Year: 1878

BY DIR. PRME.


Where Il is-what Il is--Costumes and Customs


Corn nDrying-Innsprnck- Remarkable Monuments


silver shrines-The Peasant King Historic Places


The iron has entered into the heart OF
the Tyrol, and We now go through it by
rail. To the lover of the wild, secluded
picturesque, and romantic, it seems almost
a desecration of the sacredness of nature
to intrude upon the recesses of mountain
solitudes, and disturb the peaceful valleys
with the rush of the trains and the shrek
Of the whistle. But, in this practical age,
all such sentimental preferences yield to
the economies of the time, and we traverse
Switzerland and even the Tyrol with rail-
road speed


The Tyrol is mountainous region in
the southern part of the Austrian Empire,
to which it belongs. 1t touches Italy on
its lower border, and has the Alps on its
bosom The people resemble the Swiss in
many of their modes and customs, and the
character of the scenery is not unlike that
which We have enjoyed so much in the
land of William Tell. They are livelier
lot, more addicted to music, dancing and
smoking; they drink about the same in
quantity and quality, and are just about
as poor. They speak the German language
in the north, the Italian in the south, and
a mixture Of both with the French every
where. Their dress is not as picturesque
as it was once, for the contact with foreign
travellers has led them to drop their beau
tiful costumes and to initiate the outside
world in the toggery they wear. Still the
men, many of them, stick to the breeches,
with stockings from the knee to the ankle,
and their big shoes with heavy soles, and
jockey hat set sideways on the head, and
feather or bunch of feathers surmount-
ing the whole, viii make Tyrolese dandy,
or, on a diiapidated scale, peasant The
short gowns of the women, and jackets
bodices | believe they are called,-with
green stockings, profusion of silver but
tons or medals hanging about them-but
give it up, a woman dress being beyond
my art of writing. They are very inter
essiag in their costume, but rarely seen in
it In their native villages When they go
wandering over the world, as Tyrolese
minstrels, they are greatly admired, and
every one supposes there is q country
where all the men go about dressed as bri-
gands, and the women as if they were at
a fete. But take them at home, aud they
are just about as dirty, and hOmely, and
unattractive as the poor peasants of any
other country. The Tyrolese have mu-
sical name and reputation, and with them
is associated whatever is picturesque, and
rural, and lovely, in an unsophisticated,
simple, pastoral people. All of which is
as near the fact, as the most of our i'm
pressions derived from the rosy romances
of travellers and the Aowery pages of
poetry.


No words viii convey an extrayagant
idea Of the beauty and sublimity of the
scenery. It is more beautiful and less
sublime than that of Switzerland. In an
hour after leaving Munich, we reach the
pass from which comes the river Inn. We
are to follow up this stream into the heart
Of the Tyrol. A fortress commands the
entrance of the valley, AID the Schloss and
the convent, and the church on the hill,
speak to us at once of the religion of the
people. Indian corn is raised in greater
quantities than we had seen before in Eu-
rope, and it was dried in a way quite
novel. Torn from the stalk with the husks
covering the ear, these we're stripped down,
and the ears hung across poles laid in rack
form, up the sides of the houses, from
near the ground to the caves, so that the
whole house was covered with this singu-
lar display Of farm produce. Some of the
corn was yellow, some white, and the two
colors were never mixed while thus sus-
pended for drying. As we made our rapid
journey along the river Inn, winding up
the mountains and surveying the Vales. it
was easy to say and to feel that we had
never passed through loveiier scenes. In
the midst of these autumnal harvestings
in which men, women, and children were
taking their part, the near mountains were
shining in their winter garments of snow,
literally bathed in the light of heaven, and
looking as if they were at its gates Often
we pass little chapels, with horrible pic
lures or statues representing the blessed
Saviours sufferings or the Madonna s
motherly care. Now aud then cross
has been set up to mark the spot where a
mortal accident has happened; and if the
natives are thus reminded to be careful in
driving, and also to be mindful of their
mortality, they may serve some useful
purpose.


The mountains now begin to assume
gigantic proportions aud the scenery rises
into grandeur. The Solstein shoots up
ten thousand feet On one side of it the
face is almost perpendicular. 1t was here
that Maximilian [. was saved from awful
death by an angel or chamois hunter, it
is not settled yet by which. He was
hunting on the mountain, and falling of
this precipice, caught on the face of the
rock; and while hanging there, and Just
ready to fall and be dashed to pieces be