APPROACHING THE MOUNTAINS. 13 



the sweet friendly face of the young Queen yonder, his 

 countenance will relax somewhat, and that it will soften 

 and suddenly grow bright like a cloud when a sunbeam 

 falls upon it. Following him is a troop of goats, all un- 

 adorned save one in front ; and after them comes the 

 maiden who tends them, smart in her holiday attire. 

 Bringing up the rear, like the baggage-train of an army, 

 a waggon is lumbering on with household necessaries 

 piled high upon it, and drawn by two sturdy oxen, whom 

 a little peasant-boy, with a face as cheerful as the morn, 

 guides along. The merry scene pleases him ; he does 

 not regret to leave the mountain, for what child ever yet 

 grieved at change of place ? But gay and festal as " the 

 return from the Aim " always is, it is by far not so pleas- 

 ing an event to the Senner and Sennerinn as the depar- 

 ture for ' ' the mountain " in spring. Then, as the fores- 

 ter's young wife told me, who stood looking at them with 

 her baby laughing on her arm, then if you meet them, 

 and, wishing them good day, ask whither they are going, 

 the reply, " Auf die Aim !"* is quite musical with plea- 

 sure, and their faces radiant with thoughts of the life 

 awaiting them on the green mountain slopes. But when 

 meeting them in autumn, on their downward path, you 

 put the same question, the answer, " Home !" tells at 

 once by its tone how reluctant they are to leave their 

 summer dwelling-place. 



And indeed it is not to be wondered at. On some ele- 

 vated spot, sheltered perhaps by perpendicular walls of 

 rock a thousand feet high, closed in, in a sort of " happy 

 valley " up among the mountains, or else may be on a 

 verdant piece of table-land, free and unbounded on every 

 side, are built the rough wooden habitations — mere log- 

 houses — of the Sennerinnen. Far, far below them the 

 * "To the pastures on the mountain!" 



