On the summit I passed out of Hesse into Hanover, and began to descend the remaining six miles.  The road went down by many windings, but I shortened the way considerably by a foot-path through a mossy old forest.  The hills bordering the Weser are covered with wood, through which I saw the little red-roofed city of Munden, at the bottom.  I stopped there for the night, and next morning walked around the place.  It is one of the old German cities that have not yet felt the effect of the changing spirit of the age.  It is still walled, though the towers are falling to ruin.  The streets are narrow, crooked, and full of ugly old houses, and to stand in the little square before the public buildings, one would think himself born in the sixteenth century.  Just below the city the Werra and Fulda unito and form the Weser.  The triangular point has been made into a public walk, and the little steamboat was lying at anchor near, waiting to start for Bremen.

In the afternoon I got into the omnibus for Gottingen.  The ride over the wild, dreary, monotonous hills was not at all interesting.  There were two other passengers inside, one of whom, a grave, elderly man, took a great interest in America, but the conversation was principally on his side, for I had been taken with a fever in Munden.  I lay crouched up in the corner of the vehicle, trying to keep off the chills which constantly came over me, and wishing only for Gottingen, that I might obtain medicine and a bed.  We reached it at last, and I got out with my knapsack and walked wearily through half a dozen streets till I saw an inn.  But on entering, I found it so dark and dirty and unfriendly, that I immediately went out again and hired the first pleasant looking boy I met, to take me to a good hotel.  He conducted me to the first one in the city.  I felt a trepidation of pocket, but my throbbing head plead more powerfully, so I ordered a comfortable room and a physician.  The host, Herr Wilhelm, sent for Professor Trefurt, of the University, who told me I had over-exerted myself in walking.  He made a second call the next day, when, as he was retiring, I inquired the amount of his fee.  He begged to be excused and politely bowed himself out.  I inquired the meaning of this of Herr Wilhelm, who said it was customary for travellers to leave what they chose for the physician, as there was no regular fee.  He added, moreover, that twenty groschen, or about sixty cents, was sufficient for the two visits!

I stayed in Gottingen two dull, dreary, miserable days, without getting much better.  I took but one short walk through the city, in which I saw the outsides of a few old churches and got a hard fall on the pavement.  Thinking that the cause of my illness might perhaps become its cure, I resolved to go on rather than remain in the melancholy—­in spite of its black-eyed maidens, melancholy—­Gottingen.  On the afternoon of the second day, I took the post to Nordheim, about twelve miles distant.  The Gottingen valley, down which we drove, is green and beautiful, and the trees seem to have come out all at once. we were not within sight of the Hartz, but the mountains along the Weser were visible on the left.  The roads were extremely muddy from the late rains, so that I proceeded but slowly.