only representative so far as is re 
quired for its permanent, practical operation. The highest 
power in the land is the Landsgemeinde, or General Assem 
bly of the People, by whom the members of the Executive 
Council are elected, and who alone can change, adopt, or 
abolish any law. All citizens above the age of eighteen, 
and all other Swiss citizens after a year s residence in the 
Canton, are not only allowed, but required, to attend the 
Landsgemeinde. There is a penalty for non-attendance. 
Outer-Rhoden contains fortv-eicjht thousand inhabitants, 



130 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

of whom eleven thousand are under obligations to be pres 
ent and vote, from beginning: to end of the deliberations. 

O ^ 

In Glarus and Untenvalden, where the population is 
smaller, the right of discussion is still retained by these 
assemblies, but in Appenzell it has been found expedient 
to abolish it. Any change in the law, however, is first 
discussed in public meetings in the several communities, 
then put into form by the Council, published, read from all 
the pulpits for a month previous to the coming together 
of the Lands gemeinde, and then voted upon. But if the 
Council refuses to act upon the suggestion of any citizen 
whomsoever, and he honestly considers the matter one of 
importance, he is allowed to propose it directly to the peo 
ple, provided he do so briefly and in an orderly manner. 
The Council, which may be called the executive power, 
consists of the governing Landamman and six associates, 
one of whom has the functions of treasurer, another of 
military commander, in fact, a ministry on a small scale 
The service of the persons elected to the Council is obli 
gatory, and they receive no salaries. There is, it is true, a 
secondary Council, composed of the first, and representa 
tives of the communities, one for every thousand inhabit 
ants, in order to administer more intelligently the various 
departments of education, religion, justice, roads, the mili 
tia system, the poor, etc. ; but the Assembly of the People 
can at any time reject or reverse its action. All citizens 
are not only equal before the law, but are assured liberty 
of conscience, of speech, and of labor. The right of sup 
port only belongs to those who are born citizens of the 
Canton. The old restriction of the Heimaihsrecht, the 
claim to be supported at the expense of the community in 
case of need, narrow and illiberal as it seems to us, pre 
vails all over Switzerland. In Appenzell a stranger can 
only acquire the right, which is really the right of citizen 
ship, by paying twelve hundred francs into the cantonal 
treasury. 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 131 

The governing Landamman is elected for two years, but 
the other members of the Council may be reflected from 
year to year, as often as the people see fit. The obligation 
to serve, therefore, may sometimes seriously incommode 
the person chosen ; he cannot resign, and his only chance 
of escape lies in leaving the Canton temporarily, and pub 
lishing his intention of quitting it altogether in case the 
people refuse to release him from office! This year, it 
happened that two members of the Council had already 
taken this step, while three others had appealed to the 
people not to reelect them. The Lands ge me inde at Hun- 
dwyl was to decide upon all these applications, and there 
fore promised to be of more than usual interest. The 
people had had time to consider the matter, and it was sup 
posed had generally made up their minds ; yet I found no 
one willing to give me a hint of their action in advance. 

The two remaining members presently made their ap 
pearance, accompanied by the Chancellor, to whom I was 
recommended. The latter kindly offered to accompany me 
to the parsonage, the windows of which, directly in the 
rear of the platform, would enable me to hear, as well as 
see the proceedings. The clergyman, who was preparing 
for the service which precedes the opening of the Lands 
gemeinde, showed me the nail upon which hung the key of 
the study, and gave me liberty to take possession at any 
time. The clock now struck nine, and a solemn peal of 
bells announced the time of service. A little procession 
formed in front of the inn ; first the music, then the cler 
gyman and the few members of the government, bare 
headed, and followed by the two Weilels (apparitors), who 
wore long mantles, the right half white and the left half 
black. The old pikemen walked on either side. The 
people uncovered as the dignitaries took their way around 
the church to the chancel door ; then as many as could be 
accommodated entered at the front. 

I entered with them, taking my place on the men s side, 



132 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

the sexes being divided, as is usual in Germany. Aftei 
the hymn, iu which boy s voices were charmingly heard, 
and the prayer, the clergyman took a text from Corin 
thians, and proceeded to preach a good, sound political 
sermon, which, nevertheless, did not in the least shock the 
honest piety of his hearers. I noticed with surprise that 
most of the men put on their hats at the close of the 
prayer. Only once did they remove them afterwards, 
when the clergyman, after describing the duties before 
them, and the evils and difficulties which beset every good 
work, suddenly said, " Let us pray to God to help and 
direct us ! " and interpolated a short prayer in the midst 
of his sermon. The effect was all the more impressive, 
because, though so unexpected, it was entirely simple and 
natural. These democrats of Appenzell have not yet made 
the American discovery that pulpits are profaned by any 
utterance of national sentiment, or any application of Chris 
tian doctrine to politics. They even hold their municipal 
elections in the churches, and consider that the act of 
voting is thereby solemnized, not that the holy building is 
desecrated ! But then, you will say, this is the democracy 
of the Middle Ages. 

When the service was over, I could scarcely make my 
way through the throng which had meanwhile collected. 
The sun had come out hot above the Hundwyl Alp, and 
turned the sides of the valley into slopes of dazzling sheen. 
Already every table in the inns was filled, every window 
crowded with heads, the square a dark mass of voters of 
all ages and classes, lawyers and clergymen being packed 
together with grooms and brown Alpine herdsmen ; and, 
after the government had been solemnly escorted to its 
private chamber, four musicians in antique costume an 
nounced, with drum and fife, the speedy opening of the 
Assembly. But first came the singing societies of Heri- 
sau, and forced their way into the centre of the throng, 
where they sang, simply yet grandly, the songs of Appen- 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 133 

zell. The people listened with silent satisfaction ; not a 
man seemed to think of applauding. 

I took my place in the pastor s study, and inspected the 
crowd. On the steep slope of the village square and the 
rising field beyond, more than ten thousand men were 
gathered, packed as closely as they could stand. The law 
requires them to appear armed and " respectably dressed." 
The short swords, very much like our marine cutlasses, 
which they carried, were intended for show rather than 
service. Very few wore them : sometimes they were tied 
up with umbrellas, but generally carried loose in the hand 
or under the arm. The rich manufacturers of Trogen and 
Ilerisau and Teufen had belts and silver-mounted dress- 
swords. With scarce an exception, every man was habited 
in black, and wore a stove-pipe hat, but the latter was in 
most cases brown and battered. Both circumstances were 
thus explained to me : as the people vote with the uplifted 
hand, the hat must be of a dark color, as a background, to 
bring out the hands more distinctly ; then, since rain would 
spoil a good hat (and it rains much at this season), they 
generally take an old one. I could now understand the 
advertisements of "second hand cylinder hats for sale," 
which I had noticed, the clay before, in the newspapers of 
the Canton. The slope of the hill was such that the hats 
of the lower ranks concealed the faces of those imme 
diately behind, and the assembly was the darkest and den 
sest I ever beheld. Here and there the top of a scarlet 
waistcoat flashed out of the cloud with astonishing bril 
liancy. 

With solemn music, and attended by the apparitors, in 
their two colored mantles, and the ancient pikemen, the 
few officials ascended the platform. The chief of the two 
Landammanner present took his station in front, between 
the two-handed swords, and began to address the assembly* 
Suddenly a dark cloud seemed to roll away from the faces 
of the people ; commencing in front of the platform, and 



134 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

spreading rapidly to the edges of the compact throng, the 
hats disappeared, and the ten thousand faces, in the full 
light of the sun, blended into a ruddy mass. But no ; each 
head retained its separate character, and the most surpris 
ing circumstance of the scene was the distinctness with 
which each human being held fast to his individuality in 
the multitude. Nature has drawn no object with so firm a 
hand, nor painted it with such tenacious clearness of color, 
as the face of man. The inverted crescent of sharp light 
had a different curve on each individual brow before me ; 
the little illuminated dot on the end of the nose under it 
hinted at the form of the nostrils in shadow. As the hats 
had before concealed the faces, so now each face was re 
lieved against the breast of the man beyond, and in front 
of me were thousands of heads to be seen, touching each 
other like so many ovals drawn on a dark plane. 

The address was neither so brief nor so practical as it 
might have been. Earnest, well meant, and apparently 
well received, there was nevertheless much in it which the 
plain, semi-educated weavers and Alpadores in the assem 
bly could not possibly have comprehended ; as, for instance, 
" May a garland of confidence be twined around your de 
liberations !" At the close, the speaker said, "Let us 
pray ! " and for a few moments there were bowed heads 
and utter silence. The first business was the financial 
report for the year, which had been printed and distributed 
among the people weeks before. They were now asked 
whether they would appoint a commission to test its accu 
racy, but they unanimously declined to do so. The ques 
tion was put by one of the apparitors, who first removed 
his cocked hat, and cried, in a tremendous voice, " Faith 
ful and beloved fellow-citizens, and brethren of the Union ! " 

Now came the question of releasing the tired Landam- 
nianner of the previous year from office. The first appli 
cation in order was that of the governing Landamman, 
Dr. Ziircher. The people voted directly thereupon ; there 



THE LITTLE LAND OF A1TENZELL. 135 

was a strong division of sentiment, but the majority allowed 
him to resign. His place was therefore to be filled at once. 
The names of candidates were called out by the crowd. 
There were six in all ; and as both the members of the 
Council were among them, the latter summoned six well- 
known citizens upon the platform, to decide the election. 
The first vote reduced the number of candidates to two. 
and the voting was then repeated until one of these re 
ceived an undoubted majority. Dr. Roth, of Teufen, was the 
fortunate man. As soon as the decision was announced, 
several swords were held up in the crowd to indicate 
where the new governor was to be found. The musicians 
and pikemen made a lane to him through the multitude, 
and he was conducted to the platform with the sound of 
fife and drum. He at once took his place between the 
swords, and made a brief address, which the people heard 
with uncovered heads. He did not yet, however, assume 
the black silk mantle which belongs to his office. He was 

S 

a man of good presence, prompt, and self-possessed in man 
ner, and conducted the business of the day very success 
fully. 

The election of the remaining members occupied much 
more time. All the five applicants were released from 
service, and with scarcely a dissenting hand : wherein, I 
thought, the people showed very good sense. The case of 
one of these officials, Herr Euler, was rather hard. He 
was the Landesscickelmeister (Treasurer), and the law makes 
him personally responsible for every farthing which passes 
through his hands. Having, with the consent of the Coun 
cil, invested thirty thousand francs in a banking-house at 
Kheineck, the failure of the house obliged him to pay this 
sum out of his own pocket. He did so, and then made 
preparations to leave the Canton in case his resignation 
was not accepted. 

For most of the places from ten to fourteen candidates 
were named, and when these were reduced to two, nearly 



136 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

equally balanced in popular favor, the voting became very 
spirited. The apparitor, who was chosen on account of his 
strength of voice (the candidates for the office must be 
tested in this respect), had hard work that day. The same 
formula must be repeated before every vote, in this wise : 
" Herr Landamman, gentlemen, faithful and beloved fellow- 
citizens and brethren of the Union, if it seems good to you 
to choose so-and-so, as your treasurer for the coming year, 
so lift up your hands!" Then, all over the dark mass, 
thousands of hands flew into the sunshine, rested a mo 
ment, and gradually sank with a fluttering motion, which 
made me think of leaves flying from a hill-side forest in 
the autumn winds. As each election was decided, and the 
choice was announced, swords were lifted to show the loca 
tion of the new official in the crowd, and he was then 
brought upon the platform with fife and drum. Nearly 
two hours elapsed before the gaps were filled, and the gov 
ernment was again complete. 

Then followed the election of judges for the judicial dis 
tricts, who, in most cases, were almost unanimously re- 
elected. These are repeated from year to year, so long as 
the people are satisfied. Nearly all the citizens of Outer- 
Rhoden were before me ; I could distinctly see three fourths 
of their faces, and I detected no expression except that of 
a grave, conscientious interest in the proceedings. Their 
patience was remarkable. Closely packed, man against 
man, in the hot, still sunshine, they stood quietly for nearly 
three hours, and voted upwards of two hundred and seven 
times before the business of the day was completed. A 
few old men on the edges of the crowd slipped away for a 
quarter of an hour, in order, as one of them told me, " to 
keep their stomachs from giving way entirely," and some 
of the younger fellows took a schoppin of Most for the same 
purpose; but they generally returned and resumed their 
places as soon as refreshed. 

The close of the LanJsgemeinde was one of the most itn- 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 137 

pressive spectacles I ever witnessed. When the elections 
were over and no further duty remained, the Pastor Etter 
of Hundwyl ascended the platform. The governing Land- 
amman assumed his black mantle of office, and, after a 
brief prayer, took the oath of inauguration from the clergy 
man. He swore to further the prosperity and honor of the 
land, to ward off misfortune from it, to uphold the Consti 
tution and laws, to protect the widows and orphans, and to 
secure the equal rights of all, nor through favor, hostility, 
gifts, or promises to be turned aside from doing the same. 
The clergyman repeated the oath sentence by sentence, 
both holding up the oath-fingers of the right hand, the 
people looking on silent and uncovered. 

The governing Landamman now turned to the assembly, 
and read them their oath, that they likewise should further 
the honor and prosperity of the land, preserve its freedom 
and its equal rights, obey the laws, protect the Council and 
the judges, take no gift or favor from any prince or poten 
tate, and that each one should accept and perform, to the 
best of his ability, any service to which he might be chosen. 
After this had been read, the Landamman lifted his right 
hand, with the oath-fingers extended ; his colleagues on 
the platform, and every men of the ten or eleven thousand 
present did the same. The silence was so profound that 
the chirp of a bird on the hillside took entire possession 
of the air. Then the Landamman slowly and solemnly 
spoke these words: * I have well understood that which 
has been read to me; I will always and exactly observe 
it, faithfully and without reservation, so truly as I 
wish and pray that God help me ! " At each pause, the 
same words were repeated by every man, in a low, subdued 
tone. The hush was else so complete, the words were 
spoken with such measured firmness, that I caught each as 
it came, not as from the lips of men, but from a vast super 
natural murmur in the air. The effect was indescribable. 
Far off on the horizon was the white vision of an Alp, but 



138 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






all the hidden majesty of those supreme mountains was 
nothing to the scene before me. When the last words had 
been spoken, the hands sank slowly, and the crowd stood a 
moment locked together, with grave faces and gleaming 
eyes, until the spirit that had descended upon them passed. 
Then they dissolved ; the Landsgemeinde was over. 

In my inn, I should think more than the expected six 
hundred had found place. From garret to cellar, every 
corner was occupied ; bread, wine, and steamy dishes 
passed in a steady whirl from kitchen and tap-room into all 
the roaring chambers. In the other inns it was the same, 
and many took their drink and provender in the open air. 
I met my philosopher of the previous evening, who said, 
" Now, what do you think of our Landsgemeinde ? " and 
followed my answer with his three Jas, the last a more 
desponding sigh than ever. Since the business was over, 
I judged that the people would be less reserved which, 
indeed, was the case. Nearly all with whom I spoke ex 
pressed their satisfaction with the day s work. I walked 
through the crowds in all directions, vainly seeking for 
personal beauty. There were few women present, but a 
handsome man is only less beautiful than a beautiful 
woman, and I like to look at the former when the latter is 
absent. I was surprised at the great proportion of under 
sized men ; only weaving, in close rooms, for several gen 
erations, could have produced so many squat bodies and 
short legs. The Appenzellers are neither a handsome nor 
a picturesque race, and their language harmonizes with 
their features; but I learned, during that day at Hundwyl, 
to like and to respect them. 

Pastor Etter insisted on my dining with him; two 
younger clergymen were also guests, and my friend the 
Chancellor Engwiller came to make further kind offers of 
service. The people of each parish, I learned, elect their 
own pastor, and pay him his salary. In municipal matters 
the same democratic system prevails as in the cantonal 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 189 

government. Education is well provided for, and the mor 
als of the community are watched and guarded by a com 
mittee consisting of the pastor and two officials elected by 
the people. Outer-Rhoden is almost exclusively Protes 
tant, while Inner-Rhoden the mountain region around 
the Sentis is Catholic. Although thus geographically 
and politically connected, there was formerly little inter 
course between the inhabitants of the two parts of the 
Canton, owing to their religious differences ; but now they 
come together in a friendly way, and are beginning to in 
termarry. 

After dinner, the officials departed in carriages, to the 
sound of trumpets, and thousands of the people followed. 
Again the roads and paths leading away over the green 
hills were dark with lines of pedestrians ; but a number of 
those whose homes lay nearest to Hundwyl lingered to 
drink and gossip out the day. A group of herdsmen, over 
whose brown faces the high stove-pipe hat looked doubly 
absurd, gathered in a ring, and while one of them yodelled 
the Ranz des Vaches of Appenzell, the others made an ac 
companiment with their voices, imitating the sound of cow 
bells. They were lusty, jolly fellows, and their songs 
hardly came to an end. I saw one man who might be 
considered as positively drunk, but no other who was more 
than affectionately and socially excited. Towards sunset 
they all dropped off, and when the twilight settled down 
heavy, and threatening rain, there was no stranger but my 
self in the little village. " I have done tolerably well," 
said the landlord, " but I can t count my gains until day 
after to-morrow, when the scores run up to-day must be 
paid off." Considering that in my own bill lodging was 
set down at six, and breakfast at twelve cents, even the fif 
teen hundred guests whom he entertained during the day 
could not have given him a very splendid profit. 

Taking a weaver of the place as guide, I set off early 
the next morning for the village of Appenzell, the capital 



140 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

of Inner-Rhoden. The way led me back into the valley 
of the Sitter, thence up towards the Sentis Alp, winding 
around and over a multitude of hills. The same smooth, 
even, velvety carpet of grass was spread upon the land 
scape, covering every undulation of the surface, except 
where the rocks had frayed themselves through. There is 
no greener land upon the earth. The grass, from centuries 
of cultivation, has become so rich and nutritious, that the 
inhabitants can no longer spare even a little patch of 
ground for a vegetable garden, for the reason that the 
same space produces more profit in hay. The green comes 
up to their very doors, and they grudge even the foot-paths 
which connect them with their neighbors. Their vegeta 
bles are brought up from the lower valleys of Thurgau. 
The first mowing had commenced at the time of my visit, 
and the farmers were employing irrigation and manure to 
bring on the second crop. By this means they are enabled 
to mow the same fields every five or six weeks. The pro 
cess gives the whole region a smoothness, a mellow splen 
dor of color, such as I never saw elsewhere, not even in 
England. 

A walk of two hours through such scenery brought me 
out of the Sitter Tobel, and in sight of the little Alpine 
basin in which lies Appenzell. It was raining slowly and 
dismally, and the broken, snow-crowned peaks of the Ka- 
mor and the Hphe Kasten stood like livid spectres of 
mountains against the stormy sky. I made haste to reach 
the compact, picturesque little town, and shelter myself in 
an inn, where a landlady with rippled golden hair and fea 
tures like one of Dante Rossetti s women, offered me trout 
for dinner. Out of the back window I looked for the shat 
tered summits of the Sentis, which rise five thousand feet 
above the valley, but they were invisible. The vertical 
walls of the Ebenalp. in which are the grotto and chapel 
of Wildkirchli, towered over the nearer hills, and I saw 
with regret that thev were still above the snow line. Jt 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 141 

was impossible to penetrate much further without better 
weather ; but I decided, while enjoying my trout, to make 
another trial to take the road to Urnasch, and thence 
pass westward into the renowned valley of the Toggen- 
burg. 

The people of Inner-Rhoden are the most picturesque 
of the Appenzellers. The men wear a round skull-cap of 
leather, sometimes brilliantly embroidered, a jacket of 
coarse drilling, drawn on over the head, and occasionally 
knee-breeches. Early in May the herdsmen leave their 
winter homes in the valleys and go with their cattle to the 
Matten, or lofty mountain pastures. The most intelligent 
cows, selected as leaders for the herd, march, in advance, 
with enormous bells, sometimes a foot in diameter, sus 
pended to their necks by bands of embroidered leather ; 
then follow the others, and the bull, who, singularly enough 
carries the milking-pail garlanded with flowers, between 
his horns, brings up the rear. The Alpadores are in their 
finest Sunday costume, and the sound of yodel-songs 
the very voice of Alpine landscapes echoes from every 
hill. Such a picture as this, under the cloudless blue of a 
fortunate May day, makes the heart of the Appenzeller 
light. He goes joyously up to his summer labor, and 
makes his herb-cheese on the heights, while his wife 
weaves and embroiders muslin in the valley until his re 
turn. 

In the afternoon I set out for Urnasch, with a bright 
boy as guide. Hot gleams of sunshine now and then 
struck like fire across the green mountains, and the Sentis 
partly unveiled his stubborn forehead of rock. Behind 
him, however, lowered inky thunder-clouds, and long before 
the afternoon s journey was made it was raining below and 
snowing aloft. The scenery grew more broken and abrupt 
the further I penetrated into the country, but it was every 
where as thickly peopled and as wonderfully cultivated. 
At Gonten, there is a large building for the whey-cure of 



142 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

overfed people of the world. A great many such, I was 
told, come to Appenzell for the summer. Many of the 
persons we met not only said, " God greet you ! " but im 
mediately added, " Adieu ! " like the Salve et vale ! of 
classical times. 

Beyond Gonten the road dropped into a wild ravine, the 
continual windings of which rendered it very attractive. I 
found enough to admire in every farm-house by the way 
side, with its warm wood-color, its quaint projecting bal 
conies, and coat of shingle mail. When the ravine opened, 
and the deep valley of Urnasch, before me, appeared be 
tween cloven heights of snow, disclosing six or eight square 
miles of perfect emerald, over which the village is scat 
tered, I was fully repaid for having pressed farther into the 
heart of the land. There were still two hours until night, 
and I might have gone on to the Rossfall, a cascade 
three or four miles higher up the valley, but the clouds 
were threatening, and the distant mountain-sides already 
dim under the rain. 

At the village inn I found several herdsmen and mechan 
ics, each with a bottle of Rheinthaler wine before him. 
They were ready and willing to give me all the information 
I needed. In order to reach the Toggenburg, they said, I 
must go over the Kratzernwald. It was sometimes a dan 
gerous journey; the snow was many cubits deep, and at 
this time of the year it was frequently so soft, that a man 
would sink to his hips. To-day, however, there had been 
thunder, and after thunder the snow is always hard-packed, 
so that you can walk on it ; but to cross the Kratzernwald 
without a guide, never! For two hours you were in a 
wild forest, not a house, nor even a Sennhutf (herdsman s 
cabin) to be seen, and no proper path, but a clambering 
hither and thither, in snow and mud ; with this weather, 
yes, one could get into Toggenburg that way, they said, but 
not alone, and only because there had been thunder on the 
mountains. 



THE LITTLE LAND OF APPENZELL. 143 

But all night the rain beat against my chamber window, 
and in the morning the lower slopes on the mountains 
were gray with new snow, which no thunder had packed. 
Indigo-colored clouds lay heavily on all the Alpine peaks ; 
the air was raw and chilly, and the roads slippery. In such 
weather the scenery is not only shrouded, but the people 
are shut up in their homes, wherefore further travel 
would not have been repaid. I had already seen the greater 
part of the little land, and so gave up my thwarted plans 
the more cheerfully. When the post-omnibus for Herisau 
came to the inn door, I took my seat therein, saying, like 
Schiller s " Sennbub ," " J/ir Matten, lebt wolil! ihr sonnige 
Weiden ! " 

The country became softer and lovelier as the road grad 
ually fell towards Herisau, which is the richest and state 
liest town of the Canton. I saw little of it except the 
hospitable home of my friend the Chancellor, for we had 
brought the Alpine weather with us. The architecture of 
the place, nevertheless, is charming, the town being com 
posed of country -houses, balconied and shingled, and set 
down together in the most irregular way, every street shoot 
ing off at a different angle. A mile beyond, I reached the 
edge of the mountain region, and again looked down upon 
the prosperous valley of St. Gall. Below me was the rail 
way, and as I sped towards Zurich that afternoon, the top of 
the Sentis, piercing through a mass of dark rain-clouds, 
was my last glimpse of the Little Land of Appenzell. 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MOtfTSERRAT. 



" OUT of France and into Spain," says the old nursery 
rhyme ; but at the eastern base of the Pyrenees one seems 
to have entered Spain before leaving France. The rich 
vine-plains of Roussillon once belonged to the former 
country ; they retain quite as distinct traces of the earlier 
Moorish occupancy, and their people speak a dialect almost 
identical with that of Catalonia. I do not remember the 
old boundaries of the province, but I noticed the change 
immediately after leaving Narbonne. Vine-green, with the 
grays of olive and rock, were the only colors of the land 
scape. The towns, massive and perched upon elevations, 
spoke of assault and defense ; the laborers in the fields 
were brown, dark-haired, and grave, and the semi-African 
silence of Spain seemed already to brood over the land. 

I entered Perpignan under a heavy Moorish gateway, 
and made my way to a hostel through narrow, tortuous 
streets, between houses with projecting balconies, and win 
dows few and small, as in the Orient. The hostel, though 
ambitiously calling itself a hotel, was filled with that 
Mediterranean atmosphere and odor which you breathe 
everywhere in Italy and the Levant, a single charac 
teristic flavor, in which, nevertheless, you fancy you detect 
the exhalations of garlic, oranges, horses, cheese, and oil. 
A mild whiif of it stimulates the imagination, and is no 
detriment to physical comfort. When, at breakfast, red 
mullet came upon the table, and oranges fresh from the 
tree, I straightway took off my Northern nature as a gar 
ment, folded it and packed it neatly away in my knapsack, 
and took, out in its stead, the light, beribboned, and be 
spangled Southern nature, which I had not worn for some 



148 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

eight or nine years. It was like a dressing-gown after a 
dress-coat, and I went about with a delightfully free play 
of the mental and moral joints. 

There were four hours before the departure of the dili 
gence for Spain, and I presume I might have seen various 
historical or architectural sights of Perpignan ; but I was 
really too comfortable for anything else than a lazy mean 
dering about the city, feeding my eyes on quaint houses 
groups of people full of noise and gesture, the scarlet blos 
soms of the pomegranate, and the glitter of citron-leaves 
in the gardens. A one-legged fellow, seven feet high, who 
called himself a commissionaire, insisted on accompanying 
me, and I finally accepted him, for two reasons; first, he 
knew nothing whatever about the city ; and secondly, tour 
ists are so rare that he must have been very poor. His 
wooden leg, moreover, easily kept pace with my loitering 
steps, and though, as a matter of conscience, he sometimes 
volunteered a little information, he took my silence meekly 
and without offense. In this wise, I gained some pleasant 
pictures of the place ; and the pictures which come with 
least effort are those which remain freshest in memory. 

There was one point, however, where my limping giant 
made a stand, and set his will against expostulation or en 
treaty. I must see the avenue of sycamores, he said ; there 
was plenty of time ; France, the world, had no such avenue ; 
it was near at hand ; every stranger went to see it and was 
amazed; and therewith he set off, without waiting for my 
answer. I followed, for I saw that otherwise he would not 
have considered his fee earned. The avenue of sycamores 
was indeed all that he had promised. I had seen larger 
trees in Syria and Negropont, but here was a triple avenue, 
nearly half a mile in length, so trained and sculptured that 
they rivaled the regularity of masonry. Each trunk, at 
the height of ten or twelve feet, divided into two arms, 
which then leaned outwards at the same ancle, and mingled 

& " o 

their smaller boughs, fifty feet overhead The aisles be- 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 149 

tween them thus took the form of very slender pyramids, 
truncated near the top. If the elm gives the Gothic, this 
was assuredly the Cyclopean arch. In the beginning, the 
effect must have been artificially produced, but the trees 
were now so old, and had so accustomed themselves to the 
forms imposed, that no impression of force or restraint re 
mained. Through the roof of this superb green minster 
not a beam of sunshine found its way. On the hard gravel 
floor groups of peasants, soldiers, nurses, and children 
strolled up and down, all with the careless and leisurely air 
of a region where time has no particular value. 

We passed a dark-haired and rather handsome gentle 
man and lady. "They are opera-singers, Italians," said my 
companion, " and they are going with you in the diligence." 
I looked at my watch and found that the hour of departure 
had nearly arrived, and I should have barely time to pro 
cure a little Spanish money. When I reached the office, 
the gentleman and lady were already installed in the two 
corners of the coupe. My place, apparently, was between 
them. The agent was politely handing me up the steps, 
when the gentleman began to remonstrate ; but in France 
the regulations are rigid, and he presently saw that the in 
trusion could not be prevented. With a sigh and a groan 
he gave up his comfortable corner to me, and took the 
middle seat, for which I was booked ! " Will you have 
your place ? " whispered the agent. I shook my head. 
" You get the best seat, don t you see ? " he resumed, " be 
cause " But the rest of the sentence was a wink and a 
laugh. I am sure there is the least possible of a Don Juan 
in my appearance ; yet this agent never lost an opportunity 
to wink at me whenever he came near the diligence, and 
I fancied I heard him humming to himself, as we drove 

away, 

"Ma nella Spagna mille e tre ! " 

I endeavored to be reasonably courteous, without famili 
arity, towards the opera-singers, but the effect of the mali- 



150 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

cious winks and smiles made the lady appear to me timid 
and oppressed, and the gentleman an unexploded mine of 
jealousy. My remarks were civilly if briefly answered, and 
then they turned towards each other and began conversing 
in a language which was not Italian, although melodious, nor 
French, although nasal. I pricked up my ears and listened 
more sharply than good manners allowed but only until 
I had recognized the Portuguese tongue. Whomsoever I 
may meet in wandering over the world, it rarely happens 
that I cannot discover some common or " mutual " friend, 
and in this instance I determined to try the experiment. 
After preliminaries, which gently led the conversation to 
Portugal, I asked, 

"Do you happen to know Count M ?" 

" Only by name." 

"Or Senhor O , a young man and an astronomer? " 

" Very well ! " was the reply. " He is one of the most 
distinguished young men of science in Portugal." 

The ice was thereupon broken, and the gentleman be 
came communicative and agreeable. I saw, very soon, that 
the pair were no more opera-singers than they were Ital 
ians ; that the lady was not timid, nor her husband jealous ; 
but he had simply preferred, as any respectable husband 
would, to give up his comfortable seat rather than have a 
stranger thrust between himself and his wife. 

Once out of Perpignan, the Pyrenees lay clear before 
us. Over bare red hills, near at hand, rose a gray moun 
tain rampart, neither lofty nor formidable ; but westward, 
between the valleys of the Tech and the Tet, towered 
the solitary pyramid of the Canigou, streaked with snow- 
filled ravines. The landscapes would have appeared bleak 
and melancholy, but for the riotous growth of vines which 
cover the plain and climb the hillsides wherever there is 
room for a terrace of earth. These vines produce the dark, 
rich wine of Roussillon, the best vintage of Southern 
France. Hedges of aloes, clumps of Southern cypress, 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 151 

poplars by the dry beds of winter streams, with brown tints 
in the houses and red in the soil, increased the resemblance 
to Spain. Rough fellows, in rusty velvet, who now and 
then dug their dangling heels into the sides of the mules 
or asses they rode, were enough like arrieros or contraban- 
distas to be the real article. Our stout and friendly coach 
man, even, was hailed by the name of Moreno, and spoke 
French with a foreign accent. 

