Engadine

en-ga-den', a famous valley of eastern Switzerland. It is about sixty-five miles long, and is seldom more than one mile broad. In reality it is merely the upper part of the valley of the River Inn. It is one of the few highways leading from northern Italy into Bavaria. Lakes, springs, flowery meadows, charming inns, and beautiful scenery make it one of the most delightful routes for tourists in the world. The climate is described as "nine months winter and three months cold." Certainly the summer is delightfully cool and bracing. Aside from dairy products, the inhabitants maintain themselves chiefly by the entertainment of tourists and summer boarders. The younger people go out to all parts of Europe and even America, as confectioners and cooks, returning as soon as they have earned a competence to spend their old age in their native valley. They are a strong, sober, intelligent race, chiefly Protestant. Society is democratic. An old Engadine proverb runs to the effect that "Next to God and the sun, the poorest inhabitant is the chief magistrate." The language of the people is a Romance dialect--akin to Italian. German is taught in the schools. See Tyrol; Switzerland