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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78675 ***
+
+
+  [Illustration:
+
+    DEFILE OF THE LOWER DANUBE.      FRONTISPIECE, Vol. II.]
+
+
+
+
+                             “MAGYARLAND;”
+
+       BEING THE NARRATIVE OF OUR TRAVELS THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS
+                       AND LOWLANDS OF HUNGARY.
+
+                                  BY
+
+                  A FELLOW OF THE CARPATHIAN SOCIETY,
+                     AUTHOR OF ‘THE INDIAN ALPS.’
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+                       IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. II.
+
+                          WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                LONDON:
+              SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
+                  CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
+                                 1881.
+
+                       [_All Rights reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+             PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.
+                  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+
+
+                         CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+    PONS TRAJANI                                               1
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXX.
+
+    THE HEIGHTS OF THE DANUBE                                 12
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+    MEHADIA                                                   29
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+    THE FAMILY PEDIGREE                                       43
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+    GROSSWARDEIN                                              57
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+    GOOD FRIDAY IN THE GREEK CHURCH                           66
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+    THE “QUEEN OF THE ALFÖLD”                                 80
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+    HERMANNSTADT                                              94
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+    “THE GOOD OLD TIMES”                                     107
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+    WITH THE WALLACHS                                        124
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+    THE ROTHER THURM PASS                                    135
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+    THE GREEK HERMITAGE OF BUCSECS                           146
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLI.
+
+    WESTWARD                                                 160
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLII.
+
+    DEBRECZIN                                                172
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+    THE WINE DISTRICTS OF TOKAY                              185
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+    TEMPLES OF THE NIGHT                                     201
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLV.
+
+    DICKENS _alias_ “BOSCH”                                  215
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+    THE GOLD MINES OF SCHEMNITZ                              227
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+    THE “CALVARY”                                            239
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+    THE MODERN BABEL                                         247
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+    ÓBUDA                                                    257
+
+
+                              CHAPTER L.
+
+    THE WITCHES’ CARNIVAL                                    267
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LI.
+
+    PARTINGS                                                 276
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LII.
+
+    AGRAM                                                    286
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LIII.
+
+    THE IMPALED RAÏA                                         301
+
+  [Illustration: Going Home.]
+
+
+
+
+                        LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                               VOL. II.
+
+
+                       FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+    DEFILE OF THE LOWER DANUBE                           _Frontispiece_
+
+    ALL AMONG THE SHEAVES                          _Facing page_     68
+
+
+                         SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+                                                                   PAGE
+
+    GOING HOME FROM MARKET                                           vi
+
+    A ROUMANIAN SOLDIER                                               3
+
+    A PRIEST OF THE GREEK CHURCH                                     10
+
+    IN THE SUBURBS OF ORSOVA                                         11
+
+    ISLAND OF NEW ORSOVA IN THE DANUBE                               17
+
+    TURKISH BOAT                                                     28
+
+    TRAJAN’S TABLET                                                  31
+
+    WALLACHIAN WOMEN                                                 35
+
+    HOW WE JOURNEYED TO MEHADIA                                      42
+
+    GROSSWARDEIN                                                     62
+
+    STUDY CHARACTERISTIC!                                            67
+
+    BEFORE A SHRINE IN A GREEK CHURCH                                72
+
+    BOAT ON LAKE BALATON                                             79
+
+    A CITIZEN OF SZEGEDIN                                            80
+
+    THE MARǑS                                                        89
+
+    LISTENING TO THE SERMON ON GOOD-FRIDAY AT GROSSWARDEIN           92
+
+    FISHING-BOATS ON THE DANUBE                                      93
+
+    IN THE MARKET AT HERMANNSTADT                                   103
+
+    LUTHERAN CHURCH AT HERMANNSTADT                                 106
+
+    FORTIFIED CHURCH AT HILTAU                                      109
+
+    A TRANSYLVANIAN VILLAGE                                         113
+
+    CHURCH COSTUME OF A “SAXON” MÄDCHEN                             120
+
+    OLD TOWER AT HERMANNSTADT                                       123
+
+    YOUNG WALLACH GIRL                                              124
+
+    DOORWAY OF A WALLACH HOUSE                                      127
+
+    A WALLACH BABY                                                  134
+
+    THE TRANSYLVANIAN ALPS                                          138
+
+    BELFREY OF A WALLACH CHURCH                                     145
+
+    CASTLE OF TERZBURG                                              151
+
+    THE HERMITS’ CAVE                                               157
+
+    WAY-SIDE FIGURES                                                159
+
+    MARKET-DAY AT KOLOZSVÁR                                         162
+
+    “COMMON OBJECTS”                                                258
+
+    THE PURSUIT OF ART UNDER DIFFICULTIES                           263
+
+    THE BLOCKSBERG                                                  270
+
+    THE ROYAL PALACE OF BUDA                                        277
+
+    OUR CARRIAGE                                                    285
+
+    SUNSET ON THE PLAINS                                            288
+
+    IN A CHURCH AT AGRAM                                            294
+
+    FERRY-BOAT ON THE SAVE                                          295
+
+    THE IMPALED RAÏA                                                310
+
+    NEARING BELGRADE                                                311
+
+
+
+
+                             “MAGYARLAND.”
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+                             PONS TRAJANI.
+
+
+“_Ihr Pass, meine Herren! Ihr Pass!_” cried a ferocious Roumanian
+official, speaking German with an unquestionably foreign accent, as we
+disembark from the steamer at Szörény.
+
+It is the first time we have been asked to show our passport on
+the arrival at a frontier since leaving England; but we are now in
+Roumania, and beyond the pale of Western civilisation.
+
+There is also a strict examination of our luggage here; and whilst
+these ceremonies are proceeding, numerous beggars arrive upon the
+scene, who whine and supplicate and show their wounds and hideous
+deformities, thrusting them--when the size and nature of them
+permit--through the bars of the gates which shut us in. There is
+considerable competition in the profession, and it is not easy to see
+which carries off the palm. There are beggars of all sorts, shapes, and
+sizes; beggars whose shrunk and shrivelled limbs, bound with ragged
+and dirty bandages, are suggestive of the malady from which _he_
+suffered who lay “at the rich man’s door;” beggars with deformed
+hands, arms, and legs; beggars with no arms at all; whilst in the
+distance we catch sight of a wretched specimen of humanity, cantering
+along on all fours, and whining at the top of his voice, but who, with
+all his speed, only arrives in the nick of time to add his supplication
+to that of his brethren for “kreuzers, for the love of Heaven.”
+
+Considerable delay was caused here on account of András having failed
+to provide himself with a passport. The necessity for his doing so had
+never occurred to us; but there was so much fuss and palaver made about
+the matter that we began to think it would either end in his being kept
+for a time in durance vile, or sent back whence he had come. Since
+the Treaty of Berlin, Roumania together with Servia has obtained its
+independence, and no longer owns allegiance to Turkey. The Government,
+however, of the former province is exceedingly afraid of Russian
+spies, and is also suspicious of its neighbour Austria. Its frontier
+regulations with regard to passports are consequently very strict.
+
+The incident above narrated caused no small excitement amongst the
+bystanders. The gendarmes instantly surrounded us with their bayonets,
+all of whom were barbarous but handsome-looking fellows dressed in
+a uniform of coarse grey cloth turned up with white, and wearing
+black lamb’s wool caps with long peaks hanging down behind; whilst
+the beggars, suddenly taken off their guard, and forgetting for once
+their respective infirmities, entirely changed their characters. They
+no longer whined and wept, but spoke to each other quite cheerily in
+their natural voices. Arms, legs, and feet which had previously been
+doubled up or turned the wrong way, now assumed their legitimate
+position; even the man on “all fours” managed to stand upright, and
+peer through the gates; so great and absorbing was the interest one
+and all manifested in the dispute that was taking place within. At
+length, after much expenditure of lungs on our part, and vociferation
+and gesticulation on that of the Roumanian officials, we succeeded in
+making them comprehend the harmless and inoffensive nature of András’s
+vocation and the precise relation in which he stood to us as our guide,
+and he was permitted to accompany us across the frontier; for which act
+of grace I feel sure we were indebted to our having an English passport.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+We had already encountered a rather unpleasant episode before landing.
+András, thinking we might find it difficult to obtain anything to eat
+here, had thoughtfully laid in a little stock of cold provisions from
+the steward’s larder; the charge for which was so exorbitant that
+the two came to high words on the subject. The steward was a German,
+and the epithet “_Swab_,” and other opprobrious titles of a
+similar nature, were showered upon him by András, together with the
+favourite but by no means complimentary Magyar sentence, “_hunczfut
+a német_,” signifying “thief,” “rogue,” etc.; till, failing to
+make any impression upon the delinquent by these epithets, he at
+length appealed to the passengers, declaring before them all that
+as a Magyar--and here the little man drew himself up to his fullest
+height--he neither could nor would allow foreigners, much less an
+_Ángolok_, to be so imposed on. Looking over the bill we certainly
+did think the steward had been rather over-reaching, having not only
+charged three florins for a bottle of very ordinary wine, but a florin
+for a small quantity of biscuits, and other things after the same rate.
+The public exposure, however, of his exorbitant charges soon brought
+the recalcitrant steward to reason, who at once deducted half the
+amount. But the usually calm and even temper of a Magyar once aroused
+is not easy to subdue, and we began to fear that ere long András would
+get us into real difficulty, for a third _contretemps_ occurred
+just as we were at length leaving the custom-house.
+
+Our intention, on arrival at Szörényi, was to hire some sort of
+conveyance, and, driving to the station of the Bucharest and Orsova
+line, to leave our luggage there, whilst we made a short excursion to
+Turnu Severin to see the remains of Trajan’s noblest work, the bridge
+across the Danube; after which, returning to the station, we purposed
+picking up our luggage and proceeding to Orsova by train.
+
+The only thing on wheels visible outside the _Douane_ was an
+indescribably old and battered phaeton, to which a pair of small, lean
+horses were attached.
+
+We were just about to enter the ancient vehicle, when the driver, in an
+insolent tone of voice, demanded his fare, viz., five gulden. This, of
+course, was also a gross imposition, and proved far too much for our
+guide’s present state of excitability. Finding the driver unwilling to
+listen to remonstrance, he wrenched the whip out of his hand, and laid
+it vigorously across his shoulders.
+
+Unaccustomed to take the law into our own hands in so violent a
+fashion, and dreading the consequences in a country like this, we
+expostulated with him severely on his behaviour, informing him
+that if he was no longer able to keep his temper under control he
+must forthwith leave our service. The little man replied quite
+calmly, assuring us that, “with all due deference to the august
+_Ángolok_--his sweet master and mistress”--the mode of reasoning
+he had adopted in the present instance was not the result of any
+ebullition of temper whatsoever, but was the only method that ever
+had the slightest effect upon a Roumanian Jew; and his words proved
+correct, for our Israelitish Jehu, instead of resenting the assault as
+we expected, folded his hands, and in the most abject manner begged
+us to mount, offering to take us for two gulden thirty kreuzers, that
+being rather less than half the sum he had first demanded.
+
+Contrary to our expectations, no one took the slightest notice of the
+assault. The delinquent was “only a Jew,” a people cruelly persecuted
+in Roumania, where the popular feeling against them is scarcely less
+marked than that which existed in England and other countries in the
+Middle Ages.
+
+Our luggage deposited in the crazy vehicle, the miserable horses,
+regardless of holes and ruts, took us up the steep hill at a
+hand-gallop, during which not only we but our belongings also were more
+than once threatened with a serious upset.
+
+Having, however, survived the perils and dangers of the way, and seen
+our _impedimenta_ safely locked up in a little cobwebby office
+at the station, we drove to Turnu Severin, about a quarter of a mile
+further down the river, where, climbing a conical mound, upon which
+still stands a ruined tower of undoubted Roman origin--supposed to have
+been built by Trajan to defend the passage of the bridge--we threw
+ourselves down beneath its cool shadow, and partook of our well-earned
+meal with very _Trojan_ appetites. Beneath us flowed the Danube,
+at this point more than half a mile broad; while from the “Iron Gate
+Pass” came the steady but peaceful roar of the cataracts, mingling
+with the metallic and incessant “clack, clack,” of the _cicadas_
+fluttering in the bushes around us. But our leafy retreat proved rather
+a failure: for mosquitoes of a most venomous species made a violent
+raid upon us, and, our repast ended, we hastened to the banks of the
+river, where we were safer from their attacks.
+
+It was just at this point that that noble structure of antiquity,
+Trajan’s Bridge, was erected, the length of which is said to have been
+three thousand nine hundred Roman feet--a Roman foot being rather in
+excess of that of our English measure. Beneath the surface of the
+water the remains of thirteen truncated piers still exist, which once
+supported the arches. These piers, which are situated 170 feet apart,
+are visible at rare intervals when the river is unusually low, seven
+others being covered with a sandy deposit which in the course of ages
+has collected round them, and which now forms hillocks in the river’s
+bed.
+
+A full description of this bridge was written by Dion Cassius, who was
+Governor of Pannonia during the reign of Hadrian, Trajan’s successor,
+and who wrote the history of Rome up to the beginning of the first
+century. Although the greater part of this valuable history has been
+lost, including that portion of it which described the building of the
+bridge, an epitome of his writings is still extant containing a short
+description of this great work, in addition to which it has also been
+described by Merivale.
+
+This noblest of all Trajan’s achievements, however, was not permitted
+to be of long duration. Built in A.D. 103, it had virtually
+ceased to exist in 120, having been destroyed in that year by Hadrian,
+in order, as he affirmed, to prevent the incursions of barbarians, who
+might take advantage of the bridge to cross over into the Thracian
+Provinces. He is, however, generally believed to have been moved
+to destroy it by a jealous dislike to the architect Apollodorus of
+Damascus, who erected Trajan’s Column at Rome, as well as the Forum
+Trajanum, and who when a young soldier in the Roman camp offended the
+dignity of the Emperor; for, soon after Hadrian’s accession to the
+throne, he not only overthrew this most ambitious of all Apollodorus’s
+works, but, on some very slight pretext, caused him to be put to death.
+
+Little exists in the present day above the surface of the water of any
+interest to the ordinary observer, except the ruined walls on each side
+rising just above the banks, and which must originally have formed the
+piers from which the first arches sprang. But how even these shapeless
+masses of masonry link the past to the present, and bring before us, in
+living memory, the valour and energy of this great people!
+
+The climate of Europe must have been much colder at that period than
+now; for we frequently read of Tartars and other barbarian hordes
+from the surrounding steppes making use of the Danube, in the second
+century, for the transport from one shore to the other of their
+infantry, cavalry, and waggons, from which it would appear that the
+river in winter formed a solid bridge of ice. It seldom freezes now,
+and even when it does so in exceptionally severe winters the ice lasts
+only for a very short time.
+
+Not far from Trajan’s Bridge is a hilly promontory belonging to Servia,
+which stretches out into the Danube, and through which it is proposed
+to cut a canal to enable ships to pass down the river at low water.
+
+After leaving the banks of the classic stream, we climbed a steep hill
+through a herd of formidable-looking buffaloes grazing the arid pasture
+on its slopes, and found ourselves in the town of Turnu Severin,
+a newly established Roumanian colony situated on the left bank of
+the river, a mile and a half from the “Iron Gate Pass,” containing
+extensive docks belonging to the Danube Steam Navigation Company. From
+this place may be seen, standing on the shore of the river, the Tower
+of Severus; whilst on the opposite side lies Skela-Gladova, with its
+Turkish fortifications, and its slender minarets rising above the
+walls. Twenty years ago Turnu Severin consisted of merely a few houses,
+but it is now growing quite an important place. On the promenade the
+beauty and fashion of the town are taking their early evening stroll,
+dressed in the very extreme of Parisian toilettes, and in skirts so
+absurdly tight that it is a marvel how they ever get into them; and, as
+we looked towards the buffaloes with their long horns and outstretched
+necks, between which and them there existed no fence whatever, we
+could not help wondering whether, in the event of one of those animals
+taking it into its head to run after them, the “crack of doom” would
+immediately supervene to release them from their bondage, or whether
+the fair ones would double up entirely, and succumb to the attack
+without making any attempt at flight. Oh, how I longed to see them run!
+It was evidently with great difficulty that they managed to put one
+foot before the other, and the simple act of walking appeared to be a
+laborious process--at least with anything like grace--as they shuffled
+along in twos and threes, prattling their soft Neo-Latin, and looking
+at us wonderingly with their long almond-shaped eyes.
+
+We reach the station just as the train from Bucharest draws up to the
+platform, but its departure is considerably delayed, on account of
+a search amongst the passengers for a man who was supposed to have
+stolen three thousand ducats. The Roumanian gendarmes did their very
+best to look ferocious and important, as they stood at the door of the
+carriages to prevent egress, whilst others inside were endeavouring to
+take note of the passengers and find the delinquent, of whom a full
+description had been telegraphed. But whether he succeeded in eluding
+the search, or had travelled by some other train, no one seemed to
+know. At any rate the gendarmes had not the satisfaction of capturing
+him, and we were permitted to take our seats.
+
+Our only fellow traveller was a Greek priest, an effeminate looking
+man, with long black hair, which he kept on endeavouring to twist up
+under his high stiff cap. As we did not know Roumanian we addressed him
+in Latin; but the only phrase he seemed capable of uttering in that
+language was “_Non intelligo_.” The priests of the Greek Church
+are supposed to study theology in Latin; but, as I have elsewhere said,
+they are very ill-educated men, and I doubt whether he knew much of
+either one or the other.
+
+At Gladova there is another long delay: two ambassadors are in the
+train and they must needs have lunch. Extensive preparations have
+been made for them, and the restaurant is prettily decorated with
+flowers, whilst waiters in white gloves tear about madly, a young woman
+in a very pretty costume of red and white, who also waited on the
+illustrious travellers, being the only person who appeared not to have
+quite lost her head, and but for whom I suspect they would have had but
+a sorry chance of any refreshment whatever.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+At length we reach our destination and for the third time in the
+course of the day have not only to show our passports but submit to an
+examination of luggage.
+
+It was our intention on arriving at Orsova to have gone to the Hotel
+“_König von Ungarn_;” but the station is some distance from the
+old town, and the only carriage we found waiting at the place of exit
+was harnessed to such miserably lean horses, that we could not make up
+our minds to get into it. Their cheeks had fallen in and their heads
+were like those of skeletons. Nor was this all: their flanks were
+bleeding either from ill-usage or friction against the rope-harness,
+and we could not find it in our hearts to subject the poor creatures to
+another journey.--So observing a few hundred yards from the station a
+small one-storied inn, bearing the imposing title, in colossal letters,
+of “Hôtel Tivoli,” we decided to make it our headquarters, at any rate
+for the night.
+
+As we leave the station and walk across to the Hôtel Tivoli--which
+proves on nearer acquaintance to be about the size of a mouse-trap,
+nothing in connection with it being large but the name--the sun is
+setting behind the blue mountains which form the boundary of the
+Danube. Snake-like vapours are ascending from the river, the air is
+chill and so suggestive of ague that we are glad to take shelter
+anywhere till twilight is past. In this climate it is dangerous to be
+out of doors at sunset. Later in the evening, when night may be said
+to have fairly set in, one may go out with impunity, for then the air
+is again warm. It is only when the last touch of the sun’s golden
+finger has faded upon the highest mountain, and those blue shadows have
+wrapped the earth in their sombre mantle, that that peculiar chill in
+the air is felt which I have so frequently described, and which is so
+dangerous to the traveller to encounter.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXX.
+
+                      THE HEIGHTS OF THE DANUBE.
+
+
+A frugal supper, consisting of fish from the river and Moldavian
+cheese--the latter served with a plate of carraways--and, thoroughly
+tired out from our long day’s excitement and fatigue, we seek “nature’s
+sweet restorer” ere the moon had risen above the mountain tops.
+
+As we ascend the steps leading to the creaky little balcony by which
+our rooms were approached, the peaks with their tree-fringed summits
+frowned down upon us black as Erebus, and half shut out the sky, in
+which here and there a star was trimming its feeble lamp.
+
+The position of “Hôtel Tivoli” is the best thing about it after its
+name. Standing in the centre of a large open space covered with grass,
+it is consequently free from the dust with which almost everything at
+this time of year is smothered. It is quiet too, and here the traveller
+can, if he happen to be of that disposition, indulge in the “truly
+rural” to his heart’s content.
+
+The following morning, after dressing--a feat accomplished under
+considerable difficulties, our rooms being of the most limited
+dimensions--we descend for breakfast to the restaurant, which, detached
+from the house, consisted originally of a plot of garden, but now
+picturesquely roofed in like a châlet, whose pillars are thickly
+covered with the vine from which hang grapes in thick clusters.
+
+We are reminded of our proximity to Turkey by the deliciousness of the
+coffee, which, however, is scarcely better than that we have usually
+partaken of in many northern parts of Hungary; but it is served in
+small white jugs of such thick delf that they contain hardly more than
+the cup of Tantalus, a circumstance which causes András, who waits
+upon us as usual, to inquire sarcastically of our host--a Moldavian
+Jew--whether it is his intention to charge in the bill for the coffee
+or the jugs?
+
+Sitting near us at another small table is a man with a little child
+on his knee, holding by a long string a pet lamb--a beautiful little
+creature as white as snow, covered all over like a French poodle with
+tiny ringlets, which glisten like spun-glass. It has a scarlet ribbon
+round its neck, and feeds out of the man’s hand.
+
+Presently, having tied the fair white thing to the leg of the table,
+he leaves it for awhile, and, carrying the child with him, enters the
+hotel. It bleats plaintively, but is quite happy when, going along to
+where it is, I take my seat beside it.
+
+The people of Hungary often make great household pets of these
+beautiful little animals, keeping them until they are full grown--when,
+alas! they sacrifice them on the altar of mutton.
+
+The owner, who has been to fetch a glass of _schnaps_, now
+returns, and resuming his seat, holds it to the child’s lips,
+who greedily imbibes the fiery liquid, its little eyes watering
+notwithstanding. Observing my admiration of the lamb, he offers to
+sell it for one gulden and a half, and, had we been on our way to
+England, we might have purchased it; but, in prospect of a tour through
+the Transylvanian wilds, an elephant could scarcely have proved a
+greater encumbrance.
+
+The morning is exquisitely fine, the sky violet blue, and the air
+fragrant with the perfume of oleanders, which are blooming just
+outside the enclosure. Every now and then from afar, as the breeze
+bears it towards us on its wing, comes the roar of the breakers of the
+Greben rapids, inviting us in their direction. We are to climb the
+majestic heights to-day, for which purpose some strong, sure-footed
+quadrupeds will be necessary. We have very strong misgivings, however,
+as to whether these will be forthcoming, but leave our useful guide
+to make the needful arrangements, whilst we stroll off meanwhile to
+the Kroncapelle, only a quarter of an hour’s walk, and a spot of
+great interest, being the place where, during the war of Hungarian
+Independence, in 1849, the sacred crown of St. Stephen was concealed.
+This memorable crown, superstitiously supposed to have been fabricated
+by angels, was for a long time kept in the “_Alba Regia_,” but
+was removed to the castle of Buda, where it remained until the great
+Moslem invasion, when it was deposited for safety in that of Presburg,
+at which place it reposed until the Turks were expelled from Hungary,
+when it was again restored to Buda. The history of this crown, from the
+period of its bestowal on St. Stephen in 1001 up to the seventeenth
+century, has been one of great vicissitude. At the time of Kossuth’s
+flight it was buried in a box a few feet beneath the surface of the
+soil by two Hungarian patriots named Fuelep and Szemere, in which
+place it lay in safety until 1853, when it was unearthed by a peasant;
+its hiding-place, some affirm, having been betrayed for the sum of
+20,000 ducats by an officer who was in Kossuth’s own staff at the time
+of its concealment; others declaring it to have been the result of
+miraculous revelation. So great is the veneration of the Hungarians
+for this sacred relic, that they believe their beloved country cannot
+prosper without it, and also that it operates powerfully upon its
+destinies.
+
+In commemoration of its recovery, a small octagonal chapel has been
+erected, in the Byzantine style, in the centre of which, surrounded
+by a stone balustrade, is a well, marking the precise spot where the
+sacred object lay concealed. Over it rests a block of marble, on which
+an artificial crown is placed, the counterpart of the true one; and
+above, suspended from the dome, a lamp hangs, which is always burning,
+whilst opposite the entrance is a life-size figure of the Virgin and
+Child, encircled with golden rays.
+
+The chapel was shown us by a woman in a very picturesque and Oriental
+costume, and whose particular mission in life, apart from keeping the
+keys and nursing a rampagious baby, would appear to consist in driving
+away lean dogs from the enclosure. We were just on the point of leaving
+the chapel when she requested us to write our names in a ponderous book
+kept for the purpose. After having complied with her request we glanced
+through the volume, which contains the signatures of several hundred
+visitors, but amongst them, strange to say, we only lighted on one that
+appeared English, and to it were added the words, Boston, Mass.
+
+As English persons are not given as a rule to avoid opportunities of
+the kind, the inference would be that even of the comparatively few
+who “do the Danube,” fewer still stop at Orsova, notwithstanding that
+this portion of the great river contains objects of real interest to
+the antiquary and archæologist. The entire district is, in fact, well
+worthy the attention, not only of the archæological student in search
+of historical landmarks which have survived the levelling hand of Time,
+but of the ordinary tourist also, who cannot but be interested in these
+memorials of a long-forgotten past.
+
+An avenue of poplars leads from the chapel to the banks of the river,
+which are here beautifully wooded, many of the trees being festooned
+with the wild vine. The Danube at this spot looks precisely like a
+lake, being enclosed on all sides by mountains, from which no opening
+is visible. At their feet lies the island-fortress of New Orsova which
+commands the frontiers of three countries, Hungary, Wallachia, and
+Servia, and forms a very picturesque object with its sombre cypress
+trees and high mosque reflected in the water.
+
+On the opposite side a Turkish cargo boat is struggling with the
+rapids, and in the foreground some men are raising their fishing net.
+
+This island during the last hundred years has undergone various
+fortunes, having frequently changed from Christian to Mahomedan rule.
+In 1738, after a prolonged siege, it surrendered to the Osmanlis, but
+in 1790 was retaken by the Austrians. By the Treaty of Sistova it was
+again delivered up to the Turks, who finally evacuated it in favour of
+the Christians in 1878.
+
+The fortress, though a heap of ruins, is still occupied by Turks, who,
+after the war was over, preferring to become Austrian subjects rather
+than return to their own country, entreated the Emperor of Austria to
+permit them to remain there. In this miserable place, although in the
+utmost squalor, no fewer than four hundred and fifty men, women, and
+children manage to live. The men occupy themselves in fishing, while
+the women and children work at gold and silver embroidery which they
+sell to visitors to the island, and thus eke out a scanty subsistence.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Leaving the island and crossing over to the left side of the Danube,
+we throw ourselves on the ground beneath the shadow of a tree, and
+revel in the fair and stately beauty of the scene. How lovely is
+everything! Not a sign is there of human habitation anywhere, whilst
+from the wooded hills comes the not unmusical but perpetual din of
+myriads of locusts and living things, bearing witness that not man,
+but _they_ have dominion here.
+
+Close to our feet a chameleon comes out of a hole and looks cautiously
+about him. Its rough, granulated skin is of the brightest green, and it
+measures fully ten inches from head to tail. A large metallic-looking
+beetle crawling along the sand attracts its attention and whets its
+appetite, but at this moment the chameleon’s quick ear detects the
+presence of foes. Turning its curious swivel eyes to the back of its
+head, it catches sight of us, puts up its back, and then changing
+colour from green to buff, bursts out all over with black spots; it
+does not move, but after remaining for a long time as if transfixed,
+stealthily returns to its hole.
+
+On the other side of the river a long, narrow boat now comes in sight,
+rowed by two Turkish boatmen, whilst a third, standing at the stern, is
+using a pole. He wears a scarlet fez, which, creating a small speck of
+bright colour, is very pleasing to the eye against the background of
+grey mountains floating in the dreamy haze of sultry noontide. The boat
+hugs the shore, for there are strong eddies in mid stream even here.
+The river is broad and the breeze blowing from the north, but when it
+lulls for an instant, the song of the boatmen reaches us in peaceful
+and pathetic cadence.
+
+As we sit here and watch the Danube’s majestic waves roll past, and
+think of the great nations to whom it has in turn belonged, Greeks,
+Romans, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Turks, French, and Germans, we rejoice in
+the fact that it has come under the sway of the Magyars once more.
+
+It was near here that Kossuth, that ardent aspirant after political
+freedom, and the hero of the “War of Independence,” fleeing from
+his pursuers, crossed the Danube and sought protection in Turkish
+territory. Before crossing the frontier, he threw himself down for
+the last time on the soil of his beloved Fatherland for which he had
+risked so much and fought so hard, pressed on it a sobbing, passionate
+kiss, and planting his foot on Turkish territory, became, as he himself
+has so touchingly described it in the memories of his exile, “like
+a wrecked ship thrown up by the storm on a desert shore.” A Turkish
+officer greeted him courteously in the name of Allah, led him to a
+place which he had kindly caused to be prepared for him to rest in
+for the night, under God’s free heaven, and asked for his sword with
+downcast eyes, as if ashamed that a Turk should disarm a Hungarian. “I
+unbuckled it,” he writes, “and gave it to him without uttering a word;
+my eyes filled with tears, and he, wishing me sound rest, left me alone
+with my sorrow.
+
+“There I stood in silent meditation on the bank--but no longer the
+_Hungarian_ bank--of the Danube, the waves of which were mingled
+with the tears of the Hungarian nation--and which, not far from me,
+grumbled and roared through the rocky pass of the ‘Iron Gates.’”
+
+“I listened,” he continues, “to this roaring in rude harmony with the
+storm in my heart, and as I contemplated the annihilation of patriotic
+hopes so undeservedly extinguished, tears of indescribable grief
+unconsciously showered down my cheeks.”
+
+This rhapsody from the once Supreme Dictator of Hungary may sound
+unmanly to the ears of the undemonstrative Briton; but these brave,
+lion-hearted Hungarians, whom few things daunt, love their country
+passionately and with a love as tender as that of woman.
+
+It is sad to think that this brave man, who, though disappointed in
+his attempts at achieving a recognition of Hungary as an independent
+state, has yet been the means of indirectly conferring lasting benefit
+upon his country, should--as he describes himself--still be a wanderer,
+“arrived at the verge of the grave with no hope for the future, and in
+whose past there is no consolation.” No longer expatriated, he could
+return to the Fatherland if he would; but he refuses to do so, since,
+by its own act, it has allowed itself to be merged into the Austrian
+Empire.
+
+It is gratifying at any rate to know that Kossuth found for many years,
+together with other Hungarian refugees of the revolutionary period, a
+safe and peaceful exile in Turkey. The very nation which for so many
+centuries was Hungary’s most deadly foe, and which, when demanded by
+Russia and Austria in 1849 to deliver up all those who had sought
+shelter in its dominions, bravely refused to surrender them.
+
+These thoughts, naturally suggested by this particular spot, concerning
+the Hungarian hero, whose history has been such a mixture of triumph
+and humiliation, have kept us lingering too long. It is already past
+noon; the sun is sending fiery arrows through the topmost branches of
+the trees, and if we are to make for the heights to-day, it is high
+time we were on our way.
+
+Back through the long rows of poplars which like sentinels appear to be
+keeping guard over the little chapel. Still sitting on the steps is the
+young woman with her baby. She smiles sweetly as we pass, then rises to
+unlock the door for another visitor, who, at this moment, appears at
+the wicket gate of the little garden surrounding the chapel.
+
+On nearing “Hôtel Tivoli,” we observe, standing on the green-sward
+beneath the windows of our room, the steeds which are to carry us
+“over the hills and far away.” I had no hope from the first of
+being able to obtain such a modern luxury as a side-saddle in this
+old-world locality, so that I was not disappointed in that particular
+at all events, but I was not prepared certainly for the extraordinary
+arrangement which had been improvised for my especial benefit, and
+which András, I could see, regarded as quite a clever arrangement.
+Indeed it was so, and its ingenuity did him wondrous credit, but the
+whole thing was so droll and altogether original in its conception,
+that we were speechless. He had found an old wooden chair, and having
+broken off the legs, he placed it on the creature’s back. This was to
+form my seat, the _back_ of the chair being placed nearest the
+horse’s head by way of pummel, to which I was no doubt expected to hold
+on in case of need!
+
+Having ascertained that the animal was sufficiently padded with rugs
+to enable it to bear this novel and elaborate erection without injury,
+and having seen that the girths were safe, we started in triumph, a
+barbarous-looking muleteer--wearing a lamb’s wool cap very like a
+mop, preceding us--and András, carrying a basket of the inevitable
+provisions--oh! that we could live on a periodical lozenge!--gravely
+bringing up the rear.
+
+Passing through the ancient town we are objects of much astonishment to
+the natives. Women, carrying baskets and pitchers on their heads, stop
+to gaze at us, calling the attention of their neighbours to the strange
+little cavalcade, and no wonder. Others sitting at doorways run in and
+peep shyly at us through small dust-begrimed windows.
+
+Orsova--pronounced Orshova, the Hungarian _s_ being invariably
+pronounced as in our English word “shall”--is the last Hungarian town
+on the Danube, and wears quite an Eastern aspect. The costumes are
+also entirely un-European. The women wear a long white skirt and a
+bodice reaching to the throat, generally embroidered with wool in a
+rich Oriental pattern and well-harmonised combination of green, red,
+blue, and orange. A broad girdle woven in the same colours encircles
+the waist, from which hangs a thick fringe extending to the heels. The
+men, however, wear mocassins, braided jackets, and loose trousers, and
+look as uncivilised as their surroundings. The roads, which seem to be
+none other than of Nature’s own making, are formed of sand and large
+pebbles, over which our horses stumble as they pick their way along.
+A wooden bridge, and a dark little cemetery as full as it can cram
+of iron crucifixes, bring us to the outskirts of the town, where the
+houses are built of unbaked brick and enclosed by strong stockades of
+closely-plaited withies, bristling throughout with formidable stakes
+sharpened to the finest point to keep away the wolves which infest this
+part of the country.
+
+These stockades, which are everywhere seen in the suburbs of Orsova,
+and which from their thickness and strength might easily have withstood
+a siege in olden time, interested us immensely. They are perhaps the
+surviving form of those wooden palisades or hedges called _limes_,
+with which the Romans surrounded the frontiers of their empire, and
+which Spartian describes in his account of the life of Hadrian as
+having been composed of stakes driven into the ground and filled in so
+as to form a hedge or wall.
+
+In the outskirts of the town, which extend some considerable distance,
+one of these stockades was being erected, the whole reminding
+us of the sculpture on Trajan’s Column, on which is represented
+the construction of the _limes_ that once united the Danube
+to the Rhine, from which it may be seen that the soldiers, or
+_riparienses_ as they were called by the Romans, on whom devolved
+the construction of these stockades, proceeded in their work exactly
+as we saw the men of Orsova do to-day, their costume even, a short
+white tunic tied loosely at the waist, and the peaked lamb’s wool cap,
+scarcely differing from that of the Roman period.
+
+Near the mouth of the Danube the remains of a ditch and mound still
+exist, supposed to have been made by Trajan at the same epoch as the
+bridge, for the purpose of connecting the encampments of the various
+Legions situated along the frontier.
+
+Arriving at the base of the mountains which bound the noble river,
+we see clouds hanging beneath their summits, and climbing a steep
+hill, pass an encampment, not, however, of Roman origin this time,
+but belonging to the “wandering tribe,” from which a number of
+spindle-legged gipsies rush out and pursue us like a troop of wild
+animals--_Tschorelo rom_ as they call themselves, words signifying
+“poor man”--and refusing to leave us, until, quite wearied by their
+importunity, we bestow upon them a handful of kreuzers.
+
+The climb is steep and toilsome, but we are rewarded by the splendid
+views which, ever changing, burst upon us continually. On our way we
+pass through immense flocks of sheep tended by wild-looking shepherds,
+and presently hear from a distance the hoarse drone of the bag-pipes,
+the weird music of which seems quite in keeping with the savage
+grandeur of these rocky fastnesses; and listening to it as we zigzag up
+the slopes, the thought comes forcibly to the mind, how wonderfully
+pastoral music, the most primitive adaptation of harmonic sounds, which
+took its first lessons from Nature herself--the plaintive melody of
+running brooks meandering through green pastures, and the harsh roar of
+the mountain torrent dashing over rocks--both gives and takes character
+for its surroundings. How out of keeping with these stern and majestic
+solitudes of nature would be the gentle music of the flute, or the
+crude wild harmony of the bag-pipes with the calm and peaceful plains!
+
+A little further climb, we reach a shepherd’s hut and behold the author
+of the “crude, wild” sounds sitting at the doorway. An uncanny-looking
+man, in very truth, with his feet and legs bandaged in coarse linen and
+tied round with thongs of leather. The hut itself was empty, his dog
+and bag-pipes apparently being his only companions, and probably for
+many months together, for these shepherds do not return to the lowlands
+until winter sets in, nor always even then, some leading their flocks
+for pasture into Bulgaria, when, as the frosts appear, it becomes
+scanty on these heights.
+
+And now having reached the summit of the mountain after an ascent of
+two hours, we alight from our mules, thankful so far as I am concerned
+with any change of position, András’s impromptu saddle having proved in
+the using the most perfectly diabolical arrangement it is possible to
+conceive, and having once descended from it I inwardly determine that,
+come what may, nothing shall induce me to mount it again.
+
+A good luncheon and some excellent Schiller, a wine made from grapes
+that grow on the hills near Orsova, go some way towards restoring our
+peace of body and mind; after which, descending a rocky knoll, we look
+down upon the Danube gliding majestically between giant precipices and
+walls of granite, a glorious amphitheatre of weather-beaten rock and
+hoary crag. As we stand almost spellbound at the grandeur of the scene,
+something passes over us with a “whirr,” and great stirring of the air.
+We must have disturbed an eagle’s nest, for an enormous fellow flies
+screeching across the gorge, his shrill cry echoing from rock to rock,
+whilst a few moments later another crosses it in the same direction.
+
+Just above us rose a large serrated cone of granite, which F.
+determined to climb if possible, whilst I made a sketch of the wondrous
+scene surrounding us. The nest was doubtless there, and its formidable
+denizens no longer near, he had a great curiosity to have a peep at it.
+
+Looking down a sheer precipice upon the river, we can trace the road
+which was constructed by the Hungarian Government, between Orsova and
+Alt-Moldova, as it winds round the rocky buttresses like a tiny thread;
+whilst opposite, on the Servian side, portions of the Roman road are
+also distinctly visible even from this dizzy height.
+
+The wind--a mere zephyr in the valleys--blows roughly in our rocky
+eyrie, and comes howling and hissing against the jutting rocks with
+a noise similar to that which it makes when blowing in the shrouds
+of a ship at sea. We are verily in cloudland here. Like a diaphanous
+curtain drawn silently and gently by an unseen hand, now and then
+a cloud comes scudding past, encompassing us with mist, and which,
+veiling all surrounding objects, lends a strange and solemn mystery to
+the scene. There is something indescribably awful and sublime in our
+surroundings, and the stillness, in itself so infinite, is broken only
+by the scream of the eagles which, waking the echoes, seem but to make
+the silence more profound.
+
+These lofty and solitary crags must be literally full of eagles, for
+as we sit in calm contemplation of Nature’s wildest and most savage
+forms as exhibited in the various rock masses around us, they appear
+to be alive with them. At one moment we count no fewer than five,
+either perched upon the crags or soaring in the heavens with motionless
+majestic wing. The eagle is the very terror of the shepherds in these
+heights, and numbers of their lambs fall victims yearly to the bird of
+prey.
+
+I need scarcely say the climb to the eagle’s nest proved unsuccessful,
+for these emperors of the air choose wisely, and fix their abode in
+places inaccessible to the tread of man.
+
+The shadows were lengthening when--my sketch finished--we hastened from
+our rocky hiding-place. Clambering over huge boulders, which in some
+places obstructed our exit, as if Titans had placed them there to bar
+these solitudes from desecration, we reached once more the peaceful
+green alp where we had left our horses, and found András and his
+companion--overcome by their fatiguing climb--lying at full length on
+the ground sodden in slumber, whilst the mules were grazing close by.
+We aroused them, eventually, and making them lead our steeds, sent them
+on ahead, following ourselves on foot.
+
+Thoroughly tired, however, by the time we reach the base of the
+mountain, we hail the muleteers, and causing them to remove the
+obnoxious arrangement with which my quadruped is still equipped,
+and having substituted for it a folded rug, we get on magnificently.
+Henceforth, till we reach Orsova, we shall be passing over level
+ground, so that a saddle is no longer of absolute necessity to enable
+a somewhat practised equestrian to keep her seat, particularly on so
+dejected and low-spirited an animal as this.
+
+As we enter the old town, the sun is setting and transforming its
+tumble-down houses into palaces of ruby gold, and bathing with rich
+purple shadows and vermilion lights their crazy roofs and casements.
+What bright pictures of semi-eastern life are seen as we proceed along
+our way! By the roadside is an _ágas_ at which olive-complexioned
+women are gossiping, dressed as on a gala day, with skirts woven in
+various tints in which gold thread is largely intermingled. With their
+gay bodices, also embroidered in gold, and their crimson head-gear,
+what delicious bits of colour we see everywhere, mellowed by the
+evening light.
+
+Having passed the crowded cemetery, the wooden bridge, and the hot and
+dusty town, we dismount at our little inn, and find a snowy cloth laid
+in readiness for our arrival beneath the vine-covered roof of the outer
+restaurant. But the air is chill, and, repairing to the inner room, we
+eat dinner all amongst the happy peasants, who sit playing a game at
+cards called “_Torrok_”--a quiet, well-behaved, simple folk, whose
+acquaintance we are glad to make.
+
+Sitting alone, however, at a small table near us, is a Hungarian
+engineer, engaged at Orsova in some public works. He at first addresses
+us in Magyar, and finding we cannot converse in that language, tries
+Spanish with better success. I on my part addressed him in German,
+which I feel sure, from the fact of his being in the Austrian service,
+he must thoroughly understand; but he only shakes his head and
+professes ignorance of what I am saying. How intense is the repugnance
+with which the Hungarians regard everything German!
+
+Whilst sympathising with the Magyars in their very natural dislike to
+Austrian rule, it is to be regretted they should carry their antipathy
+to such lengths; for, after all, it is only “kicking against the
+pricks” and cannot fail in the end to widen the breach already existing
+in the Dual Monarchy. For a long time past, the German population,
+finding themselves shunned by the dominant race, have resorted to the
+expedient of changing their names into Hungarian form.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+                               MEHADIA.
+
+
+What a barbarous scene Orsova presents on market-day, and what
+a jabber there is of many tongues as the people in their varied
+costumes scream at the top of their voices and chaffer and haggle over
+their bargainings; Serbs, Turks, and Wallachians all adding their
+unintelligible gibberish to that of the Magyar; and gesticulating
+so violently whilst uttering their sharp, shrill cries that the
+uninitiated stranger expects each moment to see them come to blows.
+
+Interesting as it is to the traveller from the civilised west to see
+these people in their strange costumes, sitting by their strange wares,
+it is still more interesting to watch them hurrying into the market
+from the surrounding villages.
+
+Having been informed by our Moldavian host the previous evening, that
+this was the day on which the weekly market was held, we arose early
+to see them arrive with their merchandise, but on walking down to the
+Danube we found both river and mountains so shrouded in dense white
+vapour, that the bold outlines of the latter were alone visible, whilst
+nearer objects were scarcely recognisable even a few yards ahead.
+
+The people, however, were flocking in, and, looming suddenly out
+of the semi-obscurity, appeared more like gigantic spectres than
+common men and women as they passed us in picturesque groups, some
+walking, others on horse, mule, or donkey-back, one and all clad in
+many-coloured garments. But besides these, from distant places on the
+Wallachian or Turkish banks farther down the stream, came now and then
+a small, crazy-looking craft, its plash heard long before it came in
+sight itself, laden with vegetables, fruit, fish, and sometimes a
+living freight of men, women, and children.
+
+Amongst the various kinds of fish found in the river are enormous
+sturgeon almost as large as sharks, which are cut up and sold in slices
+in the market.
+
+At ten o’clock we start for “Trajan’s-Tafel,” an excursion that will
+terminate our visit to Orsova. The mist, which by this time has risen
+above the river, still hangs amongst the lofty crags of the Kasan Pass,
+and adds an indescribable gloom to the narrow, but majestic defile.
+
+Just as we arrive at that portion of the Pass, where the tablet is
+situated, the mist, ascending opens for an instant, and admits a shaft
+of sunlight, which, shining diagonally across the gorge, creates a
+beautiful effect of light and shade.
+
+The form of the tablet has already been described in a previous
+chapter, and the following is an exact copy of the inscription:
+
+                     IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F.
+                      NERVA TRAJANUS. AUG. GERM.
+                    PONTIF. MAXIMUS TRIB. POT IIII.
+                        PATER PATRIAE COS. III.
+                         MONTIS L. | | AN BUS
+                               SUP AT E.
+
+the whole being perfectly legible when viewed closely, in spite of
+the coating of smoke which for ages has been accumulating upon it in
+consequence of the Servian fishermen availing themselves of the shelter
+afforded by the overhanging rock to cook their food. Just as when we
+passed it in the steamer, a fire was still smouldering there on the
+present occasion, some sacrilegious boatmen having as usual made the
+niche their place of bivouac.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+On entering Orsova, after our interesting morning’s excursion, we heard
+voices shouting lustily, and looking behind us descried a small group
+of people hastening in our direction with much brandishing of sticks,
+and waving of hats, of which we were apparently the object. What could
+it all mean? Had our guide again been committing some indiscretion, and
+getting us into trouble?
+
+The mystery was speedily solved; for, on turning our backs upon
+our pursuers and hastening in the direction of the hotel, with the
+determination to ignore everything and everybody, the shouts were
+renewed with increased vigour, and some one overtaking us seized F.
+by the shoulder. This apparently formidable assault, however, was
+committed by no unfriendly hand, being none other than that of a
+Magyar, with whom, together with his three companions, we had travelled
+in the steamer from Pest. By this time all had reached us, and there
+was a general greeting.
+
+“How glad we are to meet the _Ángolok_ again! What joy,” etc.,
+etc.,--“Where have you been, since we parted on board the ‘Szechenyi,’
+three days ago? Here? In Orsova? Is it possible, and so have we, and
+yet we have not met. How strange!--Well, you _must_ come now we
+have found you, and dine with us at the König von Ungarn; we will take
+no denial,” exclaimed they, all speaking at the same time.
+
+Pleased as we should have been to accept their hospitable invitation
+we were obliged to decline it; for yonder, shading his eyes with his
+hand to ascertain whether it is his “sweet master and mistress” who
+are coming, is András standing by a vehicle to which three horses are
+harnessed abreast; whilst by its side is another in which the luggage
+is placed in readiness for our journey, on which we should have started
+an hour ago. We must, therefore, partake of a hasty lunch and be off.
+
+We have only to bid adieu to our new acquaintances for the present,
+however, who are consoled on discovering that by a “happy
+coincidence,” we are to be fellow-travellers to Temesvár, they leaving
+Orsova by the seven o’clock train that evening; and we joining it at
+Mehadia about twelve miles distant. Near it are the Hercules Baths,
+where we purpose spending the intervening hours, and it is a place
+which no one who comes to Orsova, should fail to visit.
+
+At two o’clock we mount our chariot, and off we start as if borne on
+the wings of the wind, the vehicle containing András and the luggage
+following slowly behind.
+
+The first portion of our drive is most exciting: the pace at which
+the horses go, all of them keeping step; the fierce shouts of the
+Wallachian driver, who half stands up as he urges them into a gallop;
+the continual flourishes of his whip, which he invariably terminates
+with a loud crack that rends the air, the clatter of our bells, and the
+sight of the three horses abreast--wild-looking creatures, with neither
+collars nor blinkers--all impress us with the idea that we ourselves
+must be ancient Romans, driving in a triumphal car, until an instant’s
+glance at the car in question dispels the illusion. It is not long,
+however, before the horses are permitted to assume the “regulation
+crawl.” A hill has to be ascended, and then we reach the valley of the
+Czerna, enclosed on either side by wooded mountains, with their slopes
+cultivated with the vine. Snowing the summits, the wild cherry and pear
+are seen in full bloom, whilst plum-trees of immense size growing by
+the roadside, shower their petals on us as we pass.
+
+The driver, now seated calmly on the box, sings a peaceful melody
+to encourage his steeds and accompany the plaintive music of their
+bells. The gurgle of the Czerna, as it winds along, sounds cool and
+pleasant. On the hill-sides women are hoeing the hard, sun-baked
+earth, or sowing seed for the late crops; and down by the river’s
+bank are primitive water-mills, where the villagers grind their corn,
+and near which are huts surrounded by peach orchards, whose rich
+pink blossoms contrast gratefully with the green and brown of their
+immediate surroundings. By the roadside a flock of woolly long-horned
+sheep are browsing; and a group of peasants recline under the cool
+shadow of a tree. The horses’ bells jingle in sweet harmony with the
+torrent at our feet; but the day is hot, the sun shines fiercely on the
+sandy road, and the driver, giving us the reins, goes down to slake his
+thirst. Then on we go again till we reach a village with its church
+and fresco-painted tower, near which stands a priest, surrounded by a
+number of Wallachian urchins just out of school, wearing white tunics,
+and lamb’s wool caps, the very image of their elders. As at Orsova, the
+women here wear an outer skirt of thick fringe suspended from a broad
+girdle made to fit the figure, and richly woven in various colours,
+called an “_obreska_,” the fringe, which generally consists of two
+colours only--scarlet and black arranged in stripes--extending to the
+hem of the white under-garment. It is a kind of dress which they must
+find very inconvenient I should imagine when working in the fields, yet
+all wear it without exception, old and young alike.
+
+The huts we now pass are enclosed by stockades stronger far than even
+those I mentioned as having seen in the suburbs of Orsova, some being
+raised to a height of more than eight or ten feet, to protect the
+inhabitants and their kine from the attacks, not only of wolves, but
+of bears also, both of which abound in this locality--the latter often
+doing much harm to the crops of Indian corn.
+
+Wherever we look now women are training the vines, their picturesque
+costumes gleaming in the sunlight, whilst their lords may generally be
+seen lying under the shadow of a tree, fast asleep, and the farther
+we proceed, the more Eastern vegetation becomes, parasite plants
+festooning many of the loftier trees, with long garlands that sway in
+the sultry air.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Coming towards us are three Wallachian women, trudging merrily along
+the road, and spinning as they go. How graceful they are, and what
+lovely faces, half Roman, half Grecian, look up at us smiling, as they
+pass--their fringes flying out behind them like peacocks’ fans!
+
+Now and then we meet a whole family, consisting of two, and sometimes
+three generations, huddled together in one of the long country carts,
+from the open ladder-like sides of which hang just such gourds and
+leathern bottles as we read of in Scripture.
+
+A picturesque wooden bridge crossing the Czerna now appears in
+sight; the valley contracts, and the mountains become more wild and
+precipitous. At length, nearing the village of Korabuek, we pass the
+ruins of a Roman aqueduct, said to have been in existence in the time
+of Hadrian, and believed to have originally extended from the baths of
+Mehadia to Orsova, in order to convey the healing waters to the latter
+place. There are evidences also of this aqueduct having been restored,
+and used by the Turks for the same purpose, a Pasha having for many
+years resided at Orsova, which at one period was an important Turkish
+citadel.
+
+Vines now cluster close to the roadside, from the grapes of which
+Schiller is made--a delicate ruby-coloured wine, which, though
+exceedingly cheap, is good after it has been kept three years.
+
+At last, after crossing a brand-new and gaudily painted iron bridge--so
+out of keeping with the ancient monuments we have passed, such a
+hideous deformity, so forbidding, ugly and out of tune with the poetry
+of its surroundings--that one marvels how it ever could have got there,
+we are greeted by the first glimpse of the little bathing establishment
+where the Romans, that bath-loving people, founded a colony, calling
+the place “_Ad aquas Herculi sacras_,” and its site “_ad
+mediam_.” From the latter, no doubt, the name of Mehadia originated.
+
+A picturesque church, standing on an eminence at the entrance to the
+gorge, introduces us to this classic ground; and to our surprise, on
+turning a bend in the road, we find ourselves all at once surrounded by
+fair palaces and terraced gardens which remind us more of the “Arabian
+Nights,” than the ancient abode of Roman colonists. Grecian colonnades,
+fountains, statuary and exotic flowers and grasses, almost take our
+breath away, so sudden and unexpected is all this luxury in the midst
+of these lonely solitudes of nature.
+
+These baths, whose discovery, as we have seen, is due to the Romans,
+are a very favourite resort of the Hungarians, as well as of the Serbs
+and Wallachians. Here, too, come the rich, luxurious, and pampered
+Boyards of Bucharest, who, to quote the words of one of our Hungarian
+friends, come annually to “boil their much-abused livers in the hot
+springs.”
+
+The _Kurhaus_, a splendid structure in the Roman style, the
+interior of which is adorned with frescoes, contains colonnades,
+and beneath their shade the visitors promenade during the scorching
+hours of day. The most beautiful building of all, however, is the
+_Elizabethen Bad_.
+
+“Here,” said our conductor, the manager of one of the bathing
+establishments--as he ushered us into a large apartment filled with
+steam, and smelling so horribly of sulphur that it might have been
+Tartarus itself--“Here the people step into the water, and _feel the
+evil being boiled out of them_!”
+
+There are no fewer than twenty-four springs in this mountain gorge. The
+rocks, which, like all of this character, consist of limestone, are
+full of fissures from which water oozes, and beneath which singular
+rumbling noises are often heard. The springs are of two kinds,
+sulphur-thermal and alkali-saline, the former said to be the strongest
+in the world, the largest and hottest being that called by the Romans
+_Thermæ Herculis_, which bursts forth in a column half a yard in
+diameter, and produces no less than 5,000 cubic feet of water per hour,
+of the temperature of 131° Fahrenheit.
+
+Having passed the military hospital, a large building to the left, near
+which is a fountain surmounted by a statue of Hercules, we ascend to
+the place containing the source of the spring, which bears the name of
+the heathen god.
+
+Beneath an almost overhanging rock there exists what may be described
+as a small natural grotto or fissure, about eight feet high and three
+broad, on entering which, and descending a flight of rugged steps
+hewn in the solid rock, we reach an inner cleft filled with dense
+vapour, whence the stream issues forth and again disappears in the dark
+recesses of the earth. The air in this cavern is hot and stifling, and
+we are glad to emerge once more into the outer atmosphere.
+
+Perfectly exhausted, we are endeavouring to cool ourselves on a slab
+of rock opposite, when the loud clatter of wheels is heard, and a
+carriage soon makes its appearance, in which are our Hungarian friends.
+Demonstrative as ever, off go the hats, accompanied by much waving of
+handkerchiefs and sticks so soon as they recognise us.
+
+Unable to bear the absence of the “charming _Ángolok_” any longer,
+they had, they said, made up their minds to follow us here, and be
+our _ciceroni_. I am not at all sure we were as grateful for the
+attention as we ought to have been, but I trust at any rate that we
+looked so.
+
+Sedate and melancholy as are the Magyars usually, they are given to
+great and sudden changes of temperament, their character being an
+admixture of habitual pensiveness and melancholy, mingled with the
+most child-like susceptibility to enjoyment. Like their national
+music, they are tender and passionate by turns, now plunged into a
+whirlpool of excited fury, and now into the lowest depths of melancholy
+and despair, but when out for a holiday they shake off dull care, and
+become as light-hearted as schoolboys. Knowing this locality well,
+they conducted us to many interesting spots, including a real robbers’
+cave, situated in a romantic nook in the wooded gorge, which we might
+otherwise have overlooked.
+
+Higher up, on a rock about seven or eight feet above the roadway, and
+not far from the source of _Thermæ Herculis_, are two votive
+tablets of the Roman period, on which, carved in relief, are the busts
+of a male and female. The features of each are still quite distinct,
+but we could ascertain from no one, whom they were intended to
+represent.
+
+In one of the chambers of the Hercules bath, which is still used, and
+which remains unaltered since it was built by the Romans--a small dark
+room a few feet below the entrance--is a large and almost life-size
+figure of the deity from whom the bath is named. It is carved in relief
+on an immense block of stone forming one of the walls of the chamber.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Nothing can be more romantic than the situation of this little watering
+place, where nature and art alike combine to render a summer’s sojourn
+delightful. The pathways through the wooded gorge; the beautiful
+Czerna, which is here a foaming torrent clear as crystal; the hotels,
+with their terraced gardens bright with Grecian vases, statuary, and
+flowers; the gipsy-music, and interesting associations connected with
+the place itself; the variety of races; and above all the festivities
+that take place daily during the season--render it unrivalled as a
+resort for the idle or hypochondriac. I would, however, warn those of
+the stronger sex who may happen to be highly susceptible to the tender
+passion, to think twice ere they come, for the bewitching beauty of
+these daughters of Roumania and Transylvania is perfectly irresistible,
+and few there are, I suspect, who, after a sojourn here, could leave
+entirely heart-whole.
+
+The season lasts from June till September, the one drawback being the
+cost of living, which, though less than that of most Hungarian baths,
+is nevertheless great, compared with anything of the kind in England,
+and I doubt if eight florins a day would cover the expenses of the
+visitor.
+
+As we loiter in front of the hotel at which we have dined, waiting
+for our carriages to take us to the station, two miles distant, a
+young peasant comes to fill her pitcher at the fountain. Like the
+majority of Wallachian women she is very lovely, and there is a noble
+and unfettered grace in her dress and carriage. How well, too, her
+Juno-like head, adorned with gold coins, is set upon her shoulders!
+Standing beneath the ancient statue of the pagan god, what a model she
+would form for an artist!
+
+At Mehadia station we almost lost our train, so silently did it
+glide up to the platform, whilst we were occupied outside the
+enclosure in endeavouring to effect the purchase of a very handsome
+“_obreska_,” worn by a young girl. It was new, and its colours
+brilliant and unsullied, but by no offer could she be tempted to part
+with it, not even by a bank note for fifty florins, which, taking out
+his purse, one of our Magyar friends held up to her. She only shook her
+head in a dignified manner, smiled, and passed on.
+
+“Suppose she had accepted your offer,” I remarked to the Magyar who had
+tendered her the note.
+
+“I knew I was safe,” was his reply. “The poorer inhabitants of these
+wilds scarcely know the use of money. With their cow, pig, and little
+flock of sheep, whose wool furnishes the material for their clothing,
+which they spin, weave, and dye themselves, and their plot of ground
+on which they grow their daily bread, what can such persons want with
+money? Besides, their principal circulating medium is barter;” and I
+could not help thinking how favourably these Wallachian peasantry, as
+well as the Slovaks, contrast with our own poor--a supposition that was
+very soon confirmed.
+
+Twilight’s shadows had given place to night, when, after passing
+through a mountainous region, we entered another of those narrow
+gorges, so characteristic of the Carpathian chain, through the eastern
+portion of which we are now travelling. As we whirled along all was
+pitch dark; save here and there where a party of travellers, ten or
+twenty in number, clad in sheepskin cloaks, were bivouacking before a
+large fire, the flames of which, lighting up the rocky background, only
+made the darkness visible, and rendered the whole more weird.
+
+This wild and rugged mountain district, however, introduces us to the
+fertile province of the Banát, one of the most productive districts in
+the world, and often spoken of as the “granary of Europe.”
+
+Three of our Hungarians having gone with F. into a smoking carriage to
+offer evening incense, I was left to the companionship of the eldest
+of the party, a dear old Magyar of about sixty years of age, but who
+looked much older, his wrinkled weather-beaten face and quivering
+voice bespeaking eighty rather than sixty winters. There is something
+infinitely pathetic, not only in the voices, but in the countenances of
+the aged Magyars, which seem charged as with a bitter memory. Is their
+habitual sadness caused by the union of the beloved Fatherland with a
+foreign power? In many instances I am inclined to think it is.
+
+There are three political parties in Hungary: the Liberal party,
+founded by Deák in 1866; the Extreme Left, which demands disrupture
+with Austria, and rallies under the name of Kossuth, their great
+revolutionary leader; and the Opposition.
+
+My _compagnon de voyage_ belonged to the second, and, a patriot
+of the old school, he stigmatised the conciliatory policy of Deák as
+cowardly and unpatriotic. As he alluded to the political compromise of
+this Prime Minister the tears came into his eyes. To foreigners the
+Hungarians open their hearts freely, and as we were alone, he spoke
+without reserve. There are grumblers in every nation, but there is no
+doubt the Hungarians have good reason to complain.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+                         THE FAMILY PEDIGREE.
+
+
+The town of Temesvár contains a population of 33,000 souls, and
+produces a medley that almost outdoes even Pest itself. Here are
+Greeks, Wallachs, Hebrews, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, a sprinkling
+of Turks, and a large proportion of Magyars. It consists of an inner
+town and an outer one, the former surrounded by strong fortifications.
+Wherever one looks there are bastions and ditches, and great guns and
+little guns menacing us in all directions, and seeming to dodge our
+movements continually. Never by any chance do we get out of the way of
+those guns. As we walk along the road by the side of the people’s park,
+there is one facing us the whole way; as _we_ turn to the left it
+seems to turn also. Never can I forget the expression of that one gun,
+which, for nearly half the day, fixed its hideous muzzle upon us like
+a great unblinking eye, and kept me in a state of nightmare throughout
+the live-long hours of slumber.
