night came fast upon us, Ole selected his bed between two large rocks; with our spade he made with rough sods a sort of turf coffin, about a foot deep, over which he placed a large mass of heath roots, and moss which he had peeled off the ground, the moss being turned downwards; then our waterproof was placed over all. When his bed was ready, he proposed that we should start at five o'clock the next morning.

"I shan't get up at five o'clock!" shouted Esmeralda,

body!"

Noah and Zachariah looked at one another, as much as to say, "Dawdy! she's up; may our good shorengero land safely on the other side."

"The next day's journey is a long one," suggested Ole, slowly recovering; and we promptly decided for half-past five. Ole screwed himself into his turf coffin, and, wrapping his head in his woollen shawl, we laid the

waterproof over him, and he was comfortable for the night.

66

'Well," said we to Esmeralda, being determined to maintain discipline, you shall please yourself, but remember we move on in good time to-morrow." Our hobbenengree was at once a study, which would have made the fortune of an artist.

For a time we wrote up our notes, till the shadows of night descended on the dark peaks, and a chill air came from the Smörstab glacier, when we retired to rest.

Our sleep the next morning was disturbed by Ole asking for matches and paper to light a fire. Very shortly we joined him. "Now, Zachariah!'-vand! vand!' Zachariah and Noah were soon up. We had only made eight miles yesterday, and it was a long day's journey to reach the Utladal Stöl. The morning was windy, with a heavy dew, but we could see the sun creeping down the opposite mountain peaks, promising a hot day.

Tea was soon ready; a tin of potted meat was opened, and spread upon slices of bread. All four commenced breakfast with a good appetite.

When Esmeralda found that we did not attempt to disturb her, it is wonderful how quick she appeared, and the tents were immediately after packed up. Our camp was about 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. We observed some cow-dung flies and spiders in our tent before it was packed up.

The rugged peaks of the Tverbottenhornene (signifying peaks of the pass from one valley to another) rose before us. What a line of dark peaks! The scenery of this valley is extremely wild.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

"That the language of the Hindoos and that of the ancient Egyptians may have sprung from the same root is very probable; nay, it is almost certain. The language of the latter is a lost language, that of the gipsies a found one, claimed by and for no other people. All these things tend to confirm the surmise (may I say the fact ?), that the gipsies are the long-dispersed Egyptians. To talk of their being Sondras (without showing a miraculous change of nature), would be as absurd as to affirm that they were expelled Esquimaux."

The Gipsies. By SAMUEL ROBERTS,

THE VIRGIN PEAK-ESMERALDA IN THE LERA--A DRIPPING NEREIDHEAVY CLOUDS-THE CHURCH MOUNTAIN-WILD REINDEER-WHERE'S THE TEA? SINGULAR GLACIER-VALLEY OF RED SANDSTONETHE HUNTER'S CAVE-THE UTLADAL STÖL-THE MUMPLY VALLEY— FLÖDSGRÖD-A MOUNTAIN STÖL-A ROUGH PATH-THE PURU RAWNEE'S ESCAPE-THE NARROW BRIDGE.

Ar eight o'clock we were en route up the valley, and at length came in sight of the steep, dark, and pointed mountain called "Kirken," or "Church Mountain." This mountain reminded us very much of the "Trifaen Mountain," near the gloomy lake called Llyn Idwal, in North Wales, which we once ascended. Even the barren sterility of the "Trifaen," and the shores of Llyn Idwal, and the "Devil's Kitchen" above; the stony wastes of the glyders, and the rugged pass of Llanberis, have no scenes of extreme desolation, and absence of vegetable and animal life, similar to some of the wilder Norwegian valleys through which we wandered. "Kirken," we were told,

ESMERALDA IN THE LERA.

375

had never been ascended. Had time permitted, we should have been much tempted to have spent some days on the shores of the lake near.

Alas! the Norwegian summer is too fleeting. When we came up the valley, near the Leir Vand, which is 4736 feet above the sea, Ole proposed that the party should cross the Lera. It was a tolerably wide, rapid, broken stream, where the donkeys had to cross.

Ole and myself went some distance up the river, and Ole soon crossed. We were preparing to do so, when we saw Mephistopheles, mounted on the top of his loaded. donkey, stemming the rapid waters of the Lera in the distance below.

The loaded Puru Rawnee was also bravely struggling in the rapid current of the river for the other bank.

Then, as we turned again, we saw Esmeralda's blue feather flaunting in the wind, as, mounted on the baggage of her loaded donkey, she was plunging across the rough bed of the river, when, oh! the Tarno Rye has made a false step! Our baggage gone-saturated and spoilt! Instantaneously, a fearful splash: Esmeralda is tumbled into the river, and the baggage saved.

Are those sounds of suppressed lamentation we hear from Ole and Mephistopheles, on the bank of the Lera? It seemed to us more like laughter than anything else we ever heard.

We were too far off to render assistance, before we saw the dripping form of our high-spirited gipsy girl rise from the cold icy waters of the Lera. Esmeralda looked like a beautiful Nereid-a wild water-nymph. Her long raven hair, now without a hat, glistened with the falling moisture of a thousand spangles in the sun. Will no one

plunge in to help her? Would we were there! Now she has reached the shore. Crossing the river we were soon with our party. Esmeralda was very wet. Although the stream was not very deep, falling in as she did, her clothes were completely soaked. The straw hat and blue feather, carried off by the stream, was recovered some distance below.

The cold waters of the Lera had not improved the temper of our hobbenengree. We offered her our best consolation, and at once proceeded en route as the best means of drying her clothes. Her amour propre had been touched by the laughter of Noah and Zachariah.

Ole, with his usual tact, went as far in advance as was compatible with his duties as guide.

Mephistopheles, in his most insinuating tones, said: "Dawdy, wouldn't the Rye have gone into the panee to save his Romany Juval? Wouldn't you, sir?"

"And why didn't he do so?" said Esmeralda, sharply. "Nobody stirred; I might have drowned over and over again for what they cared."

Well, daughter, we were just agoin' in," said Noah, with a grim smile.

"Going!" shouted Esmeralda ; "go to Gorsley, and see Lizzy. Ambrose can do it; can't he? What a state he makes himself over everybody else."

Now Noah was up. Esmeralda, by her allusion to Gorsley, had hit Noah in some vulnerable place.

The pretty little donkey, which had done its best with a heavy load, and the addition of Esmeralda's weight, was of course severely anathematized; but, strange to like the little jackdaw in the "Ingoldsby's Legends," it seemed never a penny the worse."

say,