The Chestmit. 259 



The chestnut, when ripe, possesses a fine creamy 

 flavour. Roasted, it becomes almost aromatic. The scent 

 is then the key to another of the treasured recollections of 

 the lang syne, for now we have before us the Christmas of 

 the olden time, the home-circle round the ruddy fire, the 

 chestnuts, carefully crossed with the knife, so that they 

 shall not burst and tumble into the ashes, steaming in 

 their joyous rows upon the well-swept bars. Of all 

 known nuts, this one is the most farinaceous and the 

 least oily, hence more easy of digestion than any other. 

 To mountaineers it is invaluable, serving where the 

 cereals cannot be cultivated, as a capital substitute for 

 wheat. On the Apennines and the Pyrenees, the chest- 

 nut-harvest is the event of the year. Walk which way 

 you will during October in their lofty woods, companies 

 of women and girls are busy, bags made of sack-cloth 

 slung around their waists, and in their hands rough 

 wooden pincers, with which they open the thorny cases. 

 Now comes to their aid some strong and friendly man, 

 who mounts into the nearest tree, beating down the fruit, 

 which falls in showers. All day the whole party keep at 

 work, then at eve move homewards, unsubdued by their 

 loads, carried often upon the head, for these peasant 

 women of the mountain-forests have about them a rich 

 and almost Roman ease of strength, fascinating to con- 

 template, and are proud of their powers. The chestnut- 

 harvest lasts for about three weeks. When all has been 

 got indoors, the fruit is spread upon a frame of lattice- 

 work overhead, and a fire kept burning underneath. 



