times for both sexes to go to bed perfectly naked."[17]


IN SWITZERLAND,


According to an English observer,[18] analogous modes of courtship still
exist. In speaking of the canton _Unterwald_ he says: "In the story of
the destruction of the castles, we read that the surprise was effected
by a young girl admitting her lover to her room by a ladder, and an
English guide-book remarks, that this is still the fashion of receiving
lovers in Switzerland. Reference is had to the manner of wooing, which
in some cantons is called _lichtgetren_, in others _dorfen_ and
_stubetegetren_, and answers to the old-fashioned _going-a-courting_ in
England. The customs connected with it vary in different cantons, but
exist in some form in all except two or three.

In the canon _Lucerne_, the _kiltgang_ is the universal mode of wooing;
the lover visiting his betrothed in the evening, to be pelted on the way
by all mischievous urchins; or if he is seated quietly with her by the
winter fire, they are sure to be serenaded by all manner of _cat voices_
under the window, which are continued till he issues forth, perhaps at
dawn in the morning; and however long may be a courtship, these
_cater-waulings_ are the invariable attendants, and not the most
lamentable consequences of these nightly visits, recognized, however, as
entirely respectable and conventional in every canton."

And again in the canton _Vaud_, he says, "the _kiltgang_, or nightly
wooings, are the universal custom with the universal consequences, but
in general the wife is treated with marked respect, is made keeper of