stronger as time wore on. They also loved their children, their country, and their surroundings.
I now learnt for the first time, that, notwithstanding the apparently practical character of the people, life in Neuroomia was surrounded by a perpetual halo of dreamy, poetic, and romantic influences, which were highly favourable to the propagation of noble ideas and congenial to love. Apart from the soothing nature of a climate which burning summers and severe winters know not, every locality had its legends and traditions, some of them, indeed, very old, and handed down from pre-historic times, yet nevertheless interesting; many, on account of their stretch of imagination; others, for the morals they contained; others, again, for giving an insight, however slight, into the manners and customs of generations now almost lost in the twilight of time.
Here Vandalia gave me a sketch of her own life. She was the eldest of the family, and was born twenty-four years ago, on a farm in the mountains near Tehana. Her father at that time reared herds of olgommeras and flanillas; also cultivated the ground, and grew grain and fruits. Their house was in a picturesque neighbourhood, on the slope of a hill, just above a rapid stream