+
+There has been good reason in the past, however, for all these hostile
+demonstrations; for Temesvár has twice played a very important
+_rôle_ in Hungarian history. The town contains but few old
+buildings, having been nearly destroyed during the bombardment of 1849,
+when a thousand shells were sent into it, and nearly every house
+reduced to a heap of ruins. The greatest victory gained by the Imperial
+army over the Hungarians was fought here under General Haynau.
+
+The Palace, built in 1443 by John Hunyad, one of Hungary’s last kings,
+has been entirely restored, and is now used as a prison. At the present
+time Temesvár is one of the prettiest, cleanest, and brightest little
+towns in the whole of Hungary. The houses are new and lofty and have an
+Italian look, except beyond the gates where they are nearly all of one
+story.
+
+The now smiling and beautiful plains surrounding Temesvár were once a
+huge morass infested with fevers of the most pestilential description,
+the whole district of the Banát at the close of the last century--up
+to which time it was the frequent theatre of Moslem incursion--being
+scarcely better than an uncultivated swamp. After the final expulsion
+of the Turks, however, foreigners were summoned to people this
+“luxuriant wilderness,” and Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, Germans,
+and even French and Italians availed themselves of the invitation,
+till the rich alluvial prairie, hitherto unturned by the plough,
+was soon converted into a fertile garden. The soil yielded the most
+extraordinary crops, fortunes were speedily made, and some of the
+wealthiest Hungarian families of the present day are said to be the
+descendants of poor adventurers in the Banát.
+
+The climate of this region during the summer is all but tropical, and
+the rich, black, loamy soil capable of producing almost any crop.
+Besides Indian corn, tobacco, flax, hemp, and sunflowers--from which
+oil is made--rice also grows in the marshy districts. Nor is cotton
+missing, for in one district in the Banát we recognised the pretty
+serrated leaf, and white, fluffy balls of the useful plant.
+
+At Temesvár we took the train to our next destination, our lumbering
+old carriage coming with us on a truck.
+
+Leaving the old town we travelled through dense forests, and passed
+the castle where, as the Austrians say, Görgei capitulated, but where
+the Hungarians, on the contrary, declare that he turned traitor to his
+country.
+
+In the plains the wheat and rye are being cut, and how many sweet
+pictures we see! Whole families in brilliant costumes grouped round
+their _szekér_, or _Leiterwagen_, resting from their toil in
+the drowsy noontide, and some of them fast asleep. Presently we stop
+at a station close to a large and thickly populated village, inhabited
+exclusively by Bulgarian colonists. Their costume is not only distinct,
+but they retain their own language, and make themselves intelligible
+to the Hungarians by a smattering of Magyar. In a short time, arriving
+at Szaderlak, we find ourselves in a district peopled by a race who
+originally migrated from the Black Forest; almost every village we
+pass being denizened by a separate and distinct nationality, none
+of whom can understand the next. And now, leaving villages behind,
+we are again out on the rolling plains, with their immense herds of
+horses, cows, and swine. Although the various herds intermingle, they
+know their owners and their owners know them, and at the sound of the
+various horns at morn or eve, as at Fűred, they all “sort themselves”
+and run off helter-skelter to their own villages, which are sometimes
+many miles away. If the traveller make any sojourn on the Alfőld he
+will observe that every Sunday morning each peasant takes to his own
+particular quadrupeds a small quantity of salt and corn, and as soon as
+his form is seen approaching, when yet a mere speck in the distance,
+they race off to meet him, the pigs with loud and indignant squeak
+bringing up the rear.
+
+As we approach the river Marős the plains are almost under water, and
+there are signs of inundation everywhere. How one pities the peaceful
+dwellers in the vicinity of these ungovernable rivers! A little further
+and we come to the Marős itself, winding over its shallow bed, a clear
+stream reflecting the sunlit sky, with the curious old boats carrying
+merchandise seen here and there floating calmly on its still and glassy
+surface. But leaving the plains behind we soon enter a beautiful valley
+hemmed in by lofty hills, one of which is crowned with an ancient
+Burg, the first of those many “peasant-fortresses” which, during the
+troublous times of Turkish invasion, formed a line of fortifications
+extending throughout this eastern portion of Hungary.
+
+In four hours’ time we reach the plains again and come to the end of
+our journey. Arriving at the station, we see beyond its enclosure a
+white carriage and four white horses driven by a white man, waiting to
+take us across the green and boundless wastes to the home of András’s
+master, at which we are to stay some days. Casting our eyes round the
+whole circle of the horizon, however, we see no road whatever. Have we
+to cross these interminable plains hap-hazard, with nought but the sun
+to guide our wanderings? Nothing is visible but a long line of white
+cloud creeping along the ground. But leaving the station behind we soon
+enter the white cloud, and find that it covers a sandy track which
+itself forms the roadway, and before we have proceeded half a mile we
+feel we have swallowed a sand-bank, and, like the horses, the carriage,
+and the driver, become covered from head to foot with dust. There have
+been no inundations here at all events, for the ground is as parched as
+on the desert of Arabia, and instead of pitying the inhabitants of the
+district of the fertilising Marős, we almost envy them.
+
+The horses gallop the whole way, and our seven miles of road are
+happily soon covered. In rather less than forty minutes we see through
+our sand-bedimmed eyes a group of _robinias_ similarly powdered,
+and in their midst a large one-storied building. Passing through the
+open gates and a long sweeping carriage drive, we come to anchor at a
+broad flight of steps, where, seen through the dust that has followed
+us even here, stands a spectre in black, who, descending the steps in
+question with measured stately gait, welcomes the ghosts within the
+carriage and assists them to alight. And we soon hear the words, “My
+sweet servant,” followed by “My sweet master,” as the white form of
+András appears, who, stooping low, kisses with deepest reverence the
+black spectre’s hand.
+
+Other dark forms now appear, coming from the back premises, and there
+are loud acclamations at the sight of András, and a shower of “_per
+Kends_” (“your Graces”) falls broad-cast, as these polite people
+greet each other according to the approved mode of salutation amongst
+servants in Hungary.
+
+As usual the mansion consists of one story only, and covers a large
+area. There are no passages, and each room is approached through
+another. The living rooms form a cluster in the centre of the
+building, and are connected by lofty folding-doors, all of which being
+open, give an appearance of space and grandeur to the whole. Although
+of the very simplest order in architectural design, the mansion is
+luxuriously furnished, and seems strangely out of keeping with its
+surroundings. It is heated throughout by hot air, and none of the
+stoves, which form such an ugly feature in German houses, are visible.
+
+It is only above the roads that the cloud of dust I have alluded to
+hovers, and, our rooms looking out upon the Alfőld, we see before us a
+graceful landscape covered with vast stretches of Indian corn, the tall
+stems of which, already drooping with their ripening ears, are golden
+in the setting sun. Whilst dressing for dinner, which was at half-past
+seven, I watched from my window the great scarlet ball sink beneath
+the horizon, till the plains, drinking in the splendours of the sky,
+were as a crucible blending all the rainbow’s tints into one delicious
+harmony.
+
+We found a large family party assembled at dinner: the dowager, our
+host’s mother, a widowed sister and her son and daughter, besides the
+young wife--a beautiful woman and a true specimen of Magyar, possessing
+those graceful and winning manners which are such a charm in all
+Hungarian society.
+
+During dinner the conversation turned upon the Magyar language,
+and the obstacles to its acquisition which beset foreigners, the
+principal one arising from the fact that the prepositions and
+possessive pronouns instead of preceding are made to follow the
+noun, and become affixes to it. From this cause a whole sentence of
+six or seven words is sometimes capable of being expressed in one
+only; our hostess naïvely instancing two combinations illustrative
+of the lengths to which this peculiarity of the language may be
+carried, namely,--“_Hamegkőpenyegesittelennittehhetnélek_,”
+a word signifying “If I could deprive you of your clothes!” and
+another--“_Legellenallhatlanabbaknak-bizonyultak_”--meaning “They
+have proved themselves the most irresistible;” and, as she did so,
+she uttered these to us unpronounceable syllables with so sweet an
+intonation that they made us in love with the language.
+
+To render the above peculiarity, so aggravating to foreigners,
+intelligible to the reader, I will give one or two examples explanatory
+of the construction of the language in this respect. And first,
+when András addresses, in the words “my sweet master” and “my sweet
+mistress”--“_édes uram_” and “_édes asszonyom_”--the substantive
+nouns are _úr_ and _asszony_, the final syllables, _am_, _om_, being
+merely the possessive affixes. Again, _anyá_ (mother) becomes, with
+the possessive pronoun _my_ affixed to it, _anyám_; whilst to instance
+an example in which both pronoun and preposition are used, we will
+take the word _haz_ (a house). _Haz-am_ (my house), followed by the
+preposition _ba_ (_in_, which is affixed to the pronoun), becomes
+_hazamba_ (in my house).
+
+The construction of verbs too in Magyar differs so widely from that of
+any other European language that a perfect knowledge of it is extremely
+difficult to the foreigner, who seldom acquires it perfectly. The
+structure of the language in some measure resembles Turkish, Magyar,
+and Finnish, being connected with those of Mongolia and Turkestan just
+as English is with Persian and Sanscrit. The Magyar language is said
+to have undergone no changes whatever; that spoken by the Hungarians
+of to-day being identical with that of the Magyars on their conquest
+of the country. A great many Turkish, Slavonian, as well as Greek,
+Italian, and German words have crept in; but all those essential to
+express common wants are the same as in the language of the Fins at the
+present time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The drawing-room was full of English books, some of which were
+translated into the Magyar language. Hungarian literature is not as
+yet in a very advanced stage, neither, as a rule, are the Hungarians a
+very reading people. They have their own novelists, but greatly prefer
+English authors. They do not, however, care for the “sensational,”
+preferring the sentimental and romantic.
+
+In their cheap journalistic literature the kind of pabulum known as
+“penny dreadful” does not exist. The Hungarians of the lower class do
+not care to take their “horrors hot;” and such things as delight an
+Englishman of the same calibre fall flat upon the mental palate of a
+Hungarian.
+
+There is nothing half so charming as a visit to a Magyar family. There
+is a well-bred ease and cordiality of manner about the Hungarians, that
+make the guest feel perfectly at home immediately he enters the house.
+There is no _géne_, and the visitor becomes instantly as one of
+the family circle.
+
+The following morning, whilst the lord of the domain was closeted with
+his _Ispán_ (steward), we walked to some of the tenants’ cottages,
+accompanied by his wife. Although we went into six, I do not think we
+saw as many children. The Magyars seldom have large families; and so
+often are they childless that it is a common thing for them to adopt
+the child of a wandering Slovak, and bring him up as their own. There
+is also a great mortality amongst children on the Alfőld, the chief
+reason assigned being the earthen floors; their aged also being said to
+suffer intensely from rheumatism, from the same cause.
+
+Surrounding these dwellings was a small garden fenced in with the dried
+stalks of Indian corn, and nothing could have looked more comfortable
+than the interior of each one, which bespoke the existence of rude
+plenty. Yet the inhabitants were but the cultivators of the soil,
+synonymous with our English labourers. On our return we passed through
+the farm-buildings, and were shown the stud, consisting of about twenty
+horses. In the adjoining coach-house were carriages of all descriptions
+and of the most primitive design; whilst in the centre stood one the
+precise nature of which it was not easy to define.
+
+“That,” remarked our host, who had now joined us (pointing in the
+direction of the nondescript vehicle in question), “is the family
+pedigree.” And its history, narrated by himself, showed how appropriate
+was its title. It had in fact begun its career by being a modest
+species of _britzska_, but ended in becoming a house on wheels, a
+veritable genealogical tree.
+
+Our host, unlike his Magyar tenantry, was blessed with a “quiverful,”
+having eight children, the eldest of whom numbered little more than
+as many years, all having arrived with the greatest punctuality like
+daisies and buttercups in May. When the third “hardy annual” was old
+enough to take his daily exercise with his parents, the _britzska_
+was converted into a _barouche_. On the death of our host’s
+father, at which epoch the dowager took up her abode in the country
+château of her son, an excrescence was added to the back in the form
+of a “rumble,” to which the “hardy annuals” were transferred in her
+favour; and when the sixth arrived, our pater-familias resorted to the
+ingenious expedient of having the carriage closed in after the manner
+of a _landau_, and the hood elevated to the top after the fashion
+of a _banquette_ on the summit of a _diligence_. At last
+twins came; upon which happy occurrence two small seats were attached
+to the inside of the doors, which were ingeniously contrived to let up
+and down like a bracket.
+
+“In this carriage,” he remarked triumphantly, when he had finished its
+history, his whole countenance beaming with benevolence and paternal
+pride, “we all travel together to Pest, where we have our winter
+residence.”
+
+One can picture to one’s self the start. The host and hostess, the
+dowager--our host’s mother--his sister, the eight small blessings, the
+governess, the lady’s maid, the footman, the postilion, the six horses
+and the dowager’s lap-dog; in all a Noah’s Ark of twenty-three bipeds
+and quadrupeds!
+
+In the early evening our host took us for a long drive across his
+estate, and as our way was fortunately not confined to the sandy wastes
+we traversed yesterday, we were not smothered with dust as on our
+way from the station. Never can I forget that drive, or the railway
+speed at which we skimmed over the level surface of the _puszta_.
+Railway speed! It is nothing to it--not that of Hungarian railways,
+at any rate. We absolutely flew on the wings of the wind. The pace at
+which a good team of Hungarian horses go is the most madly exciting
+thing possible to conceive.
+
+The domain of our host covered a large area of _puszta_; but it
+was small, he assured us, compared with many, which often cover from
+thirty to forty square miles; whilst formerly there were instances in
+which some were even seven and eight hundred miles in extent. It is
+difficult for us, who live in our “tight little island,” to comprehend
+the existence of such vast estates belonging to one individual. Yet
+they were managed with great exactness under stewards, the labourers
+and their families sometimes consisting of an army of from a thousand
+to fifteen hundred souls. The word _puszta_, now so commonly and
+incorrectly applied to the great plains, originated in these estates;
+a nobleman’s property, which was farmed by his own labourers--that
+is to say, where there were no peasants, and consequently no forced
+labour--having been called a _puszta_. The revenues are often as
+enormous as the domains themselves; and the flocks that graze the land
+not under cultivation numbering hundreds of thousands, remind one of
+patriarchal times; whilst the ingatherings of wheat, rye, rape, and
+other cereals grown on the estate each amount to hundreds of thousands
+of bushels annually.
+
+Having dined before starting, the usual dinner hour in Hungary being
+two o’clock, we were enabled to prolong our drive, and did not return
+until a late hour in the evening.
+
+“They are dancing the _csárdás_,” exclaimed our host, as we
+approached a number of labourers’ dwellings and saw the red petticoats
+spinning round and round. “Would you like to see it? They dance it
+every evening; but this is evidently one got up for a particular
+occasion, for the girls are in full fig, and I hear the clash of spurs
+as the Magyar dandies knock their heels together to keep time to the
+scraping of the gipsies’ fiddles.”
+
+It was a pretty scene: the rapid movements of the dancers in their
+gay costumes, the picturesque background of low sheds covered with
+the large round leaves of the melon, its tendrils hanging in graceful
+festoons, and its golden fruit resting on the thatch. We might have
+been witnessing a Spanish saraband.
+
+The Hungarians dance for their very lives. To them the practice of the
+Terpsichorean art is no mere languid and graceful undulation of the
+figure, but a perfect wild _abandon_ of mirth; and they whirl, and
+spin, and gyrate with the velocity of dervishes, until their long black
+locks stand out straight, and their faces are ablaze with heat and
+excitement.
+
+Watch them as they perform the _csárdás_--their national dance--to
+the strange wild harmony of the _Czigánok_! Watch them as they
+balance themselves backwards and forwards whilst adapting their subtle
+movements to the measure of its animating strains!
+
+The _csárdás_ is essentially pantomimic, and describes by mute
+action the unquiet “course of true love.” The music is at first slow,
+and the couples walk up and down the room together in a stately manner;
+then, affecting to have made each other’s acquaintance, and fallen
+victims to the tender passion, the music grows more lively, and the
+“courtship” begins in earnest.
+
+The lover advances towards his _innamorata_, she coyly responds
+and they spin round together for a few seconds, when, as if thinking
+she has given him too much encouragement, the maiden retires pouting,
+whereupon he again approaches, but this time she turns her back upon
+him and dances off in a contrary direction. Following her, however,
+he overtakes and seizes her round the waist, and away they go again
+whirling deliriously, until she manages to extricate herself from his
+grasp. Shy and friendly by turns, now encouraging her partner, and now
+retreating with offended dignity, the lover at length becomes chagrined
+at her caprices turns his back upon her, and they dance _dos à
+dos_ for a while with indignant gestures, till the maid with signs
+of repentance seeks reconciliation. The music grows faster and faster,
+the lovers, in the ecstasy of reunion, whirl and twirl madly, nor do
+they stop until both are quite giddy and out of breath, when, retiring
+from the scene, another couple takes their place, and the performance
+begins again.
+
+The _csárdás_, of course, varies slightly in each instance,
+according to the locality and the spirit of the dancers, but the
+subject remains the same--love, courtship, jealousy, disappointment,
+reunion, and happiness “ever after.” Sometimes, in the closing scene,
+it winds up by the lover throwing himself on his knees before his
+mistress, whilst she dances round him in token of her complete triumph.
+Several couples are always occupied at the same time in this dance, in
+one phase or other of the would-be courtship; whilst the men’s hats,
+decorated with fresh flowers, the women got up in the most coquettish
+and picturesque costumes imaginable, the stamping of feet, clashing of
+spurs, and wildly exciting strains of the gipsies, as they saw away
+madly at their violins, all combine in rendering the _csárdás_
+a most interesting and animating spectacle. Nor is it danced only by
+the peasants: it is seen in the ball-rooms of the nobles even at the
+capital, where a gipsy-band is always summoned to accompany it.
+
+The most interesting place in which to witness it is the harvest-field,
+where, laying down their sickles, half-a-dozen of them will often stand
+up, as if seized by some irresistible impulse, and begin dancing all
+amongst the sheaves of corn.
+
+Besides the national _csárdás_, however, there is one called
+the _Loshau csárdás_, a very slow dance, but it is by no means
+a favourite with the Magyars, who, so calm and phlegmatic in their
+ordinary moments, are wont during recreation to give themselves up to
+the wildest excitement. A third is often seen in the east of Hungary,
+where a number of men, linking arms, form a ring and dance together,
+accompanying their gyrations with clapping of hands, shouts, and
+stamping of feet, whilst the fair ones remain outside the magic circle,
+till an intrepid Adonis, breaking from his companions, seizes one of
+them round the waist and waltzes with her for awhile, after which he
+returns to the ring, and another repeats the ceremony.
+
+But whatever be the form which the Hungarian dance assumes, its
+constant theme is love, just as patriotism and the joys of home are the
+chief subjects of their song.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+                             GROSSWARDEIN.
+
+
+It is nightfall at Grosswardein and the fires of sunset have faded
+into cold grey ashes. All along the river Kőrős the stealthy vapours,
+following its leaden course, are slowly rising. Shadows deepen on the
+plains. The gilded steeples no longer glisten in the evening light, but
+stand out black and sullen, like huge sentinels, against the pale green
+sky. Everything in nature is sad and gloomy. Within the town, however,
+“high carnival” is nightly kept.
+
+The Magyars, as we have seen, possess a tinge of melancholy even
+in their most joyous moments. This, however, cannot be said of the
+Wallachs. There surely never was such a gay and pleasure-loving people;
+whilst in their love of dancing they far exceed even the Magyars
+themselves.
+
+Hark to the sound of music! the rhythmic beat accompanied by the rapid
+and hollow throb of steps. Let us follow its inviting strains, away
+through the broad streets to the great square.
+
+Not only here, however, is there music and dancing, but in many of
+the one-storied houses also. In the cafés too the _Czigánok_ are
+fiddling away for dear life. Inside, persons, sitting before small
+tables, sip their coffee and smoke like chimneys. They applaud and sip
+and smoke, and then smoke and sip and applaud again; whilst the streets
+are crowded with promenaders and cheerful with the laugh of girls.
+
+Here and there, like moths amongst the butterflies, may be seen a group
+of middle-aged Wallachs or grave Magyars talking earnestly together,
+whispering of political complications between Russia and England, the
+result of the “Danube Commission,” or the rising of the bed of the
+river Theiss. The beauty of the Wallachs is the same as when last
+we were here four years ago: the delicate and refined features, the
+pouting lips, the broad, low forehead, the lithe figures of the women,
+and the deeply sunken eyes, long hair, and aquiline noses of the male
+descendants of the Dacians, all are the same; but the ancient costumes
+of the people and their characteristic traits are fast departing under
+the facilities which, in these modern days, are afforded for travel.
+The railways, extending their iron arms into the very centre of
+Transylvania, are gradually weaving this former _terra incognita_
+into the duller web of Western civilisation, and the beautiful and
+graceful costumes, which so delighted us once, are day by day becoming
+absorbed and replaced by those Gallic abominations invented to conceal
+and render hideous the human form.
+
+That monstrous article of female attire, the crinoline, which until
+recently was exploded by the fair sex of Western Europe, has been
+adopted by their Eastern sisters, and we recognise it not only
+beneath the skirts of the gaily dressed Jewess as her long train
+sweeps the streets, but under those of the Wallach lady also; whilst
+one peasant girl--though still dressed in her graceful, homespun
+garments--emulating her superiors--had her narrow but classical
+_katrincza_ distended to the condition of a sausage by the
+adoption of this hideous contrivance. We saw, I am thankful to say,
+only one who had thus travestied the lovely and pictorial costume
+of her race, but it was sufficient to demonstrate the silent march
+of--in this case misnamed--“civilisation,” which threatens ere long to
+obliterate all the distinctive external characteristics of nations and
+render every country alike.
+
+Off the beaten track the Wallachs still retain the customs of their
+ancestors both in dress and manner of living, and after our visit
+to this place is ended we shall be travelling in the interior of
+Transylvania--of which Grosswardein is the frontier--where we shall
+see the Wallachs in all their delightful simplicity. It is here that
+the traveller is first introduced to this people in their own home, of
+whom, concentrated in the eastern portion of Hungary, there are almost
+two millions and a half. The Wallachs of Transylvania, however, must
+not be confounded with the dwellers in the Wallachian or Roumanian
+Principality, although they are off-shoots of the same race, having
+been in olden times the overflow of the inhabitants occupying that
+province. Both races now form a distinct people, although they are
+alike descendants of the ancient Dacians, originally a Thracian people
+subjugated by Trajan in his conquests already alluded to in the
+chapters on the Lower Danube.
+
+The term Wallach is said to be a German version of the appellations
+“_Welsh_,” “_Welsch_,” “_Wallon_,” etc., given by the Teutonic
+conquerors to the provincials or subjects of the Roman Empire, whether
+in Britain, Italy, or Gaul; _Welsh_ being the word still used by
+the Germans in the present day to denote strangers or foreigners of
+whatever nation.
+
+Naturally preferring to trace their origin to the conquering, rather
+than to a vanquished people, the Wallachs affect to be the descendants
+of the Roman colonists introduced by Trajan after his subjugation of
+the province, and call themselves, though incorrectly, _Roumans_,
+or _Rummanyi_, and their country Roumania.
+
+The language spoken by the Wallachs, which greatly resembles in its
+pronunciation the Italian of to-day, is soft, rich, and melodious,
+and composed chiefly of Latin, with a considerable admixture of Slav,
+Turkish, and Greek words. That there should be such a marked Latin
+element in their language is certainly a singular fact, seeing that the
+dominion of the Romans over the Dacians extended for a period of 170
+years only; a circumstance tending to foster the idea that the Wallachs
+_have_ some grounds for their pride of ancestry. There are,
+however, peculiarities about their language which prove that the origin
+of this people is more Dacian than Roman.
+
+A considerable Roman element was doubtless infused into the primitive
+inhabitants of Dacia by inter-marriage with the numerous Roman subjects
+who remained behind after the Emperor Aurelian relinquished Dacia in
+the middle of the third century, and this would account in a great
+measure for the resemblance between the Wallachian and Latin languages.
+Until the time of Alexander, the Dacians scarcely figured in history,
+and their original language is consequently not accurately determined.
+It is, however, believed to have been Slávic, not only from the number
+of Sláv words mingled with their corrupt Latin, but also from the
+number of Slavonic names given to the rivers and mountains of Wallachia
+and Transylvania.
+
+In the fifth century the Wallachs peopled Thessaly, whilst the Thracian
+dialect of that period is said to have borne a strong resemblance
+to the Neo-Latin spoken alike by the Wallach tribes of the Pindus
+Mountains--the remnants of the former inhabitants of Thrace--and by the
+so-called Roumanian people at present occupying the province of ancient
+Dacia.
+
+So much does their pronunciation resemble Italian that we experienced
+no difficulty in understanding, or even conversing with them,
+particularly after having ascertained that they place the definite
+article at the end of their nouns, joining in fact both noun and
+article together. This singular construction is also found in the
+Bulgarian language, but, strange to say, in no other Slavonic dialect
+whatever, from which circumstance it is supposed that both the
+Bulgarians and Wallachians--whose countries join each other--must
+have derived this peculiarity from the same source, viz., from their
+north-eastern neighbours, the Dacians, whose language is believed to
+have been neither Neo-latin nor strictly Slavonic.
+
+In ancient time the province of Dacia comprised a district of 1300
+miles in circumference, and was bounded on the north by the Niester, on
+the west by the Theiss or Tibiscus, and on the south and east by the
+Lower Danube and Black Sea; comprising not only the mountainous country
+of the Eastern Carpathians, but Bukovina and the district of Banát. The
+population of Moldavia and Bessarabia is likewise almost exclusively of
+Dacian origin.
+
+On Trajan’s Column in Rome is sculptured the history of this first
+campaign of the young and ambitious Emperor, and the forms, cast of
+features, and dress of the Dacians, as there minutely represented,
+correspond, strange as it may seem after the lapse of sixteen
+centuries, in almost every particular with those of the Wallachs of the
+present day.
+
+Grosswardein, or Nagy-varád, as it is called in Hungarian, is a
+fortified town of Bihar, the largest county in Hungary. It contains
+36,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Wallachs, and is, in spite
+of its gaiety, one of the most ecclesiastical places in Hungary, full
+of churches and convents. At present there are thirty of the former,
+whilst at one period it boasted of no fewer than seventy. It is also
+the see, alike of a Catholic bishop and one of the Greek rite. The
+suburbs of the town are very pretty, each house being surrounded by a
+garden and orchard, and shut in behind high walls.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Like Temesvár, the town of Grosswardein is exceedingly pretty with
+long streets and numerous marketplaces. From the bridge which crosses
+the Kőrős, a good view is obtained of the town with its glittering
+steeples of black and gold, together with that of the new Catholic
+Church which, standing by the dome of the Jewish Synagogue, looks like
+a huge coronet of gems. On the river long rafts of pine logs from the
+Transylvanian forests are leisurely floating down stream, whilst women
+with skirts tucked up wade in the water and wash their linen, thumping
+away at it with a big stone, and with a vigour and perseverance as if
+every blow were aimed at a Turk’s or Austrian’s head.
+
+We were walking through one of the suburbs of the town when we heard
+the distant sounds of bitter wailing, and a little crowd of people soon
+approached, in the centre of which was an old Wallach woman who, with
+tears rolling down her shrivelled cheeks, was evidently telling her
+wrongs to the group of sympathisers following in her wake. On inquiring
+the cause of this unusual manifestation of grief, she clasped her hands
+and giving vent to renewed wailings cried,
+
+“Only a Jew, gentle lady, only for killing a Jew.”
+
+The meaning of which unintelligible sentence the bystanders--who
+appeared to take no small interest in the case--explained by informing
+us that her husband had in a street quarrel accidentally killed one of
+those despised children of Israel, and that the Judge, having taken
+a somewhat different view from herself of the value of human life as
+exhibited in that particular type of humanity, had just sentenced him
+to condign punishment the extent of which however did not transpire.
+
+As in all other towns in Hungary, Grosswardein is pervaded by the usual
+Hebrew element, and although Jews are no longer taxed as being such,
+but are permitted to enjoy all the rights and privileges common to the
+Gentile, they often find it difficult to hold their own even here
+against the antipathy so universally entertained against them.
+
+All is bright and clean in this prettiest of towns save in the
+Hebraic quarter, which is full of marine stores where every kind of
+_bric-à-brac_ is to be met with, even crucifixes, in dark dens
+which one would fear to enter. The Jew is the same here as elsewhere,
+the same miserable-looking, down-trodden outcast he has continued to
+be ever since Pompey the Great entered the Holy City and struck the
+first blow at the Israelitish nation. How, even to the letter, has the
+prophetic curse been fulfilled in this once “chosen people”!
+
+The _spécialité_ of the Hungarian Jew in this quarter, as in all
+others devoted entirely to the class, is “ole clo,” and inside their
+hovels are found not only dirt and muddle, but pictorial rags, whilst
+over the doorways are seen such names as the following, Löwenstein
+Jukab, Kohn Mozesne, Fűred Jőzsef, and Szép Ábrahám, and on the walls
+sentences are written in Hebrew characters.
+
+The type of Hebrew physiognomy is more marked here than in other
+parts of Hungary, a consequence possibly of there having been less
+inter-marriage with the Christian community than elsewhere. Wherever
+we look we observe the long aquiline nose curving into the moustache,
+which only partially conceals the protruding lips. Now and then a fair
+young Miriam may be seen crossing the road and picking up a dirty
+little Moses who is wallowing in the mud; neither are Hagars and
+Ishmaels wanting, nor old Sarahs, fat, ugly, and repulsive-looking in
+their grease-begrimed garments.
+
+Turning now to the Christian quarter, we see how the Gentiles flourish
+like a green bay-tree. Yonder stands the princely palace of the Roman
+Catholic bishop, whose income is 300,000 gulden, or £25,000 a year,
+whilst that of his Lordship of Erlan in the East of Hungary is twice
+that amount, and that of the Prince Primate £60,000, the revenues being
+derived in each case from landed estates. Surrounding the palace are
+beautiful gardens laid out in broad straight walks and long avenues of
+chestnuts, under the shade of which at eventide the Dom Herren may be
+seen sauntering in the cool still air. Near the palace are the houses
+of the residentiary canons, and opposite, the grand church built by
+Maria Theresa, a building so vast in its proportions that, as the doors
+are thrown open to admit us and we stand beneath its lofty roof, rising
+one hundred and twenty feet above, we almost lose our breath.
+
+The church although built in the Doric style is cruciform, and its roof
+a succession of arches culminating in an immense central dome; the
+whole a gorgeous blaze of splendid colour, very rich and harmonious,
+but not adapted to inspire devotion. The Hungarian disposition is not
+suited to the “dim religious.” They are a people who dislike mysticism
+of every sort, and with a very few exceptions their churches, garish
+and sensuous, are better fitted for the gorgeous worship of some
+heathen goddess or their Pagan _Magyarok Isten_ (ancient Magyar
+deity) than for the pure and simple worship of Christians.
+
+As we returned to our hotel, the sun just setting was gilding with
+impartial glory alike the temples of the Christian and the Jew.
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+                   GOOD FRIDAY IN THE GREEK CHURCH.
+
+
+A few miles from Grosswardein lies a valley, where, surrounded by
+undulating tertiary hills, is a mineral spring; and thither, a few days
+after our arrival, we made an excursion. Our way leads us through the
+market, where are milk-white oxen by the score, and hundreds of black
+swine with long noses and high backs, surrounded by swarms of piglings,
+the funniest little creatures imaginable, each with its back arched
+like a cat, and its tiny white legs and little black hoofs looking like
+shoes and stockings. In the centre of the square women are selling
+_tisch-wein_ and hot soup thickened with macaroni, and wherever
+one turns there are gipsies selling baskets and wooden utensils.
+
+Forcing our way through the vegetable baskets and the oxen and the
+pigs, we reach a broad road in which singular conveyances are jogging
+along. More strange by far than any we have yet seen in Hungary are the
+vehicles met with here, which, though apparently belonging to a class
+far above the ordinary peasant, are so different from any found in the
+rest of Europe, that we might have arrived at an altogether new world.
+Under the cool shadows of the _robinias_, which grow luxuriantly
+in the Alfőld--a tree in England erroneously called _acacia_, but
+which is the “locust tree” (_Robinia pseudacacie_) of the United
+States, so strongly advocated for English cultivation by Cobbet--the
+women stand and gossip, whilst resting their heavy burdens on the
+ground.
+
+By the wayside are characteristic studies. A woman is making bricks,
+whilst standing beside her, smoking and languidly watching her
+movements, is her lord and master; for the male Wallach is a creature
+who loves to take life easily. A little farther on, and we see another
+woman hoeing away at the hard, sun-baked ground of her cottage garden,
+as her inferior half, sitting the while on the doorstep, nurses the
+baby.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+In this country it would seem that “women must” not only “weep,” but
+women must also work; whilst, by an inversion of the order of things,
+the men remain idle. But we are nearing our destination where there is
+a bathing establishment, for yonder is a broad still pool formed by the
+hot spring, in which, surrounded by clouds of vapour, washer-women are
+wading waist deep, as they hammer away at the visitors’ clothes.
+
+It was a pretty sight that at length greeted our arrival at the Bathing
+Establishment, and one that reminded us of _Fêtes Champêtres_ in
+olden times. It is situated in the centre of large grounds, where,
+standing or sitting, were some two hundred people, with here and there
+knots of young men and maidens dancing to the inspiriting strains
+of a gipsy band. Beyond a number of chestnut trees, rises a densely
+forest-clad hill which birds make merry all day with song, and where
+numerous nightingales trill. There are so few woods in the Alfőld that
+where they exist birds congregate in great numbers.
+
+The hotel contains eighty rooms, and the people we here see disporting
+themselves so gaily, and who appear so completely the reverse of
+invalid, are but the ordinary visitors to the Baths. The Hungarians,
+like the Romans, are a bath-loving people, and resort during the hot
+summer season to places of this kind, just as we do in England to the
+sea-side.
+
+The source of the hot spring lies at the bottom of a crater-like basin,
+from which the water comes bubbling to the surface as from a volcano,
+bringing with it a quantity of small shells of two kinds containing
+living creatures. Looking down into the water, which is clear as
+crystal, we see them not only being tossed up to the surface, but lying
+at the bottom of the crater, as well as round its sides.
+
+The water here forms another broad pool, the surface of which is
+covered in many places with the lotus (_Nymphæa thermalis_)
+brought from the Nile and kept alive during the winter by the high
+temperature of the water. It begins to blossom in the beginning of
+April, and was in perfection at the time of our visit.
+
+  [Illustration: ALL AMONG THE SHEAVES.]
+
+Besides the private baths attached to the hotel, there are large public
+ones also outside the grounds for the poorer classes, thousands of whom
+flock here during the season, and parboil themselves simply for the
+love of it. The charge for the use of these public baths is at the rate
+of thirty kreuzers (tenpence) for every twenty-four hours, so that the
+people who resort to them may be said at all events to have plenty for
+their money. They come hither from great distances. Slávs from Csaba,
+more than fifty miles away, and others from places equally remote, and
+simply divesting themselves of their top boots and fur jackets, plunge
+into the steaming tide, the men in their long-fringed _gatyák_,
+full white sleeves, and embroidered waistcoats, and the women in their
+gay bodices and coloured skirts. It is in fact an aquatic pic-nic,
+for they bring their provisions with them, and take their meals in
+the water, occasionally even dancing the _csárdás_, whilst some
+of the bathers, who possess a musical turn, sit on the edge of the
+bath with their feet and legs dangling in the water, and play their
+primitive instruments or keep time with the dance by clapping their
+hands, amidst the ringing and bewildering shouts of the dancers. They
+generally remain in the bath eighteen hours out of the twenty-four,
+and as our cicerone informed us, all for an “_ausflug_” (outing).
+Every now and then as they become faint and weak from the effects of
+the seething, they have recourse to the outer atmosphere for a while,
+where, lying down on the ground, wrapped in their bundas, they remain
+until the cool air has revived them, when they return and again join in
+the aquatic festivities.
+
+Among the new arrivals we noticed two tall, fine-looking men wearing
+splendid lamb’s wool cloaks, embroidered at the edges in gay colours,
+and others in curious blanket-cloaks like those worn by the Arabs.
+
+It was late in the evening, and dark shadows were gathering over the
+plains when, leaving this singular locality behind, we directed our
+course homewards. From the cottages along the road now and then came
+the sound of the nervous little _telinka_, embroidering with
+fitful and fanciful variations, the hoarse snore of the bag-pipes as
+they droned out their wild, weird music to the night; whilst from a
+distance reached us the rich, deep throb of the cymbals. In many of
+the houses there is dancing and revelry, and accustomed as we are to
+the quiet and sullen habits of our own peasantry, we regard these
+pleasure-loving people with astonishment.
+
+The Wallachs, like the Slovaks, belong chiefly to the Greek rite, of
+which there are two separate bodies, the non-united or “Oriental Greek
+Church,” which acknowledges the Patriarch of Constantinople as its
+head, and the “United Greek,” which recognises the supremacy of the
+Pope of Rome.
+
+The recurrence of a high festival affords us an opportunity during the
+time we are here of witnessing one of the gorgeous services of the
+Greek Church, the splendid vestments and the imposing, and to us novel,
+ritual filling us with a new delight. The music was heavenly, the grand
+old Ambrosial chants, begun by a long-robed priest whose beard extended
+far below his chest, being taken up by the fresh young voices of the
+choir, which, welling upwards in a flood of melody, echoed through the
+vaulted roof.
+
+It is impossible to give any adequate idea of the imposing ritual of
+the Greek Church to those who have not witnessed it, or of the apparent
+devotion and ecstatic adoration of the people as they prostrate
+themselves until their faces touch the marble floor, whilst the singing
+of the unseen choir seems to be that of a company of angels come down
+to earth to join in the Christian worship.
+
+It was this music, the most beautiful and touching in the whole world,
+that melted the stern, cold heart of the Russian prince of old--the
+Great Vladimir himself--causing him to give up his Pagan gods, and was
+the indirect origin of the Greek rite becoming the national church of
+the northern branch of the Slavonian family.
+
+Our visits to Grosswardein have been well-timed. On our last visit we
+happened to be here in the latter end of April and beginning of May,
+and were able to witness another, but a very different, ceremonial of
+these Eastern churches.
+
+It was Good Friday. This day of penitence and fasting falls nearly a
+month later in the Greek calendar than in our own, and high up in the
+open towers of both the “United Greek” and “Oriental Greek” churches,
+instead of the sweet chiming of bells, men were busy with wooden
+clappers producing such unearthly sounds, as they kept hammering
+against a beam to call the faithful to worship, that, until undeceived
+by a friendly passer-by, we were under the full impression that giants
+with wooden legs were disporting themselves amongst the clock-work.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Inside the “Oriental Greek” churches the banners, together with the
+tables on which the sacred relics reposed, were draped with black.
+Tall tapers burned at sombre shrines erected for the occasion in
+the centre of the nave, and which were approached by a pathway of
+trees and flowers growing in large tubs--oleanders, geraniums, roses,
+lilies, and a variety of other plants, too numerous to mention, but
+all out of keeping to our thinking, for it was anything but a pathway
+of flowers which _He_ trod, whose sufferings and death the people
+were commemorating. At the end of the long pathway was a canopy draped
+in violet, beneath which, on an altar, rested a silver crucifix
+and relics, and above a life-size figure of the Saviour hanging on
+the cross. Towards this men and women, both young and old, pressed
+reverently, and approaching the table on tiptoe lingered before it with
+sad faces and sometimes weeping eyes; they kissed the crucifix and
+relics, and dropped a coin into a bowl, and then stood and gazed again,
+as if reluctant to turn away; and when they did it was with steps soft
+and slow. Notwithstanding the immense crowd--for the great nave was as
+full as it could cram, there was perfect stillness and a hush almost
+supernatural, and our hearts were moved by the strong faith and love
+which the people evinced in and for the Holy Hero of the day, as they
+crossed themselves, and gently and sadly turned away to make room for
+other worshippers.
+
+There was no sermon here to-day, for their bishop was dead; but
+crossing the market-place, where men and women were sitting enveloped
+in black sheepskin cloaks and jackets, we entered the cathedral of the
+“United” Greek Church, where one was being preached, and where the
+people were standing and listening attentively to the “old, old Story.”
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I have travelled in many lands, but it is in Hungary alone that I have
+observed such intense devotion of the people. To them the religion they
+profess is no mere shadow, but a deep, great, and abiding reality. It
+is, however, principally amongst the Greek Catholics of both rites
+that this earnestness in devotion is seen. Although the Greek Church
+is in mourning and its devotees are fasting, it is the vigil of a high
+festival day in the Roman Catholic.
+
+To-morrow is the first day of May, a month of rejoicing, so the
+churches are decorated with flowers, whilst in the streets young girls
+are carrying offerings to lay at the Virgin’s shrine. Following them
+we enter the church of the San Franciscan Friars, a gorgeous edifice
+all tinsel and gold, with life-size, gaudily-painted figures of the
+twelve Apostles, the Virgin, and the Holy Women, all so natural that
+they seem endowed with sound and motion. Round the ledge of the pulpit
+are smaller ones in almost every attitude, some of which are poised
+on one leg, whilst others are hanging to the cornice, all of them so
+marvellously life-like that as we look at them we tremble lest they
+should break their little necks by toppling over on to the floor of the
+nave below. On the sounding-board there is another crowd of puppets,
+no less bewildering to the devout mind; but near the north entrance
+hangs a figure of our Saviour upon the cross, the blue lips, the livid
+face, and the expression of agony all so wonderfully depicted as to be
+painful to look at.
+
+As we left the church the bells were chiming and the people flocking to
+the “Benediction;” whilst in another part of the town devout Jews were
+hastening to their synagogue, for it was the beginning of their Sabbath.
+
+Not far from the hospital of “St. John of God” a funeral passed us.
+First came a small boy in a white surplice and black cassock bearing
+aloft a gilt cross veiled in white muslin, accompanied by other small
+boys; after whom came the priest, followed by several men in the
+ancient costume of the Magyars, in light blue embroidered _mentes_
+and caps of the same colour adorned with white feathers, the last of
+whom carried on a large white satin cushion a chaplet of flowers. Then
+came the bier, painted in blue and silver, and drawn by white horses
+draped in light blue cloth. Resting on the coffin, which was in the
+shape of a sarcophagus and looked as though it was made of silver,
+there lay at either end a beautiful wreath of flowers, the whole being
+covered with a white lace pall. Carriages followed, in which were
+ladies, but none of them were in mourning.
+
+Meeting a gentleman we asked him whose funeral it was.
+
+“Only that of some citizen,” he replied, and without doing more than
+turn his head, went on his way.
+
+I never saw such a place as Grosswardein for clocks: almost every
+church steeple possesses four dials; but none of them agree as to the
+time, all maintaining a particular one of their own, and none of them
+being right!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+May Day has come. We were awakened at five o’clock by the strains of a
+military band which according to ancient custom ushers in this golden
+morning by playing in front of the Palace of the Catholic Bishop,
+situated not very far from our own sylvan retreat. Everything wears
+a joyous appearance, even the trains, which are decked with robinia
+boughs, and full of holiday-makers on their way to a village a few
+miles from Grosswardein.
+
+In the evening the _cafés_ are full to overflowing, and the
+gipsies playing in one of them such an exquisite melody as we pass
+that, after listening outside, we enter softly and take our seat.
+
+Like nearly all in Hungary the _café_ in question was kept by a
+Jew; whose young and handsome wife sat beside us. So soon as she had
+ascertained that we were foreigners she sent for her four children and
+made them dance the _csárdás_ to the music of the gipsies, who
+immediately began a lively air. The children were between the ages of
+four and nine, and it was the prettiest and most amusing sight possible
+to see the little creatures now advancing, now retiring coyly, then
+pouting with offended dignity as, pretending to make love, they went
+through all the phases of the dance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+But to return after this digression to the period included in our
+present visit to Hungary. We get on “swimmingly” in our modest little
+quarters, and enjoying the quiet and repose which they temporarily
+afford us, regard them as an oasis in our travels--a brief rest in
+which to review our past experiences and make plans for the future. All
+is tranquillity until the fourth day of our residence in our little
+Wallach’s rustic dwelling, when her husband, who had been absent on
+our arrival, returned. He was much older than his “better-half,” and,
+were it not that the Wallachs never intermarry with the Jews, one would
+unquestionably have said from his general appearance that he belonged
+to the family of Israel.
+
+From that moment our peace of mind grew less and less. It was quite
+astonishing the quantity of wine we managed to get through. Our tea
+also dwindled most unaccountably. I ventured to hint this to the little
+woman one morning, upon which, throwing her skirt over her head and
+bursting into tears, she exclaimed in broken accents, “_Es war immer
+so-o-o!_” and her sobs were quite overpowering.
+
+What could we do but beg her to think no more about it? assuring her
+that it must be the cat, or the rats, or the mice, all of which are
+well known to have a weakness for such beverages. How could we bear
+to see her sweet face distorted by weeping? and peace was once more
+restored.
+
+At length, our sojourn ended, the day of reckoning came. The bill,
+which was made out in German characters, was both exorbitant and a
+marvel of ingenuity. The number of eggs we managed to get through
+in one week would have sufficed for a banquet of Hannibal. It was
+surprising, too, the quantity of bread and butter we consumed; and as
+to our behaviour we must have been the most riotous of lodgers, for we
+broke three panes of glass, the backs of two chairs, and wrenched a
+castor off a leg of the sofa; all of which misdemeanours were charged
+as separate items on the bill.
+
+It was amusing to witness András’s energy as he did battle with our
+miscreant host, whose wife did not appear upon the scene. It is only
+fair, however, to say that we saw her more than once during the stormy
+interview, standing behind the door bathed in tears. At length, after
+much expenditure of lungs, András came off victorious, the bill was
+settled to our entire satisfaction, and we were soon rattling over the
+uneven roads on our way to the station.
+
+Here we were detained some considerable time whilst a train was leaving
+with a crowd of emigrants on their way to the United States. We had
+read that morning in a Wallach newspaper that 8000 Slovaks had also
+started from the north of Hungary for the same happy region, after
+having sold their property for a mere nothing. But our own train is
+ready at last, and entering the blazing Alfőld, the heat becomes almost
+suffocating, the sun shining fiercely as it only does on plains. The
+sheep-dogs pant as they throw themselves down on the parched ground;
+in the distant horizon, however, long bands of dark cloud, extending
+perpendicularly to the thirsty earth, show that a gracious rain is
+falling. The cattle turn their heads to face the breeze which the storm
+brings with it. In the marshes the tall pampas canes bow their plumes
+and rock to and fro, and there is a grateful smell of earth refreshed
+by falling showers. The water ripples in the pools, and scuds before
+the wind, which soon increases to a gale. The storm overtakes us and
+the rain comes pattering down, but it is too fierce to last; in less
+than an hour it passes over, and the sun shines bright as ever, whilst
+to our left a rainbow embraces with its splendid arch half the circuit
+of the plains.
+
+In the carriage with us was a gentleman, a native of Szegedin,
+returning to that ill-starred city, after having been to Pest on
+matters connected with its rebuilding.
+
+A thriving place of seventy thousand inhabitants, it is difficult
+to realise that it has virtually passed away; that interesting city
+memorable as being near the spot where the first Hungarian Diet under
+Arpád was held, and which consequently received the name of “The
+district of organisation;” for here, on the establishment of the Magyar
+camp, a grand assembly was held, composed of heads of families and the
+chieftains of the various tribes, and at which the political affairs
+of the clans were discussed, and their relative positions determined;
+that strange city of pure Magyars, with its mixture of races; Germans,
+Christianised Jews, Nazarenes, and ennobled Greeks; above all, that
+city of Radicals, upon which Kossuth profanely declared he would build
+his dynasty; the words with which he ended his memorable speech, that
+was the immediate cause of the civil war of 1848, being, “_De én is
+mondom néked: Te Szeged vagy, és ezen a kősziklán épitem fel az én
+egyházamat: és a pokol kapui nem vehetnek azon diadalmat._” (“And I
+say also unto thee that thou art Szegedin, and upon this rock I will
+build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”)
+
+But the foundations of that “rock” on which he was to build his
+dynasty--so much for the prophecies of the wisest of dictators--long
+undermined, have now crumbled to the dust, and Szegedin--the Szegedin
+that is that _he_ knew, with its one-storied houses, white
+gables, and long wide streets, built, one would think, on the model
+of the camp of the Magyar’s warlike ancestors--is now no more, and
+a new Szegedin is fast rising like a phœnix from its ashes, a finer
+and better city with nobler houses, but one that will lack much of
+the historical interest of the former. Active measures have already
+been taken for its complete restoration, and the Dual-Monarchy is
+endeavouring to raise a loan of ten millions of florins to be lent to
+the inhabitants to enable them to rebuild their unfortunate capital.
+
+Not many years ago this ill-fated district, which has so often been
+the sport of nature, suffered fearfully from a severe drought which
+occasioned a terrible famine, and in 1863 from the ravages of cholera.
+In fact its dwellers have always existed on the confines of two
+impending calamities, which might occur at any moment--absence of rain,
+causing the destruction of their crops, and inundation, which might at
+any time not only overwhelm the surrounding country, but render their
+city a heap of ruins.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+                      THE “QUEEN OF THE ALFŐLD.”
+
+
+The terrible catastrophe which overtook Szegedin in the spring of 1879
+must still be within the recollection of every English person. No
+surer destruction fell upon that other great City of the Plain than
+that which lately visited the “Queen of the Alfőld,”--as Szegedin was
+called--by an element no less omnipotent, and through whose destructive
+power seven thousand houses were utterly destroyed, many more rendered
+uninhabitable, and seventy thousand persons--the whole once thriving
+population--rendered homeless.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The floods which converted no fewer than nine hundred English square
+miles of rich pasture, and tracts of land cultivated with maize, into a
+turbid ocean, were caused by the bursting of the dykes.
+
+The position of Szegedin had always been a most perilous one. Situated
+in the centre of an alluvial plain, which lies even below the surface
+of the river, it was impossible not to foresee that a time might, and
+no doubt would, come, when the Theiss, no longer capable of being
+restrained by any human barrier, would gain the mastery, and the
+imprisoned waters by bursting through the artificial boundaries must
+render the condition, not only of Szegedin itself, but of all the towns
+and villages in its vicinity, one of extreme danger.
+
+The greater number of the inhabitants of the unfortunate city, however,
+“laughed at the idea” of such a calamity befalling them, and pointed
+to the dykes of Percsora, which enclosed for thirty miles the windings
+of the river in a northerly direction, and also to that other means of
+defence, the dam of the Alfőld railway, which likewise afforded the
+city protection from the north.
+
+But whilst the majority of its dwellers denied the probability, like
+men who close their minds to a distant danger and will not allow it
+to take possession of their senses, there were others in whose hearts
+there always existed a latent dread that it would not be very long
+before a disaster of the kind would befal them. In the vain hope of
+averting the calamity, the dykes were raised to keep pace with the
+increase of the river’s bed each year, but none--not even the most
+gloomy of Szegedin’s prophets, anticipated how soon Nemesis would
+indeed descend upon them, or how terrible a catastrophe it would bring
+when it at length overtook the city.
+
+The river Theiss--the Tibiscus of the ancients--a broad and navigable
+river, takes its rise in the Carpathian Mountains not far from the
+provinces of Gallicia and Bukovina; and the inundations, which in
+a greater or less degree are of annual occurrence in some part or
+other of the Alfőld, are primarily due to the melting of the snow on
+the higher peaks, and the wearing away of the rocks through which the
+infant river passes, together with the sand it necessarily brings with
+it in its progress southwards, all of which cause its bed to rise
+slightly year by year. Flowing to meet the Theiss from the eastern
+frontier of Hungary come the waters of the Marős--the principal river
+in Transylvania, whose birth-place is in the Transylvanian Alps,
+and which empties itself into the Theiss at Szegedin. It was in the
+triangular space formed by the junction of these two great rivers, the
+Theiss flowing due south, and the Marős due west, that the fearful
+disaster occurred, the space in question being, as we have already
+shown, an immense alluvial plain.
+
+Our fellow traveller, before alluded to as a native of Szegedin, spoke
+German fluently, and we had consequently no difficulty in conversing
+with him.
+
+“Ah!” he exclaimed, referring to the fall of the city, “you see me an
+old man and my hair is grey, though before that time it was not so.
+Scarcely more than two years have passed since it happened, yet full
+twenty have been added to my life.”
+
+His appearance truly bore out his words; he was one who looked
+prematurely old, as those do on whom some overwhelming shock has
+passed, and whose nervous system has no strength to rally from the
+blow. He had somehow a kind of scared look, and as the harrowing memory
+of those long nights and days came over him his face grew inexpressibly
+sad.
+
+“Did you lose any friend during the floods?” we asked, not liking
+to cause him pain, yet at the same time unwilling to appear
+unsympathising in forbearing to make the inquiry.
+
+“Yes,” he replied after a pause, sighing deeply, “yes, I lost--a
+_friend_,”--adding, “It was not only the loss of kith and
+kin--which, considering the colossal nature of the catastrophe, was
+comparatively small--that made shipwreck of the lives of so many of us
+big, strong fellows; it was the sight of the women and the children.
+Ah! there were scenes by the hundred occurring every day during that
+period that were dreadful enough to turn the hair of men far younger
+than I am as white as snow. Would you learn a little of the melancholy
+story from an eyewitness? It will make you sad, for you English have
+kind hearts as we in very truth experienced then.”--“Yes.”
+
+“Well, it was on the fourth day of March that the danger began. The
+waters which had already inundated the surrounding country, impatient
+of restraint, made a wide breach in the dyke running to the north of
+the river, and rushed towards the one which extended to the eastern
+extremity of the town. From this moment the peril to the city became
+imminent, and measures were immediately taken to provide for the safety
+of other parts of the dykes, as well as to repair the ruptures already
+caused. Soldiers were summoned from Temesvár, and lifeboats from
+distant ports to rescue, in case of need, the threatened lives of the
+inhabitants. Every man in Szegedin worked night and day to barricade
+the dams, but all was vain, for after eight days’ agonising suspense,
+during which the water like a greedy monster continued to rise and
+swallow up the land, a fearful tempest of wind and rain, like a
+visitation from the avenging powers of Heaven, broke over the condemned
+city, and added to the might of the rivers.
+
+“In the darkness of the following night, just before dawn began to
+break, the Alfőld dam, the very bulwark of Szegedin, gave way also,
+and the inundation of the town itself began. The waters burst in upon
+us with a roar, like that of a mighty cataract. Alarm-bells sounded to
+warn the citizens to flee the danger, and from that moment the scene
+was one of wild confusion, for all knew then that their beloved homes
+were doomed.
+
+“As soon as daylight enabled those who manned the pontoons to see their
+way through the turbid, seething volume of water, which tore through
+the thoroughfares, many thousands were borne in comparative safety to
+New Szegedin on the opposite side of the river, but most of the poor,
+frightened, panic-stricken souls clung with tenacity to their homes in
+the vain hope that the tempest might abate and the waters subside, till
+they were compelled at length to take refuge on the house-tops from the
+cruel death that assailed them on every side. But even here they found
+no safety, for the foundations of their dwellings--sapped by the raging
+current which tore up everything before it--gave way one by one, and
+their houses, crumbling beneath their feet, fell with a dull crash.
+
+“A boat having capsized, belonging to one of the rescuing parties, and
+all hands having perished, I volunteered to join the band. I had lost
+sight of my wife and children on that first terrible night, and knew
+not where they were, or if alive. Of the latter’s safety, however,
+I learnt two days after; for they had been found, and carried to a
+village six miles distant. It was quite impossible in those awful days
+of confusion and turmoil for families to keep together. Some lost
+their reason from the fright, whilst others--children especially--got
+overwhelmed and separated from their parents by the very vehemence and
+pressure of the crowd.
+
+“But as I have said I was alone, and having none to care for, I joined
+those who went to the rescue with an aching heart, yet hoping that in
+this way I might chance to light upon my dear ones, and maybe save
+them. The shrieks of women and children were dreadful to hear above the
+terrific roar of waters, the deafening noise of the falling buildings,
+and the shouts of the rescuing parties as they poled their way along.
+It needed a strong, clear head, and a steady hand to steer through
+the floating timber and avoid the numerous objects that, collecting
+as they went, heaped themselves one upon another, and formed eddies
+and whirlpools strong enough to suck us under if we had not taken
+care. The piteous cries for help, too, that greeted us on every side
+were bewildering; sometimes we knew not to whose rescue first to go.
+Nor only this. Often, when we had succeeded in getting the pontoon
+alongside, and were just about to take a family on board, the swift
+current bearing down upon us with tremendous force, bringing down with
+it a tangled heap of household goods, with now and then a human body in
+the midst, would come against it, and hurl us ten or twenty yards away.
+My God! to hear the shrieks of the women then, as we were borne thus
+irresistibly away, and they knew that with us their hopes of safety
+vanished! The men, though, uttered not a groan, but as we left them,
+folded their arms as if to confront the king of terrors with a steady
+gaze, whilst others took the swooning women in their arms, and gently
+laid them down beside them, and chafed their hands and feet, as if,
+poor souls, it were better to bring life to them again, than to leave
+them to die all unconscious as they were.
+
+“Never can I forget one poor woman who was standing alone upon some
+scaffolding which, with a child in her arms, she had managed to climb.
+Carried along by the swift current we were passing down the middle of
+a broad thoroughfare with fearful speed, when looking up I saw her
+preparing to throw herself into the surging waters under the belief
+that we should be able to take her into the boat. We had lost our rope,
+however, the pontoon having been almost swamped a moment before, and
+without this it would have been impossible to save her.
+
+“‘Stay where you are,’ I shouted, ‘and wait for the next. It is your
+only chance of safety.’
+
+“Tearing the child from her bosom and uttering a despairing cry she
+threw it down in the direction of the boat. ‘Then, save my child,’ she
+cried, ‘or it will fall from my grasp, my strength is gone.’
+
+“One of my comrades caught it in his arms, and taking off his jacket he
+wrapped the little creature in it--it was but a mere infant--and laid
+it in the bottom of the boat, half dead as it seemed from long exposure
+to the cold.
+
+“As night wore on the horrors of the situation increased tenfold.
+Complete darkness reigned. There was no gas nor light of any kind to
+lessen the all-pervading gloom. The waters still rose, whilst, to add
+to our cup of misery already more than full, another hurricane more
+terrific than the first burst over us and ceased not to rage till
+morning broke. As I sit here and look back upon that awful night I
+wonder how any of us survived it, so exhausted were we by hunger and
+fatigue.”
+
+“But what of the child?” we enquired, interrupting him; for we were
+anxious to hear its fate.
+
+“Washed away,” was the reply. “Our pontoon struck against a raft that
+came bearing down upon us, and upon which we ourselves had to take
+refuge whilst we baled the water out, for we had again been well-nigh
+capsized, and when we had accomplished this we found the little
+bundle--_Häufchen_, as our narrator called it--_gone_, washed
+away, though we perceived it not in the din, confusion, and difficulty
+consequent upon righting ourselves, for we were this time nearly made a
+wreck.
+
+“Hearing the following morning from the crew of a passing boat that
+numbers of persons had fled to the woods on the previous day, and
+knowing what their fate must be, we hastened to their rescue. As the
+waters rose they had climbed the trees, where, exhausted by fatigue
+and benumbed with cold, they were dropping off the branches one by one
+like flies. Some few poor creatures with a harrowing scream appeared to
+_throw_ themselves in voluntarily to put an end to their misery,
+whilst others fell quietly with no sound beyond a dull, dull ‘plash’
+which will haunt me to my dying day.
+
+“We had managed to save several, and were just poling off with our
+human freight, when a woman floating in the water clutched violently at
+the boat.
+
+“In an instant I realised the danger. She would drown us all, for we
+were so heavily laden that the boat was scarce above the surface of
+the water. Stooping I seized her hands and wrenching them off the boat
+I pushed her back with all my strength. She recognised and called me
+by my name, but it was _too late_, she sank, and was--may Heaven
+forgive me!--_my wife_.”
+
+He was, alas! but one out of many, who, during this our last visit to
+Hungary--when men’s minds were still full of bitter recollections
+connected with the catastrophe--gave us a thrilling account of the
+fearful tragedies which occurred during that prolonged period of agony.
+Parents lost their children and husbands their wives, and in some
+instances were uncertain of their fate for weeks together, so great was
+the confusion that existed long after the source of the disaster had
+passed away.
+
+As we listened to these sad tales, feeling thankful our own lot had
+been cast in a more favoured land, we were gradually nearing Arád, and
+it was not long ere we reached the station, when with a hearty shake of
+the hand the Hungarian left us for a train that would take him on to
+Szegedin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A group of men were here engaged in the construction of a new line, and
+as we watched them we marvelled that anything was ever completed in
+this land of slow workers. Every man was smoking. Leisurely taking up
+a small shovel-full of earth he deposited it on the heap; then leaning
+on his implement he paused to take a whiff at his pipe to enable
+him to gather the needful strength to take up another shovel-full;
+after which followed another pause, and so on. These slow but strong,
+broad-shouldered, and muscular Hungarian navvies would soon drive an
+English engineer absolutely mad.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+At Arád we stay to dine, and ere we journey on again, the shadows
+have begun to lengthen on the plains, and peasants are returning from
+their toil. The pastures, which an hour ago were full of life, are
+now almost deserted, and by the time we see the first dim outline of
+the Transylvanian Alps, the sky’s deep orange has paled into citron,
+citron into faint green, green into pink and violet. Each moment
+the hills grow higher, bluer they rest their summits on the sky, and
+evening is falling fast. A long row of stately poplars rearing their
+heads aloft guard the entrance to a peaceful village, where women in
+short red petticoats and blue kerchiefs round their heads are driving
+home herds of long-haired goats. At the station men in large, high
+lamb’s wool caps like mops come in groups to meet their friends,
+greeting them with words that sound like “_Sobosh! sobosh!_” An
+aged “pilgrim father” descends from the train and walks across the
+platform leaning on his staff, his long white hair hanging in tangled
+masses over his shoulders. Girls bring water in classical-shaped
+pitchers, and hold up glasses of it to the thirsty passengers, crying
+“_Frisches Wasser!_” And again starting on our way we reach the
+Marős, a beautiful stream, bounded on either side by lofty mountains.