At the post-station of Le Boulou, we left the plain of 
Roussillon behind us. At this end of the Pyrenean chain 
there are no such trumpet-names as Roncesvalles, Font- 
arabia, and Bidassoa. Hannibal, Caesar, Charlemagne, and 
the Saracens have marched through these defiles, and left 
no grand historic footprint, but they will always keep the 
interest which belongs to those natural barriers and division 
walls whereby races and histories were once separated. It 
was enough for me that here were the Pyrenees, and I 
looked forward, perhaps, with a keene* curiosity, to the char 
acter and forms of their scenery, than to the sentiment 
which any historic association could produce. A broad and 
perfect highway led us through shallow valleys, whose rocky 
sides were hung with rows of olive-trees, into wilder and 
more abrupt dells, where vegetation engaged in a struggle 
with stone, and without man s help would have been driven 
from the field. Over us the mountains lifted themselves in 
bold bastions and parapets, disforested now, if those gray 
upper plateaus ever bore forests, and of a uniform slaty 
gray in tone except where reddish patches of oxidation 
showed like the rust of age. 

But, like " all waste and solitary places," the scenery had 
its own peculiar charm. Poussin and Salvator Rosa would 
have seated themselves afresh at every twist of the glen, 
and sketched the new picture which it unfolded. The huge 
rocks, fallen from above, or shattered in the original up 
heaval of the chain, presented a thousand sharp, forcible 
outlines and ragged facets of shadow, and the two native 



152 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

growths of the Pyrenees box and cork-oak fringed 
them as thickets or overhung them as trees, in the wildest 
and most picturesque combinations. Indeed, during this 
portion of the journey, I saw scores of sketches waiting for 
the selected artist who has not yet come for them, 
sketches full of strength and beauty, and with a harmony 
of color as simple as the chord of triple tones in music. 
\Yhen to their dark grays and greens came the scarlet Phry 
gian cap of the Catalonian, it was brighter than sunshine. 

The French fortress of Bellegarde, crowning a drum- 
shaped mass of rock, which blocked up the narrow valley 
in front, announced our approach to the Spanish frontier. 
The road wound back and forth as it climbed through a 
stony wilderness to the mouth of a gorge under the fortress, 
and I saw, before we entered this last gateway into Spain, 
the peak of the Canigou touched with sunset, and the sweep 
of plain beyond it black under the shadow of storm-clouds. 
On either side were Some heaps of stone, left from forts 
and chapels of the Middle Ages, indicating that we had al 
ready reached the summit of the pass, which is less than a 
thousand feet above the sea-level. In ten minutes the 
gorge opened, and we found ourselves suddenly rattling 
along the one street of the gay French village of Perthus. 
Officers from Bellegarde sat at the table in front of the 
smart cafe, and drank absinthe ; soldiers in red trousers 
chatted with the lively women who sold tobacco and gro 
ceries ; there were trees, little gardens, arbors of vine, and 
the valley opened southwards, descending and broadening 
towards a cloudless evening sky. 

At the end of the village I saw a granite pyramid, with 
the single word " Gallia " engraved upon it ; a few paces 
farther, two marble posts bore the half-obliterated arms of 
Spain. Here the diligence paused a moment, and an offi 
cer of customs took his seat beside the coachman. The 
telegraph pole behind us was of barked pine, the next one 
in front was painted gray ; the vente dp. tabac became 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 1^8 

estanco national, and the only overlapping of the two na 
tionalities which I observed all things else being sud 
denly and sharply divided was that some awkward and 
dusty Spanish soldiers were walking up the street of Per- 
thus, and some trim, jaunty French soldiers were walking 
down the road, towards the first Spanish wine-shop. We 
also went down, and swiftly, in the falling twilight, through 
which, erelong, gardens and fields began to glimmer, and 
in half an hour drew up in the little Spanish town of La 
Junquera, the ancient " place of rushes." Here there was 
a rapid and courteous examination of baggage, a call for 
passports, which were opened and then handed back to us 
without vise or fee being demanded, and we were declared 
free to journey in Spain. Verily the world is becoming 
civilized, when Spain, the moral satrapy of Rome, begins 
to pull down her barriers and let the stranger in ! 

I inspected our " insides," as they issued forth, and found, 
in addition to a priest and three or four commercial indi 
viduals with a contraband air, a young French naval officer, 
and an old German who was too practical for a professor 
and too stubborn in his views to be anything else. He had 
made fifteen journeys to Switzerland, he informed me, 
knew Scotland from the Cheviots to John o Groat s, and 
now proposed the conquest of Spain. Here Moreno sum 
moned us to our places, and the diligence rolled onward. 
Past groups of Catalans, in sandals and scarlet bonnets, 
returning from the harvest fields; past stacks of dusky 
grain and shadowy olive-orchards ; past open houses, where 
a single lamp sometimes flashed upon a woman s head ; 
past a bonfire, turning the cork-trees into transparent 
bronze, and past the sound of water, plunging under the 
idle mill-wheel, in the cool, delicious summer air, we 
journeyed on. The stars were beginning to gather in the 
sky, when square towers and masses of cubic houses rose 
against them, and the steady roll of our wheels on the 
smooth highway became a dreadful clatter on the rough 
cobble-stones of Figueras. 



154 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

The Pyrenees were already behind us ; the town over 
looks a wide, marshy plain. But the mountains make their 
vicinity felt in a peculiar manner. The north-wind, gath 
ered into the low pass of Bellegarde and drawn to a focus 
of strength, blows down the opening valley with a force 
which sometimes lays an embargo on travel. Diligences 
are overturned, postilions blown out of their saddles, and 
pedestrians carried off their feet. The people then pray 
to their saints that the tramontana may cease ; but, on the 
other hand, as it is a very healthy wind, sweeping away 
the feverish exhalations from the marshy soil, they get up 
a grand annual procession to some mountain-shrine of the 
Virgin, and pray that it may blow. So, when the Virgin 
takes them at their word, the saints are invoked on the 
other side, and the wonder is that both parties don t get 
out of patience with the people of Figueras. 

The diligence drew up at the door of a fonda, and 
Moreno announced that we were to take supper and wait 
until midnight. This was welcome news to all ; but the 
old German drew me aside as we entered the house, and 
whispered, " Now our stomachs are going to be tried." 
" Not at all," I answered, " we shall find very good prov 
ender." " But the guide-book says it is very bad," he 
persisted. And he looked despondent, even with a clean 
table-cloth and a crisp roll of bread before him, until the 
soup steamed under his nose. His face brightened at the 
odor, grew radiant at the flavor, and long before we reached 
the roast pullet and salad, he expressed his satisfaction 
with Spanish cookery. With the dessert came a vino rancio, 
full of summer fire, and the tongues of the company were 
loosened. From the weather and the Paris Exposition 
we leaped boldly into politics, and, being on Spanish soil, 
discussed France and the Mexican business. The French 
officer was silent and annoyed ; he was a pleasant fellow, 
and I, for one, had a little sympathy with his annoyance, 
but I could not help saying that all Americans (except the 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 155 

Rev. ) considered the action of France as an out 
rage and an impertinence, and were satisfied with her 
miserable failure. The Spanish passengers nodded and 
smiled. 

I should not have spoken, had I foreseen one conse 
quence of my words. The German snatched the reins of 
conversation out of our hands, and dashed off at full speed, 
trampling France and her ruler under his feet. At the 
first pause, I said to him, in German : " Pray don t be so 
violent in your expressions, the gentleman beside me is 
a naval officer." But he answered : " I don t care, I must 
speak my mind, which I could not do in Paris. France 
has been the curse of Spain, as well as of all Europe, and 
there will be no peace until we put a stop to her preten 
sions ! " Thereupon he said the same thing to the com 
pany ; but the Spaniards were too politic to acquiesce openly. 
The officer replied, " France has not injured Spain, but, 
on the contrary, has protected her ! " and he evidently had 
not the slightest suspicion that there was anything offensive 
in his words. The Spaniards still remained silent, but 
another expression came into their eyes. It was time 
to change the subject ; so the principle of non-intervention, 
in its fullest, most literal sense, was proposed and ac 
cepted. A grave Majorcan gentleman distributed cigars ; 
his daughter, with her soft, melodious voice, was oil to the 
troubled waters, and before midnight we were all equally 
courteous and cosmopolitan. 

Of the four ensuing hours I can give no account. 
Neither asleep nor awake, hearing with closed eyes or see- 
with half-closed senses, one can never afterwards distinguish 
between what is seen and what is dreamed. This is a 
state in which the body may possibly obtain some rest, but 
the mind becomes inexpressibly fatigued. One s memory 
of it is a blurred sketch, a faded daguerreotype. I wel 
comed that hour when 

u The wind blows cold 
While the morning doth unfold." 



156 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

for it blew away this film, which usurped the place of the 
blessed mantle of sleep. Chill, even here in African 
Spain, where the pale pearl of the dawn foretold a burning 
noon, and where, in May, the harvests were already reaped, 
the morning brightened ; but we were near the end of the 
journey. At sunrise, the towers of Girona stood fast and 
firm over the misty level of the shimmering olive-groves ; 
then the huge dull mass of the cathedral, the walls and 
bastions of the hill-forts, which resisted a siege of seven 
months during the Peninsular War, and finally the monot 
onous streets of the lower town, through which we drove. 

The industrious Catalans were already awake and stir 
ring. Smokes from domestic hearths warmed the cool 
morning air ; cheerful noises of men, animals, and fowls 
broke the silence ; doors were open as we entered the town, 
and the women were combing and twisting their black 
hair in the shadows within. At the post some brown 
grooms lounged about the door. A priest passed, a gen 
uine Don Basilio, in inky gown and shovel hat ; and these 
graceless grooms looked after him, thrust their tongues 
into their cheeks, and made an irreverent grimace. The 
agent at Perpignan came into my mind ; I winked at the 
fellows, without any clear idea wherefore, but it must have 
expressed something, for they burst into a laugh and re 
peated the grimace. 

The lower town seemed to be of immense length. Once 
out of it, a superb avenue of plane trees received us, at the 
end of which was the railway station. In another hour the 
train would leave for Barcelona. Our trunks must be 
again examined. When I asked the reason why this an 
noying regulation, obsolete elsewhere in F.urope, is here 
retained, the Spaniards gravely informed me that, if it were 
abolished, a great many people would be thrown out of 
employment. Not that they get much pay for the exam 
ination, but they are constantly bribed not to examine ! 
There was a cafe attached to the station, and I advised my 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 157 

fellow-passengers to take a cup of the delicious ropy choco 
late of Spain, after which one accepts the inevitable more 
patiently. 

I found the landscapes from Girona to Barcelona very 
bright and beautiful. Our locomotive had fallen into the 
national habit : it was stately and deliberate, it could not 
be hurried, its very whistle was subdued and dignified. 
We went forward at an easy pace, making about fifteen 
miles an hour, which enabled me to notice the patient in 
dustry of the people, as manifested on every plain and hill 
side. The Catalans are called rough and ungraceful ; beside 
the sprightly Andalusians they seem cold and repellent ; 
they have less of that blue blood which makes the beggar as 
proud as the grandee, but they possess the virtue of labor, 
which, however our artistic tastes may undervalue it, is the 
basis from which all good must spring. When I saw how 
the red and rocky hills were turned into garden-terraces, 
how the olive-trees were pruned into health and produc 
tiveness, how the wheat stood so thick that it rolled but 
stiffly under the breeze, I forgot the jaunty majos of Seville, 
and gave my hearty admiration to the strong-backed reap 
ers in the fields of Catalonia. 

The passengers we took up on the way, though belong 
ing to the better class, and speaking Spanish whenever it 
was necessary, all seemed to prefer the popular dialect. 
Proprietors of estates and elegant young ladies conversed 
together in the rough patois of the peasants, which to me 
was especially tantalizing, because it sounded so familiar, 
and yet was so unintelligible. It is in reality the old lanyue 
limousine of France, kindred to the Provencal, and differs 
very slightly from the dialect spoken on the other side of 
the Pyrenees. It is terse, forcible, and expressive, and I 
must confess that the lisping Spanish, beside it, seems to 
gain in melody at the expense of strength. 

We approached Barcelona across the wide plain of the 
Llobregat, where orange gardens and factory chimneys, 



158 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

fountains " i the midst of roses," and machine-shops full of 
grimy workmen, succeed each other in a curious tangle of 
poetry and greasy fact. The Mediterranean gleams in a 
blue line on the left, the citadel of Monjuich crowns a bluff 
in front ; but the level city hides itself behind the foliage 
of the plain, and is not seen. At the station you wait half 
an hour, until the baggage is again deposited on the dis- 
secting-tables of the custom officers ; and here, if, instead 
of joining the crowd of unhappy murmurers in the ante 
room, you take your station in the doorway, looking down 
upon porters, peddlers, idlers, and policemen, you are sure 
to be diverted by a little comedy acted in pantomime. 
An outside porter has in some way interfered with the 
rights of a station-porter ; a policeman steps between the 
two, the latter of whom, lifting both hands to heaven in a 
wild appeal, brings them down swiftly and thrusts them 
out before him, as if descending to earthly justice. The 
outsider goes through the same gestures, and then both, 
with flashing eyes and open mouths, teeth glittering under 
the drawn lips, await the decision. The policeman first 
makes a sabre-cut with his right arm, then with his left ; 
then also lifts his hands to heaven, shakes them there a 
moment, and, turning as he brings them down, faces the 
outside porter. The latter utters a passionate cry, and his 
arms begin to rise ; but he is seized by the shoulder and 
turned aside ; the crowd closes in, and the comedy is over. 
We have a faint interest in Barcelona for the sake of 
Columbus; but, apart from this one association, we set it 
down beside Manchester, Lowell, and other manufacturing 
cities. It was so crowded within its former walls, that 
little space was left for architectural display. In many of 
the streets I doubt whether four persons could walk 
abreast. Only in the Rambla, a broad central boulevard, is 
there any chance for air and sunshine, and all the leisure 
and pleasure of the city is poured into this one avenue. 
Since the useless walls have been removed, an ambitious 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 159 

modern suburb is springing up on the west, and there will, 
in time, be a new city better than the old. 

This region appears to be the head-quarters of political 
discontent in Spain, probably because the people get to 
be more sensible of the misrule under which they languish, 
in proportion as they become more active and industrious. 
Nothing could have been more peaceable upon the surface 
than the aspect of things ; the local newspapers never re 
ported any disturbance, yet intelligence of trouble in Cata 
lonia was circulating through the rest of Europe, and 
something I could not ascertain precisely what it was 
took place during my brief visit. The telegraph-wires 
were cut, and some hundreds of soldiers were sent into the 
country ; but the matter was never mentioned, unless two 
persons whom I saw whispering together in the darkest cor 
ner of a cafe were discussing it. I believe, if a battle had 
been fought within hearing of the cannon, the Barcelonese 
would have gone about the streets with the same placid, 
unconcerned faces. Whether this was cunning, phlegm, 
or the ascendency of solid material interests over the fiery, 
impulsive nature of the Spaniard, was not clear to a pass 
ing observer. In either case it was a prudent course. 

If, in the darkened streets or rather lanes of Bar 
celona, I saw some suggestive pictures ; if the court-yard 
of the cathedral, with its fountains and orange - trees, 
seemed a thousand miles removed from the trade and 
manufacture of the city ; if the issuing into sunshine on 
the mole was like a blow in the eyes, to which the sapphire 
bloom of the Mediterranean became a healing balm ; and 
if the Rambla, towards evening, changed into a shifting 
diorama of color and cheerful life, none of these things 
inclined me to remain longer than the preparation for my 
further journey required. Before reaching the city, I had 
caught a glimpse, far up the valley of the Llobregat, ol a 
high, curiously serrated mountain, and that old book of the 
" Wonders of the World" (now, alas ! driven from the 



160 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

library of childhood) opened its pages and showed its 
rough woodcuts, in memory, to tell me what the mountain 
was. How many times has that wonderful book been the 
chief charm of my travels, causing me to forget Sulpicius 
on the JEgean Sea, Byron in Italy, and Humboldt in Mex 
ico ! 

To those who live in Barcelona, Montserrat has become 
a common-place, the resort of Sunday excursions and pic 
nics, one fourth devotional, and three fourths epicurean. 
Wild, mysterious, almost inaccessible as it stands in one s 
fancy, it sinks at this distance into the very material atmos 
phere of railroad and omnibus ; but, for all that, we are 
not going to give it up, though another " Wonder of the 
World" should go by the board. Take the Tarragona 
train then with rne, on a cloudless afternoon. In a few 
minutes the scattered suburban blocks are left behind, and 
we enter the belt of villas, with their fountained terraces 
and tropical gardens. More and more the dark red earth 
shows through the thin foliage of the olives, as the hills 
draw nearer, and it finally gives color to the landscapes. 
The vines covering the levels and lower slopes are won 
derfully luxuriant ; but we can see how carefully they are 
cultivated. Hedges of aloe and cactus divide them ; here 
and there some underground cavern has tumbled in, let 
ting down irregular tracts of soil, and the vines still flour 
ish at the bottom of the pits thus made. As the plain 
shrinks to a valley, the hills on either side ascend into 
rounded summits, which begin to be dark with pine for 
ests ; villages with square, brown church-towers perch on 
the lower heights ; cotton-mills draw into their service the 
scanty waters of the river, and the appearance of cheerful, 
thrifty labor increases as the country becomes rougher. 

All this time the serrated mountain is drawing nearer, 
and breaking into a wilder confusion of pinnacles. It stands 
alone, planted across the base of a triangular tract of open 
country, a strange, solitary, exiled peak, drifted away 



FROM PERPIGXAN TO MONTSERRAT. 161 

in the beginning of things from its brethren of the Pyre 
nees, and stranded in a different geological period. This 
circumstance must have long ago impressed the inhabit 
ants of the region even in the ante-historic ages. When 
Christianity rendered a new set of traditions necessary, 
the story arose that the mountain was thus split and shat 
tered at the moment when Christ breathed his last on the 
cross of Calvary. This is still the popular belief; but the 
singular formation of Montserrat, independent of it, was 
sufficient to fix the anchoretic tastes of the early Christians. 
It is set apart by Nature, not only towering above all the 
surrounding heights, but drawing itself haughtily away 
from contact with them, as if conscious of its earlier ori 
gin. 

At the station of Martorel I left the train, and took a 
coach which was in waiting for the village of Collbato, at 
the southern base of the mountain. My companion in the 
coupe was a young cotton-manufacturer, who assured me 
that in Spain the sky and soil were good, but the entresol 
(namely, the human race) was bad. The interior was 
crowded with country-women, each of whom seemed to 
have four large baskets. I watched the driver for half an 
hour attempting to light a broken cigar, and then rewarded 
his astonishing patience with a fresh one, whereby we be 
came good friends. Such a peaceful light lay upon the 
landscape, the people were so cheerful, the laborers worked 
so quietly in the vineyards, that the thought of a political 
disturbance the day before seemed very absurd. The 
olive-trees, which clothed the hills wherever their bony 
roots could find the least lodgment of soil, were of re 
markably healthy and vigorous growth, and the regular 
cubic form into which they were pruned marked the climb 
ing terraces with long lines of gray light, as the sun 
slanted across them. 

" You see," said the Spaniard, as I noticed this peculiar 
ity, " the entresol is a little better in this neighborhood than 



162 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

elsewhere in Spain. The people cut the trees into this 
shape in order that they may become more compact and 
produce better ; besides which, the fruit is more easily 
gathered. In all those orchards you will not find a decayed 
or an unhealthy tree ; such are dug up and burned, and 
young ones planted in their place." 

At the village of Esparaguerra the other passengers 
left, and I went on towards Collbatd alone. But I had 
Montserrat for company, towering more grandly, more 
brokenly, from minute to minute. Every change in the 
foreground gave me a new picture. Now it was a clump 
of olives with twisted trunks ; now an aloe, lifting its giant 
candelabrum of blossoms from the edge of a rock ; now a 
bank of dull vermilion earth, upon which goats were hang 
ing. The upper spires of the mountain disappeared be 
hind its basal buttresses of gray rock, a thousand feet in 
perpendicular height, and the sinking sun, as it crept west 
ward, edged these with sharp lines of light. Up, under 
the tremendous cliffs, and already in shadow, lay Collbato, 
and I was presently set down at the gate of the posada. 

Don Pedro, the host, came forward to meet and welcome 
me, and his pretty daughter, sitting on the steps, rose up 
and dropped a salute. In the entrance hall I read, painted 
in large letters on the wall, the words of St. Augustine : 
" In necessaries unitas ; in dubiis libertas ; in omnibus, caritas" 
Verily, thought I, Don Pedro must be a character. I had 
no sooner comfortably seated myself in the doorway to 
contemplate the exquisite evening landscape, which the 
Mediterranean bounded in the distance, and await my sup 
per, than Don Pedro ordered his daughter to bring the 
guests book, and then betook himself to the task of run 
ning down a lean chicken. In the record of ten years I 
found that Germans were the most frequent visitors ; Amer 
icans appeared but thrice. One party of the latter regis 
tered themselves as u gentlemen," and stated that they had 
seen the " promanent points," which gave occasion to a 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 163 

later Englishman to comment upon the intelligence of 
American gentlemen. The host s daughter, Pepita, was 
the theme of praise in prose and raptures in poetry. 

"Are you Pepita?" I asked, turning to the girl, who sat 
on the steps before me, gazing into the evening sky with an 
expression of the most indolent happiness. I noticed for 
the first time, and admired, her firm, regular, almost Roman 
profile and the dark masses of real hair on her head. Her 
attitude, also, was very graceful, and she would have been, 
to impressible eyes, a phantom of delight, but for the un 
graceful fact that she inveterately scratched herself when 
ever and wherever a flea happened to bite. 

" No, senor," she answered ; " I am Carmen. Pepita 
was married first, and then Mariquita. Angelita and my 
self are the only ones at home." 

" I see there is also a poem to Angelita," I remarked, 
turning over the last leaves. 

" O, that was a poet ! " said she, "a funny man ! Every 
body knows him : he writes for the theatre, and all that is 
about some eggs which Angelita fried for him. "We can t 
understand it all, but we think it s good-natured." 

Here the mother came, not as duenna, but as companion, 
with her distaff and spindle, and talked and span until I 
could no longer distinguish the thread against her gray 
dress. AVhen the lean chicken was set before me, Don 
Pedro announced that a mule and guide would be in readi 
ness at sunrise, and I could, if I chose, mount to the top 
most peak of San Geronimo. In the base of the moun 
tain, near Collbato, there are spacious caverns, which most 
travellers feel bound to visit ; but I think that six or seven 
caves, one coal mine, and one gold mine are enough for a 
life-time, and have renounced any further subterranean re 
searches. Why delve into those dark, moist, oppressive 
crypts, when the blessed sunshine of years shows one so 
little of the earth and of human life ? Let any one that 
chooses come and explore the caverns of Montserrat, and 



164 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

then tell me (as people have a passion for doing), " You 
missed the best ! " The best is that with which one is satis 
fied. 

Instead of five o clock, when I should have been called, 
I awoke naturally at six, and found that Don Pedro had 
set out for San Geronimo four hours before, while neither 
guide nor mule was forthcoming. The old woman pointed 
to some specks far up in the shadow of the cliffs, which 
she assured me were travellers, and would arrive with 
mules in fifteen minutes. But I applied the words in duUis 
libertas, and insisted on an immediate animal and guide, 
both of which, somewhat to my surprise, were produced. 
The black mule was strong, and the lank old Catalan shoul 
dered my heavy valise and walked off without a murmur. 
The sun was already hot; but once risen above the last 
painfully constructed terrace of olives, and climbing the 
stony steep, we dipped into the cool shadow of the moun 
tain. The path was difficult but not dangerous, winding 
upward through rocks fringed with dwarf ilex, box, and 
mastic, which made the air fragrant. Thyme, wild flax, 
and aconite blossomed in the crevices. The botany of the 
mountain is as exceptional as its geology ; it includes five 
hundred different species. 

The box-tree, which my Catalan guide called bosch in his 
dialect, is a reminiscence, wherever one sees it, of Italy 
and Greece of ancient culture and art. Its odor, as 
Holmes admirably says, suggests eternity. If it was not 
the first plant that sprang up on the cooling planet, it 
ought to have been. Its glossy mounds, and rude, stat 
uesque clumps, which often seem struggling to mould 
themselves into human shape, cover with beauty the ter 
rible rocks of Montserrat. M. Delavigne had warned me 
of the dangers of the path I was pursuing, walls on one 
side, and chasms a thousand feet deep on the other, but 
l he box everywhere shaped itself into protecting figures, 
and whispered as I went by, " Never fear ; if you slip, I 
will hold you ! " 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 165 

The mountain is an irregular cone, about thirty-five hun 
dred feet in height, and cleft down the middle by a torrent 
which breaks through its walls on the northeastern side. 
It presents a perpendicular face, which seems inaccessible, 
for the shelves between the successive elevations, when 
seen from below, appear as narrow fringes of vegetation, 
growing out of one unbroken wall. They furnish, indeed, 
but scanty room for the bridle-path, which at various points 
is both excavated and supported by arches of masonry. 
After nearly an hour, I found myself over Collbatd, upon 
the roofs of which, it seemed, I might fling a stone. At 
the next angle of the mountain, the crest was attained, and 
I stood between the torn and scarred upper wilderness of 
Montserrat on the one hand, and the broad, airy sweep of 
landscape, bounded by the sea, on the other. To the north 
ward a similar cape thrust out its sheer walls against the 
dim, dissolving distances, and it was necessary to climb 
along the sides of the intervening gulf, which sank under 
me into depths of shadow. Every step of the way was 
inspiring, for there was the constant threat, without the 
reality, of danger. My mule paced securely along the 
giddy brinks; and through the path seemed to terminate fifty 
paces ahead, I was always sure to find a loop-hole or coigne 
of vantage which the box and mastic had hidden from sight. 
So in another hour the opposite foreland was attained, and 
from its crest I saw, all along the northern horizon, the 
snowy wall of the Pyrenees. 

Here a path branched off to the peak of San Geronimo, 
a two hours clamber through an absolute desert of rock. 
My guide, although panting and sweating with his load, 
proposed the ascent ; but in the film of heat which over 
spread the land I should have only had a wider panorama 
in which all distinct forms were lost, vast, no doubt, but 
as blurred and intangible as a metaphysical treatise. I 
judged it better to follow the example of a pious peasant 
and his wife whom we had overtaken, and who, setting 



166 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

their faces toward the renowned monastery, murmured an 
Ave from time to time. Erelong, on emerging from the 
thickets, we burst suddenly upon one of the wildest and 
most wonderful pictures I ever beheld. A tremendous 
wall of rock arose in front, crowned by colossal turrets, 
pyramids, clubs, pillars, and ten-pin shaped masses, which 
were drawn singly, or in groups of incredible distortion, 
against the deep blue of the sky. At the foot of the rock, 
the buildings of the monastery, huge and massive, the 
church, the houses for pilgrims, and the narrow gardens, 
completely filled and almost overhung a horizontal shelf 
of the mountain, under which it again fell sheer away, 
down, down into misty depths, the bottom of which was 
hidden from sight. I dropped from the mule, sat down 
upon the grass, and, under pretense of sketching, studied 
this picture for an hour. In all the galleries of memory I 
could find nothing resembling it. 

The descriptions of Montserrat must have made a power 
ful impression upon Goethe s mind, since he deliberately 
appropriated the scenery for the fifth act of the Second 
Part of Faust. Goethe was in the steadfast habit of choos 
ing a local and actual habitation for the creations of his 
imagination ; his landscapes were always either painted 
from nature, or copied from the sketch-books of others. 
The marvelous choruses of the fifth act floated through 
my mind as I drew ; the " Pater Ecstaticus " hovered in the 
sunny air, the anchorites chanted from their caves, and the 
mystic voices of the undeveloped child-spirits came between, 
like the breathing of an JEolian harp. I suspect that the 
sanctity of the mountain really depends as much upon its 
extraordinary forms, as upon the traditions which have been 
gradually attached to it. These latter, however, are so 
strange and grotesque, that they could only be accepted 
here. 

The monastery owes its foundation to a miraculous statue 
of the Virgin, sculptured by St. Luke, and brought to Spain 



FROM PERPIGNAN TO MONTSERRAT. 167 

by no less a personage than St. Peter. In the year 880, 
some shepherds who had climbed the mountain in search of 
stray goats heard celestial harmonies among the rocks. This 
phenomenon coming to the ears of Bishop Gondemar, he 
climbed to the spot, and was led by the music to the mouth 
of a cave, which exhaled a delicious perfume. There, en 
shrined in light, lay the sacred statue. Gondemar and his 
priests, chanting as they went, set out for Manresa, the 
seat of the diocese, carrying it with them ; but on reaching 
a certain spot, they found it impossible to move farther. 
The statue obstinately refused to accompany them which 
was taken as a sign that there, and nowhere else, the shrine 
should be built. Just below the monastery there still 
stands a cross, with the inscription, " Here the Holy Image 
declared itself immovable, 880." 

The chapel when built was intrusted to the pious care 
of Fray Juan Garin, whose hermitage is pointed out to you, 
on a peak which seems accessible only to the eagle. The 
Devil, however, interfered, as he always does in such cases. 
Ha first entered into Riquilda, the daughter of the Count of 
Barcelona, and then declared through her mouth that he 
would not quit her body except by the order of Juan Garin, 
the hermit of Montserrat. Riquilda was therefore sent to 
the mountain and given into the hermit s charge. A temp 
tation similar to that of St. Anthony followed, but with ex 
actly the opposite result. In order to conceal his sin, Juan 
Garin cut off Riquilda s head, buried her, and fled. Over 
taken by remorse, he made his way to Rome, confessed him 
self to the Pope, and prayed for a punishment proportioned 
to his crime. He was ordered to become a beast, never 
lifting his face towards heaven, until the hour when God 
Himself should signify his pardon. 

Juan Garin went forth from the Papal presence on his 
hands and knees, crawled back to Montserrat, and there 
lived seven years as a wild animal, eating grass and bark, 
and never lifting his face towards heaven. At the end of 



168 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

this time his body was entirely covered with hair, and it so 
happened that the hunters of the count snared him as a 
strange beast, put a chain around his neck, and took him 
to Barcelona. In the mansion of the Count there was an 
infant only five months old, in its nurse s arms. No sooner 
had the child beheld the supposed animal, than it gave a 
loud cry and exclaimed : " Rise up. Juan Garin ; God has 
pardoned thee ! " Then, to the astonishment of all, the 
beast arose and spoke in a human tongue. He told his 
story, and the Count set out at once with him to the spot 
where Kiquilda was buried. They opened the grave and 
the maiden rose up alive, with only a rosy mark, like a 
thread, around her neck. In commemoration of so many 
miracles, the Count founded the monastery. 

