ditary peculiarity--as a
supernumerary finger, or an anomalous shape of feature, like the
Austrian lip--is wont to show itself in a family after a very wayward
fashion. It skips at its own pleasure along the line, and, latent for
half a century or so, crops out again in a great-grandson. And thus, it
was said, from a period beyond memory or record, there had ever and
anon been a descendant of the Monte Benis bearing nearly all the
characteristics that were attributed to the original founder of the
race. Some traditions even went so far as to enumerate the ears, covered
with a delicate fur, and shaped like a pointed leaf, among the proofs
of authentic descent which were seen in these favored individuals. We
appreciate the beauty of such tokens of a nearer kindred to the great
family of nature than other mortals bear; but it would be idle to ask
credit for a statement which might be deemed to partake so largely of
the grotesque.

But it was indisputable that, once in a century or oftener, a son of
Monte Beni gathered into himself the scattered qualities of his
race, and reproduced the character that had been assigned to it from
immemorial times. Beautiful, strong, brave, kindly, sincere, of
honest impulses, and endowed with simple tastes and the love of homely
pleasures, he was believed to possess gifts by which he could associate
himself with the wild things of the forests, and with the fowls of the
air, and could feel a sympathy even with the trees; among which it was
his joy to dwell. On the other hand, there were deficiencies both of
intellect and heart, and especially, as it seemed, in the development of
the higher portion of man's nature. These defects were less perceptible
in early youth, but showed themselves more strongly with advancing
age, when, as the animal spirits settled down upon a lower level, the
representative of the Monte Benis was apt to become sensual, addicted to
gross pleasures, heavy, unsympathizing, and insulated within the narrow
limits of a surly selfishness.

A similar change, indeed, is no more than what we constantly observe to
take place in persons who are not careful to substitute other graces for
those which they inevitably lose along with the quick sensibility and
joyous vivacity of youth. At worst, the reigning Count of Monte Beni,
as his hair grew white, was still a jolly old fellow over his flask of
wine, the wine that Bacchus himself was fabled to have taught his sylvan
ancestor ho