+On the spur of a rocky promontory stands what appears to be an
+imposing castle, but which on nearer approach proves to be one of
+those fortified Burgher citadels of which we shall see so many in
+Transylvania and which add so great an interest to that land. The sun
+is setting behind the loftiest peak and casting its crimson reflection
+into the deep and winding river, on the margin of which some fishermen,
+having moored their boat, are cooking their evening meal. Away, beneath
+the mountain summits, and behind us out in the solitary plains, long
+belts of fires are gleaming red. Are the people burning down the
+precious forests as the Wallachs are known to do in the mountains of
+the Danube, or are they merely those of the thoughtful husbandmen
+burning the useless stubble of last year’s maize?
+
+In the marshes the frogs begin their concert, each tribe inhabiting one
+marsh doing its best to outdo their neighbours like “loud-contending
+factions;” whilst in the moist warm grasses of the surrounding plains
+the locusts do the same, and we are everywhere favoured with a
+deafening serenade.
+
+About eight o’clock the following morning we reach Karlsburg, the
+fortress of which stands on a prominent hill surrounded by mountains
+of very singular and unquestionably volcanic origin. It is here that
+the gold found in the districts of Abrudbánya and Verespatak is sent
+to be coined. The mineral riches of Transylvania are both various and
+abundant, gold, silver, and nearly all the less precious metals being
+found in these mountains.
+
+It is only 170 miles from Arád to Hermannstadt--our first
+stopping-place in Transylvania--but it takes eighteen hours to
+accomplish that distance, and we shall not reach the pleasant little
+capital till to-morrow morning if we ever do. Fortunately a gentleman
+with whom we travelled from a place called Radna-Lippa, and who
+alighted at a lonely little village containing nothing, so far as
+we could see in the moonlight, but a few wattled huts and a wayside
+shrine, bestowed upon us ere he left the carriage a bottle of old Tokay
+which he had brought with him for his own refection. How we blessed him
+afterwards for the generous gift which alone imparted the necessary
+strength to enable us to survive the tedium of the journey. Were I
+but a poet and a man I would write an ode to thee, oh, thou fragrant,
+topaz-coloured wine of wines, sweet, full-bodied, but never-cloying
+“pick-me-up,” immortal Tokay!
+
+At length dawn comes creeping over the mountain-tops, followed by
+little crimson cloudlets winging their messages to man that night is
+over, and the toils of day must soon begin. One by one the sleepy
+villages awake, smoke curls upwards through the roofs of the wattled
+huts, and we pass a crucifix beneath which two persons are already
+kneeling. It is only in “Christian England” where men are ashamed to be
+seen praying.
+
+It is another saint’s day. Every day would seem to be one in Hungary!
+“Tinkle, tinkle” go the cracked bells from the small steeples which
+rise above the melancholy cemeteries filled with large square ungainly
+mounds, one of the peculiarities of the Greek Church in this part
+of Hungary, for we have now entered Transylvania which constitutes
+its most eastern portion, “The land beyond the forest,” as its name
+implies. On the low wall of a hut sits a youthful shepherd playing his
+pastoral pipe--a simple little instrument made of a piece of green
+stick, whilst his swine feed below on the hard dry stalks of last
+year’s maize and the thistles which grow between.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Beyond all is a glorious background of snow-clad Alps; till, arriving
+at a junction, at which we learn we have to wait two mortal hours for
+another train, we alight for breakfast, after which, lumbering on
+again, we enter a barren country surrounded by immense sand-hills,
+covered with stunted grass on which herds of buffalo are grazing.
+
+The lowlands are white with deposits of salt, which lying upon the
+soil greatly impairs its fertility. In some places the earth is
+honey-combed with salt mines, and we crawl along at the magnificent and
+exciting speed of four miles an hour. In other places the line has been
+artificially raised to admit of our passing over many miles of bog;
+the whole country consisting of a huge morass in which grow clumps of
+pampas-grass, ten and twelve feet high. In the carriage with us is an
+Austrian engineer on his way to a part of the line where attempts are
+being made to build a bridge, but which as yet have been unsuccessful
+on account of the difficulty experienced in laying the foundations,
+the bog in the majority of places proving almost fathomless. Although
+constructed by an English company, this railway is said to be the very
+slowest line in Europe; but after twenty-four hours’ prolonged torture,
+for our train is of course two hours behind its time, our miseries are
+ended at last by its arrival at our destination.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+                             HERMANNSTADT.
+
+
+What a quaint, funny, mediæval old town Hermannstadt is, with its
+heavy stone archways and strong oaken doors leading to passages and
+_inner_ archways far far beyond! Wherever we cast our eyes we
+see objects that remind us of pictures of Albert Dürer, and one seems
+here to be living in the times and place in which Hans Sachs composed
+his rhymes whilst hammering away at his boots and shoes. Many of the
+houses are built over archways which lead to sombre courtyards, round
+which are high wooden balconies, where youthful Juliets make love to
+Romeos in the region of the gutters below, and women sit and knit and
+gossip--yes, and quarrel too; for have I not heard the sweet rancour
+of their tongues, whilst watching them from my own particular balcony,
+within the courtyard of the hotel? Aye, and sketched them too.
+
+Beneath these wooden balconies are stables and pumps and dark rooms,
+with walls so strongly built and doors so thick and massive that they
+might have been made to withstand a siege--as probably they were.
+Everything wears such an old-world look, that the brand-new houses
+which have managed to crop up here and there between the ancient ones
+appear so out-of-place, and altogether such anachronisms, that one
+feels inclined to request them to “move on,” in default of which to
+burn them down or blow them up, in fact _anything_ to get rid of
+them.
+
+What a dear, ugly, hobgobliny old place the hotel is too, at which we
+are staying, with its heavy round buttresses bulging out far into the
+street, and deep-set windows with here and there a small room clinging
+to the walls, in the region of the upper story, like a convenient
+parasite. Our room, whose furniture takes us back to the middle ages,
+also juts out in the same way, and from the window we look down upon
+the heads of the passers-by. Nothing is new in the hotel but the
+waiting-maid, a rosy, fair-haired lass, with a pair of such ponderous
+“understandings” that we positively shudder as she walks across the
+room, everything is so old and shaky.
+
+The hotel itself is ascended by a long flight of irregular stone
+steps walled in on either side with heavy masonry, in which are
+loopholes commanding an extensive view of the stables and the kitchen
+below--apartments which in Transylvania are usually contiguous. The
+_Speisesaal_ is entered through a long dark room with a polished
+floor, and contains besides a mangle, two oak presses black with age,
+and a coffer large enough to have been the sarcophagus of Cheops.
+Groping our way along with many a slide--surely the house must have
+been built at a time when some stringent law existed for excluding the
+light of heaven--we reach the dining hall. Here we nightly consume our
+_Hammelsbraten_ and _Kalbs-schnitzel_, and, I am afraid,
+grumble. Then making our way back again in fear and trembling to our
+own room, we pass a balcony so shaky in its entire constitution that,
+were we but to cough or sneeze at the moment of crossing it, we feel
+sure the whole crazy structure must topple over into the yard beneath.
+
+Hermannstadt, although politically an important place, being the
+military capital of Transylvania, possesses nothing in its outward
+aspect to warrant the conclusion, its appearance differing little from
+a German town. Should, however, the proposed railway to Bucharest
+be carried into effect, Hermannstadt will be the shortest route to
+Constantinople, and, by becoming the connecting link between West and
+East, must greatly increase both in size and importance.
+
+In no part of Hungary does there exist so great an anomaly as this
+district of Transylvania, which is peopled by a race calling themselves
+“Saxons,” and their province “Saxon-land,” although their ancestors
+emanated from a widely different quarter.
+
+These colonists are in fact of Flemish origin, descendants of a people
+inhabiting Flanders, a district of the Upper Rhine, who, styling
+themselves Flandrenses, emigrated hither in 1141. Hungary, however,
+being a kingdom of anomalies, it is only natural and proper they should
+call themselves “Saxons,” and their adopted country “Saxon-land,” or
+anything else they choose.
+
+At the period of their immigration, Transylvania--which even now forms
+the border-land separating civilisation from barbarism--so beautiful
+and peaceful in its outward aspect, was frequently the scene of
+bloodshed and devastation arising from the incursions of barbarian
+hordes from the East, who, entering through the passes of the Southern
+Carpathians, menaced it perpetually, until the fruitful land had
+well-nigh become a desert.
+
+Transylvania was not wholly unknown to the ancient dwellers on the
+Western river; the Crusaders had passed through it on their way to and
+from the “Holy City,” and had carried home with them wondrous tales of
+the fair and fertile country on the eastern borders of Europe. It was
+a land of green hills and vales, and fertilising streams like their
+own, a land literally flowing with milk and honey; in short a goodly
+land where men might plant and reap the fruits of the earth, and gather
+into barns in rich plenty. So it came to pass that when the Voivode, or
+Palatine of the province--who in those days held office under the King
+of Hungary--sent an invitation to the quiet and industrious inhabitants
+of Flanders to come over and re-people the beautiful but unfortunate
+country he ruled, and accompanied his invitation by a promise of grants
+of land to any that would avail themselves of it, not a few responded
+to the call, nor did they come alone, but brought over with them men
+of their own race, skilled in “divers curious arts of workmanship, and
+cunning artificers in precious metals,” so that their fame soon spread
+abroad throughout the length and breadth, not only of Transylvania, but
+of the more eastern countries still, viz., Moldavia, Wallachia, and
+Bukovina. Their wares--the wonder and admiration of all--were sought
+after from every quarter, and the Flandrenses speedily became, not only
+a thriving, but even a wealthy, people.
+
+The position which these early colonists held in the country of
+their adoption was assured to them by a kind of _Magna Charta_
+which, whilst defining their rights and privileges, constituted them
+an entirely free people, ruled by no Voivode--as were the other
+inhabitants of the land--but governed simply by their own laws.
+
+It is both curious and interesting to read the history of this brave
+little band who ventured to roam thus far from their own kindred and
+people and tongue, to dwell in a strange and almost barbarian country;
+and--following their fortunes through its pages--note how they managed
+to hold their own against all attempts at aggression, and how stern
+and unflinching was their determination to prevent all outsiders from
+gaining a footing in their newly-acquired territory, not excepting
+even the peaceful dwellers of other parts of the Hungarian Monarchy,
+some of whom would fain have cast in their lot with these thriving
+and more civilised people from the West, of whom all spoke well and
+whom all envied. But the Flandrenses, like the Scots of our own time,
+are said to have been a “canny” folk, exclusive and conservative to
+a degree. They would have no interlopers, “not they.” None should be
+permitted directly or indirectly to share their new possessions, or
+who could tell but that such interlopers might increase and multiply,
+till, waxing bold in numbers, they might even intermeddle with their
+laws and manner of governing themselves, and if so there would be war
+and dissensions within their otherwise peaceful borders. No! they
+would crush at once and for ever such a possibility, and by excluding
+all outsiders, ensure peace and tranquillity to themselves and to
+their children for all generations. Nor were they firm adherents to
+their political institutions only, for they clung to the faith of
+their forefathers with the greatest tenacity and became the bulwark of
+Christianity in the east of Europe.
+
+Of this so-called “Saxon-land,” a district occupying the south-eastern
+portion of Transylvania, Hermannstadt, as we have seen, is
+the chief town. It is situated on a plain at the foot of the
+Fogaras Mountains--or Transylvanian Alps, as they are frequently
+designated--which for eight months in the year are covered with snow,
+and which, stretching a hundred miles in an easterly direction, embrace
+Kronstadt in their foldings.
+
+Like all towns in Transylvania, which at one time were so frequently
+menaced by the Turks and other wild hordes from the East, Hermannstadt
+was once surrounded by a wall, the remains of which still exist. In
+consequence of being the military capital of the province, and only
+twelve miles from Roumania and Moldavia, it is strongly garrisoned,
+there never at any time being fewer than 8000 soldiers quartered here.
+In 1438 the Turks besieged the town with an army of 70,000 men headed
+by the Sultan Amurad himself, who however was killed by an arrow shot
+from the battlements by one of the brave little band of Flandrenses.
+
+Times have changed since on taking up their dwelling in the land they
+enacted laws to exclude all neighbouring races from becoming residents
+in their midst--laws which, though rigidly maintained for centuries,
+proved not quite so unalterable as those of the Medes and Persians. By
+slow degrees, entering in the first instance either as labourers of
+the soil or domestic servants, the Wallachs have at length succeeded
+in gaining a permanent footing in “Saxon-land,” till in the 19th
+century we find them forming large colonies in that portion of their
+country which long years ago was ceded to the stranger. Nor is this
+the strangest feature of the case. This industrious and prosperous
+“Saxon” folk are not only losing their political ascendency but are
+fast dying out, and the Wallachs will soon take their place as the
+dominant race even within the ancient Flandrenses’ own borders; for
+the Wallach population is increasing in the same ratio as the “Saxon”
+is decreasing. In some of the villages in “Saxon-land” the population,
+without any emigration or other visible cause, has decreased to one
+half, and should the high rate of mortality which for the last century
+and a half has been steadily augmenting, continue to increase in future
+years in the same proportion, this Flemish people, who have done so
+much towards the civilisation of Transylvania, and aided so materially
+in the prosperity of the whole province, will soon cease to be lords of
+the soil which was given to their ancestors seven hundred years ago,
+and take a very secondary position.
+
+Although they have been so prosperous a people, these honest
+Flandrenses would have been far happier had they remained in their
+own quiet little corner on the peaceful borders of the Rhine than in
+allying themselves to the fortunes of this fertile but hapless country;
+for until a century ago they were beset with foes, and the troubles
+they continually encountered make dark blots on the pages of history.
+
+Like the rest of Hungary, Transylvania--which was annexed to the
+Kingdom of Hungary by St. Stephen in 1002 and governed by viceroys
+appointed by the king under the title of Voivode--has undergone
+manifold political changes as well as very painful vicissitudes. In
+the 14th and 15th centuries the Moslems, whose empire was then at its
+zenith, entering through the mountain passes, continued to menace this
+fair land with their wild hordes, until, like the waves of an advancing
+tide, they threatened to inundate the whole country.
+
+During this time, so complete had been the victories of the Turks
+that only a small portion of Hungary, and that a long thin strip of
+country, bounded on the north-west by Poland and on the west by the
+German Empire, remained in the possession of the Christian. At length
+Transylvania, which had always been considered an integral portion of
+Hungary, was again reunited to that kingdom during the revolutionary
+period of 1848.
+
+It is mid-day and the stream of busy life is flowing steadily onwards
+to the market--Hermannstadt ladies, with small waists and fashionable,
+well-made garments, holding large fans to shield themselves from the
+sun in lieu of parasols, and merry laughing “Saxon” girls in large
+straw hats, and Wallach matrons with their heads swathed in numberless
+yards of snow-white muslin folded turban-wise, a species of head-gear
+called a _volutura_. Besides these are grave, but pretty, little
+Wallach damsels. Oh, _how_ pretty! with their sweet, smooth, oval
+faces, and slender figures robed in the home-made “_kathrincza_,”
+an almost Roman dress, differing materially from that worn by the
+natives of Wallachia proper and far more classical. It consists of a
+long straight piece of cloth of many colours worn over the white under
+garment, the bodice and sleeves of the latter being embroidered in
+scarlet or black so as to bring out the graceful contour of the figure.
+Falling low over the neck and chest are endless rows of coral beads;
+whilst large silver earrings of an eastern pattern united to each other
+by a silver chain which hangs loosely under the chin complete the
+charming _tout ensemble_.
+
+The “Saxons” differ from their Wallach sisters in face as well as
+figure, and even if they wore a similar costume it would be quite
+impossible not to recognise them. The Wallachs are small and
+delicately formed, possessing features of a classic type and generally
+dark hair and eyes; the “Saxons,” on the contrary, are of a heavier
+build, their complexion is fair, and they have blue eyes, but were
+it not for their frank and pleasing expression of countenance, their
+features would be almost plain.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+There is no prettier sight in the whole of Hungary than that which
+Hermannstadt presents on the weekly market-day. The surroundings of
+the market-place itself; the quaint old steeples and metal cupolas of
+the cathedral and churches that form the background, the scores of
+milk-white oxen with their long horns; the bewitching costumes of the
+Wallach girls, and the bright faces and laughing eyes of the “Saxons”
+who look up at us archly, yet so innocently, from beneath the warm
+shadow of their large broad hats, all forming pictures for an artist.
+Look at that “Saxon” lass yonder, with her frank open face! See how
+her bosom throbs under her embroidered bodice, and the colour comes
+mantling to her brow as she sees she has attracted the attention of
+the two strangers, of whose nationality she is in doubt! Let us go
+across to that group of Madonna-like vegetable-sellers in their snowy
+“_voluturas_,” squatting on the ground all amongst the hay-carts
+and the long-horned cattle, and watch the bargaining! Near them sit
+other women selling fowls and little families of chickens, and by them
+stand “Saxon” _Bürgers_ and natty _cuisinières_ haggling over
+their purchases as though the money they had to spend was the very
+last farthing they had in the world. A Bürger female comes stalking up
+and commences negotiations for a brood so extremely juvenile that they
+ought to have been safe at home under the maternal wing. The Wallach
+Frau asks four gulden for the lot, at which the Bürger female holds
+up her hands in astonishment and declares they are not worth two, and
+turns aside. Hitherto they have been peaceably huddled together in a
+long circular basket the shape of a cone. But on seeing her customer
+depart, the Wallach Frau forces her hand through the small square
+hole in the side of the basket, and clutching hold of the chickens as
+though they had been a cluster of grapes, drags them forth, thrusts
+them into the hand of the Bürger, and asks her to name her own price.
+She offers two gulden, whereupon the Wallach Frau, with an air of
+offended dignity, uttering not a word, lays hold of the little brood of
+feathered bipeds and amidst their screams pushes them one after another
+into the basket, head first, legs first, just as it comes, and shuts
+down the cover. After a while the Bürger female returns to the charge,
+and peers at them again, upon which their possessor once more lugs them
+out of the basket in the same promiscuous fashion. The Bürger takes
+them in her hand and feels their weight--the whole ten of those little
+niggers together could not have weighed a pound--and this time offers
+two gulden twenty kreuzers, upon which the Wallach declares on the
+soul of her grandmother she will rather take them home than part with
+them at the price, and in they go again through the hole.
+
+In a few minutes’ time the sanguine little band, alike forgetful of
+their sorrows and their wrongs, and quite at home in their familiar
+prison-house, begin to chirp quite a merry gladsome little song.
+But the Wallach meanwhile is narrowly watching the movements of her
+customer just in the act of concluding a similar bargain with a
+broad-faced “Saxon” Frau opposite. Making a sudden grab at them, she
+this time drags the poor, ill-used little wretches out by their wings
+and eagerly rushing towards the Bürger female, declares she shall have
+them for the sum offered, whereupon, crying piteously, they are finally
+thrown head over heels into a sack which the purchaser’s servant
+carries over his shoulder for the purpose, and are borne away to their
+premature doom.
+
+“Who is that youth yonder with his hat adorned with gold tinsel and
+flowers?” we inquire of a “Saxon” lady.
+
+“He is one who is just betrothed,” was the reply.
+
+“And those men standing in the centre of that group of people on the
+opposite side. Who can _they_ be?”--we further ask on observing
+three men carrying white wands to which are attached bunches of flowers
+and long ribbons.
+
+“There is evidently to be a marriage in the course of a few days in a
+village near Hermannstadt, and they are going about to invite the bride
+and bridegroom’s friends. Such things are the custom here,” replied the
+same lady.
+
+From the market we stroll into the Cathedral, a very handsome edifice
+erected in 1440. Like every other Protestant church in Hungary it
+has suffered much from the “besom of reform,” the beautiful pillars
+being smothered with whitewash. Service was taking place there, and
+the “Saxon” clergyman robed in a garb of the middle ages looked like a
+picture of a Puritan “roundhead” in the time of Cromwell.
+
+At the conclusion of the service he offered to show us the sacred
+edifice, and conducted us to some vaulted chambers which no doubt
+originally constituted the cloisters, the walls of which were covered
+with interesting relics of a past age, consisting of life-size
+portraits graven in marble and stone of worthies who flourished long
+ago--the ancient Bürgers who held office in the town--all depicted in
+the costumes of the period, and telling of people and customs long
+since passed away, yet barbarously, like the pillars of the church,
+daubed with whitewash. Some of these tablets were dated 1300, the
+greater number being of the 14th and 15th centuries. To us there was a
+strange fascination about these old monuments so grim and silent, and
+we lingered gazing at them, till the Herr Pfarrer, taking off his black
+cocked hat, requested us to re-enter the church to see the Sacristy,
+where he would show us the ancient vestments and sacred vessels.
+
+Returning to the market-place we find a momentary lull in the busy hum
+of voices, and all eyes are turned towards a distant street where a
+funeral procession is slowly wending its way along. At this moment also
+the bells from the various church-steeples begin to twang, each in a
+different key, and every one of them pulled so fast and loudly, that
+were it not for the din and discord, they would have sounded like a
+merry peal. In the direction of the garrison at the other end of the
+town come the strains of a military band, and amidst the inharmonious
+clamour the melancholy procession, with its flowers, white bows, and
+streamers, and delicate festoons of lace, crosses the market-place and
+disappears down an opposite street.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+                         “THE GOOD OLD TIMES.”
+
+
+The country in the vicinity of Hermannstadt is very beautiful, and
+the villages in many of their characteristics wholly unlike those of
+any other country in the world. A few miles distant is the village of
+Hiltau, also a “Saxon” settlement, where the large straw hats are made
+which adorn the heads of the bonny “Saxon” lasses. At this place also
+the white frieze is manufactured of which the garments of both Saxon
+and Wallach men are composed, and which is exported in great quantities
+to Slavonia and Dalmatia.
+
+Hiltau lies picturesquely embosomed in sheltering hills, whose slopes
+at this time of year are pink with the blossom of the peach. The
+village, as we approach it, forms a charming picture, the quaint stone
+houses with their curious roofs nestling round the old fortress-church,
+which stands on an eminence in the centre; the whole impressing the
+stranger with the notion that the site of the church must have been
+chosen before any of the houses were erected.
+
+Exposed to the incursions of the Turk on one side and the Tartar on
+the other, these churches in Transylvania were complete fortresses
+in themselves, and, each possessing a moat, bastions, towers, and
+loop-holed walls of solid masonry, constituted the place of refuge
+to which the inhabitants fled when threatened by either foe. Within
+these consecrated strongholds the people also kept their corn, to the
+end that they might be ready at any moment to resist a siege. Thither
+the affrighted peasants repaired on the first approach of danger from
+the enemy, and whilst the women and children were well protected
+by the towers and battlements that surrounded the sacred edifice,
+the men, armed with matchlocks and rude arquebusses, defended them
+with soldier-like bravery. Within these fortresses the clergyman and
+schoolmaster invariably lived, and so accustomed were the people to
+these sieges that during the time they lasted there was no interruption
+whatever in the customary services of the church, and the children
+likewise attended school while their fathers fired upon the barbarian
+cavalry beneath.
+
+The high walls and elevated position of these little citadels
+rendering them all but invulnerable, they generally held their own
+against the infidel hordes that so frequently assailed them, and
+upon their departure the peaceful peasantry, once more emerging from
+their stronghold, repaired their ruined dwellings, replanted their
+vineyards, and sowed their crops anew, all of which had been ruthlessly
+destroyed by the enemy. In those terrible times a loud curfew, called
+the “Turk’s bell,” rang daily at the hour of noon from the tower of
+every church throughout the land to summon the people not only in the
+towns and villages, but others engaged in the pursuits of husbandry in
+distant fields, to unite in prayer for protection from the Christian’s
+foe. The bells of these citadel-churches, which are very deep and
+sonorous, were also used for the purpose of apprising the people of
+the approaching foe as well as to bid them flee for refuge within the
+consecrated walls.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+These “peasant garrisons,” with their watch-towers, portcullises, and
+massive ramparts, are peculiarly interesting to the traveller, not
+only as bearing silent witness to the troublous times which we, in the
+peace of the nineteenth century, find hard to realise, but also to the
+bravery and heroism of the little bands who defended themselves so
+courageously against barbarian invasion; and there is something very
+beautiful in the sentiment that dictated the people’s thus fortifying
+their churches and constituting them their “arks of safety” in the time
+of trouble.
+
+Wandering round the ancient walls of the church in question with its
+many towers and turrets, we came to the church enclosure. Entering
+which we rang the bell of an inner door which we rightly conjectured
+to be that of the Pfarrhaus. It was answered by a “Saxon” Mädchen,
+who, informing us the Herr Pfarrer was within, ushered us into a room
+containing numerous flower-stands, on which rested large pots of
+exotics in full bloom, all seeming strangely at variance with their
+austere surroundings.
+
+These Lutheran pastors are always ready to welcome the stranger, and
+after pressing us to partake of refreshment, which in this instance
+we did not feel obliged to accept, he conducted us to the church,
+a singular old building, whose benches were full of black-letter
+prayer-books, and the pulpit surrounded by drapery of Turkish
+manufacture. After examining the interior of the building we walked
+round the enclosure, where, under arches built at regular intervals
+in the fortified walls, still stand the strong oaken coffers filled
+with corn as of yore; for the “Saxons,” no less than the Magyars, are
+a conservative people, adhering tenaciously to the customs of their
+forefathers and slow to relinquish any that have once been adopted,
+even when--as in this case--the necessity for their existence has long
+passed away.
+
+The sacred vessels belonging to the church--many of which were hidden
+in the ground during the stormy period of the Reformation--are of
+singular beauty and value, and consist of chalices and candlesticks of
+ancient workmanship, manufactured in silver-gilt by the early “Saxon”
+colonists, many of them containing enamelled tablets representing
+the various incidents in the life of our Lord. We were also shown a
+magnificent baptismal bowl of the 14th century, on which medallions of
+pure gold were laid in the form of anaglyphs. But besides these relics
+already enumerated were two of still more ancient date, viz. a superb
+crucifix containing pearls and rubies, and an “_Ostensorium_,”
+used for the purpose of exposing the consecrated host to the adoration
+of the “Faithful.”
+
+After leaving the church enclosure, the Pfarrer led us to the school,
+and showed us some specimens of free-hand drawing which would have done
+credit to any English seminary. To our surprise we also learnt that the
+higher branches of education were likewise taught, including botany and
+chemistry. Amongst the children we noticed many Wallachs, the Wallach
+peasantry liking of all things to send their children to the “Saxon”
+school, not that they appreciate the better education to be obtained
+there, but it gives them an opportunity of learning German, a language
+which they are quite as anxious to acquire as the Magyars to forget;
+one who can speak “High German” being regarded by the orthodox Wallach
+as a gentleman of distinction, and, in fact, quite a superior order of
+being.
+
+The windows of the school-house commanded a view not only of the church
+with its moat and battlemented walls, but of the village also. How
+peaceful all looked from this eminence, and how difficult it was to
+believe that such times of war and terror ever existed! How wretched
+must have been the lives of the inhabitants in those days--not so very
+long ago either--when they were kept in daily fear of the enemy! How
+could they toil under such circumstances and persevere in cultivating
+the land which was so frequently converted into a desert by the Tartar
+or the Turk, to whom even the stony girdle of the Carpathians proved
+no barrier? We can imagine the honest peasant as he guided the plough
+listening for the alarm bell which might echo through the hills at any
+moment, and the affrighted inhabitants, with their children and aged,
+when it did so, hurrying for safety to the church citadel. To this
+day a Transylvanian mother is said to frighten her naughty child into
+obedience by threats of the Tartar’s approach in the words--“_Jhon
+jönnek a Tatárok!_”
+
+As we gazed at the picturesque old edifice beneath, which tells such
+a sad, sad history of the past, and whose pinnacles pointing to the
+peaceful sky have withstood so many sieges, a glory of sunlight
+bursting through the clouds shone upon them and kindled the metal balls
+that surmount each pointed turret into a bright and dazzling star.
+
+In addition to the fortified churches before mentioned, perched here
+and there on the spur of contiguous mountains or hills are smaller
+ones, originally designed as supplementary defences to the former;
+one of which, erected between the years 1175 and 1223, exists at
+Michaelsburg, a short distance from Hiltau.
+
+Beneath this ancient citadel lies a small hamlet, the houses of which
+are built entirely of wood, and whose picturesque chimneys, high
+palings, and beams supporting the walls, give to it a very romantic
+appearance.
+
+Here we rest our horses, and climbing the staircase of a primitive
+little inn, find ourselves in a balcony covered in with freshly-cut
+boughs, whence we look down upon the village, almost deserted now, for
+most of its inhabitants, men, women, and children, alike have gone off
+to dig, hoe, or gather into barns the fruits of the fertile soil; for
+the women here take as active a part as their husbands in the pursuits
+of agriculture.
+
+Beyond the narrow row of houses with their brown roofs and picturesque
+accessories, the great mountains capped with snow shine out of the
+liquid azure like domes of alabaster; whilst a Wallach woman and child
+walking down the road, the former spinning and clad in a rich mingling
+of orange, red, and violet, complete the scene and form one of the most
+beautiful “colour pictures” I almost ever beheld.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The people of these villages speak what is called _Platt Deutsch_,
+a dialect so singular that we found it quite impossible to understand
+them. It is, however, the language they brought with them to this alien
+land, and which they have managed to preserve intact throughout nearly
+eight centuries of absence from their country, precisely the same
+dialect being spoken by the dwellers in the district of the Lower Rhine
+at the present day.
+
+Of all the “Saxon” settlements in Transylvania, the most interesting is
+perhaps Hamersdorf, also situated a few miles from Hermannstadt. It is
+here also that the singular costumes of the “Saxons” are seen in the
+greatest perfection.
+
+It was on a sweet, calm Sunday evening that we visited it for the first
+time. Too late for Divine service, which took place at an earlier hour
+than we anticipated, we arrived just as the villagers were pouring out
+of church, the unmarried women wearing high black velvet hats, from
+which, reaching to the hem of their garments, countless ribbons of
+every hue were suspended, the heads of the young married women being
+covered with embroidered muslin veils. The dress of both is exceedingly
+elaborate, and preparation for church must, I should say, involve
+considerable expenditure of time. There surely never were people so
+hopelessly given over to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world
+as these “Saxon” maids and matrons. Their ornaments also are not only
+beautiful, but often of a very costly description, and consist of
+immense flat circular brooches, resembling breast shields, wrought in
+a species of filigree and inlaid with garnets, turquoises, pearls,
+and amethysts, their waists being encircled with belts of scarcely
+less value and richness of design, inlaid in like manner with precious
+stones, one and all specimens of an art now obsolete--heirlooms handed
+down to them by their ancestors; aye! and perhaps even brought with
+them from the _Vaterland_ when they came over to settle in this
+far distant country.
+
+“Where does the Herr Pfarrer live?” we inquired of three women whose
+heads we could just see peering through a number of flower-pots in a
+window high above us.
+
+“He is at the school,” replied a head enveloped in a blue kerchief,
+speaking with some difficulty in “High German,” as the pure
+mother-tongue is called, adding--“If you will walk in we will fetch
+him.”
+
+The process of “walking in,” however, was one of no small difficulty.
+First of all, to which flight of steps did the casement in question
+belong? was it the one round the corner, or that away to the right? or
+was the room approached through that quaint old doorway yonder leading
+to a small courtyard? We incline to the latter, but on entering the
+chamber find it occupied by three men. Meanwhile the owner of the head
+in blue had been searching for us, and coming to our rescue, just as
+we were beating a hasty retreat, conducted us through an archway, up
+six steps, along a passage, in which several immense oak coffers were
+reposing, across an open balcony and finally into the room itself,
+which proved to be quite full of womankind, two of whom, as we soon
+perceived by their dress and general appearance, were Wallachs.
+
+Requesting us to be seated whilst some one fetched the Pfarrer, they
+subjected us to the usual cross-examination.
+
+“Where do the strangers come from?” (a question interrogated in “High
+German” by a Saxon Frau).
+
+“England.”
+
+(Chorus of “Saxons.”) “_Ach, die guten Leute!_”--Then turning to the
+Wallachs and interpreting the interesting fact into Neo-latin, one and
+all exclaim, “The strangers are from England.”
+
+(Chorus of Wallachs.) “_Englesca! Englesca!_ _la_--_la_--_la!_”--the
+final syllable prolonged indefinitely--“that _is_ a long way”--a
+journey that no doubt represented to their minds thousands of miles
+traversed by the slow medium of a _szekér_ or _Leiterwagen_ filled with
+hay, the only modes of locomotion with which these simple folk are
+familiar, or, who knows! perhaps, even a ride on camels or elephants.
+
+“Ah!” said another woman, looking very learned, and reminding us of our
+Gallician friend Martcha, “that is where the tea comes from and the
+sugar across the sea in big ships;” for in the uneducated Hungarian
+mind England and India are generally believed to be contiguous islands!
+
+In a few minutes the Herr Pfarrer arrived, a benevolent-looking old man
+with grey hair, who, bearing us off at once to the Pfarrhof, conducted
+us to the room where the family were seated at _Abendessen_
+(supper). All rose at our entrance and shook us warmly by the hand, and
+the Pfarrer, placing chairs by the table, requested us to join them at
+their meal. Our arrival did not disconcert them in the least. There
+was no more bustle or fuss than if we had been expected guests, and,
+with that well-bred ease with which the stranger is everywhere greeted
+in Hungary, and that graceful inborn courtesy which characterises all
+classes, they bid us welcome to their frugal board.
+
+The dwelling contained numerous rooms, all of which though carpetless
+were comfortably furnished, and, like the Pfarrhaus we had visited
+at Hiltau, there was throughout a fragrant odour of exotic flowers,
+emanating not only from the white clusters of the beautiful
+_Stephanotis_ that was trained round the inside of more than
+one of the windows, but from other flowers blooming on stands in the
+greatest profusion.
+
+Supper ended, they took us to the garden, a sun-dried plot on the slope
+of the hill, surrounded by lilacs, and in which lilies and hyacinths
+were doing their little best to grow; but where nothing seemed to
+luxuriate, save the vine, from which hung clusters of grapes. In the
+dustiest and driest portion of the whole garden was a bower of lilacs
+beneath which were a table and chairs.
+
+“Oh, how pleasant it is on a summer evening to have such a place to sit
+in,” exclaimed the Frau Pfarrer in gentle and grateful accents. “It
+is a large garden, is it not? and so full of fruit-trees; only look!
+Are things so _very_ different in your country? Surely they must
+be, or you would not come so far. Have you a garden in your land where
+asparagus, and lilacs, and sweet hyacinths grow?”
+
+It was pleasant to hear these dear people talk, and see how thoroughly
+contented they were with their simple idyllic lives. After showing us
+the dry little garden and dusty bower, they took us into the _hof_
+(yard), where the horses were being tended by an idyllic groom, dressed
+in a white leather jacket covered with embroidery, and a felt hat with
+a feather in it, who was talking to the idyllic Mädchen of the manse,
+a blue-eyed “Saxon” lass, attired in a short striped skirt of blue and
+red, violet bodice, and white embroidered chemisette covered with rows
+of coral beads.
+
+“Do many English persons visit Transylvania?” we inquired.
+
+“No! very few,” was the reply. “Some years ago--ah, how time flies!
+it must be fifteen--twenty, an Englishman--Herr Bonar, whom everybody
+loved, stayed many months and wrote a book about our country. He
+visited us a fortnight, and after his departure we received one
+letter, but he never wrote again; it was so long, long ago, he must
+have forgotten us quite, or he would have written,” continued the
+old Pfarrer with something like a sigh; adding after a few moments’
+pause, an expression of joy suffusing his whole countenance as a happy
+thought occurred to him, “You live in the same country and may see him;
+if so tell him how he lives in our memories still.”
+
+“We will,” I replied, thinking that as England was such a _very_
+small place we should in all probability be able to deliver the message!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The dew was still lingering on the grass as we journeyed towards
+Hamelsdorf the following Sunday morning on our second visit. The sky
+was cloudless, and as we drove through the lanes, the villagers,
+Bible and nosegay in hand, were walking to their respective churches
+far away. There was a sweet Sabbath feeling in the air, and all
+nature seemed to have hushed itself in harmony with the day. We were
+determined not to be late again on this occasion, and as we reached
+the old pile, which, like all citadel churches in Transylvania, is
+built upon an eminence, the same friendly heads we saw last time
+peeped out of the little high casement and asked us to walk in and sit
+awhile, as it still lacked half an hour ere the bell would sound for
+_Gottesdienst_ (service).
+
+On entering the cottage an unexpected scene awaited us. Two young
+girls, one single, the other married, were being dressed in all their
+finery for church; and, oh! what a heap of pomps and vanities--exhumed
+weekly from the family locker--we saw lying on the table! Dressing
+for church in Hamelsdorf is an operation that cannot be accomplished
+by the individual herself, and is one invariably performed by the old
+married women who have relinquished such superfluities in favour of
+their daughters, who sit before a looking-glass whilst they are being
+attired.
+
+As we stood watching the performance we thought it would never end.
+The young women, already clothed in their long white garments, the
+sleeves and bodices of which were beautifully embroidered in stripes of
+red and orange, were first arrayed in blue petticoats and large white
+net overskirts handsomely worked in “tambour” stitch, after which, a
+beautiful girdle studded with turquoises and garnets was fastened round
+the buxom waist, and a small white net cap put upon the head of the
+young wife, a girl of seventeen years, whose long hair had been cut off
+on the day of her marriage in token of subjection to her husband. The
+cap was bound tightly round the head with a scarlet ribbon four yards
+in length, which, fastened at the back, hung almost to the heels of the
+wearer. And now began the real vanities, for over this scarlet band a
+dozen ribbons of similar length were laid, each varying in colour as
+well as pattern, the upper one of which consisted of brocade. A thin
+muslin veil embroidered with gold was now thrown over the head, and
+secured by large silver pins inlaid with precious stones; and lastly a
+crimson satin handkerchief edged with fringe was placed at the side,
+and made to hang down over the dress diagonally by one corner being
+tucked under the belt. The object of this last article of attire is
+purely ornamental, but to my mind it injured the effect of an otherwise
+really pretty costume.
+
+The head-dress of the unmarried girl differs materially from that
+of her married sister, and consists of a high cardboard hat covered
+with black velvet, those who are betrothed being distinguished by a
+band of ribbon worn round the top of the hat, as in the accompanying
+illustration, taken from a photograph; whilst, to complete the
+costume, a black garment resembling a clergyman’s hood hangs down
+behind.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Top boots, which are _de rigueur_ on week days, are not so,
+however, on Sundays, and the feet are often covered with high-heeled
+patent leather boots open up the front, and laced so as to show the
+stocking beneath. But to-morrow these elaborately-dressed daughters of
+Eve will lay aside their finery, and be seen with bare feet working in
+the fields, if that term can be truthfully applied to places where no
+boundaries exist.
+
+It was a pretty sight to see these “Saxon” maids and youthful matrons
+flocking to the church with their long, bright, many-coloured ribbons
+fluttering in the breeze, and the whole village looked _en fête_.
+
+The interior of the church is very quaint and curious, and contains,
+in addition to the ordinary seats, several others high-backed,
+brightly surmounted with wooden canopies, where sit the deacons,
+severe-looking men in a costume of the Cromwell period. On each side
+of the chancel sit the unmarried girls in their high drum-shaped hats;
+whilst the young married women take their places in the body of the
+church with their elders, one side of which is set apart for the men,
+and the other for the women. The sermon, which appeared very earnest
+and was delivered with great impressiveness of manner, was in the
+ancient dialect. Every other Sunday, however, it is preached in the
+pure tongue, the _patois_ being used for the sake of “_die
+alten Mütterchen_” (old grannies), to whom the former is an almost
+unintelligible language.
+
+As we left the church with the Pfarrer, the young women of the
+congregation, who were evidently waiting for the purpose, pressed
+round him and either kissed his hand, or taking hold of a portion of
+his long black cassock raised it reverently to their lips. The scene
+took us back to the times of the early Christian Church, and we left
+the porch greatly impressed with the simplicity of the service and the
+patriarchal lives of the people.
+
+All, however, is not “gold that glitters” in this seemingly happy
+“valley,” for we saw, alas! more than one child-wife already separated
+from her husband at the age of seventeen. Here, as in France, marriages
+are those of _convenance_, and, if the Pfarrer spoke truly, they
+seldom turn out well. The suitor for a girl’s hand, if not actually
+chosen, is at any rate accepted or refused by her father, totally
+without reference to her own personal feelings in the matter. If he
+hold a good position in the little commonwealth, and can give her a
+good home, he is accepted, the girl is told she is to marry him, and
+they are betrothed with much ceremony. In due course, when the harvest
+is over, with which no domestic occurrence is permitted to interfere,
+save the final and inevitable one over which finite man has no control,
+the marriage takes place, and the young wife is expected to be “happy
+ever after.” But unfortunately for these “Saxon” women, they have
+hearts like those of other lands, and the tender passion is not always
+to be controlled. Previously to their marriage they are sometimes
+undutiful enough to set their affections upon some poorer lover, whom
+they cannot forget, and the marriage turns out ill. Occasionally,
+however, if she does not like the suitor chosen by her father, the
+girl refuses to submit to his authority, upon which commences a
+long-sustained war in the hitherto peaceful and happy family. Her
+mother, possibly influenced by the bitter remembrance of her own wrongs
+and heartbreak under similar circumstances--and entertaining, perhaps,
+in some hidden and secret corner of her heart a sneaking fondness even
+yet for the old, white-haired man over the way, whom she once loved
+dearly but was not allowed to marry, and who is now wedded to another
+buxom Hausfrau--sighs as she sees her pretty fair-haired lass, the
+reflection of her own girlhood, called upon to unite herself for aye to
+one she cannot love, and naturally takes her part against the father.
+Squabbles now take place between John and Joan, and the neighbours,
+together with the Pfarrer, are summoned to make peace between them,
+whilst the girl--seldom more than fifteen--mopes and makes her sweet
+blue eyes red with weeping. Sometimes, however, the father, under
+combined persuasion and the continuance of female agitation, is
+compelled to submit, but he does not forgive his daughter for her want
+of subjection to his rule, and the happiness of the little household is
+gone for many a day.
+
+We return to Hermannstadt through the waving corn-fields. As we
+approached the capital the sun was setting, and the porcelain tiles
+of the steeples and cupolas in the Haupt Platz glistening like liquid
+fire. How picturesque is the dear old place in the mellow evening
+light! and how pictorial is it in every line and curve! The streets
+are full of people in their “Sunday best:” Wallach peasant girls with
+arms entwined, their large silver earrings and coral beads jingling as
+they walk along; bonny fair-haired “Saxons,” in large Hiltau hats with
+ribbons flying out behind, and spruce young soldiers in smart uniforms.
+As we rattle through the roughly-paved streets and shoot round the
+corners, heads crane out of windows all amongst the red tiles. A dandy
+Jew in canary-colour gloves, with a bouquet in his button-hole and a
+small cane in his hand, comes out of an archway as from a bandbox, and,
+swaggering down the street, is just about to make an elaborate bow to a
+group of Hermannstadt ladies coming from the opposite direction, when
+our droszky, dashing through the gutter that runs down the middle of
+the street, splashes him, alas! from head to foot, takes the starch
+out of him both physically and morally, and destroys the effect of the
+“occasion.”
+
+The bells from the steeples toll the hour of departing day, and at the
+entrance to the hotel we find András waiting to know our pleasure for
+the morrow.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                           CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+                          WITH THE WALLACHS.
+
+
+Heigh-ho! Pretty little Wallach girl tripping along so gingerly over
+the muddy thoroughfares on thy way to the fountain opposite, and
+stooping to kiss--shall I say it--the dirty hand of the _Popa_,
+who just at this moment passes in his long black toga. Why does he
+linger so long speaking to thee, and why is thy head bent low, and
+thy sweet face, which until this moment was suffused with smiles, so
+downcast, whilst he addresses thee gravely in an undertone? Hast thou
+been remiss in thy observance of the thousand and one fasts of the
+Greek Church? Ah, no! The Popa points to the fountain, where, sitting
+in my projecting room, as in a martin’s nest, I have often seen thee
+talking with a handsome “Saxon” lad, as he filled thy classical-shaped
+pitcher for thee and lingered in the doing of it as though he loved
+thy company; and here thou art again at the trysting place.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Steel thy heart, little Wallach, against that handsome “Saxon” lad, for
+thy spiritual father hath marked you both, and will not let thee wed
+a “Saxon” unbeliever. Think not harshly of him, for he means kindly.
+It is not well or customary for the Wallachs to intermarry with the
+“Saxon” folk; thy people are not their people, nor thy ways their
+ways. Forget this little bit of romance, and wait till some swain from
+amongst thine own people bestows his love upon thee.
+
+How I feel for that pretty little maiden as the tears roll down her
+cheeks, and her full round lips tremble as she struggles with her sobs!
+What a pity there are hearts to break! for, love him as she may, she
+must not marry him. That a “Saxon” youth should wed even with a lass
+of the same kith from another village is regarded with the greatest
+disapprobation, and woe to the girl who is brought into one that is
+not hers by right of birth, for the whole female population rise up in
+dudgeon against the interloper. But--a Wallach!
+
+“Mean, dirty, shabby, idle Wallachs!” are epithets often hurled at
+their unhappy heads--“A Wallach to intermarry with decent ‘Saxon-folk,’
+who has scarce anything to her back, and washes her house-linen every
+week--Bah!”
+
+In “Saxon-land,” as in many parts of Germany, a bride’s trousseau of
+under-linen is so enormous that the family washing is of scarcely
+more than annual occurrence, or at the very most quarterly; and as
+in England the respectability of a family is estimated according to
+the amount of its butcher’s bill, so public opinion in “Saxon-land”
+is principally governed by the number of “washes” a family may have
+in the course of a year. The Wallach women, therefore, muddling in
+their weekly wash-tub, are held in great contempt by the thrifty
+“Saxon” dames, who possess clothes in their lockers they have never
+even worn. And, although tolerated as common citizens, the Wallachs
+are considered quite outside the pale of “Saxon” society. In fact
+there is no love lost between the two races. The Wallachs regard their
+“Saxon” neighbours as a “canny folk,” prone to get rich too fast and
+sometimes by practices that are scarcely within the bounds of honesty;
+whilst the “Saxons” look down upon their Wallach brethren as idle,
+thriftless loons, possessing lax notions as to the respective merits
+of _meum_ and _tuum_, and the exclusiveness of individual
+property.
+
+During the war of Hungarian Independence, however, the canny “Saxons”
+curried favour with the Wallachs, and induced them to unite with
+them in siding with Austria against the Magyars. And fearful were
+the atrocities committed by the Wallachs on the defenceless Magyar
+residents and “Nobles” of Transylvania, many of whose children were
+carried round the villages spiked on the top of the Wallachs’ bayonets,
+whilst women were cruelly tortured, and by a refinement of cruelty some
+of the men were buried up to their necks, and then mown down.
+
+In this once exclusive “Saxon”-land there are at present large
+villages almost wholly inhabited by Wallachs, some of which contain a
+population of several thousand souls. The approach to these villages
+may invariably be recognised by the number of wayside crosses and
+little temples met with along the road; the latter crowded with statues
+and paintings in fresco, there being, as in Gallicia, no limit to the
+construction of saints, which are of every colour and material. These
+Wallach villages are far less clean, but they are more picturesque,
+than those of the “Saxons.” Instead of stone, the houses are almost
+entirely built of wood, and their gables are surmounted by a cross. The
+streets are long and narrow; while each house has its own courtyard
+enclosed behind high wooden palings carved roughly but in beautiful
+designs, entered by a doorway covered with a small wooden roof.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The Wallach churches are very singular, and are often painted on the
+outside from top to bottom with grotesque figures. Inside they are
+invariably dark and gloomy, the walls being painted in sombre colours
+interspersed with gold. The small lancet windows begrimed with dust
+admit but little light, for the Wallachs, unlike the Magyars, indulge
+in the “dim religious” to such an extent that their churches resemble
+Buddhist temples far more than edifices dedicated to the worship of
+Christ. The roofs are dome-shaped, and the naves, which are paved with
+black marble, empty. There are no seats of any kind, and the people
+during the service either stand or kneel.
+
+In these villages one sees no rags nor even mended garments, and if an
+“idle,” the Wallachs would nevertheless seem to be a very thriving,
+people. Like the “gentle Slovaks,” they have their cow, their poultry
+and little plot of land which their women sow with seed and hoe and
+cultivate, whilst the men guide the plough, or more frequently stay
+at home and look after the children. The Wallach woman is a most
+industrious creature, and much maligned by her “Saxon” sister, and if
+she does not possess a great store of ready-made linen in her locker,
+and washes once a week, she has at any rate large rolls of unbleached
+homespun on her shelves. In the autumn she begins spinning vigorously
+for the winter’s weaving, after which she makes the material into
+garments for her numerous progeny. Too much, however, cannot be said
+concerning the indolence of the male Wallach, whose prosperity is
+generally due to his wife’s industry rather than to his own. More slow
+even than the Magyar, he works as though it were a matter of the most
+sublime indifference whether the occupation in which he is engaged be
+ever finished, and if he goes to market with farm-produce other than
+his own, he usually lies in the waggon fast asleep, and arrives at his
+destination just when the “Saxon-folk” are returning home.
+
+He is in truth but too often a poor, feeble, and effeminate creature,
+greatly fallen from the courage and valour of his first estate. The
+form of Christianity taught him by the ignorant Popas, doubtless does
+much to foster this indolence and effeminacy, for the teaching of the
+Greek Church in these secluded villages is almost exclusively confined
+to the observance of its fasts.
+
+“If God,” so argues the Wallach peasant, “clothes the lilies of the
+field and feeds the fowls of the air, who never go to church, how much
+more will He clothe and feed me, who go there every Sunday, and fast
+almost every alternate day in the week besides?”
+
+The orthodox Wallach will do anything rather than violate these fasts,
+which occupy more than a third part of the entire year. He believes
+in ghosts, vampires, and changelings, and spends much of his time in
+inventing charms against the machinations of the Devil. The belief in
+witchcraft also is still prevalent in Transylvania, and more than one
+old woman was pointed out to us even by the enlightened “Saxons” as
+being gifted with that art.
+
+Amongst other superstitions, the Wallachs entertain a strong objection
+to beginning anything either on Tuesday or Saturday; whilst the
+reverential awe in which they hold Friday may be evidenced by an
+amusing incident which has been related of two men who were committed
+to trial for having waylaid and murdered a traveller. When brought
+to justice they confessed the crime; but upon being asked by the
+magistrate what they had done with the plunder, they replied that they
+had only found upon their victim a few florins and a roasted fowl, the
+former they had divided between them, but the latter they had given to
+the dog, as, being Friday, they were afraid to eat it on account of
+committing a sin.
+
+So ignorant are the priests of the Oriental branch of the Greek Church,
+that few can do more than read and write, whilst some are so miserably
+poor, that they are compelled to eke out their scanty subsistence by
+working as day-labourers. The priests of the “United Greek” and “Latin”
+Churches are, on the contrary, both better educated and better paid,
+their livings being largely endowed by the State.
+
+Less picturesque in itself than some others, but beautifully situated,
+is the Wallach village of Czood, which lies at the foot of mountains
+that enclose it on all sides. In the centre of the village rises the
+metal cupola of the church, whilst nestling round it are the wooden
+houses with their heavy carved palings and doorways.
+
+On first entering its cottages we were under the impression that they
+were shops for the sale of native manufacture, for the walls were
+covered, not only with rows of jugs and cups, but square pieces of
+striped drapery likewise. We soon found, however, that these articles
+were simply placed there to decorate the apartment, for, whereas the
+“Saxon” _Hausfrau_ prides herself in her stock of linen, the glory
+of the Wallach matron, like that of her Magyar sister, consists in the
+number of articles of crockery she has hanging round her walls, much
+of the money received by the “gudewife” on market days for her butter,
+poultry, and eggs being spent, ere she returns, on these singular
+frivolities. Not only this, the Wallach woman covers her walls with
+useless square patches of woollen fabric, woven by herself in divers
+colours and patterns.
+
+Wherever we go amongst the Wallachs, we are received with the utmost
+courtesy and kindness. They are adepts in the art of pleasing, and
+invariably meet us with a smile, addressing us in their corrupted Latin
+with such sweet, musical voices that they completely win our hearts.
+The men, too, doff their hats as we pass them on the road, and give us
+a word of greeting; but the less courteous “Saxons”--_never_.
+
+We had travelled already more than ten days in Transylvania without
+having yet seen a Wallach baby, these little mortals seeming to be
+as scarce here as Slovak ones are numerous; but on entering another
+cottage we found, lying fast asleep in a cradle swathed _al
+bambino_, a funny stiff little atom of humanity that one could no
+more have bent than if it had been an idol made of wood or stone,
+whilst near it stood its mother, a child herself of sixteen years,
+scrubbing away vigorously at the weekly wash.
+
+As is usually the case, the house formed the abode of several
+generations of the same family, and consisted of three apartments,
+the inner one being very prettily furnished, its tables covered with
+Oriental-looking cloths of home manufacture. Beneath the walls of the
+room were ranged benches with high backs, on which flowers were painted
+in a style that would have done for models of the so-called “high art”
+of the period. The Wallachs not only spin their wool and flax, and
+weave their own materials, but dye them also, and their arrangement of
+colours is always harmonious.
+
+Great excitement prevailed in the cottage when it was discovered
+we were strangers from Ángol-land, and we felt pretty much as an
+illustrious couple from the Sandwich Islands might be supposed to
+feel on visiting our shores. What a lifting up of eyes and hands in
+astonishment, and cries of “La, la!”--the Wallach’s favourite mode of
+expressing surprise. One ejaculated “_Intestate_,” intimating
+thereby that she was bewildered at the very thought of it; whilst
+another, in adding gesture to her exclamation of astonishment, upset
+the washing-tub, and awoke the chrysalis in the cradle, which,
+beginning to cry, added its own small voice to the general tumult, in
+the middle of which in walked the village Popa.
+
+A young man, with a soft expression of countenance, and with dark hair
+parted down the middle and hanging loosely over his shoulders, he might
+have sat for a picture of St. John. In intelligence he appeared far
+above the average of Popas of the Oriental Greek Church, and spoke
+German well. On ascertaining who the “illustrious strangers” were, he
+kissed our hands, and begged we would permit him to conduct us to his
+dwelling.
+
+Passing under the massive wooden archway that led to the enclosure,
+we entered the house, which differed little from the one we had
+just quitted. His wife, to whom he introduced us in quite European
+fashion, was a sweet young woman dressed in the costume of the Wallach
+peasantry. We had scarcely seated ourselves, when, pattering about with
+her naked feet, she began to spread a white cloth on the table, and
+arrange upon it such things as their larder afforded, consisting of
+black bread, honey, butter, fruit, white wine, and Borszék--a mineral
+water with which wine is usually partaken of in Transylvania. We
+required nothing, but felt instinctively that by refusing to partake of
+the refreshment so gracefully offered, we should hurt their feelings.
+As soon, therefore, as we were bidden to the little feast, we took our
+seats as a matter of course and without demur.
+
+According to the rules of their Church these Popas are obliged to
+be married men; but possessing in common with the Magyars somewhat
+Oriental ideas on many points, they regard their wives as slightly
+inferior in the scale of humanity to themselves. Whilst we partook of
+the simple repast prepared for us, the little wife sat at the other end
+of the room working, maintaining the while that respectful silence
+which she naturally would who felt she held an inferior position.
+
+“My wife is always industrious,” said the young Popa--calling our
+attention to her--“that is all her work”--pointing to a number
+of shelves on the opposite side of the apartment on which rested
+large rolls of unbleached linen. “At this time of year we have many
+out-of-door pursuits,” he continued, “but in the winter days, when
+there is little to be done in the fields and there is no sowing or
+planting or ingathering of grain, our women work busily at their looms.”
+
+Going across the room to the bench where his demure little wife sat
+with her feet crossed one over the other, I looked at her work. She was
+embroidering, in scarlet and black silks, the bodices and sleeves of
+the white under-garment always worn by Wallach women, the stitch being
+that familiarly known as “sampler,” two threads of the material being
+taken up on the needle diagonally, and then crossed: the effect of a
+broad stripe of embroidery in this stitch in a close Eastern pattern
+being very beautiful.
+
+“_Quanto graziosa tu sei!_”--(How lovely you are!)--I exclaimed in
+Italian, as with her sweet, pensive, Madonna-like face she looked down
+on her work.
+
+She understood me perfectly, and lifting her eyes to mine, regarded me
+with a frank, unconscious smile, for to the Hungarian women, wherever
+they are met with, vanity is a vice unknown.
+
+Whilst F. and the Popa talked religion and politics, I lingered at her
+side examining her pretty bodice and sleeves, together with her large
+silver earrings, just for an excuse to look at and admire her.
+
+Those of the Wallachs generally consist of a ring some three or four
+inches in diameter, from which hang loose pendants of rich design.
+They do not go through the ear, but are fastened round it; hence the
+necessity of the long, loose chain which crosses the neck and connects
+them for safety to each other. These circular earrings are very
+becoming to their Wallach wearers, who have oval faces, and possess,
+like the Magyars, bewitching beauty when young, but, alas! how soon
+their beauty fades.
+
+Mr. Bonar was evidently well known here also, our host remarking that
+he remembered having seen him when a lad, and whenever he is alluded to
+it is invariably as “_the_ Englishman.”
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+                        THE ROTHER THURM PASS.
+
+
+People never keep time in Transylvania, neither do the clocks. By the
+one ticking in our room it is just half-past four, whereas our watches,
+differing somewhat in opinion, point to a quarter to seven.
+
+The previous evening a droszky had been ordered to be ready at six
+o’clock to take us on our proposed excursion to the Valley of the
+Aluta, but still it made no sign. At length, after sending András,
+two waiters, and the landlord himself to hasten its arrival, at
+half-past seven it came dashing under the old archway with “exemplary
+punctuality” according as that substantive is understood in Hungary.
+
+Anxious to see some of the by-ways of Transylvania, and having left our
+own carriage at Pest on starting for the Danube, we hire one here for a
+week, together with a stout pair of horses, for which András agrees to
+pay eight gulden a day and the driver’s expenses.
+
+Some difficulty, however, was experienced in finding a driver, the
+landlord of the hotel being unable to spare his own for so long a
+period. There were plenty of Wallachs to be met with who could drive,
+but the difficulty was to find one of sufficiently lax morals to
+consent to start on the day we desired. To do so on a _fast_
+day would be out of the question, and as Tuesday and Saturday are
+_unlucky_ days, and to start on a Friday would inevitably result
+in the most disastrous consequences, there were not many days left to
+choose from. Monday, however, fortunately happened to be an “off” day.
+True, it was the Vigil of St. Philomena, V.M., but on our proposal to
+start so early in the morning, that little obstacle was in some measure
+overcome.
+
+Few arrangements were necessary for the journey. In a country where
+such Oriental hospitality exists, more than one day’s provisions
+were unnecessary. Our programme in the first instance was to travel
+due south through the Valley of the Aluta into Roumania, and then,
+rejoining the high-road at Vestan, journey to Kronstadt, the latter
+being only two or at most three days’ distance from Hermannstadt.
+
+The morning is heavenly, and our hearts light as air, as, thundering
+through the archway, we emerge into a street and go rattling off
+towards the Fogaras Mountains. As we pass the barracks the cavalry are
+parading on the plain outside, and fifes and drums playing vigorously;
+but away we go into the open country between boundless stretches of
+yellowing corn. The road which is wide is crowded with vehicles on
+their way to market; waggons filled with hides, barrels of wine, and
+farm produce; pedestrians driving cows and calves, the latter so
+extremely juvenile that they cannot walk alone and require assistance,
+for infantine veal is much esteemed by the “natives.” Other pedestrians
+are driving small colts--also weak on the legs--and carrying in their
+bosoms tenderly and lovingly wee, snow-white lambs.
+
+Next comes a Transylvanian swine-herd driving his unsavoury flock
+of yellow pigs--lean as Pharaoh’s kine--and in form hyenas, with
+long, red-brown hair and high backs resembling those we saw when
+travelling amongst the Slovaks. All have come from distant villages,
+and who shall say how early in the dawn their owners started, for the
+Wallachs, whatever else may be laid to their charge, are at any rate
+no sluggards. Plenty of “Saxons,” too, are hastening along the road
+clothed in white frieze jerkins and felt hats.