At present, the monks retain but a fragment of their 
former wealth and power. Their number is reduced to 
nineteen, which is barely enough to guard the shrine, per 
form their offices, and prepare and bless the rosaries and 
other articles of devotional traffic. I visited the church, 
courts, and corridors, but took no pains to get sight of the 
miraculous statue. I have already seen both the painting 
and the sculpture of St. Luke, and think him one of the 
worst artists that ever existed. Moreover, the place is fast 
assuming a secular, not to say profane air. There is a 
modern restaurant, with bill of fare and wine list, inside 
the gate, ticket-office for travellers, and a daily omnibus to 
the nearest railway station. Ladies in black mantillas 
lounge about the court-yards, gentlemen smoke on the bal 
conies, and only the brown-faced peasant pilgrims, arriving 
with weary feet, enter the church with an expression of awe 
and of unquestioning faith. The enormous wealth which 
the monastery once possessed the offering of kings 
has disappeared in the vicissitudes of Spanish history, the 
French, in 1811, being the last pillagers. Since then, the 
treasures of gold and jewels have not returned ; for the 
crowns offered to the Virgin by the city of Barcelona and 



FKOM PERPIGNAN TO MQNTSEBBAT. 169 

by a rich American are of gilded silver, set with diamonds 
of paste ! 

I loitered for hours on the narrow terraces around the 
monastery, constantly finding some new and strange com 
bination of forms in the architecture of the mountain. 
The bright silver-gray of the rock contrasted finely with 
the dark masses of eternal box, and there was an endless 
play of light and shade as the sun burst suddenly through 
some unsuspected gap, or hid himself behind one of the 
giant ten-pins of the summit. The world below swam in 
dim red undulations, for the color of the soil showed every 
where through its thin clothing of olive-trees. In hue as 
in form, Montserrat had no fellowship with the surround 
ing region. 

The descent on the northern side is far less picturesque, 
inasmuch as you are perched upon the front seat of an 
omnibus, and have an excellent road a work of great 
cost and labor the whole way. But, on the other hand, 
you skirt the base of a number of the detached pillars and 
pyramids into which the mountain separates, and gain fresh 
pictures of its remarkable structure. There is one isolated 
shaft, visible at a great distance, which I should judge to 
be three hundred feet in height by forty or fifty in diameter. 
At the western end, the outline is less precipitous, and 
here the fields of vine and olive climb mucn higher than 
elsewhere. In an hour from the time of leaving the mon 
astery, we were below the last rampart, rolling through 
dust in the hot valley of the Llobregat, and tracing the 
course of the invisible road across the walls of Montserrat, 
with a feeling of incredulity that we had really descended 
from such a point. 

At the village of Montrisol, on the river, there is a large 
cotton factory. The doors opened as we approached, and 
the workmen came forth, their day s labor done. Men and 
women, boys and girls, in red caps and sandals, or bare- 
beaded and barefooted, they streamed merrily along the 



170 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

road, teeth and eyes flashing as they chatted and sang. 
They were no pale, melancholy factory slaves, but joyous 
and light-hearted children of labor, and, it seemed to me, 
the proper successors of the useless idlers in the monastery 
of Montserrat. Up there, on the mountain, a system, all- 
powerful in the past, was swiftly dying ; here, in the valley, 
was the first life of the only system that can give a future 
to Spain. 



BALEARIC DAYS, 
I. 



As the steamer Mallorca slowly moved out of the har 
bor of Barcelona, I made a rapid inspection of the passen 
gers gathered on deck, and found that I was the only 
foreigner among them. Almost without exception they 
were native Majorcans, returning from trips of business or 
pleasure to the Continent. They spoke no language ex 
cept Spanish and Catalan, and held fast to all the little 
habits and fashions of their insular life. If anything more 
had been needed to show me that I was entering upon un 
trodden territory, it was supplied by the joyous surprise of 
the steward when I gave him a fee. This fact reconciled 
me to my isolation on board, and its attendant awkward 
ness. 

I knew not why I should have chosen to visit the Bale 
aric Islands, unless for the simple reason that they lie so 
much aside from the highways of travel, and are not rep 
resented in the journals and sketch-books of tourists. If 
any one had asked me what I expected to see, I should 
have been obliged to confess my ignorance ; for the few 
dry geographical details which I possessed were like the 
chemical analysis of a liquor wherefrom no one can recon 
struct the taste. The flavor of a land is a thing quite 
apart from its statistics. There is no special guide-book 
for the islands, and the slight notices in the works on 
Spain only betray the haste of the authors to get over a 
field with which they are unacquainted. But this very 
circumstance, for me, had grown into a fascination. One 
gets tired of studying the bill of fare in advance of the 
repast. When the sun and the Spanish coast had set to 
gether behind the placid sea, I went to my berth with the 



174 BY-WAYS OF EUEOPE. 

delightful certainty that the sun of the morrow, and of 
many days thereafter, would rise upon scenes and adven 
tures which could not be anticipated. 

The distance from Barcelona to Palma is about a hun 
dred and forty miles ; so the morning found us skirting 
the southwestern extremity of Majorca a barren coast, 
thrusting low headlands of gray rock into the sea, and hills 
covered with parched and stunted chaparral in the rear. 
The twelfth century, in the shape of a crumbling Moorish 
watch-tower, alone greeted us. As we advanced eastward 
into the Bay of Palma, however, the wild shrubbery 
melted into plantations of olive, solitary houses of fisher 
men nestled in the coves, and finally a village, of those 
soft ochre-tints which are a little brighter than the soil, 
appeared on the slope of a hill. In front, through the 
pale morning mist which still lay upon the sea, I saw the 
cathedral of Palma, looming grand and large beside the 
towers of other churches, and presently, gliding past a 
mile or two of country villas and gardens, we entered the 
crowded harbor. 

Inside the mole there was a multitude of the light crafl 
of the Mediterranean, xebecs, feluccas, speronaras, or 
however they may be termed, with here and there a brig- 
antine which had come from beyond the Pillars of Her 
cules. Our steamer drew into her berth beside the quay, 
and after a very deliberate review by the port physician we 
were allowed to land. I found a porter, Arab in everything 
but costume, and followed him through the water-gate into 
the half-awake city. My destination was the Inn of the 
" Four Nations," where I was cordially received, and after 
wards roundly swindled, by a French host. My first de 
mand was for a native attendant, not so much from any need 
of guide as simply to become more familiar with the people 
through him ; but I was told that no such serviceable spirit 
was to be had in the place. Strangers are so rare that a 
class of people who live upon them has not yet been created. 



BALEARIC DAYS. 175 

" But how shall I find the Palace of the Government, or 
the monastery of San Domingo, or anything else ? " 1 
asked. 

" 0, we will give you directions, so that you cannot miss 
them," said the host ; but he laid before me such a confu 
sion of right turnings and left turnings, ups and downs, 
that I became speedily bewildered, and set forth, deter 
mined to let the spirit in my feet guide me. A labyrinthine 
place is Palma, and my first walks through the city were 
so many games of chance. The streets are very narrow, 
changing their direction, it seemed to me, at every tenth 
step ; and whatever landmark one may select at the start 
is soon shut from view by the high, dark houses. At first, 
I was quite astray, but little by little I regained the lost 
points of the compass. 

After having had the Phoenicians. Greeks, Carthagin 
ians, Romans, Vandals, and Saracens as masters, Majorca 
was first made Spanish by King Jaime of Aragon, the 
Conquistador, in the year 1235. For a century after the 
conquest it was an independent kingdom, and one of its 
kings was slain by the English bowmen at the battle of 
Crecy. The Spanish element has absorbed, but not yet 
entirely obliterated, the characteristics of the earlier races 
who inhabited the island. Were ethnology a more posi 
tively developed science, we might divide and classify this 
confused inheritance of character ; as it is, we vaguely feel 
the presence of something quaint, antique, and unusual, in 
walking the streets of Palma, and mingling with the inhab 
itants. The traces of Moorish occupation are still notice 
able everywhere. Although the Saracenic architecture no 
longer exists in its original forms, its details may be de 
tected in portals, court-yards, and balconies, in almost 
every street. The conquerors endeavored to remodel the 
city, but in doing so they preserved the very spirit which 
they sought to destroy. 

My wanderings, after all, were not wholly undirected. 



17o BY-WAVS OF EUROPE. 

I found an intelligent guide, who was at the same time an 
old acquaintance. The whirligig of time brings about, not 
merely its revenges, but also its compensations and coinci 
dences. Twenty-two years ago, when I was studying Ger 
man as a boy in the old city of Frankfort, guests from the 
south of France came to visit the amiable family with 
whom I was residing. They were M. Laurens, a painter 
and a musical enthusiast, his wife, and Mademoiselle Ro- 
salba, a daughter as fair as her name. Never shall I for- 

t> 

get the curious letter which the artist wrote to the manager 
of the theatre, requesting that Beethoven s Fidelia might 
be given (and it was !) for his own especial benefit, nor the 
triumphant air with which he came to us one day, saying, 
" I have something of most precious," and brought forth, 
out of a dozen protecting envelopes, a single gray hair from 
Beethoven s head. Nor shall I forget how Madame Lau 
rens taught us French plays, and how the fair Rosalba 
declaimed Andre Chenier to redeem her pawns ; but I 
might have forgotten all these things, had it not been for 
an old volume * which turned up at need, and which gave 
me information, at once clear, precise, and attractive, con 
cerning the streets and edifices of Palma. The round, 
solid head, earnest eyes, and abstracted air of the painter 
came forth distinct from the limbo of things overlaid but 
never lost, and went with me through the checkered blaze 
and gloom of the city. 

The monastery of San Domingo, which was the head 
quarters of the Inquisition, was spared by the progressive 
government of Mendizabal, but destroyed by the people. 
Its ruins must have been the most picturesque sight of 
Palma ; but since the visit of M. Laurens they have been 
removed, and their broken vaults and revealed torture- 
chambers are no longer to be seen. There are, however, 

1 Souvenirs (fun Voynge cT Art a f Isle de Majorque. Par J. B. Lau 
rens. 



BALEARIC DAYS. 177 

two or three buildings of more than ordinary interest. The 
Oasa Comistorial, or City Hall, is a massive Palladian pile 
of the sixteenth century, resembling the old palaces of 
Pisa and Florence, except in the circumstance that its 
roof projects at least ten feet beyond the front, resting on 
a massive cornice of carved wood with curious horizontal 
caryatides in the place of brackets. The rich burnt-sienna 
tint of the carvings contrasts finely with the golden-brown 
of the massive marble walls a combination which is 
shown in no other building of the Middle Ages. The 
sunken rosettes, surrounded by raised arabesque borders, 
between the caryatides, are sculptured with such a care 
ful reference to the distance at which they must be seen, 
that they appear as firm and delicate as if near the spec 
tator s eye. 

The Cathedral, founded by the Conquistador, and built 
upon, at intervals, for more than three centuries, is not yet 
finished. It stands upon a natural platform of rock, over 
hanging the sea, where its grand dimensions produce the 
greatest possible effect. In every view of Palma, it towers 
solidly above the houses and bastioned walls, and insists 
upon having the sky as a background for the light Gothic 
pinnacles of its flying buttresses. The government has 
recently undertaken its restoration, and a new front of 
very admirable and harmonious design is about half com 
pleted. The soft amber-colored marble of Majorca is en 
riched in tint by exposure to the air, and even when built 
in large, unrelieved masses retains a bright and cheerful 
character. The new portion of the cathedral, like the old, 
has but little sculpture, except in the portals ; but that 
little is so elegant that a greater profusion of ornament 
would seem out of place. 

Passing from the clear, dazzling day into the interior, one 
finds himself, at first, in total darkness ; and the dimen 
sions of the nave nearly three hundred feet in length 
by one hundred and forty in height are amplified by the 

12 



178 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

gloom. The wind, I was told, came through the windows 
on the sea side with such force as to overturn the chalices, 
and blow out the tapers on the altar, whereupon every 
opening was walled up, except a rose at the end of the 
chancel, and a few slits in the nave, above the side-aisles. 
A sombre twilight, like that of a stormy day, fills the edi 
fice. Here the rustling of stoles and the muttering of 
prayers suggest incantation rather than worship ; the or 
gan has a hollow, sepulchral sound of lamentation ; and 
there is a spirit of mystery and terror in the stale, clammy 
air. The place resembles an ante-chamber of Purgatory 
much more than of Heaven. The mummy of Don Jaime 
II., son of the Conquistador and first king of Majorca, is 
preserved in a sarcophagus of black marble. This is the 
only historic monument in the Cathedral, unless the stran 
ger chooses to study the heraldry of the island families 
from their shields suspended in the chapels. 

AVhen I returned to the " Four Nations" for breakfast, I 
found at the table a gentleman of Palma, who invited me 
to sit down and partake of his meal. For the first time 
this Spanish custom, which really seems picturesque and 
fraternal when coining from shepherds or muleteers in a 
mountain inn, struck me as the hollowest of forms. The 
gentleman knew that I would not accept his invitation, nor 
he mine ; he knew, moreover, that I knew he did not wish 
me to accept it. The phrase, under such conditions, be 
comes a cheat which offends the sacred spirit of hospitality. 
How far the mere form may go was experienced by George 
Sand, who having accepted the use of a carriage most ear 
nestly offered to her by a Majorcan count, found the equip 
age at her door, it is true, but with it a letter expressing 
so much vexation, that she was forced to withdraw her ac 
ceptance of the favor at once, and to apologize for it ! I 
have always found much hospitality among the common 
people of Spain, and I doubt not that the spirit exists in 
all classes ; but it requires some practice to distinguish 



BALEARIC DAYS. 179 

between empty phrase and the courtesy which comes from 
the heart. A people who boast of some special virtue gen 
erally do not possess it. 

My own slight intercourse with the Majorcans was very 
pleasant. On the day of my arrival, I endeavored to pro 
cure a map of the island, but none of the bookstores pos 
sessed the article. It could be found in one house in a 
remote street, and one of the shopmen finally sent a boy 
with me to the very door. When I offered money for the 
service, my guide smiled, shook his head, and ran away. 
The map was more than fifty years old, and drawn in the 
style of two centuries ago, with groups of houses for the 
villages, and long files of conical peaks for the mountains. 
The woman brought it down, yellow and dusty, from a 
dark garret over the shop, and seemed as delighted with 
the sale as if she had received money for useless stock. 
In the streets, the people inspected me curiously, as a 
stranger, but were always ready to go out of their way to 
guide me. The ground-floor being always open, all the 
features of domestic life and of mechanical labor are ex 
posed to the public. The housewives, the masters and 
apprentices, busy as they seem, manage to keep one eye 
disengaged, and no one passes before them without notice. 
Cooking, washing, sewing, tailoring, shoemaking, cooper 
ing, rope and basket making, succeed each other, as one 
passes through the narrow streets. In the afternoon, the 
mechanics frequently come forth and set up their business 
in the open air, where they can now and then greet a coun 
try acquaintance, or a city friend, or sweetheart. 

When I found that the ruins of San Domingo had been 
removed, and a statue of Isabella II. erected on the Ala- 
meda, I began to suspect that the reign of old things was 
over in Majorca. A little observation of the people made 
this fact more evident. The island costume is no longer 
worn by the young men, even in the country ; they have 
passed into a very comical transition state. Old men, 



180 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

mounted on lean asses or mules, still enter the gates of 
Palma, with handkerchiefs tied over their shaven crowns, 
and long gray locks falling on their shoulders, with 
short, loose jackets, shawls around the waist, and wide 
Turkish trousers gathered at the knee. Their gaunt brown 
legs are bare, and their feet protected by rude sandals. 
Tall, large-boned, and stern of face, they hint both of 
Vandal and of Moslem blood. The younger men are of 
inferior stature, and nearly all bow-legged. They have 
turned the flowing trousers into modern pantaloons, the 
legs of which are cut like the old-fashioned gigot sleeve, 
very big and baggy at the top, and tied with a drawing- 
string around the waist. My first impression was, that the 
men had got up in a great hurry, and put on their trousers 
hinder end foremost. It would be difficult to invent a cos 
tume more awkward and ungraceful than this. 

In the city the young girls wear a large triangular piece 
of white or black lace, which covers the hair, and tightly 
incloses the face, being fastened under the chin and the 
ends brought down to a point on the breast. Their al 
mond-shaped eyes are large and fine, but there is very little 
positive beauty among them. Most of the old country 
women are veritable hags, and their appearance is not im 
proved by the broad-brimmed stove-pipe hats which they 
wear. Seated astride on their donkeys, between panniers 
of produce, they come in daily from the plains and moun 
tains, and you encounter them on all the roads leading out 
of Palma. Few of the people speak any other language 
than the Mallorquin, a variety of the Catalan, which, from 
the frequency of the terminations in ch and te, constantly 
suggests the old Provencal literature. The word vitch 
(son) is both Celtic and Slavonic. Some Arabic terms 
are also retained, though fewer, I think, than in Andalusia. 

In the afternoon I walked out into the country. The 
wall, on the land side, which is very high and massive, is 
pierced by five guarded gates. The dry moat, both wide 



BALEARIC DAYS. 181 

and deep, is spanned by wooden bridges, after crossing 
which one has the choice of a dozen highways, all scantily 
shaded with rows of ragged mulberry-trees, glaring white 
in the sun and deep in impalpable dry dust. But the 
sea-breeze blows freshening across the parched land ; shad 
ows of light clouds cool the arid mountains in the distance ; 
the olives roll into silvery undulations ; a palm in full, re 
joicing plumage rustles over your head ; and the huge 
spatulate leaves of a banana in the nearest garden twist 
and split into fringes. There is no languor in the air, no 
sleep in the deluge of sunshine ; the landscape is active 
with signs of work and travel. Wheat, wine, olives, al 
monds, and oranges are produced, not only side by side, 
but from the same fields, and the painfully thorough sys 
tem of cultivation leaves not a rood of the soil unused. 

I had chosen, at random, a road which led me west 
toward the nearest mountains, and in the course of an hour 
I found myself at the entrance of a valley. Solitary farm 
houses, each as massive as the tower of a fortress and of 
the color of sunburnt gold, studded the heights, overlook 
ing the long slopes of almond orchards. I looked about 
for water, in order to make a sketch of the scene ; but the 
bed of the brook was as dry as the highway. The nearest 
house toward the plain had a splendid sentinel palm beside 
its door, a dream of Egypt, which beckoned and drew 
me towards it with a glamour I could not resist. Over the 
wall of the garden the orange-trees lifted their mounds of 
impenetrable foliage ; and the blossoms of the pomegran 
ates, sprinkled against such a background, were like coals 
of fire. The fig-bearing cactus grew about the house in 
clumps twenty feet high, covered with pale-yellow flowers. 
The building was large and roomy, with a court-yard, 
around which ran a shaded gallery. The farmer who was 
issuing therefrom as I approached wore the shawl and 
Turkish trousers of the old generation, while his two sons, 
reaping in the adjoining wheat-fields, were hideous in the 



182 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

modern gigots. Although I was manifestly an intruder, 
the old man greeted me respectfully, and passed on to his 
work. Three boys tended a drove of black hogs in the 
stubble, and some women were so industriously weeding 
and hoeing in the field beyond, that they scarcely stopped 
to cast a glance upon the stranger. There was a grateful 
air of peace, order, and contentment about the place ; no 
one seemed to be suspicious, or even surprised, when I 
seated myself upon a low wall, and watched the laborers. 

The knoll upon which the farm-house stood sloped down 
gently into the broad, rich plain of Pal ma, extending many 
a league to the eastward. Its endless orchards made a 
dim horizon-line, over which rose the solitary double-headed 
mountain of Felaniche, and the tops of some peaks near 
Arta. The city wall was visible on my right, and beyond 
it a bright arc of the Mediterranean. The features of the 
landscape, in fact, were so simple, that I fear I cannot 
make its charm evident to the reader. Looking over the 
nearer fields, I observed two peculiarities of Majorca, upon 
which depends much of the prosperity of the island. The 
wheat is certainly, as it is claimed to be, the finest of any 
Mediterranean land. Its large, perfect grains furnish a 
flour of such fine quality that the whole produce of the 
island is sent to Spain for the pastry and confectionery of 
the cities, while the Majorcans import a cheap, inferior 
kind in its place. Their fortune depends on their absti 
nence from the good things which Providence has given 
them. Their pork is greatly superior to that of Spain, and 
it leaves them in like manner ; their best wines are now 
bought up by speculators and exported for the fabrication 
of sherry ; and their oil, which might be the finest in the 
world, is so injured by imperfect methods of preservation 
that it might pass for the worst. These things, however, 
give them no annoyance. Southern races are sometimes 
indolent, but rarely Epicurean in their habits ; it is the 
Northern man who sighs for his flesh-pots. 



BALEARIC DAYS. 183 

I walked forward between the fields towards another 
road, and came upon a tract which had just been ploughed 
and planted for a new crop. The soil was ridged in a 
labyrinthine pattern, which appeared to have been drawn 
with square and rule. But more remarkable than this was 
the difference of level, so slight that the eye could not pos 
sibly detect it, by which the slender irrigating streams 
were conducted to every square foot of the field, without a 
drop being needlessly wasted. The system is an inherit 
ance from the Moors, who were the best natural engineers 
the world has ever known. Water is scarce in Majorca, 
and thus every stream, spring, rainfall even the dew of 
heaven is utilized. Channels of masonry, often covered 
to prevent evaporation, descend from the mountains, branch 
into narrow veins, and visit every farm on the plain, what 
ever may be its level. Where these are not sufficient, the 
rains are added to the reservoir, or a string of buckets, 
turned by a mule, lifts the water from a well. But it is in 
the economy of distributing water to the fields that the 
most marvelous skill is exhibited. The grade of the sur 
face must not only be preserved, but the subtle, tricksy 
spirit of water so delicately understood and humored that 
the streams shall traverse the greatest amount of soil with 
the least waste or wear. In this respect, the most skillful 
application of science could not surpass the achievements 
of the Majorcan farmers. 

Working my way homeward through the tangled streets, 
I was struck with the universal sound of wailing which 
filled the city. All the tailors, shoemakers, and basket- 
makers, at work in the open air, were singing, rarely in 
measured strains, but with wild, irregular, lamentable cries, 
exactly in the manner of the Arabs. Sometimes the song 
was antiphonal, flung back and forth from the furthest 
visible corners of a street ; and then it became a contest of 
lungs, kept up for an hour at a time. While breakfasting, 
t had heard, as I supposed, a miserere chanted by some 



184 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

procession of monks, and wondered when the doleful strains 
would cease. I now saw that they came from the mouths 
of some cheerful coopers, who were heading barrels a little 
further down the street. The Majorcans still have their 
troubadours, who are hired by languishing lovers to im 
provise strains of longing or reproach under the windows 
of the fair, and perhaps the latter may listen with delight ; 
but I know of no place where the Enraged Musician would 
so soon become insane. The isle is full of noises, and a 
Caliban might say that they hurt not ; for me they mur 
dered sleep, both at midnight and at dawn. 

I had decided to devote my second day to an excursion 
to the mountain paradise of Valldemosa, and sallied forth 
early, to seek the means of conveyance. Up to this time I 
had been worried tortured, I may say, without exagger 
ation by desperate efforts to recover the Spanish tongue, 
which I had not spoken for fourteen years. I still had the 
sense of possessing it, but in some old drawer of memory, 
the lock of which had rusted and would not obey the key. 
Like Mrs. Dombey with her pain, I felt as if there were 
Spanish words somewhere in the room, but I could not 
positively say that I had them a sensation which, as 
everybody knows, is far worse than absolute ignorance. I 
had taken a carriage for Valldemosa, after a long talk with 
the proprietor, a most agreeable fellow, when I suddenly 
stopped, and exclaimed to myself, "You are talking 
Spanish, did you know it?" It was even so : as much of 
the language as I ever knew was suddenly and unaccount 
ably restored to me. On my return to the " Four Nations," 
I was still further surprised to find myself repeating songs, 
without the failure of a line or word, which I had learned 
from a Mexican as a school-boy, and had not thought of 
for twenty years. The unused drawer had somehow been 
unlocked or broken open while I slept. 

Valldemosa is about twelve miles north of Palma, in the 
heart of the only mountain-chain of the island, which forms 



BALEARIC DAYS. 185 

its western, or rather northwestern coast. The average 
altitude of these mountains will not exceed three thousand 
feet ; but the broken, abrupt character of their outlines, and 
the naked glare of their immense precipitous walls, give 
them that intrinsic grandeur which does not depend on 
measurement. In their geological formation they resemble 
the Pyrenees ; the rocks are of that palombino, or dove- 
colored limestone, so common in Sicily and the Grecian 
islands pale bluish gray, taking a soft orange tint on the 
faces most exposed to the weather. Rising directly from 
the sea on the west, they cease almost as suddenly on the 
land side, leaving all the central portion of the island a 
plain, slightly inclined toward the southeast, where occa 
sional peaks or irregular groups of hills interrupt its mo 
notony. 

In due time my team made its appearance an omni 
bus of basket-work, with a canvas cover, drawn by two 
horses. It had space enough for twelve persons, yet was 
the smallest vehicle I could discover. There appears to be 
nothing between it and the two-wheeled cart of the peas 
ant, which, on a pinch, carries six or eight. For an hour 
and a half we traversed the teeming plain, between stacks 
of wheat worthy to be laid on the altar at Eleusis, carob 
trees with their dark, varnished foliage, almond-orchards 
bending under the weight of their green nuts, and the 
country houses with their garden clumps of orange, cactus, 
and palm. As we drew near the base of the mountains, 
olive-trees of great size and luxuriance covered the earth 
with a fine sprinkle of shade. Their gnarled and knotted 
trunks, a thousand years old, were frequently split into 
three or four distinct and separate trees, which in the pro 
cess assumed forms so marvelously human in their distor 
tion, that I could scarcely believe them to be accidental. 
Dore never drew anything so weird and grotesque. Here 
were two club-headed individuals fighting, with interlocked 
knees, convulsed shoulders, and fists full of each other s 



186 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

hair ; yonder a bully was threatening attack, and three 
cowards appeared to be running away from him with such 
speed that they were tumbling over one another s heels. 
In one place a horrible dragon was devouring a squirming, 
shapeless animal ; in another, a drunken man, with whirl 
ing arms and tangled feet, was pitching forward upon his 
face. The living wood in Dante was tame beside these 

o 

astonishing trees. 

We now entered a wild ravine, where, nevertheless, the 
mountain-sides, sheer and savage as they were, had suc 
cumbed to the rule of man, and nourished an olive or a 
carob tree on every corner of earth between the rocks. 
The road was built along the edge of the deep, dry bed of 
a winter stream, so narrow that a single arch carried it 
from side to side, as the windings of the glen compelled. 
After climbinsr thus for a mile in the shadows of threaten- 

o 

ing masses of rock, an amphitheatre of gardens, enframed 
by the spurs of two grand, arid mountains, opened before 
us. The bed of the valley was filled with vines and or 
chards, beyond which rose long terraces, dark with orange 
and citron trees, obelisks of cypress and magnificent groups 
of palm, with the long white front and shaded balconies 
of a hacienda between. Far up, on a higher plateau be 
tween the peaks I saw the church-tower of Valldemosa. 
The sides of the mountains were terraced with almost in 
credible labor, walls massive as the rock itself being raised 
to a height of thirty feet, to gain a shelf of soil two or 
three yards in breadth. Where the olive and the carob 
ceased, box and ilex took possession of the inaccessible 
points, carrying up the long waves of vegetation until their 
foam-sprinkles of silver-gray faded out among the highest 
clefts. The natural channels of the rock were straightened 
and made to converge at the base, so that not a wandering 
cloud could bathe the wild growths of the summit without 
being caught and hurried into some tank below. The 
wilderness was forced, by pure toil, to become a Paradise ; 



BALEARIC DAYS. 187 

nnd each stubborn feature, which toil could not subdue, 
now takes its place as a contrast and an ornament in the 
picture. Verily, there is nothing in all Italy so beautiful 
as Valldemosa ! 

Lest I should be thought extravagant in my delight, let 
me give you some words of George Sand, which I have 
since read. " I have never seen," she says, " anything so 
bright, and at the same time so melancholy, as these per 
spectives where the ilex, the carob, pine, olive, poplar, and 
cypress mingle their various hues in the hollows of the 
mountain abysses of verdure, where the torrent precipi 
tates its course under mounds of sumptous richness and 

an inimitable grace While you hear the sound 

of the sea on the northern coast, you perceive it only as a 
faint shining line beyond the sinking mountains and the 
great plain which is unrolled to the southward a sub 
lime picture, framed in the foreground by dark rocks cov 
ered with pines ; in the middle distance by mountains of 
boldest outline, fringed with superb trees ; and beyond 
these by rounded hills which the setting sun gilds with 
burning colors, where the eye distinguishes, a league away, 
the microscopic profile of trees, fine as the antennae of 
butterflies, black and clear as pen-drawings of India ink on 
a ground of sparkling gold. It is one of those landscapes 
which oppress you because they leave nothing to be desired, 
nothing to be imagined. Nature has here created that 
which the poet and the painter behold in their dreams. 
An immense ensemble, infinite details, inexhaustible variety, 
blended forms, sharp contours, dim, vanishing depths 
all are present, and art can suggest nothing further. 
Majorca is one of the most beautiful countries of the world 
for the painter, and one of the least known. It is a green 
Helvetia under the sky of Calabria, with the solemnity and 
silence of the Orient." 

The village of Valldemosa is a picturesque, rambling 
place, brown with age, and buried in the foliage of fig and 



138 BY-WAYS OF EUEOPE. 

orange trees. The highest part of the narrow plateau 
where it stands is crowned by the church and monastery 
of the Trappists (Cartusa), now deserted. My coachman 
drove under the open roof of a venta, and began to unhar 
ness his horses. The family, who were dining at a table so 
low that they appeared to be sitting on the floor, gave me 
the customary invitation to join them, and when I asked 
for a glass of wine brought me one which held nearly a 
quart. I could not long turn my back on the bright, won 
derful landscape without ; so, taking books and colors, I 
entered the lonely cloisters of the monastery. Followed 
first by one small boy, I had a retinue of at least fifteen 
children before I had completed the tour of the church, 
court-yard, and the long drawn, shady corridors of the 
silent monks ; and when I took my seat on the stones at 
the foot of the tower, with the very scene described by 
George Sand before my eyes, a number of older persons 
added themselves to the group. A woman brought me a 
chair, and the children then planted themselves in a dense 
row before me, while I attempted to sketch under such 
difficulties as I had never known before. Precisely be 
cause I am no artist, it makes me nervous to be watched 
while drawing ; and the remarks of the young men on this 
occasion were not calculated to give me courage. 

When I had roughly mapped out the sky with its few 
floating clouds, some one exclaimed, " He has finished the 
mountains, there they are ! " and they all crowded around 
me, saying, " Yes, there are the mountains ! " While I 
was really engaged upon the mountains, there was a violent 
discussion as to what they might be ; and I don t know how 
long it would have lasted, had I not turned to some 
cypresses nearer the foreground. Then a young man cried 
out : " O, that s a cypress ! I wonder if he will make them 
all, how many are there ? One, two, three, four, five, 
yes, he makes five ! " There was an immediate rush, shut 
ting out earth and heaven from my sight, and they all 



BALEARIC DAYS. 189 

cried in chorus, "One, two, three, four, five yes, he has 
made five!" 

" Cavaliers and ladies," I said, with solemn politeness, 
" have the goodness not to stand before me." 

" To be sure ! Santa Maria ! How do you think he can 
see ? " yelled an old woman, and the children were hustled 
away. But I thereby won the ill-will of those garlic- 
breathing and scratching imps, for very soon a shower of 
water-drops fell upon my paper. Next a stick, thrown 
from an upper window, dropped on my head, and more 
than once my elbow was intentionally jogged from behind. 
The older people scolded and threatened, but young 
Majorca was evidently against me. I therefore made 
haste to finish my impotent mimicry of air and light, and 
get away from the curious crowd. 

