Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/341

Rh refuge for Alpine travelers; in proof of which, we may accept a small, but very remarkable collection of antiquities, which have been found on the spot where the temple stood, and which are now preserved within the convent. Several bronze plates are amongst these, inscribed with thanksgivings to Jovis Pœninus, for his protection, and a number of delicately worked bronze figures of heathen divinities, appear, like the others, to be ex votos, consecrated to his temple by grateful travelers across the mountain. There is also, in this collection, a beautiful female hand, also in bronze, around wrist and fingers of which, a snake twines itself.

“This represents the hand of Eve,” said the good monk who showed us these things.

“But—Eve's hand in the temple of Jupiter?”

“Oh!” replied he, “they had also, amongst the heathen, the traditions of the fall!”

The air was damp and cold, this morning, and heavy hailstorms made the ground white around the Hospice; the sky was heavy and cloudy,—every thing was gray and gloomy. Nature is here eternally vailed; it knows neither the life nor the flowers of summer.

With a grateful heart, and a sense of high esteem, I took my leave of the pious men who live here to rescue their fellows; caressed the large, good-tempered dogs, who participate in their work of love, and availing ourselves of a break in the clouds, I and my young friend set forth on our return. We reached La Cautine happily before the rain began, and made