SECRETARY'S REPORT. 299 



Thus the inhabitants of Grindelwald keep the feast of St. 

 Patronella, and the Vallaisans that of St. Thcodolf, who made 

 the devil carry a consecrated bell over the Alps to Rome, and 

 in whose honor the pass of St. Theodolf was named. Lofty 

 and dangerous as it is cows still graze upon it. 



Each herd, as it marclies to tiie mountains, is accompanied 

 by its own bell cow. The great bell, worn by the handsomest 

 cow, trimmed off with gay ribbons and a bunch of flowers on 

 her horns, is often more than a foot in diameter. The cowherds 

 take great pride in these bells. With three or four of them, all 

 in harmony with each other,. and smaller brass bells chiming 

 in between, they ring themselves in, from village to village, on 

 their way. The train is preceded by a boy clad in a clean shirt 

 and yellow breeches ; the cows, with milking stools tied between 

 their horns, follow in file, and are sometimes themselves fol- 

 lowed by calves, and a few goats bringing up the rear. Then 

 comes the herdsman himself, with a horse which carries the 

 milking traps, bedding, covered with bright-colored oil cloth. 

 Now the " Ranz des Vaches " echoes through the mountains. 

 The melody is a series of lengthened trills, notes now abrupt 

 and now protracted. Tliere is a simple, wildly melodious com- 

 bination of tones, often dwelling on the bass note and abruptly 

 rising to the treble. "With this melody the herdsman calls his 

 cows and greets his comrades. It is a means of holding distant 

 conversations on the mountains. 



Tlie day for the return to the valley is a sadder one for both 

 man and beast. The social union of the flocks breaks up. 

 Some are restored to their different owners, and return to their 

 usual winter stalls. In the Upper Engadine, where good 

 shelter is required against nine months of cold, they are kept 

 in subterranean stalls, under the houses. Others are sent from 

 the east of Switzerland into Italy. The native cattle dealers 

 buy them to sell again, or the drovers come up from Lombardy, 

 or other parts of northern Italy, and select out the best looking 

 animals, for which they have to pay a good price. Grreat 

 droves of these cows, from the Appenzell and other sections, 

 cross the St. Gothard, the SplUgen and other passes every fall, 

 on their way to the south. 



The cows about Berne are generally of a dun color, said to 

 make exceedingly good working oxen, but their strong points 