Behind the village there is a gleam of the sea, near, yet 
at an unknown depth. As I threaded the walled lanes 
seeking some point of view, a number of lusty young fel 
lows, mounted on unsaddled mules, passed me with a cour 
teous greeting. On one side rose a grand pile of rock, 
covered with ilex-trees a bit of scenery so admirable, 
that I fell into a new temptation. I climbed a little knoll 
and looked around me. Far and near no children were to 
be seen ; the portico of an unfinished house offered both 
shade and seclusion. I concealed myself behind a pillar, 
and went to work. For half an hour I was happy ; then a 
round black head popped up over a garden wall, a small 
brown form crept towards me, beckoned, and presently a 
new multitude had assembled. The noise they made pro 
voked a sound of cursing from the interior of a stable ad 
joining the house. They only made a louder tumult in 
answer ; the voice became more threatening, and at the 
end of five minutes the door burst open. An old man, 
with wrath flashing from his eyes, came forth. The chil 
dren took to their heels ; I greeted the new-comer politely, 
but he hardly returned the salutation. He was a very 






190 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






fountain of curses, and now hurled stones with them after 
the fugitives. When they had all disappeared behind the 
walls, he went back to his den, grumbling and muttering. 
It was not five minutes, however, before the children were 
back again, as noisy as before ; so, at the first thunder from 
the stable, I shut up my book, and returned to the inn. 

While the horses were being harnessed, I tried to talk 
with an old native, who wore the island costume, and was 
as grim and grizzly as Ossawatomie Brown. A party of 
country people from the plains, who seemed to have come 
up to Valldemosa on a pleasure trip, clambered into a two- 
wheeled cart drawn by one mule, and drove away. My 
old friend gave me the distances of various places, the 
state of the roads, and the quality of the wine ; but he 
seemed to have no conception of the world outside of the 
island. Indeed, to a native of the village, whose fortune 
has simply placed him beyond the reach of want, what is 
the rest of the world ? Around and before him spreads 
one of its loveliest pictures ; he breathes its purest air ; 
and he may enjoy its best luxuries, if he heeds or knows 
how to use them. 

Up to this day the proper spice and flavor had been 
wanting. Palma had only interested me, but in Vallde 
mosa I found the inspiration, the heat and play of vivid, 
keen sensation, which one (often somewhat unreasonably) 
expects from a new land. As my carriage descended, 
winding around the sides of the magnificent mountain 
amphitheatre, in the alternate shadows of palm and ilex, 
pine and olive, I looked back, clinging to every marvelous 
picture, and saying to myself, over again, " I have not 
come hither in vain." When the last shattered gate of 
rock closed behind me, and the wood of insane olive- 
trunks was passed, with what other eyes I looked upon the 
rich orchard-plain ! It had now become a part of one 
superb whole ; as the background of my mountain view, it 
had caught a new glory, and still wore the bloom of the ii 
visible sea. 



BALEARIC DAYS. 191 

In the evening I reached the " Four Nations," where I 
was needlessly invited to dinner by certain strangers, and 
dined alone, on meats cooked in rancid oil. When the 
cook had dished the last course, he came into a room ad 
joining the dining apartment, sat down to a piano in his 
white cap, and played loud, long, and badly. The landlord 
had papered this room with illustrations from all the period 
icals of Europe : dancing-girls pointed their toes under 
cardinals hats, and bulls were baited before the shrines of 
saints. Mixed with the wood-cuts were the landlord s own 
artistic productions, wonderful to behold. All the house 
was proud of this room, and with reason ; for there is as 
suredly no other room like it in the world. A notice in 
four languages, written with extraordinary flourishes, an 
nounced in the English division that travellers will find 
" confortation and modest prices." The former advantage, 
I discovered, consisted in the art of the landlord, the music 
and oil of the cook, and the attendance of a servant so 
distant that it was easier to serve myself than seek him ; 
the latter may have been "modest" for Palma, but in any 
other place they would have been considered brazenly im 
pertinent. I should therefore advise travellers to try the 
" Three Pigeons," in the same street, rather than the 
" Four Nations." 

The next day, under the guidance of my old friend, M. 
Laurens, I wandered for several hours through the streets? 
peeping into court-yards, looking over garden-walls, or 
idling under the trees of the Alameda. There are no 
pleasant suburban places of resort, such as are to be found 
in all other Spanish cities ; the country commences on the 
other side of the moat. Three small cafes exist, but can 
not be said to flourish, for I never saw more than one 
table occupied. A theatre has been built, but is only open 
during the winter, of course. Some placards on the walls, 
however, announced that the national (that is, Majorcan) 
diversion of baiting bulls with dogs would be given in a 
few days. 



192 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






The noblesse appear to be even haughtier than in Spain, 
perhaps on account of their greater poverty ; and much 
more of the feudal spirit lingers among them, and gives 
character to society, than on the main-land. Each family 
has still a crowd of retainers, who perform a certain amount 
of service on the estates, and are thenceforth entitled to 
support. This custom is the reverse of profitable ; but it 
keeps up an air of lordship, and is therefore retained. 
Late in the afternoon, when the new portion of the Ala- 
meda is in shadow, and swept by a delicious breeze from 
the sea, it begins to be frequented by the people ; but I 
noticed that very few of the upper class made their ap 
pearance. So grave and sombre are these latter, that one 
would fancy them descended from the conquered Moors, 
rather than the Spanish conquerors. 

M. Laurens is of the opinion that the architecture of 
Palma cannot be ascribed to an earlier period than the 
beginning of the sixteenth century. I am satisfied, how 
ever, either that many fragments of Moorish sculpture 
must have been used in the erection of the older building?, 
or that certain peculiarities of Moorish art have been 
closely imitated. For instance, that Moorish combination 
of vast, heavy masses of masonry with the lightest and 
airiest style of ornament, which the Gothic sometimes at 
tempts, but never with the same success, is here found at 
every step. I will borrow M. Laurens words, descriptive 
of the superior class of edifices, both because I can find no 
better of my own, and because this very characteristic has 
been noticed by him. " Above the ground-floor," he says, 
" there is only one story and a low garret. The entrance 
is a semi-circular portal without ornament ; but the num 
ber and dimensions of the stones, disposed in long radii, 
give it a stately aspect. The grand halls of the main story 
are lighted by windows divided by excessively slender 
columns, which are entirely Arabic in appearance. This 
character is so pronounced, that I was obliged to examine 



BALEARIC DAYS. 193 

more than twenty houses constructed in the same manner, 
and to study all the details of their construction, in order 
to assure myself that the windows had not really been 
taken from those fairy Moresque palaces, of which the Al- 
hambra is the only remaining specimen. Except in Ma 
jorca, I have nowhere seen columns which, with a height 
of six feet, have a diameter of only three inches. The 
fine grain of the marble of which they are made, as well 
as the delicacy of the capitals, led me to suppose them to 
be of Saracenic origin." 

I was more impressed by the Lonja, or Exchange, than 
any other building in Palma. It dates from the first half 
of the fifteenth century, when the kings of the island had 
built up a flourishing commerce, and expected to rival 
Genoa and Venice. Its walls, once crowded with merchants 
and seamen, are now only opened for the Carnival balls 
and other festivals sanctioned by religion. It is a square 
edifice, with light Gothic towers at the corners, displaying 
little ornamental sculpture, but nevertheless a taste and 
symmetry, in all its details, which are very rare in Spanish 
architecture. The interior is a single vast hall, with a 
groined roof, resting on six pillars of exquisite beauty. 
They are sixty feet high, and fluted spirally from top to 
bottom, like a twisted cord, with a diameter of not more 
than two feet and a half. It is astonishing how the airy 
lightness and grace of these pillars relieve the immense 
mass of masonry, spare the bare walls the necessity of 
ornament, and make the ponderous roof light as a tent. 
There is here the trace of a law of which our modern ar 
chitects seem to be ignorant. Large masses of masonry 
are always oppressive in their effect ; they suggest pain and 
labor, and the Saracens, even more than the Greeks, seem 
to have discovered the necessity of introducing a sportive, 
fanciful element, which shall express the delight of the 
workman in his work. 

In the afternoon, I sallied forth from the western coast- 

13 



194 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

gate, and found there, sloping to the shore, a village inhab 
ited apparently by sailors and fishermen. The houses 
were of one story, flat-roofed, and brilliantly whitewashed. 
Against the blue background of the sea, with here and 
there the huge fronds of a palm rising from among them, 
they made a truly African picture. On the brown ridge 
above the village were fourteen huge windmills, nearly all 
in motion. I found a road leading along the brink of the 
overhanging cliffs, toward the castle of Belver, whose brown 
mediaeval turrets rose against a gathering thunder-cloud. 
This fortress, built as a palace for the kings of Majorca 
immediately after the expulsion of the Moors, is now a 
prison. It has a superb situation, on the summit of a conical 
hill, covered with umbrella-pines. In one of its round, 
massive towers, Arago was imprisoned for two months in 
1808. He was at the time employed in measuring an arc 
of the meridian, when news of Napoleon s violent meas 
ures in Spain reached Majorca. The ignorant populace 
immediately suspected the astronomer of being a spy and 
political agent, and would have lynched him at once. 
Warned by a friend, he disguised himself as a sailor, es 
caped on board a boat in the harbor, and was then placed 
in Belver by the authorities, in order to save his life. He 
afterwards succeeded in reaching Algiers, where he was 
seized by order of the Bey, and made to work as a slave. 
Few men of science have known so much of the romance 
of Kfe. 

I had a long walk to Belver, but I was rewarded by a 
grand view of the Bay of Palma, the city and all the south 
ern extremity of the island. I endeavored to get into the 
fields, to seek other points of view ; but they were sur 
rounded by such lofty walls that I fancied the owners of 
the soil could only get at them by scaling-ladders. The 
grain and trees on either side of the road were hoary with 
dust, and the soil, of the hue of burnt chalk, seemed never 
to have known moisture. But while I loitered on the cliffs 



BALEARIC DAYS. 195 

the cloud in the west had risen and spread ; a cold wind 
blew over the hills, and the high gray peaks behind Yall- 
demosa disappeared, one by one, in a veil of rain. A 
rough tartana, which performed the service of an omnibus, 
passed me returning to the city, and the driver, having no 
passengers, invited me to ride. " What is your fare ? " 
I asked. " Whatever people choose to give," said he, 
which was reasonable enough ; and I thus reached the 
" Four Nations " in time to avoid a deluge. 

The Majorcans are fond of claiming their island as the 
birthplace of Hannibal. There are some remains supposed 
to be Carthaginian near the town of Alcudia, but, singularly 
enough, not a fragment to tell of the Roman domination, 
although their Balearis Major must have been then, as now, 
a rich and important possession. The Saracens, rather 
than the Vandals, have been the spoilers of ancient art. 
Their religious detestation of sculpture was at the bottom 
of this destruction. The Christians could consecrate the 
old temple to a new service, and give the names of saints 
to the statues of the gods ; but to the Moslem every repre 
sentation of the human form was worse than blasphemy. 
For this reason, the symbols of the most ancient faith, mas 
sive and unintelligible, have outlived the monuments of 
those which followed. 

In a forest of ancient oaks near the village of Arta, 
there still exist a number of Cyclopean constructions, the 
character of which is as uncertain as the date of their erec 
tion. They are cones of huge, irregular blocks, the jambs 
and lintels of the entrances being of single stones. In a 
few the opening is at the top, with rude projections resem 
bling a staircase to aid in the descent. Cinerary urns have 
been found in some of them, yet they do not appear to 
have been originally constructed as tombs. The Romans 
may have afterwards turned them to that service. In the 
vicinity there are the remains of a Druid circle, of large 
upright monoliths. These singular structures were formerly 



196 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

much more numerous, the people (who call them " the al 
tars of the Gentiles ") having destroyed a great many in 
building the village and the neighboring farm-houses. 
I heard a oreat deal about a cavern on the eastern coast 

CT 

of the island, beyond Arta. It is called the Hermit s Cave, 
and the people of Palma consider it the principal thing to 
be seen in all Majorca. Their descriptions of the place, 
however, did not inspire me with any very lively desire to 
undertake a two days journey for the purpose of crawling 
on the belly through a long hole, and then descending a 
shaky rope-ladder for a hundred feet or more. When one 
has performed these feats, they said, he finds himself in an 
immense hall, supported by stalactitic pillars, the marvels 
of which cannot be described. Had the scenery of the 
eastern part of the island been more attractive, I should 
have gone as far as Arta ; but I wished to meet the steamer 
Minorca at Alcudia, and there were but two days remain 
ing. 



BALEARIC DAYS. 
II. 



THE same spacious omnibus and span of dun-colored 
ponies which had taken me to Valldemosa came to carry 
me across the island. As there is an excellent highway, 
and the distance to Alcudia is not more than ten leagues, 
I could easily have made the journey in a day ; but I pur 
posely divided it, in order to secure a quiet, unhurried en 
joyment of the .scenery of the interior. It had rained 
violently all night, and the morning of my departure from 
Palma was cold and overcast. The coachman informed 
me that four months had elapsed since a drop of rain had 
fallen, and that for two years past the island had suffered 
from drought. I therefore wrapped myself in my cloak, 
contented with the raw air and threatening sky, since the 
dry acequias would now flow with new streams, and the 
empty tanks of the farmers be filled. 

It was like a rainy day in the tropics. There was a gray 
veil all over the sky, deepening into blackness where the 
mountains drew down the showers. The soil, yesterday 
as dry as a cinder, already looked soggy and drenched, 
and in place of white, impalpable dust, puddles of water 
covered the road. For the first two leagues we drove 
over a dead level, seeing nothing but fig, olive, and almond 
trees, with an occasional palm or cactus, fading out of sight 
in the rain. Majorca is in reality the orchard of the Mecl- 
iteranean. All its accessible surface is not only covered 
with fruit-trees, but the fruit is of the most exquisite qual 
ity. The apricots are not dry and insipid, but full of 
juice, and with a flavor as perfect as that of a peach. The 
oranges and figs seemed to me the finest I had ever tasted ; 
even the date-palm matures its fruit, and the banana grows 



200 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

in the same garden with the cherry and apple. The valley 
of Seller, the only port on the western side of the moun 
tains, was described to me as one unbroken orchard of 
superb orange-trees, a league or two in length. The diffi 
culty of transportation has hitherto robbed the people of 
the profits of their production, and a new prosperity has 
come with the recent improvement of their roads. Within 
a league of Palma an entire village has been built within 
the last five years ; and most of the older towns are in 
rapid process of enlargement. 

After the second league, the country became undulating, 
the trees were loftier and more luxuriant, and woods of 
picturesque Italian pine covered the rocky crests of the 
hills. The mountains on the left assumed very bold and 
violent forms, rising through the dim atmosphere like so 
many detached towers and fortresses. There were two 
dominant peaks, which in the sheer escarpment of their 
summits resembled the crags of Konigstein and Lilienstein 
in Saxony. They were the Torrella and the Puig (Peak) 
Major grand, naked, almost inaccessible mountains, 
which shed the rain like a roof. The water-courses which 
came down from them were no longer dry hollows, but 
filled to the brim with swift, roaring, turbid floods. These 
peaks appeared to be detached nearly to the base, and 
between their steep abutments the mouths of dim, folding 
gorges gave promise of rare and original scenery within 
their recesses. 

We passed Santa Maria, a beautiful little village of two 
streets, at the intersection of which rises a fine square 
belfry, connected with the buildings of a defunct monas 
tery. The picture was so pleasant that I brought its out 
lines away with me. In spite of the rain, the people were 
at work in the fields, turning the red soil about the roots 
of the olive-trees. The flowing trousers were no longer to 
be seen ; even the old men here wore the gigot. Others, 
with the words Peon caminero on their caps, were breaking 



BALEARIC DAYS. 201 

stones by the roadside. I received a friendly Bon d? ! 
from each and all. Both robbery and beggary are un 
known in Majorca ; they have no place in a land of so 
much material order and cheerful industry. 

Beyond Santa Maria the road again became quite level, 
and the courses of the streams pointed to the northern 
shore. The fruit-trees temporarily gave place to vineyards 
so luxuriant that the shoots, unsupported by -stake or trel 
lis, threw their tendrils around each other, and hid the soil 
under a deluge of green. The wine of Benisalem (Arabic 
beni-salaam, " the children of peace ") is considered the 
best on the island. It is a fiery, golden-brown vintage, 
resembling ripe old Malaga in flavor. 

We were within a league of Inca, my destination, 
when the rain, which had already blotted out the moun 
tains, began to drive over the plain. A fine spray beat 
through the canvas cover of the omnibus, condemning me 
to a blind, silent, and cheerless half-hour of travel. Then, 
between garden-walls, over which the lemon-trees hung 
great boughs breaking with fruit, and under clumps of 
rustling and dripping palms, I entered Inca. My equipage 
drew up before the door of a new fonda in a narrow old 
street. There were billiards and coffee on the ground- 
floor ; over them a long hall, out of which all the doors and 
staircases issued, served as a dining-room. The floors were 
tiled, the walls white-washed and decorated with the litho 
graphed histories of Mazeppa and Hernan Cortez, and the 
heavy pine joists of the ceiling were fresh and unpainted. 
There was an inconsiderate waste of space in the disposi 
tion of the rooms and passages which was pleasant to be 
hold. Contrary to the usual habit of travellers, I ventured 
into the kitchen, and found it as it ought to be the 
most cheerful and attractive part of the house. The land 
lord brought a glass of the wine of Benisalem to stay my 
hunger ; but I was not obliged to wait overlong for the 
excellent meal of eggs, kid with pepper-sauce, and an ex- 



202 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

quisite dish of lobster stewed with leeks and tomatoes, 
which I tasted for the first time. 

Towards evening the rain subsided, and I went forth 
to view the place, finding a picture at every turn. First, 
a group of boys burning shavings before a church-door ; 
then a gable embowered with one enormous grape-vine, 
and touched with sunshine, while beneath, in the gloom of 
a large arch,--the family ate their supper ; then a guitar- 
player in the door of a barber s shop, with a group around 
him, or a company of women, filling their jars at a foun 
tain. The town is built upon an irregular hill, overlooking 
the finest orchards of Majorca. The clusters of palm- 
trees which spring from its topmost gardens are far more 
beautiful than its church-towers. Nothing can be more 
picturesque than the narrow valleys on either side, which 
slope sufficiently to bring out in sumptuous contrast the 
foliage of the terraced gardens. The people looked at me 
curiously, but with no unfriendly air, as I followed the 
winding streets into the country, or loitered through some 
country lane back into the town. Only two persons spoke 
to me the letter-carrier, and a boy who was trying to 
knock down swallows with a long pole. The latter made 
a remark which I did not understand, but it was evidently 
witty, for we both laughed. The workmen at their avoca 
tions sang with all their force, and very dismally. It was 
difficult to say which were the more insignificant the 
melodies or the words of their songs. One specimen of 
the latter will suffice to give an idea of both : 

" On Sundays the young girls you may view, 
(Since they nothing better have then to do), 
Watering their pots of carnations sweet: 
Saying, Drink, my dears, for you cannot eat! " 

When I returned to the fonda, the landlord took me into 
a part of his house which was built like a tower above the 
level of the city roofs. A thunderous mass of clouds still 
hung over the Puig Major, but between its rifts the low 



BALEARIC DAYS. 203 

sun cast long lines of brassy radiance over the wide land 
scape. Westward rose the torn and shattered mountains ; 
eastward the great orchard-plain stretched away into pur 
ple dimness, only broken by the chapel-crowned peak of 
Santa Maddalena, near at hand, and the signal mountain 
of Felaniche in the distance. Inca, under m y feet, re 
sounded with wailing noises, which, nevertheless, expressed 
the cheerfulness and content of the inhabitants. Through 
the lanes dividing the rich vegetation, the laborers were 
flocking homeward from their fields ; rude tartanas rat 
tled along the broad white highway ; and the chimes of 
vesper presently floated over the scene in slow, soothing 
vibrations. " You see how beautiful the country is ! " said 
the landlord ; " I suppose there is nothing finer in the 
world. You will think so too, when you have been to the 
cemetery, and have seen the new monument. It is won 
derful ! A basket full of flowers, and if they were not all 
white, you would take them to be real. They say it cost 
an immense amount of money." 

When I asked forjuevos (eggs) for my supper, the land 
lady shook her head, until somebody suggested joaos ! with 
a sound like the whistling of wind through a keyhole. 
They were then speedily forthcoming, with another dish of 
the lobster and leeks, and a bottle of excellent wine. I 
was kept awake for a long time, that night, by the thrum 
ming of guitars and the click of billiard balls in the cafe 
below ; and when sleep finally came, it was suddenly broken 
by the bursting open of the doors and windows of my room. 
The house seemed to rock under the stress of the hurri 
cane ; the lightning played through the torrents of rain in 
rapid flashes of transparent silver, accompanied with peals 
like the crashing down of all the Puigs in the mountain- 
chain. But at sunrise, when I went upon the roof, I found 
the island sparkling under the purest of morning skies, 
every leaf washed, every outline of the landscape recut, 
and all its colors bright as if newly dyed. A bracing 



204 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

north wind blew over the fields, and there was an expres 
sion of joy in the very dance of the boughs and the waving 
of the vines. 

When we set out for Alcudia, the coachman first drove 
to a fountain at the foot of the hill, and watered his horses. 
There was a throng about the place, old women with 
huge earthen amphorae, young girls with jars which they 
carried on the hip, donkeys laden with casks, and children 
carrying all sorts of smaller vessels. The water is brought 
from the mountains to this fountain, which never fails in 
its supply. It is shaded by grand old plane and carob 
trees, which throw a network of light and gloom over the 
great stone tanks and the picturesque moving crowds. 
Rising out of the glen where it stands, I saw the mountains 
bare in the morning sun, every crevice and jag of their 
rocky fronts painted with a pre-Raphaelite pencil. Past 
the foot of the solitary mountain of Santa Maddalena ran 
our road, and then northward over a second plain, even 
richer than that of Palma. 

The olive and almond trees by the roadside had been 
washed clean of dust, but they hissed in the breeze as dryly 
as if they had never known rain. The very colors of the 
olive, ilex, and myrtle express aridity. Their dry leaves 
seem to repel moisture, even as the mellow, sappy green of 
the North seems to attract it. But their soft grays relieve 
the keen, strong tints of soil, sea, and sky, and we could ill 
spare them from these landcapes. As accessories to sun- 
browned houses, or masses of ruined architecture, they are 
invaluable. They belong naturally to an atmosphere of age 
and repose, while fresh turf and deciduous trees perpetually 
reproduce the youth of Nature. Something of Attica al 
ways comes to me with the olive, something of Tusculum 
and the Sabine Farm with the ilex. The box, I know not 
why, suggests the Euphrates ; and the myrtle in bloom, the 
Garden of Eden. 

While these thoughts were passing through my mind, 



BALEARIC DAYS. 205 

the road slowly fell to the northward ; and I beheld in the 
distance fields of a green so dazzling that the hackneyed 
term " emerald " seems much too dull to express it. It 
positively burned in the sun, drawing into itself the lustre 
of the sky, the distant sea, and the leagues of glittering 
foliage. Over it rose, as a completer foil, the gray moun 
tains of the peninsula dividing the bays of Pollenza and 
Alcudia. I was at a loss to guess what plant could give 
such an indescribable color ; and not until we were within 
a stone s throw did I recognize the leaves of hemp. An 
open, marshy plain, entirely bare of trees, bordered the bay 
at this point. The splendid orchards ceased ; the road 
crossed some low hills overgrown with ilex and pine, a 
turbid, roaring stream, with poplars on its banks ; and then 
a glimmer of the sea on either hand showed that we had 
reached the peninsula. There were Moorish atalayas, or 
watch-towers, on the summits nearest the sea, and a large 
ruined fortress of the Middle Ages on a hill inland. 
Alcudia, with its yellow walls, its cypress and palm trees, 
now appeared at the foot of the barren heights, oriental in 
every feature. It was a picture from the Syrian coast, 
needing only the old Majorcun costume for the laborers in 
the fields to be perfect. 

Contrasted with those parts of the island which I had 
seen, the country appeared singularly lonely and deserted. 
Few persons met us on the road, and we passed none on 
their way to the town. Grass grew on the huge walls of 
defense, the stones were slipping from the arch of the gate 
way, and we passed into a silent street without seeing a liv 
ing thing. My coachman stopped before a mean-looking 
house, with no sign or other indication of its character, and 
informed me that it was the only fonda in the place. A 
woman who came to the door confirmed this statement, 
modestly adding, " We are not very fine, but we will give 
you what we have." A narrow room on the ground-floor 
was at once entrance-hall, dining-room, and kitchen ; it 



206 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

contained one table, three chairs, much dirt, and very nim 
ble insects. The inmates were two women, and a small 
dog with a bell on his neck, which, whenever he scratched 
his head with his hind foot, rang a peal of alarm through 
the house. Feeling the need of consolation, I summoned 
a boy from the street, and gave him some money to bring 
me cigars from the estanco ; but the hostess, taking the 
coin, cried out in great excitement : " Don t send that ! 
Holy Mother, don t send that ! You ll lose a chavo on 
it ! " The coachman burst into a laugh, repeating, " Lose 
a cltavo ! " which is about the eighth part of a cent ; but 
the woman was so horrified at the idea that I gave the boy 
another coin. 

"While the eggs and tough scraps of beef destined for 
my meal were simmering in pans of strong oil, the hostess 
conducted me into a room above, which contained a large 
and very ancient bed, five blue chests, and twenty-three 
pictures of saints. " There ! " she exclaimed, with a wave 
of the arm and a look of triumph, " my own room, but you 
shall have it ! We may not be very fine, but we give what 
we have." Whatever my thoughts may have been, it was 
quite impossible to avoid expressing my entire satisfaction. 

I took my books, went outside the walls to a tower which 
I had noticed on the ridge, and there found the very view 
of the town, the mountains, and the bay, which .a stranger 
would desire to take home with him. In the full noonday 
sunshine, there was scarcely shadow enough to relieve the 
clear golden tints of the landscape ; but the place was en 
tirely deserted, which was a better fortune than I enjoyed 
at Valldemosa. Three peasants w r ere reaping wheat in a 
little field behind the tower ; now and then a donkey and 
rider jogged slowly along the distant highway ; but no one 
seemed to notice the mysterious stranger. I had an undis 
turbed dream of two hours, for the forms before me, half 
borrowed from my memories of Oriental life, half drawn 
from those landscapes which rise in our minds as we read 



BALEARIC DAYS. 207 

the stories of the Middle Ages, satisfied both the eye and 
the fancy. Some scenes suggest the sound of a flute and 
Theocritan idyls ; others, horns and trumpets, and frag 
ments of epic poetry ; but here the only accompaniment 
was cymbals, the only poems suggested were "Fatima" 
and " Rudel to the Lady of Tripoli." 

In the afternoon I walked around the city walls, climbed 
upon them, visited the deserted monastery of San Diego, 
and wandered at will through its picturesque ruins. The 
place is surrounded by double walls of great strength, 
divided by a moat cut out of the solid rock. The caper- 
plant, the ivy, and the wild fig-tree have taken possession 
of the parapet and the rifts between the stones, goats 
browse in the bottom of the moat, and children s faces 
peep forth from the watch-towers on the ramparts. Out 
side the principal gate, I came upon a Gothic cross, rest 
ing on an octagonal base, so very old and weather-beaten 
that it must certainly have been erected during the first 
years of the conquest. The walls of the city are said to be 
Saracenic ; but the people are poor authority on this or 
any other historical point. It is certain, at least, that 
Alcudia was formerly much more important than now. Its 
bay was a naval station, whence expeditions were sent out 
to Africa or the Levant ; and there were times when the 
kings of Spain built whole fleets from the forests of the 
island. 

Of late, a little fresh life has begun to flow into the silent 
old town. On the shore of the bay, a few miles off, an 
English company has undertaken agricultural operations 
on a grand scale. Many square leagues of the former use 
less, pestiferous marshes have been drained, steam-engines 
erected to supply water for irrigation, and an attempt made 
to cultivate cotton. Concerning the success of the under 
taking, I heard the most contradictory accounts. The 
people could only tell me of the immense sums expended, 
sums which appeared almost fabulous to them. The 



208 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

agents, of course, claimed to be entirely successful, not 
withstanding the cotton-plants, this year, will scarcely pro 
duce enough to pay for the seed. Last year (1866), I was 
informed, the yield was very fine : the staple being equal to 
that of our Sea-island cotton. The intention of the Eng 
lish capitalists was probably to produce a similar article, 
and it cannot be denied that they have shrewdly chosen 
the spot for the experiment. 

When the afternoon shadow filled the street, I seated 
myself at the door of the fonda, and amused myself with 
the movements of some carpenters in an opposite shop. 
Two lusty apprentices were engaged in the slow labor of 
sawing beams into boards, while the master fitted together 
the parts of a door. The former used an upright saw, one 
standing on a frame overhead, and the other on the floor 
below ; they were just an hour and a half in sawing five 
boards from a beam a foot wide and sixteen feet long. 
Whenever a neighbor dropped in to gossip with the master, 
the saw stopped, and the apprentices took an active part 
in the conversation. There was also a boy of twelve years 
old, who did no work except in the way of singing. With 
his head thrown back, and his mouth open to its fullest ex 
tent, he poured forth an endless succession of piercing cries, 
recommencing, at the end of each lamentable close of the 
measure, with a fury and frenzy which nearly drove me 
wild. The little dog in the fonda, from time to time, rang 
a suggestive peal upon his bell, and echoes from other 
streets, and distant bells from other tormented dogs, filled 
up the pauses of the performance. 

At sunset the other inmates of the fonda began to collect. 
First, there arrived two French workmen, of mean aspect ; 
then a Spanish cavalier, who was evidently a person of some 
importance, for he invited nobody to partake of his supper. 
He was a large, olive-colored man, with a loud voice and 
opaque gray eyes, in which, as he fixed them upon my face, 
I read the question, " Are you not going to salute me ? " I 



BALEARIC DAYS. 209 

returned the look, and my eyes answered, " Who art thou, 
that I should salute thee ? " After these remarks, which 
both understood, we spoke no more. Several natives came, 
during the evening, to be paid for some service ; but they 
received no money. The two Frenchmen supped with the 
hostess and her family, but the important Spaniard and 
myself had our meals apart. Finally the comedy became 
tiresome, and I went to bed. 

Not to sleep, alas ! The little dog s bell was silent 
through the night, but had there been one around my neck 
it would have chimed the quarter-hours without a single 
failure. The steamer for Minorca was expected in the bay 
at sunrise ; so I arose with the first stir in the house, and 
found two gentlemen who had come from Palma during the 
night, and three man-of-war s men, waiting in the street for 
an omnibus which was to carry us to the mole. We all 
waited together an hour, took chocolate, and then, after an 
other half-hour, were requested to climb into a two-wheeled 
cart, drawn by a single horse. The hostess said to me, We 
are not very fine, and I don t know how much you ought 
to pay, but I will take what you think right," which she 
did, with honest thanks, and then we clattered out of the gate. 

