PEPl's COTTAGE. 325 



foot, much as a monkey would at any strange thing 

 thrown into his cage, seemed particularly struck with my 

 stockings. " Where were they made ?" he asked. "At 

 Baierisch Zell." " Die sind schon !"* he said j and then 

 was off again, leaping and dancing, to join the others. 



Presently the whole company stood together in a 

 circle, their arms round each other's neck, and in this 

 way sang to the music of the cithern, whose gentle tones 

 however were overpowered by their louder voices. Stand- 

 ing thus, they continued swaying their bodies backwards 

 and forwards, with a rocking motion, keeping time with 

 the melody, or suiting their actions to the words of the 

 song. Then their gesticulation became gradually more 

 violent : they would turn, and look each other full in the 

 face astonished, or with searching inquiry, as if to be 

 convinced of the truth of what each had said, although 

 both of the parties were singing the same words; Near 

 them were five or six others, linked also together in the 

 same way j these hummed the tune only, and kept time 

 by lifting up their feet in front of them, swaying their 

 bodies backwards and forwards like the others, and by 

 advancing some steps and again retreating. There was 

 something very strange and primeval in this rude min- 

 strelsy. It was like a fragment of a long gone-by cen- 

 tury, cast up at our feet out of the ocean of Time, upon 

 the shore where we are standing. 



The resemblance between this manner of singing of 

 the highlanders of Bavaria and that peculiar to the 

 Highlanders of Scotland, is, to say the least, somewhat 

 singular. "When a song is to be sung/' says Mr. W r . 

 Lcathart,t " the parties all round the room take hold of 

 each other's plaids, or, if an English dress, they employ 



* "How handsome they are!" 



t Sec « Literary Gazette,' No. 1520, p. 223. 



