When the Cows Come Down with Crowns — Epoche A2
Hello from Tyrol! The summer work is over. On Saturday we brought the cows down from the mountain, and I walked behind them for four hours. Since June I worked on the alp above Mayrhofen: ninety cows, three people, one hut. The cows ate the high grass all summer. Now the grass is finished and the nights are cold, so the whole farm walks down to the valley. On Friday we washed the cows and built their crowns — flowers, green branches, ribbons — and hung the biggest bells on the leading cows. The old rule matters here: the herd wears the crowns only when the whole summer passed without a death on the mountain. When an animal or a person dies up there, the cows come down plain and quiet, and every village on the road understands the sign without one word. Our summer was good, so the cows came down loud and beautiful. In the village there was music and a big market. An old farmer looked at the crowns first and at me second. "A good summer, then," he said. He read the herd like a newspaper. See you in October! Anna