A descent of two miles between fields of wheat and olives 
brought us to the mole, where we found only a few lazy 
boatmen lying upon heaps of iron castings, which were 
waiting, apparently, for the English engineers. Shoals of 
young sardines sprinkled the clear green deeps of the sea 
with a million points of light, and some dead flounders lay 
like lozenges of silver among the dark weeds of the bottom. 
A new fish-crate, floating beside the pier, was a mild evi 
dence of enterprise. The passengers sat in the sun until 
it became too powerful, then in the shade, and so another 
hour and a half rolled away. With the first appearance of 
the steamer, we got into a boat, and slowly floated out be 
tween two crystal atmospheres (so transparent is the sea) 
into the roadstead. 
14 



210 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

The extent of the Bay of Alcudia cannot be less than 
fifteen miles, for our deliberate steamer was nearly two 
hours in getting its southern headland abeam. Once out 
side, the eastern coast of Majorca opened finely with a long, 
diminishing group of mountains, and the dim, nearly level 
outline of Minorca appeared in front. The sea was like a 
mirror, broken only at times by a floating turtle or the leap 
of a dolphin. I found the Mahonese on board to be a very 
different class of persons from the Majorcans in whose com 
pany I had left Barcelona. Port Mahon was for twenty 
years our Mediterranean naval station ; and although for 
twenty years it has ceased to be so, there are still traces of 
intelligence, of sympathy, of language, and of blood, which 
our quasi-occupation has left behind. Two of the passen 
gers had visited America, one had an American wife in 
Minorca, and all became friendly and communicative when 
my nationality was announced. They had faithfully fol 
lowed the history of our navy through the war, and took 
especial pains to claim Admiral Farragut as a countryman. 
His father, they said, was a Minorcan, and the farm in the 
interior of the island upon which he once lived still bears 
the family name. I was brought back suddenly from the 
times of Tancred (which had faded out of sight with the 
walls of Alcudia) to our stormy politics and the new names 
they have given to history. 

All the afternoon we skirted the southern coast of Mi 
norca. The town of Ciudadela, at its western extremity? 
showed like a faint white mark in the distance ; then some 
groups of hills interrupted the level table of the island, and, 
farther eastward, the solitary mountains of El Toro. The 
two gentlemen of Palma, neither of whom had ever before 
made a journey, went below and slept the sleep of indiffer 
ence. Many of the Mahonese followed their example ; and, 
the quarter-deck being left clear, I stretched myself out over 
the cabin skylight, and quietly watched the moving shore, as 
if it were some immense diorama unrolled for my eyes only. 



BALEAKIC DAYS. 211 

The white cliffs along the sea, the tawny harvest-fields, the 
gray olives embosoming villages and country-houses, and the 
occasional shafts of cypress or palm, slowly photographed 
themselves upon my consciousness, and became enduring 
pictures. Had I climbed and hammered the cliffs as a 
geologist, scoured the fields as a botanist, analyzed the soil, 
or even measured its undulations, I could not have obtained 
a completer impression of Minorca. 

El Toro was drifting astern, and the island of Ayre 
showed its light-house in front, when the sound of a guitar 
disturbed my comfortable process of absorption, and brought 
the sleepy passengers upon deck. The performer was a 
blind Spaniard, a coarse-featured, clumsy man, whose life 
and soul had gone into his instrument, separating light, 
beauty, and refinement from earthy darkness. When he 
played, the guitar really seemed to be the man, and his 
body a mere holder, or music-stand. The Mahonese, I was 
glad to see, not only appreciated the performance, but were 
very liberal in their contributions. 

The island of Ayre lies off the southeastern extremity of 
Minorca. In the intervening strait, the sea was so wonder 
fully transparent that the alternations of bare limestone floor 
and fields of sea-weed far below our keel, changed the color 
of the water from a turquoise so dazzling that I can only 
call it blue fire to an emerald gloom pierced with golden 
lightnings. Even that southern temperament which cares 
so little for Nature, was aroused by the sight of these splen 
dors. The passengers hung over the railing with cries of 
admiration, and the blind minstrel was left to soliloquize on 
his guitar. Against a headland in front, the smooth sea 
suddenly rose in a crest of foam, behind which a gleam of 
darker sapphire denoted the mouth of a harbor. In a few 
minutes more we were abreast of the entrance to Port Ma- 
hon, with a great ascending slope of new fortifications on the 
north. Hundreds of men are now employed on defenses 
which the new developments in naval warfare have rendered 



212 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

useless ; and the officials conceal, with the most jealous fear, 
the plan of a system of forts and batteries which no other 
nation need care to know. 

The lower ground, on the southern side of the entrance 
to the inner harbor, is entirely covered with the ruins of the 
immense fortress of San Felipe, built by the English during 
their occupation of Minorca from 1708 to 1802. The fate 
of Admiral Byng, executed for a naval victory over the 
French, gives a tragic interest to these ruins, which, in 
their extent, resemble those of a city. All governments 
(our own included) know how to make their individual ser 
vants the scapegoats for their blunders or their incapacity ; 
but I know not, in all history, of a case so flagrant as that 
of Byng. The destruction of Fort San Felipe cost nearly 
half a million of dollars, and yet it appears to be only partial. 

On passing the channel between the fort and Cape Mola, 
we found ourselves in the port, but only at its entrance ; the 
city was not yet visible. A bright white town crowned the 
low cliffs of the southern shore the former Georgetown 
of the English, the present Villa Carlos of the Spaniards. 
Opposite to it, the long quarantine island divided the in 
tensely blue water ; and my fellow-passengers claimed with 
pride that it was capable of accommodating a whole fleet. 
Beyond this island the harbor bends southward, shutting out 
of sight the sea entrance ; it becomes a still lake, inclosed 
by bare, bright hills. The Isle of the King, with a splendid 
military hospital ; the ship-yard, with a vessel of a thousand 
tons on the stocks, and various other public constructions, 
appeared successively on our right. The nearer southern 
shore, a wall of dark gray rock, broken by deep gashes in 
which houses were hidden and steep roads climbed to the 
summit, increased in height : as we approached the end of 
the harbor, quays along the water, and a fresh, many-colored, 
glittering town on the rocks, showed that we had reached 
Port Mahon. Nature has made this basin as picturesque 
as it is secure. The wild cliffs of the coast here pierce 



! V,*i 



BALEARIC DAYS. 213 

inland, but they are draped with splendid gardens ; fields 
of wheat climb the hills, and orchards of olive clothe their 
feet ; over the table-land of the island rises in the distance 
the purple peak of El Toro ; and the city before you, raised 
on a pedestal a hundred feet in height, seems to be one of 
the most beautiful of the Mediterranean. " Did you ever 
see a place like that ? " asked a Mahonese at my elbow. 

" Captain , of your navy, used to say that there were 

only three good harbors in the Mediterranean, the 
months of July and August, and Port Mahon ! " Captain 
, however, as my friend perhaps did not know, bor 
rowed the remark from Admiral Andrea Doria, who made 
it centuries ago. 

The " Fonda del Oriente " looked down upon me invit 
ingly from the top of the rock, which was made accessible 
by a road carried up in steep, zigzag ramps. At the door 
of the hotel I was received by a stout old man with a cos 
mopolitan face, who, throwing his head on one shoulder, 
inspected me for a few moments with a remarkably know 
ing air. Then, with a nod of satisfaction at his own acute- 
ness, he said, "Walk in, sir; how do you find yourself?" 
Ushering me into a chamber furnished with an old mahog 
any secretary, heavy arm-chairs, and antiquated prints, 
the atmosphere of Portsmouth or Gravesend hanging over 
everything, he continued, after another critical survey, 
" Mr. Alexander, I believe ? " 

" That is not my name," I said. 

"Not Alexander! Then it must be Sykes; they are 
brothers-in-law, you know," persisted the stout old man. 

I answered him with a scrutinizing stare, and the words, 
" Your name is Bunsby, I think ? " 

" O no ! " he exclaimed ; " I am Antonio. You can t be 
Mr. Sykes, either, or you d know me." 

" You are talking of Englishmen ; I am not English." 

Not English ? " he cried. " H m, well, that s queer ; 
but, to be sure, you must be American. I know all the 



BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






American officers that ever were here, and they know me. 
Ask Commodore and if they don t know An 
tonio ! The greatest mistake I ever made was that I didn t 
move to Spezia with the squadron." 

" Can you give me dinner ? " I asked, cutting off the 
coming yarn. 

" Stop ! " he said ; " don t tell me ; I can guess what you 
want. A beefsteak rare, hey ? and mixed pickles, hey ? and 
potatoes with their jackets on, hey ? But it s too late to 
make a pudding, and there s no Stilton cheese ! Never 
mind! let me alone; nobody in Port Mahon can come 
nearer the real thing than I can." 

In vain I declared my willingness to take the Minorcan 
dishes. Such a taste had probably never before been ex 
pressed in all Antonio s experience of English and Ameri 
cans ; and my meals then and thenceforth were a series of 
struggles to reproduce Portsmouth or Gravesend. But the 
hotel was large, airy, and perfectly clean ; Antonio honestly 
endeavored to make me comfortable ; he knew a great many 
of my naval friends, and I had no complaint to make with 
his reckoning at the close of my stay. lie was, moreover, 
a man of progress ; he corned beef, and cured hams, and 
introduced the making of butter (not very successfully), 
and taught the people how to cook potatoes. He even 
dispatched a cheese, as a present, to Marshal Serrano, 
before I left Port Mahon. 

Refreshed by a long sleep, which was not disturbed by 
any little dog with a bell on his neck, or that which the 
sound of the latter suggested, I sallied forth in the morning 
without any objective point. The city must first be seen, 
because it lay between me and the country. I was delighted 
to find wide, well-paved streets as compared with those of 
Palma, clean, cheerful houses, and an irregularity sufficient 
for picturesque effect, without being bewildering to a stran 
ger. Very few of the buildings appeared to be older than 
the last century ; there was nothing characteristic in their 



ALEARIC DAYS. 215 

architecture ; but the city, from end to end, was gay, sunny, 
full of color, riante, and without a trace of the usual Spanish 
indolence and uncleanliness. It has somewhat fallen from 
its former estate. Grass grows in many of the streets, and 
there is less noise and movement than one would look for 
with the actual population some fifteen thousand. Three 
or four small craft in the harbor did not indicate an active 
commerce, and I presume the place is kept alive mainly 
by the visits of foreign men-of-war. A great many of the 
common people speak a few words of English, and you 
may even read " Adams, Sastre," over the door of a native 
tailor ! 

The climate, although considered harsh by the Spaniards, 
seemed to me perfect. The sun of June shone in a cloud 
less sky, flooding the sharp, clear colors of the town with a 
deluge of light ; yet a bracing wind blew from the north, 
and the people in the fields and gardens worked as steadily 
as Connecticut farmers. I saw no loafers upon the island ; 
and I doubt whether there are enough of them to form a 
class among the native population. While there was evi 
dently a great deal of poverty, I encountered no beggars. 
I felt, as in Majorca, that I was among a simple-minded, 
ignorant, but thoroughly honest and industrious people. 

The street I had chosen gradually rose as I proceeded 
inland ; walled gardens succeeded to the houses, and then 
fields of wheat or vines, separated by huge agglomerations 
of stones. I looked over an undulating table-land, cov 
ered with such lines and mounds of rocky debris, that they 
seemed to be the ruins of a city. Every patch of grain or 
fruit was inclosed by a cannon-proof fortification, and the 
higher ridges terminated in bald parapets, whereon the 
dark mounds of box and ilex held fast and flourished with 
out any appearance of soil. At the foot of these wild 
growths the fig-tree grew with wonderful luxuriance, and 
very often the foliage of the untamable rock was mingled 
with that of the gardens. Here every foot of ground had 



216 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

been won by the rudest, the most patient toil. Even the 
fields conquered centuries ago are not yet completely man 
ageable ; hundreds of stony fangs still protrude from the 
surface, and the laborer is obliged to follow the plough 
with hoe and spade. Thus, in spite of the almost incred 
ible triumphs of agriculture with which the island is covered, 
its general aspect is that of a barren, torn, hopeless wilder 
ness. Without broad or grand features of landscape, it is 
crowded with startling contrasts and picturesque details. 

I wandered southward between the high, loose walls, 
towards a mound which promised me a wider inland view ; 
but on approaching it, the road entered an impenetrable 
shade, and passed beyond. There was no gate or entrance 
of any kind into the fields, so I took advantage of a jagged 
corner of the wall, and climbed to the top. On the other 
side there was a wheat-field, in which three men were reap 
ing. I now saw that what I had taken for a mound was a 
circular tower, the top of which had been torn down, form 
ing a slope around its base, which was covered with rank 
thickets of mastic and myrtle. I asked the men, who had 
stopped work, and were curiously regarding me, whether I 
might cross their field and visit the ruin. " Certainly, 
Senor," said the master ; * come down and walk about 
where you please." He then called, in a loud voice, 
" Miguel ! " and presently a small boy came to light from 
behind a pile of rocks. " Miguel," said he, ** go with the 
Senor to the atalaya, and show him the steps." 

I clambered down into the little field, which, sunken 
between enormous walls of stone, somewhat resembled a 
volcanic crater. Miguel piloted me silently across the 
stubble, between solid mounds of ilex, which seemed no 
less ancient and indestructible than the rocks upon which 
they grew, and by a gap in an outer wall into the bed of a 
dry moat around the tower. The latter, though only ten 
feet wide, stood thick with ripe wheat ; but it was bridged 
in one place by a line of stones, and we thus crossed with- 



BALEARIC DAYS. 217 

out trampling down the precious stalks. There were no 
steps to the tower, but a zigzag path had been trampled 
among the ruins, at the foot of which I dismissed Miguel, 
and then mounted to the summit. I first looked abroad 
upon the bright, busy, wild, savage, wonderfully cultivated 
fields and gardens, the white towers and tiled roofs of the 
city behind me, and a single blue fragment of the sea (like 
a piece chipped out of the edge of a bowl) in the east. The 
characteristics of Minorcan scenery, which I have already 
described, gave the view a character so novel and so re 
markable, that I studied them for a long time before ex 
amining more closely the ruin upon which I stood. 

The farmer had called it an atalaya, and the tower was 
clearly of Moorish construction. Its height must have 
been originally much greater, or it could not have answered 
its purpose of watching the sea. The hollow interior is en 
tirely filled with the fragments, so that nothing of the struc 
ture remains except its circular form. Outside of the dry 
moat there is a massive pentangular wall, with a lozenge- 
shaped pile of solid masonry at each corner ; the whole 
evidently designed for defense, and of later date than the 
tower itself. Such quantities of stones had been heaped 
upon the old foundations by the farmers, in clearing spaces 
for their crops, that very little of the masonry was to be 
seen. To be of service, however, the walls must have been 
at least twenty feet higher than at present. Many of the 
stones have no doubt been carried away for buildings, and 
there are still huge piles of them in the adjacent fields. 
Towering out of one of these piles I caught a glimpse of 
another relic of a still remoter past an object so unex 
pected that I at first took it for an accidental disposition 
of the stones. I descended to the moat, clambered over 
the outer wall, and made my way to the spot. 

It was a Celtic tor, or altar a large upright block of 
gray limestone, supporting a horizontal block about ten 
feet in length. The pillar was so buried in fragments 



218 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

which had been piled about it, that I could not ascertain 
its height ; but the character of the monument was too dis 
tinctly marked to admit of a question. After returning to 
Port Mahon, I found that its existence was well known. 
In fact, the first question asked me was, " Have you seen 
the Phoenician altar?" "When and by whom these re 
markable monuments which are found in all the Medi 
terranean islands between Greece and Gibraltar were 
erected, is a point which I will leave antiquarians to dis 
cuss. It pleased me, as I sat under a fig-tree which shot 
up through the stones, to fancy that the remains of three 
memorable phases in the history of man were before me, 
of the Druids in the crumbling altar, of the Saracens in 
the watch-to \ver, and of the house of Aragon or Castile in 
the fortress enclosing it. 

According to Strabo, the Balearic Islands were colonized 
by the Rhodians ; but Strabo probably knew less about the 
matter than any respectable antiquarian of our own day. 
The people of Minorca firmly believe that Magon, the 
brother of Hannibal, founded Port Mahon, and they attrib 
ute the Druidic stones and the Cyclopean constructions 
(which are here found side by side) to the Phrenicians. 
The English occupation, which left at least a good map be 
hind it, led to no historic investigations ; and I cannot learn 
that any detailed account of the antiquities of the island 
has ever been published. Those remains which we call 
Druidic are very numerous ; some of the upright monoliths 
are more than twenty feet in height, supporting horizontal 
stones of nearly equal dimensions. Nothing but the lack 
of archaeological knowledge prevented me from making a 
journey through the interior for the purpose of examining 
the other monuments. 

I made use of my brief visit, however, to test the truth of 
another story, which is among the permanent traditions of 
the American navy. Every one has read the account of a 
captain s son leaping from the main-truck of a frigate ; and 



BALEARIC DAYS. 219 

in the days when Morris was popular, his verses commen 
cing 

" Old Ironsides at anchor lay 
In the harbor of Mahon," 

went the rounds of all the country newspapers. There 
was a melodramatic air about the incident which made me 
suspicious. I suppose the lines recalled themselves to my 
mind from the fact that Port Mahon is nowhere else noted 
in song. The Consul, who kindly seconded my curiosity 
in a matter of so little importance, went to an old 
Mahonese, who has had the greatest experience of our ves 
sels and officers, and questioned him, taking care not to 
suggest the story in advance. But the old man instantly 
said : ** yes ! I remember all about it. Fifty years ago, 
or more, when the Constitution frigate was here, a boy 
climbed to the very top of the mainmast, and was obliged to 
jump into the harbor, as there was no other way of getting 
down. Not many persons saw the act, but it was much 
talked about, and nobody doubted that the boy had done 
it." Whether the captain forced his son to take the ter 
rible leap by threatening to shoot him with a rifle, the old 
man could not tell. 

The next morning the Consul accompanied me on an 
other excursion into the country. We passed through the 
town, and descended to an alameda which skirts the har 
bor to its western end, where the highway to Ciudadela 
strikes off towards the centre of the island. The harbor 
once penetrated a mile deeper into the country than at 
present, so the people say ; but it must have been a shal 
low, marshy basin, as the hills around could not possibly 
spare enough soil to fill up and make fruitful the valley 
which one now enters after leaving the harbor-wall. This 
valley is the largest tract of unbroken garden laud which 
I saw in Minorca. Its productiveness is apparently un 
limited. Maize, cabbages, sweet potatoes, hemp, vines, 
vegetables of all kinds, covered the surface ; date-palms 



BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

and orange-trees, so overwhelmed with fruit that scarcely 
a green- leaf showed through the dazzling gold, turned it 
into a garden of the tropics ; while precipitous walls of 
limestone, resting on rough natural vaults and arches, shut 
out the rocky upper plateau from view. The laborers were 
planting new crops in the place of the old ; so valuable is 
this rich basin that no part of its surface is allowed to lie 
fallow for a day. 

On the left, the inclosing walls were broken by the 
mouth of a glen, the sides of which regular terraces of 
rock, resting on arched foundations seemed at first sight 
to be the work of art. Here, in the shade of a group of 
poplars and sycamores, stood the chapel of San Juan, 
white, cool, and solitary. A fountain, issuing from the base 
of the rocks near it, formed a little pool in which some 
women were washing clothes. The picture was Oriental 
in every feature, so much so that I was surprised not to 
hear " Saba el-kheyr ! " when the women said to us, " Bon 
di tenga ! " 

Entering the glen behind the chapel, a few paces 
brought us into a different world. Except upon some 
painfully constructed shelf of soil, built up or rescued in 
some way from the rocks, there was no cultivation. Our 
path was a natural pavement, torn by the occasional rains ; 
bare cliffs of gray limestone, vaulted at the base, overhung 
us on either side, and the mounds of box on the summit 
sparkled against the sky. Every feature of the scenery 
bore the marks of convulsion. Enormous blocks had been 
hurled from above ; the walls were split with deep, irregu 
lar crevices; and even the stubborn evergreen growths 
took fantastic shapes of horns, fluttering wings, tufts of 
hair, or torn garments. Now and then a dry-leaved ilex 
rustled and rattled in the breeze ; and the glen, notwith 
standing it brimmed over with intensest sunshine, would 
have seemed very drear and desolate but for the incessant 
songs of the nightingales. While I crept under a rock to 



BALEARIC DAYS. 221 

sketch a singularly picturesque combination of those crag- 
forms, every one of which was a study, the joyous 
birds made the place ring with their paeans. The day- 
song of the nightingale is as cheerful as that of the lark ; 
its passion and sorrow is kept for the night. 

If I had been an artist, I should have spent a fortnight 
in the glen of San Juan ; but as it was, having only an 
other day in Minorca, I could not linger there beyond an 
hour. At the point where I sat it divides into two 
branches, which gradually rise, as they wind, to the level 
of the table-land ; and the great stone-heaps commence 
immediately behind the topmost fringe of box. The 
island, in fact, is a single rock, upon the level portions of 
which a little soil has lodged. Wherever one may travel 
in the interior, it presents the same appearance. The dis 
tance from Port Mahon to the old town of Cindadela, at 
the western extremity of Minorca, is about twenty-five 
miles ; and the Consul informed me that I should find 
the same landscapes all the way. There is nothing re 
markable in Ciudaclela except a cathedral of the thirteenth 
century, and some Saracenic walls. On the way are the 
three other principal towns of the island Alayor, Mer- 
cadal, and Ferrerias, all of which are rudely built, and 
have an equal air of poverty. It was for a moment a ques 
tion with me whether I should employ my little remaining 
time in a rapid journey to Ciudadela and back, or in stroll 
ing leisurely through the country around Port Mahon, and 
setting down my observations as typical of all Minorca. 
The reports of the Consul justified me in adopting the lat 
ter and easier course. 

In the afternoon we walked to the village of San Luis, 
about four miles distant, and recently made accessible by 
a superb highway. The great drought which has prevailed 
in all the Balearic Islands during the past two years has 
seriously injured the crops, and there is much suffering in 
Minorca, which is so much less favored by nature than its 



222 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

larger sister island. I heard of families of five persons 
living for months on less than twenty-five cents a day. 
Agriculture is profitable in good seasons, on account of the 
excellent quality of the wheat, oil, and oranges ; but the 
deposit of soil, as I have already explained, is very shallow, 
there is no sheltering range of mountains as in Majorca, 
no supply of water for irrigation, and the average produc 
tion is therefore much less certain. The price of land is 
high, for the reason that the proprietors are satisfied if it 
yields them annually two per cent, of its value. Shoe- 
making is one of the principal branches of industry in 
Port Mahon ; but of late the foreign market has been dis 
turbed, and the profits are so slight whether through 
slow and imperfect labor or the sharpness of contractors I 
did not ascertain that any check in the trade brings im 
mediate suffering. The people, nevertheless, are very 
patient ; they invariably prefer work to mendicancy, and 
are cheerful and contented so long as they succeed in 
clothing and feeding themselves. 

The Minorcans seemed to me even more independent 
and original in character than the Majorcans. There is 
still less of the Spaniard, but also less of the Moor, about 
them. I should guess their blood to be mostly Vandal, 
but I stand ready to be corrected by any ethnologist who 
knows better. They have a rugged, sturdy air, little grace 
and elegance, either of body or of manner, and a simpli 
city which does not exclude shrewdness or cunning. It is 
considered almost an insult if the stranger speaks of them 
as Spaniards. The Governor of the island said to Mar 
shal Serrano, the other day, when the latter was in Port 
Mahon in temporary exile : " The Minorcans are a curious 
people. You probably find that they do not take off their 
hats to you in the street, as you are accustomed to be 
saluted in Madrid ? " " Yes," answered the Marshal, * I 
have already learned that they care nothing whatever for 
either you or me." The older people look back on the 



BALEARIC DAYS. 223 

English occupation with regret ; the younger generation 
would be exceedingly well satisfied if Spain would sell the 
island to the United States for a naval station. But all 
unite in calling themselves Minorcans, or Mahonese, and 
in drawing a very broad line between themselves and the 
Spaniards of the Peninsula. 

The Consul confirmed my first impressions of the hon 
esty of the people. " You may walk on any road in the 
island," said he, " at any hour of the day or night, with 
the most perfect security." He also gave them the highest 
praise for cleanliness and order in their domestic life, 
which are certainly not Spanish qualities. The young 
men and women who are betrothed save every penny of 
their earnings, and invest them in the articles of furniture 
necessary to the establishment of a household. Simple 
as are these latter, many years often elapse before they are 
all procured and the nuptials may be celebrated, the par 
ties remaining steadfastly constant to each other during 
the long time of waiting. They are a people in whom 
almost any honest system of education, any possible sound 
ideas of progress, would take immediate root ; but under 
the combined shadow of Spain and Home, what progress 
is possible ? 

I have never seen Broek, in Holland, but I think San 
Luis must be the cleanest village in Europe. I attributed 
its amazing brightness, as we approached, to the keen, 
semi-African sun and the perfectly clear air ; but I found 
that all the houses had been whitewashed that very after 
noon, as they regularly are every Saturday. The street 
was swept so conscientiously that we might have seated 
ourselves and taken our dinner anywhere, without getting 
more than each man s inevitable proportion of dust in the 
dishes. In the open doors, as I passed, I saw floors of 
shining tiles, clean wooden furniture, women in threadbare 
but decent dresses, and children no, the children were 
dirty, and I confess I should not have been pleased to see 



224 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

them otherwise. The sand and fig-stains on those little 
faces and hands were only health-marks, and they made 
the brightness of the little village endurable. It would 

O O 

else have seemed to be struck with an unusual disease. 
AVe went into a house where two old women very, very 
p )or they were, but uncomplaining received us with 
simple, unaffected friendliness. I spoke in Spanish and 
they in Minorcnn, so that the conversation was not very in 
telligible ; but the visit gave me a fleeting impression of 
the sterling qualities of the people, inasmuch as it harmo 
nized with all that I had previously seen and heard. 

The Consul conducted me to a little casino, where re 
freshments, limited in character, were to be procured. The 
maestro, a stout fellow, with the air of a Bowery butcher, 
opened his heart on learning that we were Americans. He 
had served a year on board one of our men-of-war, and re 
peated, over and over again, " The way things were man 
aged there satisfied me, it corresponded with my own 
ideas ! " He made me read, around a spiral pillar, the 
words, " Casino del Progreso," saying, " That s what I go 
for ! " There was a church nearly opposite, and from its 
architecture a man with half an eye could see that the 
Jesuits had had a hand in building it. This I sketched, 
and the progressive host, leaning over my shoulder, inter 
preted the drawing correctly. His extravagant admiration 
made me feel that I had done well, and we parted mutually 
satisfied. Indeed, this little village interested me even 
more than Port Mahon, because it was more purely Minor- 
can in character. 

The quantities of the fig-bearing cactus about the coun 
try-houses surprised me, until I learned that the fleshy 
leaves are used during the dry season as food for the mules 
and asses. The fruit, which is said to be remarkably fine 
on the island, is eaten by the inhabitants, and must form, 
in times of want, an important article of their food ; yet 
so much space would not be given to the plant, or rather 



BALEARIC DAYS. 225 

tree, if the animals had not been taught to subsist upon 
it. I have never before heard, in any part of the world, 
of the cactus being made useful in this way. Its huge, 
grotesque masses are an inseparable part of every land 
scape on the island. 

We walked back to Port Mahon in the face of a north 
wind which was almost cold, which blew away the rich 
color from the sunset sky, leaving it pale, clear, and melan 
choly in tone ; yet thunder and violent rain followed in the 
night. I spent my last evening with the Consul and his 
agreeable family, and embarked on the steamer for Bar 
celona in the morning. As we passed out of the harbor, 
Antonio s daughter waved her handkerchief from the win 
dow high above, on the cliff. The salute was not intended 
for me, but for her husband, who was bound for Madrid, 
carrying with him the cheese for Marshal Serrano. Rocked 
on a rough sea, and with a keen wind blowing, we again 
coasted along the southern shore of Minorca, crossed the 
strait, touched at Alcudia. and then, passing the mouth of 
the Bay of Pollenza, reached the northern headland of 
Majorca at sunset. Here the mountain-chain falls off in 
perpendicular walls a thousand feet in height, the bases of 
which are worn into caverns and immense echoing vaults. 
The coast-forms are as grand and wonderful as those of 
Norway. Point after point, each more abrupt and distorted 
than the last, came into view as we cleared the headland 
all growing luminous in the mist and the orange light of 
the setting sun. 

Then the light faded ; the wild mountain-forms were 
fused together in a cold gray mass above the sea ; the stars 
came out, and my last Balearic day was at an end. 



15 



CATALOG I AN BRIDLE-ROADS. 



" And mule-bells tinkling down the mountain-paths of Spain." 

Whittier* 



I LEAKNED something of the bridle-roads of Catalonia 
in defiance of advice and warning, and almost against my 
own inclination. My next point of interest, after leaving 
the Balearic Islands, was the forgotten Republic of Andorra, 
in the Pyrenees ; and the voice of the persons whom I 
consulted in Barcelona none of whom had made the 
journey, or knew any one who had was unanimous that 
I should return to France, and seek an entrance from that 
side. Such a course would certainly have been more com 
fortable; but the direct route, from the very insecurity 
which was predicted, offered a prospect of adventure, the 
fascination of which, I regret to say, I have not yet entire 
ly outgrown. " It is a country of smugglers and robbers," 
said the banker who replenished my purse ; " and I serious 
ly advise you not to enter it. Moreover, the roads are al 
most impassable, and there is nothing to be seen on the 



way." 



These words, uttered with a grave face by a native Cata 
lan, ought to have decided the matter, yet they did not. 
To be sure, I thanked the man for his warning, and left 
him to suppose that I would profit by it, rather than enter 
into any discussion ; but when I quitted his office, with 
fresh funds in my pocket, and corresponding courage in 
my bosom, my course was already decided. Had I not 
heard the same warnings, in all parts of the world, and had 
not the picturesque danger always fled as I approached it ? 
Nevertheless, there came later moments of doubt, the sug 
gestions of that convenient life which we lead at home, and 
the power of which increases with our years. Fatigue and 
hardship do not become lighter from repetition, but the re- 



230 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

verse; the remembrance of past aches and past hunger 
returns whenever the experience is renewed, and aggra 
vates it. 

So, when I had descended from Montserrat, and was 
waiting in the cool of the evening at the door of the rudest 
possible restaurant, at the railway station of Monistrol, a 
little imp whispered : " The first train is for Barcelona. 
Take it and you will be in France to-morrow night. This 
way is safe and speedy ; you know not what the other may 
be." I watched the orange-light fade from the topmost 
pinnacles of Montserrat ; a distant whistle sounded, and 
the other pilgrims hurried towards the ticket-office. I 
followed them as far as the door, paused a moment, and 
then said to myself: " No, if I back out now, I shall never 
be sure of myself again ! " Then I returned to my seat 
beside the door, and saw the train go by, with the feeling 
of a man who has an appointment with a dentist. 

In another hour came the upward train, which would 
carry me as far as the town of Manresa, where my doubt 
ful journey commenced. It was already dusk, and deli- 
ciously cool after the fierce heat of the day. A full moon 
shone upon the opposite hills as I sped up the valley of 
the Llobregat, and silvered the tops of the olives ; but I 
only saw them in glimpses of unconquerable sleep, and 
finally descended at the station of Manresa not fully awake. 

