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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 53
child makes them difregard the other. The punifhment-which they incur for fuch a
Jaux-pas is hardly worth mentioning. Murder of infants is extremely uncommon here;
without conftraint, without referve, they all yield to the impulfes of nature. The young
girls kifs and fhake hands, in the open church on Sundays, with thofe they love. On
a nightly vifit, however, the lover is rather in a hard fituation ; for however unfriendly
the weather may be, the window or door is not opened to him, until a certain watch-
word is given, which confifts commonly of long rhymes, in which he is obliged to ex-
prefs, in a myfterious manner, his fufferings and{mart. ‘This cuftom is very old, and in
“many of the remote parts of the mountains facred and inviolable. Nor can the con-
nection between the parties, however long or however clofe, enable them to difpexfe
with it. A young peafant very feldom forfakes his girl, particularly when, after having
two or three children by her, he can marry her.
The inhabitants of thefe mountains are fo contented with their ftate, that they con-
fider their country as a kind of Paradife. Thofe who live in Dintner Valley, a fright-
ful gap between naked rocks, through which the river Dintner runs, have a faying,
«¢ When any one falls from heaven he mutt fall into Dintner Valley.’ = Which ‘is
as much as to fay this valley is the fecond heaven. Fora long time I could not ex-
plain why the good people entertained fuch a high opinion of a deep glen, where often
for weeks together it fnows fo much that one can neither come out nor go in, and
which forms fo itriking a contra{t with many neighbouring and very attracting diftricts.,
I confidered it at firft as irony, but I learnt at laft that it was meant entirely in earnett,
and that the unlimited freedom which the inhabitants of this extraordinary Paradife en-
joy, had given rife to this high hyperbole. They confift folely of fhepherds, miners,
and iron melters, who are entirely free from taxes, and on account of their {mall pay-
ments to the government and their remotenefs of fituation, are little taken notice of by
their fuperiors. ‘The taxes paid, in general, by the inhabitants of this country are very
moderate, and the freedom from the extortions under which the reft of Germany groans,
contributes, no doubt, greatly to the good humour of the people. ‘Till within a fhort
time, eftates were taxed in proportion to their value, the beginning of this century,
which, as you may fuppofe, bears no proportion to the prefent price of things. The
attempt the prefent fovereign has been making to raife a more equitable tax, has occa-
fioned fome murmur: there, however, he is not fo much to blame, as his income is
proportionably much fmaller than that of the other German princes; and what he has
done, has not only the fanction of the ftates of the country, but is guaranteed by them,
fo that the people have no caufe to fear a farther rife; but what makes him unpopular,
is his exceflive love of hunting, which has occafioned fome acts of oppreflive power, for
which after all, his fervants and minifters may be more to blame than himfelf. In fe-
veral parts of the country, the farmers are prohibited from driving their fheep to certain
paftures bordering upon woods, left the game in thefe fhould be deprived of fuftenance.
_ This, to a people who, as I told you before, make all the woollen cloth they wear from
the fheerings of their own fheep, mult appear an intolerable hardfhip. Prohibitions of
this kind muft alfo be attended with very bad effeéts of another fort. The peafants of
this country are very averfe to all kinds of innovation; there have been inftances of
their declaring fomewhat loudly, that they would put themfelves on the fame footing
with the Swifs; and yet when their prince dies of old age, they fhew an uncommon af-
fection for him. O that princes knew how to fet a due value on the affections of their
fellow-creatures !
Many of the peafants of this country ftill wear long beards, and go with their heads
uncovered, and their breafts open, at all times of the year. As they are extremely
hairy,
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