These people are very fond of athletic sports and exercises, games that call forth prodigious strength, and make the inhabitants of this canton famous for their skill and power. Every holiday, and many a Sunday, is given up to wrestling and boxing. They are like the Scotch in hurling a heavy weight. They will throw a stone of 50 or 100 pounds. A man some fifty years ago threw a stone ten feet that weighed 184 pounds. But their great sport is shooting for a prize. They are splendid shots. Shooting matches are held every year in the villages, and sometimes they are matches between the people of the whole canton, and again of the whole country. As we travel we see the targets standing at the foot of a hill, and buildings that are put up for the purpose of accommodating the companies that are formed for the encouragement of this national accomplishment. So ignorant was I of the forms of government existing in this part of the world, I did not know that six out of the twenty-two cantons, or states, of Switzerland are purely democratic in their government. It is true that this is modified, in a measure, by their confederation with the others, and that they have delegated to their general government the power of declaring war, coining money, and regulating a system of mails. And, by the way, postage is cheap in Switzerland: five centimes, or one cent of our money, conveying a letter anywhere within the country, and, in all the villages and cities, delivering it at the residence of the receiver. These several cantons are, in other matters, independent of each other; and, in times long past, have had fearfully bloody wars among themselves. They are at peace now, but from father to son is handed down the story of the wars. This canton, containing a population of about 50,000, is a simple democracy, and as primitive and pure as ever could have existed in the earliest days of Greece or Rome, before an oligarchy or a monarchy was known. Here the people, all the males over eighteen years old, actually assemble, personally, and in one place, to choose the necessary officers, and to make their own laws. This popular meeting is held annually, in April, and on _Sunday_ always. On that day there is no preaching in any church in the canton, except the one where the election is held. All the ministers come with the people. At the close of the morning service, the election is opened by prayer, and then the people proceed to the discharge of this serious duty, the act of their individual sovereignty. Every man wears a sword by his side, a token of his being a _freeman_; for, centuries ago, when serfdom prevailed, only _freemen_ could vote, and they wore swords. Now, all wear swords on election day, for all are free.