During each successive winter generally during the Christmas week or early in January a fictitious liveliness that melts away under the breath of the first southerly wind is imparted to the most melancholy of cities by "the tintinnabulation of the bells, bells, bells," which incessantly ring, day and night, in every quarter of the German capital. An eruption of bells breaks out all over harness of every description ; the droshky horses, attached to clumsy sledges very much resembling old-fashioned country pond-punts, are attended, as they hobble along, by joyful sounds that seem to mock the utter dolefulness of their aspect and gait.