IN SWITZERLAND,
According to an English observer,[18] analogous modes of courtship still exist. In speaking of the canton Unterwald he says: "In the story of the destruction of the castles, we read that the surprise was effected by a young girl admitting her lover to her room by a ladder, and an English guide-book remarks, that this is still the fashion of receiving lovers in Switzerland. Reference is had to the manner of wooing, which in some cantons is called lichtgetren, in others dorfen and stubetegetren, and answers to the old-fashioned going-a-courting in England. The customs connected with it vary in different cantons, but exist in some form in all except two or three.
In the canon Lucerne, the kiltgang is the universal mode of wooing; the lover visiting his betrothed in the evening, to be pelted on the way by all mischievous urchins; or if he is seated quietly with her by the winter fire, they are sure to be serenaded by all manner of cat voices under the window, which are continued till he issues forth, perhaps at dawn in the morning; and however long may be a courtship, these cater-waulings are the invariable attendants, and not the most lamentable consequences of these nightly visits, recognized, however, as entirely respectable and conventional in every canton."
And again in the canton Vaud, he says, "the kiltgang, or nightly wooings, are the universal custom with the universal consequences, but in general the wife is treated with marked respect, is made keeper of the treasury, and consulted as the oracle of the family."
Among the amatory customs of various