Chapter XII: Part 12

[68] The best public room in a Tirolese inn is so called.

[69] The homestead of a peasant proprietor.

[70] The local name of the holiday cap of the Sarnthaler women.

[71] Lieblingsbänder.

[72] Alp is used in Tirol for the green mountain pastures.

[73] Alpine herdsman.

[74] See Preface.

[75] Joch is used in Tirol when speaking of a moderately high mountain; in most other mountain districts of Germany it means only a pass or col.

[76] A high-lying range of mountain pasture-land.

[77] The stories of our Lord's life on earth, treated with perfect idealism, sketching His character as He was pleased to manifest it, or His miraculous acts, pervade the popular mythology of all Catholic peoples. I have given one from Spain, by the title of "Where One can Dine, Two can Dine," in "Patrañas," of the same character as this Tirolese one; and perhaps it is not amiss to repeat the observation I felt called to make upon it,--that it would be the greatest mistake to imagine that anything like irreverence was intended in such stories. They are the simple utterances of peoples who realized so utterly and so devoutly the facts recorded in the Gospels that the circumstances of time and place ceased to occupy them at all, and who were wont to make the study of our Lord's example their rule of conduct so habitually, that to imagine Him sharing the accidents of their own daily life came more natural to them than to think of Him in the far-off East. These stories were probably either adapted from the personal traditions which the first evangelists may well be thought to have brought with them unwritten, or invented by themselves, in all good faith, as allegories, by means of which to inculcate by them upon their children the application of His maxims to their own daily acts. They demand, therefore, to be read in this spirit for the sake of the pious intention in which they are conceived, rather than criticised for their rude simplicity or their anachronisms.

[78] "Praised be Jesus Christ!" This was formerly the universal greeting all over Tirol in the house or on the road, for friend or stranger, who answered, "For ever and ever. Amen." It is still in common use in many parts.

[79] I must beg my readers to apply the apology contained in the note to the last story, in its measure to this one also.

[80] Sorella, sister; with the augmentative ona, the bigger or elder sister.

[81] The little, or younger, sister.

[82] We say, "a head of celery;" in Italy they say, "a foot of celery."

[83] A favourite vintage of Tirol.

[84] Arativo and prativo are dialectic in Wälsch Tirol for arable and pasture land.

[85] "On our right soared the implacable ridges of the Marmolata," writes a modern traveller; "the sheer, hard smoothness of whose scarped rocks filled one with a kind of horror only to look at them."

[86] "We have hay in the stables, and more also in the meadow."

[87] Berg-Segen (literally "mountain-blessing") is the form in which Tirol in its piety expresses the ordinary word crop.

[88] See Preface.

[89] Two kinds of more or less mischievous strie, or wild fairies.

[90] "Fearless Johnny." John is a favourite name in Wälsch Tirol, and bears some twenty or thirty variations, as Giovannazzi, Gianaselli, Gianot, Zanetto, Zanolini, Zuani, Degiampietro (John Peter), Zangiacomi (John James), &c.

[91] The Latin name of the god of hell remains throughout Italy, and holds in its nurseries the place of "Old Bogie" with us.

[92] "Earthly soul, stand off three paces, and tell me your grief."

[93] Vine-trellis.

[94] Tapestry hanging before a door.

[95] Witch.

[96] A wayside cross under a little penthouse, such as is to be met at every turn of the road in Tirol.

[97] The south wind, which does much mischief at certain times of the year, and is most dreaded in Vorarlberg.

[98] Dialectic for a basket in Vorarlberg.

[99] It has been my aim generally, in making this collection, to give the preference to those stories which have a moral point to recommend them; my readers will not, perhaps, take it amiss, however, if I present them with this specimen of a class in which this is wanting, and which aims only at amusement. It is, moreover, interesting from the strong evidence it bears of extremely remote origin; for the light way in which putting people to death, deception, and selfishness are spoken of prove it has a pre-Christian source, while the unimportant accessories show how details get modified by transmission.

[100] It must be understood that it is an outside staircase that is here alluded to, and the shutter of an unglazed window on its landing serving for a door also.

[101] In a lordly manner.

[102] A cluster of houses too small to be designated a village.