Of the picturesqueness and oddity of the Bavarian peasants’ costumes, nothing but a picture can give you any idea.  You can imagine the men in tight breeches, buttoned below the knee, jackets of the jockey cut, and both jacket and waistcoat covered with big metal buttons, sometimes coins, as thickly as can be sewed on:  but the women defy the pen; a Bavarian peasant woman, in holiday dress, is the most fearfully and wonderfully made object in the universe.  She displays a good length of striped stockings, and wears thin slippers, or sandals; her skirts are like a hogshead in size and shape, and reach so near her shoulders as to make her appear hump-backed; the sleeves are hugely swelled out at the shoulder, and taper to the wrist; the bodice is a stiff and most elaborately ornamented piece of armor; and there is a kind of breastplate, or center-piece, of gold, silver, and precious stones, or what passes for them; and the head is adorned with some monstrous heirloom, of finely worked gold or silver, or a tower, gilded and shining with long streamers, or bound in a simple black turban, with flowing ends.  Little old girls, dressed like their mothers, have the air of creations of the fancy, who have walked out of a fairy-book.  There is an endless variety in these old costumes; and one sees, every moment, one more preposterous than the preceding.  The girls from the Tyrol, with their bright neckerchiefs and pointed black felt hats, with gold cord and tassels, are some of them very pretty:  but one looks a long time for a bright face among the other class; and, when it is discovered, the owner appears like a maiden who was enchanted a hundred years ago, and has not been released from the spell, but is still doomed to wear the garments and the ornaments that should long ago have mouldered away with her ancestors.

The Theresien Wiese was a city of Vanity Fair for two weeks, every day crowded with a motley throng.  Booths, and even structures of some solidity, rose on it as if by magic.  The lottery-houses were set up early, and, to the last, attracted crowds, who could not resist the tempting display of goods and trinkets, which might be won by investing six kreuzers in a bit of paper, which might, when unrolled, contain a number.  These lotteries are all authorized:  some of them were for the benefit of the agricultural society; some were for the poor, and others on individual account:  and they always thrive; for the German, above all others, loves to try his luck.  There were streets of shanties, where various things were offered for sale besides cheese and sausages.  There was a long line of booths, where images could be shot at with bird-guns; and when the shots were successful, the images went through astonishing revolutions.  There was a circus, in front of which some of the spangled performers always stood beating drums and posturing, in order to entice in spectators.  There were the puppet-booths, before which all day stood gaping, delighted crowds, who roared with laughter