SHEPHERDS ON STILTS. 27 



To the south of the river lies a rich, undulating, vine-bearing country, 

 rich in pasturage and harvest, sown with pleasant villages and smiling 

 country houses, and watered by full streams and little rivers. To 

 the north, the appearance of the country changes abruptly. When 

 the traveller has crossed the alluvial zone of the Adour he sees before 

 him a thin, dry, sandy level of a comparatively recent marine forma- 

 tion. Its only products are rye, millet, and maize ; its only vegeta- 

 tion, forests of pines and scattered coppices of oaks ; beyond these, 

 and they do not extend far, all cultivation ceases, and the soil is 

 stripped of verdure ; you enter upon the Landes seemingly vast as 

 a sea occupied by permanent or periodical swamps ; and where, 

 over a space of several square leagues, in an horizon apparently 

 boundless, you perceive nothing but heaths, sheepfolds or steadings 

 for the flocks of sheep that traverse these deserts, and shepherds 

 keeping mute watch over their animals, living wholly among them, 

 and having no intercourse with the rest of humanity, except when 

 once a week they seek their masters' houses to procure their supply 

 of provisions. It is these shepherds only (Landescots and Aouillys), 

 and not, as is generally supposed, all the peasants of the Landes, who 

 are perched upon stilts, so as to survey from afar their wandering 

 flocks, and to traverse more safely the marshes which frequently lie 

 across their path. 



Wild and uncouth are the figures which these stilt-walkers 

 present, as they move rapidly over the country, often at the rate of 

 six or seven miles an hour ; occasionally indulging in an interval of 

 rest, by the aid of a third wooden support at the back (curved at 

 the top, so as to fit the hollow of the body), while they pursue their 

 favourite pastime of knitting. The dress of the Landescot is singu- 

 larly rude. His coat or paletot is a fleece ; cuisses and greaves of the 

 same material protect his legs and thighs ; his feet are thrust into 

 sabots and coarse woollen socks, which cover only the heels and instep. 

 Over his shoulder hangs the gourd which contains his week's store of 

 provisions : some mouldy rye-bread, a few sardines, some onions and 

 cloves of garlic, and a flask of thin sour wine. From sunrise to sun- 



