brightness or whiteness has made her to be considered the goddess of winter; who particularly visited the earth for twelve winter nights, and spoilt all the flax of those idle maidens who left any unspun on the last day of the year; who carries in her hand a broken plough in token that the ground is hardened against tillage; whose brightness has also made her to be reckoned the all-producing earth-mother, with golden hair like the waving corn; the Hertha of the Swabian; the Jörtha of the Scandinavian; † the Berecynthia of the Phrygian; ‡ and to other nations known as Cybele, Rhea, Isis, Diana. § 66 Such ideas were too deeply rooted in the minds of the people to be easily superseded; as my friend, the Feldkirch postilion, said, they went on and on like the echoes of their own mountains. 'The missionaries were not afraid of the old heathen gods; . . . . their kindly feeling towards the traditions, customs, and prejudices of their converts must have been beneficial; .... they allowed them the use of the name Allfadir, whom they had invoked in the prayers of their childhood, when praying to Him Who is our Father in Heaven." And as with the greater, so with the less, the mighty powers they had personified and treated as heroes and examples, lived on in their imagination, and their glorious deeds came to be ascribed to the new athletes of a brighter faith. Then, although originally popular tales were reproductions of more ancient legends, yet after a time a general taste was created for marvellous stories, and new ones were invented in large numbers. Even in these purely imaginative productions, analogies may be discovered with more genuine tales, because they were made after the original patterns, and in many cases were mere variations on an ancient air.' || More than this, there came the actual accession of marvels derived from the acts inspired by the new faith: but it cannot be denied that the two became strangely blended in the popular mind. Brixlegg presents some appearance of thriving, through the smelting and wire-drawing works for the copper ore brought from the neighbourhood of Schwatz. It also enjoys some celebrity as the birth-place of the Tirolean historian Burgleckner, whose family had been respected here for generations: and it is very possible to put up for the night at the Herrenhaus. It is not much above a mile hence to Rattenberg, of which I have already spoken. Rattenberg was, in 1651, the scene of a tragic event, sad as the denouement of many a fiction. The high-spirited consort of Archduke Leopold V., Claudia de' Medici, who, at his death, governed the country * A tradition still held of the Berchtl in many parts of Tirol. Abbé Banier. Mythology explained from History. note a. § Nork, Banier, &c. Vol. ii. Book 3, p. 564, M. Müller. Review of Kelly's Indo-European Traditions. so well, and by her sagacity kept her dominions at peace, while the rest of Germany was immersed in the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, yet did not altogether escape the charge of occasional harshness in collecting the revenues which she knew so well how to administer. Her chancellor, Wilhelm Biener, a trusty and devoted servant and counsellor, drew on himself considerable odium for his zeal in these matters. On one occasion he got into a serious controversy with Crosini, Bishop of Brixen, concerning the payment of certain taxes from which the prelate claimed exemption, and in the course of it wrote him a letter couched in such very unguarded terms, that the bishop, unused to be so dealt with, could not forbear exclaiming, 'The man deserves to lose the fingers that could write such an intemperate effusion!' The exclamation was not thought of again till years after. Claudia died in 1648, and then the hatred against Biener, which was also in some measure a hatred of races, for Claudia had many southerners at her court, broke forth without hindrance. He was accused of appropriating the State money he had been so earnest in collecting, and tried by two Italian judges, he was ultimately condemned, in 1651, to lose his head. Biener sent a statement of his case to the Archduke Ferdinand Karl; and the young prince, believing the honesty of his mother's faithful adviser, immediately ordered a reprieve. The worst enemy and prime accuser of the fallen favourite was Schmaus, President of the Council, this time a German, and he contrived by detaining the messenger to make him arrive just too late in Rattenberg, then still a strong fortress, where he lay confined, and where the sentence was to be carried out. Biener had all along steadfastly maintained his innocence, and stepping on to the scaffold, he had again repeated the assertion, adding, 'So truly as I am innocent, I summon my accuser before the Judgment-seat above before another year is out.'