“No zephyr fondly soothes the mountain’s breast,
But meteors glare and stormy glooms invest.”
At dusk you see a cottage on a shelf of rock, a hut in which the shepherd churns his milk, a bit of soil in which he grows his herbs, a patch of grass on which his heifers browse, a simple cross at which his children pray. At dead of night a tremor passes through the mountain-side, a slip of earth takes place, or a “thunderbolt of snow” which no one hears, rings up the heaven. At dawn there is a lonely shelf of rock above, a desolate wreck of human hopes below, and
“The gentle herd returns at evening close,
Untended from the hills, and white with snows.”[87]
Some of the Alpine districts are entirely pastoral, where naught save cow-herd’s horn and cattle-bell is heard. In the spring it is a pretty sight to see the groups of cows with tinkling bells start for the mountains. The bells are nearly globular, thin, and light, of different sizes, from one foot to two inches in diameter; they are various in pitch, all melting into one general musical effect, forming in right harmonious proportion to produce the concord of sounds without any clashing tones, just as the song of many birds does.
“The tintinnabulation that so musically swells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells.”
The cows are assembled in herds on the village green, and to the call of the herdsmen they begin their march to the mountain pastures. Each herd has its queen, who leads the procession. The choice of the queen depends on her strength and beauty. Great care and expense are incurred in the ambition to procure one peerless animal for this purpose, and in order to develop a combative and fearless spirit they are said to be fed on oats soaked in spirits. The queen wears a finer collar and larger bell than the others. Proud of her superior strength, she seems, with the calmness of a settled conviction, to be defying her companions, and to be seeking—impatient for combat—some antagonist worthy to measure strength with her. See
“How gracefully yon heifer bears her honors!