CHAPTER VI.
VALLEE D'OSSAU--LE HOURAT--THE RIO VERDE--EAUX CHAUDES EAUX BONNES--BIELLE--IZESTE--SACCAZE, THE NATURALIST.
"Salut Ossau, la montagnarde, La Bearnaise, que Dieu garde! Avec bonheur je te regarde, Douce vallee!--et sur ma foy Parmi tes soeurs que je desire, De Leucate a Fontarable Je te dis que la plus jolie Ne peut se comparer a toi." Ancienne Balade.
ON rather a cold morning, early in October, we set out from Pau for the Vallee d'Ossau; the road between the hills covered with vines of Jurancon.

Gan and Gelos are extremely pretty.

We passed a house which was pointed out to us as belonging to the Baron Bernadotte, nephew to the King of Sweden, who, being a native of Pau, divides the honours of the town with Henry IV.

Formerly, in this spot stood a castle, where a singularly Arcadian custom prevailed; every shepherd of the Vallee d'Ossau who passed by that spot with his flock, was required to place a small branch of leaves in a large ring fixed on the portal.

If their lords insisted on no heavier homage than this, their duty was not very severe.
We passed through Gan--a wretched-looking village, once of great importance; one of the _thirteen towns_ of Bearn; originally surrounded by walls and towers, of which nothing now remains except a few stones, which have served to build the houses.