his abiding dwelling, but his temporary resting places among
the high Alps are these herdsmen's lonely huts. For this reason he lives
in good fellowship with the mountain goatherds, does them no harm,
brings presents for them and their wives, pays handsomely for every bit
of bread, and thus makes it pretty sure that they will never betray him.
The place where Juon Tare's wife dwells is called the ice valley. They
call it so because it is here that the first ice of the winter appears;
as early as mid-September the stream is fringed with it. There, by the
side of the stream, stands a little wooden hut, one of whose walls
reposes on the ascending rock behind it. Here dwells the fair Mariora
all alone. And yet I am wrong to say alone, for three of them dwell
together there--herself, a little one-year-old child, and a tame bear.
Her husband she sometimes does not see for a week at a time, especially
in the autumn and winter when the freshly fallen snow has obliterated
the pastures. At such times the goatherd encamps on the summit of the
mountains and nourishes his kids by felling with his axe a growing
beech-tree, on which the little creatures fall and gnaw off the juicy
buds. Whenever a snowstorm overtakes him, the herdsman drives the goats
into a glen, and lest the snow should bury them all by the morning while
they sleep, he drives them continually up and down, thus making them
trample down the falling flakes. Meanwhile Mariora sits at home and
spins the wool from which she makes her own and her husband's clothes,
or she pounds maize into meal in a stone mortar for household needs,
playing at intervals with her child."

"And an evil hand would destroy their simple joys!"

"Hitherto the goatherd and his wife feared nothing. It is good to be in
those solitudes. God dwells very near to them there. Then, too, Juon
Tare is a strong man; no evil beast can harm him. Nor has he any fear of
robbers. What can they deprive him of? Mariora is in a good place out of
the reach of snow-storms. If a savage beast or a vagabond were to try to
harm her, there is Ursu, the bear, with the terrible jaws,--he would
tear them to pieces. So your ladyship will perceive that Juon Tare's
castle is provided with a very strong guardian against thieves and wild
beasts--but who can guard it against the wily and the insinuating? Fatia
Negra is a guest of longstanding at the hut in the ice valley, and never
goes thither empty handed. He brought the woman