+
+The two races are not easily distinguished by their dress, but we
+recognise them by a truer sign. The Wallachs as they pass us lift
+their hats, and in their soft and melodious tongue exclaim “_Bune
+deminiace!_” (good morning). A carriage passes us containing a
+Wallachian gentleman, who also takes his cigar from his lips and
+greets us with the word, “_Applecaciune!_” which also means “good
+morning,” but a form of salutation used between equals, the former
+expression being invariably adopted by an inferior when addressing
+a superior. Even when lying down in their coats, the otherwise lazy
+Wallach, unless he happen to be fast asleep, will rise to perform this
+little act of civility, but the “Saxons” take no notice of us whatever,
+and go trudging on their way in dogged silence. Very pleasing is the
+courtesy of the Wallach, and we are careful to return it, upon which
+they lift their hats again and again and add something which we cannot
+understand.
+
+Now and then a waggon covered with an awning of plaited reeds, and
+filled with peasant women and girls clad in holiday attire, comes
+lumbering along, and sometimes an old weather-beaten, time-worn
+_calèche_ drawn by three horses abreast, with nodding hood, in
+which sit the squires and squireens of the neighbouring country,
+smoking long pipes, on their way to Hermannstadt to see the price at
+which the produce of their estates sells at the market.
+
+Away right before us tower the Transylvanian Alps, their summits
+covered with snow. All the market people have passed by this time on
+their way--the last herd of swine; the last shaky little calves and
+long-legged, straddling colts; the last waggon-load of “Saxon” or
+Wallach girls; and the last family of unkempt, unwashed gipsies, their
+legs bound up in flannel _à la Wallach_, and tied round with
+leather thongs--all have passed, and we have the road to ourselves with
+the exception of a heavy bullock cart driven by a woman with a baby in
+her arms, and now and then a waggon driven lazily by a drowsy Wallach.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Already women from distant and unseen villages have begun their labours
+in the pastures, some guiding the rude plough, whilst others are sowing
+seed, grain by grain from their blue aprons, like people in the Bible.
+On the uplands, stretching across the mystery of blue mountains, stand
+the dead stalks of last year’s corn; the brown of the untilled land,
+and the yellow lanceolate leaves upon which the sun is shining, forming
+just the golden tint the picture needed to rest against the azure
+background and render it complete. In other places oxen are turning
+up the soil that has been left fallow for three years; for land is so
+abundant here that it is only after that interval has elapsed that it
+is again cultivated. On these uplands sturdy “Saxon” matrons may be
+seen riding _en cavalière_ the leading bullock which drags the
+heavy plough, maintaining to this day many of the characteristics of
+their Gothic ancestors, who associated themselves with the stronger
+sex, not only in the labours of the field, but also to a life of
+danger and glory, and whom we read of as “martial heroines,” wearing
+“_braccæ_”--whatever those articles of attire may have been--and
+when taken captive in arms accompanying the triumphal processions of
+Aurelian on horseback.
+
+The Rother Thurm Pass, to which we are bound on this loveliest of
+summer mornings, lies in a beautiful valley twelve English miles from
+Hermannstadt. Our driver, with a bunch of blue and pink hyacinths in
+his hat and another in his button-hole, keeps the horses well up to
+their pace. The road, which follows the river, is excellent the whole
+way, and we soon come in sight of the red tower which, standing to our
+right on the steep mountain side, has given the Pass its name. Behind
+its ramparts a soldier was patrolling, although there is little need
+of this guard-post now that nothing is to be dreaded from the Eastern
+tribes. In 1493 there was a terrible carnage in this peaceful pastoral
+valley, when its green hills echoed to the shrieks of the drowning
+and the slain, for the Turks, expecting to meet with no resistance,
+marched fearlessly over the border and entered the Pass on their way
+to the capital. Their intended foray, however, was happily discovered,
+and, under the prompt measures taken by the _Burgomeister_ of
+Hermannstadt, speedily suppressed. Sending out secret emissaries to
+all parts of the district, he gathered together every male peasant
+in the borders, and causing them to lie in ambush, they awaited the
+coming of the unsuspecting foe, who as they advanced were routed and
+driven back with great slaughter. Half-way through the gorge in the
+very centre of the stream, a solitary tower is seen, which at one time
+no doubt also defended the Pass. It is in a state of ruin now, and,
+forming a very picturesque object, adds not a little to the beauty of
+its surroundings. At this point the Litriora meets the Aluta and both
+flow on side by side without mingling in the least, the one clear as
+crystal, reflecting the forest-clad mountains which rise above it, the
+other thick and sandy.
+
+At noon we reach the Roumanian frontier, where, in the large kitchen
+which formed the entrance to the hostel, we found a number of footsore,
+weary-looking women resting whilst they ate their mid-day meal of black
+bread. They wore a very Oriental-looking costume, besides which their
+lips and finger-tips were dyed, but all looked dreadfully worn and
+exhausted.
+
+“They have not yet recovered from their long _Fastenzeit_,”
+exclaimed the landlord, a benevolent-looking man, on observing that we
+regarded them with pity. “It is wonderful how the poor creatures live,
+they eat so little food and do such hard work. They are on their way
+to Hermannstadt with fruit and honey, and will have to be back again
+to-morrow or they will be beaten by their idle husbands. They are good,
+quiet creatures, these Roumanian women; I know them well. The Popas
+keep them up to their weekly fasts, and during the forty days of Lent
+I have many a time seen them faint upon the road under their heavy
+burdens.”
+
+A tumbler of white wine, which we ordered to be given all round as an
+accompaniment to their black bread, soon brought light to their eyes
+and colour to their pallid cheeks, and we were much struck on observing
+that, ere tasting it, each woman stood up, turned her face to the wall,
+and uttered a prayer. If they had only known what they were about to
+partake of, it would not, I suspect, have been a very fervent one, for
+on tasting the wine afterwards we found it to be as sour as vinegar. So
+grateful were they, however, at the moment, and so much warmth did it
+bring to their hearts, that untying their bundles they withdrew from
+them handfuls of walnuts and forced them upon our acceptance, some even
+benevolently offering to crack them for our immediate refection in the
+most primitive of all methods. Several of these poor women I observed
+had _goitre_, that disease so prevalent in all mountainous
+districts.
+
+This neighbourhood has an evil reputation for robbers. In an inner
+room, the door of which was open, we could see hanging to the wall a
+musket and two revolvers, but all were, I suspect, used more frequently
+for purposes of sport than as weapons of defence, for the forests in
+the vicinity are full of game. Deer abound in the wooded hills that
+enclose the Pass; whilst in the higher ridges beyond bears and even
+chamois are found; besides which a lynx is occasionally met with,
+together with wild-boars and wolves, the latter being the very terror
+of the shepherds. Bearing down in large packs they will often destroy
+a whole flock of sheep in a single night, killing even when they do
+not devour; bears, on the contrary, never attack, and have sometimes
+been known, as in the great Slavonian forests on the Lower Danube, to
+fraternise with the herds when led to the mountains for pasture.
+
+Later in the day, walking further up the gorge, we crossed a bridge,
+and, passing the frontier with its custom-houses and guard-post,
+entered Roumania. The trees throwing cool shadows across the road
+rendered the walk delightful. How silent all was! not a sound was heard
+save the roar of the river, as it flowed beneath over its rocky bed;
+not a sign of human life was visible. How dreary must be the lives of
+these few soldiers who guard the frontier, completely shut out as they
+are from the world of men! To the right, high above us, on the steep
+slope of the mountain, were sad evidences, however, not only of their
+living, but also dying, here far away from their fellows. Climbing a
+rugged path, and looking over the high hurdles which protected it from
+the ravages of wolves, was a lonely little cemetery. In the corner lay
+the usual pathetic heap of battered wooden crosses--types of man’s
+forgetfulness of those who lie in the domain of silence. Near the gates
+some gipsies or other travellers had evidently been bivouacking, for a
+fire was still smouldering, though all traces of themselves had fled.
+
+Above, rose the summits of Surul and Negoi, the former, though
+completely covered with verdure, attaining an elevation of 8000 feet.
+
+The mountains that enclose this valley are very beautiful, and form a
+succession of mighty buttresses, between every one of which is a leafy
+gorge whence issues a stream of water foaming down its rocky channel to
+swell the classic Aluta, which, taking its rise not far from Moldavia,
+wends its way southwards till it finally empties itself into the Danube.
+
+Weary with our walk we throw ourselves down by the side of one of
+these streams, and watch it running in and out amongst the stones as
+it comes gurgling towards us with a pleasant dreamy sound. Presently,
+borne over the still air, comes the plaintive sound of a woman’s
+voice singing a melancholy strophe, and looking over the crest of the
+opposite hill we descry a dark speck which, growing more definite as it
+comes zig-zagging down the path, turns out to be a young gipsy with a
+baby at her back. She was singing one of those Roumanian _doïne_
+or ballads which, like those of the ancient troubadour, are full of
+tenderness and love, the one in question ending each verse with the
+words _Yuchza! Yuchza!_ which sounded like a call.
+
+Like nearly all the Transylvanian and Roumanian gipsies she was
+exceedingly pretty, with small features, full lips, and large lustrous
+eyes, her complexion as dark as that of an Asiatic, whilst her hands
+were of that peculiar shade of blue black one often sees in the Indians
+of the south. We spoke to her in German, but she could not understand
+us, the only word she herself seemed capable of speaking in that
+language being _Deutsch_, which she uttered interrogatively as
+though wishing to know to what nation we belonged.
+
+“_No!_” we replied, in Italian--“_Inglese!_”
+
+“_Englesca! Ah! Dei pace! Dei pace!_” was the rejoinder, in that
+sad intonation in which every gipsy speaks.
+
+“Where are you going to take those?” we inquired in the same language,
+pointing to a number of new baskets she carried on her arm, and which
+appeared to be for sale.
+
+“To Hermannstadt, _buona Signora_.”
+
+“To Hermannstadt? But where will you sleep? You cannot reach that town
+to-night.”
+
+“There!” was the laconic reply, motioning in the direction of the woods
+opposite.
+
+The bestowal of ten kreuzers brought upon our heads a shower of gipsy
+blessings, and as she kissed our hands and went wandering on her way,
+we watched the blue mist rising from the valley and shuddered as we
+pictured to our minds the young creature lying with her baby in the
+lonely woods through the hours of darkness. To the free, unfettered,
+true-born gipsy, however, the canopy of heaven is her roof, the horizon
+the boundary of her habitation, the stars her companions, and grim
+night itself the kind and gentle mother soothing her to sleep, for
+familiarity with nature has made her one with it, and it with her.
+
+As we recross the Roumanian frontier, and once more plant our feet on
+Hungarian soil we see approaching in picturesque procession a large
+herd of long-haired goats accompanied by a man playing the bag-pipes,
+the harsh strains of which he seems to be thoroughly enjoying as he
+slowly heads his woolly charge. He is a wild-looking fellow, clad from
+head to foot in sheepskin, but we address him also in Italian, and he
+understands our simple questions perfectly, and tells us he is leading
+his flock over into Turkey for pasture. On observing that we take an
+interest in his rude instrument, he takes from the capacious pocket of
+his loose jacket another consisting of a long horn made from the bark
+of a tree, through which he blows lustily, waking the echoes along the
+valley for many a mile. He is followed by two lovely Roumanian girls,
+of whom it is said there are many in the Sultan’s Harem, who have been
+stolen from this district from their parents and carried back captive
+to Turkey.
+
+The natives of Roumania or Wallachia proper have a very Grecian type of
+feature, and seem to possess even yet the reflection of the Thracian
+blood of their ancestors.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XL.
+
+                    THE GREEK HERMITAGE OF BUCSECS.
+
+
+In consequence of its proximity to Turkey, Kronstadt wears an almost
+Eastern look, while, lying as it does between mountains that separate
+Transylvania from Wallachia, its position is exceedingly picturesque,
+its walls and towers and bristling spires standing out against a
+background of green. It is a bustling town, full of life and animation,
+a considerable trade being carried on between it and Moldavia and
+Wallachia in articles manufactured in the district, from which cause
+Kronstadt is frequently called the “Transylvanian Manchester.”
+
+Its population, which consists of about 50,000 souls, is, like that
+of many other parts of Hungary, “mixed,” and the stranger, as he
+walks the streets, is jostled, not only by the canny “Saxon” and wily
+Székler, the cunning Jew, and the polished Greek, but by the demure and
+smooth-faced Armenian, likewise the “Quaker of the East.”
+
+If everything in Hermannstadt reminds one of the “life and times” of
+Albert Dürer, how much more does Kronstadt, in spite of its polyglot
+population and Eastern habits. What curious old passages, staircases,
+and galleries are there, and strong buttresses, gateways, and towers
+which seem to be enclosing prison walls!
+
+In the old quarter no two houses are alike. There are high ones
+against which small “leans-to” are clinging like barnacles against a
+ship’s side, whilst others seem to have thrown out bulbs and bulbous
+protuberances like miniature reproductions of themselves, and there is
+a hopeless and bewildering medley of masonry everywhere.
+
+In this neighbourhood, as in Hermannstadt, the churches are surrounded
+by high battlemented walls and other means of defence against the wild
+Moslem hordes, which, pouring in through the passes of the south-east
+Carpathians, once swept over the smiling plains of Kronstadt. In the
+quaint little suburban villages we are reminded of those of the Sieben
+Gebirge on the Rhine, their heavy stillness being full of the poetry of
+the middle ages.
+
+In one of these villages it was also our fate to spend Sunday. As the
+great bell began to toll for _Gottesdienst_, the people pour out
+of the massive oak doorways of the houses as from old picture-frames,
+the women in their high, drum-shaped, black velvet hats, and the men
+in quaint leathern sleeveless jerkins and small clothes precisely like
+those worn in England in the 17th century.
+
+On many of the houses in these villages, painted in large German
+characters above the doors or windows, and sometimes stretching across
+the whole length of the house, are appropriate verses of Scripture,
+such as the following: “The Lord bless thy going out and thy coming
+in.” “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build
+it;” whilst on a barn where corn was housed, we read the words, “The
+earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” and on a house at the
+entrance to the village were the words, “Except the Lord keep the
+city, the watchman waketh but in vain,”--all testifying to the devout
+minds of the inhabitants. But let us follow them into the old church,
+and taking our seats on the benches that are arranged, one side for
+the men, the other for women, await the commencement of the Lutheran
+service. The sermon, happily for us, on this occasion is in “High
+German.” The preacher, a funny little man of unusual volubility of
+speech for one of the Teuton race, takes for his subject the “Peace of
+Heaven.” No sooner had the hymn ceased and the sermon begun, than, with
+one accord, the old men and women deliberately folded their arms and
+went off into a comfortable doze!
+
+Within the pulpit, as in many old Roman Catholic churches, were several
+steps, and the preacher, beginning his sermon on the lowest, mounts
+one by one as he warms to his subject. In olden times it would seem to
+have been the custom for these “Saxon” grandsires and grandams to fall
+victims to slumber, for in the ancient archives of their church are
+rules framed when they first settled in the land, one of which imposes
+a penalty of eight kreuzers--a large sum in those days--on any one who
+should fall asleep during Divine service--a rule that would, however,
+seem to be relaxed in these degenerate days.
+
+Presently, whilst the other sleepers maintained rigid silence, an old
+goody clad in a black cloth cloak of mediæval pattern, and sitting on
+a bench immediately before me, began to snore, an occasion which was
+“improved” by a younger woman, who, by a series of strong-minded and
+well-directed pokes with her elbow, endeavoured to keep the offender
+awake. These demonstrations, however, had no effect, beyond that of
+arousing her for the moment. Raising her heavy eyelids and fixing them
+upon the region of the pulpit, her head soon drooped upon her chest
+again.
+
+The preacher, as he advanced in his discourse, grew more eloquent.
+He stood on the topmost step, and leaning over the side looked down
+upon the sleepers. “The peace of Heaven? Ah, yes! But not for you who
+slander and defraud your neighbour”--turning his head in the direction
+of the high-backed canopied seats, where sat the lay dignitaries of the
+church;--“not for you who spend your time in idle talk, in dancing and
+at _Fests_,” regarding this time the young girls seated demurely
+in the chancel with their floating ribbons and drum-shaped hats;--“not
+for you-a-a-ah! not for you, and you, and you, and you,”--pointing each
+time to an individual still in a state of somnolency, “who waste the
+golden moments in this sacred place by yielding to slumber.”
+
+This homethrust was evidently more than the strong-minded female could
+endure; for, giving her neighbour an indignant protest with her elbow,
+she exclaimed in no gentle tone--
+
+“_Erwachet!_ (Awake!) The Herr Pfarrer is talking to you.”
+
+Thus aroused, the sleepers--accustomed only to the sonorous
+ejaculations of the preacher--suddenly awake, and there is a general
+stir throughout the little congregation, during which the sermon
+happily draws to a close.
+
+The following morning, bidding adieu to Kronstadt, we started for the
+Castle of Terzburg and the Greek Hermitage of Bucsecs, situated in the
+most south-eastern portion of Transylvania. We are now so near the
+Fogaras Mountains that they appear within a stone’s throw, their noble
+buttresses and steep sides scoured by a thousand watercourses, showing
+rugged in the sunlit portions, and blue, deep, and mysterious in the
+shadows.
+
+Towards noon, passing through a forest, a family of gipsies pounce out
+upon us unexpectedly, and follow our carriage, turning somersaults,
+hopping on one leg, and performing other gymnastic exercises, with the
+view to attract our attention whilst keeping pace with us, one and
+all looking so inhuman with their dark skin and matted hair that they
+might have been demons of the woods. As we near a village, others come
+pouring out of a nest of huts on its outskirts, who, joining the first
+company, hold out their little hands for kreuzers, and clutch them when
+bestowed with a greed as if each had been an infant miser and every
+coin had been of sterling gold.
+
+The whole of the plains here are cultivated with hemp, flax, poppies,
+buckwheat, and tobacco, and seem a beauteous garden; the deep crimson
+and purple of the poppies, tender blue of the flax, delicate pink of
+the buckwheat, and yellow flower of the colza forming a wonderful
+harmony of colour in the brilliant atmosphere; whilst here and there in
+the uncultivated portions a herd of black buffaloes idly browsing give
+quite an Eastern appearance to the scene.
+
+Here, as in the Tátra, Slavonia, and other parts of Hungary, many of
+the forests have been either cut or burnt down, but nowhere could we
+detect signs of replanting, and the romantic name of this beautiful
+country--Transylvania--will soon cease to be appropriate unless some
+counteracting influences are brought to bear against such reckless
+spoliation.
+
+The castles in Hungary are very interesting, and, like those of the
+Robber Knights of old, are almost invariably perched on the summit
+of some inaccessible mountain or high pinnacle of rock, where the
+dwellers could defy all foes. The village of Terzburg, situated on the
+extreme confines of Transylvania, is of the most barbarous description,
+inhabited solely by herdsmen and their families, who graze their cattle
+on the mountains. The castle or fortress, which, with its many turrets
+and towers, is a mixture of the Byzantine and Gothic architecture,
+stands on the topmost ridge of an isolated rock commanding the pass
+into Wallachia, and was originally garrisoned by a military religious
+Order of Teutonic Knights. It is approached by a steep pathway, the
+interior of the castle being entered by a small postern under the tower
+now reached by a wooden staircase, but in ancient time by a movable
+ladder.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Anything more wild and romantic than the position of the castle cannot
+be conceived, its accessories reminding the spectator of the nursery
+tales of his childhood--of Bluebeard and Giant Despair. Inside there
+are grim passages, trap-doors, and yawning depths, all bearing silent
+witness to the troublous times when these borders were invaded by the
+Tartar and the Turk.
+
+In order to make the excursion to and from the Greek Hermitage in
+one day, it was necessary we should sleep at Terzburg this and the
+following night; but to bivouac in the “open” with so barbarous and
+formidable a folk as the Terzburger herdsmen was a thing we had by no
+means bargained for in our travels; András, however, apostrophising his
+favourite deity--assured us, “_der Teufel!_” that they were not
+a bad “_Herrschaft_”, if we only knew how to take them; and at
+once made friends with them by enlisting their services in procuring
+wood for our camp-fire, after which, having learnt many useful lessons
+from the gipsies, we soon erected the orthodox tripod, and cooked our
+evening meal whilst the setting sun was blazing on the castle walls.
+
+Although the day had been extremely hot and sultry the evening air
+was chill, and crouching round our cheery camp-fire we watch the
+night creeping silently over the hills and upon the castle walls till
+they stand out black against the sky. Then, wrapping ourselves in
+our _bundas_, we follow with our gaze the stars on their silent
+track through space, and note how some burn red to the very verge of
+the horizon, while others rise above it but to set again, like those
+dear ones who come on earth to bless us for awhile, and then leave
+us with nought but their shining pathway to tell us whither they are
+gone. Suddenly out of the deep blue zenith shines forth one of those
+strange visitants of our firmament, a shooting-star. With inconceivable
+velocity the fiery traveller took its course from east to west and
+then vanished into space.
+
+Night had far advanced ere we laid our weary limbs to rest within
+the shelter of the carriage, which, like our own old friend, was
+constructed to permit of our lying in it at full length. How strange
+it was to be listening to the soft and gentle noises outside, the
+mysterious rustlings of insects in the grass, and the muffled sound
+of voices proceeding from the huts, in which lights are flickering
+here and there, but we slept soundly and did not awake till a loud
+_Alpenhorn_ blown by some muscular herdsman aroused the echoes of
+the dawn.
+
+András was already up, and had not only made a fire but was preparing
+breakfast for us on the dewy green-sward, his figure, weird and
+mysterious in the dim light, looking like some _Erd-Männchen_ as
+it moved about. From out the veil above the stars were shining feebly,
+and blinking like the weary eyes of persons who have been keeping vigil
+all the night. The air which fans our cheeks comes fresh and moist from
+its bath of dew, and there is everywhere around a succession of small,
+tremulous, and intermittent sounds like those of living creatures
+roused from a state of inaction into new life.
+
+The sun was rising, and, like a row of mighty altar-fires, glowed the
+snowy pinnacles of the Transylvanian Alps, as, mounting our mules, we
+started on our journey, one of the Terzburg herdsmen accompanying us in
+the capacity of guide.
+
+Like the Northern Carpathians, those of the south also are
+characterised by dense forests and narrow gorges. Our path, formed by
+the dry bed of a watercourse, was stony and difficult, but we soon
+entered a forest of pines, through whose tall straight stems the snowy
+peaks could here and there be seen glistening like silver. At length,
+making our way along the rocky sides of a mountain--our path often
+scarcely more than two feet wide--we looked down upon a dark and narrow
+valley filled with black pines, from which wreaths of vapour were
+ascending as from a huge cauldron.
+
+Reaching the Wallachian frontier-post on the edge of the mountain, we
+have a splendid panorama, and look down not only upon Burzen-land--as
+the country round Kronstadt is called, on account of the river Burzen
+which flows through it--but likewise on a portion of Szeklerland with
+its sombre pine-clad mountains.
+
+In an hour’s time, and after a most fatiguing ride, far exceeding
+in difficulty any of our equestrian experiences in the Snowy Tátra,
+we find ourselves at the bottom of a valley terminating in a narrow
+gorge, the rocks of which assume all the appearance of cliffs. On the
+highest pinnacle of one of the rocks stands a wooden cross, whilst
+another erected a little above the pathway indicates the approach to
+the cave. Entering the gate of a small enclosure surrounded by a paling
+of pine-logs, we ascended the narrow zigzag path, and soon caught
+sight of one of the hermits in his long loose toga and high cap, who,
+having heard our voices, had wandered out to see who could be coming to
+profane these sacred solitudes.
+
+Greeting us in Wallachian, he conducted us to a small door in a wall
+built to enclose the entrance to the cave, passing which we found
+ourselves standing in the gloomy recesses where, screened from the
+light of day, these poor hermits spend their lives.
+
+The cave, which is between sixty and seventy feet high and three
+hundred long, contains a small Greek church and two rows of buildings
+divided into cells, eight being the full number of the little band when
+all are there. At the time of our visit two were “itinerising” in the
+neighbouring districts in quest of food--for these brethren of the Holy
+Cross live entirely on charity.
+
+Though the cavern is large, the atmosphere, from the absence of
+ventilation, was exceedingly damp, the walls in many were dripping, and
+we were soon glad to return to the open air.
+
+How suitable is the spot chosen by these hermits for their seclusion!
+Shut in on all sides by lofty cliffs and pine-clad mountains which
+almost shut out the sky, they are indeed separated from the outer
+world; whilst the complete stillness and gloom of their surroundings
+naturally favour contemplation. No sound is heard save the murmur of a
+waterfall plashing from rock to rock as it comes foaming and tumbling
+down a narrow gorge, and now and then the scream of an eagle as
+circling over head it settles on some lofty crag.
+
+After wandering about in the vicinity of the cavern for half an
+hour, sounds reach us, the meaning of which we had previously been
+taught, and, hastily returning to the little community, we find one
+of the hermits striking a wooden hammer against a board to announce
+to the brethren the hour of worship. Occasionally, facing the east,
+he prostrated himself to the earth, and then, walking round and round
+the church, continued his hammering, while repeating some prayer in an
+undertone as though he had been uttering an incantation or weaving a
+mystic spell.
+
+Entering the dark little edifice, which contained anything but the
+odour of sanctity, we stood awaiting the commencement of the service.
+There were the usual genuflexions and painful bowings to the earth that
+are invariably seen in Greek churches, but the chanting of those holy
+men was the most barbarous thing I ever heard or could have imagined
+possible even in my wildest dreams. Two were exceedingly decrepit, with
+long white hair and flowing beards. These hermits belong to the Order
+of St. Basil and follow the rules of that fraternity, and it was very
+painful to witness the evident difficulty with which they accommodated
+their enfeebled and stiffened limbs to the various postures imposed by
+the Greek rite.
+
+After leaving the church we were conducted to one of the cells in which
+a small oil-lamp was burning, but so feebly that it did little else
+than render its immediate surroundings dimly visible--a small brown
+and well-worn crucifix standing on a bracket against the wall, a few
+dark-coloured pictures of saints, the narrow pallet at the side, and a
+gourd and leathern bottle hanging from a nail being all the furniture
+it possessed.
+
+In the centre of the cavern a fire was burning on the ground, over
+which was an iron pot, suspended from a tripod, containing a kind of
+porridge made of Indian corn; whilst in a little three-legged earthen
+pot, here called a _labos_, which stood on the red-hot ashes, some
+edible fungus was being cooked.
+
+The hermits were very hospitable, and produced from their larder wild
+cherries, strawberries, and a kind of sloe, pressing us to partake with
+them their homely fare. We had brought provisions with us, however,
+and amongst other things a roasted chicken, which we offered them
+in return, and which was not only gratefully received but eagerly
+devoured in our presence. It is seldom these poor monks get anything
+better to eat than _mamaliga_, black-bread--which they make
+themselves--together with the roots, fruit, and wild honey which in
+summer they manage to find on the surrounding hills; their drink the
+milk of goats. Occasionally the Wallachian shepherds bring them fresh
+food, but only during a few months in summer, as, during two-thirds of
+the year, these exiles from humanity are cut off from all communication
+with their fellows, the passes being blocked by snow. There was
+something very sad not only in the thought of the complete isolation of
+these poor men and their self-imposed exile, but in the uselessness of
+their lives and the mistaken zeal which prompts them to renounce the
+world and their share in its cares and toils for the love of Him who
+“_went about_ doing good.”
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+A _douceur_ of five gulden being put into the unwashed palm of a
+grey-headed old hermit, and our animals sufficiently rested, we take
+our leave of the brethren, and, ascending the valley, are glad to feel
+once more the warmth of the blessed sun, which seldom or never visits
+the lonely hermits’ caves.
+
+Though the days were long, the sun had set upon the castle walls, and
+the last golden gleam had faded in the west, ere we again neared the
+village of Terzburg, the distant smoke of fires where the ruthless
+Wallachs were burning down the forest trees showing against the purple
+ridges of the hills like that from burning craters.
+
+The herdsmen, who by this time had begun to take quite a proprietary
+interest in us all, turned out _en masse_ to welcome our return.
+A large fire was blazing near our carriage, and during our absence
+they had made for us a _Laubhütte_, or hut of boughs, in the
+construction of which these hill Wallachs, who are essentially a nomad
+people, are great adepts; whilst some fish caught in a neighbouring
+stream, eggs, buffalo cream, and delicious honey were also provided for
+our repast by these hospitable but uncanny-looking herdsmen.
+
+In these Transylvanian streams and rivers fish abounds, not only
+salmon-trout of enormous size, but grayling also, and the angler would
+here find ample food for his rod.
+
+As night wears on clouds dim the empyrean, and in addition to their
+fires some of the herdsmen--possibly in our honour--light torches made
+of resinous pine-wood, which add not a little to the wildness of the
+scene, as, with curious lamb’s wool caps and knives stuck in their
+belts, they flit to and fro, now standing out black against the fires,
+and now disappearing again into the mysterious outer circle of darkness
+like demons of unrest rather than peaceful shepherds guarding their
+flocks.
+
+A soft bed of leaves with which the Wallachs had lined our hut
+rendered it a very dry and comfortable abode for the night. Throwing
+one glance around us through the impromptu doorway of freshly-cut
+branches, we see that our neighbours, the herdsmen, have already
+delivered themselves up to the slumber-god. All have retired within
+their dwelling, and the fires themselves, sending up a blaze now
+and then by way of expiring effort, are fast dying out. Our wild
+_entourage_, however, is anything but provocative of sleep, and
+the great silence, broken only now and again by the harsh scream of a
+night-bird, becomes eloquent, as the “voices of the night,” now that
+human speech is hushed, come whispering on the air like dim echoes from
+the far-off unknown land. At midnight the wind rises high and threatens
+the stability of our little habitation; whilst a ladder placed against
+one of the herdsmen’s huts falls with a loud clatter and awakens all
+the sleepers.
+
+The morning broke amidst heavy clouds and threatening rain, but at
+seven o’clock, our camp-breakfast partaken of and our coachman punctual
+for once, we are once more bowling along towards Western Transylvania.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLI.
+
+                               WESTWARD.
+
+
+Kolozsvár, situated in the valley of the Szamos, and surrounded by
+hills on every side, contains 25,000 inhabitants. Although enclosed
+on all sides by a Wallach population, that of the town itself is
+principally Magyar, with the exception, however, of one portion of it,
+which contains a little colony of “Saxons.”
+
+Was there ever such a clatter as we made driving down the streets of
+this little Magyar capital of Transylvania? If the four hoofs of every
+horse had each been a vigorously played castanet, and each paving
+stone a cracker, I doubt whether we could have made more noise. If the
+railway locomotives take their time in Hungary, the horses make up for
+it by the pace they take the traveller--at any rate on starting. As
+they gallop through the streets we startle the whole neighbourhood.
+Waggoners, who, Hungarian-like, have left their teams in the middle
+of the road, come rushing out of wine-shops where they are leisurely
+sipping their morning’s _glässchen_ of _Slivovitz_. Frantic
+mothers are seen issuing from dark doorways, gazing distractedly up
+and down, in quest of their small “blessings,” who, as a rule, are
+squatting quite composedly in a nice cool puddle in the centre of the
+road. Pigs grunt and use unparliamentary language; whilst the genius of
+a group of youthful engineers, engaged in the erection of earthworks
+and fortifications at the side, is very nearly nipped for ever in the
+bud by the wheels of our chariot, as, deviating slightly to the left,
+we make room for a timber-waggon coming down the street.
+
+As the four capital little horses which we have brought with us
+from the “Saxon” town of Shässburg, a place midway between this
+and Kronstadt, and the most spruce and _betyár_ of coachmen,
+pull up at the hotel archway, a crowd of spectators gathers to see
+the turn-out, and we once more hear the words “_Ángolok_” and
+“_Ángolorszag_,” spoken in an undertone--which have not greeted
+our ears since leaving the plains of the Magyars--proceeding from mouth
+to mouth in a “stage whisper.”
+
+It is market-day, too, and in the square opposite the hotel and beneath
+the shadow of the fine old cathedral is a kaleidoscope of perpetually
+shifting colour. Unlike the market at Hermannstadt, the space devoted
+to the purpose is filled with booths and covered stalls, whilst to the
+left is a gipsy’s tent, close to which, squatting on the ground, are
+its owners, their simple wares of home manufacture displayed before
+them on a piece of matting.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+_Bäuerinnen_, too, in scarlet top-boots, black skirts lined
+with yellow and looped up over scarlet petticoats, sit also by
+_their_ wares, whilst Koloszvár Bürger ladies, in black silk
+shawls worn cross-ways over the head, stand over them and haggle, as
+usual, for salads, flowers, vegetables, infantine chicken--yes! and
+_snails_--the large wood species being regarded by Hungarian
+epicures as an _objet de luxe_ in the gastronomic line. A
+Hungarian housewife’s ordinary winter supply of these little animals
+is several thousand. Here and there boys are carrying coloured candles
+for sale, and two Hungarian peasants with long corkscrew curls are
+bargaining for a long string of garlic, for which they eventually
+pay five kreuzers--a cheap luxury! On the ground are little islands
+of Transylvanian pottery and classical-shaped bowls and pitchers,
+resembling a coarse kind of Majolica. There is a penny theatre, also,
+the audience of which is principally composed of men; and booths
+innumerable for the sale of ready-made clothes and vestments of
+Hiltau frieze beautifully embroidered in green and red. We pass one
+in which hang hundreds of embroidered waistcoats of the cut, colour,
+and material of the costume of each neighbouring village. How amusing
+it is to stand and watch the purchasers try them on, and see how vain
+mankind is even when exhibited in the “Saxon” or Wallach peasant, and
+how difficult to please. Here is one negotiating for a baggy coat with
+large sleeves and a hood--an out-of-doors, red-letter-day garment
+that would fit anybody; but he tries it on notwithstanding, and views
+himself up and down to see how it hangs, then looks over his shoulder
+to judge of its effect behind, and finally regards himself intently
+in a glass provided for the purpose by the seller. He has already
+tried on eight or nine, when he fixes at last upon one which he thinks
+will do. The material is white frieze embroidered in black, and its
+price--fourteen gulden--is marked on the article, but he beats the
+seller down to thirteen gulden forty-seven kreuzers, and has almost
+decided to buy it, when the owner of the booth takes from his store
+one lined with scarlet and embroidered in green, the price of which is
+thirty-three gulden. The purchaser’s spirits sink. He is now quite put
+out of conceit with the unpretending black-embroidered garment and is
+caught in the trap. The seller, a wily “Saxon,” induces him to put it
+on, and, drawing the hood over his head, bids him look in the glass to
+see how it becomes him and judge of the charming effect. Passing on to
+other booths we have quite forgotten all about our Wallach purchaser,
+when, returning that way in half an hour’s time, we still witnessed the
+same little scene being enacted, at that moment, however, drawing to a
+conclusion. Slowly taking from his purse thirty gulden which, together
+with his pipe and tobacco-pouch, he kept in his topboot, the bargain
+was struck, and with a somewhat dejected air, for the Wallach loves not
+to part with his money, away he goes with his splendid garment tucked
+under his arm.
+
+There are booths, too, where “_Kipfer_” and delicious Hungarian
+bread are sold, and gilded sweetmeats; and stalls pervaded by a strong
+odour of turpentine, where repose piles of Szekler cheese, the flavour
+of turpentine being imparted to it by the bark of the pine-wood in
+which it is packed. These stalls are presided over by Szeklers, a
+people occupying a large tract of country in the extreme east of
+Transylvania on the borders of Moldavia, and whose origin for a long
+time was one of the historical puzzles with which Hungary abounds. But
+they are now believed to be the remnant of the Huns of Attila, who,
+after the Romans in the time of Aurelian had retired from Dacia and
+left the country defenceless, perpetually menaced it from the north,
+and finally formed a colony where they now exist.
+
+How it came to pass that this remnant of the great people, the Huns,
+who subjugated Pannonia, got left behind, does not appear, but it
+is determined beyond all controversy, that when the third Turanian
+horde--the Magyars--bore down upon the country in 886, they found a
+people settled in an eastern corner of Transylvania calling themselves
+Szeklers, who not only spoke their own language, but possessed the same
+characteristics.
+
+Koloszvár possesses the honour of having given birth to the great
+Matthias, “Matthias the Good” as he is called by the grateful
+Hungarians. It was also on a mountain near here, overlooking the valley
+of the Szamos, where poor Rákótzy II., the last of Transylvania’s
+native princes, witnessed the defeat of his army under the overwhelming
+forces of Austria. Brought up as a Jesuit, he notwithstanding fought
+for religious freedom, but, on being defeated, he fled to Turkey, a
+country which has afforded an asylum to so many of Hungary’s patriots,
+where he died.
+
+The Cathedral dates from the 13th century, but since its completion
+it has passed through many vicissitudes and into various hands,
+its chancel having been sadly mutilated and altered, to suit the
+requirements of the various forms of worship which have been celebrated
+within its walls. Originally Roman Catholic, it subsequently fell
+into the hands of the Lutherans, who discarded its statues, pictures,
+and shrines. In the 15th century its walls echoed to the doctrines of
+Unitarianism under the teaching of Francis David, after which it was
+given over to the Jesuits, but was soon regained by the Unitarians, who
+continued to hold it until 1716, when the altar was once more adorned
+with the great crucifix which had been strangely preserved through
+all its varied fortunes, and the church passed into the hands of its
+original possessors, the Roman Catholics, who retain it to the present
+day.
+
+There are no fewer than 50,000 Unitarians in Transylvania, and they
+have erected a large brand-new church here, on which is inscribed in
+imposing letters their distinctive motto, “_Soli Deo Gloria_.” The
+doctrines of this sect were introduced into the country by Isabella,
+daughter of the King of Poland and wife of Zápolya I., and they are
+doing their utmost to extend their influence here, a deputation from
+England visiting both Koloszvár and Hermannstadt every year for this
+purpose. During the time we were at the former place we found it
+difficult to persuade its inhabitants that the English National Church
+was otherwise than “Unitarian.”
+
+“What,” said they, “the English not ‘Unitarian’? Why, you send money to
+help to support them.”
+
+The Transylvanian capital does small credit to the province, and the
+hotel at which we have put up is by far the worst we have encountered
+in our travels. How many a time as I walked up and down its stairs
+I wished that I wore top-boots and short petticoats like the
+_Bäuerinnen_.
+
+Not far from the hotel, and just round the corner where women sit at
+stalls and sell parched Indian corn and “gipsy-roasts,” is a shop
+where ready-made coffins are sold, and where a woman, standing within,
+looks through the window and over her grim wares invitingly at the
+bystanders, and appears quite disappointed when they do not turn in.
+
+In the winter season many of the “magnates” reside here, and their
+splendid equipages enliven the little city; but it is so dull during
+our present visit, that we have no inducement to prolong our stay.
+Summer is passing, and autumn, when heavy rains will render the roads
+almost impassable, is stealing upon us with noiseless wheels. The
+following morning, therefore, we bid adieu to the mountains, the domain
+of the Wallach, the “Saxon,” and the Szekler, and journey towards
+Debreczin, the very centre of Hungary, and the most Magyar portion of
+all Magyarland, and the exclusive realm of the Magyar.
+
+Once more reaching the plains, we are seized with a sort of poetic
+enthusiasm akin to that which inspired Petöfi and Eötvös and Vorösmartz
+in their great love for their Mother Alfőld. Again beholding its
+immense breadth and length, and enwrapped in its wondrous repose, we
+no longer marvel at the affection entertained for it by its people--an
+affection which must grow upon all who travel long over its boundless
+tracts.
+
+There again in the horizon is the Alfőld’s faithful daughter,
+“Deli-báb,” beguiling the traveller with her shifting slides of mystic
+pictures, now of pale and hazy lakes, as of those from which the
+morning mists are rising to greet the god of day; anon, of fair green
+islands surrounded by a golden shore--silent and majestic ever. Oh!
+immortal daughter of a mythic past!
+
+There are some who call these plains monotonous. Monotonous!
+_That_ they are only to those who are blind to the ever-varying
+effects of light and shade; but to those who are alive to the Alfőld’s
+ever-changeful moods, “day unto day uttereth speech,” and each hour
+brings a new revelation.
+
+Those who travel across the great Alfőld by the iron roads which,
+linking places together, follow only that portion of it where towns
+and villages are most frequent, can form no conception of the thinness
+of the population nor of the infinite vastness of the plains; but as
+we are borne onwards in our own carriage over these almost trackless
+wastes, we realise why this region, not only in ancient times, but
+even up to the seventeenth century, has been so peculiarly the theatre
+of barbarian incursion. It is no doubt due in a great measure to the
+geographical position of the country, but chiefly to its physical
+characteristics. Those vast plains watered by the great rivers, the
+Danube, the Marős, and the Theiss, offered great attractions to the
+pastoral nomads of the north and north-east.
+
+No associations such as those which attend the cultivation of the
+ground amongst Aryan nations, bound them to their native soil. Freed
+from all the labours of husbandry, and living either by the chase or on
+the flocks and herds which grazed these steppes or prairies, they never
+attached themselves to any place in particular, but roamed from one to
+another as, the herbage around them exhausted, they were compelled to
+migrate to other pastures. The same may to some extent be said of the
+Osmanlis, to whom these plains with their rich pasture offered every
+facility for camping out.
+
+Journeying steadily onwards we pass salt marshes, with which this part
+of the Alfőld abounds, with their tall, dark-green reeds, concealing
+snow-white waterfowl and endless peewits, and a little farther on an
+_ágas_ with the usual accompaniment of a shepherd’s hut. It is
+noon and the shepherd lies fast asleep. The sheep are likewise taking
+their noontide siesta. Another mile or so and we come upon a group of
+happy peasants surrounded by their “_jószág_”--a few goats, sheep,
+and cows, their sole possessions--dining like kings on black bread
+and bacon, and drinking water from a large gourd like the people in
+the Bible. Then we pass a village and drive out again into the great,
+silent, solitary plains, with nothing between us and the flickering
+horizon--which seems to melt into the sky--but a clump of trees. The
+plains are streaked here and there with golden stretches of sand and
+rich brown soil, and in other places with long miles of vivid green
+showing where the husbandman has sown his grain, now rapidly ripening
+unto harvest.
+
+At two o’clock, beneath the very clump of trees we had seen from a
+distance, we come to a halt for lunch, and whilst absorbed in all the
+intricacies of a truffled chicken, which had been provided for us at
+Kolozsvár, we hear a slight rustle in the grass behind us, and looking
+round see a poor, lean, and apparently half-starved dog, which might
+easily have been mistaken for a wolf, had we made his acquaintance in
+the dusk of evening instead of in broad day. Dogs are so officious
+in Hungary and so much in the habit, as I have said, of considering
+themselves in the light of “rural police,” that we regarded this one
+as a member of that canine body simply come to request us to “move
+on.” F. consequently, by way of returning the compliment, threw his
+stick at him. He was not to be daunted long, however, for, emboldened
+by the sight of food, he soon made another advance, and this time it
+was evident that his feelings were those of friendship. Whether his
+instinct enabled him to detect in the expression of my face a feeling
+of sympathy towards him, I cannot tell, but as he stealthily approached
+us he wheedled round to my side; and there was something so human in
+the beseeching way he looked, first at us and then at the viands, that
+we could no longer find it in our hearts to repulse him and he was
+consequently allowed to share our repast. The poor creature must have
+come from a long distance too; for, look where we would, there was no
+sign either of habitation or of flocks grazing, the pastures all around
+us being one great and absolute void. Perhaps he had fled from the
+tyranny of an unkind master; for there were scars upon his body and his
+lean limbs bore witness to long fasting.
+
+Quite at home by the time we had completed our meal, he attempted after
+canine fashion to assist in the process of “washing up,” and was so
+pressing in his offers of assistance that András was at length obliged
+to have recourse to the driver’s long whip.
+
+The horses harnessed, and the pic-nic hamper safely deposited in the
+rumble--for we are again in our own carriage which was sent to await
+our arrival at Kolozsvár--we take our seats, and move on again. But
+here we are beset by an unexpected difficulty. The dog follows us,
+and that notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts to send him away.
+We console ourselves however by the pleasing assurance that in all
+probability he will leave us at the next village, which we now descry
+resting on the remote horizon. Having arrived at which comforting
+conclusion we one and all subside into the usual half-somnolent state
+produced by the heat and drowsy motion of the carriage as the horses
+drag it slowly along, and scarcely open our eyes again for another hour
+or two, when we see before us the same village in precisely the same
+position, the only difference being that its houses have grown larger
+and its steeples higher. At length we approach its outskirts, and a
+large straggling place it is.
+
+We had by this time forgotten all about the dog which had been the
+source of so much annoyance to us on starting from our last place of
+bivouac; but happening to look over the side of the carriage, there we
+see him, no longer following as before at a becoming and respectful
+distance, but limping along on three legs close to the very wheels.
+Passing the village at last, which has been in sight for so many hours,
+with its one-storied houses and gables facing the same direction;
+passing its Magyar girls, with their long, many-coloured ribbons
+flying out behind, on whom the incorrigible András--sitting demurely,
+so far as bodily attitude is concerned, with his arms folded--smiles
+sweetly from his lofty eminence on the box, we shudder as we picture to
+ourselves our entry into Debrecen, accompanied by this disreputable
+“hanger-on.” Once there, however, we could give him in charge of
+András, and possibly by stealing away without his seeing us, we might
+get rid of him altogether; with which ungenerous and inhospitable
+intention, we take no further notice of him for the present.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLII.
+
+                              DEBRECZIN.
+
+
+It has been aptly observed that no country in the world presents
+such a number of paradoxes as Hungary, and this statement is perhaps
+in no instance more marked than in the terms applied to its towns
+and villages, which are designated in exactly the opposite way to
+those in other parts of Europe. The towns (_mezővárosok_)
+contain an exclusively agricultural population; whereas, the villages
+(_faluk_) are very large, and often possess many thousand
+inhabitants, an example of which may be given in Orosháza, “a village”
+in the neighbourhood of the Theiss, which contains no fewer than 13,000
+souls.
+
+Having arrived at another _mezőváros_, we find a tolerable inn,
+and decide to anchor for the night.
+
+In a few moments the usual scuffle takes place in the
+_basse-cour_, and the shrieks of feathered bipeds announce the
+fact that _paprika hendl_ is about to be prepared for our benefit.
+The cook, a lusty female in top-boots and white petticoat and black
+bodice, is seen in hot pursuit of a victim, which, once captured, she
+summarily dismisses from this world by twisting its neck. Then plunging
+it bodily into a pot of boiling water which is standing on the stove
+in the kitchen, she allows it to remain for a few seconds, when it is
+again dragged out minus its feathers and skin, all of which it has lost
+by the process. It is forthwith cleansed, cut into small pieces, and
+thrown into another pot containing cream, butter, flour, and a quantity
+of red pepper, and served--the whole accomplished in the brief space of
+twenty-five minutes. It is, however, a national dish to which, from the
+precipitate nature of its manufacture, we do not take kindly, and throw
+out a gentle hint to the landlady, through the medium of András, that
+some other kind would be more acceptable, whereupon one passing under
+the euphonious name of _gulyás húz_ is presented to us--a kind
+of stew, also swimming in a sauce thickened with red pepper. It must
+not be supposed, however, that this condiment at all corresponds with
+cayenne. It is made from the long red pods of a plant called in France
+_poivreon_, which, though a species of chilli, is not very pungent.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+As in other provincial towns and villages on the Alfőld the cottages
+are here unpoetically neat and uniform, and one looks everywhere in
+vain for a bit of pictorial dilapidation. No starling ventures to
+burrow its nest in the warm thatch of a Hungarian cottage nor martin
+build beneath its eaves; the outer walls are pink as sea-shells, and
+the casements, painted bright green, with their flower-pots arranged in
+a row, look like those of Dutch toys.
+
+The tobacco-harvest has begun, and all around the cottages are festoons
+of leaves hanging up to dry. The leaves are gathered as they become
+“ripe,” and not all at once, the lowest being taken first and then
+the higher. The harvest consequently occupies a considerable time,
+occasionally lasting a month, and depending greatly on the season.
+
+As we take a stroll into the suburbs of the village we see the people
+coming in from the fields in merry groups, bringing with them the
+peace-inspiring weed, the men carrying it in large bundles on their
+shoulders, and the women in the ample folds of their upturned skirts,
+followed by _székers_ laden with the same. The peasants’ horses
+appear dreadfully ill-used in this district; their downcast, abject
+look bearing testimony to years of oppression and wrong. How sad it was
+to see them dragging their heavy loads, and as I look at them how sure
+I feel that some “happy hunting-grounds” await these patient servants
+of man which receive his cruel kicks and cuffs so uncomplainingly and
+do his work so nobly. God bless a thousand times the patient worker who
+died a year ago, and left the savings of her own hardly-earned wages
+to the cause of London horses, and who each morning for many a year in
+frosty weather might be seen in the heart of the great city with her
+heavy load of sand, scattering it over the slippery thoroughfares ere
+she went forth to her daily toil. Some men called thee mad; but, mad or
+sane, God give thee rest and peace and “keep thy memory green!”
+
+At the extreme end of the village were three gipsy-tents, and near
+them a camp fire, round which sat smoking a ragged, bronze-faced
+_Zingary_. At his side stood one of those ancient silver goblets,
+for the possession of which the gipsies are so noted. A little distance
+off sat others of both sexes, and the ruddy glow of the fire lighting
+up their many-coloured rags and creating a zone of darkness beyond,
+contrasted oddly with the pale, cold grey of the surrounding twilight,
+and produced weird alternations of glow and gloom. They are a wild
+uncanny-looking people, very unlike the ordinary itinerant gipsy. As we
+went across to them they seemed to regard our presence in their midst
+as a decided intrusion, and several withdrew from the fire and hid
+themselves in the surrounding darkness.
+
+Tethered a short distance beyond the camp, but hidden by the
+surrounding darkness, were several horses, and from the frequent
+neighing and pawing of the ground that proceeded from that direction,
+we were led to imagine them to belong to a type of animal vastly
+different from the poor, miserable _Rosinantes_--the beasts of
+burden which had dragged the heavily-laden carts over the rough roads,
+and were now left to graze and roam at will on the opposite side of the
+camp.
+
+“_Bitang!_” exclaimed F. at my elbow in an undertone, throwing
+away the end of his cigar--“bitang” being a term applied to strayed or
+stolen cattle.
+
+Possibly the term was correctly applied in this instance, but
+horse-stealing is by no means “made easy” in this country, and the
+stringent laws regarding the possession of horses bear evidence to
+the low state of morals of one or more sections of the community at
+any rate; no one being permitted to sell a horse without previously
+presenting to a member of the constabulary, or some other official
+appointed by Government for the purpose, a paper duly signed by the
+magistrate of the town or village at which the purchase has been made,
+and in which a full description is given, not only of the animal itself
+but of the manner in which its possession has been acquired. Without
+such a document no horse is admitted for sale at any fair, at which
+small offices are invariably erected and presided over by officers of
+the constabulary, whose duty it is to inspect these forms, and where
+both the sellers and purchasers of horses have to repair before either
+transaction is completed. Here the seller has to deliver up his “pass,”
+when another is made out and placed in the hands of the purchaser,
+giving a full description of the animal and its antecedents.
+
+There are no doubt many instances in which even these preventive
+measures have proved unavailing, and ways have been found of
+ingeniously evading the law, but the precautions that are taken must
+still be a great check on the proverbial cupidity of the “wandering
+tribe.” Should a horse awaken the suspicion of the _pandurok_,
+and its pedigree seem of doubtful origin, it is impounded for a year,
+during which time it is advertised in every police-station throughout
+the country, or at all events until the true owner comes forward to
+claim the “_bitang_” as his long-lost steed, or the person whose
+ownership was doubted can prove beyond all question that he obtained
+it by lawful means.
+
+Whilst the suspected animal is kept by the police in durance vile,
+it is let out on hire by the authorities; but whether, in the case
+of the suspicions of the _pandurok_ having been incorrect, any
+compensation is made to the unfortunate individual who has lost the
+use of his beast during the period it was kept in “_bitangság_,”
+I cannot say. Probably he has to rest satisfied with the ultimate
+restitution of his rightful property, and like persons in our own land
+who, when they have been falsely accused of some crime, have been tried
+for it and found innocent, he will be consoled by receiving a “full and
+free pardon” at the hands of a benevolent and magnanimous Government.
+
+Familiarity having by this time rendered the gipsies far less
+formidable, we seat ourselves by their fire, the warmth of which is
+pleasant, for the nights already begin to be frosty, although we have
+only arrived at the end of August. The dog had followed us, and was
+crouching at my side. The gipsies both understood and spoke German, and
+as we were explaining how we came by him, he looked up sharply, his
+ears well pointed, and regarded us inquiringly, looking first at one
+and then at the other. The gipsies, to whom a dog more or less never
+comes amiss, will, they say, take him off our hands, and we tip them a
+gulden to confirm the bargain; but on casting our eyes towards the spot
+where he had been lying, we find he had silently slunk away and hidden
+himself in the darkness, as though he had heard all we had been saying.
+Well is it, my _bánya_ (dog), that thou didst so, or thy fate
+would surely have been decided there and then.
+
+It was not till the following evening, just as the sun was closing his
+great scorching eye, that we drove through the broad streets of the
+ancient and “Royal Free City” of Debreczin, and found ourselves not
+only in the very heart of Hungary, but in the very centre of the most
+exclusive and rigid Protestantism.
+
+The territory of Debreczin in its capacity of “Royal Free City”--a
+privilege which it has enjoyed since the middle ages--covers an area
+of no less extent than 378 English square miles, and as the meaning
+of that term has already been described, the flourishing state of the
+municipality can easily be imagined. The city contains between sixty
+and seventy thousand inhabitants, but, in driving through it--unless
+he has been previously undeceived--the traveller will imagine it to
+be scarcely more than a large village. Like every other place on the
+Alfőld, where land is so abundant, the houses are nearly all built
+of one storey. There have been great improvements, however, since we
+were last here, particularly in the paving of the streets. In the
+place of a mere plank which formerly kept the foot-passengers out of
+the sea of mud that constituted the road in rainy weather, there now
+exists a broad and even pavement in all the chief thoroughfares, a
+fact which does credit to the enterprise of the municipality, who must
+have accomplished the undertaking at immense cost, every stone having
+been brought at least a hundred miles. There is a tradition of no very
+remote date to the effect that at a period anterior to the improvement
+of the roads a cow had sunk into the “Slough of Despond,” and having
+been swallowed up in it, was no more seen. But whether this is a mere
+fable or not, it is quite true that officers quartered on one side of
+the street formerly were often obliged to mount their chargers to
+cross over to the other. At that time the “pavements” consisted of
+merely a single plank, and it is said to have been a great amusement to
+the inhabitants, whenever they met a soldier of the Imperial Army--whom
+they cordially hate--to push him off the narrow path into the sea of
+liquid mud below.
+
+Having brought with us a letter of introduction to one of the
+Professors of the College, we hasten to deliver it in person. Reaching
+the edifice in question, we see standing in the square that encloses
+it a number of students, of whom we inquire the way to the Professor’s
+quarters, addressing them in German. Great is our surprise, however,
+to find they cannot understand a word of what we say. Failing to make
+ourselves intelligible in that tongue, we try in turn French, Italian,
+Spanish, Latin, and Greek, putting the question in each of these
+languages in the most simple form possible, with the same result, and,
+for anything they appeared to comprehend of the European languages,
+either living or dead, we might have arrived in the very heart of the
+Chinese Empire. With a look of extreme mystification, and a shrug of
+the shoulders, they raised their hats, and, passing on, left us to our
+fate.
+
+At length, spurred on by defeat and waxing bold, F. ascends the broad
+flight of steps leading to the College, and soon returns, accompanied
+by two students whose rooms he had invaded, the trio laughing heartily
+on finding they were unable to understand each other. The letter of
+introduction, however, bearing the name of the Professor furnished
+a clue to our inquiries, and beckoning us to follow them across the
+College garden, the taller of the two students ran to announce our
+arrival, doing so, as we afterwards learnt, in the following words:--
+
+“Some foreigners have arrived with a letter for you. They speak every
+language under the sun, and have tried to make themselves intelligible;
+but to what nation they belong we cannot tell, but think they may be
+_Ángolok_.”
+
+Following our conductor across a road ankle-deep in dry sand, we reach
+a wooden archway leading to a porch, where we find the astonished
+Professor, and standing behind him our pioneer, looking very happy in
+having at last succeeded in bringing us to the right place. A few words
+addressed to the former in English accorded us in broken accents a warm
+greeting in the same tongue. The Professor was a very handsome and
+distinguished-looking man, dressed in the Hungarian costume, consisting
+of Hessian boots and braided _attila_.
+
+Knowing we were anxious above all things to see the College, he at once
+proposed accompanying us.
+
+“Every square yard of this paving,” remarked the Professor, “cost us
+twenty florins; the stones were brought by railway from Tokay. And is
+not this nice and soft to the feet?” he continued, as we stepped off
+the pavement into the dust of the road, which was at least eight inches
+deep, and which, though doubtless very delightful to a Hungarian, had
+scarcely suggested itself to us in that light.
+
+We soon again reach the College, which is a large and very imposing
+structure, where two thousand students are educated. At present there
+are three hundred studying Theology, one hundred and fifty Law and
+Philosophy, upwards of one hundred in the Normal Department, and seven
+hundred in the so-called gymnasium; but we were _not_ informed of
+the number who were studying as a necessary branch of education any of
+the modern or ancient languages!
+
+Besides the students who form the academical portion of the College,
+there are six hundred boys in the elementary school. Within the last
+three years two new wings have been added where three hundred of the
+_togati_ (students) are lodged.
+
+In the Hungarian kingdom there are three universities, one at
+Buda-Pest, one at Koloszvár, and one at Agram, the capital of Croatia.
+There are also schools of Law and Jurisprudence at Pressburg, Kashau,
+and Grosswardein, besides the _Collegii_ of Debreczin, Eperies,
+Raab, and others; that of Debreczin being exclusively Protestant and
+Calvinistic.
+
+Attached to the College is an immense church in the _Renaissance_
+style, capable of containing 2,000 people. There is also a smaller
+private chapel _within_ the College, which is interesting as
+having been used by Kossuth for the assembling of his Diets in the
+memorable year of 1849, and in which he announced the independence
+of Hungary and the downfall of the Hapsburg Dynasty. To add to the
+solemnity of this latter occasion, preceded by the great agitator
+himself, the members of the Diet adjourned to the large Calvinistic
+church above alluded to, where, standing beneath the pulpit, he read
+the proclamation which sent such joy into every Hungarian home, but
+which was destined, alas! to be of such short duration. The windows of
+the College look out upon the battle-field so memorable in Hungarian
+history, where Austria, with Russia as her ally, crushed the national
+independence of the Hungarians which they had only recently regained,
+and on which occasion so much Magyar blood was shed.
+
+The oldest part of the building is devoted to the Library, which
+contains many ancient and valuable manuscripts, together with two
+original copies of the tenets of the Hungarian Calvinistic faith.
+
+Notwithstanding the silence and solemnity which pervade the place,
+Debreczin is the most commercial town in Hungary, a brisk trade being
+carried on not only in the manufacture of meerschaum pipes, but of
+_bundas_ also, between two and three thousand of these splendid
+garments being exported annually.
+
+It would have been impossible to leave without carrying home as
+souvenirs to our friends--who are victims to the vice of which pipes
+are the medium--some of these interesting articles which are displayed
+so temptingly and in such endless variety in the windows.
+
+Going into a shop to make some purchases on our way from the College
+the Professor exclaimed to the woman in attendance:--
+
+“I have brought you a lady and gentleman who have come all the way from
+England.”
+
+“Merciful Heaven!” she replied, “is it possible? And they are not
+Hungarians? What a pity!” regarding us as she uttered this pious
+ejaculation with a look in which not only the deepest compassion, but
+contemptuousness also was mingled.
+
+The Magyars are passionately attached to their country--“_Áldott
+Magyarország_ (Blessed Hungary), as they call it, the half-educated
+looking upon the subjects of all other countries with the greatest pity
+and contempt. The following mediæval rhyme in confirmation of this
+fact is still quoted:--
+
+    “Extra Hungariam non est vita,
+    Et si est vita, non est ita.”
+
+Whilst the greatest toleration exists in other parts of Hungary amongst
+all classes of society, the Debrecziners form an exception to the rule,
+and are exceedingly exclusive in matters of religion.
+
+In the estimation of the Debrecziner, there is only one true faith,
+which he calls the “_Magyar vallás_,” and which he believes
+he alone of all others has preserved in its completeness. There
+may be other forms of religion by the observance of which men may
+scramble into heaven, but the one true and narrow road is that which
+was instituted by their apostle Calvin. In consequence of its being
+the headquarters of this faith, Debreczin is often spoken of as the
+“Calvinistic Rome,” and its inhabitants, with their plain attire, their
+simple deportment, and the stillness of the place itself, as well as
+the earnestness that sits on every countenance, give to it a character
+wholly different from that met with elsewhere in Hungary; and as we
+walked through the town pervaded by this deep Calvinistic gloom, and
+noted the stern and rigid countenances of the people, we felt thankful
+we were not compelled to cast in our lot with them “for aye.”
+
+Every three months an immense fair is held in the great plains in the
+vicinity of Debreczin, when an enormous space of ground which the eye
+can scarce command is covered with tents, booths, and immense flocks
+and herds. At one time no fewer than 20,000 fairs were held each year
+in Hungary, their number, however, as well as their importance have
+lessened considerably since the opening of the Alfőld Railway, before
+which time the dwellers of the plains were completely locked in from
+all communication with distant towns.
