'Watch and pray, For time goes; Think and directly, You know not when.'
"In large letters over the engraving of the watchman are the words (translated):
'Praised be God! our Lord, to whom Be love, praise, and honour.'
"I will now give the literal version, printed exactly in the same arrangement of lines, letters, and punctuation, as the original:
Eight o'clock, When darkness blinds the earth And the day declines, That time then us reminds Of death's dark grave; Shine on us, Jesus sweet, At every step To the grave-place, And grant a blissful death.'
"Every hour between eight and five o'clock inclusive has its own chant. The last is--
'Five o'clock. O Jesu! morning star! Our King unto thy care We so willingly commend, Be Thou his sun and shield! Our clock it has struck five Come mild Sun, From mercy's pale, Light up our house and home.'"
_Voyage from Leith to Lapland in 1850_, by W. Hurton, vol. i. p. 104.
"We had very indifferent rest in our inn, owing to the over-zeal of the Chur watchmen, whose practice it is to perambulate the town through the whole night, twelve in number, and who on the present occasion displayed a most energetic state of vigilance. They not only called, but sung out, every hour, in the most sonorous strains, and even chanted a long string of verses on the striking of some.... I suppose the good people of Chur think nothing of these chantings, or from habit hear them not; but a tired traveller would rather run the risk of being robbed in tranquillity, than be thus sung from his propriety during all the watches of the night."--_A Physician's Holiday_, pp. 80, 81.
Dr. Forbes gives a copy of a "Watch Chant at Chur," with a translation, pp. 81, 82. At p. 116. he says:
"In our hotel at Altorf we were again saluted, during the vigils of the night, but in a very mitigated degree, with some of the same patriotic and pious strains which had so disturbed us at Chur. As chanted here, however, they were far from unwelcome. The only other place, I think, where we heard these Wächterrufe was Neufchatel. These calls are very interesting relics of the old times, and must be considered indicative as well of the simple habits of the old time, as of the pious feelings of the people of old."