dry and hard as a board, and internally of the color of an old mahogany table; externally there is nothing to suggest the idea of meat, and it is undistinguishable from fragments of the mummies of the sacred bulls taken from the catacombs at Memphis. Strange as it may appear, when cut across the grain in shavings no thicker than writing-paper, it is found not badly flavored, nor unusually repugnant to the process of digestion. What is lacking in quality of the peasant’s food is made up in quantity or rather the frequency with which it is partaken of. There is early breakfast, lunch at nine A.M., called from its hour _s’nüni_, dinner at twelve, lunch again at four P.M., called _s’vierli_, and supper. It is astonishing to see how much solid flesh, good blood, and healthy color can be produced by such inferior and limited diet. The language of the peasants is characterized by rough gutturals and the force with which dentals and hissing sounds are pronounced, a sing-song accent, with numerous diminutions, contractions, and omissions of the final syllable. There is much of what is designated under the general name of _patois_,--a mixture of Celtic, Latin, and Italian words; a Babylonish dialect,--a parti-colored dress of patched and piebald languages. This corrupt dialect is very sonorous and very harmonious, but is the relic of an almost extinguished antiquity. In the Engadine, and the remote valleys of the Swiss Alps adjoining Italy and the Tyrol, the peasants use the Romansch and Ladin; the latter is more musical, and to give an idea of it the following verse from a popular song is transcribed: “Montagnas, ste bain! Tu gad e valleda, Tu fraischa contreda, Squir eir in mi adsinga, Montagnas, ste bain!” “Ye mountains, adieu! Thou vale with green bowers, Fresh meadows and flowers, When from you I must sever, Ye mountains, adieu!” The peasants still observe many manners and customs of the olden times: some the imprints of the early influences of the Burgundians, others of the Alemanni and the Ostrogoths. The separation by the mountain ranges of populations near and akin to each other, which led to the formation of so many dialects, also favored the growth and long continuance of local customs and traditions, giving to many localities a strongly marked individuality.