+
+At the time of our visit to Debreczin, the municipality, or whatever
+form the governing body takes in these “Royal Free Cities,” was
+carrying on an anxious debate on the subject of the supply of fuel
+for its 50,000 inhabitants. Plenty of coal is found in the country,
+and the prejudice once existing against its use--to which the
+Hungarians attributed the “pulmonary complaints of the English, their
+_melancholy disposition, and frequent felo-de-se_”--has partially
+subsided, but the expense of transport would be enormous. At the same
+time the forests in the neighbourhood are fast becoming exhausted.
+The construction of a canal between Debreczin and Tisza-lök--about
+thirty-five miles distant--has consequently been decided on, by
+which timber may be floated down from the forests of the north-east
+Carpathians.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+                     THE WINE DISTRICTS OF TOKAY.
+
+
+From earliest dawn a throng of human life has been pouring into the
+Square outside the hotel, and the ceaseless hum beneath our window
+of female voices, the quacking of geese, gobbling of turkeys, and
+agonising cry of smaller birds whose legs are tied too tightly, assail
+our ears in a perpetual din and confusion, very hard upon tired
+pilgrims, to whom, for once, morning sleep might have been sweet.
+
+Looking down upon that busy, hurrying hive who would think it is Sunday?
+
+At ten o’clock the “Big Ben” of the College church begins solemnly to
+toll for service, which is the signal for the bells of other churches
+to do likewise, but still the people buy and sell and haggle and
+bargain and depreciate. The buyer saith, “it is naught, it is naught,”
+and then going his way, vaunteth himself, just as men did in the days
+of Solomon; and altogether the Debreczin “_cívis_,”[1] stern
+Protestant though he be, manages to combine the worship of God and
+Mammon on the Sabbath-day in a way that would do credit to any Roman
+Catholic country on the face of the globe.
+
+[1] A term used to denote a Debrecziner citizen.
+
+But now the bells stop, and entering the church in the market-place we
+find that a few stragglers are already there, whilst a man standing
+behind a small desk is singing lustily for his own honour and glory to
+a small congregation of admirers. Presently he mounts the pulpit--his
+hair is unkempt, and his dress proclaims him one of the lower
+orders--and begins reading the lessons, during which people one by one
+come straggling in till the church is full, and the clergyman, robed in
+a costume of the Vandyck period, makes his appearance, when the real
+service begins by the singing of another hymn, accompanied this time by
+a rather fine organ. Singing forms a very important part of the worship
+of the National Church of the Magyars, and the people sing with their
+whole heart and lungs, pausing momentarily after each line to take
+breath, and then beginning again with renewed vigour, embroidering the
+“Plain Psalm” with little turns and quivers.
+
+Many of the hymns sung in these Calvinistic churches were composed by
+Bethlen Gábor, one of the governing princes of Transylvania, a firm
+adherent to the doctrine of Calvin, who flourished about 1620, and
+whose memory is much cherished by the Magyars.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It was a curious sight, and somehow took one back to the times of
+the “Covenanters”--the plain building, the men wearing large cloaks
+fastened loosely across the chest with heavy clasps, their long white
+hair hanging over their shoulders. Wonderful to look at are these
+earnest, almost scowling, old Debrecziner “_cives_,” there being
+scarcely one of Rembrandt’s studies which does not possess its perfect
+counterpart in the assembly. What fine old pilgrim fathers leaning on
+their staffs, as they sit and listen to the clergyman now lifting up
+his voice in prayer to the great _Isten_--the hearer of all prayer!
+
+The women, on the contrary, their heads and faces wrapped in large
+woollen kerchiefs, are anything but picturesque. The greater number
+wear handsome and very full cloaks, richly embroidered in silk of every
+shade _originally_, but now assuming, by reason of many years’
+wear and tear, a rich mingling of mellow tints, delightful only to
+the eyes of an artist. The men sit in one part of the church and the
+women in the other, and thus clothed, the latter form a very dismal
+assemblage. There are some men whose long hair is held back over the
+forehead by a large circular comb, and others with ringlets all round
+the head like women; but these are principally men of middle age.
+
+The Magyar, for oratorical purposes, is a most telling language, clear
+sounding, rich, and melodious. Though understanding little, I enjoyed
+listening to the fine enunciation of the preacher, whose manner was
+very earnest and impressive.
+
+On the conclusion of the sermon the organ pealed forth, and the
+congregation, one and all lifting up their voices, united in singing
+the grand old hymn--
+
+    “Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.”
+
+But the sound was deafening. In vain the organist pulled out his
+_bourbon_ stop and tried hard to hold his own; the voices so
+completely drowned him, that he might have been a tuning fork in the
+midst of a full orchestral band, for anything we could hear of him or
+his noble instrument. But the singing, though loud, was at any rate
+harmonious, and in all their hymns there was a grandeur and solemnity
+as well as heartiness that made one feel there must be, notwithstanding
+their apparent coldness in externals, a real depth in their religion
+after all.
+
+Just as I was leaving the porch I was joined by F., who had been to the
+large church attached to the College, and had likewise been greatly
+impressed with the quiet and deep solemnity of the service.
+
+Later in the day a heavy shower of rain, accompanied by thunder and
+lightning, broke over the town and kept us prisoners to our rooms till
+the evening, when thinking a walk in the suburbs might be pleasant, we
+happened to mention our intention in passing to an old woman--a servant
+of the hotel--who was standing on the staircase; whereupon, lifting up
+her eyes she exclaimed--
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+“What! The lady is going out in those boots? _Bóldog Isten!_”
+
+Hereupon Julinka, the chambermaid, runs off to her own apartment, and
+brings thence her own Sunday “tops,” entreating me to wear them--a
+two-fold hint so eloquent of the state of the Debreczin roads in
+rainy weather that we determined to defer our acquaintance with the
+_rus in urbe_ of the “Royal Free City” until the morrow, when
+we should be driving through it on our way to the wine districts. We
+therefore visited instead several Calvinist places of worship in the
+town itself, all of which exhibited the same baldness as those we had
+seen previously, the walls being covered with whitewash, and the arches
+and original character of the structures completely destroyed by these
+Magyar Calvinists in their puritanical horror of anything that savoured
+of the Gothic in their style of architecture.
+
+On arrival here, our intention had been to travel hence to the
+bright little city of Kashau, but meeting by accident an old Magyar
+acquaintance who lived half-way between that place and Debreczin,
+and who, hearing us express a desire to see one of the wine-growing
+districts of Hungary, hospitably proposed to conduct us to his home not
+many miles from Tokay, a proposition that was far too tempting to be
+declined. A direct line of railway is now open between Debreczin and
+Kashau, but as we had our own carriage, and he assured us it would only
+be a day’s journey with four horses, we decided to post as usual, our
+friend promising to accompany us.
+
+The following morning, in spite of the earliness of the hour, the usual
+crowd assembled at the archway of the hotel to witness our departure.
+The sky, cleared by the rain of yesterday, was brilliant, the sun just
+risen in all his glory from out the mist that still hovered above the
+warm moist plains. The coachman, in his heavily frogged jacket, small
+felt cap adorned with an eagle’s feather, and with his moustaches
+twisted into a stiff curl at each end, was making, as we emerged from
+the hotel, the demonstrations customary with such functionaries, and,
+flogging the air with his long whip, pretended to be dispersing the
+little knot of anxious spectators, who, determined to see the last of
+the _Ángolok_, returned each time to the charge shrieking with
+laughter.
+
+András had evidently made great friends with the servants of the hotel;
+the old woman comes out and almost weeps over him; the chambermaid,
+standing shyly behind, wipes a tear from her eye with the corner of her
+apron; the waiters throw themselves upon him and call him “Brother.”
+Sundry nondescript menials from the back premises also present
+themselves and affectionately embrace his legs as he mounts the box.
+Finally, the landlady comes out, and with the prettiest speech possible
+places a bouquet in the hands of the “_tekintetes asszony_”
+(worshipful lady), and expresses the hope she may see her again. And
+thus, our coachman gathering up the ribbons, we bid adieu to the “Royal
+Free City,” and with the usual clatter tear madly through the streets
+into the open country--the dog following us.
+
+Whilst at Debreczin, András had done his best to dispose of this
+miserable hanger-on, but failed in finding a home for him. He was a
+sheep-dog, and as such no one seemed inclined to accept him here; but
+as András assured us that, being a valuable kind of animal, we should
+have no difficulty in getting rid of him as soon as we should again
+find ourselves in the agricultural districts, we gave him permission to
+retain him pending that happy moment.
+
+By this time, under the nourishing influence of hotel bones and
+possibly something else to boot, the poor creature wears a far less
+miserable appearance. He still limps occasionally on three legs, but is
+evidently fast getting the better of his injuries, from whatever cause
+they may have arisen, and no longer creeps along by the side of the
+carriage, but runs on in advance as our pioneer, making incursionary
+forays now and then into huts by the wayside, and beginning to look
+as though he thought life, after all, was not half so bad as he had
+hitherto imagined. At one moment he nearly got himself into serious
+trouble with other sheep-dogs whose territory he invaded, and us also
+with the shepherd, whose flock he chased for fully half a mile.
+
+The districts surrounding Debreczin are much better wooded than in
+other parts of the Alfőld, there being large forests of robinia, the
+sandy nature of the soil favouring the production and growth of these
+graceful trees.
+
+Our friend the Magyar who accompanied us, although living in the
+very centre of Hungary, and a Hungarian to the backbone, was not
+above speaking German fluently. He had travelled a good deal in
+other countries besides his own, and was in all respects a highly
+educated and enlightened man. In asking him how it came to pass that,
+notwithstanding the acquirement of foreign languages was frequently
+pursued amongst the upper classes at Pest to an extent which sometimes
+excluded the study of other and more necessary branches of education,
+yet at Debreczin--one of the chief seats of learning--the Magyars spoke
+nothing but their own language, he replied--
+
+“Our brave Queen Maria Theresa did her utmost to extinguish the Magyar
+language by introducing German in its stead, hoping thereby to blend
+all the nationalities into one. At the present time, however, the
+effort of our people is to stamp out the German tongue, and cause the
+Hungarian to be the only one spoken throughout the country. Debreczin
+may be called with truth the seat of patriotism and Magyarism, as well
+as one of learning, and there is no place in the whole country where
+such strong prejudices exist. Just as the people here are exclusive in
+matters of religion, so are they in language. In fact, their speaking
+nothing but Magyar may be said to be in effect a mild form of political
+demonstration.
+
+“I dare say you have long ago discovered,” he continued, “whilst
+travelling in my country, that we Magyars are the proudest race living,
+and likewise I fear the most prejudiced. A Magyar who has not travelled
+beyond his own country is deeply imbued with two ideas, one being that
+the world was created for his express benefit, the other that his is
+the only language that ought to be spoken. Another characteristic trait
+is his dislike of all foreigners with the exception of the English,
+whom he condescends to regard as an enlightened and advanced people,
+who have a right to a share of his natural inheritance, and from
+whom something is to be learnt. You may also have observed that the
+Hungarians often speak of themselves as the ‘English of the East!’”
+
+It was a delightful day that we spent in this Hungarian’s society. We
+have had the privilege of knowing many, and our impression has always
+been that a travelled, well-born, and well-educated Hungarian is one of
+the most polished and perfect gentlemen in the world.
+
+It was a splendid day, too, so far as the weather was concerned. The
+rain had cooled the atmosphere, and instead of the fierce, dry heat,
+which at this season of the year generally envelopes the whole region
+of the Alfőld, a balmy breeze was blowing, and, reclining in the
+languid luxury of our comfortable old carriage, we drank it in, and
+felt strengthened and invigorated. It was like the climate of Italy
+without its summer heat.
+
+Long before the sun began to sink and throw long shadows on the plains,
+we came in sight of the volcanic hill of Tokay, rising out of them
+like a promontory from a vast expanse of ocean, and ere it set we had
+reached our friend’s dwelling. He was expected to arrive by the 6.25
+train, and his carriage had been sent to meet him at the Tokay station
+five miles distant. Great, therefore, was the surprise of his wife and
+daughter, who came running out at the sound of wheels, to find he had
+arrived not only an hour earlier than they had anticipated, but in
+the company of strangers and in a strange carriage. There was a great
+barking of dogs in the great courtyard behind the house, and a general
+buzz of welcome, in which we could perceive that we also were included.
+
+A brief introduction soon made us feel perfectly at ease, and, as on
+similar occasions, our arrival created no more confusion than if we
+had been expected guests. Ascending the steps we entered the large,
+one-storied building, and were at once ushered into the drawing-room.
+A burst of joy and gladness followed our immediate entry, proceeding
+from the younger members of the family, who came trooping in to welcome
+their father. All kissed our hands, and then, without the slightest
+appearance of forwardness, endeavoured to satisfy their very natural
+curiosity as to who we were and whence we had come.
+
+“And have you come from very far away?” inquired, in French, a
+fair-haired child of about eight years old, wishing to elicit, but not
+liking to ask, the direct question as to what nationality we belonged
+to.
+
+“The strangers are from _Ángol-orság_!” replied the father, in the
+same language.
+
+“_Ángol-orság_!” repeated a chorus of little voices. “Oh, how glad
+I am you have come, it is always nice to have _les étrangers_
+staying with us, but _les Anglais_ we have never before seen.
+_Oh! quelle joie!_”
+
+“Come, let me show you to your rooms,” exclaimed the lady of the house
+presently after we had partaken of coffee.
+
+Like so many houses in the plains, one room opened into another, and
+we had consequently to pass through several, including the library
+and a lady’s boudoir, before reaching those to which our hostess now
+conducted us.
+
+They were pretty rooms with cool pink and white hangings, the floor
+covered with Indian matting; the open windows, which were shaded by
+Venetian blinds, looking out into a garden where there were vines and
+melons growing in wild luxuriance, and crowds of heartsease holding up
+their expressive little faces to the light and straggling flowers in
+sweet disorder, reminding one of Lothair and Lady Corisande’s garden.
+To the left was a long range of stables and out-offices, rendered
+picturesque by vines and other climbers which covered their walls
+completely. Beyond all were the plains lying in the crimson sunset,
+immersed in their drowsy peace and breadth of calm, while the air was
+filled with a pleasant odour of flowers mingled with ripe fruit.
+
+The Hungarians, particularly those who live in the country, dine early
+and take supper at eight o’clock, but that meal is, however, quite
+synonymous with “dinner,” and includes not only soup, but a variety of
+courses. The table was laid very prettily, and adorned with flowers and
+oldfashioned plate. After supper, which lasted more than an hour, we
+went out into the garden at the front of the house, where was a table
+on which wine and glasses were set, our host declaring we must not be
+longer under his roof without tasting “Imperial Tokay.”
+
+As we sat in the warm star-lit alley of robinias, we could see into
+the drawing-room, where on a centre table a large lamp was burning.
+Round it fluttered insects, and near it sat two of the elder children
+reading. In a distant part of the room was the eldest daughter playing
+the piano--a fragile, pensive girl with blue eyes, dressed in a
+cloud of white, her hair tied back with a cherry-coloured ribbon,
+and looking, as she sat with the light falling full upon her, almost
+spiritual in her pale prettiness.
+
+We soon found that our host’s family was not so numerous as we
+previously imagined. He had three children only, the eldest daughter,
+Őrzse, a son at school in Pest, and Irma, the little girl who had
+spoken to us on our arrival. The others were nephews and nieces, who,
+with their governess, were merely on a visit.
+
+On going into the breakfast-room the following morning we find the
+whole family already assembled. As we make our appearance the children
+cluster round us and silently kiss our hands, a universal custom in
+Hungary, where children in greeting do not kiss the cheeks, even of
+their parents, but their hand, in token of deference and submission.
+
+Our hosts were Lutherans, and the meal was preluded by those beautiful
+lines from the 145th Psalm: “The eyes of all wait upon Thee and Thou
+givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine hand and
+satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”
+
+“I purpose driving you to one of the Hegyalia, to-day,” exclaimed
+our host, as we rose from his hospitable board, at the same time
+interpreting that Magyar word into French, and informing us that it
+means literally “mountain slopes,” a term that is invariably used in
+reference to the vine-clad hills in the neighbourhood of Tokay.
+
+At eleven o’clock a splendid pair of horses appeared at the door; the
+carriage, however, was an ordinary one of the country, with open sides,
+and but a refined and improved species of the genus _Leiterwagen_.
+
+“You have grown used to our style of locomotion by this time, I trust,”
+exclaimed our host, after we had mounted, and he had taken the reins.
+“This sort of thing is lighter and better suited to our country roads,
+which can scarcely be dignified by the name, and that you will speedily
+discover for yourselves, I fear, when we have proceeded a short
+distance on our way.”
+
+Striking off the main road, we now pass through plantations of tobacco
+and buckwheat; the various shades of green as we look across the
+plains being exceedingly beautiful as well as refreshing to the eye.
+Yonder, in graceful outline, rise the hills, that of Tokay assuming
+the appearance of a cone. This, however, we leave to the left, and
+gradually near another hill, like all the rest, vine-clad from its base
+to its summit, every tree and shrub having been eradicated to make room
+for the cultivation of the grape.
+
+These Hegyalia are said to have been similarly planted, even before
+the Magyars entered Pannonia; but the cultivation of the vine was
+subsequently greatly promoted by Hungary’s mediæval kings, who seem to
+have been no less capable than other crowned heads of appreciating
+that which “maketh glad the heart of man.”
+
+During the dominion, however, in this country of the Moslem
+hordes--against whose creed it is to drink any fermented liquors--the
+whole district was laid waste and almost every plant uprooted; but
+after their expulsion a number of Italians were called in by King
+Bela IV., who not only restored the former cultivation, but improved
+the species of vine, causing the wine made here to attain its present
+celebrity.
+
+We had lunch, or rather what they call dinner here, at one of the
+vine-growers’ houses, and then walked up the zigzag paths through the
+vineyards. The slopes of the hills, where they are steep, are cut
+up into terraces. The soil is exceedingly light, and it is to this
+peculiar character that the excellence and distinct quality of the
+Tokay wine is attributed.
+
+The vintage in this district does not commence until the 26th of
+October, by which time it is over in other parts of Hungary. The season
+is ushered in with great festivity; all the noble families of the
+neighbourhood gather together, when there is a succession of balls and
+fêtes which last for a fortnight.
+
+There are three kinds of Tokay so called, the most luscious and costly
+being _Essenz_, which is, however, seldom used except to give
+“bouquet” to other wines. It consists entirely of juice extracted
+without the agency of any external force, and simply pressed out by the
+weight of the fruit itself, and also from grapes that have been allowed
+to shrivel and dry upon the stalk. _Ausbruch_--by which name the
+kind of Tokay best known is designated--is made by mixing the juice
+of ripe grapes, which have been pressed by the ordinary mechanical
+process, with a certain quantity of thick pulp, formed of the dried
+fruit. The third kind--_Mászlás_, being similar to the former, the
+only difference consisting in its possessing less of the flavour of the
+dried fruit, a smaller quantity of pulp having been added to the juice.
+
+In consequence of the grapes being allowed to hang so long upon the
+tree, they naturally lose a great deal of their juice, and in withering
+become exceedingly sweet; but the particular kind called Essenz, though
+luscious, is not sickly.
+
+The very finest of all the wines made in the districts of the
+Hegyalia is manufactured at Tokay itself, and at a small place named
+_Mézes-Mále_. The vineyards of these mountain slopes are said to
+cover an area of 68,000 acres, and produce annually from nine to twelve
+million gallons of the precious beverage; the most ready purchasers
+being merchants from North Germany and Scandinavia. During our visit,
+however, an American arrived and purchased 300 hogsheads.
+
+Some of the fruit, already ripe, was hanging in rich clusters, and,
+sauntering up the sunny slopes, how many we plucked and ate as we
+forced our way through the narrow paths!
+
+On our return, the gentleman at whose house we dined, insisted on our
+tasting some of the vintages. The first was only three years old, the
+last twenty, but one and all had a delicious bouquet. “Imperial Tokay”
+is a most fascinating wine, but inclined to make one “joyful,” and it
+was perhaps well that the carriage was at the door, and the horses too
+impatient to be kept standing any longer, or the consequences might
+have been serious.
+
+It was evening by the time we again reached our friend’s hospitable
+mansion. An early supper had been ordered, which gave us a long
+evening afterwards to wander about the sweet, flower-scented alleys in
+the garden, and after darkness had set in we sat in the porch listening
+to music within, Örzse being a brilliant musician, having studied for
+three years at the _Conservatoire_ at Paris.
+
+Whilst here we were surprised to find how much our English literature
+is appreciated and read. On the table I noticed a Magyar translation
+of “Ádám Bede,” and other English authors, amongst whom, by the way,
+Bulwer is almost invariably the favourite with the Hungarians.
+
+Our host and hostess were most earnest in their efforts to induce us to
+prolong our visit to an indefinite period, and the time we had already
+spent in this delightful home had been so full of sunshine, that we
+would gladly have availed ourselves of their proffered hospitality had
+we been able.
+
+During our stay in this charming and well-appointed household, we were
+made aware of the fact that it was customary for a gipsy to form one
+of the regular staff of servants in a Hungarian family. The one in
+question was a pretty young woman with masses of raven hair and a clear
+skin; but notwithstanding her neat dress and civilised surroundings,
+we recognised her immediately. It is in truth not until one sees the
+_Czigánok_ translated to an entirely new form of existence, and
+under circumstances inconsistent with their ordinary lives, that one
+realises how completely different they are from the rest of mankind
+in form and feature. Instead of disguising, the garb of civilisation
+only enhances the type and renders it the more apparent. No matter
+what dress they may assume, no matter what may be their calling, no
+matter whether they are dwellers in tents or houses, it is impossible
+for gipsies to disguise their origin. Taken from their customary
+surroundings, they become at once such an anomaly and anachronism, and
+present such an instance of the absurdity of attempting to invert the
+order of nature, that we feel more than ever how utterly different
+they are from the rest of the human race, that there is a key to their
+strange life which we do not possess--a secret freemasonry that renders
+them more isolated than the veriest savages dwelling in the African
+wilds--and a hidden mystery hanging over them and their origin that we
+shall never comprehend. They are, indeed, a people so entirely separate
+and distinct that in whatever clime or quarter of the globe they may
+be met with, they are instantly recognised, for with them nearly forty
+centuries of association with civilised races have not succeeded in
+obliterating one single sign.
+
+  [Illustration: Old Cronies.]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+                         TEMPLES OF THE NIGHT.
+
+
+Kashau--the winter residence of many of the “Nobles”--is an exceedingly
+nice little city, and, after Pest, by far the most pleasant in Hungary.
+The houses are irregular and picturesque, and the cathedral, erected in
+1300, is a splendid Gothic structure with five naves, and contains rich
+fret-work of great elegance and purity of style. The whole, however, is
+spoilt, in a great measure, by the gilded and gaudily painted altars,
+which, resting against the beautiful groups of pillars, greatly detract
+from the harmony and size of the building.
+
+The best time to see this splendid edifice is at the hour of
+“Benediction,” when the shades of evening are gathering beneath the
+lofty arches of the central nave, and the setting sun, glistening
+through the painted windows, shoots soft arrows of gold and blue and
+crimson, which fall upon the pavement and the white kerchiefs of the
+women kneeling below the altar in the western transept.
+
+It was pleasant to linger in the cathedral whilst the evening service
+was taking place, listening to the heavenly voices of the choir singing
+high up over the western porch, and hearkening with bated breath to the
+sounds which, travelling along the Gothic roof and in and out amongst
+the arches and side chapels, seemed not to come from human lips, but
+through the painted windows; as though angels had brought it on their
+wings.
+
+On our second visit, one of the _Dom Herren_ (canons of the
+cathedral) observing we were foreigners, showed us several costly
+chalices, libariums, ancient missals and vestments, all of which were
+well worth seeing. He also caused to be uncovered the forty-eight
+pictures over the high altar illustrative of incidents in the lives
+of Jesus and Mary, twelve only of which are exhibited save on high
+festivals.
+
+To the south of the cathedral is the little mediæval church dedicated
+to St. Michael, and further still, opposite the Promenade, that of the
+Jesuits.
+
+As at Kolozsvár, one of the first things that arrests the stranger as
+he walks along the streets of Kashau, and looks into the shop windows,
+is the conspicuous display of coffins of all shapes and sizes, some
+of very elaborate designs, the most common being a sarcophagus in
+white enamel, with gilt cornices, standing on lion’s claws. There
+are, however, others to suit all comers and all tastes. One of these
+shops is situated close to a grocer’s, and hard by a Jew of elastic
+conscience sells crucifixes.
+
+In spite of all its gaiety there was something very sad to us in Kashau
+after all.
+
+Close to the hotel at which we were staying, a large building was
+being erected, upon which prisoners were employed in such numbers that
+they swarmed about the scaffolding, and in and out of the windows and
+doorways, like a lot of busy ants. They were all young men, and it was
+painful to watch them working under the vigilant eyes of the guards
+who stood over them with their bayonets, and to notice how they toiled
+hour after hour without pausing for an instant--working on with a
+perpetual motion that made one weary and wretched to witness.
+
+It is in the hilly country, the Felföld of Kashau, that are found the
+mines from which the precious opal is taken, a gem that is alleged to
+exist in no other part of the world, for the species called “Oriental”
+is in reality brought from these mines, which also contain jasper,
+agate, and chalcedony of great brilliancy.
+
+Anxious as we were to see these celebrated and interesting mines, we
+had no time to visit both these and the caves of Aggtelek. We therefore
+decided to accomplish the latter, for which purpose we requested
+András to be ready with the carriage and four horses at five o’clock
+the following morning, the distance being considerable. The hotel bill
+was accordingly paid over night, our luggage packed even to the rugs,
+and we retired to our “_napi_” with the uncomfortable sensation
+all travellers have who know they must be up in the morning before the
+world is awake. Since leaving Debreczin, we have been spoiled for early
+rising and got into bad habits in this respect, taking our coffee in
+our own room, and coming down to breakfast at the sluggard hour of ten.
+
+On the following morning at dawn, we were awakened by a loud pattering
+against the window panes. It was raining heavily. At half-past five,
+the inevitable porter comes, “rapping, tapping, at my chamber door.”
+But so strongly do we object to starting on a journey in wet weather,
+unless obliged, that we send a message to András and inform him that we
+shall not leave Kashau till the morrow.
+
+The morn had indeed broken drearily. On the rigid leaves of the
+oleander trees in the balcony outside, doing their best to grow in
+tubs much too small for them, the rain drips from the roof in heavy
+drops. An hour later, and chamber-maids with skirts held tightly round
+them, and heads bent low, dodge in and out of doorways, and waiters,
+carrying steaming coffee and other creature-comforts to the gentlemen
+guests, likewise pass and re-pass on their errands of mercy, holding
+dripping umbrellas. Dark clouds hang over head; there is a steady
+and calm determination about the rain as it comes pattering down
+perpendicularly, and falls from the roof through a shoot outside, with
+a swish, swash, and gurgle, that seems to say it is not going to cease
+yet awhile now it has come at last. A little half-drowned bird perches
+on the window-sill, and shakes itself, and then looks in pathetically
+with its head on one side. More little birds do likewise, and trim
+their dripping feathers, and then go hopping amongst the oleander
+branches, carolling as sweetly as if they had been in their native
+woods. How much they must have “made believe” those happy little birds,
+and what an example of contentment under difficulties did they not
+preach to us who were grumbling within. But it was such a dreary sight
+looking down upon the dingy streets--the draggle-tailed Hungarians
+with their white-fringed _gatyák_ dangling against their muddy
+top-boots as they walked along, and the poor ants opposite still
+toiling in their “daily round and common task”--that after breakfast we
+hailed a _droszky_ and drove to the station. A train happened to
+be just leaving for Abos, by which we could also return early in the
+evening, and jumping into a coupé, we soon felt glad we had come, for
+the scenery in the neighbourhood of Kashau is exceedingly beautiful;
+our route takes us through a narrow gorge along which winds the Hernat,
+changing its fitful course from right to left and left to right
+continually. The mountains, scarcely less than 4000 feet in height,
+which enclose the gorge on either side, consist of rugged limestone,
+and the further we go, the more sublime the scenery becomes--mountain
+rising above mountain, and crag above crag, foaming torrents, and
+pyramids of rock jutting out here and there, over which the birch
+droops its slender and silvery stems. At length we come to the region
+of dark pines, which, spreading their branches, almost span the gorge.
+At long distances apart are little hamlets, whose cottages are built
+on the extreme edge of rocks. What fairy glens we pass, filled with
+lovely wild flowers, lilies of the valley, Alpine anemones, and the
+_Polygada amara_ with its purple spikes! And wherever we turn our
+eyes we see a bewildering prodigality of beauty and luxuriance.
+
+In an hour’s time we reach our destination. There had been no rain
+here, which had evidently been confined to the region of the Plains;
+and we spent a most delightful day in wandering about amongst the
+woods, entering some of the little cottages and making friends with
+their simple dwellers. The peasantry in this locality eke out their
+livelihood by keeping bees, which they guard in little sheds, built
+high up the mountain slopes. The honey is delicious, perfectly clear,
+and much esteemed by people of other countries whither it is sent for
+sale.
+
+On our returning to the Abos station to take the down train for Kashau,
+we found it crowded with emigrants on their way to America, viâ
+Hamburg; and as there was not sufficient room in the train to contain
+them, a delay was occasioned on account of more carriages having to
+be attached. A crowd of persons--men, women, and children--had come
+to see them off. The Hungarians are a warm-hearted people, deeply
+attached to their kindred, and it was almost more than we could witness
+unmoved--the fine, stalwart young fellows sobbing on the necks of aged
+parents, and bidding adieus to wives, children, and sweethearts, whom
+they might never again behold on earth.
+
+It is a singular fact that, notwithstanding the superabundance of
+land and the thinness of the population, the Hungarians are every day
+leaving their country in vast numbers. There surely must be something
+radically wrong in the system of a Government which does not offer
+inducements to the labouring classes under these circumstances to
+remain in their own country.
+
+In the same carriage with us was a gentleman on his way to Debreczin,
+who, in course of conversation, informed us he was a tobacco planter,
+having an estate of 3000 _jochs_--a _joch_ being, I believe,
+rather less than an acre--for which he had paid at the rate of £15
+per _joch_. With land, then, not only so cheap, but so abundant
+everywhere, we again wonder what is the reason for these people
+emigrating?
+
+It had evidently been raining all day at Kashau, but as we arrive, the
+leaden clouds, gathering themselves together, are sailing away from the
+golden west, where the sun, setting gloriously, promises better things
+for the morrow.
+
+Sitting at dinner in the hotel restaurant we were taken aback by a
+person at an opposite table accosting us in English in the following
+words, which were uttered in the most unmistakable Transatlantic
+brogue, and with a fine, bold, nasal twang that would have done credit
+to the oldest inhabitant of that quarter of the globe:
+
+“How long since you left England, sir, and what have ye come here for?
+I guess there isn’t much in Hungary that you have found to your liking.”
+
+“Where do _you_ come from?” was the reply that followed his
+questions, which seemed slightly to savour of impertinence.
+
+“I’ve jest come from Amurica, sir. I’ve been there ten years.”
+
+“But you are surely an American yourself?”
+
+“Wall, sir, I guess I’m a Hungarian. I went to the United States to
+make my fortune, but instead of that I lost one.”
+
+“What do your countrymen do when they get there--such men, for
+instance, as we saw leaving to-day?” inquired F.
+
+“They die by a fence,” was the laconic reply.
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“Why, jest this. When they get out there, they can’t speak any language
+the Amuricans know, and so no one will employ them. They go around from
+place to place in search of work, but find none; then, having spent the
+few florins they had in their pockets when they landed, they starve
+right away.”
+
+“Who induces them to emigrate? Surely some prospect must be held out to
+them of doing better there than in their own country, or they would not
+go in such numbers.”
+
+“It’s the newspapers that does it,” continued he, with the same brogue,
+in which he was evidently an apt scholar, “the _Government_
+newspapers, I mean. They are always telling our chaps the wonderful
+things they will do if they go there, and how that in a few years’
+time they will come home rich, and he able to settle down in the old
+country and be landowners; and they know it is a wicked lie they are
+telling all the while, and that there is nothing good to be gained
+there by our poor fellows. But what do they care _what_ happens
+to them? they only want to get them out of the way that they may
+_Austrianise_ our country the easier by colonising it with their
+own people.”
+
+Whether the above statement is correct or not I cannot say; I only
+repeat exactly what we heard. It is quite possible, and would doubtless
+be in the interest of Austria to induce Hungary’s oft-times too
+patriotic sons to emigrate, that she might be enabled by degrees to
+colonise it with her own; but this, of course, is one of those matters
+which can never be more than mere conjecture.
+
+At five o’clock A.M. we took our leave of this pleasant
+little city. Notwithstanding the matutinal hour, a crowd of attendants
+benevolently presented themselves to bid us adieu, possibly remembering
+that it is the early bird that catches the worm. “Worms” we were on
+that occasion at any rate, as well as on most others of the like
+nature, but a small _douceur_ goes a long way with Hungarian
+servants, who are often ill-paid. Passing other hotels we see similar
+little performances being enacted, where more disinterested menials are
+assembled to speed the parting guest.
+
+The Magyars are by no means a grasping people, and are always satisfied
+with whatever is given them, returning a hearty “Thank you,” no matter
+how small the gift, which, by the way, they have the good taste never
+to look at in your presence.
+
+About noon, arriving at a village, we found some difficulty in
+procuring a relay of horses, and whilst strolling about its labyrinths
+to pass away the time, we saw before us a church, and were just about
+to enter it, when a woman, who had evidently witnessed our approach,
+and who was standing at the door, closed it abruptly on the outside
+to prevent our doing so. Upon our asking her the reason in German,
+she replied, somewhat uncivilly, in her own tongue, that as we spoke
+an _idegen nyelv_ (foreign language), we could not belong to the
+Magyar religion, and therefore it could afford us neither pleasure nor
+profit to see her church. “The national religion of the noble Magyar,”
+I regret to say, does not “light up well.” Its people are, for the
+most part, stern, demure, and exclusive--a fact even more apparent
+on our journey from Debreczin to Kashau than in the capital of the
+“_Magyar vallas_” itself, and of which the above little episode is
+an example. It was an amusing instance of bigotry, but I felt sorry it
+should have been from a Protestant that for the first time throughout
+the whole of our previous and present travels amongst Gallicians,
+Rusniaks, Slovaks, Wallachs, and even Croat-Serbs, we received any
+incivility. In the minds of the ignorant, the Magyar language and
+Protestantism are inseparable, whilst the Magyar language is, they
+believe, the only one known in heaven.
+
+It is related of an old Magyar nurse attending a sick lady, that on
+hearing her make use of the common German exclamation, addressed to the
+Deity, she cried, “Ah, my lady, forgive me! but how can you expect the
+good God to listen to you if you speak to Him in a language He does not
+understand?”
+
+At nine o’clock at night we reach Rosenau, a mining town situated on
+the river Sajó. The roads were execrable the whole way, but the scenery
+was both varied and beautiful. Our fatigue, however, had not been
+great, and the mountain air infused such new life into us that the next
+day we felt equal to anything; even to the announcement which greeted
+us on descending to the little restaurant of the inn for breakfast,
+that we should have to proceed to Agtalek by “_shaker_,” the roads
+being, as we were assured, too bad for anything else on wheels.
+
+We had already passed over so many hundred miles of Hungarian roads,
+that we scarcely believed there could be anything in store for us
+of a worse nature than we had hitherto experienced. Our ardour was
+consequently not in the least degree damped by the above announcement,
+and we set out with light hearts, András and _the dog_ accompanying us.
+_A propos_ of the latter, we had found a home for him at our friend’s
+with whom we stayed, near Tokay, who assured us he was in need of
+just such a quadruped, but who advised us to keep him with us until
+we should be returning to Tokay, when we could leave him behind as we
+passed through the district.
+
+As this waif was now a respectable member of society, and belonged to
+“the quality,” it was necessary to give him some name. We therefore
+bestowed upon him that of _Essek_--the Magyar signification for
+Archbishop--on account of his resemblance to that ecclesiastical
+dignitary; his long black hair, and white front, giving him the
+appearance, when assuming a sitting posture, of a person in a black
+robe and lawn sleeves. We are once more in the land of gipsies, whom we
+have not met with on our travels for some time, but who now greet us
+at the entrance to every village, and exhibit, as elsewhere, the old
+Roman contempt for the superfluous.
+
+Essek--a name which for the sake of brevity soon resolved itself into
+Esk--was at first a dog of somewhat low proclivities, much given to
+fraternise with gipsy children; but he already begins to turn up his
+episcopal nose whenever we now happen to fall in with a party of
+_Czigánok_, and is wont to pass by proudly on the other side.
+
+Arrived at the village of Agtalek, after many a jolt and bump--our
+_shaker_ true to its appellation to the last--we are met by guides
+who accompany us to the caverns situated a short distance above the
+village.
+
+Like all others of the kind they are formed in the limestone rock, and
+extend a distance of many miles into the heart of the mountains. On
+entering, the _Tanz-saal_ is the first great cavern we see, a vast
+hall where the peasants of the neighbourhood often resort on festivals,
+and dance by torch-light, arrayed in their pretty costumes.
+
+Magnificent, however, as is the _Tanz-saal_ in its vast
+proportions, we do not linger here, our desire being to penetrate
+farther into this marvellous region by one or more of its intricate
+windings.
+
+Leading from the “great dome” is a narrow passage, through which a
+brook forces its way. Following it we reach, in a quarter of an hour’s
+time, what is called the _Paradiesgarten_, a name given to this
+part of the cavern on account of the resemblance which the objects
+it contains bear to those which are supposed to have existed in the
+garden of Eden, and certainly the exquisite beauty and elegance of form
+which the stalactite and stalagmite matter here assume, far exceeds
+anything of the kind we ever beheld. Trees, fruits, and even the
+serpent--a good likeness of him too--were severally pointed out to us,
+nothing being absent, in fact, but Adam and Eve to complete the guide’s
+_epitome_!
+
+How those guides wearied us! In vain we besought them to be still, and
+leave us to our own imaginings; they continued to point out first this
+object and then that, and talked so perpetually, whilst we desired
+nothing so much as complete silence, in which to admire in awe and
+wonder, these great mysteries of nature, that, maddened at last by
+their persistence, F. let off, like a succession of pistol-shots, a
+string of telling Magyar expletives which he had previously learnt by
+diligent study, and which so astonished the guides by the fervour with
+which they were administered, that we heard nothing afterwards but the
+beating of our own hearts.
+
+As we henceforth pursue our way, we do so almost with bated breath, for
+the farther we wander through these labyrinths the more the feeling of
+awe grows upon us; and as the guides precede us with their torches, the
+giant fragments of dripping stalagmite gleam grimly in the fitful light
+and take shape of living things, which seem to move, or stand spectral,
+and colourless before us. Sometimes these passages lead to small side
+chambers, hewn out roughly and majestically by nature in the solid
+rock, like ancient funereal vaults, in which lie rude _sarcophagi_
+and dead men’s bones, guarded by wan figures, standing enveloped in
+half transparent drapery which covers them from head to foot. Anon we
+come upon shattered and ruined temples with Gothic arches, and fonts,
+and windows, and the Hand that formed these objects of weird and
+fantastic beauty is still at work upon them, for we hear, above the
+muffled sound of our foot-fall, the steady “drip, drip” of the water in
+near and far-off passages.
+
+Whilst examining a beautiful little grotto enclosed on all sides
+by slender pillars and drooping garlands, and in which were ferns
+and mosses and a net-work of fanciful leaves engraved on a mass of
+stalagmite, I suddenly found myself in darkness. F. and the guides had
+all passed on, and I was alone. It was useless to attempt to follow, I
+could only shout to them to return, and as I did so, how my own voice
+frightened me, as it echoed above, below, around, and then went rolling
+off into distant passages till it seemed to die away in boundless space!
+
+They soon responded to my call and came tramping back with all speed,
+and then we reached the brook again flowing on through its lonely
+prison-house, the torches reflecting themselves strangely in its black
+waters.
+
+We could not ascertain whether this subterranean stream contained
+the little animal, half-fish half-lizard--the _Proteus_
+_Auquinus_--found in the river Poik in the caverns of Adelsberg
+near Triste; those poor little eyeless creatures which, born
+in darkness, have--when taken by the curious from their native
+solitudes--to be shielded from the light of heaven in order to be kept
+alive.
+
+The temperature of the caverns was so low that on returning to the hot
+outer atmosphere I nearly fainted. We were in fact both exhausted by
+fatigue and fasting; but found on reaching the village inn, where we
+had left András, that but for his exertions we must have lunched off
+honey, milk, and rye bread. There was in fact literally nothing else
+to be had. The brave little man, however, during our absence had again
+gone to the priest and obtained from him a fat pullet which had been
+already trussed for his Reverence’s own dinner; and which, stewed and
+served with cranberry sauce, quite set us up for the day, and sent us
+on our way rejoicing.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLV.
+
+                        DICKENS _alias_ “BOSH.”
+
+
+Nothing can be more charming than the town of Tokay from a distance.
+Lying snugly at the foot of the Hegyalja with its picturesque wooden
+roofs peeping above the forest of willows which here grow luxuriantly,
+it looks like an ideal spot where one might spend one’s days in
+pastoral tranquillity, a happy valley in which even Rasselas himself
+might have been contented to remain for ever.
+
+Tokay is surrounded on one side by what appears to be a series of small
+lakes; they are, however, but the inundations of the Theiss, which
+here joins the Bodrog; and Tokay, notwithstanding its appearance from
+a distance, is a delusion and a snare, a long and inexpressibly dirty
+town whose houses are little better than hovels.
+
+Besides the ordinary population of Hungary, Tokay is inhabited by an
+ethnological medley composed of Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, the latter
+being the “middle men” between the manufacturers of the wine and the
+merchants who purchase it. They consequently congregate in numbers at
+this place, and the Israelitish element is perhaps stronger here than
+elsewhere.
+
+Although containing a population of five thousand souls, Tokay boasts
+of only one hotel--a straggling barrack-like building, with long, dark,
+cut-throat passages.
+
+“Alas!” exclaimed András as he carried our portmanteaus up to our
+room--“to think that my sweet master and mistress should have to sleep
+in such a den, and that in my country too. It is a bad place, full of
+thieves and Jews; but they shall come to no harm, their faithful András
+will watch all night. Let not my master and mistress fear.”
+
+We have reason at any rate to thank the kind priest at our last resting
+place for his present of the fowl, for the only thing we could meet
+with on arrival here was _halász lé_ or “fisherman’s soup,” a
+dish consisting of various kinds of fish stewed together in a gravy,
+thickened with red pepper, a celebrated Szegedin dish, at which place
+we had eaten it with relish two years previously; but we do not feel
+inclined to partake of it here, and having ordered a small bottle of
+Tokay, for which the charge was five gulden, we sallied forth to the
+town, staggering under the old archway and over the rough stones like
+drunken folk, not from the effects of our libations, but from the road
+being full of deep holes which were hidden in sand, and of which we
+did not know the existence till we found ourselves plunging headlong
+into them. Crossing the street and passing at length under another
+old archway that must have been built in the time of Moses, we found
+ourselves standing on the banks of the river.
+
+The Theiss here, as elsewhere, is a muddy and sluggish stream, but
+there is a great deal of navigation on its waters. It contains fish in
+great variety, and the sturgeon caught in this neighbourhood, whether
+from the superior muddiness of the water, or from whatever cause, is
+said to exceed in richness of flavour that found even in the Danube.
+So great is the quantity of fish left behind on the subsiding of the
+waters after an inundation, that the people of the town collect it to
+feed their numerous pigs, and to manure their land.
+
+This now wretched and mean little place has had, however, a glorious
+past, and was in olden time the site of one of Attila’s royal camps,
+who, barbarian though he was, united the splendour and magnificence of
+the East with the luxury and licentiousness of Rome. We are told by an
+ancient historian that his table was covered with goblets of silver and
+gold, wrought in divers rich devices, the dress of his warriors being
+embroidered with the same, whilst portions of their attire were studded
+with precious stones, as also were their sandals and the trappings of
+their horses. The entrance of the great chief to Tokay--then called
+“the royal village”--was celebrated with great solemnity and pomp. A
+numerous company of women, going forth to welcome their hero and their
+king, formed themselves into long and regular files, and held aloft
+a canopy of thin white muslin veils for him to pass under, whilst a
+number of maidens marched before him, chanting hymns in the Scythian
+language.
+
+As we wander along the willow-fringed banks of the river, the basaltic
+Hegyalja with their vine-clad slopes, against which the town is built,
+rise above us.
+
+These mountains extend for twenty miles in a northerly direction, and
+are separated from the plains by the river Bodrog, which, as I have
+said, falls into the Theiss at this spot.
+
+Sauntering along, we were giving vent to our impressions of the place
+and its inhabitants in the most unguarded English, when a young man,
+the only respectable individual, by-the-way, we had yet seen in Tokay,
+whom we observed standing on the banks of the river as we passed, came
+toward us, and, taking off his hat, remarked abruptly--
+
+“I sch-peak English.”
+
+He wore some kind of uniform, and we began to fear we might have
+offended the sensitive ear of an Austrian spy who might possibly get us
+into trouble, but our minds were soon relieved by his informing us that
+he liked our English literature, from which fact we judged him to be a
+man of peace rather than of war.
+
+“I like your _Boulvair_,” he continued, “but I cannot always
+understand your _Bosh_.”
+
+This seemingly uncomplimentary statement was, at first, not a little
+astounding, until we remembered that Dickens is always spoken of in
+Germany--and that therefore he would most probably be so in Hungary
+likewise--by his _nom de plume_ of “Boz,” and that that word on
+the lips of a Hungarian, if he happened to mistake the final letter
+and substitute “s” for “z”--which in the Magyar language is invariably
+pronounced like “sh”--would result in “Bosh.”
+
+“I hope we have not hurt your mind by anything we have spoken about
+this place and its inhabitants,” broke in F., wishing to be gracious.
+“If we have I trust you will forgive us; you must have heard much that
+we said.”
+
+“You need not apologise,” he replied. “I am not a native of
+Tokay,”--speaking partly in English and partly in German--“and fully
+sympathise with your feelings concerning the place. There is some
+excuse for its inhabitants, however; Government, which takes care to
+receive the revenues, does nothing towards helping them to improve the
+condition of the town, a circumstance which naturally engenders apathy
+in the minds of the people themselves on the matter.”
+
+“Probably,” we replied. “Yet it would cost them nothing to be clean;
+there is plenty of water in the river here, such as it is.”
+
+“Eh!” rejoined he, after a pause, during which he was searching in
+the tablets of his memory for an English adjective, “the people are
+_faul_ (idle),”--a word which, being pronounced _foul_ in its
+own vernacular, was a much more suitable one in its present application
+than than of “idle,” which he was desirous of expressing in English.
+
+As we were returning to the inn, the church nearest to it rang out the
+“Ave Maria,” and climbing the hill we entered the building by a side
+door. All was quiet and dark inside, for the evening light came feebly
+through the dusty windows. There were tapers on the altar, and a little
+lamp was glimmering here and there before some shrine. Few of us can go
+out of the daylight into a dimly lighted church without feeling subdued
+and solemnised, whatever creed be taught within its walls; and it was
+all very simple and impressive, and the contrast very great between its
+hush and peace and the noise and turmoil of busy life outside, which
+reached us in muffled tones, as though the sounds of earth were not
+permitted to enter the abode of peace and rest, save softly and subdued.
+
+The door opens, and an old woman comes hobbling in, and setting down
+her crutches begins praying aloud; then the priest enters silently
+from the sacristy, and, kneeling on the lowest step, begins reciting
+in a monotonous voice, the “Rosary,” _Ave Maria_, _Gratia plena_, etc.
+The old woman and ourselves form the only congregation, and even she
+hobbles out again before the service is over, although it only lasted
+half an hour. We, however, remained to the end, by which time it was
+almost dark outside. As we reeled back to the hotel over the uneven
+pavement, there were sounds of drinking and revelry in almost every
+house; men singing Bacchanalian songs, or shouting at each other in
+argument; whilst passing beneath one window we heard, high above other
+voices, those of Jews--whose intonation we had ere this learnt to
+recognise--clamouring as usual about money. Again and again the words,
+“_gulden_,” “_hundert tausend_,” “_million gulden_,” “_joch_,” and
+“_massen von geld_,” reached our ears.
+
+I dare say we did the inhabitants of Tokay great injustice, for they
+were doubtless harmless enough, but we took care on retiring for the
+night to double-lock our door and look well to the window fastenings,
+for the whole place somehow had a brigand look.
+
+András’s room was next to ours, a fact in which _I_ at any rate
+took comfort. He had prepared a light supper for us by the time we
+returned, which we partook of pic-nic fashion, in our own room. Esk,
+our faithful _bányá_ (dog), was left in charge of the carriage in
+the _álas_ close by, and, howling terribly during the night, he
+must, I fear, have disturbed the slumbers of the whole town or village,
+whichever Tokay may happen to be; but beyond this, no sound broke the
+stillness of the hours of darkness, and the worthy inhabitants gave us
+no annoyance whatever.
+
+The church bells awoke us at an early hour the following morning.
+Looking down into the yard at the rear of the hotel, we see servants
+walking to and fro, and wading through the mud right valiantly. It is
+too deep even for top-boots, and they plunge into it with naked feet;
+but a large dog with long brown hair stalks about gingerly, like a tame
+bear, and chooses the driest places. The ducks and geese have a fine
+time of it, and flourish accordingly. On one side of the yard is a shed
+where the cows are kept, and having seen them milked, we lose for once
+our relish for “white coffee.”
+
+At seven o’clock, András comes to the door with the information that he
+has made arrangements for us to breakfast at the station restaurant,
+and recommends us to quit this _elendes dorf_ (wretched village)
+as soon as we can.
+
+Leaving our room after a hasty toilet, and proceeding along the dingy
+passage, we see two dark objects ascending the stairs and “stopping the
+way.” Tourists possibly; but no! they turn out to be the pet pigs of
+the establishment, no doubt on their way to the _salle à manger_,
+situated on the landing. They are, however, checked in their bold
+career, for on catching sight of us they turn round, and with much
+demonstration of annoyance, a look of injured innocence, and many a
+grunt and squeak, they hastily retrace their steps.
+
+Now, however much I may doat on a pig in its proper sphere, I do
+not quite like him as a domestic animal; but tastes differ, and the
+Hungarian pig, as we have already seen, is a much more civilised
+quadruped than his English brother.
+
+At eight o’clock we make our triumphal departure from Tokay, and by
+dint of “sitting tight,” and holding on to the sides of the carriage,
+succeed in reaching the station without broken bones. We have had
+rather a hard time of it, taking it altogether, but, happily for us,
+our philosophy is of that practical kind that seeks, and invariably
+finds, consolation wherever a particle of it can be found. We had made
+the discovery of how much human nature can endure and live, which is
+a knowledge worth acquiring in this “vale of tears;” we had tasted
+“Imperial Tokay” in the place where it is manufactured, and had seen
+the worst of the “_honfoglalás_” (Kingdom of Hungary), which is a
+thing to be proud of.
+
+The kind Hungarian friends with whom we had been lately staying, had
+made us promise, before leaving them, to pay them a visit on our
+return; but wishing to go down the Save--the second largest river in
+Hungary--before the setting in of the autumnal rains, we decide to send
+a messenger from this place with the dog, and a note of apology for
+ourselves.
+
+And so, _bányá_ mine, we are going to label thee, “This side up,
+with care,” and send thee away, but thou art going to a better home.
+
+For the first time since we had him, Esk refrained from wagging his
+shaggy tail when I spoke to him. There must have been something in my
+tone of voice that boded evil; for he looked up at me with his large,
+earnest eyes, and trembled from head to foot; then, putting his front
+paws on my knees, he buried his head in my lap.
+
+Poor beast, he had won our affections, and it was hard to part with
+him now that the moment had come. Having given him a good breakfast,
+however, and commended him to the tender mercies of the man who was
+to take him to his new home, we arranged for our own journey south.
+The train from Kashau was due at ten o’clock, and we decided to travel
+in it as far as Schemnitz, and then cross the plains in a southerly
+direction towards the capital, our carriage following us to Miscólsz in
+the evening, a place at which we meant to break our journey.
+
+As the train slid out of the station, the great basaltic rocks of the
+volcanic hill of Tokay frowned down upon us with forbidding aspect,
+and it remained in sight for nearly an hour, when it gradually faded
+from our view, and appeared but a faint grey cloud on the verge of the
+horizon.
+
+The plains in the north of Hungary are much more fertile than in the
+south, and we pass through thousands of acres of waving corn, and
+pastures as smiling as those of the Bánat. There has been a great deal
+of rain here, which we have partially escaped in our more northern
+travels, and the roads, as we approach the towns and villages, are
+such quagmires that in one place we saw a “shaker” and party of
+travellers--who had evidently driven from some distant horizon to
+start by our train--literally buried in the mud, which was half way up
+the wheels. Whether the unfortunate occupants were able to extricate
+themselves from their ridiculous position we could not tell. Under the
+circumstances, it would have been impossible for them to get out and
+walk. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume, in the silence of
+history concerning them and their fate, that they are there still.
+
+Wandering about the plains, in proximity to each village, are large
+families of geese, the parents waddling with sedate and solemn mien as
+they follow their tribe of yellow goslings. Whichever way one looks
+there are geese snowing the distant pastures or swimming in the marshes.
+
+Approaching a village, we observed a vast concourse of people gathered
+together on its outskirts. A fair is being held, and the ground is
+inundated to such an extent that the booths are actually standing in
+water, a day or two’s rain being quite sufficient to cause it to lie on
+the surface, for the soil in this district is already saturated with
+moisture, in consequence of its proximity to the Theiss. Accustomed
+to this state of affairs, the people of both sexes, nothing daunted,
+hold up their petticoats and paddle through the water like ducks. Here
+and there, in the little patches of green that, like wet islands, rise
+above the water, are sellers of pottery displaying their wares, and a
+_colporteur_ his tracts, whilst, standing about in groups, are
+Jews, dragging their long togas in the mire, and gipsy children taking
+mud baths. Away beyond the fair, with its booths and wet islands and
+general slush and slipperiness, are thousands of horses, cattle, and
+pigs--_pet_ pigs, affectionately watched over by buxom Magyar
+females, ankle deep in water. The train stopped in full view of this
+scene, for no apparent reason so far as we could ascertain, for
+three-quarters of an hour, and then lumbered on again, and brought us
+to Mád Zomber--what _insane_ names these Hungarian villages have!
+Once more reaching the solitary plains, we pass through vast tracts
+of uncultivated land, roamed by immense herds of cattle, which form
+dark groups on the horizon. On, past a well, on one side of which are
+a countless number of horses, and on the other of cows; but they do
+not intermingle in the least. These vast herds are a never-ending
+source of astonishment to the English traveller journeying through
+these thinly-populated districts. Near them stand sheep-dogs, with
+long hair, pointed noses, and bushy tails, like wolves. Overhead,
+flights of birds are hovering in the sky. How gracefully they skim
+through the translucent air! and now they soar away, and hover, rising
+and falling, in the distance; whilst one or two, less rapid in their
+flight, get left behind. What is the reason they cry so piteously?
+See that large bird yonder, following in their wake with outstretched
+neck! It is a falcon in hot pursuit. It overtakes the one most distant
+from the rest, seizes it in its cruel grip, and they fall to earth
+together, the victim and its prey. A tall crane plumes itself on the
+border of a marsh. A windmill in the distance throws its big arms about
+languidly in the sultry breeze, and we reach districts cultivated with
+maize, tobacco, hemp, poppies, and flax, the flowers of the three
+latter creating with the golden shade of the ripe grain, an exquisite
+modulation of colour. Every now and then we see in the distance
+swelling tumuli, commonly called “_Kún halom_” (Cuman-hill),
+believed by some to contain the tombs of military chieftains of ancient
+times; by others to be Turkish mounds (_török domb_). The learned,
+however, attribute to them a still more ancient origin even than
+the former, and declare that they are the remains of the artificial
+boundary made by the Romans not only to define the borders of their
+empire, but also to protect themselves from the incursions of the
+warlike barbarians of the surrounding countries.
+
+There is evidence that a similar frontier-line extended from Pest to
+the south-east, towards the mountains of Transylvania, and the green
+mounds which we here meet with at regular intervals are the places on
+which the watch-towers stood that protected the frontier-line. Beneath
+some of these mounds the dykes on the outside are still visible, which
+are called by the peasantry _Ördög árka_ (devil’s ditch).
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+                     THE GOLD MINES OF SCHEMNITZ.
+
+
+A narrow mountain gorge with irregularly built houses on either side,
+and churches with red domes and shining cupolas, backed by wondrous
+mountains, introduce us to Schemnitz.
+
+The street is both steep and rugged, so that, leaving our coachman
+to find some place below where he can deposit the carriage, we walk
+leisurely up the hill, where women are sitting surrounded by huge
+baskets of lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots; whilst other women
+are selling snow-white lambs, the little creatures, whose legs are tied
+together, panting piteously as they lie on their backs in baskets much
+too small to contain them. At length, reaching the hotel, and passing
+under the archway, we are shown through a yard, up two flights of stone
+steps, across a balcony built against the steep side of the mountain,
+and commanding a near view of the shingled roofs of neighbouring houses
+with their respective cats, and are ushered into a large apartment,
+where we are welcomed by mediæval celebrities, who, as we enter, gaze
+at us furtively out of their dark frames, and follow us suspiciously
+about the room with staring eyes--a most ghostly chamber truly, and one
+that looks anything but conducive to sleep.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Although we have ascended at least thirty steps, we still find
+ourselves on a level with the heads of persons walking in the street;
+a window at the end of the room looking out upon a fountain where
+women stand gossiping and slopping, exchanging salutations with the
+passers-by, and occasionally screaming at the top of their voices
+at other females leaning far out of windows in the upper stories of
+the high houses. Pretty girls in red bodices and large white sleeves
+frilled at the elbow, come tripping down the hill, laughing merrily,
+and carrying wooden pails to fill with the yellow water of the
+fountain, its colour _said_ to be due to the attrition of the
+rocks containing gold ore, through which the stream flows that feeds
+this fountain.
+
+A great deal of gold dust is found in the rivers of Transylvania,
+caused either by the decomposition of the metalliferous rocks or from
+the rupture of ore-veins. The upper part of the river Maros is one of
+the richest streams in Hungary, pieces of the precious metal being
+sometimes found in it as large as a marble. The gold found in these
+rivers is, or was until a comparatively recent period, a monopoly in
+the hands of the gipsies, who paid an annual tax to Government for
+the privilege. It is found in the greatest abundance after rain, when
+the sand left by the flood has collected on the edges of the mountain
+torrents.
+
+This celebrated town, the capital of the mining districts, founded in
+745, contains twenty thousand inhabitants. The town itself, together
+with the mountain on which it is built, is completely undermined,
+veins of the precious metal traversing it in all directions. In 1865
+the quantity of gold raised from the Schemnitz mines was 650 lbs. in
+weight, and of silver, 13,000 lbs. The mines throughout the whole
+of Hungary that year produced no less than 5000 lbs. weight of the
+former, and about 63,000 lbs. of the latter. The mines richest in gold
+and silver at present are, however, those in the east of Hungary, in
+the province of Transylvania, the metal found here in the greatest
+abundance now being lead, in which, however, gold and silver, to some
+extent, are always intermingled.
+
+There are two principal adits, the upper and the lower. Having applied
+for permission to view the mines at the office immediately opposite
+the entrance to the latter, we were ushered into an inner apartment
+where we were vested in two loose long garments like surplices, and,
+if the truth must be told, very ragged and dirty ones too, in addition
+to which F. was provided with a species of green felt jelly-bag by way
+of head gear, the exact pattern of those worn by the ancient Druids.
+Having resigned ourselves into the hands of a stout foreman of the
+mines, who gives us both a mining lamp to carry, we issue from the
+office with the farewell salutation from those within of “_glück
+auf!_” an expression invariably used by the miners to each other
+on descending the mines, and which literally means “Happy return to
+daylight!”
+
+As we crossed the street in this strange guise we wondered what our
+friends at home would think was happening to us if we could have been
+photographed at that instant! The passers-by however were evidently
+accustomed to such apparitions, for they took no notice of us, nor did
+they even turn their heads as they also exclaimed “_glück auf!_”
+and we vanished in the darkness.
+
+This adit, which is worked by Government, extends to galleries and
+other adits. The passage is about eight feet high by four broad; but,
+the floor being only roughly covered with planks, beneath which water
+rushes, progress is neither a pleasant nor easy task.
+
+The mountain perforated by these mines is of Trachyte formation and
+contains Plutonic rock, which geologists affirm must have been sent up
+from beneath by volcanic agency after the deposition of the Tertiary
+deposits. It is in this Plutonic rock that the veins exist which
+contain the precious metals.
+
+No fewer than three thousand families--the greater number of whom are
+Slovaks--are employed in the various Schemnitz mines, twelve of which
+are worked by Government, the others belonging to private companies.
