y one custom in the place, of which it is worth while to take
notice. Kamnitz, it appears, is very much of an agricultural town; that
is to say, many owners of small estates dwell there, and many cattle
are kept. During the winter months, both here and elsewhere, the cattle
never breathe the air of heaven; but are kept mewed up in their stalls,
and fed on hay, and other dry fodder. When the hay crop has been
gathered in, and the fields are ready for them, they are sent abroad to
graze, but always under the guidance of keepers, who, at least in
Kamnitz, are strictly professional persons. Their mode of proceeding is
this. At early dawn, there is a flourish of cow-horns in the
streets,--a signal for opening the stable-door, and leading forth the
cattle to pasture. The animals are then collected in the market-place,
and handed over to the charge of their appointed keepers, who, two or
three in number, drive the herd abroad, and are responsible that they
commit no trespass on the growing corn. At night, a similar process
takes place. The cattle are led back by the keepers to the
market-place: horns are again sounded; upon which each bouerman either
comes in person, or sends his deputy to receive the beasts, and so
conducts them to their stalls for milking.

Kamnitz has at one period been a fortified town, though probably that
period is very remote,--for against modern artillery a place so
situated could not hold out a single day. Its gateways, and some
fragments of the old wall, remain,--objects at all times too
interesting to be wantonly removed. Beneath a couple of these venerable
arches we passed,--first on entering, then on leaving the town,--after
which we found ourselves traversing a long and irregular hamlet, which
in the form of a suburb lines one side of the road, and so faces a
pretty little stream that skirts the other. Crossing the rivulet by a
bridge with two arches, we began to climb the hill, on the brow of
which Stein Jena is situated, and from which our friend, the young
priest of Auffenberg, had given us to understand, that we should obtain
one of the most magnificent views in this part of Bohemia. Long and
toilsome was this ascent; for though the main road was still beneath
our feet, so perfectly had its fabricators set the rules of their art
at defiance, that it ran sheer and abrupt, with scarce a trifling
deflection, from the base to the summit. The sun, also, beat upon us
with a power which we found it