They said Landeck would not please us, but it did. They said it was not
pretty, but it was. They said we would not stay there, but that is all
they knew about it or us. In itself, so far as its houses are concerned,
it is not attractive, it is true; but it lies in a very picturesque way
on both banks of the Inn, which rushes and roars constantly at this
point, and the hills around are bold and beautiful. It has its ancient
castle, on the heights directly above the town; but the castle now is a
failure, whatever proud tales its walls might tell us could they
speak,--a failure even as a "ruin," I mean. It is not very high, but the
path is steep; and when you get to the top you wish you had remained
below, for there is nothing to reward you. The view is no finer than you
can have from almost any point here; and the castle is simply nothing to
see, being only a few gray walls without form or comeliness, in the
shade of which, the day we visited it, sat a few poor old women, who now
occupy it, with snails and bats and wind and storm, rent free.
To Zams, the next village, you walk along the river road past fields of
grain, where cornflowers and poppies are gayly growing, and the water
hurrying from the mountains sings its loud, bold song, and everywhere
around are the varied hues and heights of the Tyrolean Alps. At Zams
there is a beautiful waterfall, which you must seek if you would see,
for it hides itself from the world. Over a bridge, along the river road,
then through lanes where there were more of the pretty cornflowers and
gay poppies, past a group of cottages, a mill, a noisy brook, a mass of
rugged cliffs, we strolled, the voice of the falling water calling us
ever nearer and nearer, until suddenly at the last it was before us. The
rocks conceal it on every side up to the last moment when you are
directly at the foot of it,--one of the fine dramatic effects in which
Mother Nature likes sometimes to indulge.
It falls with great force a hundred and fifty feet, perhaps,--this is a
wild feminine guess, yet somewhere near the truth, I hope,--in a narrow,
immensely swift stream, which, as it issues from the rock, runs a little
diagonally. It has forced a passage through the rock, and when we saw it
was sweeping through this aperture; but in stormy weather it hurls
itself over the summit of the ledge, increasing its height many feet,
and is magnificent in its fury. An experienced mountain-climber told us
that there are a succession of these falls, of which this is the seventh
and last, and the only one that can be seen without painful and
dangerous climbing, they are so singularly concealed. The stream springs
from the glaciers far away, and leaps from rock to rock in wild, unseen
beauty. It seemed to speak to us of the lonely, frozen heights and
solitude of its birthplace.
From Landeck to Innsbruck the scenery, taken all in all, though
pleasing, is less bold and more monotonous than are many other parts of
the Tyrol. There are many historical points of interest here, and
reminders of the bravery of the mountaineers in different wars. You see
where they stood high on their native hills hurling down trunks of trees
and huge masses of rock on the invading Bavarians; and what this work of
destruction failed to do, the sure aim of the Tyrolese riflemen
effectually accomplished.
In one village they exhibit the room where Frederic Augustus, king of
Saxony, died suddenly from the kick of a horse. Having no inordinate
interest in his deceased majesty, we were quite content to gaze placidly
at the outside of the house from the post-wagon, as we informed the man
who tried to induce us to march in, pay our fees, and so increase the
revenues of the inn. He was deeply disgusted, and evidently considered
us persons of inferior taste.
You are shown, off at the right of the road on a wooded height, the
ruins of Schloss Petersburg, the birthplace of Margaret, daughter of the
count of the Tyrol through whom Tyrol came into the possession of the
emperors of Austria.
We have seen so many little villages more or less alike, all having
saints painted on their houses in brilliant hues, and mottoes over their
doorways,--some religious, some quite secular and merry, and all, too,
having names of one syllable, composed chiefly of consonants, such as
Imst, Silz, Zams, Mils, Telfs, Zirl,--we cannot hope to remember them
with that clearness which characterizes the well-regulated mind on its
travels. (No one in our party _has_ a well-regulated mind.) But we have
a way among ourselves of designating places, which is quite satisfactory
and intelligible to us. For instance, we say, "That was where we drank
the cream"; "That was where the innkeeper was a barrel, with head and
feet protruding"; "That was where that interesting body, the fire
department, were feasting at long tables and singing Tyrolean songs";
"The village where we met the procession, old men and maidens, young men
and children, singing, chanting, telling their beads, bearing candles,
and, most of all, staring at the strangers."--And what were the
strangers doing? Staring at the people, to be sure. We always stare. We
are here for that purpose.--"The village where the girl put a flower in
her sweetheart's hat." And how pretty it was! The post-wagon had hardly
stopped before a good-looking youth dashed down from its top, and at the
same instant a rosy waiter-girl dashed out from the inn, bearing a tall
mug of foaming beer. She had eyes but for him. He had eyes but for
her--and the beer. Entranced they met! They stood a little apart from us
by a garden, and beamed and smiled at each other and whispered their
secrets, and didn't care a straw whether we stupid "other people" saw
them or not. They had but a few moments of bliss, for the boy had to go
on with the post; but while he was drinking the very last of that
reviving fluid, she took his hat from his head, and, stooping to the
flowers beside her, chose a great flaming carnation pink, which she
fastened in his hat-band. He looked pleased, which of course made her
look pleased; but what a wise little village-Hebe it was to give him the
beer first! What would he have cared for the flower when his throat was
dusty and thirsty! It is such a pity some women always persist in
offering their flowers and graces too soon,--forgetting the nature of
the creature they adore.
In an inn at one village was a table which we coveted strongly. It was,
they said, a hundred and fifty years old, octagonal, four or five feet
in diameter, made of inlaid woods in the natural colors, now darkened
with age. Broad, solid, firm, it looked as if it might last a hundred
and fifty years longer and then retain its vigor of constitution. It had
a wise, knowing air, as of having seen a great deal of the world; and
the landlord told us tales of drinking and fighting and scenes of rough
soldier-life, which were enough to make it tremble for its existence.
Bavarian soldiers once, when they were occupying the village, used it
rather roughly, and left as many sword-cuts and dents in it as they
could make in its brave, firm wood. Its centre was a slate or
blackboard, on which beer accounts are conveniently reckoned.
Just beyond Zirl, the Martinswand rises sixteen hundred feet
perpendicularly above the road. It has its story, to which everybody who
comes here must listen.
The Emperor Maximilian, in 1493, was chasing a chamois above the
Martinswand, and, having lost his way, made a misstep, fell down to the
edge of a precipice, and hung there, unable to recover his footing. The
priest of Zirl came with some of his people, and, it being impossible to
reach him, stood at the bottom of the cliff, elevated the host, granting
him absolution; and then, in horror, awaited the end. But "an angel in
the garb of a chamois-hunter" appeared at this crisis, and bore the
exhausted monarch to a place of safety. The perilous spot, nine hundred
feet above the river, is now marked by a cross, and the paten used by
the priest is a blessed relic in a church.
The story seems to be quite generally believed in this neighborhood. We
sceptical strangers do not find it so enormous a morsel to swallow as is
sometimes presented to us. I presume if any of us were dangling between
heaven and earth, with the immediate prospect of falling nine hundred
feet, we would be very apt to call whatever should rescue us an "angel."