+After following our guide through the damp, dark passage by a gradual
+but continuous descent of about eighteen hundred feet, we came to the
+huge iron tube through which the water flows that drains the mines,
+and the noise was almost deafening. We were here joined by a second
+guide, and at length reached a staircase leading to the machinery and a
+still lower level. As we descended and stood by the immense wheel, we
+looked down into a black and, to our eye, measureless abyss; bridged
+by a narrow and frail platform on which the man stood who was working
+the machinery. As he stood there alone with his one feeble lamp--no one
+within ear-shot--there was something appalling in the thought of his
+being there day after day without any companionship save that of the
+great broad, black wheel, which keeps turning slowly round and round in
+endless revolution to the deafening splash of waters, and we wondered
+he did not actually go mad. His fate seemed somehow much more terrible
+than that of the men who were working far beneath in the depths of the
+earth, for they were not alone but in companies. As a rule, the men
+work alternately twelve and eight hours a day, but in some portions,
+the mines are so hot and unhealthy that they are only allowed to work
+fourteen days at a time, when they are changed, the heat and foul air
+acting very prejudicially upon their health. How can they work, these
+poor creatures, all their lives in this living grave? As we saw them
+with their feeble lamps hacking away at the hard rock, I realised for
+the first time, with what labour and misery the beautiful metals are
+procured with which we so unthinkingly adorn ourselves.
+
+The gigantic wheel to which--after having descended deeper into the
+mine--we have just returned, pumps the water out of the passages, the
+water being utilised by means of a smaller wheel, to raise the ore from
+the lower adits. The ore is first placed in large square sacks, and,
+after being raised, is shunted through a hole in the rock into another
+adit, where a train-truck waits to receive it, after which it is sent
+either to Neusohl or Kremnitz to be smelted.
+
+These mines were also begun by the Romans, who, having in those days
+no such force as dynamite or gunpowder within their command, drilled
+some of these passages, as in the cobalt mines of Dobsina, by the
+slow method of chisel and hammer. Such portions even yet are easily
+distinguishable by the smoothness and evenness of their surface.
+
+In the “Roselia,” the oldest of all the mines here, coins, lamps, and
+even articles of dress of the Roman period have been found. There is
+also a cavern of considerable extent likewise attributed to Roman
+excavation, a process believed to have been accomplished by fire and
+vinegar, a method alluded to by Pliny, the rocks having been evidently
+split and not hewn, traces of fire in both caverns and passages being
+still visible.
+
+But, however interesting and instructive our exploits had been, we
+felt thankful when, after having traversed the mine a distance of no
+less than three thousand six hundred feet, we once more saw the sweet,
+fair daylight gleaming through the aperture, and knew that our journey
+through the dark and toilsome regions of the night was accomplished.
+
+There is a mining school at Schemnitz founded by Maria Theresa, where
+two hundred students receive a gratuitous and liberal education. The
+branches taught, besides metallurgy, mineralogy, and mining, being
+chemistry, mathematics, drawing, and surveying. The students wear
+a uniform of dark green, turned up with red; the sleeves of their
+jackets curiously padded at the shoulders to protect the arms from
+being grazed by the walls of the mines. They also wear funny little
+leather aprons behind. Both their caps and jackets are ornamented with
+the mining _insignia_, a crossed hammer and pickaxe. In full
+dress, these academical students, the more advanced of whom are called
+“Practicants,” wear black velvet aprons, gold epaulets, and a sabre.
+
+Having explored the mines, the next thing to be done, after an hour
+or two’s rest from fatigue, was to inspect some of the treasure they
+contain. The mineralogical collection, however, is not so good as might
+be expected, all the finest specimens being sent to the National Museum
+of Pest, which possesses the third best collection in Europe; there is,
+however, a very fair one here, and quite sufficiently good to give the
+visitor an idea of all the minerals and stones which the mountain holds
+concealed within its hidden recesses.
+
+The gold is found in various forms, sometimes in round smooth globules
+the size of shot, embedded in a porous and spongy-looking stone; at
+others it assumes the most beautiful shapes, simulating a succession of
+leaflets on a stalk, anaglyphs, and every sort of device conceivable,
+so exquisitely moulded that it was difficult at first to realise that
+some had not been wrought by a skilled goldsmith, from special designs;
+whilst silver is often found in a thin, brittle, and yellowish stone
+called _spath_, which looks as though it had been moulded from
+the most beautiful vine, or some other large leaf. More frequently,
+however, it is seen lying in compact beds, either in small angular
+pieces of a slightly leaden colour, or in bead-like masses.
+
+It would be impossible to describe the variety and splendour of the
+minerals, one of the most beautiful stones being the amethyst, which
+is found in large beds, in which the dark purple rectangular crystals,
+shooting upwards in cones of equal size, are so polished and regularly
+formed that they appear as if they had just come out of the hands
+of the lapidary. Malachite is likewise found in a transition state,
+together with ocherite, both of which stones are intermingled with
+globules of gold. These Plutonic rocks also contain opal; which is
+found in the whitish-grey calcined rock, generally in strata of about
+four inches thick, where it forms a compact and seeming opaque mass,
+possessing the appearance--if I may so express it--of petrified and
+etherealised fire. When seen in its original stratum, opal presents
+quite a different aspect from that which it assumes after it has passed
+into the hands of the lapidary, and is far less beautiful to my mind in
+its _rounded_ and artificial form. Of all the stones found in the
+Hungarian mountains, none impressed us so greatly as this one in its
+natural state.
+
+It is exceedingly interesting to see the minerals which are used by
+the professors in lecturing to the mining students. There are the
+round hollow stones in which crystals are just beginning to form,
+and others showing the progressive stages of their growth. Amethysts
+are invariably found, like other crystals, in pebbles, some of which
+measure half a yard in diameter, and which, on being broken in two,
+are seen to be thickly lined with lustrous purple stones. There were
+clayey substances also in every phase of transition, from the primary
+matter, which in the process of drying had cracked into small squares
+of equal size, to the fully developed marble, which, when cut through
+diagonally, formed the most beautiful hexagons, each as perfect as
+those of a honeycomb, and each hexagon separated from the other by a
+perfectly white and well-defined line created by a deposit of chalk
+working its way into the original interstices in the course of--who
+shall conjecture how many ages?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A wet evening sends us home to our dismal room, where in due time they
+bring us candles and a pair of snuffers--modern improvements in the
+manufacture of the former not having apparently extended to Schemnitz.
+In the feeble, glimmering light, the large room appears even more
+hobgobliny than ever, whilst the eyes of the ancient celebrities in
+the picture frames seem to grow larger and to revolve in their sockets
+as we look at them. To make matters worse, we are perpetually reducing
+ourselves to a state of darkness whenever it becomes necessary to snuff
+the candles--which it does about every five minutes--and we realise
+that, like the wearing of pattens, candle-snuffing is an art which, to
+be accomplished gracefully, must be acquired in early life.
+
+Fortunately all the rain fell during the night. Towards the small
+hours we could hear it tearing madly down the street like a mountain
+torrent, which I should imagine the narrow gorge in which the town
+is situated must originally have been. Looking out of the window at
+nine A.M. we see above the mountain a small piece of sky
+about the size of a pocket-handkerchief. It is all that is visible
+of that aerial region, but it is intensely and encouragingly blue,
+and, after breakfast, we sally forth to see the town with its fine
+old castle built against the steep hill-side, and looking down at
+us over the picturesque roofs of the houses, every one of which was
+formerly a fortification. The castle dates from 1491, and the custodian
+entertained us with blood-curdling tales of Turkomans and Templars, and
+told us how that the Christians fought and the infidel marauders fled.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It is the weekly market. Forcing our way through sacks of scarlet
+pepper, stands of Slovak cheeses--which, moulded in cloths, look
+precisely like gigantic puddings--baskets running over with pink and
+white radishes, the classic garlic, and other commodities, we reach
+the opposite side of the road. The little lambs we saw yesterday have
+been kept alive for to-day--God knows how--and are lying in the same
+baskets, only panting more sadly, their heads thrown back and eyes
+half-open, the whites of which alone are visible. So cruel and piteous
+a sight makes our hearts ache, and we endeavour by much gesture, to
+induce their owners to change their constrained positions, and give
+them a little food. They only think we are beginning a bargain, and
+lug them out of the baskets by the four legs, which we can see are
+tied together far too tightly, and then, finding we are not bent on
+purchasing, they throw them in again, just as if they had been bundles
+of turnips or vegetables. The lilies of the valley have been freshened
+up, and the forget-me-nots, reflecting with their meek blue eyes the
+sky above, appear as though they had but just awakened from their bath
+of dew. Women, hundreds of women, in dark blue skirts bordered with
+light green, stand about the stalls, and look like figures painted on
+old china. Priests, in long black robes which sweep the street, come
+wriggling in and out of the crowd. Now and then we hear close behind us
+a plaintive, supplicating voice, uttering words, the meaning of which
+we cannot understand, save that of “_Christus_.” It is a beggar,
+asking kreuzers for the love of Him who died for us. And everywhere
+the people throng and jostle each other in the narrow street. Looking
+upwards, all is colour, motion, and a sea of heads, above which rise
+the high houses, with their overhanging roofs, and the black domes and
+cupolas of the _Rath-haus_ and the beautiful old churches, with
+their lancet windows and porches, entered by long flights of steps.
+There is a rapid stir in the crowd as way is made for a long country
+cart, drawn by three donkeys and two small black oxen, the latter
+forming the wheelers of the rustic team!
+
+In the lateral streets, which are almost as steep as the roofs of
+houses, we see bullock-waggons laden with hay and corn, and pots and
+pans innumerable. Up these steeps women struggle and toil, with large,
+square, wooden pails or baskets attached to their backs, and carrying
+babies swathed in linen, like small white mummies.
+
+Presently we descry above the sea of heads a tall man, in what has been
+graphically designated a “stove-pipe” hat.
+
+“_Buval Jankó!_” we hear a Hungarian gentleman observe, in a
+somewhat amused tone, to a friend standing at his elbow.
+
+He is certainly an Englishman of some sort, we could swear to the cut
+of his sartorial garments anywhere. Is he an archdeacon, with that high
+collar and swallow-tailed coat? What an incongruous object he looks
+amongst all these pretty costumes, so full of colour! No wonder that
+the Arab who first saw an Englishman in this guise hastened to inform
+his neighbours and acquaintances that he had seen “his Satanic Majesty
+with a saucepan on his head, and his tail slit in two!”
+
+Strange as it may appear, he is the only Englishman we have seen during
+either of our travels in Hungary, and it is quite impossible to pass
+him by without a greeting.
+
+His speech soon reveals the mystery of his _genre_. He belongs to
+the “Society of Friends,” and is, he informs us, a travelling agent for
+a firm in Birmingham.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+                            THE “CALVARY.”
+
+
+Returning to the hotel we hire a carriage to take us to the foot
+of a mountain forming one of the most conspicuous objects in the
+neighbourhood of this interesting town, and upon which is a “calvary,”
+well worthy a visit. Climbing the rugged street with some difficulty,
+we pass under the old tower, where a blind man sits, telling his beads
+“for the love of God;” but with a mental eye open to the possibility of
+stray kreuzers.
+
+At the base of the steepest part of the mountain is an avenue of
+trees leading to the first of the line of small chapels which contain
+representations of the “stations of the Cross.” At this point, one of
+the horses began kicking so violently, and had evidently made up its
+mind so firmly not to proceed another inch, that we were obliged to
+alight. Possibly the thought of the steep ascent caused it to arrive
+at this decision, or perhaps it was a stern Protestant and objected to
+“Calvaries” on principle.
+
+A hot and fatiguing pilgrimage up a narrow path, takes us past the
+fourteen stations, all of which describe most touchingly the scenes in
+our Saviour’s passion. The figures, which are either plaster or carved
+in wood, standing out completely in relief, being, in no one instance,
+grotesque in either form or colour, but most skilfully and artistically
+devised.
+
+The first “station” represents the Garden of Gethsemane, where the
+Saviour is kneeling in agony, whilst the Disciples sleep. In the chapel
+where He is being crowned with thorns, the sight, as we look through
+the grating, is quite startling, the figures and their grouping are so
+painfully natural. In the centre sits the meek and patient sufferer,
+surrounded by Roman soldiers. A real halter and chain are round His
+neck, and a Jewish beggar dressed in brown rags, squatting in the
+corner and pulling the cord with which the Holy hands are tied, is so
+life-like in his rags, and in the patches of his coarse gabardine, and
+so villainous in the expression of his wrinkled, dirty countenance, and
+the satanic smile of derision with which he regards the pale Saviour,
+from whom drops of blood are falling, that it is difficult to realise
+He is not an actual living person.
+
+Not far from the summit of the mountain is the “Nailing to the Cross,”
+in the representation of which incident not a detail is wanting. One
+man is hammering a nail into the right hand, and another is boring a
+hole through the left with a gimlet; whilst the low brows and square
+chins of those who are doing the cruel deed, make us wonder from what
+class the artists can possibly have taken their models.
+
+Then comes the large chapel on the extreme summit, containing the
+“Crucifixion.” The three crosses stand on a large block of real rock,
+beneath which and on a level with the ground is a small grating, behind
+which souls are represented grilling in the flames of purgatory, the
+only really grotesque thing about the whole.
+
+Walking round to the other side of the chapel, and entering by another
+door, we find the “Entombment,” and then another tableau of the pale
+and lifeless form lying in the sepulchre with the angels watching
+beside Him, and the women in the distance bringing spices.
+
+Before several of the “stations” were persons kneeling, tears falling
+down the cheeks of some, and there is no doubt that the vivid
+representation by these life-size lay-figures of these touching
+incidents, bring them before the minds of the ignorant in a manner we
+cold Protestants can hardly understand, and I must confess that I could
+myself witness few of these scenes so graphically portrayed without
+deep emotion.
+
+Two hours have passed away ere we descend the zigzag path, and
+traversing the avenue reach our carriage, for we tarried long upon the
+sacred heights to see the view, which is wonderful, of the fine old
+town, nestling in its amphitheatre of mountains, and the little houses
+of the miners dotting the green slopes, and nestling amongst trees. The
+horse again kicked on our way back, from which I infer that the first
+little demonstration was an exhibition of temper rather than one of
+sentiment.
+
+Passing by the kitchen of the hotel which is near the entrance, we
+observe, lying on the table amongst sundry joints of meat, vegetables,
+and other comestibles, what appears to be a cod divested of its tail
+and trussed for boiling, but which now proves on closer inspection to
+be the cook’s chrysalis of a baby that she had placed there for safety.
+The little creature was as stiff as a board and could not have moved
+so much as a finger or a toe to save its life. It looked quite happy
+however in its small mummy-wrappers and smiled sweetly as I spoke to
+it, seeming as though in its little heart it had a mind to “crow” if it
+could only have expanded.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+“Why don’t you hang it up to a door-nail, or to the wall there?”
+inquires F. “It is dangerous here, you might pop it into a pot by
+mistake.”
+
+At which the mother only laughed and looked down upon her infant so
+lovingly that I half expected to see a halo of glory around her head,
+the look of love was so ineffable.
+
+It was a bright starlight night, and, a dinner partaken of, we wandered
+out to see how the old place looked by lamp-light. Here and there a
+feeble light glimmering through some window threw its reflection across
+the uneven street, and made the quaint old archways stand out weird and
+grim. High above us the lofty and precipitous mountains frowned down
+upon the townlike prison walls, and almost shut out the sky. Strolling
+up and down the narrow streets, we pass miners on their homeward way;
+whilst at the fountain, women stand gossiping as they fill their
+pitchers even at this late hour of night. Now and then we come to a
+tavern where miners are singing their celebrated songs in hoarse rough
+voices, the theme of which is invariably the dangers to which they are
+exposed. The airs were sad, and as we listened there seemed something
+very pathetic in the thought that the perils to which the lives of
+these poor fellows are exposed, should even form the subject of their
+thoughts during their hours of recreation.
+
+The lights in the many-storied old houses now begin to die out one by
+one, and presently a bell, the tone of which is the deepest and most
+sonorous I ever heard, begins to toll slowly.
+
+“It cannot be the hour it is striking,” exclaimed F., as in slow and
+measured beat it reached the eleventh stroke. He took out his watch and
+held it up to the light thrown from a window of a little wine-shop,
+where three men sitting on a bench were drinking.
+
+“It is the ‘_Todtenglocke_’ (death knell),” said some one in
+German that moment passing by, as it continued to toll out the tidings
+that another soul was departing, and summoned the inhabitants to pray
+for its repose. And the slow and solemn “boom” went rolling and echoing
+up the gorge, as one swelling buttress after another caught the wave
+of sound and sent it on, and up, and up, until it seemed to die away
+amidst the stars.
+
+The three men, impelled possibly by its solemn warning, left the shop,
+and went staggering homewards; and we ourselves felt it was high time
+to “turn in,” if we were to get any rest at all, as we had to be up
+again at four o’clock on the morrow to meet the train at Altsohl, to
+which place we purposed driving.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+What a ghastly-looking meal is breakfast by candle-light! The large
+_salle-à-manger_, lighted at one end only; the long stretch of
+gloom beyond; the dark doorways which appear to lead to mysterious and
+unknown caverns; the ghostly old wooden presses standing against the
+wall; the last night’s crumbs lying still unswept upon the floor; and
+the marks of wine upon the tablecloth--how wretched it all is!
+
+The coffee is gritty and cold, the butter is flabby, and the rolls
+have a peculiar flavour of last night about them. Getting up in the
+small hours is, however, as nothing compared with the discomfort
+and unsavouriness of the breakfast with which one feels compelled
+to fortify oneself before starting on the journey. Above all, how
+cadaverous in the dim light look the guests who sit beside one, and who
+are also condemned to make an equally early start! What a gloomy and
+dishevelled band we appear, as we sit in moody silence, each possessed
+of a vague and undefined sensation of melancholy and ill-usage, as
+though something doleful were about to happen to us, the precise nature
+of which we cannot define!
+
+Emerging from the dark room, we find it is daylight outside, but the
+Schemnitz world is still asleep, as we walk down the silent street to
+join our carriage. Above the summits of the mountains a long vermilion
+streak proclaims that the sun has risen, though yet invisible to us,
+and there is a solemn feeling in the cold, still air as though the
+spirit of the “passing bell” had not yet died away. All nature seems
+to join in telling its sad meaning. The morning star recounts it as it
+disappears within the veil. The crescent moon foreshadows it, as it
+sinks beneath the hills. The great silence tells it. Yes! the very echo
+of our footsteps preaches the sad, unwelcome doctrine, that “all is
+passing away.”
+
+We feel much more cheery, however, by the time we reach the bottom of
+the hill, and see our carriage--to which _two_ horses only are
+harnessed this time--and András’s nimble little figure dodging from
+one side to the other, as he arranges the cushions for us, and makes
+all “taut” for starting, and we are quite jolly again when once more
+jolting along the road to the music of the horses’ bells.
+
+Clattering under the old gateway, we soon reach the open country, and
+see the train ascending the hill on the opposite side of the narrow
+valley. How the engine puffs and snorts, and what difficulty it seems
+to have in dragging itself up the steep incline! It scarcely appears
+to move at all, as, cantering down the hill, we quickly leave it far
+behind. On the way our progress is momentarily arrested by a little
+procession, which, leaving the main road, is wending its way upwards
+by a mountain path. It is the “Kost” being carried to a dying person.
+Peasant women follow, with little children clinging to their skirts,
+some holding lighted tapers, and all walking with heads bent low.
+How picturesque, but how melancholy at the same time, are all Roman
+Catholic countries!
+
+At Altsohl we find all the women in full costume, the day being
+evidently a festival of some sort. There is a great display of
+ravishing little top-boots in scarlet and yellow leather, and brilliant
+_peltz rökel_--short sheepskin jackets, worked not only in
+coloured silks, but in gold and silver thread. The men, too, are in
+their Sunday-best, with feathers and flowers in their hats, and smoking
+their holiday pipes.
+
+At Altsohl station another painful scene awaits us. More emigrants
+are starting for “Amurica,” that country whose streets are paved with
+gold. As usual, there are not enough carriages to convey them, and
+the agony of the men, women, and children who come to see the last
+of them is prolonged. At length the bell rings. Friends embrace each
+other passionately, and weep like children. The emigrants take their
+places, and the train moves slowly from the platform. The last look is
+given through the carriage windows. A thrilling cry of pain goes up
+from those left behind--it haunted us for many a long day after--and we
+whirl away, the very wheels as they rotate, seeming to echo the words
+of the Hungarian whom we met at Schemnitz: “They die by a fence--they
+die by a fence!”
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                            CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+                           THE MODERN BABEL.
+
+
+It is Fair-day in the Hungarian capital, and the hotels are as full
+as they can cram. There is not an inch of space left anywhere. The
+restaurants, as we pass them, are so choked with human life, half
+savage, half civilised, that not even an eel, were it ever so hungry,
+could manage to insinuate itself, suppose it had the _courage_ to
+face so polyglot an assemblage.
+
+In the streets the traveller is jostled not only by Hungarians of
+each nationality, Magyars, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Széklers, Wallachs,
+Croatians, Serbs, and Illyrians--a “mosaic of nations” which,
+constituting the inhabitants of the entire Austro-Hungarian dominions,
+numbers upwards of 150,000--but Germans, Poles, Muscovites, Bohemians,
+Frenchmen, Italians, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels. There are Jews and
+gipsies by the thousand, German Jews, Hungarian Jews in the costume
+of the _Magyar-orság_, Polish Jews, in black toga and corkscrew
+curls, from the province of Gallicia, Transylvanian Jews, in greasy
+brown cloth dressing-gown and sandalled feet, looking like dissipated
+Capuchin friars out for a holiday, and who evidently ignore the maxim
+concerning the proximity of cleanliness to godliness no less than their
+Christian brethren.
+
+There are men in hats made of rushes, others with conical-shaped hats
+of fur, the precise pattern of that worn by Robinson Crusoe; others
+again wearing large broad ones like Spanish _sombreros_. There are
+men whose pale olive complexions proclaim them to be Greeks. There are
+Turks and Bosnians wearing the becoming fez, and here and there an Arab
+in a turban, besides whom there are also men from Upper Hungary whose
+long hair hanging to the waist is plaited in four tails, and who wear
+immense leather belts and sandals, and such wonderful garments, that
+they must be seen even to be believed in; men, too, from the country
+of Somogy clad in blanket-like cloaks, like those of Bedouins, whilst
+working their way in and out amongst the crowd, their looks bold and
+defiant, are numerous Magyars in snow-white petticoats fringed or
+embroidered at the edges. There are women, too, with coloured scarves
+coiled gracefully round the head; women--beautiful women, whose
+raven hair is covered with gold coins, flashing and quivering in the
+sunlight! Women again--natives of Pest--wearing dark-blue kerchiefs
+so disposed as to conceal the whole face, with the exception of eyes,
+nose, and mouth, and who only need the addition of a _yashmak_ to
+give them the appearance of veritable daughters of the Prophet. What a
+medley! and what a Babel of tongues greets the ear of the stranger as
+he stands in the thick of the fair. At these fairs, four of which take
+place annually, no fewer than twenty-eight thousand strangers pour into
+Pest.
+
+No wonder that _mein Herr_ Dulovic shook his head and intimated
+that he could not take us in as we dashed up to the door of his hotel
+one morning in a droszky and pair, some Armenians having previously
+engaged the room we had occupied for two days at the “_Königinn von
+England_,” a circumstance that compelled us to seek shelter in some
+other hotel.
+
+The little old man was well-nigh beside himself; his tow-coloured wig
+almost stood on end, and his countenance was suffused by a warm dew as
+he endeavoured to withstand the importunities of three other “parties,”
+who had arrived at the same moment, on the same errand as ourselves.
+
+We however, as may be remembered, had stayed at this small but
+well-ordered hotel once before, and, as old acquaintances, had no
+intention of being turned away. Moreover we were _Ángolok_, and
+just at that time the English nation happened to be at an unusual
+premium in the estimation of the Hungarians.
+
+“Stay! Yes! No! Yes!” exclaimed Herr Dulovic, hesitatingly--“If you do
+not mind----”
+
+“Mind?” broke in F., descending from the carriage. “We don’t mind
+anything at such a time as this,” adding, as we follow mein Herr up the
+stairs and into a chamber of such limited dimensions that to have swung
+even a cat in it one must have taken that animal by the head and not by
+the tail, “_Si on ne peut pas avoir ce qu’on veux, il faut prendre ce
+qu’on peut_.”
+
+After a hurried repast we stroll out to have a peep at the fair,
+which, save in the matter of costumes and diversity of peoples and
+tongues, differs little from that of other countries. There are the
+same long avenues of booths, containing every conceivable article
+for man or beast. Stands of juicy melons, pomegranates and oranges
+from Croatia, presided over by girls and stately women, looking like
+Druidical priestesses in their long white robes; booths of _édességek_
+(sweetmeats); booths of imitation jewellery much frequented by the
+Magyar girls; booths of hard-ware, and wooden utensils, belonging to
+nut-brown specimens of the wandering tribe; Slovak cheese, carpets
+from Servia, bacon from Slavonia, booths of ready-made under-clothing,
+sheepskin _bundas_, _pelz-röckel_, and beautifully embroidered cloaks;
+high boots for men, and others for women and girls, with scarlet and
+yellow sides, trimmed with coquettish little rosettes, not to speak
+of Turkish-looking slippers worn by the women of Szegedin. There are
+Jews in the characters of money-lenders and sellers of _bijouterie_;
+gipsies in that of horse-dealers, cunning-looking men with long whips
+ornamented with bows of many-coloured ribbons, and gourds hanging from
+their girdles; there are shepherds, too, splendid looking fellows with
+forms like those of Roman athletes; besides which are men in coarse
+gabardines directing games of chance, acrobats by the dozen, and the
+off-scourings of the four winds of heaven. What a hurly-burly!
+
+Along the banks of the Danube, however, an entirely novel scene
+presents itself to our gaze. For the space of half a mile boats and
+barges are moored together in close proximity; some of them are heavy,
+flat-bottomed craft, whilst others, gaudily painted in red, white, and
+green, look like miniature Chinese junks. These boats and barges, in
+conjunction with the _quai_, form a market-place of themselves
+for articles consisting chiefly of the produce of the country; wines,
+badacsony, from the Platten-See; the white wines of Transylvania, and
+the more delicious ones of Tokay; _slivovitz_ and _fenüviz_,
+a spirit made from juniper-berries; tobacco, wool, hides, and other
+commodities “far too numerous to mention.”
+
+Beyond, there are the usual vast herds of sheep, pigs, and cattle,
+guarded by wild, top-booted graziers and strange, fierce-looking
+shepherds; whilst outside the fair the road is lined with vehicles of
+every description.
+
+Opposite is a booth where a sheep is being roasted whole, while on
+stands arranged in front are savoury “gipsy roasts,” consisting of
+small pieces of hot meat for the refection of the hungry. Hard by
+is a seller of macaroni soup, ladling out her steaming esculent to
+numerous comers; and near her a stout Magyar _Frau_ vending
+“_Tisch-wein_.”
+
+It is when the fires of sunset have faded in the west, and the curtain
+of night has dropped upon the most beautiful scene in the world--the
+Blocksberg and the Danube and the rock-built citadel of Buda--that
+the real fun begins. By that time the stern business of the day is
+over, the bargaining has come to an end till the morrow, and the whole
+twenty-eight thousand visitors give themselves up to pleasure. In the
+warm shadow of the booths merry groups stand idly chatting. Managers
+of theatres shout and scream and yell. Marionettes whirl and twirl
+and curtsey, and move their heads up and down with sudden jerks, and
+go through their little antics with the same melancholy precision as
+elsewhere. Acrobats climb poles and perform juggling tricks to the
+astonished multitude. In the eating-booths the fires gleam like “mad
+Sarabands,” and the people cooking the gipsy roasts stand out against
+them like black imps.
+
+Passing the Jägerhorn on our way back to our hotel, we find the
+_Czigánok_ are sawing away there as usual, whilst the people sitting
+beside the snowy tables pave the way for night-mares as they devour
+their “_gebratene Ente_” and “_geschmortes Lämmerchen_.” It is worth
+while entering to see the costumes and various physiognomies of
+the visitors: the soft, caressing, and almost effeminate features
+of the Sláv from the South, and the pale, olive-complexioned Greek,
+contrasting forcibly with the robust and majestic Magyars--off-shoots
+of a kingly race--with their frank and manly countenances.
+
+On reaching the hotel, we find ourselves unexpectedly plunged in the
+lap of luxury, a Hungarian gentleman having offered to exchange our
+little chamber _au quatrième_ all amongst the chimneys and the
+cats, for his own handsome and commodious room on the first floor, one
+of the thousand acts of kindness we received whilst travelling in this
+country. There is no city where there is greater amusement and gaiety
+than Pest, particularly in the winter, when the “nobles” bring their
+families to the Capital from their country chateaux. At this season
+there is a perpetual round of balls and entertainments, skating being
+the favourite occupation during the hours of day. In May the _beau
+monde_ return to their country seats, and the traveller may then
+look in vain for the beautiful horses and handsome equipages, which in
+the winter months brighten the streets of the city.
+
+Pest, too, is the seat of the National Government. Accompanied by
+a member of the Diet, to whom we had a letter of introduction, we
+visited the Lower House at the time when the Delegates were sitting.
+Received at the entrance hall by a number of lackeys, dressed in a
+handsome Hussar uniform of black and scarlet, we were at once shown
+to the visitors’ gallery. Many of the members wore the black cloth
+_attila_, and embroidered waistcoat, but by far the greater
+number the severe garments of Western Europe, even the nobles having
+relinquished the brilliant costumes with which they formerly sat in
+Assembly.
+
+There are 441 Delegates, all of whom are chosen irrespective of
+religious sects. Of this number 39 are Croatians, who speak in their
+native language--Slavonian.
+
+The Magyars, as a rule, evince great calmness in council. Their warm
+and impulsive natures, however, and susceptibility to excitement,
+render them victims to the most violent and rapid changes of
+temperament, and, even in the midst of the calmest deliberation, they
+not unfrequently manifest the wildest outbursts of feeling.
+
+On the occasion of our visit, the debate was rather a noisy one, and
+the President’s bell was in frequent requisition, but the very instant
+Baron Sennyei rose to speak, the most perfect silence reigned, and the
+eyes of every Delegate in the House were steadily fixed upon him. He is
+a great politician and the present leader of the Conservative party,
+or what is called _Mérsékett ellenzék_ (moderate adverse party),
+and is spoken of as the one who will, in all probability, be chosen
+President of the Council at the next election.
+
+The Magyar language, which is spoken by almost 6¼ millions of
+inhabitants, or 40 per cent. of the entire population, is forcible,
+energetic, and capable of the most impassioned eloquence, and although
+pathetic in its tones when spoken in conversation, when declaimed it
+becomes bold and emphatic. It is copious in idiomatic expressions, and
+rich in its vocabulary of words. Although the Magyar language possesses
+no auxiliary verb “to have,” no primitive possessive pronouns, no
+gender for the distinction of sexes, and scarcely any true declension
+for objective terms, yet it is said to surpass every Teutonic,
+Slavonic, Italic, and IndoEuropean language in the richness of its
+verbal formations. Of all the letters in the alphabet, _k_ is the
+one most conspicuously heard, and all the more so from the fact of its
+coming at the end of so many words, being generally used to denote the
+plural.
+
+The Magyar language, if for no other reason, would be deeply
+interesting to the stranger from the fact of its being the only
+non-Aryan tongue throughout Europe (if we except that of the Finns) in
+which Christian rites are performed and Parliamentary debates carried
+on, and also from its having been established in Europe and subjected
+to Aryan influences for nearly a thousand years, without having lost
+its essential Turanian features, its etymology and syntax still
+preserving their ancient characteristics.
+
+Until forty-five years ago, Latin was the language universally used
+throughout Hungary in all proceedings connected with law and diplomacy.
+The country having at one period been under the dominion of two foreign
+powers, viz., the Austrian and Mahomedan, a common language was
+necessary for these deliberations. By mutual consent, therefore, the
+mediæval Latin was adopted, and but for this the three languages spoken
+in the country, viz., Magyar, German, and Turkish, would necessarily
+have created great confusion.
+
+In fact, so commonly was it in use until twenty or thirty years
+ago, that it was called “_Stataria_,” whilst Magyar itself was
+even taught by the means of Latin, the grammar being designated
+“_Hungarica_.”
+
+In some parts of Hungary, even in comparatively recent times, Latin
+was used by the peasantry to converse with persons belonging to
+nationalities other than their own, whilst the Huns, whose language was
+a harsh and barren idiom, likewise strove to make Latin--which was
+spoken in Pannonia in the time of Augustus--the medium of communication
+with their fellows.
+
+After we had remained listening some time to the expressive utterances
+of Baron Sennyei, Herr Franz Pulszky--a man of considerable note,
+not only in his own country, but in many European circles--conducted
+us to the Upper House, situated over the National Museum, where
+sit the nobles. The gallery surrounding the grand staircase by
+which the room and its antechambers are approached is adorned
+with fresco-paintings--very creditably executed by Hungarian
+artists--representing the history of the civilisation of Hungary and,
+beginning with the entry of the Huns into the country, portraying the
+various epochs of history, and ending with the revolutionary period of
+1848.
+
+Our cicerone was one whose features proclaimed that nature had destined
+him for no ordinary career. Pointing to a fresco situated in one of the
+most conspicuous places, viz., close to the entrance of the Chamber of
+Debate, he exclaims:
+
+“You see there the great leader of our Patriotic party.”
+
+“What, _Kossuth_ here, and Louis Batthyani?” we cried as we
+observed a figure bearing the palm branch of martyrdom, and knew at
+once for whom it was intended.
+
+“Yes, and _I_ am here,” he added significantly. “The Austrian
+Government made a great fuss about it at first, but was obliged to
+give in at last.” And as I looked up at the commanding figure of the
+revolutionary leader haranguing the populace, I must say I could not
+help wondering it had done so.
+
+The picture in question besides Kossuth represented Deák, Széchenyi,
+Louis Batthyani, who was executed at Temesvár, and Petőfy, the poet of
+the Revolution.
+
+It was pleasant to hear the very grateful terms in which Herr Pulszky
+alluded to the Emperor of Austria for having spared his life. He was
+condemned to death on two occasions, once to be shot and the other to
+be hanged. He had, however, the honour of being burnt in effigy.
+
+The Hall of Assembly, though small, is a very handsomely decorated
+apartment. On the lowest tier stand the chairs of crimson and gold,
+where sit the Cardinals, whilst on the desks in front of the seats
+above we recognised the familiar names of Graf Festetics and Prince
+Windishgraitz, which, on those gentlemen paying a visit to England some
+years ago, were, as might have been anticipated, converted into the
+more intelligible, if not euphemistic ones, of “Count Fiddlesticks,”
+and “Prince Windowscratch.”
+
+It is singular that Count Andrássy--the correct pronunciation of
+whose name is _Andrasshy_--though a Magyar and also condemned to
+death for the part he took in the insurrection under Kossuth, should
+until recently have filled the post of Prime Minister to the Austrian
+Government, an anomalous position one can scarcely understand any
+Hungarian patriot occupying with their very natural repugnance to the
+Austrian supremacy.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+                                ÓBUDA.
+
+
+Fair-time is by no means the most pleasant at which to visit the
+capital, and we were right glad to learn one morning soon after our
+arrival that it was over. Oh, the dust and muddle and hurry-skurry of
+the whole business of packing up! But even that too is almost over
+now. The booths have disappeared; the pedlars have shouldered their
+wares, and the acrobats their bundles; the young ladies in pink tights
+have resumed their top-boots; the Mesdames Jarley have packed up
+their wax-works, and the decapitated bodies of Bem, Kossuth, Matthias
+Corvinus, and Joan of Arc, stripped of their finery and with their
+heads carefully stowed away elsewhere, are lying in boxes filled with
+straw, and jogging along the road in dreary fellowship. All are gone
+off to the next fair. Nor will they have long to rest on their laurels,
+for there are two thousand fairs in Hungary every year. Little is left
+to remind us of the existence of this one but sundry heaps of dust and
+straw mingled with scraps of paper of various colours which the wind
+has benevolently blown under doorways and into safe snug corners, and
+all things have shaken down and resumed their wonted complexion in
+bright, beautiful Pest. Persons come and go as usual. In the markets,
+vendors of _Tisch-wein_ and hot macaroni soup assert their former
+sway, and Magyar women, once more left alone, shine forth in solitary
+glory, in all the convolutions of their short but voluminous petticoats.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It is amusing to linger about the square and regard the “common
+objects,” sturdy Magyar matrons bargaining over their purchases, as
+they stand at the stalls on which repose whole yards of bread and miles
+of sausage, or see them turning over the contents of the vegetable
+baskets guarded by female rustics, sitting under huge umbrellas.
+Equipped in their top-boots which extend above the knee, and which are
+well greased to resist the manifold vicissitudes of Hungarian roads,
+these Magyar females resemble groups of Amazons, rather than peaceful
+house-wives.
+
+_A propos_ of these Magyar sisters of ours I never could determine
+at all satisfactorily to my own mind whether the enormous rotundity of
+hip is due to a peculiar type of human form, or to extraneous matter
+in the shape of pads or pillows. I incline to the latter theory, but I
+seldom saw a full-blown specimen of the _genus_ without wishing
+to solve the mystery. As they go marching home with their purchases,
+one cannot help thinking what admirable weapons the long, narrow,
+crusty loaves would make which they carry under their arms; these
+and three quarters of a yard of sausage--an edible made of raw meat,
+well flavoured with garlic, and so compressed as to assume almost the
+hardness and heaviness of iron--might furnish implements of warfare
+for an army; and appear to be exactly the kind of weapons with which
+the ancient inhabitants of Eastern Hungary defended themselves against
+the Romans in A.D. 103 as seen in the sculptures on Trajan’s
+Column at Rome.
+
+Steamers ply constantly throughout the day between Pest and Ofen, as
+well as Promontorium and other towns and villages in the neighbourhood
+of Pest, and few things are more interesting than to stand on the long
+steps of the quays and watch their arrival and departure. Here stand
+or sit groups of men and women waiting for the steamers to take them
+to their respective destinations, and I never grew tired of sketching
+them, for they occasionally formed themselves into groups that were
+perfectly statuesque. I never knew people--to make use of artistic
+phraseology--who “composed” so well.
+
+Embarking on these boats may sometimes be seen not only Bosnians,
+Servians, and natives of the Sublime Porte; but occasionally an
+Albanian in gay and martial attire with a sabre at his side and pistol
+in his girdle, and now and then a Dervish. Indeed at no hour of the day
+are these splendid quays devoid of interest; whilst lying close into
+the shore are gaily painted fishing-boats looking like exaggerated
+Dutch toys.
+
+Sitting on one of the benches at the place of embarkation for
+Promontorium, enveloped from head to foot in his long black cloak,
+we often observed an exiled Pole--a refugee from that part of his
+hapless country upon which Russia has set her iron grasp. He never
+spoke, but sat moodily watching the river flowing by, his thoughts
+evidently far away, and was verily the saddest spectacle we saw the
+whole time we were at Pest. There are a number of Polish refugees
+in this charming little capital, and it is easy to recognise them,
+their downcast but resigned look, more eloquent far than any spoken
+demonstration of sorrow, plainly indicating who and what they were.
+Taciturn always, it was seldom we could engage them in conversation,
+but if fortunate enough to do so, their incessant themes were loss of
+nationality and love of country. “Unpaternal” as are most continental
+Governments in their treatment of political refugees, Austro-Hungary is
+a very favourite place of exile with the Poles; nor is this altogether
+strange, for the Hungarians naturally sympathise with the Poles as
+a people situated in some measure similarly to themselves, besides
+which it is said that the Austrian Government is far more indulgent to
+political refugees than the Prussian. Probably Austria is influenced
+in some degree--as well she may--by the remembrance of the assistance
+Poland once afforded her in the hour of her greatest need, when in 1683
+she was almost overwhelmed by 300,000 Turks and Tartars who had already
+made a breach in her walls.
+
+Every night as we retired to our room in Hôtel Dolovics we observed,
+resting on a door-mat on the same floor as that on which our own room
+was situated, a solitary boot. What silent pathos was there in it! It
+was a small boot too, a woman’s, and its loneliness haunted me somehow,
+and kept me awake thinking of it. I did not feel half so much for the
+wearer as for the lonely thing itself, which in the solitude of its
+_sole_ seemed even more than human. We never saw the wearer,
+though we watched long and patiently; at last, one night, we found it
+gone. It had moved off our stage, and was once more on its lonely walk
+through life. Upon inquiring of the manager of the hotel, who occupied
+a gloomy little office glazed in at the top of the stairs, he satisfied
+our curiosity by informing us that it belonged to a lady residing in
+the north of Hungary, whose leg had been amputated in childhood in
+consequence of injuries sustained from grape-shot, at the commencement
+of the bombardment of the city in 1849, during the war between the
+Imperial troops and the Revolutionists--a struggle which resulted in
+the gallant Magyars making themselves masters of the Citadel of Buda,
+on whose ramparts, after a three-weeks’ heavily-sustained combat on
+both sides, the Hungarian flag floated over the city.
+
+During the troublous annals of their history the Magyars have
+invariably displayed dashing heroism, noble self-sacrifice, and loving
+devotion to their country, but in no instance, perhaps, so notably
+as in the struggles of 1848–9, when, although numbering as a nation
+only six millions and a quarter, they fought for their independence
+against the combined forces of Russia and Austria, and notwithstanding
+the immense resources at their foes’ command, succeeded for a while
+in not only asserting their national independence, but in quelling at
+the same time the insurrection of their own subjects the Wallachians,
+Slavonians, and “Saxons” of Transylvania.
+
+In the square at Buda there stands a cross erected in memory of
+General Henzi and his Croatian compatriots who, fighting on the side
+of the Imperialists, fell during that sanguinary conflict. Pest
+suffered severely on this occasion, and its wretched inhabitants,
+who had so often been driven away by the inundations--a foe scarcely
+less terrible--now fled in terror by thousands and tens of thousands
+from the shells which--the Austrians once more in possession of the
+fortress--were directed towards the city by one hundred pieces of
+ordnance stationed on the heights of Buda.
+
+The Hungarians are scarcely likely, I should say, to unite in another
+struggle for their national independence, unless they are indifferent
+to the fate of their magnificent city, for, since the last revolution
+when they succeeded in becoming masters for a while of their citadel,
+the Austrian Government has taken warning and erected fortifications
+on the summit of the Blocksberg which command not only the city but
+the fortress itself. The Hungarians speak of these fortifications with
+contempt, but this, I fancy, is a piece of very natural bravado, for
+the position of these ramparts not only renders them invulnerable in
+themselves, but the capital thus menaced could not possibly hold its
+own against a bombardment from the heights which command it on all
+sides.
+
+I was sitting on the banks of the Danube one morning, opposite the
+Blocksberg, peacefully sketching the boats on the river, when I was
+startled by a voice behind me saying in German:
+
+“I will thank you for your card.”
+
+I had been conscious for some time past that I was not alone, but,
+thinking I was merely surrounded by the usual curious spectators,
+I went on quietly with my occupation; but now turning round I see
+standing beside me a soldier in the Austrian uniform.
+
+“For what purpose do you wish my card?” I demanded.
+
+“You are taking the plan of our new fortress yonder,” was the reply.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+“Well, and what if I am?”
+
+“You must have some object in doing so. What may it be?”
+
+“I do not like to see it there,” I replied, just to hear what he would
+say. “It is an ugly object, and I would like to have it knocked down.”
+
+He coloured deeply, and again demanded my card, or name and address.
+
+“_Jó Isten!_” here broke in an old woman piously, setting down
+her basket, and elevating her hands and eyes the better to give full
+expression to her feelings,--“as though we hadn’t trouble enough in
+’48! the _Nagyságos Asszony_ (foreign lady) must needs take the
+measure of the fortress;” whilst a child squatting down beside me set
+up a piteous howl. One of the spruce young waiters from the _café_
+at the corner of the Petőfi tér also came out to see what could be
+the matter, together with a cook, and sundry other menials from other
+establishments hard by, all of whom, taking their stations on the steps
+in front of me, appeared to think I was gifted with the power of seeing
+through opaque substances, till I was finally hemmed in by a hot and
+eager crowd, all anxious to hear the upshot of the parley.
+
+Beginning to fear I might have gone too far in thus venturing to
+jest with an Austrian soldier, on such an awful subject as the
+fortifications of the Imperial Government, I endeavoured to pour oil on
+the troubled waters by at once declaring my nationality, and informing
+him that I was an English lady.
+
+“You speak German too well to be English,” he retorted curtly. “Show me
+your passport, _Madame_.”
+
+“I do not usually carry it about with me,” I replied meekly; “but if
+you do not mind waiting a few moments till I have finished sketching
+these boats, you can, if you will, accompany me to my hotel, where I
+can show it you, or, if you prefer it, you can come with me to the
+British Consulate, which is nearer. My nationality is known there, for
+the Vice-Consul signed a document for us this very morning.”
+
+He waited patiently and civilly whilst I coolly put the finishing
+touches to my sketch, when, having packed up, we walked off together.
+
+Before we had proceeded very far, however, I saw F. coming down the
+Pfarr Kirche Platz, on his way to meet me. As may be imagined he was
+greatly astonished to see me in the company of an Austrian gendarme;
+but fortunately having our passport with him, he was able at once to
+convince my interrogator as to my nationality, who, after inscribing
+our names in his pocket-book, made a polite bow, and went on his way.
+
+During our stay at this pleasant city, we often made excursions up and
+down the river, scarcely a day passing without our going by steamer to
+Óbuda or Alt Ofen, the latter being the German appellation for this
+straggling town or village, which being literally interpreted means
+“Old Stove,” a name given to it probably on account of the hot springs
+which since time immemorial have existed here, or else from there
+having formerly been numerous lime-kilns in the neighbourhood. Of much
+more ancient origin than even Buda itself, it somehow had a strange and
+weird sort of fascination for us, such an odd old place as it is, so
+still, so silent, everything in it so arid and parched, that it looked
+as though it had been baking for centuries past in its own oven! Surely
+time must have passed it by with folded wing, for, as we wander through
+its almost deserted thoroughfares, the very atmosphere seems to tell
+of a long-forgotten past. Yet, silent as it now is, these hills must
+at one time have resounded to the murmur of many voices, as well as to
+bright music and revelry, for Alt Ofen was once, as we have seen, a
+city of kings.
+
+Recent excavations bear witness to the fact that a city formerly stood
+here capable of containing two hundred thousand inhabitants, a number
+equalling the population of Buda and Pest together at the present time.
+It was known to the Romans as Aquincum, and there exist in the vicinity
+many interesting Roman remains, amongst which is an aqueduct, one mile
+and a half long, whose pillars are still partially standing, together
+with a Roman amphitheatre larger than that of Pompeii, containing
+numerous Roman inscriptions, proving that a temple of Nemesis once
+existed in its immediate vicinity. A bust of the goddess has also been
+discovered, together with one of Jupiter, whilst in the amphitheatre
+itself, some of the stone benches are not only inscribed with numbers,
+but with the names of the persons to whom the seats belonged. But
+our days began to be numbered, and the time sped only too swiftly,
+as we loitered now on the banks of the river, now in the beautiful
+Margarethen Island or Stadtwäldchen, eating ices in the _kiosks_,
+till at length the time not only drew near but the last day of our
+visit had actually arrived, and an excursion to the Kaiserbad was all
+that was left for us.
+
+It is not easy to tear oneself away from this interesting place,
+with all its historical associations and elements of novelty to
+the stranger; for there is an individuality about it which renders
+it unlike every other city in the world. The Hungarians, too, with
+their singular pedigree, how different they are in themselves from
+the dwellers of all other cities in Europe! and what warm and kindly
+natures they possess! Verily, all things conspire to render Pest a
+charming place of sojourn.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER L.
+
+                        THE WITCHES’ CARNIVAL.
+
+
+Of all the pleasure resorts in the neighbourhood of Pest, none is so
+great a favourite as the Kaiserbad, on account of its mineral springs,
+which are recommended as a cure for almost every ill to which frail
+humanity is prone. To the passing stranger, however, who only sees
+the outward aspect of the frequenters of these baths, and knows not
+the inward miseries they suffer, the only malady the majority of them
+would seem to possess, as he watches them regaling themselves at the
+restaurant, and notes with what marvellous rapidity one viand after
+another is made to disappear, is that of insatiable hunger.
+
+As we sit in the pleasant gardens the flowering trees and shrubs waft
+their perfume over us, and in the tepid pool the lotus, which opened
+wide its fan-like leaves to catch the noon-day sun, now spreads them
+wider still as they drink in gratefully the falling dews.
+
+The neighbourhood of the Kaiserbad is not only interesting as
+containing one of the old Turkish baths, but also on account of the
+belief held by Hungarian archæologists that it was originally founded
+by the Romans. Above the gardens is a small octangular building
+surmounted by a cupola, the tomb of Sheikh Gül Baba, a Mussulman
+Saint, who died nearly two hundred years ago, and whose resting place
+is protected from Christian desecration by a special clause in the
+Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699. Hither come once a year a number of
+pilgrim dervishes to pay homage to the “holy shrine.”
+
+To the Turks also is due the true Egyptian Lotus which grows here, for
+they brought it from the Nile and placed it in a pool formed by the hot
+springs, where, protected from the effects of the cold atmosphere by
+the high temperature of the water, it blooms freely as at Grosswardein.
+
+Not an inch of soil here but has been the scene of some sanguinary
+struggle between the Christian and the Turk. Never was resistance more
+desperate than that made by the latter, nor triumph of the Christian
+arms more complete.
+
+During this siege, one of the most memorable in history, and which
+continued for three months without any cessation, under the leadership
+of the Duke of Lorraine, many English officers joined the Imperial
+forces, together with volunteers from almost every nation in Europe,
+all firmly bent on expelling the Ottoman foe. Every Hungarian who could
+wield a sword went forth to the conflict, till the Turks, compelled
+at length to surrender, fled across the Danube and were engulphed by
+thousands in that mighty stream.
+
+The moon had risen by the time we left the gardens of the Kaiserbad and
+found ourselves in the quiet streets of Buda. In the quaint old square,
+fantastic shadows, thrown by the gabled houses, lay sharply defined
+upon the dusty ground. In the small square windows, burning red,
+gleamed here and there a solitary light, contrasting strangely with the
+silvery moonlight; whilst above, the palpitating stars shone pale from
+out their purple deeps, and looked down upon the ruined amphitheatre
+with its rugged lines.
+
+On the Danube, boats and barges moored along its margin lay black upon
+its surface, and now and then heaved and tossed as a passing steamer,
+displacing the water, made them rock, and knock against each other.
+All else was as still as in the dead of night. At long intervals a
+foot-passenger came walking by, but with the usual greeting he, too,
+passed on his way, and soon became lost to view in the gloomy shadow of
+the hill.
+
+Leaving Buda and the regal palace with its terraced gardens and
+majestic flights of steps behind, we soon reach the suspension bridge,
+and find the stream of busy life still flowing there. Carriages are
+thundering through the tunnel beneath the Schlossberg to and from the
+station, and people passing and repassing the bridge on their homeward
+way. We, however, drawn thither by a mysterious fascination, are about
+to climb the Blocksberg, for this, according to German fable, is the
+night when witches dance upon its heights.
+
+Scrambling up the steep, rough road through the Raitzenstadt, with
+its funny little houses and white gables, like the tents of an army
+(a quarter inhabited exclusively by Servians), we pass a ghastly
+“calvary,” and soon arrive at the summit of the mountain.
+
+The view of Pest and the surrounding country never appears so beautiful
+as from the heights of the Blocksberg on a moonlight night. The noble
+city lying peacefully, beneath, the rigid lines of its solid blocks of
+masonry and tall black cupolas cutting sharp into the sapphire sky,
+the deep brown shadows where the streets run parallel, the brilliant
+lights of the restaurants and cafés illumining the opposite houses with
+almost prismatic hues, the broad Danube rolling onwards its majestic
+waves till it loses itself in the pale and misty distance, the wooded
+islands sleeping calmly on its surface, and the lamps upon the bridge,
+linking together as with a chain of diamonds the ancient and modern
+cities into one; all form a scene to go home and dream about.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+It was from this well-chosen spot, which commands both sides of the
+Danube, that Görgei, the military leader of the insurrectionary party,
+with his forty thousand troops and battery of artillery from Kömorn
+shelled the fortress of Buda, then in the hands of the Imperialists,
+and succeeded after a prolonged siege of twenty-one days in hoisting on
+its ramparts the standard of Hungarian liberty.
+
+The outer walls of the bastion have a very imposing aspect,
+being pierced at every few steps with holes for cannon, which
+seem perpetually to menace the inhabitants of the twin-cities
+lying so peacefully beneath. Wherever one gazes from below, these
+fortifications, crowning the mountain, form the most conspicuous
+object, reminding the Hungarians, not only of their signal defeat,
+but also of what they have to expect should they ever again attempt
+to regain their national independence. I must confess, that with my
+sympathies ever on the side of the Hungarians, these fortifications
+were, to me, a most objectionable spectacle. For although the powers
+of governing the Hungarian kingdom are now equally divided between the
+two nations, so long as the sovereign power is vested in the House of
+Hapsburg, the term “dual-monarchy” will in many respects continue to be
+a miserable misnomer.
+
+As a portion of the Austrian empire, Hungary, however, is not badly
+off, and there are those who think her people have reason to be
+grateful to Austria for its clemency after the insurrection of ’48–9.
+It is, however, only natural that the Hungarians should wish their
+vast and beautiful country to be again governed by a king of its own,
+instead of one of an alien race. They complain, and very naturally
+too, of the liquidation of the Austrian national debt, for which the
+Hungarian Ministry, to a certain extent, became responsible in 1867,
+but which debt includes many millions which were raised abroad for the
+purpose of enabling the Austrian Government to subjugate them.
+
+The Magyars are wont to attribute to Austria every ill from which
+they suffer. Amongst the higher classes, however, as may naturally be
+supposed, there is greater toleration in matters political; but, on
+speaking of the “dual-monarchy” to a Magyar merchant, with whom we were
+once travelling, he said--summing up all in that melancholy inflexion
+of voice which is so characteristic of the Hungarians--“Ah, well! we
+are married to a wife we do not like, but we must bear with her, for
+divorce is impossible.”
+
+It is, however, only fair to say that the Hungarians invariably speak
+of the Emperor of Austria in terms of great respect, and it is to be
+regretted that Prince Rudolf, the heir to the throne, is not as popular
+as his royal father.
+
+It was a fortunate stroke of policy, that of Deák’s advising Francis
+Joseph to allow himself to be crowned King of Hungary at Pest in 1876.
+He knew well the feelings of his countrymen, and that that alone would
+enable the Emperor to find his way into the hearts of the Hungarian
+people, who would never recognise him as their true king until he had,
+like their early monarchs, been crowned with the sacred diadem of St.
+Stephen.
+
+How singular and dazzling a pageant must have been the royal procession
+to “Coronation Hill,” formed as it was of the representatives of
+the various nationalities all dressed in their ancient costumes.
+How splendid those of the Delegates in their _mentes_ and
+_dolmans_ of rich blue or ruby velvet, trimmed with sable and
+ermine! The nobles, clad in silver coats of mail and mantles of
+leopard’s skin, fastened across the chest with magnificent diamond
+clasps, their caps adorned with waving plumes, and the trappings of
+their chargers, like those of Attila of old, adorned with precious
+stones. Following the King came the archbishops and Prince Primate
+on horseback, arrayed in their gorgeous vestments and gold mitres,
+bearing in their hands their gem-bespangled croziers. Reaching the
+mound, formed of earth brought from the various provinces of the
+kingdom, the King, giving spurs to his horse, dashed up the eminence,
+the sacred crown upon his head, and robed in the coronation mantle
+of light blue silk, embroidered by Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen,
+a garment which, kept under safe guardianship with the crown in the
+Castle of Buda, is never repaired except by royal hands. Facing the
+four quarters of the globe he waved his sword in each direction in
+accordance with the custom of Hungary’s ancient kings and in token that
+he would defend the country from foes from whatever side they might
+come.
+
+The Empress is greatly beloved. She speaks their language thoroughly,
+is beautiful, and flatters their vanity--one of the weak points in the
+Magyar character--not only by professing a fondness for them, but by
+spending a portion of every year in the palace of Gödöllő, near Pest.
+On the other hand, I have occasionally heard the Empress’s delight in
+field-sports deprecated in no measured terms. It is said that they are
+the only subjects upon which she ever converses at Court, which some of
+the Hungarians regard as not only unfeminine, but _mauvais ton_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As we saunter round the bastions of the Blocksberg, all is so silent
+that the rumble of carriages still crossing the bridge reaches us even
+on these dizzy heights. Beyond the city the full, round moon, shining
+upon some stretch of fresh green herbage or ripening corn, transforms
+it into pale tints of chrysoprase, the mighty Alfőld stretching away in
+one unbroken level to Belgrade. Dark clouds, however, are rising from
+the south, and a cool refreshing breeze is springing up from the same
+direction.
+
+At length, stationing ourselves under the lee of the northern ramparts
+for shelter, we were both immersed in deep thought, when we were
+startled by an Austrian soldier on patrol, who, appearing suddenly and
+mysteriously from out the shadow of the great walls near which we were
+loitering, demanded in a loud and peremptory tone, in German--
+
+“_Wer geht da?_” (Who goes there?)
+
+“We are only English travellers, admiring the prospect,” we replied in
+the same language.
+
+“You have been a long time about it,” continued he, sarcastically; “and
+I should think you must have made yourselves acquainted with it by this
+time;” adding after a few moments’ pause, “You have been hovering about
+here for the last hour and a half at the very least.”
+
+“Probably,” I replied, “for we have come to see the witches dance
+to-night. You need not be afraid of our laying a train to blow up these
+precious fortifications of yours; we have no dynamite with us.”
+
+“I will thank you for your cards,” was the only rejoinder.
+
+Instead of complying with his request, however, F. withdrew from his
+pocket our passport, which since my little encounter on the quai he
+invariably carries with him, and which evidently made on this officious
+and sensitive offshoot of the Austrian Government such an impression,
+with its veritable British lion and unicorn easily distinguishable in
+the clear moonlight, that with a polite bow he exclaimed--
+
+“_Passieren Sie!_”
+
+Soon after this little episode, whilst continuing our stroll, a sudden
+change came over the spirit of the scene. The clouds we had observed
+rising from the south awhile ago, but which as we stood behind the
+northern ramparts we had failed to see approaching us with rapid
+strides, had now silently stolen upon us and obscured the moon’s
+disk. The wind, too, increased rapidly, and began to blow against the
+bastions with reports like that of musketry. It was a weird spot, this
+black and silent mountain summit, as the dense clouds scudded past.
+
+“We are in for a storm!” cried F., throwing the end of his cigar away.
+“Perhaps this is the witches’ herald. If they don’t turn out on such a
+night as this, all I can say is they ought.”
+
+“Yes; here they come,” he added, with a laugh; “or, at any rate, their
+broomsticks,”--as the wind, suddenly blowing almost to a hurricane,
+caught up a cluster of stalks of Indian corn that had been lying on the
+ground, and hurled them high in air.
+
+As we turned our faces homewards with all speed, the thunder began to
+peal, and, approaching the _Raitzenstadt_, a signboard, which had
+become loosened from its fastening, suddenly flapping against the wall
+of a cavernous doorway with a great noise, made us start. Reaching a
+small warehouse, we entered it for shelter.
+
+The storm was destined to be of short duration, for, deviating slightly
+from its course, it travelled towards the mountains of Buda, the
+thunder reverberating grandly, till the hills, answering each other
+with sounds like the roar of artillery, seemed to be the scene of a
+bombardment. The clouds, too, swept past, following the storm, and as
+we issued from the _Raitzenstadt_, the heavens were again clear,
+and the wind had laid itself down exhausted.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER LI.
+
+                               PARTINGS.
+
+
+As we crossed the suspension bridge for the last time on our way from
+Pest on the morning of our departure, the sun had risen, but the
+shadows still lingered beneath the white colonnades and archways that
+flank the Palace Gardens. On the Danube sleepy little fishing boats
+were floating with sails still furled, but on the quays, men were busy
+unloading merchandise from the larger boats that lay alongside.
+
+We had bidden a sorrowing adieu to our carriage the previous evening,
+and as we looked at it for the last time, and the remembrance of our
+pleasant picnics and roadside bivouacs came floating back upon the
+mind, we almost wept over it, for it was akin to parting with an old
+and valued friend.
+
+Our last journey had tried its enfeebled constitution sorely, and
+looking at it we felt its work was done. It would no longer rumble
+along the road to the merry jingle of horses’ bells. The patches
+which András had sewn over the rents in its poor old hood, no longer
+excluded the rain; it was leaky in every pore, and the canvas in some
+places hanging to it in ragged filaments gave to the whole, a woebegone
+appearance indeed.
+
+We were once more on our way to Fűred, there to await the departure of
+the Austrian Lloyd’s Steamer on the Save, and had scarcely taken our
+seats when we heard a plaintive voice saying in rather questionable
+German and still more questionable grammar,
+
+“Would any lady or gentleman be so good as to exchange their seats and
+allow me to sit in this carriage? I am _so_ afraid to travel near
+the engine.”
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Looking out of the window, I recognise the typical Englishwoman at
+last. There she is, arrayed in the typical brown ulster, large straw
+hat of the mushroom species, and green gauze veil. Nothing wanting to
+render the type complete.
+
+“All right!” replied the manly voice of a Magyar seated in the farthest
+corner, evidently glad of an opportunity of befriending an unprotected
+female; “take my seat, I’ll go into the next carriage.”
+
+She too was on her way to Fűred, having just arrived from Vienna, and
+we soon ascertained that she was an “unappropriated blessing,” roaming
+about the “wide wide world” as “unappropriated blessings” sometimes
+will; whilst a maid, who accompanied her in her wanderings, was seated
+in the next carriage with András.
