to the earth, without however crushing or
greatly injuring him. He uttered a loud cry, and made desperate
exertions to raise it and free himself, but in vain; a force beyond his
strength to resist had fixed him to the spot of his unhallowed and
insane devotion. Imagination can scarcely conceive a more fearful death
than the slow lingering one of bodily torture and starvation that must
have followed. He was of course sought for as soon as missed; but the
spot was unknown even to the most practiced hunters, and it was more
than a week before the body was discovered. The surprise and horror of
his family may be imagined. They had never been able to comprehend his
altered conduct and mysterious disappearances: all was explained,
however, when the huge stone being removed, he was found--perhaps from
his position involuntarily--clutching in his dead fingers the fatal
gold.

We relate this incident on the authority of a Swiss lady who had seen
the cave, and who assured us that the simple mountaineers avoid the
spot with superstitious horror. To them there must have appeared to be
some strange magic in the hidden treasure; and so to the calmest
judgment it would seem, when in the ordinary course of life we behold,
not only the fearful and painful sacrifices made for the attainment of
gold, but the court paid, the homage offered to its possessors by those
who have no hope of gaining any thing by their reverence for the mere
name of wealth.

To come nearer home, our village at one time rejoiced in a
gold-worshiper, whose history is worth relating. While still young, and
taking our daily walk with our nurse, we observed an old man working at
the repairs of some miserably dismantled houses. He was a tall, gaunt
personage, painfully meagre, and very ragged. His jawbones protruded
distressingly, and his poor thin elbows looked so sharp, that one could
have fancied they had cut their way through the torn coat that no longer
covered them. We pitied, and with childlike sympathy and freedom made
acquaintance with him; always pausing to speak to him when we passed the
spot on which he labored. Sometimes a little boy, a fair delicate child,
was with him, assisting in the work as far as his age allowed; and with
this young creature we grew intimate, and were at length led by him to
the old man's home. It was a very large, old-fashioned farm-house, but
so much out of repair that only three or four rooms were habitable.
These, however, wer