† When the executioner stooped to lift up the head before the people, he found lying by its side three fingers of his right hand, without having had any knowledge that he had struck them off, though he might have done so by the unhappy man having raised his hand in the way of the sword in the last struggle. The people, however, saw in it the fulfilment of the words of the Bishop, as well as a ghastly challenge accompanying his dying message to President Schmaus. Nor did they forget to note that the latter died of a terrible malady some months before the close of the year. Biener's wife lost her senses when she knew the terrible circumstances of his death; the consolations of her director, and of her son, who lived to his ninetieth year in the Francescan convent at Innsbruck, were alike powerless to calm her. She escaped in the night, and wandered out into the mountains no one knows whither. * Weber says the only accusation was grounded on a pasquinade against Claudia found among his papers, but that he should calumniate her seems inconsistent with his general character. Though his unsparing lampoons on his adversaries had anything else against him. excited them more than + Compare Gebhart, ii. page 240. But the people say she lives to be a witness of her husband's innocence, and may be met on lonely ways proclaiming it, but never harming any. Only, when anyone is to die in Büchsenhausen,* where her married life passed so pleasantly, the 'Bienerweible' will appear and warn them. It is a remarkable instance of the easy way in which one myth passes into another, that though this event happened but a little over two hundred years ago, the Bienerweible and the Berchtl are already confounded in the popular mind.† Another name prized in Tirolese anuals, which must not be forgotten in connection with Rattenberg, is Alois Sandbichler, the Bible-commentator, who was born there in 1751. He passed a brilliant career as Professor in the University of Salzburg, but died at the age of eighty in his native village. By crossing the bridge at Rattenberg you come upon Kramsach, and in the woods near it the Hilariusbergl, once inhabited by two hermits, and still held sacred. Here another river Ache runs into the Inn, distinguished from that on the opposite side, as the Brandenberger Ache. At its debouche stands Voldepp, whence the Mariathal and the Mooserthal may be visited, and 'the neighbourhood is rich in marbles used in the churches of Innsbruck.' The Mooserthal is remarkable for three small lakes, which can be formed and let off at pleasure; they are the property of the Barons of Lichtenthurm, who fatten carp in them. The lowest of the three, the Rheinthalersee, has the prettiest surroundings. Weber says they are all fed by subterranean currents from the mountains. Ball (Central Alps) treats them as overflowings of the Inn. The most flourishing town of the Mariathal is Achenrain, where there are extensive brass-works. Mass is said for the outlying operatives in the Castle-chapel of Lichtenthurm. The village of Mariathal is very snugly situated, almost hidden by its woods from the road; its chief feature is the deserted Dominican convent founded in the thirteenth century by Ulrich and Konrad v. Freundsberg; their descendant, Georg v. Freundsberg, celebrated in the Thirty Years' War, whom we learn more about when we come to Schwatz, also endowed the pious nuns liberally, bidding them pray for him; his effigy may still be seen in the Church of Mariathal; the convent, even in its present condition, is a favourite pilgrimage. Hence a rocky defile of wild and varied beauty, and many miles in length, leads into the Brandenbergerthal, which reaches to the Bavarian frontier. Its highest point is the Steinberg, to be recognized in the distance by its pyramidal form, which is situated within what the Germans graphically term a cauldron (Gebirgskessel) of mountains, and is shut off from all communication with the outer world *Near Innsbruck. + Staffler, Das Deutsche Tirol, i. 751; and Thaler, Geschichte Tirols v. der Urzeit p. 279. Ball's Central Alps. by the snow during the winter months; the Brandenbergers have been famous for their patriotism and defence of their independence during all the various conflicts with Bavaria, and they love to call their native soil the Heimaththal and the Freiheitthal. The only tale of the supernatural I was able to meet with as connected with this locality is the following; it has a certain wild grasp, but its moral is not easy to trace; it is analogous, however, to many traditions of other places. 