Vielleicht hilft gegen die Kälte eine Geschichte aus wärmeren Tagen. Mark Twain berichtet in A Tramp Abroad (1880) humorvoll von einer Besteigung des Rigi. Die eher astronomische Pointe der Geschichte wollen wir hier nicht verraten, im Gegensatz zu folgender ökonomisch interessanten Episode:
Presently we came upon half a dozen sheep nibbling grass in the spray of a stream of clear water that sprang from a rock wall a hundred feet high, and all at once our ears were startled with a melodious „Lul … l … l l l llul-lul-LAhee-o-o-o!“ pealing joyously from a near but invisible source, and recognized that we were hearing for the first time the famous Alpine JODEL in its own native wilds. And we recognized, also, that it was that sort of quaint commingling of baritone and falsetto which at home we call „Tyrolese warbling.“
The jodeling (pronounced yOdling–emphasis on the O) continued, and was very pleasant and inspiriting to hear. Now the jodeler appeared–a shepherd boy of sixteen– and in our gladness and gratitude we gave him a franc to jodel some more. So he jodeled and we listened. We moved on, presently, and he generously jodeled us out of sight. After about fifteen minutes we came across another shepherd boy who was jodeling, and gave him half a franc to keep it up. He also jodeled us out of sight. After that, we found a jodeler every ten minutes; we gave the first one eight cents, the second one six cents, the third one four, the fourth one a penny, contributed nothing to Nos. 5, 6, and 7, and during the remainder of the day hired the rest of the jodelers, at a franc apiece, not to jodel any more. There is somewhat too much of the jodeling in the Alps.