A rough, ragged porter made a charge upon my valise, 
which I yielded to his hands. " Take it to the best hotel," 
I said. " Ah, that is the Chicken ! " he replied. Now, the 
driver of the omnibus from Montserrat had recommended 
the " San Domingo," which had altogether a better sound 
than the " Chicken ; " but I did not think of resisting my 
fate. I was conscious of a wonderful moonlight picture, 
of a town on a height, crowned by a grand cathedral ; of a 
winding river below ; of steep slopes of glimmering houses ; 
of lofty hills, seamed with the shadows of glens ; and of 
the sparkle of orange-leaves in the hanging gardens. This 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 231 

while we were crossing a suspension-bridge ; at the end, we 
plunged into narrow, winding streets, full of gloom and dis 
agreeable odors. A few oil-lamps burned far apart ; there 
were lights in the upper windows of the houses, and the 
people were still gossiping with their neighbors. When 
we emerged into a plaza, it was more cheerful ; the single 
cafe, was crowded, the estanco for the sale of tobacco, and 
the barber s shop were still open. A little farther and we 
reached the " Chicken," which was an ancient and uninvit 
ing house, with a stable on the ground-floor. Here the 
porter took his fee with a grin, and saying, " You will want 
me in the morning ! " wished me good night. 

I mounted to a dining-room nearly fifty feet in length, in 
which a lonely gentleman sat, waiting for his supper. When 
the hostess had conducted me to a bedroom of equal dimen 
sions, and proceeded to put clean sheets upon a bed large 
enough for four Michigan soldiers, I became entirely recon 
ciled to my fate. After trying in vain to extract any intel 
ligence from a Madrid newspaper, I went to bed and slept 
soundly ; but the little imp was at my ear when I woke, say 
ing : " Here you leave the railway ; after this it will not be 
so easy to turn back." " Very well," I thought, " I will go 
back now." I opened the shutters, let the full morning sun 
blaze into the room, dipped my head into water, and then 
cried out : " Begone, tempter ! I go forwards." But, alas ! 
it was not so once. There is a difference between spring 
ing nimbly from one s rest with a " Hurrah ! there s another 
rough day before me ! " and a slow clinging to one s easy 
pillow, with the sigh, "Ah! must I go through another 
rough day ? " However, that was my last moment of weak 
ness, and physical only being an outcry of the muscles 
against the coming aches and strains, like that of the pack- 
camel before he receives his load. 

The first stage of my further journey, I learned, could be 
made by a diligence which left at eleven o clock. In the 
mean time I wandered about the town, gathering an im- 



232 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

pression of its character quite distinct from that of the pre 
vious evening. It has no architectural monuments ; for the 
cathedral, like all such edifices in Spain, is unfinished, inter 
nally dark, and well supplied with bad pictures. Its posi 
tion, nevertheless, is superb, and the platform of rock upon 
which it stands looks over a broad, bright, busy landscape. 
The sound of water-wheels and the humming looms of fac 
tories fills the air ; however primitive the other forms of 
labor may be, the people all seem to be busy. The high 
houses present an agreeable variety of color, although a 
rich brown is predominant ; many of them have balconies, 
and the streets turn at such unexpected angles that light and 
shade assist in making pictures everywhere. Manresa has 
a purely Spanish aspect, and the groups on the plaza and in 
the shady alleys are as lively and glowing as any in Anda 
lusia. 

I read the history of the place, .as given in the guide 
books, but will not here repeat it. According to my En 
glish guide, it was sacked and its inhabitants butchered by 
the French, during the Peninsular War ; according to the 
French guide, nothing of the kind ever took place. As I 
read the books alternately, I came to the conclusion that 
both sides must have been splendidly victorious in the 
battles which were fought in Spain. When the Englishman 
said : " Here our army, numbering only eighteen thousand 
men (of whom eight thousand were Spanish allies, of doubt 
ful service), encountered thirty-seven thousand French, and 
completely routed them," the Frenchman had : " Here our 
army, numbering only fifteen thousand, including seven 
thousand Spaniards, put to flight thirty-three thousand 
English one of the most brilliant actions of the war." 
At this rate of representation, it will be a disputed ques 
tion, in the next century, whether Soult or Wellington was 
driven out of Spain. 

My porter of the night before made his appearance, and 
as I had suspected him of interested motives in conducting 



CATALOXIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 233 

me to the " Chicken," I tested his character by giving a 
smaller fee for an equal service ; but he took it with the same 
thanks. Moreover, the diligence office was in the " San Do 
mingo Hotel," and I satisfied myself that the " Chicken " was 
really better than the Saint. Two lumbering yellow coaches 
stood in the spacious stable, which was at the same time en 
trance-hall and laundry. On one side some lean mules were 
eating their barley ; on another, a pump and stone trough 
supplied the house with water ; a stone staircase led to the 
inhabited rooms, and three women were washing clothes at 

t3 

a tank in the rear. Dogs ran about scratching themselves; 
country passengers, with boxes and baskets, sat upon stone 
posts and did the same ; and now and then a restless horse 
walked forth from the stalls, snuffing at one person after 
another, as if hoping to find one who might be eatable. 
Two mayorah or coachmen, followed by two grooms, bustled 
about with bits of harness in their hands, and the washer 
women made a great clatter with their wooden beetles ; but 
the time passed, and nothing seemed to be accomplished on 
either side. The whole scene was so thoroughly Spanish 
that no one would have been surprised had the Don and 
Sancho ridden into the doorway. One of the women at the 
tank was certainly Maritornes. 

At length, after a great deal of ceremony, one of the 
vehicles drove off. " It s going to Berga," said a man in 
faded velvet, in answer to my question ; k% and all I know is, 
that that s the way to Puigcerda." The mules were now 
harnessed to our diligence and we took our places my 
friend in velvet ; two stout women, one of whom carried 
six dried codfish tied in a bundle ; a shriveled old man, a 
mild brown soldier, and myself. It was an hour behind the 
appointed time, but no one seemed to notice the delay. We 
rolled out of the ammoniated shadows of the stable into a 
olaze which was doubled on the white highway, and thrown 
back to us from the red, scorched rocks beside it. The 
valley of the Cardoner, which we entered on leaving Man- 



234 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

resa, quivered in the breathless heat : the stream was almost 
exhausted in its bed, and the thin gray foliage of the poplars 
and olives gave but a mockery of shadow. Everywhere the 
dry, red soil baked in the sunshine. The only refreshing 
thing I saw was a break in an irrigating canal, which let 
down a cascade over the rocks into the road. No water in 
the world ever seemed so cool, so fresh, so glittering ; in the 
thirsty landscape it flashed like a symbol of generous, prod 
igal life. Who could fling gold around him with so beauti 
ful a beneficence ? 

The features of the scenery, nevertheless, were too bold 
and picturesque to be overlooked. As we gained a longer 
vista, Montserrat lifted his blue horns over the nearer hills, 
and a dim streak of snow, far in the northwest, made signal 
for the Pyrenees. Abrupt as were the heights inclosing the 
valley, they were cultivated to the summit, and the brown 
country-houses, perched on projecting spurs, gave them a 
life which the heat ai)d thirsty color of the soil could not 
take away. Our destination was Cardona, and after a 
smothering ride of two hours we reached the little village 
of Suria, half-way in distance, but by no means in time. 
Beyond it, the country became rougher, the road steep and 
toilsome ; and our three mules plodded slowly on, with 
drooping heads and tails, while, inside, the passengers nod 
ded one after the other, and became silent. We crossed the 
Cardoner, and ascended a long slope of the hills, where the 
view, restricted to the neighboring fields, became so monot 
onous that I nodded and dozed with the rest. 

We were all aroused by the diligence stopping beside a 
large farm-house. There was a general cry for water, and 
the farmer s daughter presently came out with a stone 
pitcher, cool and dripping from the well. The glass was 
first given to me, as a stranger; and T was about setting it 
to my lips, when two or three of the passengers suddenly 
cried out, " Stop ! " I paused, and looked around in sur 
prise. The man in velvet had already dropped a piece of 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 235 

sugar into the water, and the old woman opposite took a 
bottle from her basket, saying, " This is better ! " and added 
a spoonful of anise-seed brandy. " Now," exclaimed both at 
the same time, " you can drink with safety." The supply of 
sugar and anise-seed held out, and each passenger was re 
galed at the expense of the two Samaritans. After this, con 
versation brightened, and we all became talkative and friend 
ly. The man in velvet, learning my destination, exclaimed : 
" O, you ought to have gone by way of Berga ! It is a dread 
ful country about Solsona and the Rio Segre." But the old 
woman leaned over and whispered : " Don t mind what lie 
says. I come from Solsona, and it s a good country a 
very good country, indeed. Go on, and you will see ! " 

The valley of the Cardoner had become narrower, the 
mountains were higher, and there were frequent ruins of 
mediaeval castles on the summits. When we had reached 
the top of the long ascent, the citadel of Cardona in front 
suddenly rose sharp and abrupt over the terraced slopes of 
vine. It appeared to be within a league, but our coachman 
was so slow and the native passengers so patient, that we did 
not arrive for two hours. Drawing nearer, the peculiar colors 
of the earth around the base of an isolated mountain an 
nounced to us the celebrated salt-mines of the place. Red, 
blue, purple, yellow, and gray, the bare cliffs glittered in the 
sun as if frosted over with innumerable crystals. This mass 
of native salt is a mile and a half in circumference, with a 
height of about two hundred and fifty feet. The action of 
the atmosphere seems to have little effect upon it, and the 
labor of centuries lias no more than tapped its immense 
stores. As in Wieliczka, in Poland, the workmen in the 
mines manufacture cups, ornaments, pillars, and even chan 
deliers, from the pure saline crystal objects which, 
although they remain perfect in the dry atmosphere of 
Spain, soon melt into thin air when carried to Northern 
lands. 

The town of Cardona occupies the crest of a sharp hill, 






236 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 



rising above the mountain of salt. Between it and the river, 
on the north, stands the citadel, still more loftily perched, 
like a Greek acropolis. Our road passed entirely around 
the latter and mounted to the town on the opposite side, 
where the diligence set us down in front of a rudefonda. 
The old gate was broken down, the walls ruined, and the 
first houses we passed were uninhabited. There was no 
longer an octroi ; in fact, the annoyances of travel in Spain 
diminish in proportion as one leaves the cities and chief 
thoroughfares. As I dismounted, the coachman took hold 
of my arm, saying, " Cavalier, here is a decent man who will 
get a horse for you, and travel with you to the Seo de Urgel. 
I know the man, and it is I who recommend him." The per 
son thus introduced was a sturdy, broad-shouldered fellow, 
with short black hair, and hard, weather-beaten features. 
He touched his red Catalan cap, and then looked me stead 
ily in the face while, in answer to my inquiries, he offered to 
be ready at four o clock the next morning, and demanded 
six dollars for himself and horse, the journey requiring two 
days. There were two or three other arrieros present, but 
I plainly saw that none of them would enter into competi 
tion with a man recommended by the coachman. More 
over, as far as appearances went, he was the best of the lot, 
and so I engaged him at once. 

While the fat hostess of thefonda was preparing my din 
ner, I strolled for an hour or two about the town. The 
church is renowned for having been founded in the year 
820, immediately after the expulsion of the Moors from this 
part of Spain, and for containing the bodies of St. Celadonio 
and St. Eineterio whoever those holy personages may 
have been. I confess I never heard of them before. What 
I admired in the church was the splendid mellow brown tint 
of its massive ancient front. Brown is the characteristic 
color of Spain, from the drapery of Murillo and the walls 
of cathedrals to the shadow of cypresses and the arid soil 
of the hills. Whether brightening into gold or ripening 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 237 

into purple, it always seems to give the key of color. In 
the streets of Cardona, it was the base upon which endless 
picturesque groups of people were painted, women spin- 
ing flax, children cooling their bare bodies on the stones, 
blacksmiths and cobblers forging and stitching in the open 
air all with a keen glance of curiosity, but also a respect 
ful greeting for the stranger. The plaza, which was called, 
like all plazas in Catalonia, de la Constitution, overhung the 
deep ravine at the foot of the salt mountain. From its 
parapet I looked upon the vineyard-terraces into which the 
hills have been fashioned, and found them as laboriously 
constructed as those of the Rheingau. A cliff of salt below 
sparkled like prismatic glass in the evening light, but all the 
nearer gardens lay in delicious shadow, and the laden asses 
began to jog homewards from the distant fields. There was 
a cafe on the plaza patronized only by two or three military 
idlers ; the people still worked steadily while the daylight 
lasted, charming away their fatigue by the most melancholy 
songs. 

The inn was not an attractive place. The kitchen was 
merely one corner of the public room, in which chairs lay 
overturned and garments tumbled about, as if the house 
had been sacked. The members of the family sat and 
chattered in this confusion, promising whatever I de 
manded, but taking their own time about getting it. I had 
very meagre expectations of dinner, and was therefore not 
a little surprised when excellent fresh fish, stewed rabbits, 
and a roasted fowl were set successively before me. The 
merry old landlady came and went, anxious to talk, but 
prevented by her ignorance of the pure Spanish tongue. 
However, she managed to make me feel quite at home, 
and well satisfied that I had ventured so far into the re 
gion of ill-repute. 

What was going on in the town that night I cannot ima 
gine ; but it was a tumult of the most distracting kind. 
First, there were drums and as it seemed to me tin 



233 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






pans beaten for an hour or two in the street below ; then 
a chorus of piercing, dreadfully inharmonious voices ; then 
a succession of short cries or howls, like those of the 
oriental dervishes. Sometimes the noises moved away, 
and I settled myself to sleep, whereupon they came back 
worse than before. " O children of Satan ! " I cried, " will 
ye never be still ? " Some time after midnight the voices 
became hoarse : one by one dropped off, and the charivari 
gradually ceased, from the inability of the performers to 
keep it up longer. Then horses were led forth from the 
stable on the ground-floor, whips were violently cracked, 
and the voices of grooms began to be heard. At three 
o clock Juan, my new guide, came into the room with a 
coarse bag, in which he began packing the contents of my 
valise, which could not otherwise be carried on horseback, 
and so my rest was over before it had commenced. 

I found the diligence about starting on its return to 
Manresa, and my horse, already equipped, standing in the 
stable. The sack, valise, and other articles were so packed, 
before and behind the saddle, that only a narrow, deep 
cleft remained for me to sit in. The sun had not yet risen, 
and the morning air was so cool that I determined to walk 
down the hill and mount at the foot. Stepping over two 
grooms who were lying across the stable door on a piece of 
hide, sound asleep, we set forth on our journey. 

The acropolis rose dark against the pearly sky, and the 
valley of the Cardoner lay cool and green in the lingering 
shadows. Early as was the hour, laborers were already on 
their way to the fields ; and when we reached the ancient 
bridge of seven arches, I saw the two old ladies of Solsona 
in advance, mounted on mules, and carrying their baskets, 
boxes, and dried codfish with them. Although my French 
guide-book declared that the road before me was scarcely 
practicable, the sight of these ladies was a better authority 
to the contrary. I mounted at the bridge, and joined the 
cavalcade, which was winding across a level tract of land, 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 239 

between walled fields and along the banks of irrigating 
canals. Juan, however, found the mules too slow, and 
soon chose a side-path, which, in the course of a mile or 
two, brought us into the main track, some distance in ad 
vance of the old ladies. By this time the sun was up and 
blazing on all the hills ; the wide, open country about Car- 
dona came to an end, and we struck into a narrow glen, 
covered with forests of pine. Juan directed me to ford 
the river and follow the track on the opposite side, while 
he went on to a foot-bridge farther up. " In a few mi 
nutes," he said, " you will find a carretera" a cart-road, 
which proved to be a superb macadamized highway, yet 
virgin of any wheel. Men were working upon it, smooth 
ing the turf on either side, and leveling the gravel as care 
fully as if the Queen s mail-coach travelled that way ; but 
the splendid piece of workmanship has neither beginning 
nor end, and will be utterly useless until it touches a fin 
ished road somewhere. 

A short distance farther the glen expanded, and I re- 
crossed the river by a lofty new bridge. The road was 
carried over the bottom-land on an embankment at least 
forty feet high, and then commenced ascending the hills 
on the northern bank. After passing a little village on the 
first height, we entered a forest of pine, which continued 
without interruption for four or five miles. The country 
became almost a wilderness, and wore a singular air of 
loneliness, contrasted with the busy region I had left be 
hind. As I approached the summit, the view extended 
far and wide over a dark, wooded sweep of hills, rarely 
broken by a solitary farm-house and the few cleared fields 
around it. On the nearer slope below me there was now 
and then such a house ; but the most of them were in 
ruins, and young pines were shooting up in the deserted 
vineyards. The Catalans are so laborious in their habits, 
so skilled in the art of turning waste into fruitful land, 
that there must have been some special reason for this 



240 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






desolation. My guide either could not or would not ex 
plain it 

When we reached the northern side of the mountain, 
cultivation again commenced, and I saw the process of 
clearing woodland and preparing the soil for crops. The 
trees are first removed, the stumps and roots dug up, and 
then all the small twigs, brambles, weeds, and dry sticks, 
everything, in fact, which cannot be used for lumber 
and firewood, are gathered into little heaps all over the 
ground, and covered with the top soil. A year, probably, 
must elapse, before these heaps are tolerably decomposed ; 
then they are spread upon the surface and ploughed under. 
The virgin soil thus acquired is manured after every crop, 
and there is no such thing as an exhausted field. 

The fine highway came to an end as suddenly as it had 
commenced, in the rough forest, with no village near. The 
country became broken and irregular, and the bridle-path 
descended continually through beautiful groves of oak, 
with an undergrowth of box and lavender, the odors from 
which filled the air. I was nearly famished, when, after 
a journey of five or six leagues, we emerged from the 
woods, and saw the rich valley-basin of Solsona before us, 
with the dark old town in its centre. Here, again, every 
available foot of soil was worked into terraces, drained or 
irrigated as the case might be, and made to produce its 
utmost. As I rode along the low walls, the ripe, heavy 
ears of wheat leaned over and brushed my head. Although 
there is no wheeled vehicle not even a common cart 
in this region, all the roads being the rudest bridle paths, 
the town is approached by a magnificent bridge of a dozen 
arches, spanning a grassy hollow, at the bottom of which 
flows a mere thread of a brook. 

At the farther end of the bridge, a deserted gateway 
ushers the traveller into Solsona. Few strangers, I sus 
pect, ever enter the place ; for labor ceased as I passed 
alon<r the streets, and even Don Basilio, on his way home 



CATALOXIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 241 

from morning mass, lifted his shovel hat, and bowed pro 
foundly. Many of the houses were in ruins, and bore the 
marks of fire and balls. I rode into the ground-floor of a 
dark house which bore no sign or symbol over the door, 
but Juan assured me that it was an inn. A portly, digni 
fied gentleman advanced out of the shadows, and addressed 
me in the purest Castilian ; he was the landlord, and his 
daughter was cook and waiting-maid. The rooms above 
were gloomy and very ancient ; there was scarcely a piece 
of furniture which did not appear to be two centuries old ; 
yet everything was clean and orderly. 

" Can we have breakfast ? " I asked. 

" Whatever we have is at your disposition," said the land 
lord. " What would you be pleased to command ? " 

" Eggs, meat, bread, and wine ; but nothing that cannot 
be got ready in a few minutes." 

The landlord bowed, and went into the kitchen. Pres 
ently he returned and asked, " Did I understand you to 
wish for meat, Cavalier ? " 

" Certainly, if you have it," I replied. 

" Yes, we have it in the house," said he ; " but I didn t 
know what your custom was." 

I did not guess what he meant until a plate of capital 
mutton-chops was smoking under my nose. Then it 
flashed across my mind that the day was Friday, and I no 
better than a heathen in the eyes of my worthy host. Ac 
cording to the country custom of Spain, master and groom 
fare alike, and Juan took his seat beside me without wait 
ing for an invitation. I ought to have invited the landlord, 

rt & 

but I was too hungry to remember it. To my surprise 
and relief also Juan ate his share of the chops, and there 
was a radiant satisfaction on his countenance. I have no 
doubt he looked upon me as the responsible party, and did 
not even consider it worth while to confess afterwards. 
" You have a beautiful country here," I remarked to the 

16 






242 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

landlord, knowing that such an expression is always ac 
cepted as a half-compliment. 

" It is a country," he exclaimed with energy, " que nada 
faUa, which lacks nothing ! There is everything you 
want ; there is not a better country under the sun ! No, it 
is not the country that we complain of." 

" What then ? " I asked. 

For a moment he made no reply, then, apparently chang 
ing the subject, said, " Did you see the houses in ruins as 
you came into Solsona? That was done in the Carlist 
wars. We suffered terribly : nearly half the people of this 
region were slaughtered." 

" What good comes of these wars ? " I asked. " Is any 
thing better than it was before ? What have you to offset 
all that fire and murder ? " 

" That s it ! " he cried ; " that was what I meant." 

He shook his head in a melancholy way, drank a glass 
of wine, and said, as if to prevent my continuing the sub 
ject : " You understand how to travel, or you would not 
come into such wild parts as these. But here, instead of 
having the rattling of cart-wheels in your ears all day, you 
have the songs of the nightingales. You don t have dust in 
your nose, but the smell of grain and flowers ; you can 
start when you please, and ride as far as you like. That s 
my way to travel, and I wish there were more people of the 
same mind. We don t often see a foreign cavalier in 
Solsona, yet it s not a bad country, as you yourself say." 

By this time Juan and I had consumed the chops and 
emptied the bottle ; and, as there were still six leagues to 
be travelled that day, we prepared to leave Solsona. The 
town, of barely two thousand inhabitants, has an ancient 
church, a deserted palace of the former Dukes of Cardona, 
and a miraculous image of the Virgin neither of which 
things is sufficiently remarkable in its way to be further 
described. The age of the place is apparent ; a dark, cool, 
mournful atmosphere of the Past fills its streets, and the 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 243 

traces of recent war seem to have been left from mediaeval 
times. 

The sky was partly overcast, but there was an intense, 
breathless heat in the air. Our path led across the boun 
teous valley into a wild ravine, which was spanned by two 
ancient aqueducts. The pointed arch of one of them 
hinted of Moorish construction, as well as the platform and 
tank of a fountain in a rocky nook beyond. Here the 
water gushed out in a powerful stream, as in those foun 
tains of the Anti-Lebanon in the country of Galilee. 
Large plane-trees shaded the spot, and the rocks overhung 
it on three sides, yet no one was there to enjoy the shade 
and coolness. The place was sad, because so beautiful 
and so lonely. 

At the farther end of the ravine we entered a forest of 
pine, with an undergrowth of box, and commenced ascend 
ing the mountain-range dividing the Valley of Solsona from 
that of the Rio Salado. It might have been the Lesser 
Atlas, and the sky that of Africa, so fierce was the heat, so 
dry and torn the glens up the sides of which toiled my 
laboring horse. Birds and insects were alike silent : the 
lizard, scampering into his hole in the red bank of earth, 
was the only living thing. For an hour or more we slowly 
plodded upward ; then, emerging from the pine wood upon 
a barren summit, I looked far and wide over a gray, for 
bidding, fiery land. Beyond the Salado Valley, which lay 
beneath me, rose a range of uninhabited mountains, half 
clothed with forest or thicket, and over them the outer 
Pyrenees, huge masses of bare rock, cut into sharp, irreg 
ular forms. A house or two, and some cultivated patches, 
were visible along the banks of the Salado ; elsewhere, 
there was no sign of habitation. 

The bajada, or descent to the river, was so steep and 
rough that I was forced to dismount and pick my way 
down the zigzags of burning sand and sliding gravel. At 
the bottom I forded the river, the water of which is saline. 



244 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

and then hastened to a mill upon the further bank, to pro 
cure a cup of water. The machinery was working in 
charge of a lusty girl, who shut off the water while she ran 
to a spring in the ravine behind, and filled an earthen jar. 
There was nothing of Spanish grace and beauty about her. 
She had gray eyes, a broad, flat nose, brown hair, broad 
shoulders, and the arms and legs of a butcher. But she 
was an honest, kind-hearted creature, and the joyous good 
will with which she served me was no less refreshing than 
the water. 

The path now followed the course of the Rio Salado, 
under groves of venerable ilex, which fringed the foot of 
the mountain. Thickets of box and tamarisk overhung 
the stream, and the sight of the water rushing and mur 
muring through sun and shade, made the heat more endur 
able. Another league, however, brought me to the little 
hamlet of Ojern, where my road took to the hills again. 
Nature has given this little place a bay of rich soil between 
the river and the mountains, man has blackened it with 
fire and riddled it with shot ; and between the two it has 
become a complete and surprising picture. Out of superb 
gardens of orange and fig trees, over hedges of roses and 
wild mounds of woodbine, rise the cracked and tottering 
walls heaps of ruin, but still inhabited. Nothing could 
be finer than the contrast of the riotous vegetation, strug 
gling to grow away from the restraining hand into its sav 
age freedom, with the firm texture, the stubborn forms and 
the dark, mellow coloring of the masonry. Of course the 
place was dirty, and offended one sense as much as it de 
lighted the other. It is a pity that neatness and comfort 
cannot be picturesque. 

I knew that the Rio Segre could not be very distant, but 
I was far from guessing how much the way might be 
lengthened by heat and almost impracticable roads. This 
ascent was worse than the former, since there was no forest 
to throw an occasional shade. A scrubby chaparral covered 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 245 

the red and flinty slopes, upon which the sun beat until 
the air above them quivered. My horse was assailed with 
a large gad-fly, and kicked, stamped, and whirled his head 
as if insane. I soon had occasion to notice a physiological 
fact that the bones of a horse s head are more massive 
than those of the human shin. When we reached the sum 
mit of the mountain, after a long, long pull, I was so 
bruised, shaken, and exhausted that Juan was obliged to 
help me out of the saddle, or rather, the crevice between 
two piles of baggage in which I was wedged. The little 
imp came back chuckling, and said, " I told you so ! " In 
such cases. I always recall Cicero s consolatory remark, and 
go on my way with fresh courage. 

Moreover, far below, at the base of the bare peaks of 
rock which rose against the western sky, I saw the glitter 
of the Rio Segre, and knew that my day s labor was nearly 
at an end. The descent was so rugged that I gave the 
reins to Juan, and went forward on foot. After getting 
down the first steep, the path fell into and followed the 
dry bed of a torrent, which dropped rapidly towards the 
river. In half an hour I issued from the fiery ravine, and 
was greeted by a breeze that had cooled its wings on the 
Pyrenean snow. Olive-trees again shimmered around me, 
and a valley-bed of fruitful fields expanded below. A mile 
further, around the crest of the lower hills, I found myself 
on a rocky point, just over the town of Oliana. It was the 
oldest and brownest place I had seen, up to this time ; but 
there was shade in its narrow streets, and rest for me under 
one of its falling roofs. A bell in the tall, square tower of 
the church chimed three ; and Juan, coming up with the 
horse, insisted that I should mount, and make my entrance 
as became a cavalier. 

I preferred comfort to dignity ; but when everybody can 
see that a man has a horse, he really loses nothing by 
walking. The first houses we passed appeared to be de 
serted ; then came the main street, in which work, gossip, 



246 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






and recreation were going on in the open air. Here there 
was a swinging sign with the word " Hostal " over the inn 
door, and most welcome was that inn, with its unwashed 
floors, its fleas, and its odors of garlic. I was feverish with 
the absorption of so much extra heat, and the people 
gave me the place of comfort at an open window, with a 
view of green fields between the poplars. Below me there 
was a garden belonging to the priest, who, in cassock and 
shovel-hat, was inspecting his vegetables. Gathering up 
his sable skirts, he walked mincingly between the rows of 
lettuce and cauliflower, now and then pointing out a lan 
guishing plant, which an old woman in attendance then 
proceeded to refresh by flinging water upon it with a pad 
dle, from a tank in a corner of the garden. Browning s 
" Soliloquy in a Spanish Cloister " came into my head, and 
I think I should have cried out, could the padre have un 
derstood the words : " O, that rose has prior claims ! " I 
must say, however, that the garden was admirably kept, 
and the priest s table was all the better for his horticultural 
tastes. 

There were three or four jolly fellows in the inn, who 
might have served in Sherman s army, they were so tall 
and brown and strong. My attention was drawn from the 
priest by their noise and laughter, and I found them gath 
ered about a wild-looking man, dressed in rags. The lat 
ter talked so rapidly, in the Catalan dialect, that I could 
understand very little of what he said ; but the landlady 
came up and whispered, " He s a loco (an idiot), but he 
does no harm." To me he seemed rather to be a genius, 
with a twist in his brain. He was very quick in retort, 
and often turned the laugh upon his questioner ; while 
from his constant appeals to " Maria Santissima," a strong 
religious idea evidently underlay his madness. The land 
lord gave him a good rneal, and he then went on his way, 
cheerful, perhaps happy, in his isolation. 

I suppose Juan must have been well satisfied to eat 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 247 

meat on a Friday without the sin being charged to his per 
sonal account, and must therefore have given a hint to the 
landlord ; for, without my order, a chicken was set before 
me at dinner, and he took the drumsticks as of right. 
When the sun got behind the tall mountain opposite, I 
wandered about the town, seeing nothing that seems worthy 
of being recorded, yet every view was a separate delight 
which I cannot easily forget. There were no peculiarities 
of architecture or of costume ; but the houses were so 
quaintly irregular, the effects of light and shade so bold 
and beautiful, the colors so balanced, that each street with 
its inhabitants might have been painted without change. 
There was a group before the shoemaker s door the 
workman on his bench, a woman with a shoe, a young fel 
low in a scarlet cap, who had paused to say a word, and 
two or three children tumbling on the stones ; another at 
the fountain women filling jars, coming and going with 
the load on hip or head ; another at the barber s, and all 
framed by houses brown as Murillo s color, with a back 
ground of shadow as rich as Rembrandt s. These are sub 
jects almost too simple to paint with the pen ; they require 
the pencil. 

In the evening, the sultry vapors which had been all day 
floating in the air settled over the gorge, and presently 
thunder-echoes were buffeted back and forth between the 
rocky walls. The skirts of a delicious rain trailed over the 
valley, and Night breathed odor and coolness and healing 
balsam as she came down from the western peaks. Rough 
and dirty as was the guests room of the " hostal," my bed 
room was clean and pleasant. A floor of tiles, a simple 
iron washstand resembling an ancient tripod, one chair, 
and a bed, coarsely, but freshly spread what more can a 
reasonable man desire ? The linen (though it is a bull to 
say so) was of that roughly woven cotton which one finds 
only in southern Europe, Africa, and the Orient, which al 
ways seems cool and clean, and has nothing in common 



248 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

with the frouzy, flimsy stuff we find in cheap places at 
home. Whoever has slept in a small new town (I beg par 
don, " city ") on an Illinois prairie, knows the feeling of 
soft, insufficient sheets and flabby pillows, all hinting of 
frequent use, between which he thinks, ere sleep conquers 
his disgust, of the handkerchief which awaits him as towel 
in the morning. In the poorest inn in Spain I am better 
lodged than in the Jimplecute House in Roaring City. 

