Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1894 — SHEPHERDS ON STILTS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHEPHERDS ON STILTS.

How the Frenchmen In the Sandy “Landes’ Tend Their Flocks. On the barren, sandy “Landes” in the south of France the sheep and pigs do not live in clover, nor does the shepherd fare luxuriously. The people are full of queer notions. They assert that potatoes cause apoplexy, that milk Is unhealthy, that wheat bread spoils the stomach, and that onions, garlic and rye bread a week old In their country is the best and most healthy diet. The shepherds walk on stilts, eat on stilts, and if they do not sleep on stilts they rest on stilts for hours together by means of a stilt rest. This is a long, stilt-like Btick, having a crescentric curve at the top to fit the back. Thus with the stilts stretched out to right and left, and this stick in the rear, they are well braced. The stilt-walkers manage to go through the deep and shifting sands at the rate of six and

seven miles an hour. The dress ol the shepherd is rough and quaint. He wears a sheepskin with the wool on, in the form of a loose hooded coat.

LANDES SHEPHERDS AND THEIR FLOCKS.