+
+The landing-place at Fűred on this occasion of our visit presented a
+most animated scene, and was thronged with people in gay attire. We
+had secured rooms some weeks previously in the same hotel, or rather
+boarding-house, for strictly speaking there are no hotels here; but
+for which it is not likely we should have found accommodation, for the
+little place is evidently as full as it can cram.
+
+On the landing, amongst the loiterers who were either there to meet
+their friends or watch the new arrivals, we recognised the imposing
+form of András’s “better half,” who had come to greet her lord and
+master. He did not, however, appear to be so glad to meet his Katicza
+as husband should; on the contrary the previous evening he had
+presented himself with a doleful countenance, and entreated us to take
+him with us to Ángolország.
+
+“How could he leave his _édes kedves_ (sweet, beloved) master
+and mistress?” the warm-hearted little man in his sorrow at parting
+with us adding another adjective to his usual form of address--“He
+would be our butler, our cook, our groom,” in short our everything.
+“He would be scarcely any expense to his _édes kedves uram_
+and _asszonyom_,” he only wanted black bread, bacon and
+kurkurnty soup; and as to clothes!--he had plenty of strong, homespun
+_gatyák_, etc., etc., a pair of _czimák_ (top-boots) once
+a year was all he would need; and as he completed the category, we
+could not help smiling inwardly at the thought of the sensation
+his appearance would create amongst the English natives with his
+embroidered petticoats and feather-adorned cap, and with a sore heart
+we told the little man he must return to his Hungarian master and to
+the bosom of his family.
+
+Greatly to our surprise and delight we found here the friends with whom
+we had stayed in the north of Hungary, and with whom in the evening
+we strolled down to the lake. To the right was the bold promontory of
+Tihany sloping its rugged cliffs into the bosom of the lake and bearing
+on its summit the Benedictine Monastery founded by King Andreas I. in
+1055, one of the very earliest Christian institutions established in
+this country.
+
+These Benedictines are said to have been the chief agents in the
+conversion to Christianity of the heathen hordes who fixed their
+abode on the Alfőld in the 9th century. The breeze blowing from the
+south-west wafts over the still, blue waters the distant and plaintive
+sound of the monastery bell, as it tolls the _Ave Maria_, calling
+up within us a feeling of deep reverence for the descendants of the
+first preachers of the cross in this once heathen land. There are some,
+however, who ascribe the first germ of Christianity in this land to
+the Eastern Church and the Byzantine Greeks, many of whom it is well
+known were in Hungary previous to the adoption by the Magyars of the
+new religion. But whether the glory of Hungary’s original conversion to
+Christianity is due to the Benedictines or not, they were at any rate
+the principal means of keeping alive and spreading that faith which
+in various modifications is now held by all the nationalities of this
+vast country. It was, moreover, to the teaching of this order that the
+Hungarians are indebted for the first lessons in both architecture and
+agriculture, for, whilst instilling into their minds the doctrines of
+Christianity, they taught them the dignity and importance of labour,
+and just as we ourselves are indebted to the Benedictines for many of
+our beautiful churches, and the majority of our abbeys, the Hungarians
+owe to these early Christian monks the greatest architectural
+achievements their country possesses.
+
+As we saunter along the margin of the lake the weird and banshee
+strains of a gipsy band reach us, which the echoes give back in
+muffled harmony. On calm and peaceful nights like the present, the
+air in this vicinity is said to resound with the enchanting songs of
+fairies who live in the rocky fastnesses of Tihany. How delightful to
+find ourselves in a land where fairies still exist! The lake also is
+believed to be the abode of Naiads; whilst that of Neusiedler, near
+Presburg, is said to contain within its watery depths whole palaces
+of gold and precious stones. This being a happy country where these
+fascinating little people abound, it might reasonably have been
+expected, since the gipsies had favoured us with a serenade, that they
+also would have turned out to bid us welcome. Possibly they did so, but
+our eyes, blinded by the hard, stern civilisation of the West, were
+not at any rate permitted to see nor our ears hear them; or we may,
+perhaps, have sought at too early an hour for those dissipated spirits.
+There is more than one superstition believed in concerning this lake,
+nor is it to be wondered at. There are phenomena, too, peculiar to
+it which give it a very eery character, one of them being that it is
+occasionally violently agitated without any apparent cause, and the
+other that in the winter the ice which covers it sometimes bursts with
+a loud report.
+
+These phenomena are the more remarkable from the fact of its being so
+shallow, spreading itself out as it does over no less an area than four
+hundred square miles.
+
+The water-drinkers were up betimes, and from earliest dawn there was
+such a tramping of feet in the corridor outside the door, that sleep
+any longer was out of the question. I wonder what particular qualities
+the waters are supposed to possess at that unearthly hour? Opening the
+window, I let in the sweet morning air. The lake is sleeping calmly
+below, the long line of distant shore scarcely perceptible, whilst
+horizon and sky are blended into one. In the marshes beyond the lake,
+the white vapours which hovered over them in the darkness, now rising,
+begin to take shape, and, separating into fleecy cones, wear the
+appearance of a procession of phantoms, or attendant spirits of Night,
+as, scarcely touching the surface of the earth, they glide away to that
+mysterious region where they hide themselves till evening comes again.
+
+In spite of the earliness of the hour, a small, flat-bottomed boat
+comes skimming along close to the shore, filled with fishing-nets,
+baskets, and men, muffled up in sheepskins, their heads covered with
+woollen caps with long flaps to them.
+
+A little later, and the priest is seen taking his matutinal walk. He
+exchanges salutations with the doctor of the bathing establishment,
+who stands in the portico beneath. And now the abbey bell with muffled
+beat again comes floating over the still air, as it summons the worthy
+monks to matins! How full of romance and sentiment is their cloistered
+dwelling, and of beauty its surroundings!
+
+But the sun is up, and, looking like part of the morning, comes the
+chambermaid. Following the pretty custom of the country, she stoops
+and kisses my hand, and then presents a small tray on which is placed
+“white coffee,” the milk in some way or other being whipped to a froth.
+
+As I sit by the open window it is amusing to watch the people pass.
+All little Fűred is astir by this time, and an important-looking
+personage comes stalking along, followed by a dog. His figure, pompous
+and comfortable, is enveloped in a long cloak lined with some beautiful
+fur resembling sable, which sways backwards and forwards, with the
+regularity of a pendulum. He is evidently a person of distinction, the
+_polgár mester_ (mayor) probably or _biró_ of Dorf-Fűred, a
+village not far distant. Coming from an opposite direction is another,
+but somewhat less pompous individual, also accompanied by his own
+particular quadruped. They meet and exchange salutations in the most
+elaborate and approved method of the Hungarian period; they begin
+talking confidently, on municipal matters probably, or more likely
+still the condition of the dykes, a much vexed question at the present
+time, and a source of never-ending dispute and clamour amongst the
+various municipalities of the kingdom.
+
+Presently, after a quarter of an hour has elapsed, the colloquy
+apparently draws to a close; they bestow upon each other a parting
+benediction, at which the dogs--without so much as raising their
+heads--open their eyes drowsily and then close them again. They know
+by experience there are many last words to be said before the real
+farewell is taken, and they are perfectly right. The disputants
+separate, and walk in contrary directions, but only to turn back
+and resume the argument for awhile, and then repeat the ceremony of
+leave-taking. The whole process has been gone through many times, when
+there comes at length a peculiar flourish of the walking stick, and a
+wave of the hand indicative of the conclusion of the whole matter, upon
+which the dogs jump up in an instant, and follow the heels of their
+respective masters.
+
+Another lovely day, of which we make the most--for the summer heats
+are passing and the rains of autumn will soon be here--tempts us to
+make an excursion to the monastery of _Sacer Mons Pannoniæ_, the
+chief monastic institution of the country, dedicated to St. Martin, and
+erected, so it is said, on the precise spot on which the dwelling of
+the parents of St. Martin stood.
+
+There would, however, appear to have been some slight confusion in the
+minds of historians concerning the birth-place of this charitable and
+amiable saint, a manuscript in the library of the monastery itself
+declaring him to have been born in a town at the _foot_ of the
+hill; whereas his biographer and disciple Sulpicius Severus contends
+that he was born in a district more remote, namely, at a place called
+in the present day Steinamanger.
+
+Whatever place may have had the honour of giving him birth, here at
+any rate he dwelt in manhood, and although born of heathen parents
+and having entered the Roman army, he became a soldier of the cross,
+and fighting against Arianism, which was rife in Pannonia in the 4th
+century, became in the reign of Constantine the Great the light of the
+Western Church.
+
+The monastery is situated on the spur of a mountain which forms one of
+the chain enclosing the Hungarian plains to the west, and beneath which
+lie the forests of Bakony, of unenviable notoriety as the hiding place
+of Hungarian brigands.
+
+Hither come swarms of pilgrims weak in the knees and otherwise shaky
+in the lower extremities, hobbling up the steep hill-side, to sit
+and shiver in a marble chair contained in a crypt beneath the abbey,
+and in which the Saint is said to have sat during mass. To recline
+in this chair with a minimum of clothing is said to be a cure for
+rheumatism--probably acting on the homœopathic principle “Like cures
+like;” a remedy that even rivals the baths of Fűred, and moreover
+possesses the additional advantage of being gratuitous.
+
+The present monastery is the third which has been erected on this site,
+the first having been destroyed by the Pagans, the secret warfare that
+had been going on between Christianity and Paganism during the reign of
+King András I., having come to an open rebellion in that of King Béla.
+The second was demolished by the Turks; whilst the one now standing is
+interesting as having been built by the Abbot Urias who made himself so
+conspicuous in the “Holy War.”
+
+In addition to the statue of the patron saint, who as usual is
+represented in the act of giving his mantle to the beggar, the church
+contains two others of Hungary’s mediæval kings, both of whom were
+canonised by the Pope, viz., St. Stephen, and St. Ladislaus.
+
+Our last day at Fűred has also come, and, like all things pleasant, far
+too speedily. We have bid a sorrowful adieu to our honest little guide,
+who with his belongings has gone back to his master, taking with him a
+substantial token of our appreciation of his services, and we are only
+waiting the steamer’s signal to cross the lake on our way to Croatia
+ere we turn our backs upon the classic land of Attila and Árpád and
+bend our steps towards the region of the setting sun.
+
+The service at the hotel was charged for on the bill, and I
+need scarcely say paid for also; but who could resist giving a
+_douceur_ to the bright-eyed chambermaid who kissed our hands
+when she brought our white coffee every morning, and who happens to
+be brushing away an imaginary cobweb just outside our bedroom door
+as we make our exit, and looking up so sweetly, wishes us a pleasant
+journey;--or the civil waiter who happens to be in the middle of the
+stairs and who wishes us a speedy return;--or the porters who pant so
+exceedingly, as they carry our luggage down to the steamer and stand
+mopping their faces with their large full white sleeves;--or the boots,
+who helps to stow it away;--or the shoes, or in short anybody, and
+everybody--who, I ask, could resist the bestowal of a few kreuzers
+upon these civil people as they shower _lebewohls_ and _auf
+wiedersehens_ upon us as we depart? We at any rate are not of those
+strong-minded children of men.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LII.
+
+                                AGRAM.
+
+
+Evening has come, and the still, smooth waters of the Save, reflecting
+the sky, are like an upturned shield of gold. Not a ripple laves the
+shore. The black ibis and crested grebe have gone to roost in the
+low brushwood that fringes it on either side. Not a zephyr stirs the
+slender stems of the pampas-grass. All nature is still, but over the
+corn-fields comes the sound of voices, singing a Slavonian melody, slow
+and sweet, like an evening hymn, which, rising and falling in pathetic
+cadence, is in wondrous harmony with the scene.
+
+Casting our eyes in the direction of the sound we see a number of
+reapers, whose sickles flash in the setting sun as they lop the golden
+grain, the women, wearing scarlet kerchiefs round their heads, looking
+like poppies in the corn. They are singing in unison a _piesma_,
+one of those national ballads which have descended from the ancient
+troubadours, or _guslars_ as they are here designated.
+
+To the right rise undulating hills resting their summits on the saffron
+sky; and from a belt of forest at their base now comes the distant
+jingling of bells, upon which the reapers, leaving their sickles on the
+ground, traverse a narrow pathway through the _heide-korn_ and
+wend their way homewards. We watch them crossing the darkling landscape
+in picturesque procession till they are nearly out of sight, and then
+turn our faces towards Agram, for since the sun has sunk to rest,
+miasmatic vapours have been slowly rising from the marshes. In the
+vicinity of this placid stream, fevers lurk, and the “pestilence that
+walketh in darkness” waits not for the night.
+
+As we hastily pursue our way towards the little Croatian capital, the
+distant throb of a _kobsa_ comes wafted over the calm waters, and
+the voice of a peasant singing in a clear rich tenor, as he accompanies
+himself on his simple instrument. Floating on the glassy bosom of the
+stream a small black speck now comes in sight. It is a _bredvos_,
+containing happy peasants on their way from Agram or some village on
+the opposite bank; and the musical “burr” of the _kobsa_ comes
+nearer, for the boat, a heavy flat-bottomed craft almost as broad as it
+is long, with its large square prow rising high above the water, makes
+for the shore.
+
+These ballads, which the traveller hears continually in Croatia, and
+said to be older than old Homer himself, are the very mainspring of
+national life, and are the chief means of keeping alive in the hearts
+of the Slávs, that yearning after national unity of which in these days
+we hear so much.
+
+To the left of the river are the plains on which a lonely shepherd’s
+hut and two water-lifts are seen standing out black against the sky,
+but to the right are clusters of wooden huts roofed with shingles,
+and lying beneath blue mountains. On the balconies, overshadowed by
+sheltering eaves, the dwellers sit or stand, the bright colour of their
+costumes gleaming warmly in contrast with the prevailing gloom, for
+night is falling fast. As we approach the capital, lights are burning
+in many a window, whilst away in the west and above the irregularly
+built houses, though the sun set fully an hour ago, a long streak of
+intense carmine melting into orange reminds us of the far East.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The summer nights are delightful in Agram itself, and resemble those
+at Venice. The air is balmy, the sky soft and tender, and the great
+stars, flashing out of the purple sky, scintillate with the changeful
+splendour of the ruby, the topaz, and the emerald.
+
+Reaching the outskirts of the little city, the most important place on
+the Save, our way takes us through the long street that leads to the
+Jellachich Platz, so called from a Ban of that name, who once ruled the
+province as Viceroy. Let us stroll into the restaurant of the hotel
+“K’Carnu Austrianskomu!” The instant we do so we realise our distance
+from the civilised West, for on asking for a newspaper, several are
+instantly handed to us, every one of which is either in Windic or
+Croat, the latter called _hrvatsky_, being the colloquial dialect
+of the district. Although Agram is the centre of Slavonic literature,
+the language spoken here is less pure than that spoken by the Slávs of
+the south-east.
+
+No fewer than nine periodicals are published in this thriving little
+capital, whilst a Literary Society has recently been formed for the
+purpose of circulating books, journals, and pamphlets throughout the
+Sláv provinces, to further which clubs and reading rooms have been
+established in almost every village. Like the Magyars, the Croatians
+are very jealous of German influence, and the publication of books and
+papers in that language is in every way discouraged.
+
+Croatia enjoys a political autonomy, and has a Diet of its own, of
+which every Croatian noble is a member, the affairs of the State being
+vested in the Ban. The Croatians are bent on self-improvement, and one
+of their greatest ambitions is to become independent of Austria in the
+way that Hungary is, and to form with these nations a triple-monarchy.
+In religious tenets they belong exclusively to the Greek and Roman
+Catholic Churches; using, as Slávs of the Western Church, what is
+termed the Glagolic alphabet in contra-distinction to that used by the
+Bulgarians, invented by Cyrillus. The most ancient and pure Slavonic
+is found in what is called the “Ecclesiastical Slavonic” or “Old
+Bulgarian,” into which the Bible was translated in the middle of the
+9th century.
+
+This clean, bright little city contains between eighteen and twenty
+thousand inhabitants, and consists of an upper and lower town. The
+former is built on the side of a rocky hill, so steep that the houses
+in the narrow streets, which rise abruptly tier above tier and are
+approached by long flights of zigzag steps, look down the chimneys of
+those on the opposite side of the way. This part of the city, which was
+once fortified, constituted the citadel. It is now, however, occupied
+by the _canaille_ of Agram, and this quarter may be said to rival
+ancient Cologne in its variety of perfumes that are not found in either
+Messrs. Rimmel or Piesse and Lubin’s distilleries. Climbing the steep
+and rugged steps, we pass groups of people sitting at their doorways
+in the evening air; whilst the moon, prodigal of her gifts, bears her
+blessing up the unwholesome, narrow streets, and silvers each crazy
+tenement with a touch as soft and loving as though it were the abode of
+kings. Making our way upwards, and passing the quarter of the “great
+unwashed,” we at length reach broad, clean streets and lofty houses,
+and come to the Palace of the Ban, the various public offices, the
+Academy of Law, and the Museum. On another hill, separated by a narrow
+sandy gorge, and surrounded by fortifications and high battlemented
+walls, stand the Cathedral and Palace of the Archbishop. Exposed for
+centuries to the incursions of the Turks, many of the churches of
+Croatia, like those of Transylvania, were strongly fortified.
+
+Beyond the foreground of picturesque house-tops, the Save, creating a
+shimmering pathway across the plains, is seen winding its way towards
+the Bosnian Mountains, whose outlines are softly pencilled on the sky.
+This river, taking its rise on the confines of Istria, after flowing
+through Croatia, divides Slavonia from Bosnia, and still forms the
+boundary between Christianity and Islam.
+
+The Save also forms with the Theiss one of the principal tributaries
+of the Danube, and, swelling its waters by emptying itself into the
+mightier river at Semlin, is one cause of the disastrous inundations
+which so frequently occur in the region of the Alfőld.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is Sunday, and, like the Protestant Debrecziners, the Agramese,
+combining the service of God and Mammon, on this day hold their weekly
+market. The streets are one blaze of colour, and it is to be doubted
+whether even Rome itself, before the sharp traits of her people began
+to be obliterated by modern innovations, presented a more splendid
+spectacle. It is well we planned that our last wanderings in the
+Austro-Hungarian dominions should be in Croatia, for the costumes are
+far more beautiful here than any we have hitherto met with on any of
+our travels, this scene alone being worth coming all the way from
+Ángolország to see.
+
+Looking down the long straight street that leads to the Jellachich
+Platz, we find it thronged with people hurrying to the market, and the
+predominating tints of their costumes, white, scarlet, and green, are
+rendered all the more striking by the black, curled lamb’s wool, with
+which portions of their dress are trimmed.
+
+The women are attired in short white skirts, stiffly starched, and
+fluted to the waist, over which a long straight calico frontal is
+worn, trimmed with broad horizontal stripes of scarlet braid, laid on
+in a gradation of widths, the white full bodice, embroidered at the
+throat, being covered with innumerable rows of coral beads. Over this
+is generally worn a small white jacket of white kid, bordered with
+the black lamb’s wool before mentioned, a beautiful fleece resembling
+that known in England under the rather vague term of “Astracan.” The
+jacket in question is made so as to leave the front of the bodice
+exposed to view with its wealth of coral beads, and is not only one
+mass of the richest embroidery in various coloured silks, but small
+pieces of silver foil in the shape of stars are also added, which
+glisten in the sunshine. In addition to all, the fronts of this costly
+article of attire called a “_cabanitza_” are adorned all over with
+scarlet tassels. The girls wear a scarlet kerchief round the head,
+but the married women a very imposing and effective head-dress, which
+in some respects resembles the square white _taglia_ worn by the
+Neapolitan women, but much larger, consisting of a large square of
+muslin or calico, trimmed either with lace and scarlet braid supported
+on two curiously shaped pieces of wood called “horns,” round which the
+back hair is coiled. Nothing can be more becoming or dignified than
+this covering for the head, and a group of women thus attired form
+pictures that an artist would love to portray. How their dazzling,
+spotlessly white, and fan-like petticoats glisten as they trudge
+merrily along, some carrying long white bundles in their arms, which
+on closer inspection turn out to be _bambinos_, swathed in yards
+and yards of homespun linen, whilst others, like graceful Caryatids,
+are supporting on their Juno-like heads large flat round baskets filled
+with fruit or vegetables. Even the old women wear embroidered bodices
+and scarlet and white skirts. Yonder sit a group of ancient Amazons
+in close conclave, who may have been amongst those who in 1848 clad
+themselves in the panoply of war, and went forth to aid their husbands
+in the battle against Kossuth, singing patriotic songs, and improvising
+others as they marched towards the Imperial city.
+
+The Croatian men also figure largely in embroidery. Their brown or
+black cloth tunics are handsomely worked in scarlet; whilst, slung
+over the shoulder by a cord of the same colour, is a large square bag,
+designated a “_torba_,” which, hanging at the side, is completely
+covered with little scarlet tassels an inch and a half long. These
+Croatians, male and female, except in the matter of jewellery, are more
+given up to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world than even the
+Hamelsdorf girls themselves.
+
+In the square, peasants from the country round have been arranging
+their goods since break of day, and the whole place, from its gaiety
+and bustle, wears the appearance of an annual fair, rather than that of
+a weekly market. All is so bright, so gay, with such a delicious and
+harmonious mingling of colour, that we look down at our own hideous
+garments of the civilised West with their Quaker-like sobriety and
+sartorial gloom, with feelings almost akin to shame. Verily there is no
+prettier sight in the universe than Agram on a Sunday morning; but the
+traveller must be no sluggard, and must be up and out at seven o’clock,
+the hour when the villagers come trooping in. At ten the market is
+over, and, obedient to the summons of the bells, the people flock to
+church, and kneeling down before the service commences may be seen
+devoutly praying, the men on one side of the church, the women on the
+other, whilst kneeling on the steps of the altar may be seen a small
+but promiscuous gathering of men, women, and children.
+
+“Who are they?” I inquired in German of a lady who was sitting on the
+same bench with me in a church close to the market, and pointing to the
+group round the altar, all of whom seemed to be oppressed with sorrow
+of some sort.
+
+“They are poor country-people,” she replied softy, “and have some
+especial blessing to ask, some member of their family is sick or dying.
+Look at that young woman to the right of the altar! She has brought her
+sick baby and laid it beneath the picture of the ‘Good Shepherd.’ Ah!
+surely He will have pity,” and crossing herself devoutly she too knelt
+down to pray.
+
+Gazing in the direction indicated I saw the wee thing lying helplessly
+in its bandages, its tiny face so pale and wan, that the former might
+in truth have been its winding-sheet. In the centre of the group two
+little boys were kneeling side by side, their small hands clasped and
+their heads bent low. They came into the church alone, and, making
+their way at once to the altar, threw themselves on their knees. What
+grief was theirs, we wondered, and what blessing had they come to seek?
+There was a silent pathos about these lonely children that moved me
+even to tears.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Mass is sung in the Slavonic tongue, a concession granted by the popes
+to these Yougo-Slávs, in recognition of their heroic struggles against
+the Osmanlis, and nothing can be more beautiful and touching than their
+deep, slow chanting.
+
+The country round Agram is very picturesque. A little beyond the city
+lies the peaceful valley of St. Xavier, together with that of Tuskanac,
+with their fragments of feudal castles, backed by a lofty hill crowned
+with pines.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+Hiring a passing carriage, we drive towards the cool waters of the
+Save. Shadows are lengthening across the plains, and the villagers,
+crowding into the boats, are being ferried to the nearest church,
+possibly two or three miles away. Far away on the hills the narrow
+zigzag paths are indicated by strings of people coming in the same
+direction, and we soon reach a church, in the enclosure of which
+numbers of persons have already assembled waiting the arrival of the
+priest; stately girls and women in their beautiful scarlet and white
+garments and square head-gear, looking like Druidical priestesses in
+their white fluted skirts, one and all affording a living mass of rich
+and varied colour.[2]
+
+[2] These pages were written just before the terrible earthquakes,
+which not only rendered many of the inhabitants homeless by reducing
+their houses to a heap of ruins, but which, by the violence of the
+shocks and their frequent occurrence, kept the inhabitants in such a
+state of alarm that, on four occasions, panic-stricken they fled from
+the city and encamped in the plains beyond.
+
+Our steamer, which starts at six A.M. to-morrow, awaits
+us on the Kulpa at the junction of that river with the Save, a few
+miles further down the stream. Returning to the hotel, we pick up our
+luggage, and meet the steamer by the train which leaves for Sissek at
+nine o’clock.
+
+After passing Agram, the Save spreads itself out till it seems to
+encircle the whole district in its embrace, reminding us of the
+Lagoons at Venice. The moon is full, and, as the train rolls us along,
+everything is so calm, so peaceful, and presents such an even surface
+to the eye, that we appear to be surrounded by a broad sheet of silver.
+
+Sissek--a miserable place with wide unpaved streets--contains many
+objects of interest to the archæologist. The village of Old Sissek,
+which adjoins it, contains numerous remains of pillars and ancient
+buildings of Roman origin, together with a Roman causeway of massive
+masonry by which it is approached.
+
+On arrival, making our way at once to our steamer the “_Zrini_,”
+we soon discern her amongst the dark objects with which she is
+surrounded.
+
+Sissek, though possessing a population of little more than 1200,
+contains, at this time of year, when the harvest is being gathered in,
+almost as many thousand. Being the centre of the corn trade, it is here
+that the huge flat-bottomed boats freighted with grain are unloaded,
+the men employed, called Latianer, coming each year to Sissek for
+this purpose and leaving as soon as the season has passed. After being
+unloaded the corn is conveyed by train to its destination, a great deal
+finding its way to the English market.
+
+A curious scene surrounds us. There are boats with houses on their
+decks, others lying empty on their sides and half heeled over, and
+others again close alongside taking in cargo. Here and there coloured
+lights are twinkling faintly from the masts of smaller boats, and
+far down the river’s reach more lights are burning where caravans of
+merchants are bivouacking on the shore. In an hour’s time all is still,
+the vessels have finished taking in their cargo, and no sound is heard
+save the voices of boatmen weighing anchor, and the soft lapping of
+ripples driven by the zephyrs of night against the steamer’s side.
+
+At six o’clock A.M. the “_Zrini_” bursts from her
+moorings, and, soon leaving the Kulpa, bounds like a captive let loose
+into the waters of the Save.
+
+More singular far than on the Danube boats is the motley assemblage
+that greets the eye of the traveller as he cruises in one of the
+steamers on the Save. Close to us, with their long chibouks standing by
+their sides, are two Turks, or Osmanlis as they prefer being called,
+for the term Turk is one of ridicule, signifying “rustic.” Beside them
+sit a trio of young Servian ladies, dressed in black velvet jackets
+with large hanging sleeves richly embroidered in silver. Standing near
+the galley are a group of Albanians, warlike, magnificent-looking men
+armed to the teeth, with square shoulders and limbs like athletes.
+There are also men whose erect carriage, resembling that of the Serbs,
+and frank open brows, proclaim them to belong to Montenegro, that brave
+and independent little nation, which, although constituting a portion
+of the border-land that fringed the dominions of European Turkey, has
+never, like the other Sláv nations of the South, submitted to its rule.
+As they walk the deck it is easy to see they have never been a subject
+people. Their dress is a white tunic encircled by a shawl at the waist,
+blue trousers tied in at the knee, and a small round cap with a crimson
+crown adorned with gilt ornaments, the latter worn as a symbol of their
+national freedom. Until lately they also wore an emblem of mourning
+for the subject condition of their Sláv brethren, the Serbs, to the
+vassalage of Turkey.
+
+On the forecastle is a mass of human life quite Eastern in its aspect:
+bright intelligent little Turks full of life and animation; heavy
+Bulgarians with downcast eyes and beetling brows, who, sitting apart,
+hold communication with no one; Armenians, Illyrians, Bosnians,
+Croatians, Hungarians, and uncivilised-looking men from the villages
+lower down the Save.
+
+Occupying one side of the stern is a huge heap of sheepskins and
+striped blankets, which we imagine must be covering passengers’ luggage
+or bales of merchandise. Presently however the heap of what we supposed
+to be inert matter moves slightly, and a little hand appears and then a
+small Oriental-looking head, for beneath these blankets and sheepskin
+rugs a Greek family were lying huddled together.
+
+There is a little boy on board who interests us greatly. From early
+morning we had noticed him sitting silently on his bundle, and
+apparently alone. There was something in the expression of his face
+that attracted our attention, as he sat with his head slightly elevated
+and his eyes directed upwards. What could he be gazing at so intently
+in the dazzling sunlit sky? Making my way towards him through the
+groups of passengers, some of whom were gambling with curious cards,
+others singing softly to themselves or lying at full length fast
+asleep, I reached the spot where he was seated, and at once perceived
+that he was blind. No one appeared to take any notice of him, as, with
+pale face and that vacant, and infinitely pathetic expression which one
+sees in the countenances of the blind, he sat alone.
+
+Standing against the bulwarks smoking was a man who from his uniform I
+recognised as a corporal in the Austrian army. Addressing me in German,
+and pointing to the child, as though he had been a bale of merchandise,
+he said,
+
+“He was put on board at Jassenovatz.”
+
+“Where is he going?” I inquired.
+
+“How should I know,” was the rejoinder, as, shrugging his shoulders,
+he walked across to some other part of the ship, adding, as he did so,
+that he supposed “_somebody_ would meet him _somewhere_.”
+
+He was in fact a piece of goods “to be left till called for.” Taking
+his small hand in mine, I led him to the other side of the deck under
+the shadow of the awning. What an odd quaint little specimen of
+humanity he was, with his loose brown garments, cut precisely like
+those of his elders, and his funny shapeless little shoes such as all
+the Sláv peasantry wear, consisting of a flat piece of hide laced into
+shape at toe and heel, with leather thongs!
+
+At this moment the captain, passing by, enlightened me further as to
+the history of this waif of humanity.
+
+“That little urchin,” said he, looking down kindly upon him, “is a
+_Minnesinger_ or _guslar_ as they call them in Croatia; the
+Yougo-Slávs dedicate from their infancy to the Muses all male children
+who are born blind. As soon as they are old enough to handle anything,
+a small mandoline is given them, which they are taught to play, after
+which they are taken every day into the woods, where they are left till
+evening to commune in their little hearts with nature. In due time they
+become poets, or at any rate rhapsodists, singing of the things they
+never saw, and, when grown up, are sent forth to earn their livelihood,
+like the troubadours of old, by singing from place to place and asking
+alms by the wayside.
+
+“It is not difficult for a Sláv to become a poet; he takes in poetic
+sentiment like a rivulet does water from its source. The first sounds
+he is conscious of are those of his mother singing to him as she rocks
+his cradle, or trudges along to market with him tucked under her arm a
+stiff little bundle. Then as she watches the dawning of intelligence
+in his infant face, her mother-language is that of poetry, which she
+improvises at the moment, and so, though he never saw the flowers,
+nor the snow-capped mountains, nor the flowing streams and rivers, he
+describes them out of his inner consciousness and the influence which
+the varied sounds of nature have upon his mind.”
+
+The interest this little _guslar_ awakened in us soon became
+general, and, seated high upon a heap of rugs, he was made to sing in
+his childish voice some of the sweet and simple Slavonian melodies.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER LIII.
+
+                           THE IMPALED RAÏA.
+
+
+Hark to the measured tramp of feet as the Slavonian peasants whirl and
+twirl in the intricate mazes of the _kolo_, the national dance
+of the Slávs! Bright eyes flash beneath heavy lashes, bosoms heave,
+hearts go pit-a-pat, the charms and beads that hang round the women’s
+necks rise and fall in unison with the rapid movement, fire-flies
+dart about the steamer’s deck, now hovering on the bulwarks, and now
+playing at hide-and-seek above the head of the dancers. On the margin
+of the river, glow-worms begin to light their lamps and scintillate in
+the bushes; whilst over on the Bosnian hills long rows of fires are
+flickering where the gipsies have pitched their encampments.
+
+Faster and faster go the feet; louder and louder sounds the “burr” of
+the _kobsa_. The bag-pipes, played by a Wallachian shepherd, drone
+out their harsh music, above which the shrill little _svira_[3]
+tries hard to hold its own, and pours forth its plaintive pipings in a
+feeble and somewhat intermittent treble.
+
+[3] A small flageolet.
+
+The theme of the _kolo_ is the same as that of the Csárdás, love
+expressed in rollicking pantomime. The dance was got up by a number
+of peasants who came on board at Xupanje, but who left us again at a
+village further down the stream.
+
+While the dancing was going on, our attention was attracted to a gipsy
+woman, who, taking no apparent interest in the proceedings around her,
+was sitting apart, close to the bows of the steamer. Almost masculine
+in stature, and with the prominent features which so many of the
+Bosnian gipsies possess, she looked, with her large lustrous eyes fixed
+immovably upon the horizon, like some Sibyl prophesying dark things to
+the night.
+
+Excited by the strains of music that followed the _kolo_, the
+little guslar took up his tiny instrument--a mere toy--and began
+singing some more ballads, which won for him no end of kreuzers and
+applause. At ten o’clock, however, all was silent, every one being
+asleep, with the exception of a tall and sturdy young Montenegrin, who
+was standing against the galley smoking, as motionless as a statue,
+his eyes fixed intently upon the fading hills. Was he thinking of his
+beloved _Vaterland_--the land of Slavo-Serv liberty, and of its
+_Tserna Gora_, that dark pine-covered mountain from which his
+brave little country takes his name? Judging from the small amount of
+luggage carried by the other passengers, which consisted, as a rule,
+solely of a gourd or leather bottle, a rug, and an iron pot containing
+food for their journey, our Montenegrin must have been an emigrant, so
+numerous are the bundles with which he is surrounded. His gun was slung
+across his shoulder, and from his shawl-girdle hung some other weapon.
+But he, too, soon spread his _straka_ on the deck, as the large
+cloak that forms the Montenegrins’ outer garment is called, and turning
+to the east, he makes the sign of the Greek cross, and, lying down, is
+soon fast asleep.
+
+The night was delicious, the air fresh, but without chill. We had
+come to anchor opposite a dense belt of forest on the Slavonian side,
+through which the moon, penetrating here and there between the boughs,
+shone like silver spray. Everything was calm and dreamy. Occasionally a
+night-bird, roosting within its leafy labyrinths, uttered a plaintive
+cry, or a fish rose with a sudden plash; but these sounds seemed in
+complete harmony with the silence, and, retiring to our cabins, we soon
+subsided into the general slumber, and did not awake until the sun,
+shooting golden arrows through our window, summoned us on deck.
+
+To the right, gently undulating hills, which constitute a portion of
+the Diarnic Alps, and on whose summits snow lies for nine months in the
+year, now begin to unfold themselves in a solemn rhythm.
+
+We left Croatia behind long ago, and on our right the shore wears an
+Oriental appearance, for we have reached Bosnia--“Golden Bosnia,”
+as it is familiarly called--whose efforts, together with those of
+Herzegovina, to obtain emancipation from Mahomedan oppression and
+misrule, called forth the sympathies of Europe, and elicited the
+diplomatic action of the great Powers on her behalf.
+
+The shores of this river are especially interesting in a historical
+point of view. It was on the conquest of Bosnia by the Osmanlis, who
+at that time spread themselves over the whole district of the Save,
+that the Military Frontier was established, or rather systematically
+organised, by Ferdinand of Austria. Extending from the shores of the
+Adriatic to Moldavia, it embraced Slavonia and Transylvania, as well as
+a portion of Croatia and the southern belt of Dalmatia, thus covering
+an area of nearly a thousand miles. At distances of about half a
+mile apart, we see the Military Frontier posts, which previous to the
+Treaty of Berlin were vigilantly guarded. They consist of small wooden
+houses raised on stakes, and surrounded by a verandah in which the
+guard patrolled. By the side of each house is still seen a high pole
+to which straw and wood are tied, and which, when ignited, formed a
+primitive mode of signalling at night to neighbouring frontier-posts on
+the occurrence of local disturbances of a political character. On the
+advance of an invading foe the guard of one station signalled to the
+next, and so on, till the whole line, apprised of the danger, arose to
+arms and hastened to the threatened district; from three to four hours
+being the time which is said to have been occupied in communicating
+from one end of the frontier to the other; whilst during the day when
+disturbances arose, the wild tocsin--with which every guard-post was
+provided--resounding along the banks of the river, called the border
+regiments to arms.
+
+In consequence of the geographical positions of the Danube and the
+Save, the immediate districts of the rivers were from an early period
+infested by bands of fugitives from neighbouring countries who lived
+principally by war and plunder, but whom the Hungarian Government
+under Matthias Corvinus--that great champion of Christendom against
+Mahomedan invasion--permitted to remain on condition of their defending
+the boundaries from the inroads of barbarian hordes from the East. The
+system adopted was precisely that of the ancient Romans in the defence
+of their frontiers on the shores of the Rhine and the Danube. These
+border men-at-arms received no pay, but had fiefs allotted to them on
+the payment of a heavy tax to the State, and also on the condition
+of furnishing a certain number of guards. The owners of the fief’s
+were united under a chieftain who governed the little commonwealth,
+which generally consisted of fifty families. In times of peace, forty
+thousand men were on duty at the various posts, but in case of war the
+whole military force was capable of furnishing two hundred thousand
+men, all of whom were compelled, if necessary, to serve in the regular
+army. Under Austria, this border-line became one of the most perfect
+military institutions of modern times, whereby not only two hundred
+thousand men were added to her standing army without any cost whatever
+to the Empire, but a complete system was formed for the maintenance of
+quarantine. Since the organisation of this frontier line by Austria,
+the plague, which formerly was seldom absent from Hungary more than
+twenty years together, has not once visited that country.
+
+On the Bosnian shore we also see at regular intervals the guard posts,
+which, previous to the Treaty of Berlin, were similarly used by the
+Turks to protect their frontier lands from Austrian invasion.
+
+What a splendid country Bosnia is, with its luxuriant vegetation and
+fertile soil. Hundreds of miles of it have never as yet been turned by
+either spade or plough. Nothing is wanting to render it a happy and
+prosperous country but colonists to bring its rich virgin soil under
+cultivation. The population of Bosnia is small, scarcely amounting
+to one million, of whom thirty-five thousand are Jews, and twelve
+thousand gipsies, the former being descendants of refugees from Italy
+and Spain. The remaining inhabitants are divided between Mahomedans and
+Christians, a Sláv people, the original inhabitants of the country,
+who speak a Sláv dialect, containing a large admixture of Turkish
+words. There are no sons of the Prophet so truly bigoted, strange as
+it may seem, as these Slávs of Bosnia, although they only embraced
+Islam to protect themselves from persecution, and their property from
+spoliation when invaded by the Turks. More fanatical far than even the
+true-born Turk himself, the Bosnian Mahomedan persecutes in his turn
+his Christian compatriot, the _raïa_, and calls him “dog.”
+
+The _raïas_, who form the Christian portion of the Sláv population
+of Bosnia, the greater number of whom belong to the Greek Church,
+constitute almost exclusively the peasant class. Although the former
+feudal system, of which these _raïas_ were the serfs, was
+abolished by the reforms of 1852, yet forced labour still exists to
+some extent in Bosnia, the imperious Infidel obliging the Christian
+_raïa_ to work for him almost at the point of the bayonet.
+
+The condition of these poor Bosnian peasantry is consequently still
+one of the most humiliating servitude, and is very little mended.
+Not only are they oppressed by the Mussulman population but they are
+impoverished by their ecclesiastical superiors, the _popas_, who
+impose burdens on them grievous to be borne, and who on non-payment of
+their imposition are said not unfrequently to refuse them the rites and
+consolations of religion. Between the intimidation of their ghostly
+advisers and the vengeance and cruelty of the Mahomedans, the poor
+_raïas_ still have a hard time of it, and are kept in a state of
+perpetual poverty and fear.
+
+The banks on the left or Slávonian side, the extreme south-east of
+which territory we skirted when traversing the Danube, are extremely
+picturesque. We pass numerous villages, the houses of which, built on
+stakes, are all gables, balconies, and palisades. In the open windows
+of these dwellings a woman is occasionally seen, her bright costume
+creating a charming bit of colour set in its dark wooden frame-work,
+whilst on the Bosnian shore a long caravan is seen preparing for the
+day’s march, consisting of thirty or forty people and as many mules.
+How picturesque they are, with their Eastern-looking packs, and deep,
+rich brown colouring, as they stand grouped in one mass against the
+background of glowing horizon!
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The dense primeval forests which have been skirting us for some hours
+now give place to morasses, and leaving these behind we enter a
+sandy region roamed by pigs. A number of these animals, the precise
+colour of the sand, come down to drink, driven by a man enveloped in
+a mantle made of long finely split grass, which, forming a fringe
+many inches thick, is plaited at the neck, and reaches almost to the
+heels. This garment, believed by the learned to be the very first
+that was invented, is also occasionally worn by the shepherds on the
+Croatian plains. Wherever we cast our eyes there are pigs, pigs,
+pigs: canary-coloured pigs; pigs with long golden hair (probably
+the embodied spirits of the water-nymphs, transmigrated into these
+domestic pachyderms, which the Slávs, like the ancient Greeks, still
+believe sit upon the banks of the Save, and, combing their golden
+tresses, sing sweetly to lure the unwary boatman into the shifting
+sands); sienna-coloured pigs; pigs of every gradation of yellow and
+light brown, surrounded by little families of pink piglets, whose
+bodies, not yet impregnated with the prevailing sand, seem not to
+belong to the same genus as their progenitors, as one and all stand out
+in bold relief and artistic contrast against the intense blue sky.
+
+On arriving at Bertsch, I lose my little guslar, a woman carrying a
+distaff--which, like the women of Transylvania, a Sláv is seldom seen
+without--having come on board to fetch him. Before he left I threw into
+his bundle a quantity of Turkish sweetmeats, given me by a Bosnian
+gentleman, which must I fear have sown the seed for a rich harvest of
+indigestion and night-mares sufficient to drown his little pipe and
+extinguish his muse for many a day to come.
+
+Reaching the province of Syrmien, whose banks skirt us on the Hungarian
+side, a group of Amazons with red and blue scarfs, folded round their
+heads like turbans, are standing knee-deep in the water washing their
+_chuddas_, just as they are seen to do in the Ganges. They scuttle
+away at our approach, and hide in the low bushes which are growing in
+the sandy soil, whence they gaze at us furtively like Miriams and the
+maidens of Pharaoh’s daughter. The shore here is covered with hundreds
+of pigs, no longer golden, but grimly black, with long bushy hair and
+hanging tails, looking from a little distance like bears. We have now
+left the region of sand behind, and again enter a morass, the abode of
+myriads of wild fowl, numbers of which are taking their bath on the
+confines of the river, or diving for fish; the shore being literally
+edged with them as by a fringe. More tame by far than the human bipeds
+of Syrmien, they take no notice whatever of our approach. A raft passes
+close to them, but they do not move; whilst an eagle standing alone,
+its great yellow feet planted on a small green promontory, was so lost
+in contemplation that it did not stir for full a quarter of an hour,
+but remained as immovable as if it had been the Sphinx beneath the
+pyramids of Gezah.
+
+At every turn in the river we are reminded of our gradual approach to
+the East. Women, walking in the roadway or coming down to the river’s
+brink for water, now wear yack-mashes, and the Austro-Hungarian traits
+have almost died out. Presently we see, apparently standing alone
+with no habitation within sight, a long pole, to which is lashed what
+appears from a distance to be a human form, and our minds involuntarily
+revert to the famous newspaper controversy of “Impaled Bosnian”
+_versus_ “faggot of haricot beans.”
+
+There he was sure enough, his black hair standing on end, as well
+it might, and his loose, Oriental-like garments fluttering in the
+breeze, with his poor wizened legs dangling black and helpless. It
+was a blood-curdling sight, and fain would we have turned our eyes in
+the contrary direction, but no! we would be brave and view through a
+field-glass this unfortunate _raïa_--another victim to Mahomedan
+cruelty and barbarism. We would view him in all his ghastly details,
+in order that we might expose the horrors of the deed throughout the
+length and breadth of Christendom. Our courage almost fails us, but we
+raise the glass, through which we see the sickening picture. Across
+the breast, his epitaph was written in black letters painted rudely on
+a narrow strip of board. What are the tragic words? They are Slávish
+for “good cheer for man and beast,” and point to a small, one-storied
+“_gastina_” or wayside inn now seen amongst a cluster of low
+bushes!
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+The resemblance was complete and the object of our commiseration a
+veritable fact, until with calm eyes we were able to dissect him limb
+by limb. His head was formed of a bundle of sticks, that doubtless when
+originally placed there were freshly gathered boughs, but from which
+the leaves since dropped had left simply a little bundle of dry twigs
+which formed a capital shock head of hair. The upper part of his body
+consisted of a piece of old sacking, and his flowing nether garments of
+a sheaf of Indian corn without the ears, the long, pointed leaves of
+which, bleached by the sun, fluttered in the air; the narrow board, by
+dividing the body, formed the waistbelt, and the legs, which hung black
+and helplessly, were two somewhat crooked stakes, to which the whole
+fabric was tied previous to its being hoisted to the pole.
+
+Plenty more victims to “impalement” saw we on our farther progress down
+the Save, but we henceforth witnessed them with stoical indifference,
+and they no longer awoke our pity or moved us to tears.
+
+The time occupied in steaming down the Save is twenty-six hours, and
+we are fast reaching our destination. Already ambitious Servia lies to
+our right. We have passed Schabatz with its hospital and gymnasium,
+for since this brave little race of Slávs have achieved their
+independence, they are imitating the civilised West in many of its
+national institutions. After steaming into a flock of wild swans, we
+turn another bend of the river, and Belgrade, with its fortress-crowned
+hill, comes in sight, over which, thank God, the banner of Slavo-Serb
+liberty at last floats in the breeze. The Save now ends its career, and
+empties itself into the beautiful Danube, which here looks like the
+ocean.
+
+As we steam under the citadel of Belgrade with its minarets and towers,
+which for centuries has been alternately the bulwark of Christendom and
+the advanced post of the Infidel, a gun booming from its battlemented
+heights reverberated against the promontory of Semlin, the last
+Hungarian town on the banks of the Danube, and, stepping on shore, the
+red, white, and green colours of the kingdom of St. Stephen no longer
+float over us, for we have planted our feet on Servian soil.
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+
+                                FINIS.
+
+
+
+
+                                LONDON:
+             PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
+                  STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes:
+
+1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
+corrected silently.
+
+2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
+been retained as in the original.
+
+3. Italics are shown as _xxx_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78675 ***
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+text-align: right;
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+
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+{
+float: left;
+margin: 0.1em 0em 0em 0em;
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+line-height:0.85em;
+}
+
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-size: small;
+    text-align: right;
+    font-style: normal;
+    font-weight: normal;
+    font-variant: normal;
+    text-indent: 0;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.xs { font-size: x-small;}
+
+.sm { font-size: small;}
+
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+
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+
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+           text-indent: 0em;}
+
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+
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+
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+
+.gesperrt
+{
+    letter-spacing: 0.2em;
+    margin-right: -0.2em;
+}
+
+/* Images */
+
+img {
+    max-width: 100%;
+    height: auto;
+}
+
+.figcenter {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+    page-break-inside: avoid;
+    max-width: 100%;
+}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
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+
+/* Poetry */
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+{
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+{
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+
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+{
+margin: .5em 0em .5em 1em;
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+
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+
+/* Transcriber's notes */
+.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA;
+    color: black;
+    font-size:small;
+    padding:0.5em;
+    margin-bottom:5em;
+    font-family:sans-serif, serif;
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+
+    </style>
+</head>
+
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78675 ***</div>
+
+
+  
+<div class="figcenter">
+  <img
+    class="p1" 
+    src="images/cover.jpg"
+    alt="">
+  </div>
+
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="frontispiece" style="max-width: 729px">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/frontispiece.jpg"
+     alt="">
+     <p class="p0 sm center">DEFILE OF THE LOWER DANUBE.</p>
+     <p class="p0 sm right"><span class="smcap">Frontispiece</span>, Vol. II.</p>
+   </div>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h1 class="gesperrt">“MAGYARLAND;”</h1></div>
+
+<p class="center p1 sm">BEING THE NARRATIVE OF OUR TRAVELS THROUGH THE HIGHLANDS<br>
+AND LOWLANDS OF HUNGARY.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2 xs">BY</p>
+
+<p class="center sm">A FELLOW OF THE CARPATHIAN SOCIETY,</p>
+
+<p class="center xs p-min">AUTHOR OF ‘THE INDIAN ALPS.’</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+  <img
+    class="p1" 
+    src="images/title.jpg"
+    alt="">
+  </div>
+
+<p class="center sm">IN TWO VOLUMES.—<span class="smcap">Vol. II.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center p1 xs">WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2 sm">LONDON:<br>
+SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, &amp; RIVINGTON,<br>
+<span class="xs">CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.</span>
+1881.</p>
+
+<p class="center p1 xs">[<i>All Rights reserved.</i>]</p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p class="center p6 xs">LONDON:<br>
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED.<br>
+STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.</p>
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="p2">CONTENTS OF VOL. II.</h2>
+</div>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+  <img
+    class="p0" 
+    src="images/a0030.jpg"
+    alt="">
+  </div>
+
+<table class="smaller" style="max-width: 40em">
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th class="pag">PAGE</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">PONS TRAJANI</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE HEIGHTS OF THE DANUBE</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_12">12</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXI.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">MEHADIA</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE FAMILY PEDIGREE</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">GROSSWARDEIN</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIV.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">GOOD FRIDAY IN THE GREEK CHURCH</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXV.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE “QUEEN OF THE ALFÖLD”</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXVI.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">HERMANNSTADT</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXVII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">“THE GOOD OLD TIMES”</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_107">107</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXVIII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">WITH THE WALLACHS</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXXIX.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE ROTHER THURM PASS</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XL.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE GREEK HERMITAGE OF BUCSECS</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLI.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">WESTWARD</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">DEBRECZIN</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLIII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE WINE DISTRICTS OF TOKAY</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLIV.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">TEMPLES OF THE NIGHT</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLV.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">DICKENS <i>alias</i> “BOSCH”</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLVI.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE GOLD MINES OF SCHEMNITZ</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLVII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE “CALVARY”</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLVIII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE MODERN BABEL</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER XLIX.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">ÓBUDA</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER L.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE WITCHES’ CARNIVAL</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER LI.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">PARTINGS</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER LII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">AGRAM</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">CHAPTER LIII.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+   <td class="cht1">THE IMPALED RAÏA</td>
+   <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span></p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="a0060_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/a0060_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+     <p class="p0 sm center">Going Home.</p>
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center sm">VOL. II.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+  <img
+    class="p0" 
+    src="images/a0070_deco.jpg"
+    alt="">
+  </div>
+
+<table class="smaller" style="max-width: 40em">
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Defile of the Lower Danube</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">All among the Sheaves</td>
+    <td class="pag">Facing page <a href="#p0681_ill">68</a></td>
+  </tr>
+   
+  <tr>
+    <th class="header" colspan="2">SMALL ILLUSTRATIONS.</th>
+  </tr>
+
+  <tr>
+    <th></th>
+    <th class="pag">PAGE</th>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Going Home from Market</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#a0060_ill">vi</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">A Roumanian Soldier</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0030_ill">3</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">A Priest of the Greek Church</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0100_ill">10</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">In the Suburbs of Orsova</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0110_ill">11</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Island of New Orsova in the Danube</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0170_ill">17</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Turkish Boat</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0280_ill">28</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Trajan’s Tablet</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0310_ill">31</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Wallachian Women</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0350_ill">35</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">How we journeyed to Mehadia</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0420_ill">42</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Grosswardein</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0620_ill">62</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Study characteristic!</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0670_ill">67</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Before a Shrine in a Greek Church</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0720_ill">72</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Boat on Lake Balaton</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0790_ill">79</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">A Citizen of Szegedin</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0800_ill">80</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Marǒs</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0890_ill">89</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Listening to the Sermon on Good-Friday at Grosswardein</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0920_ill">92</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Fishing-boats on the Danube</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p0930_ill">93</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">In the Market at Hermannstadt</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1030_ill">103</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Lutheran Church at Hermannstadt</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1060_ill">106</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Fortified Church at Hiltau</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1090_ill">109</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">A Transylvanian Village</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1130_ill">113</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Church Costume of a “Saxon” Mädchen</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1200_ill">120</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Old Tower at Hermannstadt</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1230_ill">123</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Young Wallach Girl</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1240_ill">124</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Doorway of a Wallach House</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1270_ill">127</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">A Wallach Baby</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1340_ill">134</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Transylvanian Alps</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1380_ill">138</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Belfrey of a Wallach Church</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1450_ill">145</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Castle of Terzburg</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1510_ill">151</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Hermits’ Cave</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1570_ill">157</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Way-side Figures</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1590_ill">159</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Market-day at Kolozsvár</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p1620_ill">162</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">“Common Objects”</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2580_ill">258</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Pursuit of Art under Difficulties</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2630_ill">263</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Blocksberg</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2700_ill">270</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Royal Palace of Buda</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2770_ill">277</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Our Carriage</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2850_ill">285</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Sunset on the Plains</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2880_ill">288</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">In a Church at Agram</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2940_ill">294</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Ferry-boat on the Save</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p2950_ill">295</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">The Impaled Raïa</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p3100_ill">310</a></td>
+  </tr>
+
+ <tr>
+    <td class="cht smcap">Nearing Belgrade</td>
+    <td class="pag"><a href="#p3110_ill">311</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center xl gesperrt">“MAGYARLAND.”</p>
+</div>
+
+  <div class="figcenter">
+  <img
+    class="p0" 
+    src="images/p0010_deco.jpg"
+    alt="">
+  </div>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.<br>
+<span class="subhed">PONS TRAJANI.</span></h2></div>
+
+<p>“<i>Ihr Pass, meine Herren! Ihr Pass!</i>” cried a ferocious Roumanian
+official, speaking German with an unquestionably foreign accent, as we
+disembark from the steamer at Szörény.</p>
+
+<p>It is the first time we have been asked to show our passport on
+the arrival at a frontier since leaving England; but we are now in
+Roumania, and beyond the pale of Western civilisation.</p>
+
+<p>There is also a strict examination of our luggage here; and whilst
+these ceremonies are proceeding, numerous beggars arrive upon the
+scene, who whine and supplicate and show their wounds and hideous
+deformities, thrusting them—when the size and nature of them
+permit—through the bars of the gates which shut us in. There is
+considerable competition in the profession, and it is not easy to see
+which carries off the palm. There are beggars of all sorts, shapes, and
+sizes; beggars whose shrunk and shrivelled limbs, bound with ragged
+and dirty bandages, are suggestive of the malady from which <i>he</i>
+suffered who lay<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> “at the rich man’s door;” beggars with deformed
+hands, arms, and legs; beggars with no arms at all; whilst in the
+distance we catch sight of a wretched specimen of humanity, cantering
+along on all fours, and whining at the top of his voice, but who, with
+all his speed, only arrives in the nick of time to add his supplication
+to that of his brethren for “kreuzers, for the love of Heaven.”</p>
+
+<p>Considerable delay was caused here on account of András having failed
+to provide himself with a passport. The necessity for his doing so had
+never occurred to us; but there was so much fuss and palaver made about
+the matter that we began to think it would either end in his being kept
+for a time in durance vile, or sent back whence he had come. Since
+the Treaty of Berlin, Roumania together with Servia has obtained its
+independence, and no longer owns allegiance to Turkey. The Government,
+however, of the former province is exceedingly afraid of Russian
+spies, and is also suspicious of its neighbour Austria. Its frontier
+regulations with regard to passports are consequently very strict.</p>
+
+<p>The incident above narrated caused no small excitement amongst the
+bystanders. The gendarmes instantly surrounded us with their bayonets,
+all of whom were barbarous but handsome-looking fellows dressed in
+a uniform of coarse grey cloth turned up with white, and wearing
+black lamb’s wool caps with long peaks hanging down behind; whilst
+the beggars, suddenly taken off their guard, and forgetting for once
+their respective infirmities, entirely changed their characters. They
+no longer whined and wept, but spoke to each other quite cheerily in
+their natural voices. Arms, legs, and feet which had previously been
+doubled up or turned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> the wrong way, now assumed their legitimate
+position; even the man on “all fours” managed to stand upright, and
+peer through the gates; so great and absorbing was the interest one
+and all manifested in the dispute that was taking place within. At
+length, after much expenditure of lungs on our part, and vociferation
+and gesticulation on that of the Roumanian officials, we succeeded in
+making them comprehend the harmless and inoffensive nature of András’s
+vocation and the precise relation in which he stood to us as our guide,
+and he was permitted to accompany us across the frontier; for which act
+of grace I feel sure we were indebted to our having an English passport.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0030_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0030_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>We had already encountered a rather unpleasant episode before landing.
+András, thinking we might find it difficult to obtain anything to eat
+here, had thoughtfully laid in a little stock of cold provisions from
+the steward’s larder; the charge for which was so exorbitant that
+the two came to high words on the subject. The steward was a German,
+and the epithet “<i>Swab</i>,” and other opprobrious titles of a
+similar nature, were showered upon him by András, together with the
+favourite but by no means complimentary Magyar sentence, “<i>hunczfut
+a német</i>,” signifying “thief,” “rogue,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> etc.; till, failing to
+make any impression upon the delinquent by these epithets, he at
+length appealed to the passengers, declaring before them all that
+as a Magyar—and here the little man drew himself up to his fullest
+height—he neither could nor would allow foreigners, much less an
+<i>Ángolok</i>, to be so imposed on. Looking over the bill we certainly
+did think the steward had been rather over-reaching, having not only
+charged three florins for a bottle of very ordinary wine, but a florin
+for a small quantity of biscuits, and other things after the same rate.
+The public exposure, however, of his exorbitant charges soon brought
+the recalcitrant steward to reason, who at once deducted half the
+amount. But the usually calm and even temper of a Magyar once aroused
+is not easy to subdue, and we began to fear that ere long András would
+get us into real difficulty, for a third <i>contretemps</i> occurred
+just as we were at length leaving the custom-house.</p>
+
+<p>Our intention, on arrival at Szörényi, was to hire some sort of
+conveyance, and, driving to the station of the Bucharest and Orsova
+line, to leave our luggage there, whilst we made a short excursion to
+Turnu Severin to see the remains of Trajan’s noblest work, the bridge
+across the Danube; after which, returning to the station, we purposed
+picking up our luggage and proceeding to Orsova by train.</p>
+
+<p>The only thing on wheels visible outside the <i>Douane</i> was an
+indescribably old and battered phaeton, to which a pair of small, lean
+horses were attached.</p>
+
+<p>We were just about to enter the ancient vehicle, when the driver, in an
+insolent tone of voice, demanded his fare, viz., five gulden. This, of
+course, was also a gross imposition, and proved far too much for our
+guide’s present state of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> excitability. Finding the driver unwilling to
+listen to remonstrance, he wrenched the whip out of his hand, and laid
+it vigorously across his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>Unaccustomed to take the law into our own hands in so violent a
+fashion, and dreading the consequences in a country like this, we
+expostulated with him severely on his behaviour, informing him
+that if he was no longer able to keep his temper under control he
+must forthwith leave our service. The little man replied quite
+calmly, assuring us that, “with all due deference to the august
+<i>Ángolok</i>—his sweet master and mistress”—the mode of reasoning
+he had adopted in the present instance was not the result of any
+ebullition of temper whatsoever, but was the only method that ever
+had the slightest effect upon a Roumanian Jew; and his words proved
+correct, for our Israelitish Jehu, instead of resenting the assault as
+we expected, folded his hands, and in the most abject manner begged
+us to mount, offering to take us for two gulden thirty kreuzers, that
+being rather less than half the sum he had first demanded.</p>
+
+<p>Contrary to our expectations, no one took the slightest notice of the
+assault. The delinquent was “only a Jew,” a people cruelly persecuted
+in Roumania, where the popular feeling against them is scarcely less
+marked than that which existed in England and other countries in the
+Middle Ages.</p>
+
+<p>Our luggage deposited in the crazy vehicle, the miserable horses,
+regardless of holes and ruts, took us up the steep hill at a
+hand-gallop, during which not only we but our belongings also were more
+than once threatened with a serious upset.</p>
+
+<p>Having, however, survived the perils and dangers of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> way, and seen
+our <i>impedimenta</i> safely locked up in a little cobwebby office
+at the station, we drove to Turnu Severin, about a quarter of a mile
+further down the river, where, climbing a conical mound, upon which
+still stands a ruined tower of undoubted Roman origin—supposed to have
+been built by Trajan to defend the passage of the bridge—we threw
+ourselves down beneath its cool shadow, and partook of our well-earned
+meal with very <i>Trojan</i> appetites. Beneath us flowed the Danube,
+at this point more than half a mile broad; while from the “Iron Gate
+Pass” came the steady but peaceful roar of the cataracts, mingling
+with the metallic and incessant “clack, clack,” of the <i>cicadas</i>
+fluttering in the bushes around us. But our leafy retreat proved rather
+a failure: for mosquitoes of a most venomous species made a violent
+raid upon us, and, our repast ended, we hastened to the banks of the
+river, where we were safer from their attacks.</p>
+
+<p>It was just at this point that that noble structure of antiquity,
+Trajan’s Bridge, was erected, the length of which is said to have been
+three thousand nine hundred Roman feet—a Roman foot being rather in
+excess of that of our English measure. Beneath the surface of the
+water the remains of thirteen truncated piers still exist, which once
+supported the arches. These piers, which are situated 170 feet apart,
+are visible at rare intervals when the river is unusually low, seven
+others being covered with a sandy deposit which in the course of ages
+has collected round them, and which now forms hillocks in the river’s
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>A full description of this bridge was written by Dion Cassius, who was
+Governor of Pannonia during the reign of Hadrian, Trajan’s successor,
+and who wrote the history of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span> Rome up to the beginning of the first
+century. Although the greater part of this valuable history has been
+lost, including that portion of it which described the building of the
+bridge, an epitome of his writings is still extant containing a short
+description of this great work, in addition to which it has also been
+described by Merivale.</p>
+
+<p>This noblest of all Trajan’s achievements, however, was not permitted
+to be of long duration. Built in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 103, it had virtually
+ceased to exist in 120, having been destroyed in that year by Hadrian,
+in order, as he affirmed, to prevent the incursions of barbarians, who
+might take advantage of the bridge to cross over into the Thracian
+Provinces. He is, however, generally believed to have been moved
+to destroy it by a jealous dislike to the architect Apollodorus of
+Damascus, who erected Trajan’s Column at Rome, as well as the Forum
+Trajanum, and who when a young soldier in the Roman camp offended the
+dignity of the Emperor; for, soon after Hadrian’s accession to the
+throne, he not only overthrew this most ambitious of all Apollodorus’s
+works, but, on some very slight pretext, caused him to be put to death.</p>
+
+<p>Little exists in the present day above the surface of the water of any
+interest to the ordinary observer, except the ruined walls on each side
+rising just above the banks, and which must originally have formed the
+piers from which the first arches sprang. But how even these shapeless
+masses of masonry link the past to the present, and bring before us, in
+living memory, the valour and energy of this great people!</p>
+
+<p>The climate of Europe must have been much colder at that period than
+now; for we frequently read of Tartars and other barbarian hordes
+from the surrounding steppes making use of the Danube, in the second
+century, for the transport from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> one shore to the other of their
+infantry, cavalry, and waggons, from which it would appear that the
+river in winter formed a solid bridge of ice. It seldom freezes now,
+and even when it does so in exceptionally severe winters the ice lasts
+only for a very short time.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from Trajan’s Bridge is a hilly promontory belonging to Servia,
+which stretches out into the Danube, and through which it is proposed
+to cut a canal to enable ships to pass down the river at low water.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the banks of the classic stream, we climbed a steep hill
+through a herd of formidable-looking buffaloes grazing the arid pasture
+on its slopes, and found ourselves in the town of Turnu Severin,
+a newly established Roumanian colony situated on the left bank of
+the river, a mile and a half from the “Iron Gate Pass,” containing
+extensive docks belonging to the Danube Steam Navigation Company. From
+this place may be seen, standing on the shore of the river, the Tower
+of Severus; whilst on the opposite side lies Skela-Gladova, with its
+Turkish fortifications, and its slender minarets rising above the
+walls. Twenty years ago Turnu Severin consisted of merely a few houses,
+but it is now growing quite an important place. On the promenade the
+beauty and fashion of the town are taking their early evening stroll,
+dressed in the very extreme of Parisian toilettes, and in skirts so
+absurdly tight that it is a marvel how they ever get into them; and, as
+we looked towards the buffaloes with their long horns and outstretched
+necks, between which and them there existed no fence whatever, we
+could not help wondering whether, in the event of one of those animals
+taking it into its head to run after them, the “crack of doom” would
+immediately supervene to release them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> from their bondage, or whether
+the fair ones would double up entirely, and succumb to the attack
+without making any attempt at flight. Oh, how I longed to see them run!
