The unique character of the inhabitants of the Grödner Thal is not confined to their proficiency in wood-carving. They have a special language of their own, which has been spoken here for centuries, and which the people still maintain, using it constantly among themselves and taking care to teach it to their children, even though they may have emigrated into foreign lands. This singular dialect is called Ladin, and is a kind of country cousin to those statelier daughters of the Latin, - the Romance languages, which gradually evolved, through different phonetic changes, from the original mother tongue, and in Rome's scattered provinces in southern Europe blossomed, flower-like, on the ruins of the Roman Empire. It has a slight resemblance to the Romansch dialect spoken in the Engadine, and we may readily suppose that many of the primitive inhabitants of Switzerland and the Tyrol withdrew as far as possible from Roman legions and imperial colonies, and kept for centuries their homes and quasi-independence in almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses. Of course such isolated languages would be less liable to change than those of peoples having close commercial relations and continuous communication. Both German and Italian words have naturally been incorporated into this speech of Grödner Thal, for all the inhabitants speak German also, and fre-quently Italian. But Ladin is robust enough to hold its own, and must be separately reckoned with in any treatise on philology. As might be expected, too, these peasants wear peculiar costumes. This is, indeed, the case in every part of the Tyrol, although the people's ordinary week-day dress differs but little from the usual European garb. On Sundays and holidays, however, the Tyrolese don their picturesque attire, and nowhere are Tyrolean fashions more remarkable than in the Grödner Thal.

The Hamlet Of St. Jacob, In The GRÖDner Thal.

Costumes In The GrÖDner Thal.

Innumerable excursions offer themselves to the ambitious mountain climber in St. Ulrich, two of which may be undertaken without serious fatigue by any tourists of reasonable strength. The first begins with a pleasant drive of about an hour and a half to Wolkenstein - a little village near the head of the valley, and commanding noble views. From this an easy walk will bring one to the ruin of Schloss Wolkenstein, the birthplace of the famous Minnesinger.

The entire Grödner Thal must formerly have been dominated by the family of Wolkensteins; for they possessed not only this ancestral castle at the summit of the valley as a summer residence, but also another, later one, - now used for the Poor House of the district, - as well as the stronghold, called Schloss Trostburg, at the junction of the Grödner Thal with the Brenner. The latter, indeed, is still used as a residence by Count Wolkenstein, a descendant of the Minnesinger. In the whole realm of fiction or biography it would be difficult to find a life so full of strange adventure and extraordinary talents as that of the man whose first experience was gained within this mountain eyrie. Much of his story has been told already in these pages; but no one can behold this ruin clinging, shell-like, to the cliffs, without renewed astonishment in thinking of the mediaeval hero who left this valley as a youth to take up alternately, as he chose, the wild career of a soldier or the fascinating role of troubadour. Speaking eventually about a dozen languages, a skillful player on the harp and violin, and famous for his "silver voice," he gained renown with equal ease as singer or as swordsman, and visited in one capacity or the other not alone all Europe, but even Persia, Armenia, Asia Minor, and the Holy Land, and fought with equal valor against the Turks at Nicopolis, the English on the Scottish border, and the Moors in Spain! Standing within the cradle of the Wolkensteins I tried to realize that career which would have been astonishing at any time; but which in the fourteenth century, when practically all land travel had to be performed on foot or horseback, is almost inconceivable. Yet there is no doubt of the facts, and Oswald's poems have just been published in a most elaborate edition de luxe; and two of the three original manuscripts of his works are carefully preserved in the imperial museums of Innsbruck and Vienna, while the third is treasured by Count Wolkenstein. The second excursion mentioned involves about three hours of climbing from St. Ulrich, though one can ride a Grödner pony up the greater part of the ascent. The point to be attained by this exertion is the Seisser Alp - the largest mountain pasture in Tyrōl, if not in the whole of Europe. It is a vast plateau, twelve miles in length and nine in breadth, and varying from five to seven thousand feet above the sea. On two sides it is bordered by deep gorges, dark with sombre pines, while on the east and south gigantic mountains frame it in perennial majesty.