oil" with which the posts were
smeared, that its really diabolical odour--I don't know from what horrors
it was compounded--might preserve the crops. The ornament of the forests
had become the object of the keenest hate, and as soon as--shortly before
we entered Keilhau--hunting was freely permitted, the peasants gave full
vent to their rage, set off for the woods with the old muskets they had
kept hidden in the garrets, or other still more primitive weapons, and
shot or struck down all the game they encountered. Roast venison was
cheap for weeks on Rudolstadt tables, and the pupils had many an
unexpected pleasure.

The hunting exploits of the older scholars were only learned by us
younger ones as secrets, and did not reach the teachers' ears until long
after.

But the woods furnished other pleasures besides those enjoyed by the
sportsman. Every ramble through the forest enriched our knowledge of
plants and animals, and I soon knew the different varieties of stones
also; yet we did not suspect that this knowledge was imparted according
to a certain system. We were taught as it were by stealth, and how many
pleasant, delicious things attracted us to the class-rooms on the wooded
heights!

Vegetation was very abundant in the richly watered mountain valley. Our
favourite spring was the Schaalbach at the foot of the Steiger,--[We
pupils bought it of the peasant who owned it and gave it to
Barop.]--because there was a fowling-floor connected with it, where I
spent many a pleasant evening. It could be used only after breeding-time,
and consisted of a hut built of boughs where the birdcatcher lodged.
Flowing water rippled over the little wooden rods on which the feathered
denizens of the woods alighted to quench their thirst before going to
sleep. When some of them--frequently six at a time--had settled on the
perches in the trough, it was drawn into the but by a rope, a net was
spread over the water and there was nothing more to do except take the
captives out.

The name of the director of this amusement was Merbod. He could imitate
the voices of all the birds, and was a merry, versatile fellow, who knew
how to do a thousand things, and of whom we boys were very fond.

The peasant Bredernitz often took us to his crow-hut, which was a hole in
the ground covered with boughs and pieces of turf, where the hunters lay
concealed. The owl, which lured the crows and other birds of prey, was
fastened on a perch, and when they f