14 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



daily, taking five hours. "We found the village most 

 picturesquely situated upon the side of a mountain, 

 about two thousand feet above the sea. "We were 

 kindly received by the prefet and by an English- 

 man living here in connection with some mining 

 enterprise. 



Meanwhile, as we intended starting as early as pos- 

 sible in the morning for our camping ground among 

 the mountains, arrangements had been made with the 

 hunters and beaters to pay them five francs a day for 

 each horse and man, the man to beat if necessary, and 

 two francs a day for a man without a horse. 



After great deliberations, on the following morning 

 the men, most of whom were collected outside the inn 

 where we had taken up our quarters, demanded five 

 francs a day each, independently of the horses. Their 

 food and wine of course we had to provide ; and this 

 for twenty men for three days, as well as our own 

 and the baggage, had been packed upon eight horses. 

 Their demand, of course, was purposely made when 

 everything was ready for starting, while we were 

 already two hours behind time. Acting upon advice, 

 and without showing the least impatience, we pro- 

 ceeded to remove the loads from the horses ourselves, 

 and to declare our intention of returning, offering 

 however, four francs. We also offered five francs to 

 each man if a moufflon was killed. 



This at once had the desired effect, and things hav- 

 ing been amicably arranged we proceeded on our 

 way, reaching our destination the same evening. 