Juan called me at three o clock, for another severe day 
was before us. Our road followed the course of the Rio 
Segre, and there were no more burning mountains to 
climb ; but both M. de Lavigne and Mr. Ford, in the little 
which they vouchsafed to say of this region, mentioned the 
frightful character of the gorges through which the river 

o o o o 

breaks his way downward to the Ebro ; and their accounts, 
if the timid traveller believes them, may well deter him 
from making the journey. In the cool half-hour before 
sunrise, as 1 rode across the circular valley, or conque, of 
Oliana, towards the gloomy portals of rock out of which 
the river issues, my spirits rose in anticipation of the wild 
scenery beyond. The vineyards and orchards were wet 
and fresh, and the air full of sweet smells. Clouds rested 
on all the stony summits, rising or falling as the breeze 
shifted. The path mounted to the eastern side of the 
gorge, where, notched along the slanting rock, it became a 
mere thread to the eye, and finally disappeared. 

As I advanced, however, I found that the passage was 
less dangerous than it seemed. The river roared far 
below, and could be reached by a single plunge ; but there 
was a good, well-beaten mule-track the same, and prob 
ably the only one, which has been used since the first 
human settlement. Soon after entering the gorge, it de 
scended to within a hundred feet of the river, and then 
crossed to the opposite bank by a bold bridge of a single 
arch, barely wide enough for a horse to walk upon. The 
parapet on either side was not more than two feet high, 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 249 

and it was not a pleasant sensation to look down from the 
saddle upon the roaring and whirling flood. Yet the feel 
ing was one which must be mastered ; for many a mile of 
sheer precipice lay before me. The Segre flows through a 
mere cleft in the heart of the terrible mountains, and the 
path continuously overhangs the abyss. Bastions of naked 
rock, a thousand feet high, almost shut out the day; and 
the traveller, after winding for hours in the gloom of their 
shadows, feels as if buried from the world. 

The sides of the gorge are nearly perpendicular, and the 
dark gray rock is unrelieved by foliage, except where soil 
enough has lodged to nourish a tuft of box ; yet here and 
there, wherever a few yards of less abrupt descent occur, 
in spots not entirely inaccessible, the peasants have built 
a rude wall, smoothed the surface, and compelled a scanty 
tribute of grass or grain. Tall, wild-looking figures, in 
brown jackets and knee-breeches, with short, broad-bladed 
scythes flashing on their shoulders, met us; and as they 
leaned back in the hollows of the rock to let us pass, with 
the threatening implements held over their heads, a very 
slight effort of the imagination made them more dangerous 
than the gulf which yawned on the opposite side of the 
path. They were as rough and savage as the scenery in 
appearance ; but in reality they were simple-hearted, honest 
persons. All that I saw of the inhabitants of this part of 
Catalonia assured me that I was perfectly safe among them. 
After the first day of my journey, I gave up the prospect 
of finding danger enough to make an adventure. 

By and by the path, so lonely for the first hour after 
starting, began to be animated. The communication be- 

O O 

tween the valleys of the Spanish Pyrenees and the lower 
Segre, as far as Lerida, is carried on through this defile, 
and pack-mules were met from time to time. Juan walked 
in advance, listening for the tinkling bells of the coming 
animals, and selecting places were the road was broad 
enough for us to pass without clanger. Sometimes I waited, 



250 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






sometimes they one leaning close against tlje rock, one 
pacing slowly along the brink, with the riverjljelow boom 
ing into caverns cut out of the interlocking bases of the 
mountains. As the path sank or rose, accommodating it 
self to the outline of the cliffs, and the bells of the unseen 
mules or horses chimed in front around some corner of the 
gorge, they chimed to my ears the words of another, who 
foresaw as well as remembered. 

0. dear and distant Friend and Poet ! henceforth I shall 
hear your voice in this music of Spain. All that day, in 
the wild and wonderful canons of the Segre, you rode with 
me ; and poetical justice demanded that I should have paid, 
like Uhland to his boatman, for the other spirit who sat 
upon my weary steed. I tried to look with your clear eyes, 
so quick to detect and interpret beauty ; and I try now to 
write of the scenery, so that you may behold it through 
mine. As turn after turn of the winding gorge disclosed 
some grander conformation of the overhanging heights, 
some new pinnacle of rock piercing the air, or cavern 
opening its dark arch at the base of a precipice, I drew 
you from your quiet cottage by the Merrimack, and said, as 
we paused together in a myrtle-roofed niche in the rocks, 
" All this belongs to us, for we alone have seen it ! " 

But, alas ! how much of subtle form, of delicate grada 
tion of color, of fleeting moods of atmosphere, escapes us 
when we try to translate the experience of the eyes ! I 
endeavor to paint the living and breathing body of Nature, 
and I see only a hard black silhouette, like those shadows 
of grandfathers which hang in old country homes. Only 
to minds that of themselves understand and can guess is 
the effort not lost. A landscape thus partly describes it 
self; and so, in this case, I must hope that something of 
the grand and lonely valley of the Rio Segre may have 
entered into my words. 

Perhaps the best general impression of the scenery may 
be suggested by a single peculiarity. Two hours after 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 251 

entering the defile, I issued from it into the conque of 
Nargo an open circular basin some three miles in 
breadth, beyond which the mountains again interlock. 
The term conque (shell?) is applied to these valleys, which 
occur regularly at intervals of from six to ten miles ; and 
their arrangement is picturesquely described in French as 
as being en chapekt, for they are literally strung like beads 
on the thread of the river. No part of Europe is so old 
(to the eye) as these valleys. There seems to have been 
no change for a thousand years. If the air were not so 
dry, one could fancy that the villages would be gradually 
buried under a growth of moss and lichens. The brown 
rust on their masonry is almost black, the walls of the ter 
raced fields are as secure in their places as the natural rock, 
and the scars left by wars are not to be distinguished from 
those of age. Whenever there is a surplus of population it 
must leave, for it cannot be subsisted. There may be 
mountain-paths leading inland from these valleys, but none 
are visible ; each little community is inclosed by a circle 
of tremendous stony walls and pinnacles, which the river 
alone has been able to pierce. 

At the further end of the conque of Nargo lay the vil 
lage, perched upon a bold crag. Several sharp, isolated 
mountains, resembling the horns and needles of the Alps, 
rose abruptly out of the open space ; and their lower faces 
of dark vermilion rock made a forcible contrast with the 
splendid green of the fields. We did not pause in the 
village, but descended its ladder of a street to the river- 
wall, and plunged at once into a second gorge, as grand 
and savage as the first, though no more than a league in 
extent. Juan again went ahead and warned the coming 
muleteers. In another hour I reached the conque of Or- 
gaiia, a rich and spacious tract of land, with the village of 
the same name on a rock, precisely like Nargo. A high, 
conical peak on the left appeared to be inaccessible, yet 
there was a white chapel on its very summit. u Look 
there ! " said Juan, "that saint likes a cool place." 



2i>2 BY-WAYS OF EUEOPE. 

Fine old walnut-tree made their appearance in this 
valley ; water was everywhere abundant, and the gardens 
through which I approached the village were filled with 
shade and the sound of streams. Indeed, the terraces of 
ancient vines and fruit-trees, mixed with cypresses and 
bosky alleys of flowering shrubs, might have belonged to 
the palaces of an extinct nobility ; but the houses which 
followed were those of peasants, smoky with age, low, dark, 
and dirty. A pack of school-children, in the main street, 
hailed me with loud shouts, whereat the mechanics looked 
up from their work, and the housewives came to the doors. 
There was a dusky inn, with a meek, pinched landlady, 
who offered eggs and a guisado (stew) with tomatoes. 
While these were cooking, she placed upon the table a 
broad-bellied bottle with a spout, something like an old- 
fashioned oil-can in shape. I was not Catalan enough to 
drink without a glass ; but Juan raising the bottle above 
his head, spirted a thin stream of wine into his open mouth, 
and drank long and luxuriously. When he was satisfied, a 
dexterous turn of the wrist cut off the stream, and not a 
drop was spilled. At the table, these bottles pass from 
hand to hand one cannot say from mouth to mouth, for 
the lips never touch them. I learned to drink in the same 
fashion without much difficulty, and learned thereby that 
much of the flavor of the wine is lost. The custom seems 
to have been invented to disguise a bad vintage. 

While we were breakfasting, a French peasant, whom I 
had seen at Oliana, arrived. He was on foot, and bound 
for Foix, by way of Andorra. This was also my route, and 
I accepted his offer of engaging another horse for me at 
Urgel, in the evening, and accompanying me over the Pyr 
enees. He was not a very agreeable person, but it was a 
satisfaction to find some one with whom I could speak. I 
left him at the table, with a company of Spanish muleteers, 
and never saw him afterwards. 

Before leaving Organa, I was stopped in the street by a 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 253 

man who demanded money, saying something about the 
" Pons," which I could not comprehend. It finally oc 
curred to me that the defile through which I was about to 
pass is named Los tres Pons (The Three Bridges) on the 
old maps of Catalonia, and that the man was asking for 
toll which proved to be the case. The three cuartos 
which 1 paid were the veriest trifle for the privilege of 
passing over such a road as followed. The mountains were 
here loftier, and therefore more deeply cloven ; the former 
little attempts at cultivation ceased, for even Catalonian 
thrift shrank from wresting any profit out of walls so bare 
and bluff that scarcely a wild goat could cling to their 
ledges. Two hundred feet below, the river beat against 
the rocks with a sullen, mysterious sound, while, from one 
to two thousand feet above, the jagged coping of the pre 
cipices cut the sky. A cool, steady wind drew down the 
cleft, filling it with a singular humming sound. The path 
crossed to the eastern side by a tremulous wooden bridge 
laid flat upon natural abutments ; then, a mile further, re- 
crossed by a lofty stone arch, under which there was a 
more ancient one, still perfect. Several miles of the same 
wonderful scenery succeeded scenery the like of which 
I know not where to find in Switzerland. The gorge of 
Gondo, on the Italian side of the Simplon, is similar in 
character, but less grand and majestic. Far up in the enor 
mous cliffs, I saw here and there the openings of cav 
erns, to which no man has ever climbed ; cut into the 
heart of inaccessible walls were unexpected glens, green 
nests of foliage, safe from human intrusion, where the 
nightingales sang in conscious security ; and there were 
points so utterly terrible in all their features that the ex 
istence of a travelled path was the greatest wonder of all. 
In the preceding defiles, Nature had accidentally traced 
out the way, but here it had been forced by sheer labor 
and daring. Sometimes it was hewn into the face of the 
upright rock ; sometimes it rested on arches built up from 



254 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

below, the worn masonry of which threatened to give way 
as I passed over. Now, fortunately, the tinkling of mule- 
bells was rare, for there were few points where travellers 
could safely meet. Convulsion was as evident in the struc 
ture of the mountains themselves as in their forcible sep 
aration. In some places the perpendicular strata were 
curiously bent, as if the top had cooled rapidly and begun 
to lean over upon the fluid ascending mass. The summits 
assumed the wildest and most fantastic forms, especially 
about the centre of the mountain range. When I had 
crossed the third bridge, which is more than a league 
above the second, the heights fell away, the glen gradually 
opened, and I saw before me the purple chain of the Pyr 
enees, mottled with dark patches of forest, and crested 
with snow. 

The pass of The Three Bridges has its tragic episode 
of recent history, in addition to those which the centuries 
have forgotten. Here, forty years ago, the Count of Spain, 
who governed Catalonia in the name of Ferdinand VIL, 
was betrayed by his own adjutant, by whom, and by a priest 
named Ferrer, he was murdered. The deed is supposed to 
have been committed at the instigation of Don Carlos. A 
stone was tied to the corpse, and it was flung from the 
rocks into the torrent of the Segre. The place breathes 
of vengeance and death ; and one seems to inhale a new 
air when he emerges into the conque of Le Pla, after 
being inclosed for two hours within those terrible gates. 

It was ti double delight to me to come upon lush mead 
ows, and smell the vernal sweetness of the flowering grass. 
Leaving the river on my left, I struck eastward along the 
sides of clayey hills, with slopes of vine above me, and the 
broad green meadows below. The vegetation had already 
a more northern character ; clumps of walnut, poplar, and 
willow grew by the brooksides, and the fields of wheat were 
not yet ripe for harvest. I passed a picturesque, tumbling 
village called Arfa, crossed the Segre for the last time, and 



CATALONIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 255 

then rode onward into a valley several miles in diameter, 
the bed of which was broken by rounded hills. This was 
the Valley of Urgel, or " the See," el seu, as it is called 
by the people in their dialect. The term recalls the days 
when the Bishop was a sovereign prince, and his see a 
temporal, as well as ecclesiastical government. 

Juan pointed out a fortress in advance, which I supposed 
to be the town. Near it, on the slope of the hill, there was 
a mass of buildings, baking in the afternoon sun ; and I 
know not which was most melancholy, the long lines of 
cracked, deserted ramparts on the hill, or the crumbling, 
uninhabited houses on the slope below. I did not see six 
persons in the place, which was not Urgel, but Castel 
Ciudad. The former city is a mile further, seated in the 
centre of the plain. I saw, on my left, the mouth of a glen 
of the Pyrenees, and guessed, before the groom said so, 
that within its depths lay the forgotten Republic of An 
dorra. The Valira, the one stream of the Republic, poured 
upon the plain its cold green waters, which I forded, in 
several channels, before reaching the gates of Urgel. 

Juan had cheered me with the promise of a good inn. 
The exterior of the house was, if anything, a trifle meaner 
than that of the neighboring houses ; the entrance was 
through a stable, and the kitchen and public room very 
dirty ; yet, these once passed, I entered a clean, spacious, 
and even elegant bedroom. A door therefrom opened 
upon a paved terrace, with a roof of vine and a superb 
view of the Pyrenees ; and hither, as I sat and rested my 
weary bones, came the landlord, and praised the country. 
There was inexhaustible coal in the mountains, he said ; 
there was iron in the water ; the climate was the best in 
Spain ; people were healthy and lived long and the only 
thing wanting was a road to some part of the world. 

The towns through which I had passed seemed as old 
and lonely as any towns could well be ; but they are tame 
beside the picturesque antiquity of Urgel. Nothing seems 



256 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

to have been changed here since the twelfth century. The 
streets are narrow and gloomy, but almost every house 
rests on massive arches, which form continuous arcades, 
where the mechanics sit and ply their avocations. The 
vistas of these arched passages are closed either with a 
single building of very primitive and ponderous architec 
ture, or by the stones of a wall as old as the times of the 
Moors. The place is like a gallery of old sepia drawings. 
I attracted the usual wonder, as I loitered through the 
gloom of the arcades ; work was suspended while I passed, 
and tongues were silent. When I entered the venerable 
cathedral, which was finished six hundred years ago, the 
solitary worshipper stopped in the midst of an ave, and 
stared at me with open mouth. The spacious Gothic nave, 
however, was less attractive than the pictures outside ; so I 
passed from the interior to the exterior shadows one 
about as dense as the other. Presently I came upon a 
massive house, with a magnificent flat-roofed arbor of 
grapes beside it, and was saying to myself that there was 
one fortunate person in the poverty-stricken capital, when 
the door opened and Don Basilio came forth with sweeping 
cassock and enormous hat. A little further, I found my 
self in a small plaza, one side of which was occupied by a 
building resembling a fortress. Over the door I read the 
inscription, " Princeps soberan del Vails de Andorra." 
This was the residence of the bishop, who claims the title 
of sovereign of the little republic ; his powers, in fact, being 
scarcely more than nominal. 

I was tempted to present myself to his Reverence, and 
state my intention of visiting Andorra ; but my information 
with regard to the republic was so vague that I knew not 
how such a visit might be regarded. I might be creating 
difficulty where none existed. With this prudent reflec 
tion I returned to the inn, and engaged a fresh horse and 
guide for the morrow, sending Juan back to Cardona. It 
was but an hour s ride, the landlord said, to the frontier. 



CATALOXIAN BRIDLE-ROADS. 257 

The region of ill-repute lay behind me ; the difficult bridle- 
roads were passed, and all evil predictions had come to 
naught. By-ways are better than highways, and if an in 
telligent young American, who knows the Spanish language, 
will devote a year to the by-ways of Spain, living with the 
people and in their fashion, he will find that all the good 
books of observation and adventure have not yet been 
written. 



17 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 



THERE are remote, forgotten corners of history, as there 
are of geography. When Halevy brought out his opera Le 
Val d Andorre, the name meant no more to the most of 
those who heard it than the Valley of Rasselas to our ears, 
a sound, locating a fiction. But the critic, who must 
seem to know everything, opened one of his lexicons, and 
discovered that Andorra was an actual valley, buried in the 
heart of the Pyrenees. Furthermore, he learned, for the 
first time, that its territory was an independent republic, 
preserved intact since the days of Charlemagne ; that both 
France and Spain, incredible as the fact may appear, have 
always scrupulously respected the rights granted to its 
inhabitants more than a thousand years ago. While the 
existence of every other state has in turn been menaced, 
while hundreds of treaties have been made only to be 
broken, here is a place where, like the castle of the Sleep 
ing Beauty, time has stood still, and History shut up her 
annals. 

Napoleon, when a deputation from the little republic 
visited him in Paris, said : " I have heard of this Andorra, 
and have purposely abstained from touching it, because I 
thought it ought to be preserved as a political curiosity." 
Louis Philippe, thirty years later, exclaimed : " What ! is it 
possible that I have a neighbor whose name I never heard 
before ? " I suspect that the name of Andorra on the ex 
cellent German maps, which overlook nothing, was the 
first indication of the existence of the state to many of those 
who are now acquainted with it. It was so in my case. 
From noting its position, and seeing its contracted bound 
aries, so carefully marked out, I went further, and picked 



262 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

up what fragments of information could be found in French 
and German geographical works. These were sufficiently 
curious to inspire me with the design of visiting the valley. 

On reaching Urgel, in the Spanish Pyrenees, I was 
within a league of the Andorran frontier. My way thither 
lay through the deep gorge out of which the river Valira 
issues, on its way to the Segre. The bald, snow-streaked 
summits in the north belonged to the territory of the re 
public, but whatever of life and labor it contained was 
buried out of sight in their breast. Nevertheless, the 
vague and sometimes threatening reports of the people 
which had reached me at a distance here vanished. Every 
body knew Andorra, and spoke well of it. I had some 
difficulty in finding a horse, which the landlord declared 
was on account of the unpractical shape and weight of my 
valise ; but, when I proposed going on foot, an animal was 
instantly produced. The arrieros could not let a good 
bargain slip out of their hands. 

It was a wonderful morning in mid June. The shadow 
of the Pyrenees still lay cool upon the broad basin of 
Urgel ; but the brown ramparts of Castel Ciudad on the 
rocks, and all the western heights, sparkled in sunshine. 
I found a nimble mountain pony waiting for me at the door 
of the inn, and Julian, my guide, a handsome fellow of 
twenty, in rusty velvet jacket and breeches, and scarlet 
Phrygian cap. A skin as brown as an Arab s ; an eye full 
of inexpressible melancholy ; a grave, sttent, but not gloomy 
nature all these had Julian ; yet he was the very com 
panion for such a journey. He strode from the gate of 
Urgel with a firm, elastic step, and I followed through the 
gray olive orchards across the plain. The lower terraces 
of the mountain were silvery with the olive ; but when 
the path turned into the gorge of the Valira, the landscape 
instantly changed. On one side rose a rocky wall ; on the 
other, meadows of blossoming grass, divided by thickets of 
alder and willow, slanted down to the rapid stream, the 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 2C3 

noise of which could scarcely be heard for the songs of the 
nightingales. Features like these, simple as they may 
seem, sometimes have a singular power to warm one s an 
ticipations of what lies beyond. There is a promise in 
certain scenery ; wherein it exists I cannot tell, but I have 
felt it frequently, and have never yet been disappointed. 

After I had threaded the gorge for two miles, it expanded 
into a narrow valley, where the little Spanish village of 
Arcacel lay huddled among the meadows. Beyond it, the 
mountains closed together again, forming an almost impas 
sable canon, along the sides of which the path was labo 
riously notched. There were a great many people abroad, 
and Julian was obliged to go in advance, and select spots 
where my horse could pass their mules without one or the 
other being pushed into the abyss below. Some of those 
I met were probably Andorrans, but I found as yet no 
peculiarities of face or costume. This is the only road 
from Spain into the republic, and is very rarely, if ever, 
traversed by a foreign tourist. The few persons who have 
visted Andorra, made their way into the valley from the 
side of France. 

As I rode forward, looking out from time to time, for 
some mark which would indicate the frontier, I recalled 
what little I had learned of the origin of the republic. 
There is not much which the most patient historian could 
establish as positive fact ; but the traditions of the people 
and the few records which they have allowed to be pub 
lished run nearly parallel, and are probably as exact as 
most of the history of the ninth century. On one point 
all the accounts agree that the independence of the val 
ley sprang indirectly from the struggle between the Franks 
and Saracens. When the latter possessed themselves of the 
Peninsula, in the beginning of the eighth century, a rem 
nant of the Visigoths took refuge in this valley, whence, 
later, they sent to Charlemagne, imploring assistance. 
After Catalonia had been reconquered, the Emperor so 



264 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 

runs the popular tradition gave them the valley as a re 
ward for their bravery in battle. The more probable ac 
count is, that Charlemagne sent his son, Louis le Debon- 
naire, who followed the last remnants of the Saracen army 
up the gorge of the Valira, and defeated them on the spot 
where the town of Andorra now stands. After the victory, 
he gave the valley to certain of his soldiers, releasing them 
from all allegiance except to himself. This was in the 
year 805. AVhat is called the " Charter of Charlemagne," 
by some of the French writers, is evidently this grant of 
his son. 

Within the following century, however, certain difficulties 
arose, which disturbed the inhabitants of the little state less 
than their powerful neighbors. Charlemagne had pre 
viously given, it appears, the tithes of all the region to 
Possidonius, Bishop of Urgel, and the latter insisted on 
retaining his right. Moreover, Charles the Bald, in 843, 
presented to Siegfrid, Count of Urgel, the right of sove 
reignty over Andorra, which Louis le Debounaire had re 
served for himself and his successors. Thus the spiritual 
and temporal lords of Urgel came in direct conflict, and 
the question remained undecided for two centuries ; the 
Andorrans, meanwhile, quietly attending to their own af 
fairs, and consolidating the simple framework of their gov 
ernment. Finally, at the consecration of the Cathedral of 
Urgel, in the year 1040, the widowed Countess Constance 
publicly placed the sovereignty claimed by her house in the 
hands of Bishop Heribald. (How curious it seems to find 
the name of Garibaldi occurring in this obscure history !) 
But this gift of Constance was not respected by her suc 
cessors, and the trouble broke out anew in the following 
century. We have but a meagre chain of detached inci 
dents, yet what passion, what intrigue, what priestly thirst 
of power and jealous resistance on the part of the nobles 
are suggested, as we follow the scanty record ! The 
Bishop of Urgel triumphs to this day, as he reads the in- 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 265 

scription over his palace-door : Princeps soberan del Vails 
de Andorra." 

At the end of the twelfth century, Arnald, Count of 
Castelbo, purchased certain privileges in the valley from 
Ermengol, Count of Urgel. The sale was resisted by the 
bishop, and a war ensued, in which the latter was defeated. 
Raymond-Roger, Count of Foix, was then called to aid the 
episcopal cause his promised reward being a share in 
the sovereignty of Andorra, the territory of which bordered 
his own. Notwithstanding he was victorious, having taken 
and sacked the city of Urgel, he seems to have considered 
his claim to the reward still insecure. In the year 1202 
he married his son and successor, Roger-Bernard II., to 
the daughter and only child of the Count of Castelbo. 
Thus the Bishop of Urgel saw the assumption of sove 
reignty which he had resisted transferred to the powerful 
house of Foix. It is stated, however, that, in all the wars 
which followed, both parties refrained from touching the 
disputed territory, in order that the value of the revenue 
expected from it might not be diminished. The Andor- 
rans themselves, though certainly not unconcerned, re 
mained perfectly passive. The fastnesses of the Pyrenees 
on all sides of them resounded with the noise of war, while 
they, one generation after another, tended their flocks and 
cultivated their fields. 

The quarrel (and it is almost the end of all history re 
lating to Andorra) came to a close in the year 1278. 
Roger-Bernard III. of Foix, before the gates of Urgel, 
which must soon have yielded to him, accepted the pro 
posal for an arbitration Don Pedro of Aragon having 
offered his name as security for the fulfillment of the terms 
which might be agreed upon. Two priests and four knights 
were the arbitrators ; and the Pariatges (Partitions) which 
they declared on the 7th of September of the year already 
mentioned settled the question of the sovereignty of An 
dorra from that clay to this. Its principal features were 



266 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

that a slight tribute should be paid by the people, on alter 
nate years, to the Counts of Foix and the Bishops of Urgel ; 
and that certain officials of the Valley should, in like man 
ner, be named alternately by the two parties. In all other 
respects, the people were left free. The neutrality of their 
territory, which had been so marvelously preserved for 
four centuries and a half, was reaffirmed ; and it has never 
since been violated. During the wars of Napoleon, a 
French army appeared on the frontiers of the republic 
with the intention of marching through it into Spain ; but 
on the judges and consuls representing to the commanding 
general the sacred neutrality of their valley, he turned 
about and chose another route. 

The house of Foix became merged in that of Beam, and 
the inheritance of the latter, in turn, passed into the hands 
of the Bourbons. Thus the crown of France succeeded to 
the right reserved by Louis le Debonnaire, and presented 
by Charles the Bald to Siegfrid, Count of Urgel. The 
Andorrans, who look upon their original charter as did 
the Hebrews on their Ark of the Covenant, consider that 
the Pariatges are equally sanctioned by time and the favor 
of God ; and, so far from feeling that the tribute is a sign 
of subjection, they consider that it really secures their in 
dependence. They therefore do not allow the revolutions, 
the change of dynasties which France has undergone, to 
change their relation to the governing power. They were 
filled with dismay, when, in 1793, the representative of the 
French Republic in Foix refused to accept the tribute, on 
the ground that it was a relic of the feudal system. For 
six or -seven years thereafter they feared that the end of 
things was at hand ; but the establishment of the Empire, 
paradoxical as it may appear, secured to them their repub 
lic. They seem never to have considered that the refusal 
of the French authorities gave them a valid pretext to 
cease the further payment of the tribute. 

This is the sum and substance of the history of Andorra. 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 267 

No one can help feeling that a wholly exceptional fortune 
has followed this handful of people. All other rights given 
by Charlemagne and his successors became waste paper 
long since : the Counts of Urgel, the houses of Foix and 
Beam, have disappeared, and the Bourbons have ceased to 
reign in France, yet the government of the little re 
public preserves the same forms which were established in 
the ninth century, and the only relations \vhich at present 
connect it with the outer world date from the year 1278. 
I endeavored to impress these facts upon my mind, as the 
gorge opened into a narrow green valley, blocked up in 
front by the Andorran mountains. I recalled that pic 
turesque legend of the knight of the Middle Ages, who, 
penetrating into some remote nook of the Apennines, found 
a forgotten Roman city, where the people still kept their 
temples and laid their offerings on the altars of the gods. 
The day was exquisitely clear and sunny; the breezes of 
the Pyrenees blew away every speck of vapor from the 
mountains, but I saw everything softly through that veil 
which the imagination weaves for us. 

Presently we came upon two or three low houses. At 
the door of the furthest two Spanish soldiers were standing, 
one of whom stepped forward when he saw me. A picture 
of delay, examination, bribery, rose in my mind. I as 
sumed a condescending politeness, saluted the man gravely, 
and rode forward. To my great surprise no summons fol 
lowed. I kept on my way without looking back, and in 
two minutes was out of Spain. Few travellers have ever 
left the kingdom so easily. 

The features of the scenery remained the same nar 
row, slanting shelves of grass and grain, the Valira foam 
ing below, and the great mountains of gray rock towering 
into the sky. In another half-hour I saw the little town 
of San Julian de Loria, one of the six municipalities of 
Andorra. As old and brown as Urgel, or the villages 
along the Rio Segre, it was in no wise to be distinguished 



268 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

from them. The massive stone walls of the houses were 
nearly black ; the roofs of huge leaves of slate were cov 
ered with a red rust ; and there were no signs that any 
thing had been added or taken away from the place for 
centuries. As my horse clattered over the dirty paving- 
stones, mounting the one narrow, twisted street, the people 
came to the doors, and looked upon me with a grave curi 
osity. I imagined at once that they were different from 
the Catalans, notwithstanding they spoke the same dialect, 
and wore very nearly the same costume. The expression 
of their faces was more open and fearless ; a cheerful gravity 
marked their demeanor. I saw that they were both self- 
reliant and contented. 

While Julian stopped to greet some of his friends, I rode 
into a very diminutive plaza, where some thirty or forty of 
the inhabitants were gossiping together. An old man, 
dressed in pale blue jacket and knee-breeches, with a red 
scarf around his waist, advanced to meet me, lifting his 
scarlet cap in salutation. 

" This is no longer Spain ? " I asked. 

" It is neither France nor Spain," said he ; "it is An 
dorra." 

" The Republic of Andorra ? " 

" They call it so." 

" I am also a citizen of a republic," I then said ; but, 
although his interest was evidently excited, he asked me no 
questions. The Andorran reserve is proverbial throughout 
Catalonia ; and as I had already heard of it, I voluntarily 
gave as much information respecting myself as was neces 
sary. A number of men, young and old, had by this time 
collected, and listened attentively. Those who spoke Span 
ish mingled in the conversation, which, on my part, was 
purposely guarded. Some degree of confidence, however 
seemed to be already established. They told me that they 
were entirely satisfied with their form of government 
and their secluded life ; that they were poor, but much 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 269 

wealth would be of no service to them, and, moreover 
(which was true), that they were free because they were 
poor. When Julian appeared, he looked with surprise upon 
the friendly circle around me, but said nothing. It was still 
two hours to Andorra la Vella (Old Andorra), the capital, 
which I had decided to make my first resting-place; so I 
said, " Aclios ! " all the men responding, " Dios guarda ! " 

Beyond the village I entered upon green meadow-land, 
shaded by grand walnut-trees, mounds of the richest fo 
liage. The torrent of Avina came down through a wild 
glen on the left, to join the Valira, and all the air vibrated 
with the sound of waters and the incessant songs of the 
nightingales. People from the high, unseen mountain 
farms and pasture-grounds met me on their way to San 
Julian ; and their greeting was always " God guard you ! " 
hinting of the days when travel was more insecure than 
now. When the mountains again contracted, and the path 
clung to the sides of upright mountain walls, Julian went 
in advance, and warned the coming muleteers. Vegetation 
ceased, except the stubborn clumps of box, which had fas 
tened themselves in every crevice of the precipices ; and 
the nightingales, if any had ventured into the gloomy gorge, 
were silent. For an hour I followed its windings, steadily 
mounting all the while ; then the rocks began to lean away, 
the smell of flowering grass came back to the air, and I 
saw, by the breadth of blue sky opening ahead, that we 
were approaching the Valley of Andorra. 

