The Echo -- Wonderful Orchestra -- Magical Music -- A _Feu
de joie_ -- The Oration -- The Voices -- Echo and the
Humourist -- Satisfying the Guide -- Exploring the
Labyrinth -- Curious Discoveries -- Speculations of
Geologists -- Bohemia an Inland Sea -- Marble Labyrinth in
Spain -- A Twilight View -- After a'.
"Will it please you to walk to the echo?" asks the guide, when we come
back to the meadow. And if you assent--as every one does--he turns to
the left and leads you up the open ground above-mentioned to a small
temple--the Echo House. You see a man standing near the house playing
a clarionet, pausing now and then to recite; but no answering note or
word do you hear. But take your seat on the bench against that
perpendicular rock on his right, and immediately you hear a whole
orchestra of wind instruments among the rocks. Such delicious music!
Soft, wild, warbling, rising and falling, melting one into the other
in a way that you fancy could only be accomplished by a band of
Kobolds with _Rübezahl_ for a leader. And when the player blows short
phrases with pauses between, what mocking sprite is that who imitates
the sound, flitting from crevice to crevice repeating the tones over
and over again, fainter and fainter, till they seem not to die away,
but to float out of hearing?
Then his companion comes forward and fires a gun, a signal, so you
might believe, for a great discharge of musketry among the rocks,
platoon after platoon firing a _feu de joie_. One--two--three--four!
The two men hold up their hands to signify--Listen yet! then comes the
rattle of the fifth round from the short range of rocks which we saw
on the left while coming down the valley; and the firing commenced by
the troops in camp is ended by the outposts.
Then one of the men makes a short oration about the wonders here
grouped by which Nature attracts man from afar and fills him with joy
and astonishment; voices repeat the oration among the rocks, and
then--he comes to you for his fee. For the gunshot the tax is eight
kreutzers; and if you give eight more for the music and oration, the
two echo-keepers will not look unhappy.
And now, if still incredulous, you may talk to the echo yourself. My
test was perfectly convincing, for it woke up a dozen cuckoos among
the rocks. When Schulze, the humourist already mentioned, was here, he
questioned the mysterious voice concerning political matters, and got
unhesitating answers. For example:
_Philosopher._ "Wie steht's um Hellas?
_Echo._ Helas! Helas! Helas!
Wat hältst du von Russels Worte?
Worte! Worte! Worte!
Wat fehlt in Hessen?
Essen! Essen! Essen!
Was möchten gern die Wallachen?
Lachen! lachen! lachen!
Fließt dort (in Russia) nicht Milch und Honig?
Jo nich! jo nich! jo nich!
Wann kommt Deutschland zur Harmonie?
O nie! O nie! O nie!
Es fehlt ja man eene Kleinigkeit?
Einigkeit! Einigkeit! Einigkeit!"
Unluckily, the points would all become blunt if translated; I am
constrained, therefore, to leave them in the original.
My guide waited to be "satisfied." I asked him what amount of fee he
usually received?
"Sometimes," he answered, "I get a dollar."
"But commonly not more than ten kreutzers?"
"_M--m--ja_, that is true."
"Then what would you say to fifteen kreutzers?"
"Sir, I would say that I wish such as you would come every day to
Adersbach."
He left me fully "satisfied." And so, reader, you see that the
picturesque is burdened with a tariff in Bohemia as it is in certain
parts of England, Scotland, and Wales.
I went back to the rocks. The locked door does not shut in all the
wonders, and there are miles which you may explore freely. But unless
you stick a branch here and there into the sand, or "blaze" the trees,
you will never find your way out again. The great height of the rocks
surprises you not less than their amazing number. They are intersected
by blind alleys, open alleys, and lanes innumerable, intertwisting and
crossing in all directions. Many a cavern, den, and grotto will you
see, and many a delightful sylvan retreat, where the solitude is
perfect; many a bower which is presently lost. Now you are overcome by
wonder, now by awe, for thoughts will come to you of great rock cities
and temples smitten by judgments; of the giant race that warred with
the gods and were slain by thunder-bolts; of those who worshipped
stones and burnt sacrifice on the loftiest rocks.
A few paces farther, and seeing how tall trees grow everywhere among
the stony masses, how smaller trees and shrubs shoot from the
crevices, and moss enwraps pillar and buttress, and fringes the
cliffs, you will think of Nature's silent revolutions; of the ages
that rolled away while the labyrinth of Adersbach was formed. Here, so
say the geologists, currents of water running for innumerable years,
have worn out channels in the softer parts of a wide stratum of
sandstone, and produced the effects we now witness. The stratum must
have been great, for the rocks extend, more or less crowded, away to
the _Heuscheuer_, a distance of three or four leagues. The mountain
itself presents similar phenomena even on its summit.
A supposition prevails, based on much observation, that the whole of
Bohemia was once covered by a vast lake, or inland sea. The
conformation of the country, its ring-fence of mountains--whence the
term _Kessel Land_ (Kettle Land) among the Germans--broken only where
the Elbe flows out, while almost every stream within the territory
finds its way into that river, besides the fossil deposits so
abundantly met with, are facts urged by the learned in favour of their
views. It may have been during the existence of this great sea that
the rocks were formed.
It might be interesting to inquire whether the rocky labyrinth at
Torcal, not far from Antequera, in Spain, presents phenomena similar
to those of Adersbach. The rocks, as I have read, are of marble,
covering a great extent of ground in groupings singularly picturesque.
It was dusk when I had finished my prowl, for such it was, accompanied
by much scrambling. Then I climbed to the top of one of the outlying
crags for a view across the maze, and when I saw the numerous gray
heads peering out from the feathery fir-tops, here and there a
bastion, a broken pillar, and weather-stained tower, the fancy once
more possessed me that here was a city of the giants--its walls thrown
down, its buildings destroyed, and its rebellious inhabitants turned
to stone.
Gradually the hoary rocks looked spectral-like, for the dusk
increased, the clouds gathered heavily, and rain began to fall. I
walked back to the inn, feeling deeply the force of the Ettrick
Shepherd's words, "After a', what is any description by us puir
creturs o' the works o' the great God?"