A Struggle for Rome, v. 3

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER III.

  Lovely--famed far and wide for its beauty--is the valley in which thePassara flows from the north into the rapid Athesis, which hurries fromthe west to the south-east.

  Like a bending figure, which leans longingly towards the beautifulSouthland, the lofty Mendola rises at a distance from the right bank ofthe river.

  Here, above the junction of the two streams, once lay the Romansettlement of Mansio Majae.

  A little farther up the river, on a dominating rock, stood the Castleof Teriolis.

  Now--from a mountain-"muhr" or "mar" (landslip)--the town is calledMeran.

  The Castle has given its name to the Tyrol.

  "Mansio Majae" is heard even now in the name of the place "Mais," richin pleasant villas.

  But at the time of which we speak an East Gothic garrison lay in theCastle of Teriolis, as was the case in all the old Rhaetian rock-nestson the Athesis, the Isarcus, and the [OE]nus, in order to keep down theonly half-subjected Suevi, Alamanni, and Markomanni, or, as they werealready named, the Bajuvars, who dwelt in Rhaetia, on the Licus, and onthe lower course of the [OE]nus.

  But, besides the garrisons of the castles, East-Gothic families hadsettled in larger numbers in the mild and fruitful valley and on thewillow-covered slopes of the mountains.

  Even now a singular, noble, and grave beauty distinguishes the peasantsof the valleys of Meran, Ultner, and Sarn. These reticent people aremuch more refined, pensive, and aristocratic than the Bajuvar type onthe Inn, the Lech, and the Isar.

  Their dialect and legends support the supposition that here some fewremains of the Goths continued to flourish; for the legends of theAmelungs, Dietrich of Bern, and the Rose-garden, still live in thenames of the places and the traditions of the people.

  Upon one of the highest mountains on the left shore of the Athesis, aGoth named Iffa had before-times settled; his descendants continued thesettlement.

  The mountain is named the "Iffinger" to this day. Upon the southernslope, half-way up, the simple settlement was fixed. The Gothicemigrants had found it already cultivated. The Rhaetian alpine-house,which Druses had met with when he conquered the Rasenianmountain-people, had suffered no change in its characteristic andcommodious form through the Roman conquerors, who built their villas inthe valley, and their watch-towers on dominating rocks.

  All the Romanised inhabitants of the Eltsch valley had, after theEast-Gothic invasion, remained in quiet possession of their property.

  For not here, but farther east, from the Save and over the Isonzo, hadthe Goths pressed forward into the peninsula; and only when Ravenna andOdoacer had fallen, did Theodoric spread his hosts in a peaceful andregular manner over North Italy and the Etschland.

  Thus Iffa and his people had peacefully shared the soil with the Romansettlers whom they found upon the mountain, which at that time stillpossessed its Rasenian name.

  A third of the arable land, the meadows and woods; a third part of thehouse, slaves, and animals, was, here as everywhere, claimed by theGothic settler from the Roman farmer.

  In the course of years, however, the Roman _hospes_ had found thisclose and involuntary vicinity to the barbarians inconvenient. Hetherefore left the rest of his property on the mountains to the Goths,in exchange for thirty yoke of the splendid oxen which the Germans hadbrought with them from Pannonia--and which they so well understood howto breed--and went southwards, where the Romans dwelt in greaternumbers.

  And so the "Iffinger" had become completely Germanic, for the presentmaster had suddenly sold the few Roman slaves which he possessed,and had replaced them by men and maids of Germanic race: Gepidianstaken in war. This master was again named "Iffa," like his ancestor.He lived alone, a silver-haired man. A brother, and his wife anddaughter-in-law, had, many years ago, been buried under a landslip.

  A son, a younger brother, and a son of the latter, had obeyed the callof King Witichis to arms, and had never returned from the siege ofRome.

  So no one was left to the old man but his two grandchildren, the boyand girl of the son who had fallen.

  The sun had set gloriously behind the mountains which bordered theincomparable Etsch valley in the blue distance to the south and west.

  A warm golden lustre lay upon the tender porphyry colouring of the"Iffinger," making it glow like red wine.