The first thing that met my eyes was a pretty pastoral 
picture. Some rills from the melting snows had been caught 
and turned into an irrigating canal, the banks of which 
were so overgrown with brambles and wild-flowers that it 
had become a natural stream. Under a gnarled, wide- 
armed ilex sat a father, with his two youngest children ; two 
older ones gathered flowers in the sun ; and the mother, 
with a basket in her hand, paused to look at me in the 
meadow below. The little ones latched and shouted ; the 



270 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

father watched them with bright, happy eyes, and over and 
around them the birds sang without fear. And this is the 
land of smugglers and robbers ! I thought. Turning in 
the saddle, I watched the group as long as it was visible. 

When I set my face forward again, it was with a sudden 
catch of the breath and a cry of delight. The promise of 
the morning was fulfilled ; beautiful beyond anticipation 
was the landscape expanded before me. It was a valley 
six miles in length, completely walled in by immense moun 
tains, the bases of which, withdrawn in the centre, left a 
level bed of meadows, nearly a mile broad, watered by the 
winding Valira. Terraces of grain, golden below, but still 
green above, climbed far up the slopes ; then forest and 
rock succeeded ; and finally the gray pinnacles, with snow 
in their crevices, stood mantled in their own shadows. 
Near the centre of the valley, on a singular rocky knoll, 
the old houses and square tower of Andorra were perched, 
as if watching over the scene. In front, where the river 
issued from a tremendous split between two interlocking 
mountains, I could barely distinguish the houses of Escal- 
das from the cliffs to which they clung. Nothing could be 
simpler and grander than the large outlines of the scene, 
nothing lovelier than its minuter features, so wonderfully 
suggesting both the garden and the wilderness, the fresh 
green of the North and the hoary hues and antique forms 
of the South. Brimming with sunshine and steeped in 
delicious odors, the valley after the long, dark gorge I 
had threaded seemed to flash and sparkle with a light 
unknown to other lands. 

Shall I ever forget the last three miles of my journey ? 
Crystal waters rushed and murmured beside my path ; 
great twisted ilex-trees sprang from the masses of rock ; 
mounds of snowy eglantine or purple clematis crowned the 
cliffs or hung from them like folded curtains ; and the dark 
shadows of walnut and poplar lay upon the lush fields of 
grass and flowers. The nightingale and thrush sang on 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 271 

the earth, and the lark in the air ; and even the melan 
choly chant of the young farmer in his fields seemed to be 
only that soft undercurrent of sadness which was needed 
to make the brightness and joy of the landscape complete. 

Climbing the rocks to the capital, I was pleasantly sur 
prised to see the sign " Hostal " before I had made more 
than two turns of the winding street. The English guides, 
both for France and Spain, advise the adventurous tourist 
who wishes to visit Andorra to take his provender with 
him, since nothing can be had in the valley. A friendly 
host came to the door, and welcomed me. Dinner, he said, 
would be ready in an hour and a half; but the appearance 
of the cheerful kitchen into which I was ushered so pro 
voked my already ravenous hunger that an omelette was 
made instantly, and Julian and I shared it between us. 
An upper room, containing a coarse but clean bed, which 
barely found room for itself in a wilderness of saddles and 
harness, was given to me, and I straightway found myself 
at home in Andorra. So much for guide books ! 

I went forth to look at the little capital before dinner. 
Its population is less than one thousand ; the houses are 
built of rudely broken stones of schist or granite, and 
roofed with large sheets of slate. The streets seem to 
have been originally located where the surface of the rock 
rendered them possible ; but there are few of them, and 
what the place has to show may be speedily found. I felt 
at once the simple, friendly, hospitable character of the 
people : they saluted me as naturally and genially as if I 
had been an old acquaintance. Before I had rambled 
many minutes, I found myself before the Casa del Vails, 
the House of Government. It is an ancient, cracked build 
ing, but when erected I could not ascertain. The front is 
simple and massive, with three irregular windows, and a 
large arched entrance. A tower at one corner threatens 
to fall from want of repair. Over the door is the inscrip 
tion : " Domus consilii, sedes justitiae." There is also a 



272 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






marble shield, containing the arms of the Republic, and 
apparently inserted at a more recent date. The shield is 
quartered with the mitre and crosier of the Bishop of Ur- 
gel, the four crimson bars of Catalonia, the three bars on 
an azure field of Foix, and the cows of Beam. Under the 
shield is sculptured the Latin verse : 

" Suspice : sunt vallis neutrius stemmata ; sunt qtie 

Regna, quibu s gaudent nobiliora tegi : 

Singula si populos alios, Andorra, beabunt, 

Quidni juncta ferent aurca secla tibi ! " 

I suspect, although I have no authority for saying so, that 
this verse comes from Fiter, the only scholar Andorra ever 
produced, who flourished in the beginning of the last cen 
tury. The ground-floor of the building consists of stables, 
where the members of the council lodge their horses when 
they meet officially. A tumbling staircase leads to the 
second story, which is the council-hall, containing a table 
and three chairs on a raised platform, a picture of Christ 
between the windows, and oaken benches around the walls. 
The great object of interest, however, is a massive chest, 
built into the wall, and closed with six strong iron locks, 
connected by a chain. This contains the archives of An 
dorra, including, as the people devoutly believe, the origi 
nal charters of Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire. 
Each consul of the six parishes is intrusted with the keep 
ing of one key, and the chest can only be opened when all 
six are present. It would be quite impossible for a stran 
ger to get a sight of the contents. The archives are said 
to be written on sheets of lead, on palm-leaves, on parch 
ment, or on paper, according to the age from which they 
date. The chest also contains the " Politar," or Annals 
of Andorra, with a digest of the laws, compiled by the 
scholar Fiter. The government did not allow the work to 
be published, but there is another manuscript copy in the 
possession of the Bishop of Urgel. 

I climbed the huge mass of rock behind the building, 






THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 273 

and sat down upon its crest to enjoy the grand, sunny pic 
ture of the valley. The mingled beauty and majesty of 
the landscape charmed me into a day-dream, in which the 
old, ever-recurring question was lazily pondered, whether 
or not this plain, secluded, ignorant life was the happiest 
lot of man. But the influences of the place were too sweet 
and soothing for earnest thought, and a clock striking noon 
recalled me to the fact that a meal was ready in the hostal. 
The host sat down to the table with Julian and myself, and 
the spout of the big-bellied Catalonian bottle overhung our 
mouths in succession. We had a rough but satisfactory 
dinner, during which I told the host who I was and why I 
came, thereby winning his confidence to such an extent 
that he presently brought me an old, dirty Spanish pam 
phlet, saying, " You may read this." 

Seeing that it was a brief and curious account of An 
dorra, I asked, " Cannot I buy this or another copy ? " 

" No," he answered ; u it is not to be bought. You can 
read it ; but you must give it to me again." 

I selected a dark corner of the kitchen, lit my cigar? 
and read, making rapid notes when I was not observed. 
The author was a nephew of one of the bishops of Urgel, 
and professed to have seen with his own eyes the charter 
of Louis le Debonnaire. That king, he stated, defeated 
the Saracens on the plain towards Escaldas, where the 
western branch of the Valira comes down from the Valley 
of Ordino. Before the battle, a passage from the Book of 
Kings came into his mind : " Endor, over against Mount 
Tabor, where the children of Israel, preparing for war 
against the heathen, pitched their camp " ; and after the 
victory he gave the valley the name of Endor, whence An 
dorra. The resemblance, the author innocently remarks, 
is indeed wonderful. In both places there are high moun 
tains ; the same kinds of trees grow (!) ; a river flows 
through each ; there are lions and leopards in Endor, and 
bears and wolves in Andorra ! He then gives the following 

18 



74 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

quotation from the charter, which was written in Latin ; 
k * The men who actually live in this country are Licindo, 
Laurentio, Obaronio, Antimirio, Guirinio, Suessonio, Bar- 
rulio, rustic laborers, and many others." Louis le Dobon- 
naire returned to France by the present Porte de Fontar- 
geute, where, on the summit of the Pyrenees, he caused 
a chain to be stretched from rock to rock. The holes 
drilled for the staples of the rings are still to be seen, the 
people say. 

When I had finished the book, I went out again, ami 
in the shade of a willow in the meadow below, made a 
rough sketch of the town and the lofty Mont Anclar (nwns 
clavus) behind it As I returned, the lower part of the 
valley offered such lovely breadths of light and shade that 
I sought a place among the tangle of houses and rocks to 
make a second drawing. The women, with their children 
around them, sat at their doors, knitting and chatting. One 
cried out to another, as I took my seat on the ground, 
TVhy don t you bring a chair for the cavalier?" The 
chair was brought immediately, and the children gathered 
around, watching my movements. The mothers kept 
them in good order, every now and then crying out. Don t 
go too near, and don t stand in front ! " Among themselves 
they talked freely about me ; but, as they asked no ques 
tions, I finally said, " I understand you ; if you will ask, I 
will answer," whereupon they laughed and were silent. 

I have already said that reserve is a marked character 
istic of the Andorrans. No doubt it sprang originally 
from their consciousness of their weakness, and their fear 
to lose their inherited privileges by betraying too much 
about themselves. \VTien one of them is questioned upon 
a point concerning which he thinks it best to be silent, he 
assumes a stupid expression of face, and appears not to 
understand. That afternoon a man came to me in the inn. 
produced a rich specimen of galena, and said, " Do you 
know what that is ? " * Certainly," I answered ; u it is the 



THL UIII UKLIC Or THK J V . 27- r , 

ore of lead. Where did you get it ? " He put it in his 
pocket, looked up at the sky, and said, " What fine weather 
we have!" J*. i known that there is much lead in the 
mountains, yet the mines have never been worked. Hie 
people say, " We must keep poor, as our fathers have been. 
If we become rich, the French will want our lead and the 
Spaniards our silver, and then one or the other will rob us 
of our independence.** 

So well is this peculiarity of the inhabitants understood, 
that in Catalonia to assume ignorance is called "to play 
the Andorran." A student from the frontier, on entering 
a Spanish theological seminary, was called upon to trans 
late the New Testament When he came to the words, 
u Jesus autem tacebat," be rendered them, in perfect good 
faith, " Jesus played the Andorran." For the same reason, 
the hospitality of the people is of a passive rather than of 
an active character. The stranger may enter any bouse in 
the valley, take his seat at the family board, and sleep 
under the shelter of the roof; he is free to come and go; 
no questions are asked, although voluntary information is 
always gladly received. They would be scarcely human if 
it were not so. 

The principal features of the system of government 
which these people have adopted may be easily described. 
They have no written code of laws, the Politar being only 
a collection of precedents in certain cases, accessible to the 
consuls and judges, and to them alone. When we come to 
examine the modes in which they are governed. proce 
dures which, based on long custom, have all the force of 
law, we find a singular mixture of the elements of de 
mocracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. The sovereignty of 
France and the Bishop of Urgel is acknowledged in the 
appointment of the two riyuiers (vicarii), who, it is true, 
are natives of the valley, and devoted to its interests. In 
all other respects the forms are democratic ; but the cir 
cumstance that the officials are unpaid, that they must be 



276 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

married, and that they must be members of families in 
good repute, has gradually concentrated the government in 
the hands of a small number of families, by whom it is 
virtually inherited. Moreover, the law of primogeniture 
prevails to the fullest extent, still further lessening the 
number of qualified persons. 

The Republic consists of six communes, or parishes, each 
of which elects two consuls and two councillors, whose 
term of service is four years; one official of each class 
being elected every two years. There is no restriction of 
the right of suffrage. The twenty-four officials form the 
deliberative body, or Grand Council, who alone have the 
power of electing the Syndic, the executive head of the 
government. He is chosen for life ; he presides over the 
Council, and carries its decisions into effect, yet is respon 
sible to it for his actions. Only half the Council being 
chosen at one time, the disadvantage of having an entirely 
new set of men suddenly placed in office is obviated. The 
arrangement, in fact, is the same which we have adopted in 
regard to the election of United States Senators. 

o 

The consuls, in addition, have their municipal duties. 
Each one names ten petty magistrates, called decurions, 
whose functions are not much more important than those 
of our constables. They simply preserve order, and assist 
in bringing offenses to light. All the persons of property, 
or who exercise some useful mechanical art, form what is 
called the Parish Council, whose business it is to raise the 
proportionate share of the tribute, to apportion the pastures, 
fix the amount of wood to be sold (part of the revenue of 
Andorra being derived from the forests), and to regulate 
; 11 ordinary local matters. These councils, of course, are 
self-existing ; every person who is not poor and insignifi 
cant taking his place naturally in them. No one can be 
chosen as consul who is under thirty years of age, who has 
not been married, who is blind, deaf, deformed, or epileptic, 
who is addicted to drink, or who has committed any offense 
against the laws. 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 277 

The functions of the parish councils and the Grand 
Council of the Republic are carefully separated. The 
former have charge of inns, forges, bakeries, weaving, and 
the building of dwelling-houses ; the latter has control 
of the forests, the ways of communication, the chase, the 
fisheries, the finances, and the building of all edifices of a 
public character. It has five sessions a year. Its mem 
bers are not paid, but they are lodged and fed, during these 
sessions, at the public expense. Each parish owns two 
double-beds in the upper story of the Casa del Vails at 
Andorra ; in each bed sleep two consuls or two councillors. 
There is a kitchen, with an enormous pot, in which their 
frugal meals are cooked, and a dining-room in which they 
are served. Formerly their sessions were held in the 
church-yard, among the tombs, as if to render them more 
solemnly impressive ; but this practice has long been dis 
continued. 

The expenses of the state, one will readily guess, must be 
very slight. The tribute paid to France is nineteen hun 
dred and twenty francs ; that to the Bishop of Urgel, eight 
hundred and forty-two francs an average of two hundred 
and seventy-five dollars per annum. The direct tax is five 
cents annually for each person ; but a moderate revenue is 
derived from the sale of wood and charcoal, and the rent 
of pastures on the northern slope of the Pyrenees. Im 
port, export, and excise duties, licenses, and stamps are 
unknown, although, in civil cases, certain moderate fees are 
established. The right of tithes, given by Charlemagne to 
Possidonius, remains in force ; but they are generally paid 
in kind ; and in return the Bishop of Urgel, who appoints 
the priests, contributes to their support. The vicars, of 
whom there is one to each parish, are paid by the govern 
ment. The inhabitants are, without exception, devout Cath 
olics, yet it is probably ancient custom, rather than the 
influence of the priests, which makes them indifferent to 
education. The schools are so few that they hardly de- 



278 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

serve to be mentioned. Only one man in a hundred, and 
one woman in five hundred, can read and write. 

The two viguiers, one of whom is named by France and 
the other by the Bishop of Urgel, exercise the functions of 
judges. They are the representatives of the two sovereign 
powers, and their office is therefore surrounded with every 
mark of respect. Although nominally of equal authority, 
their activity is in reality very unequally divided. Usually 
some prominent official of the Department de 1 Ariege is 
named on the part of France, and contents himself with an 
annual visit to the valley. The Bishop, on the other hand, 
always names a native Andorran, who resides among the 
people, and performs the duties of both viguiers. When a 
new viguier is appointed, he must be solemnly installed at 
the capital. The members of the Grand Council then ap 
pear in their official costume a long surtout of black 
cloth, with crimson facings, a red shawl around the waist, 
gray knee-breeches, sky-blue stockings, and shoes with 
silver buckles. The Syndic of the Republic wears a crim 
son mantle ; but the viguier is dressed in black, with a 
sword, cocked hat, and gold-headed staff. As the tribute 
paid to France is much larger than that paid to the Bishop, 
the people have voluntarily added to the latter a Christmas 
offering of the twelve best hams, the twelve richest cheeses, 
and the twelve fattest capons to be found in the six par 
ishes. 

The sovereign powers have two other representatives in 
addition to the viguiers. These are the batlles (bailes, 
bailiffs ?) who are chosen from a list of six persons selected 
by the Grand Council. Their principal duty is to hear 
and decide, in the first instance, all civil and criminal cases, 
except those which the government specially reserves for 
its own judgment. The batlles, however, are called upou 
to prevent, rather than solve litigation. When a case oc 
curs, they first endeavor to reconcile the parties, or substi 
tute a. private arbitration. If that fails, the case is con- 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 279 

sidered ; and, after the help of God is solemnly invoked, 
judgment is pronounced. Where the dispute involves a 
delicate or doubtful point, the batlle consults separately 
the three men of best character and most familiar with the 
laws who are to be found in the parish, and decides as the 
judgment of two of them may coincide. It rarely happens 
that any serious lawsuit occurs, or that any capital crime is 
committed. The morals of the people are guarded with 
equal care ; any slip from chastity is quietly looked after 
by the priests and officials, and the parties, if possible, 
legally united. 

The more important cases, or appeals from the decision 
of the batlles, come before the Supreme Tribunal of Jus 
tice, which is composed of the two viguiers, a judge of ap 
peal (chosen to give the casting vote when there is a dif 
ference of opinion between the viguiers), a government 
prosecutor, and two rahonadors (pleaders) chosen for the 
defense by the Grand Council. This tribunal has the 
power to pronounce a capital sentence, which is then car 
ried out by an executioner brought either from France or 
Spain. 

The army, if it may be called such, consists of six hun 
dred men, or one from each family. They are divided into 
six companies, according to the parishes, with a captain for 
each ; the decurions acting as subaltern officers. The only 
special duty imposed upon them, beyond the occasional 
escort and guard of prisoners, is an annual review by the 
viguiers and the Grand Council, which takes place on the 
meadow below Andorra. The officials are seated in state 
around a large table, upon which a muster-roll of the army 
is laid. When the first name is read, the soldier to whom 
it belongs steps forward, discharges his musket in the air, 
then advances to the table and exhibits his ammunition, 
which must consist of a pound of powder, twenty-four balls, 
and as many caps. Each man is called in turn, until the 
whole six hundred have been thus reviewed. 



280 BY-WAYS OF EUKOPE. 






Such is an outline of the mode of government and the 
forms of judicial procedure in this little republic. I have 
not thought it necessary to add the more minute details 
which grow naturally out of the peculiarities already de 
scribed. Two things will strike the reader : first, the suffi 
ciency of the system, quaint and singular as it may be in 
some respects, to the needs of the people ; secondly, the 
skill with which they have reconciled the conditions im 
posed upon them by the Pariatges, in 1278, with the struc 
ture of government they had already erected. For a people 
so ignorant, so remote from the movement of the world, 
and so precariously situated, their course has been directed 
by a rare wisdom. No people value independence more ; 
they have held it, with fear and trembling, as a precious 
gift ; and for a thousand years they have taken no single 
step which did not tend to secure them in its possession. 

According to the host s volume, the population of the 
towns is as follows : Andorra, 850 inhabitants ; San Julian 
de Loria, 620 ; Encamp, 520 ; Canillo, 630 ; Ordino, 750 ; 
and Massana, 700. The population of the smaller hamlets, 
and the scattered houses of the farmers and herdsmen, will 
probably amount to about as many more, which would give 
eight thousand persons as the entire population of the state. 
I believe this estimate" to be very nearly correct. It is a 
singular circumstance, that the number has not materially 
changed for centuries. Emigration from the valley has 
been rare until recent times ; the climate is healthy ; the 
people an active, vigorous race ; and there must be some 
unusual cause for this lack of increase. A young man. a 
native of the parish of Ordino, with whom I had a long 
conversation in the evening, gave me some information 
upon this point. The life of families in Andorra is still 
regulated on the old patriarchal plan. The landed prop 
erty descends to the oldest son or daughter, or, in default 
of direct issue, to the nearest relative. This, indeed, is not 
the law, which gives only a third to the chief inheritor, and 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 281 

divides the remainder equally among the other members 
of the family. But it has become a custom stronger than 
law a custom which is now never violated to preserve 
the old possessions intact. The caps, or heads of families, 
are held in such high estimation, that all other family and 
even personal rights are subordinate to theirs. They are 
rich and respected, while the younger brothers and sisters, 
who, by this arrangement, may be left too poor to marry, 
cheerfully accept a life of celibacy. " I am a younger son," 
said my informant ; " but I have been able to marry, be 
cause I went down into Catalonia, entered into business, 
and made some money." When a daughter inherits, she 
is required to marry the nearest relative permitted by 
canonical law, who takes her family name and perpetuates 
it. 

In the course of centuries, however, the principal fami 
lies have become so inter-related that their interests fre 
quently require marriages within the prohibited degrees. 
In this case the Andorran undertakes a journey to Rome, 
to procure a special dispensation from the Pope. He is 
generally the representative of other parties, similarly sit 
uated, who assist in defraying the expenses of the journey. 
After a collective dispensation* has been issued, all the 
marriages must be celebrated by proxy the Andorran 
and a Roman woman who is paid for the service represent 
ing, in turn, each bridal pair at home. The latter must 
afterwards perform public penance in church, kneeling 
apart from the other worshippers, with lighted tapers in 
their hands and ashes upon their heads. 

Owing to the strictness of these domestic laws, the re 
markable habit of self-control among the people, and the 
careful guard over their morals exercised by the officials, 
they have become naturally virtuous, and hence great free 
dom of social intercourse is permitted among the sexes. 
Their sports and pleasures are characterized by a pastoral 
simplicity and temperance. Excesses are very rare because 



282 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

all ages and classes of both sexes meet together, and the 
presence of the priests and caps grosses (chief men) acts 
as a check upon the young men. At the festival of some 
patron saint of the valley, mass in the chapel is followed 
by a festive meal in the open air, after which the priest 
himself gives the signal for the dances to commence. The 
lacls and lasses then assemble on a smooth piece of turf, 
where the sounds of bagpipe and tambourine set their feet 
in motion. The old people are not always gossiping spec 
tators, speculating on the couples that move before them 
in the rude, wild dances of the mountains ; they often enter 
the lists, and hold their ground with the youngest. 

Thus, in spite of acquired reserve and predetermined 
poverty, the life of the Andorrans has its poetical side. 
The republic has produced one historian (perhaps I should 
say compiler), but no author ; and only Love, the source 
and soul of Art, keeps alive a habit of improvisation in the 
young which they appear to lose as they grow older. Dur 
ing Carnival, a number of young men in the villages as 
semble under the balcony of some chosen girl, and praise, 
in turn, in words improvised to a familiar melody, her 
charms of person and of character. When this trial of the 
Minnesingers begins to lag for want of words or ideas, the 
girl makes her appearance on the balcony, and with a cord 
lets down to her admirers a basket containing cakes of 
her own baking, bottles of wine, and sausages. Before 
Easter, the unmarried people make bets, which are won by 
whoever, on Easter morning, can first catch the other and 
cry out, " It is Kaster, the eggs are mine ! " Tricks, false 
hoods, and deceptions of all kinds are permitted : the young 
man may even surprise the maiden in bed, if he can suc 
ceed in doing so. Afterwards they all assemble in public, 
relate their tricks, eat their Easter eggs, and finish the day 
with songs and dances. 

Two ruling ideas have governed the Andorrans for cen 
turies past, and seem to have existed independent of any 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 283 

special tradition. One is, that they must not become rich ; 
the other, that no feature of their government must be 
changed. The former condition is certainly the more diffi 
cult of fulfillment, since they have had frequent opportu 
nities of increasing their wealth. There is one family which, 
on account of the land that has fallen to it by inheritance, 
would be considered rich in any country; half a dozen 
others possessing from twenty to thirty thousand dollars ; 
and a large number who are in comfortable circumstances 
simply because their needs are so few. I had heard that a 
party opposed to the old traditional ideas was growing up 
among the young men, but it was not so easy to obtain 
information on the subject. When I asked the gentleman 
from Ordino about it, he " acted the Andorran," put on 
an expression office almost idiotic, and talked of something 
else. He and two others with whom I conversed during the 
evening admitted, however, that a recent concession of the 
government (of which I shall presently speak) was the 
entering wedge by which change would probably come 
upon the hitherto changeless republic. 

With the exception of this incommunicativeness, in 
itself rather an interesting feature no people could have 
been more kind and friendly. When I went to bed among 
the saddles and harness in the little room, I no longer felt 
that I was a stranger in the place. All that I had heard of 
the hospitality of the people seemed to be verified by their 
demeanor. I remembered how faithfully they had asserted 
the neutrality of their territory in behalf of political exiles 
from France and Spain. General Cabrera, Armand Carrel, 
and Ferdinand Flocon have at different times found a ref 
uge among them. Although the government reserves the 
right to prohibit residence to any person whose presence 
may threaten the peace of the valley, I have not heard that 
the right was ever exercised. Andorra has been an ark of 

o 

safety to strangers, as well as an inviolate home of freedom 
to its own inhabitants. 



284 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 

Julian called me at four o clock, to resume our journey 
up the valley, and the host made a cup of chocolate while 
my horse was being saddled. Then I rode forth into the 
clear, cold air, which the sun of the Pyrenees had not yet 
warmed. The town is between three and four thousand 
feet above the sea, and the limit of the olive tree is found 
in one of its sheltered gardens. As I issued from the 
houses, and took a rugged path along the base of Mont 
Anclar, the village of Escaldas and the great gorge in front 
lay in a cold, broad mantle of shadow, while the valley was 
filled to its topmost brims with splendid sunshine. I looked 
between the stems of giant ilexes upon the battle-field of 
Louis le Debonnaire. Then came a yawning chasm, down 
which foamed the western branch of the Valira, coming 
from an upper valley in which lie the parishes of Ordino 
and Massana. The two valleys thus form a Y, giving the 
territory of Andorra a rough triangular shape, about forty 
miles in length its base, some thirty miles in breadth, 
overlapping the Pyrenees, and its point nearly touching the 
Rio Segre, at Urgel. 

A bridge of a single arch spanned the chasm, the bottom 
of which was filled with tumbling foam ; while every ledge 
of rock, above and below, was draped with eglantine, wild 
fig, clematis, and ivy. Thence, onward towards Escaldas? 
my path lay between huge masses which had fallen from 
the steeps, and bowers completely snowed over with white 
roses, wherein the nightingales were just beginning to 
awaken. Then, one by one, the brown houses above me 
clung like nests to the rocks, with little gardens hanging on 
seemingly inaccessible shelves. I entered the enfolding 
shadows, and, following the roar of waters, soon found my 
self at Escaldas a place as wonderfully picturesque as 
Ronda or Tivoli, directly under the tremendous perpen 
dicular walls of the gorge ; the arrowy Valira sweeping the 
foundations of the houses on one side, while the dark 
masses of rock crowded against and separated them on the 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 285 

other. From the edge of the river, and between the thick 
foliage of ilex and box behind the houses, rose thin columns 
of steam, marking the hot springs whence the place (ayua 
caldas) was named. 

Crossing the river. I halted at the first of these springs, 
and took a drink. Some old people who collected informed 
me that there were ten in all, besides a number of cold 
mineral fountains, furnishing nine different kinds of water 
all of which, they said, possessed wonderful healing prop 
erties. There were both iron and sulphur in that which I 
tasted. A little further, a rude fulling-mill was at work in 
the open air ; and in a forge on the other side of the road 
three blacksmiths were working the native iron of the 
mountains. A second and third hot spring followed ; then 
a fourth, in which a number of women were washing clothes. 
All this in the midst of a chaos of rock, water, and foliage. 

These springs of Escaldas have led to the concession 
which the Andorrans described to me as opening a new, 
and, I fear, not very fortunate, phase of their history. The 
exploiters of the gambling interest of France, on the point 
of being driven from Wiesbaden, Homburg. and Baden- 
Baden, ransacked Europe for a point where they might at 
the same time ply their business and attract the fashionable 
world. They detected Andorra; and by the most consum 
mate diplomacy they have succeeded in allaying the sus 
picions of the government, in neutralizing the power of its 
ancient policy, and in acquiring privileges which, harmless 
as they seem, may in time wholly subvert the old order of 
things. It is impossible that this result could have been 
accomplished unless a party of progress, the existence of 
which has been hinted, has really grown up among the 
people. The French speculators, I am told, undertake to 
build a carriage-road across the Pyrenees ; to erect bathing- 
establishments and hotels on a magnificent scale at Escal 
das, and to conduct the latter, under the direction of the 
authorities of Andorra, for a period of forty years, at the 



286 BY-WAYS OF EUROPE. 






end of which time the latter shall be placed in possession 
of the roads, buildings, and all other improvements. The 
expense of the undertaking is estimated at ten millions of 
francs. A theatre and a bank (faro ?) are among the 
features of the speculation. Meanwhile, until the carriage- 
road shall be built, temporary hotels and gaming-houses 
are to be erected in the valley of the Ariege, on the French 
side of the Pyrenees, but within the territory belonging to 
Andorra. 

I do not consider it as by any means certain that the plan 
will be carried out ; but if it should be, the first step towards 
the annexation of Andorra to France will have been taken. 
In any case, I am glad to have visited the republic while it 
is yet shut from the world. 

Behind Escaldas an affluent of the Valira dashed down 
the mountain on the right, breaking the rich masses of 
foliage with silver gleams. I halted on the summit of the 
first rocky rampart, and turned to take a last view of the 
valley. What a picture ! I stood in the deep shadow of 
the mountains, in the heart of a wilderness of rocks which 
towered out of evergreen verdure, and seemed to vibrate 
amidst the rush, the foam, and the thunder of streams. 
The houses of the village, clinging to and climbing the 
sides of the opening pass, made a dark frame, through 
which the green and gold of the splendid valley, drowned 
in sunshine, became, by the force of contrast, limpid and 
luminous as a picture of the air. The rocks and houses of 
Old Andorra and the tower of the House of Government 
made the central point of the view ; dazzling meadows 
below and mountain terraces above basked in the faint 
prismatic lustre of the morning air. High up, in the rear 
of the crowning cliffs, I caught glimpses of Alpine pastures ; 
and on the right, far away, streaks of snow. It was a vision 
never to be forgotten : it was one of the few perfect land 
scapes of the world. 

As the path rose in rapid zigzags beside the split through 



THE REPUBLIC OF THE PYRENEES. 287 

which the river pours, I came upon another busy village. 
In an open space among the rocks there were at least a 
hundred bee-hives, formed of segments of the hollowed 
trunks of trees. They stood in rows, eight or ten feet 
apart ; and the swarms that continually came and went 
seemed to have their separate paths marked out in the air. 
They moved softly and swiftly through each other without 
entanglement. After passing the gateway of the Valira, 
the path still mounted, and finally crept along the side of a 
deep trough, curving eastward. There were fields on both 
slopes, wherever it was possible to create them. Here I 
encountered a body of road-makers, whom the French 
speculators had set to work. They were engaged in widen 
ing the bridle-path, so that carts might pass to Escaldas 
from the upper valleys of Encamp and Canillo. The rock 
was blasted on the upper side ; while, on the lower, work 
men were basing the walls on projecting points of the preci 
pice. In some places they hung over deep gulfs, adjusting 
the great masses of stone with equal skill and coolness. 

In an hour the gorge opened upon the Valley of Encamp, 
which is smaller, but quite as wild and grand in its features 
as that of Andorra. Here the fields of rye and barley were 
only beginning to grow yellow, the flowers were those of an 
earlier season, and the ilex and box alone remained of the 
southern trees and shrubs. Great thickets of the latter 
fringed the crags. A high rock on the left served as a 
pedestal for a church, with a tall, square belfry, which 
leaned so much from the perpendicular that it was not 
pleasant to ride under it. The village of Encamp occupied 
a position similar to that of Escaldas, at the farther end of 
the valley, and in the opening of another gorge, the sides of 
which are so close