It was long before Hamilton felt disposed to leave this scene of rustic festivity; when he did so, it was but to witness another of a different kind, for as the evening approached, and the noise of the rifles began by degrees to cease, all the singers and zither players in the neighbourhood assembled in the garden; it was in the midst of them that Hamilton was found by Baron Z—, and though he soon after joined the latter and his friends at another table, he still turned round and endeavoured to hear the words or hum the chorus of their songs.
“Our national music seems to interest you,” observed an elderly gentleman in a green shooting jacket, drawing his chair close to Hamilton’s.
“Very much, but I find it rather difficult to understand the words, though I hear them very distinctly.”
“Of course you do; a foreigner must always find it difficult to understand our different dialects, and we have many.”
Baron Z— took a little book of songs out of his pocket and handed it to Hamilton, who, after a few unsuccessful attempts, at length was able to read and understand one of them. “Are these songs ancient or modern?” he asked after a pause.
“These,” answered Baron Z—, “are of an uncertain age, and are common in the Bavarian highlands; but we have some national songs of the same description which are extremely ancient.”
“We know,” observed the elderly gentleman, “we know from the poems of Walter von der Vogelweide that even at the end of the twelfth century the peasants had their own songs, which, to the great annoyance of the celebrated poet, were gladly heard and highly valued by the princes and knights of his time. The highest nobles then danced to their own songs, as you may sometimes see the Austrian peasants do to this day. The rhymes of the Niebelungenlied[[3]] and other old German epic poems are precisely of the same description as these songs, which is also a proof of their antiquity.”
[3]. The Niebelungenlied is a very ancient poem, greatly valued but little read—like the works of Chaucer and Spenser in England.
“And is the music as old as the poetry?” asked Hamilton.
“I believe so,” replied Baron Z—; “it was intended for dancing as well as singing, as the universal name of Schnadder-hüpfen denotes; the word schnadder means to talk or chat, and hüpfen to jump or dance about.”