A correspondent of the London _Athenæum_, writing from Munich, gives the following account of the festival of the Butchers' Leap in the Fountain: "This strange ceremonial, like the _Schäffler Tanz_, is said to have its origin in the time of the plague. While the Coopers danced with garlands and music through the streets, the Butchers sprang into the fountain in the market-place, to show their fellow-citizens that its water was no longer to be dreaded as poisoned. Perhaps they were the Sanitary Commissioners of those days; and by bathing themselves in the water and dashing it about on the crowd would teach the true means of putting pestilence to flight. "Though the Coopers' Dance takes place only once in seven years, the Butchers' Leap occurs annually, and always on _Fasching Montag_,--the Monday before Shrove Tuesday. I believe the ceremony is of great importance to the trade of the Butchers; as certain privileges granted to them are annually renewed at this time, and in connection with the Leap. These two ceremonies--of the Coopers' Dance and the Butchers' Leap--are now almost the last remains of the picturesque and quaint customs of old Munich. "The Butchers commence proceedings by attending High Mass in St. Peter's Church,--close to the Schrannien Platz, or market-place, in which the fountain is situated. It is a desolate-looking church, this St. Peter's, as seen from without,--old, decaying, and ugly; within, tawdry and--though not desolate and decaying--ugly. From staringly white walls frown down on the spectator torture-pictures, alternating with huge gilt images of sentimental saints in clumsy drapery. The altars are masses of golden clouds and golden cherubs.