,
some young Swiss, in the early dawn of morning, conveyed a large pot of
hot millet porridge, in a vessel, from Zurich to Strasburg; they
arrived in the evening; threw the famed Zurich rolls among the people,
and delivered the still warm millet porridge to the council of the
friendly city, as a token of how quickly their Swiss friends would come
to their aid if they ever needed it in earnest; they danced the same
night with the Strasburg maidens. After that, the excitement and
sufferings of the Reformation knit new spiritual ties betwixt Zurich
and the great imperial city. Bucer and the Swiss reformers, the
literati and artists of both cities, had been in close alliance; though
differences of confession had for a short time produced alienation. The
Strasburgers had often experienced the hospitality of the Swiss. Now
when, 150 years after the first journey of the porridge-pot, the city
of Strasbourg had again announced a brilliant prize-shooting for
crossbow and gun, and a strong detachment from Zurich had celebrated
with them the first fortnight of the cross-bow shooting, then a number
of young Zurichers, under the lead of some gentlemen of the council,
determined to repeat the old voyage. Again, like their ancestors, they
placed the great metal pot, weighing 120 pounds, filled with hot
porridge, in the ship, and voyaged in the early dawn of morning, all
dressed alike in rose and black, from the Limmat into the Aar, from the
Aar into the Rhine, with trumpeters and drummers. The places by which
the ship flew, in the sunny mid-day, greeted the jolly fellows with
acclamations; in the evening they reached Strasburg, having been long
before announced from the towers. The citizens thronged to meet them;
delegates from the council greeted them; they carried the pot on shore
and delivered it to the councillors; they scattered amongst the
children of Strasbourg 300 strings of Zurich rolls, and again were the
manly words spoken: "Quickly as we have come to-day in sport, we will
come to help in earnest." And at the abundant supper the old homely
dish, still warm, was enjoyed with pleasure. The Strasburger Fischart
has described with hearty satisfaction the journey of the porridge-pot,
and we find in his verses the warmth which then animated both hosts and
guests. The course of the voyage of the porridge-pot, and even the sums
which the Swiss deposited in the urn of fortune--"In the name of the
fortunate ship and of the parent town