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The Upper Rhine : Mayence to the Lake of Constance
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298

DOMESTIC MANNEES OF THE PKD8SIANS.

may re-enter into the marriage State as soon after the loss ofIns wife as he pleases. " Perhaps," said a German to us, " ifhe were to marry again within a fortnight, we might think ita little curiose; but he could hardly get the ceremony per-formed in so short a thne, for the burial is not over tili threedays, and even if the banns are not published, it will take abouta week to procure a license. Besides," he added, "no onecan marry during the four weeks of Advent, nor during Lent,without obtaining dispensation from the bishop; so, you see,vve could not well manage it so soon as in two weeks. Oh!yes, I have known many widowers get re-married in onemonth, and that by banns, too. Why, there is Herr So-and-so," he went on, giving the name; "but then he had manyyoung Kinder, and babies cannot be trusted to a girl undertwelve years of age: so a poor man, or a shopkeeper with alarge family, must get another Frau as soon as possible, inorder to have some one to look after his children."

In conclusion, English readers will hardly require to betold that the Germans have little internal sense of the sacred-ness of death.

" Give me joy, Frau------," said a Schreiner (joiner), on

meeting a female friend in the street; " I have a coffin tomake for thirty thalers." And the man rubbed his hands andsmiled, as if he were incapable of feeling that his own goodfortune arose out of the bitterest misery that can befall afellow-creature.

But that we may not be thought to draw conclusions froma professional undertaker as to the general insensibility of theDeutschers concerning the most solemn matters, let us add,that even German children are unmoved by the awfulness ofdeath.

One of the Professors of the schools was telling the young