'One of the peaks surrounding the Brandenbergerthal was called by the people die Reiche Spitze; on its alm✶ the cattle often found pasturage even late in the winter. The Senner† here watching his flocks was visited one Christmas Eve by an old man in thick winter clothing, with a mighty pine-staff in his hand; he begged the Senner on the coming night to heat his hut as hot as ever he could, assuring him he would have no cause to regret his compliance. The Senner though it was a strange adventure, but congratulated himself that it might be the means of propitiating the goblins, of whose pranks in the winter nights he was not without his fears. So he heaped log upon log all day, till the hut was so hot he could hardly bear it. Then he crept under a bench in the corner where a little chink gave a breath from the outer air, and waited to see what would come to pass. Towards midnight he heard steps approaching nearer and nearer, and then there was a sound of heavy boots stamping off the snow. Immediately after, seven men stepped into the room in silence. Their boots and clothes were all frozen as hard as if they had been carved out of stone, and their very presence served to cool down the air of the hut to such an extent, that the Senner was now obliged to rub his hands. When they had stood a considerable space round the fire without uttering a word, they all seven left the hut as silently and solemnly as they had entered it. The Senner now crawled out of his hiding-place, and a loud cry of joy burst spontaneously from his lips, for his hat which he had left on the table was full of bright shining golden zwanzigers. 'These seven,' the legend goes on to say, 'were never seen but this once. They were the seven Gold-herds of the Reiche Spitze; for up there, there are exhaustless treasures, and whatever mortal takes of them during life, he must suffer the Cold Torment and keep watch over it after death; and of such there have been seven in the course of the world's ages.' With regard to the Cold Torment,' they have the following legend in the neighbourhood of Innsbruck:-There was once a peasant who had been very unlucky, and got so deep in debt, that he saw no way of extricating himself. Unable to bear the sight of his starving family, he wandered out into the forest, until at last he met a strange-looking man * Pasture-ground lying at the base of a mountain. + Alpine herd. Respecting the curious idea of the kalte Pein, consult Alpenburg, Mythen Tirols. ; Vernaleken, Alpensagen; Beckstein, Thuringer Sagenbuch. in the old Frankish costume, who came up to him and said, 'You are poor indeed, and know no means of help.' 'Most true,' replied the peasant; of money and good counsel I can use more than you can have to bestow.' 'I will help you,' said the strange-looking man; 'I will give you as much money as you can use while you live, and all you will have to do for it will be to bear the Cold Torment for me after you die; nothing but that, only just to feel rather too cold, and all that long time hence-what does it matter?' The peasant retraced his steps, and as he drew near home his children came out to meet him with their pinafores full of gold, and all about the house there were heaps of gold, more than he could use, and he lived a merry life till the time came for him to die. Then he remembered what was before him, so he called his wife to him and got her to make him a whole suit of the thickest rough woollen cloth, and stockings, hood, and gloves, of the same. In the night, before they had buried him, his boys saw him, just as the De profundis bell rang, get up from the bed in all this warm clothing, and shut the gate behind him, and go out into the forest to deliver the spirit which had enriched him. To the north-east of this valley, and still on the left bank of the Inn, is the favourite pilgrimage of Mariastein. I have not learnt its origin, but there is a tradition that, in 1587, Baron Schurff, to whom the neighbouring Castle of Stein then belonged, being desirous to take the precious likeness of the Blessed Virgin honoured there to his Bavarian dwelling, thrice attempted the removal, and on each occasion it was found by the next morning restored to its old sanctuary, which is in a chapel at the top of a high tower. A little lake at no great distance affords excellent fish, and from several points there are most enjoyable views of the hohe Salve, and the little towns of Wörgl, Kirchbühel, and Häring, across the river. (To be continued.) R. H. B. ANTIQUE GEMS AND SIGNET RINGS. DIAMONDS. 'Adamas punctum lapidis, pretiosior auro.' THE diamond, a mere speck of stone, is yet more precious than gold, says Manilius, (iv. 926.) But the name adauas, the untameable, was given to so many other substances besides the true diamond, that in reading the early Grecian poets, many have been curiously misled. Diamonds were very rare in Europe until after the Macedonian conquests, and even as late as the time of Pliny, who declares that the diamond bearing the highest value, not only amongst precious stones, but amongst all human |