The smile was on his lips, but the spirit was gone, leaving only its imprint on the cold clay.
* * *
“Weep, not, O woman!” said his spirit to her, “weep not for the clay that lies here; the shackles are broken; what earth could not hold, nor love longer detain, can neither be fettered by Death: the body is dead, but the soul lives for ever; it lives in thy love and thy heart; it lives in the sky.”
This is the last of our legends; and with a few remarks on the habits and customs of the part of Germany near our river we will come to the conclusion of our last chapter. Not without regret shall we end; for it is a pleasant task, in these cold short days of winter, to record that which brings to our remembrance the long bright days of summer; especially as that summer was spent among such lovely scenes.
The Germans bear the character of being an honest, hardworking, intelligent people, very domestic in their habits, even to exclusiveness; the different classes assort together less than they do in England, but passing communication is freer and less constrained.
During the many weeks we passed on the Moselle, and in a former excursion on our river, we never once encountered a family of tourists of the upper class of Germans. At Bad Bertrich there were some, but they were there because it is a watering-place—not because it is beautiful; and as soon as the season was over away they all went, as if they were afraid to remain at a Bad out of the fashionable season, although the weather was much more suitable for country pursuits than it had been during the season.
This same fashion arrays the dumpy young ladies of Germany in a most strange deformity of inflated petticoats. Bad enough as these things are in England and France, in Germany they are much worse.
The gentlemen are, in general, agreeable, and more truly polite than the French; but French ladies certainly have the advantage over their sisters in Germany.
The poorer classes still bear the stamp of the old German character. They are frugal, hard-working, honest, and cheerful. They are well-mannered and well-informed for their class. They also exhibit considerable neatness and taste in their dress. No pleasanter object can be met in a summer-day’s ramble than a group of the mädchen, with their hair neatly folded, smooth on the brow and plaited behind, with the smart embroidered cloth or velvet head-dress, and the gilt paper-cutter passed through the hair; neat shoes and blue stockings are shown by the sensible length of the petticoats, and a gay handkerchief sets off the firm bust. Their figures are lithe and upright, though somewhat thick and substantial. The paper-cutter in the head is supposed to represent a nail of the Cross.