"I cannot describe how gloriously I felt, when I saw from the hill the piles of rock overgrown with thickets, upon which stood the board huts, and watched the smoke-wreaths rising over the forest from the valley below. A distant murmur increased my eager anticipations. With incredible curiosity and full of silent reverence, I soon stood over a steep descent, which led precipitously down into the mountain, from among the huts. I hastened towards the valley, and soon met some men dressed in black, with lamps in their hands, whom I not improperly took to be miners, and to whom I told my desire with anxious timidity. They listened to me kindly, and told me that I must go to the smelting-houses and inquire for the overseer, who supplied the place of director and master, and who would tell me whether I could be admitted. They thought my request would be granted, and told me that 'good luck' was the customary form of greeting the overseer. Full of joyous expectations I pursued my way, constantly repeating to myself the new and significant greeting. I found a venerable old man who received me with kindness, and after telling him my history and my warm desire to be instructed in his rare and mysterious art, he readily promised to fulfil my wishes. He seemed pleased with me, and entertained me in his own house. I could scarcely wait for the moment when I should descend the pit, and behold myself in the long-coveted apparel. That very evening he brought me a mining-dress, and explained to me the use of some tools which were kept in a chamber. At evening the miners came to him, and not a word of their conversation did I lose, however foreign and unintelligible the chief part of their language appeared to me. The little, however, that I seemed to understand heightened the ardor of my curiosity, and busied me at night with strange dreams. I awoke early, and found myself at the house of my new host, where the miners were gradually collecting to receive orders. A little side-room was fitted up as a chapel. A monk appeared and read mass, and afterwards pronounced a solemn prayer, in which he invoked Heaven to give the miners its holy protection, to assist them in their dangerous labors, to defend them from the temptations and snares of evil spirits, and to grant them abundant ore. I never prayed more fervently, and never realized so vividly the deep significance of the mass. My companions appeared to me like heroes of the lower earth, who were obliged to encounter a thousand perils, but possessing an enviable fortune in their precious knowledge, and prepared, by grave and silent intercourse with the primeval children of nature, in their sombre, mystic chambers, for the reception of heavenly gifts, and for a blessed elevation above the world and its troubles. When the service was concluded, the overseer, giving me a lamp and a small wooden crucifix, accompanied me to the shaft, as we are accustomed to call the steep entrance into the subterraneous abodes.