Essays on Life 



householder of the Saas-Fee contributing one 

 chapel. He adds that Heinrich Andenmatten, 

 afterwards a brother of the Society of Jesus, 

 was an especial benefactor or promoter of the 

 undertaking. One of the chapels, the Ascen- 

 sion (No. 12 of the series), has the date 1709 

 painted on it; but there is no date on any 

 other chapel, and there seems no reason why 

 this should be taken as governing the whole 

 series. 



Over and above this, there exists in Saas 

 a tradition, as I was told immediately on my 

 arrival, by an English visitor, that the chapels 

 were built in consequence of a flood, but I 

 have vainly endeavoured to trace this story 

 to an indigenous source. 



The internal evidence of the wooden figures 

 themselves nothing analogous to which, it 

 should be remembered, can be found in the 

 chapel of 1687 points to a much earlier date. 

 I have met with no school of sculpture belong- 

 ing to the early part of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury to which they can be plausibly assigned ; 

 and the supposition that they are the work 



of some unknown local genius who was not 



148 



