PAST AND PRESENT. 315 



he set out on his way rejoicing and hefore evening fell, 

 came within view of his own home, and sat down upon a 

 heathy hank to rest himself. He placed his recent acqui- 

 sition beside him hut alas ! from its spherical form, it 

 rolled down the hill, and, striking against a rock at the 

 bottom, was shivered by the blow. A hare which had 

 couched beneath the stone, startled at the crash, sprang 

 from her form, and went off at speed. The unhappy Achil 

 man gazed, in an agony of despair, after what he believed 

 the emancipated quadruped and then exclaimed with a 

 bitter groan, "Mono, mon diaoull What a horse he would 

 have been ! Lord ! if he was but two years old ! the Devil 

 himself would not catch him." 



Now, the most curious part of this story is, that although 

 a standing joke upon Achil simplicity for a century, it is to 

 be found verbatim in a German jest-book, with this only 

 difference, that a gourd is there substituted for ajar. 



In alluding to the strange employments of the female 

 peasantry, I noticed those coarse and laborious exercises 

 which elsewhere are confined to the lords of the creation. 

 That the appearance of the fair inhabitants of the western 

 highlands should harmonize with their rude avocations, 

 might be expected; and hence the female peasantry, in 

 personal advantages, are very inferior indeed to those of 

 the interior. The constant exposure to sun and storm 

 injures the complexion, and gives them an old and faded 

 look ; and the habit of dispensing with shoes renders the 

 feet large and misshapen. Among the Coryphees who 

 frequented our mountain balls, there was but one girl who 

 might be termed decidedly handsome. Her face was uncom- 

 monly intelligent I never saw so dark an eye, and her 

 teeth were white as ivory. But there was a natural ease in 

 all she did whether she brought a pitcher from the spring, 

 or danced a merry strathspey, every movement was graceful. 

 Even her simple toilet evinced instinctive taste, though no 

 corset was required to regulate a form moulded by the hand 

 of Nature, and her magnificent hair boasted no arrangement 

 beyond the simple cincture of a ribbon 



But seldom was a snood amid 

 Such wild luxuriant ringlets hid, 

 Whose glossy black to shame might bring 

 The plumage of a raven's wing. 