  Up the mountain slope, upon the top of which stood a dwelling-housewith a row of stalls a little apart, climbed slowly, step by step,resting ever and again, and holding her hands over her eyes as shelooked at the sunset, a child--or was it already a maiden?--who wasdriving a flock of lambs before her.

  She now and then gave her _protegees_ time to crop with dainty tooththe aromatic Alpine herbs which grew in their path, and beat time withthe hazel stick which she carried to an ancient and simple melody, thewords of which she was softly singing:

  "Little lambkins, Follow freely; By your shepherd's Hand led heedful; Like the heaven's Lovely lambkins, Like the quiet Steady stars, that Shining, sparkling, Obey ever Their bright shepherd, Mustered by the Mild moon ever, Without trouble, Without pause."

  She ceased, and bent forward to look over into a deep ravine on herleft hand, which had been hollowed out in the steep slope by a rapidmountain brook. Now, being summer, the water was very shallow. On theopposite side the hill again rose steeply upward.

  "Where can he be?" the girl said; "usually his goats are alreadydescending the hill when the sun has turned to gold. My flowers willfade soon!"

  She seated herself upon a stone near the path, let the lambs graze,laid the hazel stick beside her, and allowed the apron of sheepskin,which, till now, she had held up carefully, to fall. A shower of theloveliest Alpine flowers fell to the ground.

  She began to wind a wreath.

  "The blue speik will suit his brown hair the best," she said as sheworked busily. "I get much more tired when I drive the flock alone thanwhen he is with me. And yet then we climb much higher. I wonder how itis! How my naked feet burn! I might go down to the brook and cool them.And then I should see him sooner when he comes along the height. Thesun does not scorch any more."

  She took off the large broad pumpkin leaf which she wore instead of ahat; and now was seen the shining colour of her pale golden hair--sofair it was!--which, stroked back from the temples, was tied togetherat the back of the head with a red ribbon. Like a flood of sunbeams itrippled over her neck, which was only covered by a white woollenkirtle, that, confined at the waist with a leather girdle, reached alittle above the knees.

  She measured the size of her wreath on her own head.

  "Certainly," she said, "his head is larger. I will add these Alpineroses."

  Then she tied the two ends of the wreath together with delicategrasses, sprang up, shook the remaining flowers from her lap, took thewreath in her left hand, and turned to descend the steep declivity, atthe foot of which the brook gurgled amid the stones.

  "No! stop up here and wait! Thou, too, darling White Elf! I will comeback directly."

  And she drove back the lambs, which had tried to follow, and which now,bleating, looked wistfully after their mistress.

  With great agility the practised girl sprang down the ravine; nowholding fast to the tough shrubs, spurge-olives, and yellow willow; nowboldly leaping from rock to rock.

  The loose stones broke and the fragments came rattling after her. Asshe merrily jumped after the rolling pebbles, she suddenly heard asharp and threatening hiss from below.

  Before she could turn, a great copper-brown snake, which had no doubtbeen disturbed from sunning itself on a stone, coiled itself up, readyto dart at her naked feet.

  The child was alarmed; her knees trembled, and screaming loudly, shecalled:

  "Adalgoth, help! help!"
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br />   A clear voice immediately replied to this cry of fear with the words,"Alaric! Alaric!" which sounded like a battle-cry.

  The bushes on the right creaked and cracked; stones rolled down theslope, and, swift as an arrow, a slender boy in a rough wolf-skin flewbetween the hissing snake and the affrighted maiden.

  He hurled his strong Alpine stick like a spear, and with so true an aimthat the small head of the snake was transfixed to the ground. Its longbody twined convulsively round the deadly shaft.

  "Gotho, thou art not wounded?"

  "No, thanks to thee, thou hero!"

  "Then let me say the snake-charm before the viper ceases to struggle;it will ban all its fellows for three leagues around."

  And lifting the three first fingers of his right hand, the boy repeatedthe ancient saying:

  "Woe! thou wolf-worm, Wriggle wildly! Bite the bushes, Poisonous panting: Men and maidens, Hurt thou shalt not. Down, black devil, Venomous viper, Down and die now! High o'er the heads Of scaly-bright serpents Steppeth the race of the glorious Goths!"