“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.
In one part of the Canton of Ticino a very quaint marriage ceremony prevails. The bridegroom dresses in his “Sunday best,” and, accompanied by as many relatives and friends as he can muster for the fête, goes to claim his bride. Finding the door locked, he demands admittance; the inmates ask him his business, and in reply he solicits the hand of the maiden of his choice. If his answer be deemed satisfactory, he is successively introduced to a number of matrons and old maids, some, perhaps, deformed and badly goitered. Then he is presented to some big dolls, all of whom he scornfully rejects amid general merriment. The bewildered bridegroom, with his impetuosity and temper sorely tried, is then informed that his lady love is absent, and he is invited in to see for himself. He rushes in, searches from room to room until he finds her ready to go forth in the bridal-dress to the church. These obstacles thrown across the path of accepted suitors, in order to test their fidelity or to restrain their ardor, are of very ancient origin. Who has not read of the self-imposed task of Penelope or of Atlanta, in classic fable; or the story of Brunhilde, in the Norse mythology, when Gunther’s courage and skill were tested not in vain? In other remote places the peasants still observe the old German idea of regulating matrimonial affairs by the Sundays of the month, each Sunday having a distinct part and significance assigned to it and designated in turn,—Review Sunday, Decision Sunday, Contract Sunday, Possession Sunday. On the first the girls appear in dress-parade for the benefit of the young men with hymeneal hearts. Then they separate, each one to ponder for a week over the image which caught his or her fancy. On the following Sunday the enamored swains are permitted to bow to the objects of their choice; if the bow is returned with a pleasant smile, he feels encouraged; if his salute is returned coldly, he is correspondingly discouraged. The third Sunday he is interviewed by the parents of the young lady, and, if character and conditions are satisfactorily established, the marriage is arranged to be celebrated on Possession Sunday. In Uri a citizen was not allowed to marry a stranger without paying to the village a fine of 300 francs. In many places the local spirit is strong as to social relations, and the youth in one Commune who would court a girl of another district meets a rude reception from her fellow-villagers. During the fourteenth century the attendants at a wedding were limited to a very few guests. In Zurich the most distinguished personage dared not invite more than twenty mothers of families to the wedding feast, nor have more than two hautboys, two violins, and two singers. The bridegroom paid for the wedding dinner, the cost of which was fixed so much per capita for every invited male, married female, and maiden; the allowance for the first was double that of the second, and four times that of the third. In other Cantons the wedding was a grand occasion, an imposing and public affair in which the whole village was expected to take part. In the house of the newly-married pair there were open tables, and drinking, dancing, and feasting went on all night. But these Pantagruel repasts are now no longer in fashion anywhere. The day fixed for the wedding, among the peasants, is always Sunday. In the morning, before going to church, the invited guests meet at the bride’s house to partake of wine, soup, and fritters. After the marriage ceremony, the party go in procession to the bridegroom’s house, where dinner is served; the priest delivers a long discourse, and other orators hold forth. In the evening there is dancing, and at the stroke of midnight the guests form a ring round the wedded pair and take off their crowns, and, after a few words of encouragement, they are left alone. In some places a man was not permitted to marry unless he had certain possessions, and could show himself able to defend his homestead from fire and robbers; he must have arms and uniform, hatchet, bucket, and ladder. Custom, at least, was law to a woman. She must have acquired a sufficient stock of linen and have learned many domestic arts; thus Swiss women became famous for their linen, and a girl would begin laying up her stock of household and domestic articles pour mon cher petit ménage long before she met her partner for life. The custom of Saturday-night visits among the young peasant people, whose daily labors keep them away during the week, still prevails. On Saturday night the young Swiss comes under the window of the fair lady to whom he intends paying his addresses, or with whom he only wishes to become acquainted. Being visiting-night, and expecting company, she is at the window, neatly dressed, and admits or rejects the petition, for which her suitor is not at any trouble of improvisation, for it is according to a received form, learned by heart, and generally in verse; and the answer is in verse also. The young man, permission obtained, climbs up to the window, and there he sits on the sill and is offered some refreshments. According as his views are more or less serious, and he proves more or less acceptable, he is allowed to come into the room or suffered to remain outside.
The last solemnities, those of death and burial, have among the peasants of the Latin Cantons something violent and passionate in their character. For several Sundays after the funeral the women, dressed in mourning with a head-band across the forehead, meet in the cemetery around the grave, and, in a mournful and harrowing concert, renew their tears and lamentations. The nearest relations carry the coffin; little children follow, dressed as angels, all in white, with crowns on their heads; then come the white penitents, dressed in their death-shirt, or the robe of the brotherhood. White is the mourning color, and persons with whom you meet with a broad white band on their dress have lost a member of their family.
The picturesque costumes of the Swiss peasantry, which formerly were the pride and distinguishing marks of the several Cantons, have almost disappeared; their use being confined to holidays, festivals, or as advertisements at public resorts. The Bernese have their snow-white shift-sleeves rolled up to the shoulder exposing to view a sinewy sunburnt arm, the dark-red stays laced with black in front, silk aprons, silver chains, and buckles, colored skirts just short enough to show a home-made white stocking, a heavy gaiter shoe, a beehive-shaped hat, and long yellow hair in a single plait hanging down nearly to the heels, along a back made very straight by the habit of carrying pails of milk and water on the head. In French Switzerland long tresses, trimmed with black ribbon, descend on each side of the neck, a narrow dark bodice restrains the waist, the bosom is covered by a chemise plaited in a thousand folds and whiter than snow, a short and ample under-petticoat leaves the leg exposed above the ankle, and red garters full in sight. These costumes really have nothing to recommend them except their peculiarity; there is something very irresponsive in them, adding nothing to the beauty of person or grace of bearing, but simply tending to make the wearers, like Lord Dundreary’s girls, “look more or less alike, generally more alike;” none of them are pretty except on paper, yet even the ugliest of them all, worn by the homeliest women, help to make up the sum of national peculiarities and add to the picturesqueness. The men affect immensely broad pants, a large round coat high in the collar, short in the waist, with two little ludicrous tails in the very small of the back, and a soft beaver hat pushed sideways on the head; the complete appearance is sometimes suggested of a walking porpoise. The present ordinary male and female dress is somewhat sombre, little use of bright color is made, and regard is had for that which will wear best and require least washing; the material is either undyed homespun woollen cloth or coarse blue frieze, and the garments are clumsily made, stiff and heavy.
Human character appears to consist of two opposite varieties: one that makes a fetich of the past, and shrinks from changes as from a rude immorality; the other, that dashes forward impatiently after progression and development. In most states these temperaments are brought together in the diversity of persons, and the reforming and conserving influences work out in harmony the course of society. But in Switzerland can be found peasant communities where nothing but conservatives are generated. Time seems to have slumbered among them for centuries; their character has continued ancient in modern times.[92] They have always been and will ever be peasants. They are religious, unaffected, industrious people; shepherds, agriculturists, artisans, soldiers, patriots, and, above all, freemen, full of song, labor, and fight. They wish to be ruled by habits rather than laws, with traditional customs as a legislative code. What matters if the storm rages, and if it snows, if the wind blusters in the pine forest, if a man shut up in his cottage has but black bread and cheese, under his smoky light and beside his fire of turf? Another kingdom opens to reward him, the kingdom of inward contentment; his wife loves him and is faithful; his children round his hearth spell out the old family Bible; he is the master in his home, the owner and protector; and if so be that he needs assistance, he knows that at the first appeal he will see his neighbors stand faithfully and bravely by his side,—