+It was evidently with great difficulty that they managed to put one
+foot before the other, and the simple act of walking appeared to be a
+laborious process—at least with anything like grace—as they shuffled
+along in twos and threes, prattling their soft Neo-Latin, and looking
+at us wonderingly with their long almond-shaped eyes.</p>
+
+<p>We reach the station just as the train from Bucharest draws up to the
+platform, but its departure is considerably delayed, on account of
+a search amongst the passengers for a man who was supposed to have
+stolen three thousand ducats. The Roumanian gendarmes did their very
+best to look ferocious and important, as they stood at the door of the
+carriages to prevent egress, whilst others inside were endeavouring to
+take note of the passengers and find the delinquent, of whom a full
+description had been telegraphed. But whether he succeeded in eluding
+the search, or had travelled by some other train, no one seemed to
+know. At any rate the gendarmes had not the satisfaction of capturing
+him, and we were permitted to take our seats.</p>
+
+<p>Our only fellow traveller was a Greek priest, an effeminate looking
+man, with long black hair, which he kept on endeavouring to twist up
+under his high stiff cap. As we did not know Roumanian we addressed him
+in Latin; but the only phrase he seemed capable of uttering in that
+language was “<i>Non intelligo</i>.” The priests of the Greek Church
+are supposed to study theology in Latin; but, as I have elsewhere said,
+they are very ill-educated men, and I doubt whether he knew much of
+either one or the other.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p>
+
+<p>At Gladova there is another long delay: two ambassadors are in the
+train and they must needs have lunch. Extensive preparations have
+been made for them, and the restaurant is prettily decorated with
+flowers, whilst waiters in white gloves tear about madly, a young woman
+in a very pretty costume of red and white, who also waited on the
+illustrious travellers, being the only person who appeared not to have
+quite lost her head, and but for whom I suspect they would have had but
+a sorry chance of any refreshment whatever.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0100_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0100_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>At length we reach our destination and for the third time in the
+course of the day have not only to show our passports but submit to an
+examination of luggage.</p>
+
+<p>It was our intention on arriving at Orsova to have gone to the Hotel
+“<i>König von Ungarn</i>;” but the station is some distance from the
+old town, and the only carriage we found waiting at the place of exit
+was harnessed to such miserably lean horses, that we could not make up
+our minds to get into it. Their cheeks had fallen in and their heads
+were like those of skeletons. Nor was this all: their flanks were
+bleeding either from ill-usage or friction against the rope-harness,
+and we could not find it in our hearts to subject the poor creatures to
+another journey.—So observing a few hundred yards from the station a
+small one-storied inn, bearing the imposing title, in colossal letters,
+of “Hôtel Tivoli,” we decided to make it our headquarters, at any rate
+for the night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p>
+
+<p>As we leave the station and walk across to the Hôtel Tivoli—which
+proves on nearer acquaintance to be about the size of a mouse-trap,
+nothing in connection with it being large but the name—the sun is
+setting behind the blue mountains which form the boundary of the
+Danube. Snake-like vapours are ascending from the river, the air is
+chill and so suggestive of ague that we are glad to take shelter
+anywhere till twilight is past. In this climate it is dangerous to be
+out of doors at sunset. Later in the evening, when night may be said
+to have fairly set in, one may go out with impunity, for then the air
+is again warm. It is only when the last touch of the sun’s golden
+finger has faded upon the highest mountain, and those blue shadows have
+wrapped the earth in their sombre mantle, that that peculiar chill in
+the air is felt which I have so frequently described, and which is so
+dangerous to the traveller to encounter.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0110_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0110_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE HEIGHTS OF THE DANUBE.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">A frugal supper, consisting of fish from the river and Moldavian
+cheese—the latter served with a plate of carraways—and, thoroughly
+tired out from our long day’s excitement and fatigue, we seek “nature’s
+sweet restorer” ere the moon had risen above the mountain tops.</p>
+
+<p>As we ascend the steps leading to the creaky little balcony by which
+our rooms were approached, the peaks with their tree-fringed summits
+frowned down upon us black as Erebus, and half shut out the sky, in
+which here and there a star was trimming its feeble lamp.</p>
+
+<p>The position of “Hôtel Tivoli” is the best thing about it after its
+name. Standing in the centre of a large open space covered with grass,
+it is consequently free from the dust with which almost everything at
+this time of year is smothered. It is quiet too, and here the traveller
+can, if he happen to be of that disposition, indulge in the “truly
+rural” to his heart’s content.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, after dressing—a feat accomplished under
+considerable difficulties, our rooms being of the most limited
+dimensions—we descend for breakfast to the restaurant, which, detached
+from the house, consisted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> originally of a plot of garden, but now
+picturesquely roofed in like a châlet, whose pillars are thickly
+covered with the vine from which hang grapes in thick clusters.</p>
+
+<p>We are reminded of our proximity to Turkey by the deliciousness of the
+coffee, which, however, is scarcely better than that we have usually
+partaken of in many northern parts of Hungary; but it is served in
+small white jugs of such thick delf that they contain hardly more than
+the cup of Tantalus, a circumstance which causes András, who waits
+upon us as usual, to inquire sarcastically of our host—a Moldavian
+Jew—whether it is his intention to charge in the bill for the coffee
+or the jugs?</p>
+
+<p>Sitting near us at another small table is a man with a little child
+on his knee, holding by a long string a pet lamb—a beautiful little
+creature as white as snow, covered all over like a French poodle with
+tiny ringlets, which glisten like spun-glass. It has a scarlet ribbon
+round its neck, and feeds out of the man’s hand.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, having tied the fair white thing to the leg of the table,
+he leaves it for awhile, and, carrying the child with him, enters the
+hotel. It bleats plaintively, but is quite happy when, going along to
+where it is, I take my seat beside it.</p>
+
+<p>The people of Hungary often make great household pets of these
+beautiful little animals, keeping them until they are full grown—when,
+alas! they sacrifice them on the altar of mutton.</p>
+
+<p>The owner, who has been to fetch a glass of <i>schnaps</i>, now
+returns, and resuming his seat, holds it to the child’s lips,
+who greedily imbibes the fiery liquid, its little eyes watering
+notwithstanding. Observing my admiration of the lamb, he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> offers to
+sell it for one gulden and a half, and, had we been on our way to
+England, we might have purchased it; but, in prospect of a tour through
+the Transylvanian wilds, an elephant could scarcely have proved a
+greater encumbrance.</p>
+
+<p>The morning is exquisitely fine, the sky violet blue, and the air
+fragrant with the perfume of oleanders, which are blooming just
+outside the enclosure. Every now and then from afar, as the breeze
+bears it towards us on its wing, comes the roar of the breakers of the
+Greben rapids, inviting us in their direction. We are to climb the
+majestic heights to-day, for which purpose some strong, sure-footed
+quadrupeds will be necessary. We have very strong misgivings, however,
+as to whether these will be forthcoming, but leave our useful guide
+to make the needful arrangements, whilst we stroll off meanwhile to
+the Kroncapelle, only a quarter of an hour’s walk, and a spot of
+great interest, being the place where, during the war of Hungarian
+Independence, in 1849, the sacred crown of St. Stephen was concealed.
+This memorable crown, superstitiously supposed to have been fabricated
+by angels, was for a long time kept in the “<i>Alba Regia</i>,” but
+was removed to the castle of Buda, where it remained until the great
+Moslem invasion, when it was deposited for safety in that of Presburg,
+at which place it reposed until the Turks were expelled from Hungary,
+when it was again restored to Buda. The history of this crown, from the
+period of its bestowal on St. Stephen in 1001 up to the seventeenth
+century, has been one of great vicissitude. At the time of Kossuth’s
+flight it was buried in a box a few feet beneath the surface of the
+soil by two Hungarian patriots named Fuelep and Szemere, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span> which
+place it lay in safety until 1853, when it was unearthed by a peasant;
+its hiding-place, some affirm, having been betrayed for the sum of
+20,000 ducats by an officer who was in Kossuth’s own staff at the time
+of its concealment; others declaring it to have been the result of
+miraculous revelation. So great is the veneration of the Hungarians
+for this sacred relic, that they believe their beloved country cannot
+prosper without it, and also that it operates powerfully upon its
+destinies.</p>
+
+<p>In commemoration of its recovery, a small octagonal chapel has been
+erected, in the Byzantine style, in the centre of which, surrounded
+by a stone balustrade, is a well, marking the precise spot where the
+sacred object lay concealed. Over it rests a block of marble, on which
+an artificial crown is placed, the counterpart of the true one; and
+above, suspended from the dome, a lamp hangs, which is always burning,
+whilst opposite the entrance is a life-size figure of the Virgin and
+Child, encircled with golden rays.</p>
+
+<p>The chapel was shown us by a woman in a very picturesque and Oriental
+costume, and whose particular mission in life, apart from keeping the
+keys and nursing a rampagious baby, would appear to consist in driving
+away lean dogs from the enclosure. We were just on the point of leaving
+the chapel when she requested us to write our names in a ponderous book
+kept for the purpose. After having complied with her request we glanced
+through the volume, which contains the signatures of several hundred
+visitors, but amongst them, strange to say, we only lighted on one that
+appeared English, and to it were added the words, Boston, Mass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span></p>
+
+<p>As English persons are not given as a rule to avoid opportunities of
+the kind, the inference would be that even of the comparatively few
+who “do the Danube,” fewer still stop at Orsova, notwithstanding that
+this portion of the great river contains objects of real interest to
+the antiquary and archæologist. The entire district is, in fact, well
+worthy the attention, not only of the archæological student in search
+of historical landmarks which have survived the levelling hand of Time,
+but of the ordinary tourist also, who cannot but be interested in these
+memorials of a long-forgotten past.</p>
+
+<p>An avenue of poplars leads from the chapel to the banks of the river,
+which are here beautifully wooded, many of the trees being festooned
+with the wild vine. The Danube at this spot looks precisely like a
+lake, being enclosed on all sides by mountains, from which no opening
+is visible. At their feet lies the island-fortress of New Orsova which
+commands the frontiers of three countries, Hungary, Wallachia, and
+Servia, and forms a very picturesque object with its sombre cypress
+trees and high mosque reflected in the water.</p>
+
+<p>On the opposite side a Turkish cargo boat is struggling with the
+rapids, and in the foreground some men are raising their fishing net.</p>
+
+<p>This island during the last hundred years has undergone various
+fortunes, having frequently changed from Christian to Mahomedan rule.
+In 1738, after a prolonged siege, it surrendered to the Osmanlis, but
+in 1790 was retaken by the Austrians. By the Treaty of Sistova it was
+again delivered up to the Turks, who finally evacuated it in favour of
+the Christians in 1878.</p>
+
+<p>The fortress, though a heap of ruins, is still occupied by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span> Turks, who,
+after the war was over, preferring to become Austrian subjects rather
+than return to their own country, entreated the Emperor of Austria to
+permit them to remain there. In this miserable place, although in the
+utmost squalor, no fewer than four hundred and fifty men, women, and
+children manage to live. The men occupy themselves in fishing, while
+the women and children work at gold and silver embroidery which they
+sell to visitors to the island, and thus eke out a scanty subsistence.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0170_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0170_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Leaving the island and crossing over to the left side of the Danube,
+we throw ourselves on the ground beneath the shadow of a tree, and
+revel in the fair and stately beauty of the scene. How lovely is
+everything! Not a sign is there of human habitation anywhere, whilst
+from the wooded hills comes the not unmusical but perpetual din of
+myriads of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> locusts and living things, bearing witness that not man,
+but <i>they</i> have dominion here.</p>
+
+<p>Close to our feet a chameleon comes out of a hole and looks cautiously
+about him. Its rough, granulated skin is of the brightest green, and it
+measures fully ten inches from head to tail. A large metallic-looking
+beetle crawling along the sand attracts its attention and whets its
+appetite, but at this moment the chameleon’s quick ear detects the
+presence of foes. Turning its curious swivel eyes to the back of its
+head, it catches sight of us, puts up its back, and then changing
+colour from green to buff, bursts out all over with black spots; it
+does not move, but after remaining for a long time as if transfixed,
+stealthily returns to its hole.</p>
+
+<p>On the other side of the river a long, narrow boat now comes in sight,
+rowed by two Turkish boatmen, whilst a third, standing at the stern, is
+using a pole. He wears a scarlet fez, which, creating a small speck of
+bright colour, is very pleasing to the eye against the background of
+grey mountains floating in the dreamy haze of sultry noontide. The boat
+hugs the shore, for there are strong eddies in mid stream even here.
+The river is broad and the breeze blowing from the north, but when it
+lulls for an instant, the song of the boatmen reaches us in peaceful
+and pathetic cadence.</p>
+
+<p>As we sit here and watch the Danube’s majestic waves roll past, and
+think of the great nations to whom it has in turn belonged, Greeks,
+Romans, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Turks, French, and Germans, we rejoice in
+the fact that it has come under the sway of the Magyars once more.</p>
+
+<p>It was near here that Kossuth, that ardent aspirant after political
+freedom, and the hero of the “War of Independence,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span> fleeing from
+his pursuers, crossed the Danube and sought protection in Turkish
+territory. Before crossing the frontier, he threw himself down for
+the last time on the soil of his beloved Fatherland for which he had
+risked so much and fought so hard, pressed on it a sobbing, passionate
+kiss, and planting his foot on Turkish territory, became, as he himself
+has so touchingly described it in the memories of his exile, “like
+a wrecked ship thrown up by the storm on a desert shore.” A Turkish
+officer greeted him courteously in the name of Allah, led him to a
+place which he had kindly caused to be prepared for him to rest in
+for the night, under God’s free heaven, and asked for his sword with
+downcast eyes, as if ashamed that a Turk should disarm a Hungarian. “I
+unbuckled it,” he writes, “and gave it to him without uttering a word;
+my eyes filled with tears, and he, wishing me sound rest, left me alone
+with my sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>“There I stood in silent meditation on the bank—but no longer the
+<i>Hungarian</i> bank—of the Danube, the waves of which were mingled
+with the tears of the Hungarian nation—and which, not far from me,
+grumbled and roared through the rocky pass of the ‘Iron Gates.’”</p>
+
+<p>“I listened,” he continues, “to this roaring in rude harmony with the
+storm in my heart, and as I contemplated the annihilation of patriotic
+hopes so undeservedly extinguished, tears of indescribable grief
+unconsciously showered down my cheeks.”</p>
+
+<p>This rhapsody from the once Supreme Dictator of Hungary may sound
+unmanly to the ears of the undemonstrative Briton; but these brave,
+lion-hearted Hungarians, whom few things daunt, love their country
+passionately and with a love as tender as that of woman.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is sad to think that this brave man, who, though disappointed in
+his attempts at achieving a recognition of Hungary as an independent
+state, has yet been the means of indirectly conferring lasting benefit
+upon his country, should—as he describes himself—still be a wanderer,
+“arrived at the verge of the grave with no hope for the future, and in
+whose past there is no consolation.” No longer expatriated, he could
+return to the Fatherland if he would; but he refuses to do so, since,
+by its own act, it has allowed itself to be merged into the Austrian
+Empire.</p>
+
+<p>It is gratifying at any rate to know that Kossuth found for many years,
+together with other Hungarian refugees of the revolutionary period, a
+safe and peaceful exile in Turkey. The very nation which for so many
+centuries was Hungary’s most deadly foe, and which, when demanded by
+Russia and Austria in 1849 to deliver up all those who had sought
+shelter in its dominions, bravely refused to surrender them.</p>
+
+<p>These thoughts, naturally suggested by this particular spot, concerning
+the Hungarian hero, whose history has been such a mixture of triumph
+and humiliation, have kept us lingering too long. It is already past
+noon; the sun is sending fiery arrows through the topmost branches of
+the trees, and if we are to make for the heights to-day, it is high
+time we were on our way.</p>
+
+<p>Back through the long rows of poplars which like sentinels appear to be
+keeping guard over the little chapel. Still sitting on the steps is the
+young woman with her baby. She smiles sweetly as we pass, then rises to
+unlock the door for another visitor, who, at this moment, appears at
+the wicket gate of the little garden surrounding the chapel.</p>
+
+<p>On nearing “Hôtel Tivoli,” we observe, standing on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> green-sward
+beneath the windows of our room, the steeds which are to carry us
+“over the hills and far away.” I had no hope from the first of
+being able to obtain such a modern luxury as a side-saddle in this
+old-world locality, so that I was not disappointed in that particular
+at all events, but I was not prepared certainly for the extraordinary
+arrangement which had been improvised for my especial benefit, and
+which András, I could see, regarded as quite a clever arrangement.
+Indeed it was so, and its ingenuity did him wondrous credit, but the
+whole thing was so droll and altogether original in its conception,
+that we were speechless. He had found an old wooden chair, and having
+broken off the legs, he placed it on the creature’s back. This was to
+form my seat, the <i>back</i> of the chair being placed nearest the
+horse’s head by way of pummel, to which I was no doubt expected to hold
+on in case of need!</p>
+
+<p>Having ascertained that the animal was sufficiently padded with rugs
+to enable it to bear this novel and elaborate erection without injury,
+and having seen that the girths were safe, we started in triumph, a
+barbarous-looking muleteer—wearing a lamb’s wool cap very like a
+mop, preceding us—and András, carrying a basket of the inevitable
+provisions—oh! that we could live on a periodical lozenge!—gravely
+bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through the ancient town we are objects of much astonishment to
+the natives. Women, carrying baskets and pitchers on their heads, stop
+to gaze at us, calling the attention of their neighbours to the strange
+little cavalcade, and no wonder. Others sitting at doorways run in and
+peep shyly at us through small dust-begrimed windows.</p>
+
+<p>Orsova—pronounced Orshova, the Hungarian <i>s</i> being invariably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>
+pronounced as in our English word “shall”—is the last Hungarian town
+on the Danube, and wears quite an Eastern aspect. The costumes are
+also entirely un-European. The women wear a long white skirt and a
+bodice reaching to the throat, generally embroidered with wool in a
+rich Oriental pattern and well-harmonised combination of green, red,
+blue, and orange. A broad girdle woven in the same colours encircles
+the waist, from which hangs a thick fringe extending to the heels. The
+men, however, wear mocassins, braided jackets, and loose trousers, and
+look as uncivilised as their surroundings. The roads, which seem to be
+none other than of Nature’s own making, are formed of sand and large
+pebbles, over which our horses stumble as they pick their way along.
+A wooden bridge, and a dark little cemetery as full as it can cram
+of iron crucifixes, bring us to the outskirts of the town, where the
+houses are built of unbaked brick and enclosed by strong stockades of
+closely-plaited withies, bristling throughout with formidable stakes
+sharpened to the finest point to keep away the wolves which infest this
+part of the country.</p>
+
+<p>These stockades, which are everywhere seen in the suburbs of Orsova,
+and which from their thickness and strength might easily have withstood
+a siege in olden time, interested us immensely. They are perhaps the
+surviving form of those wooden palisades or hedges called <i>limes</i>,
+with which the Romans surrounded the frontiers of their empire, and
+which Spartian describes in his account of the life of Hadrian as
+having been composed of stakes driven into the ground and filled in so
+as to form a hedge or wall.</p>
+
+<p>In the outskirts of the town, which extend some considerable distance,
+one of these stockades was being erected, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> whole reminding
+us of the sculpture on Trajan’s Column, on which is represented
+the construction of the <i>limes</i> that once united the Danube
+to the Rhine, from which it may be seen that the soldiers, or
+<i>riparienses</i> as they were called by the Romans, on whom devolved
+the construction of these stockades, proceeded in their work exactly
+as we saw the men of Orsova do to-day, their costume even, a short
+white tunic tied loosely at the waist, and the peaked lamb’s wool cap,
+scarcely differing from that of the Roman period.</p>
+
+<p>Near the mouth of the Danube the remains of a ditch and mound still
+exist, supposed to have been made by Trajan at the same epoch as the
+bridge, for the purpose of connecting the encampments of the various
+Legions situated along the frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Arriving at the base of the mountains which bound the noble river,
+we see clouds hanging beneath their summits, and climbing a steep
+hill, pass an encampment, not, however, of Roman origin this time,
+but belonging to the “wandering tribe,” from which a number of
+spindle-legged gipsies rush out and pursue us like a troop of wild
+animals—<i>Tschorelo rom</i> as they call themselves, words signifying
+“poor man”—and refusing to leave us, until, quite wearied by their
+importunity, we bestow upon them a handful of kreuzers.</p>
+
+<p>The climb is steep and toilsome, but we are rewarded by the splendid
+views which, ever changing, burst upon us continually. On our way we
+pass through immense flocks of sheep tended by wild-looking shepherds,
+and presently hear from a distance the hoarse drone of the bag-pipes,
+the weird music of which seems quite in keeping with the savage
+grandeur of these rocky fastnesses; and listening to it as we zigzag up
+the slopes, the thought comes forcibly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> to the mind, how wonderfully
+pastoral music, the most primitive adaptation of harmonic sounds, which
+took its first lessons from Nature herself—the plaintive melody of
+running brooks meandering through green pastures, and the harsh roar of
+the mountain torrent dashing over rocks—both gives and takes character
+for its surroundings. How out of keeping with these stern and majestic
+solitudes of nature would be the gentle music of the flute, or the
+crude wild harmony of the bag-pipes with the calm and peaceful plains!</p>
+
+<p>A little further climb, we reach a shepherd’s hut and behold the author
+of the “crude, wild” sounds sitting at the doorway. An uncanny-looking
+man, in very truth, with his feet and legs bandaged in coarse linen and
+tied round with thongs of leather. The hut itself was empty, his dog
+and bag-pipes apparently being his only companions, and probably for
+many months together, for these shepherds do not return to the lowlands
+until winter sets in, nor always even then, some leading their flocks
+for pasture into Bulgaria, when, as the frosts appear, it becomes
+scanty on these heights.</p>
+
+<p>And now having reached the summit of the mountain after an ascent of
+two hours, we alight from our mules, thankful so far as I am concerned
+with any change of position, András’s impromptu saddle having proved in
+the using the most perfectly diabolical arrangement it is possible to
+conceive, and having once descended from it I inwardly determine that,
+come what may, nothing shall induce me to mount it again.</p>
+
+<p>A good luncheon and some excellent Schiller, a wine made from grapes
+that grow on the hills near Orsova, go<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> some way towards restoring our
+peace of body and mind; after which, descending a rocky knoll, we look
+down upon the Danube gliding majestically between giant precipices and
+walls of granite, a glorious amphitheatre of weather-beaten rock and
+hoary crag. As we stand almost spellbound at the grandeur of the scene,
+something passes over us with a “whirr,” and great stirring of the air.
+We must have disturbed an eagle’s nest, for an enormous fellow flies
+screeching across the gorge, his shrill cry echoing from rock to rock,
+whilst a few moments later another crosses it in the same direction.</p>
+
+<p>Just above us rose a large serrated cone of granite, which F.
+determined to climb if possible, whilst I made a sketch of the wondrous
+scene surrounding us. The nest was doubtless there, and its formidable
+denizens no longer near, he had a great curiosity to have a peep at it.</p>
+
+<p>Looking down a sheer precipice upon the river, we can trace the road
+which was constructed by the Hungarian Government, between Orsova and
+Alt-Moldova, as it winds round the rocky buttresses like a tiny thread;
+whilst opposite, on the Servian side, portions of the Roman road are
+also distinctly visible even from this dizzy height.</p>
+
+<p>The wind—a mere zephyr in the valleys—blows roughly in our rocky
+eyrie, and comes howling and hissing against the jutting rocks with
+a noise similar to that which it makes when blowing in the shrouds
+of a ship at sea. We are verily in cloudland here. Like a diaphanous
+curtain drawn silently and gently by an unseen hand, now and then
+a cloud comes scudding past, encompassing us with mist, and which,
+veiling all surrounding objects, lends a strange and solemn mystery to
+the scene. There is something indescribably<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> awful and sublime in our
+surroundings, and the stillness, in itself so infinite, is broken only
+by the scream of the eagles which, waking the echoes, seem but to make
+the silence more profound.</p>
+
+<p>These lofty and solitary crags must be literally full of eagles, for
+as we sit in calm contemplation of Nature’s wildest and most savage
+forms as exhibited in the various rock masses around us, they appear
+to be alive with them. At one moment we count no fewer than five,
+either perched upon the crags or soaring in the heavens with motionless
+majestic wing. The eagle is the very terror of the shepherds in these
+heights, and numbers of their lambs fall victims yearly to the bird of
+prey.</p>
+
+<p>I need scarcely say the climb to the eagle’s nest proved unsuccessful,
+for these emperors of the air choose wisely, and fix their abode in
+places inaccessible to the tread of man.</p>
+
+<p>The shadows were lengthening when—my sketch finished—we hastened from
+our rocky hiding-place. Clambering over huge boulders, which in some
+places obstructed our exit, as if Titans had placed them there to bar
+these solitudes from desecration, we reached once more the peaceful
+green alp where we had left our horses, and found András and his
+companion—overcome by their fatiguing climb—lying at full length on
+the ground sodden in slumber, whilst the mules were grazing close by.
+We aroused them, eventually, and making them lead our steeds, sent them
+on ahead, following ourselves on foot.</p>
+
+<p>Thoroughly tired, however, by the time we reach the base of the
+mountain, we hail the muleteers, and causing them to remove the
+obnoxious arrangement with which my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> quadruped is still equipped,
+and having substituted for it a folded rug, we get on magnificently.
+Henceforth, till we reach Orsova, we shall be passing over level
+ground, so that a saddle is no longer of absolute necessity to enable
+a somewhat practised equestrian to keep her seat, particularly on so
+dejected and low-spirited an animal as this.</p>
+
+<p>As we enter the old town, the sun is setting and transforming its
+tumble-down houses into palaces of ruby gold, and bathing with rich
+purple shadows and vermilion lights their crazy roofs and casements.
+What bright pictures of semi-eastern life are seen as we proceed along
+our way! By the roadside is an <i>ágas</i> at which olive-complexioned
+women are gossiping, dressed as on a gala day, with skirts woven in
+various tints in which gold thread is largely intermingled. With their
+gay bodices, also embroidered in gold, and their crimson head-gear,
+what delicious bits of colour we see everywhere, mellowed by the
+evening light.</p>
+
+<p>Having passed the crowded cemetery, the wooden bridge, and the hot and
+dusty town, we dismount at our little inn, and find a snowy cloth laid
+in readiness for our arrival beneath the vine-covered roof of the outer
+restaurant. But the air is chill, and, repairing to the inner room, we
+eat dinner all amongst the happy peasants, who sit playing a game at
+cards called “<i>Torrok</i>”—a quiet, well-behaved, simple folk, whose
+acquaintance we are glad to make.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting alone, however, at a small table near us, is a Hungarian
+engineer, engaged at Orsova in some public works. He at first addresses
+us in Magyar, and finding we cannot converse in that language, tries
+Spanish with better success. I on my part addressed him in German,
+which I feel sure, from the fact of his being in the Austrian service,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>
+he must thoroughly understand; but he only shakes his head and
+professes ignorance of what I am saying. How intense is the repugnance
+with which the Hungarians regard everything German!</p>
+
+<p>Whilst sympathising with the Magyars in their very natural dislike to
+Austrian rule, it is to be regretted they should carry their antipathy
+to such lengths; for, after all, it is only “kicking against the
+pricks” and cannot fail in the end to widen the breach already existing
+in the Dual Monarchy. For a long time past, the German population,
+finding themselves shunned by the dominant race, have resorted to the
+expedient of changing their names into Hungarian form.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0280_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0280_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.<br>
+<span class="subhed">MEHADIA.</span></h2></div>
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">What a barbarous scene Orsova presents on market-day, and what
+a jabber there is of many tongues as the people in their varied
+costumes scream at the top of their voices and chaffer and haggle over
+their bargainings; Serbs, Turks, and Wallachians all adding their
+unintelligible gibberish to that of the Magyar; and gesticulating
+so violently whilst uttering their sharp, shrill cries that the
+uninitiated stranger expects each moment to see them come to blows.</p>
+
+<p>Interesting as it is to the traveller from the civilised west to see
+these people in their strange costumes, sitting by their strange wares,
+it is still more interesting to watch them hurrying into the market
+from the surrounding villages.</p>
+
+<p>Having been informed by our Moldavian host the previous evening, that
+this was the day on which the weekly market was held, we arose early
+to see them arrive with their merchandise, but on walking down to the
+Danube we found both river and mountains so shrouded in dense white
+vapour, that the bold outlines of the latter were alone visible, whilst
+nearer objects were scarcely recognisable even a few yards ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The people, however, were flocking in, and, looming<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> suddenly out
+of the semi-obscurity, appeared more like gigantic spectres than
+common men and women as they passed us in picturesque groups, some
+walking, others on horse, mule, or donkey-back, one and all clad in
+many-coloured garments. But besides these, from distant places on the
+Wallachian or Turkish banks farther down the stream, came now and then
+a small, crazy-looking craft, its plash heard long before it came in
+sight itself, laden with vegetables, fruit, fish, and sometimes a
+living freight of men, women, and children.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the various kinds of fish found in the river are enormous
+sturgeon almost as large as sharks, which are cut up and sold in slices
+in the market.</p>
+
+<p>At ten o’clock we start for “Trajan’s-Tafel,” an excursion that will
+terminate our visit to Orsova. The mist, which by this time has risen
+above the river, still hangs amongst the lofty crags of the Kasan Pass,
+and adds an indescribable gloom to the narrow, but majestic defile.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we arrive at that portion of the Pass, where the tablet is
+situated, the mist, ascending opens for an instant, and admits a shaft
+of sunlight, which, shining diagonally across the gorge, creates a
+beautiful effect of light and shade.</p>
+
+<p>The form of the tablet has already been described in a previous
+chapter, and the following is an exact copy of the inscription:</p>
+
+<p class="center sm">IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. NERVAE. F.<br>
+NERVA TRAJANUS. AUG. GERM.<br>
+PONTIF. MAXIMUS TRIB. POT IIII.<br>
+PATER PATRIAE COS. III.<br>
+MONTIS L. | | AN BUS<br>
+SUP AT E.</p>
+
+<p>the whole being perfectly legible when viewed closely, in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span> spite of
+the coating of smoke which for ages has been accumulating upon it in
+consequence of the Servian fishermen availing themselves of the shelter
+afforded by the overhanging rock to cook their food. Just as when we
+passed it in the steamer, a fire was still smouldering there on the
+present occasion, some sacrilegious boatmen having as usual made the
+niche their place of bivouac.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0310_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0310_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>On entering Orsova, after our interesting morning’s excursion, we heard
+voices shouting lustily, and looking behind us descried a small group
+of people hastening in our direction with much brandishing of sticks,
+and waving of hats, of which we were apparently the object. What could<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>
+it all mean? Had our guide again been committing some indiscretion, and
+getting us into trouble?</p>
+
+<p>The mystery was speedily solved; for, on turning our backs upon
+our pursuers and hastening in the direction of the hotel, with the
+determination to ignore everything and everybody, the shouts were
+renewed with increased vigour, and some one overtaking us seized F.
+by the shoulder. This apparently formidable assault, however, was
+committed by no unfriendly hand, being none other than that of a
+Magyar, with whom, together with his three companions, we had travelled
+in the steamer from Pest. By this time all had reached us, and there
+was a general greeting.</p>
+
+<p>“How glad we are to meet the <i>Ángolok</i> again! What joy,” etc.,
+etc.,—“Where have you been, since we parted on board the ‘Szechenyi,’
+three days ago? Here? In Orsova? Is it possible, and so have we, and
+yet we have not met. How strange!—Well, you <i>must</i> come now we
+have found you, and dine with us at the König von Ungarn; we will take
+no denial,” exclaimed they, all speaking at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>Pleased as we should have been to accept their hospitable invitation
+we were obliged to decline it; for yonder, shading his eyes with his
+hand to ascertain whether it is his “sweet master and mistress” who
+are coming, is András standing by a vehicle to which three horses are
+harnessed abreast; whilst by its side is another in which the luggage
+is placed in readiness for our journey, on which we should have started
+an hour ago. We must, therefore, partake of a hasty lunch and be off.</p>
+
+<p>We have only to bid adieu to our new acquaintances for the present,
+however, who are consoled on discovering that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> by a “happy
+coincidence,” we are to be fellow-travellers to Temesvár, they leaving
+Orsova by the seven o’clock train that evening; and we joining it at
+Mehadia about twelve miles distant. Near it are the Hercules Baths,
+where we purpose spending the intervening hours, and it is a place
+which no one who comes to Orsova, should fail to visit.</p>
+
+<p>At two o’clock we mount our chariot, and off we start as if borne on
+the wings of the wind, the vehicle containing András and the luggage
+following slowly behind.</p>
+
+<p>The first portion of our drive is most exciting: the pace at which
+the horses go, all of them keeping step; the fierce shouts of the
+Wallachian driver, who half stands up as he urges them into a gallop;
+the continual flourishes of his whip, which he invariably terminates
+with a loud crack that rends the air, the clatter of our bells, and the
+sight of the three horses abreast—wild-looking creatures, with neither
+collars nor blinkers—all impress us with the idea that we ourselves
+must be ancient Romans, driving in a triumphal car, until an instant’s
+glance at the car in question dispels the illusion. It is not long,
+however, before the horses are permitted to assume the “regulation
+crawl.” A hill has to be ascended, and then we reach the valley of the
+Czerna, enclosed on either side by wooded mountains, with their slopes
+cultivated with the vine. Snowing the summits, the wild cherry and pear
+are seen in full bloom, whilst plum-trees of immense size growing by
+the roadside, shower their petals on us as we pass.</p>
+
+<p>The driver, now seated calmly on the box, sings a peaceful melody
+to encourage his steeds and accompany the plaintive music of their
+bells. The gurgle of the Czerna, as it winds along, sounds cool and
+pleasant. On the hill-sides<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span> women are hoeing the hard, sun-baked
+earth, or sowing seed for the late crops; and down by the river’s
+bank are primitive water-mills, where the villagers grind their corn,
+and near which are huts surrounded by peach orchards, whose rich
+pink blossoms contrast gratefully with the green and brown of their
+immediate surroundings. By the roadside a flock of woolly long-horned
+sheep are browsing; and a group of peasants recline under the cool
+shadow of a tree. The horses’ bells jingle in sweet harmony with the
+torrent at our feet; but the day is hot, the sun shines fiercely on the
+sandy road, and the driver, giving us the reins, goes down to slake his
+thirst. Then on we go again till we reach a village with its church
+and fresco-painted tower, near which stands a priest, surrounded by a
+number of Wallachian urchins just out of school, wearing white tunics,
+and lamb’s wool caps, the very image of their elders. As at Orsova, the
+women here wear an outer skirt of thick fringe suspended from a broad
+girdle made to fit the figure, and richly woven in various colours,
+called an “<i>obreska</i>,” the fringe, which generally consists of two
+colours only—scarlet and black arranged in stripes—extending to the
+hem of the white under-garment. It is a kind of dress which they must
+find very inconvenient I should imagine when working in the fields, yet
+all wear it without exception, old and young alike.</p>
+
+<p>The huts we now pass are enclosed by stockades stronger far than even
+those I mentioned as having seen in the suburbs of Orsova, some being
+raised to a height of more than eight or ten feet, to protect the
+inhabitants and their kine from the attacks, not only of wolves, but
+of bears also, both of which abound in this locality—the latter often
+doing much harm to the crops of Indian corn.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p>
+
+<p>Wherever we look now women are training the vines, their picturesque
+costumes gleaming in the sunlight, whilst their lords may generally be
+seen lying under the shadow of a tree, fast asleep, and the farther
+we proceed, the more Eastern vegetation becomes, parasite plants
+festooning many of the loftier trees, with long garlands that sway in
+the sultry air.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0350_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0350_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Coming towards us are three Wallachian women, trudging merrily along
+the road, and spinning as they go. How graceful they are, and what
+lovely faces, half Roman, half Grecian, look up at us smiling, as they
+pass—their fringes flying out behind them like peacocks’ fans!</p>
+
+<p>Now and then we meet a whole family, consisting of two, and sometimes
+three generations, huddled together in one of the long country carts,
+from the open ladder-like sides of which hang just such gourds and
+leathern bottles as we read of in Scripture.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span></p>
+
+<p>A picturesque wooden bridge crossing the Czerna now appears in
+sight; the valley contracts, and the mountains become more wild and
+precipitous. At length, nearing the village of Korabuek, we pass the
+ruins of a Roman aqueduct, said to have been in existence in the time
+of Hadrian, and believed to have originally extended from the baths of
+Mehadia to Orsova, in order to convey the healing waters to the latter
+place. There are evidences also of this aqueduct having been restored,
+and used by the Turks for the same purpose, a Pasha having for many
+years resided at Orsova, which at one period was an important Turkish
+citadel.</p>
+
+<p>Vines now cluster close to the roadside, from the grapes of which
+Schiller is made—a delicate ruby-coloured wine, which, though
+exceedingly cheap, is good after it has been kept three years.</p>
+
+<p>At last, after crossing a brand-new and gaudily painted iron bridge—so
+out of keeping with the ancient monuments we have passed, such a
+hideous deformity, so forbidding, ugly and out of tune with the poetry
+of its surroundings—that one marvels how it ever could have got there,
+we are greeted by the first glimpse of the little bathing establishment
+where the Romans, that bath-loving people, founded a colony, calling
+the place “<i>Ad aquas Herculi sacras</i>,” and its site “<i>ad
+mediam</i>.” From the latter, no doubt, the name of Mehadia originated.</p>
+
+<p>A picturesque church, standing on an eminence at the entrance to the
+gorge, introduces us to this classic ground; and to our surprise, on
+turning a bend in the road, we find ourselves all at once surrounded by
+fair palaces and terraced gardens which remind us more of the “Arabian<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>
+Nights,” than the ancient abode of Roman colonists. Grecian colonnades,
+fountains, statuary and exotic flowers and grasses, almost take our
+breath away, so sudden and unexpected is all this luxury in the midst
+of these lonely solitudes of nature.</p>
+
+<p>These baths, whose discovery, as we have seen, is due to the Romans,
+are a very favourite resort of the Hungarians, as well as of the Serbs
+and Wallachians. Here, too, come the rich, luxurious, and pampered
+Boyards of Bucharest, who, to quote the words of one of our Hungarian
+friends, come annually to “boil their much-abused livers in the hot
+springs.”</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Kurhaus</i>, a splendid structure in the Roman style, the
+interior of which is adorned with frescoes, contains colonnades,
+and beneath their shade the visitors promenade during the scorching
+hours of day. The most beautiful building of all, however, is the
+<i>Elizabethen Bad</i>.</p>
+
+<p>“Here,” said our conductor, the manager of one of the bathing
+establishments—as he ushered us into a large apartment filled with
+steam, and smelling so horribly of sulphur that it might have been
+Tartarus itself—“Here the people step into the water, and <i>feel the
+evil being boiled out of them</i>!”</p>
+
+<p>There are no fewer than twenty-four springs in this mountain gorge. The
+rocks, which, like all of this character, consist of limestone, are
+full of fissures from which water oozes, and beneath which singular
+rumbling noises are often heard. The springs are of two kinds,
+sulphur-thermal and alkali-saline, the former said to be the strongest
+in the world, the largest and hottest being that called by the Romans
+<i>Thermæ Herculis</i>, which bursts forth in a column<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> half a yard in
+diameter, and produces no less than 5,000 cubic feet of water per hour,
+of the temperature of 131° Fahrenheit.</p>
+
+<p>Having passed the military hospital, a large building to the left, near
+which is a fountain surmounted by a statue of Hercules, we ascend to
+the place containing the source of the spring, which bears the name of
+the heathen god.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath an almost overhanging rock there exists what may be described
+as a small natural grotto or fissure, about eight feet high and three
+broad, on entering which, and descending a flight of rugged steps
+hewn in the solid rock, we reach an inner cleft filled with dense
+vapour, whence the stream issues forth and again disappears in the dark
+recesses of the earth. The air in this cavern is hot and stifling, and
+we are glad to emerge once more into the outer atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Perfectly exhausted, we are endeavouring to cool ourselves on a slab
+of rock opposite, when the loud clatter of wheels is heard, and a
+carriage soon makes its appearance, in which are our Hungarian friends.
+Demonstrative as ever, off go the hats, accompanied by much waving of
+handkerchiefs and sticks so soon as they recognise us.</p>
+
+<p>Unable to bear the absence of the “charming <i>Ángolok</i>” any longer,
+they had, they said, made up their minds to follow us here, and be
+our <i>ciceroni</i>. I am not at all sure we were as grateful for the
+attention as we ought to have been, but I trust at any rate that we
+looked so.</p>
+
+<p>Sedate and melancholy as are the Magyars usually, they are given to
+great and sudden changes of temperament, their character being an
+admixture of habitual pensiveness and melancholy, mingled with the
+most child-like susceptibility<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> to enjoyment. Like their national
+music, they are tender and passionate by turns, now plunged into a
+whirlpool of excited fury, and now into the lowest depths of melancholy
+and despair, but when out for a holiday they shake off dull care, and
+become as light-hearted as schoolboys. Knowing this locality well,
+they conducted us to many interesting spots, including a real robbers’
+cave, situated in a romantic nook in the wooded gorge, which we might
+otherwise have overlooked.</p>
+
+<p>Higher up, on a rock about seven or eight feet above the roadway, and
+not far from the source of <i>Thermæ Herculis</i>, are two votive
+tablets of the Roman period, on which, carved in relief, are the busts
+of a male and female. The features of each are still quite distinct,
+but we could ascertain from no one, whom they were intended to
+represent.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the chambers of the Hercules bath, which is still used, and
+which remains unaltered since it was built by the Romans—a small dark
+room a few feet below the entrance—is a large and almost life-size
+figure of the deity from whom the bath is named. It is carved in relief
+on an immense block of stone forming one of the walls of the chamber.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Nothing can be more romantic than the situation of this little watering
+place, where nature and art alike combine to render a summer’s sojourn
+delightful. The pathways through the wooded gorge; the beautiful
+Czerna, which is here a foaming torrent clear as crystal; the hotels,
+with their terraced gardens bright with Grecian vases, statuary, and
+flowers; the gipsy-music, and interesting associations connected with
+the place itself; the variety of races; and above all the festivities
+that take place daily during the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> season—render it unrivalled as a
+resort for the idle or hypochondriac. I would, however, warn those of
+the stronger sex who may happen to be highly susceptible to the tender
+passion, to think twice ere they come, for the bewitching beauty of
+these daughters of Roumania and Transylvania is perfectly irresistible,
+and few there are, I suspect, who, after a sojourn here, could leave
+entirely heart-whole.</p>
+
+<p>The season lasts from June till September, the one drawback being the
+cost of living, which, though less than that of most Hungarian baths,
+is nevertheless great, compared with anything of the kind in England,
+and I doubt if eight florins a day would cover the expenses of the
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>As we loiter in front of the hotel at which we have dined, waiting
+for our carriages to take us to the station, two miles distant, a
+young peasant comes to fill her pitcher at the fountain. Like the
+majority of Wallachian women she is very lovely, and there is a noble
+and unfettered grace in her dress and carriage. How well, too, her
+Juno-like head, adorned with gold coins, is set upon her shoulders!
+Standing beneath the ancient statue of the pagan god, what a model she
+would form for an artist!</p>
+
+<p>At Mehadia station we almost lost our train, so silently did it
+glide up to the platform, whilst we were occupied outside the
+enclosure in endeavouring to effect the purchase of a very handsome
+“<i>obreska</i>,” worn by a young girl. It was new, and its colours
+brilliant and unsullied, but by no offer could she be tempted to part
+with it, not even by a bank note for fifty florins, which, taking out
+his purse, one of our Magyar friends held up to her. She only shook her
+head in a dignified manner, smiled, and passed on.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Suppose she had accepted your offer,” I remarked to the Magyar who had
+tendered her the note.</p>
+
+<p>“I knew I was safe,” was his reply. “The poorer inhabitants of these
+wilds scarcely know the use of money. With their cow, pig, and little
+flock of sheep, whose wool furnishes the material for their clothing,
+which they spin, weave, and dye themselves, and their plot of ground
+on which they grow their daily bread, what can such persons want with
+money? Besides, their principal circulating medium is barter;” and I
+could not help thinking how favourably these Wallachian peasantry, as
+well as the Slovaks, contrast with our own poor—a supposition that was
+very soon confirmed.</p>
+
+<p>Twilight’s shadows had given place to night, when, after passing
+through a mountainous region, we entered another of those narrow
+gorges, so characteristic of the Carpathian chain, through the eastern
+portion of which we are now travelling. As we whirled along all was
+pitch dark; save here and there where a party of travellers, ten or
+twenty in number, clad in sheepskin cloaks, were bivouacking before a
+large fire, the flames of which, lighting up the rocky background, only
+made the darkness visible, and rendered the whole more weird.</p>
+
+<p>This wild and rugged mountain district, however, introduces us to the
+fertile province of the Banát, one of the most productive districts in
+the world, and often spoken of as the “granary of Europe.”</p>
+
+<p>Three of our Hungarians having gone with F. into a smoking carriage to
+offer evening incense, I was left to the companionship of the eldest
+of the party, a dear old Magyar of about sixty years of age, but who
+looked much older,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> his wrinkled weather-beaten face and quivering
+voice bespeaking eighty rather than sixty winters. There is something
+infinitely pathetic, not only in the voices, but in the countenances of
+the aged Magyars, which seem charged as with a bitter memory. Is their
+habitual sadness caused by the union of the beloved Fatherland with a
+foreign power? In many instances I am inclined to think it is.</p>
+
+<p>There are three political parties in Hungary: the Liberal party,
+founded by Deák in 1866; the Extreme Left, which demands disrupture
+with Austria, and rallies under the name of Kossuth, their great
+revolutionary leader; and the Opposition.</p>
+
+<p>My <i>compagnon de voyage</i> belonged to the second, and, a patriot
+of the old school, he stigmatised the conciliatory policy of Deák as
+cowardly and unpatriotic. As he alluded to the political compromise of
+this Prime Minister the tears came into his eyes. To foreigners the
+Hungarians open their hearts freely, and as we were alone, he spoke
+without reserve. There are grumblers in every nation, but there is no
+doubt the Hungarians have good reason to complain.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0420_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0420_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE FAMILY PEDIGREE.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">The town of Temesvár contains a population of 33,000 souls, and
+produces a medley that almost outdoes even Pest itself. Here are
+Greeks, Wallachs, Hebrews, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, a sprinkling
+of Turks, and a large proportion of Magyars. It consists of an inner
+town and an outer one, the former surrounded by strong fortifications.
+Wherever one looks there are bastions and ditches, and great guns and
+little guns menacing us in all directions, and seeming to dodge our
+movements continually. Never by any chance do we get out of the way of
+those guns. As we walk along the road by the side of the people’s park,
+there is one facing us the whole way; as <i>we</i> turn to the left it
+seems to turn also. Never can I forget the expression of that one gun,
+which, for nearly half the day, fixed its hideous muzzle upon us like
+a great unblinking eye, and kept me in a state of nightmare throughout
+the live-long hours of slumber.</p>
+
+<p>There has been good reason in the past, however, for all these hostile
+demonstrations; for Temesvár has twice played a very important
+<i>rôle</i> in Hungarian history. The town contains but few old
+buildings, having been nearly destroyed during the bombardment of 1849,
+when a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> thousand shells were sent into it, and nearly every house
+reduced to a heap of ruins. The greatest victory gained by the Imperial
+army over the Hungarians was fought here under General Haynau.</p>
+
+<p>The Palace, built in 1443 by John Hunyad, one of Hungary’s last kings,
+has been entirely restored, and is now used as a prison. At the present
+time Temesvár is one of the prettiest, cleanest, and brightest little
+towns in the whole of Hungary. The houses are new and lofty and have an
+Italian look, except beyond the gates where they are nearly all of one
+story.</p>
+
+<p>The now smiling and beautiful plains surrounding Temesvár were once a
+huge morass infested with fevers of the most pestilential description,
+the whole district of the Banát at the close of the last century—up
+to which time it was the frequent theatre of Moslem incursion—being
+scarcely better than an uncultivated swamp. After the final expulsion
+of the Turks, however, foreigners were summoned to people this
+“luxuriant wilderness,” and Greeks, Bulgarians, Servians, Germans,
+and even French and Italians availed themselves of the invitation,
+till the rich alluvial prairie, hitherto unturned by the plough,
+was soon converted into a fertile garden. The soil yielded the most
+extraordinary crops, fortunes were speedily made, and some of the
+wealthiest Hungarian families of the present day are said to be the
+descendants of poor adventurers in the Banát.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of this region during the summer is all but tropical, and
+the rich, black, loamy soil capable of producing almost any crop.
+Besides Indian corn, tobacco, flax, hemp, and sunflowers—from which
+oil is made—rice<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> also grows in the marshy districts. Nor is cotton
+missing, for in one district in the Banát we recognised the pretty
+serrated leaf, and white, fluffy balls of the useful plant.</p>
+
+<p>At Temesvár we took the train to our next destination, our lumbering
+old carriage coming with us on a truck.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the old town we travelled through dense forests, and passed
+the castle where, as the Austrians say, Görgei capitulated, but where
+the Hungarians, on the contrary, declare that he turned traitor to his
+country.</p>
+
+<p>In the plains the wheat and rye are being cut, and how many sweet
+pictures we see! Whole families in brilliant costumes grouped round
+their <i>szekér</i>, or <i>Leiterwagen</i>, resting from their toil in
+the drowsy noontide, and some of them fast asleep. Presently we stop
+at a station close to a large and thickly populated village, inhabited
+exclusively by Bulgarian colonists. Their costume is not only distinct,
+but they retain their own language, and make themselves intelligible
+to the Hungarians by a smattering of Magyar. In a short time, arriving
+at Szaderlak, we find ourselves in a district peopled by a race who
+originally migrated from the Black Forest; almost every village we
+pass being denizened by a separate and distinct nationality, none
+of whom can understand the next. And now, leaving villages behind,
+we are again out on the rolling plains, with their immense herds of
+horses, cows, and swine. Although the various herds intermingle, they
+know their owners and their owners know them, and at the sound of the
+various horns at morn or eve, as at Fűred, they all “sort themselves”
+and run off helter-skelter to their own villages, which are sometimes
+many miles away. If the traveller make any sojourn on the Alfőld he
+will observe that every Sunday morning<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> each peasant takes to his own
+particular quadrupeds a small quantity of salt and corn, and as soon as
+his form is seen approaching, when yet a mere speck in the distance,
+they race off to meet him, the pigs with loud and indignant squeak
+bringing up the rear.</p>
+
+<p>As we approach the river Marős the plains are almost under water, and
+there are signs of inundation everywhere. How one pities the peaceful
+dwellers in the vicinity of these ungovernable rivers! A little further
+and we come to the Marős itself, winding over its shallow bed, a clear
+stream reflecting the sunlit sky, with the curious old boats carrying
+merchandise seen here and there floating calmly on its still and glassy
+surface. But leaving the plains behind we soon enter a beautiful valley
+hemmed in by lofty hills, one of which is crowned with an ancient
+Burg, the first of those many “peasant-fortresses” which, during the
+troublous times of Turkish invasion, formed a line of fortifications
+extending throughout this eastern portion of Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>In four hours’ time we reach the plains again and come to the end of
+our journey. Arriving at the station, we see beyond its enclosure a
+white carriage and four white horses driven by a white man, waiting to
+take us across the green and boundless wastes to the home of András’s
+master, at which we are to stay some days. Casting our eyes round the
+whole circle of the horizon, however, we see no road whatever. Have we
+to cross these interminable plains hap-hazard, with nought but the sun
+to guide our wanderings? Nothing is visible but a long line of white
+cloud creeping along the ground. But leaving the station behind we soon
+enter the white cloud, and find that it covers a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> sandy track which
+itself forms the roadway, and before we have proceeded half a mile we
+feel we have swallowed a sand-bank, and, like the horses, the carriage,
+and the driver, become covered from head to foot with dust. There have
+been no inundations here at all events, for the ground is as parched as
+on the desert of Arabia, and instead of pitying the inhabitants of the
+district of the fertilising Marős, we almost envy them.</p>
+
+<p>The horses gallop the whole way, and our seven miles of road are
+happily soon covered. In rather less than forty minutes we see through
+our sand-bedimmed eyes a group of <i>robinias</i> similarly powdered,
+and in their midst a large one-storied building. Passing through the
+open gates and a long sweeping carriage drive, we come to anchor at a
+broad flight of steps, where, seen through the dust that has followed
+us even here, stands a spectre in black, who, descending the steps in
+question with measured stately gait, welcomes the ghosts within the
+carriage and assists them to alight. And we soon hear the words, “My
+sweet servant,” followed by “My sweet master,” as the white form of
+András appears, who, stooping low, kisses with deepest reverence the
+black spectre’s hand.</p>
+
+<p>Other dark forms now appear, coming from the back premises, and there
+are loud acclamations at the sight of András, and a shower of “<i>per
+Kends</i>” (“your Graces”) falls broad-cast, as these polite people
+greet each other according to the approved mode of salutation amongst
+servants in Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>As usual the mansion consists of one story only, and covers a large
+area. There are no passages, and each room is approached through
+another. The living rooms<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> form a cluster in the centre of the
+building, and are connected by lofty folding-doors, all of which being
+open, give an appearance of space and grandeur to the whole. Although
+of the very simplest order in architectural design, the mansion is
+luxuriously furnished, and seems strangely out of keeping with its
+surroundings. It is heated throughout by hot air, and none of the
+stoves, which form such an ugly feature in German houses, are visible.</p>
+
+<p>It is only above the roads that the cloud of dust I have alluded to
+hovers, and, our rooms looking out upon the Alfőld, we see before us a
+graceful landscape covered with vast stretches of Indian corn, the tall
+stems of which, already drooping with their ripening ears, are golden
+in the setting sun. Whilst dressing for dinner, which was at half-past
+seven, I watched from my window the great scarlet ball sink beneath
+the horizon, till the plains, drinking in the splendours of the sky,
+were as a crucible blending all the rainbow’s tints into one delicious
+harmony.</p>
+
+<p>We found a large family party assembled at dinner: the dowager, our
+host’s mother, a widowed sister and her son and daughter, besides the
+young wife—a beautiful woman and a true specimen of Magyar, possessing
+those graceful and winning manners which are such a charm in all
+Hungarian society.</p>
+
+<p>During dinner the conversation turned upon the Magyar language,
+and the obstacles to its acquisition which beset foreigners, the
+principal one arising from the fact that the prepositions and
+possessive pronouns instead of preceding are made to follow the
+noun, and become affixes to it. From this cause a whole sentence of
+six or seven words is sometimes capable of being expressed in one
+only; our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> hostess naïvely instancing two combinations illustrative
+of the lengths to which this peculiarity of the language may be
+carried, namely,—“<i>Hamegkőpenyegesittelennittehhetnélek</i>,”
+a word signifying “If I could deprive you of your clothes!” and
+another—“<i>Legellenallhatlanabbaknak-bizonyultak</i>”—meaning “They
+have proved themselves the most irresistible;” and, as she did so,
+she uttered these to us unpronounceable syllables with so sweet an
+intonation that they made us in love with the language.</p>
+
+<p>To render the above peculiarity, so aggravating to foreigners,
+intelligible to the reader, I will give one or two examples explanatory
+of the construction of the language in this respect. And first,
+when András addresses, in the words “my sweet master” and “my sweet
+mistress”—“<i>édes uram</i>” and “<i>édes asszonyom</i>”—the
+substantive nouns are <i>úr</i> and <i>asszony</i>, the final
+syllables, <i>am</i>, <i>om</i>, being merely the possessive affixes.
+Again, <i>anyá</i> (mother) becomes, with the possessive pronoun
+<i>my</i> affixed to it, <i>anyám</i>; whilst to instance an example
+in which both pronoun and preposition are used, we will take the
+word <i>haz</i> (a house). <i>Haz-am</i> (my house), followed by the
+preposition <i>ba</i> (<i>in</i>, which is affixed to the pronoun),
+becomes <i>hazamba</i> (in my house).</p>
+
+<p>The construction of verbs too in Magyar differs so widely from that of
+any other European language that a perfect knowledge of it is extremely
+difficult to the foreigner, who seldom acquires it perfectly. The
+structure of the language in some measure resembles Turkish, Magyar,
+and Finnish, being connected with those of Mongolia and Turkestan just
+as English is with Persian and Sanscrit. The Magyar language is said
+to have undergone no changes whatever; that spoken by the Hungarians
+of to-day being identical with that of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> the Magyars on their conquest
+of the country. A great many Turkish, Slavonian, as well as Greek,
+Italian, and German words have crept in; but all those essential to
+express common wants are the same as in the language of the Fins at the
+present time.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The drawing-room was full of English books, some of which were
+translated into the Magyar language. Hungarian literature is not as
+yet in a very advanced stage, neither, as a rule, are the Hungarians a
+very reading people. They have their own novelists, but greatly prefer
+English authors. They do not, however, care for the “sensational,”
+preferring the sentimental and romantic.</p>
+
+<p>In their cheap journalistic literature the kind of pabulum known as
+“penny dreadful” does not exist. The Hungarians of the lower class do
+not care to take their “horrors hot;” and such things as delight an
+Englishman of the same calibre fall flat upon the mental palate of a
+Hungarian.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing half so charming as a visit to a Magyar family. There
+is a well-bred ease and cordiality of manner about the Hungarians, that
+make the guest feel perfectly at home immediately he enters the house.
+There is no <i>géne</i>, and the visitor becomes instantly as one of
+the family circle.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, whilst the lord of the domain was closeted with
+his <i>Ispán</i> (steward), we walked to some of the tenants’ cottages,
+accompanied by his wife. Although we went into six, I do not think we
+saw as many children. The Magyars seldom have large families; and so
+often are they childless that it is a common thing for them to adopt
+the child of a wandering Slovak, and bring him up as their own. There
+is also a great mortality amongst children on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> Alfőld, the chief
+reason assigned being the earthen floors; their aged also being said to
+suffer intensely from rheumatism, from the same cause.</p>
+
+<p>Surrounding these dwellings was a small garden fenced in with the dried
+stalks of Indian corn, and nothing could have looked more comfortable
+than the interior of each one, which bespoke the existence of rude
+plenty. Yet the inhabitants were but the cultivators of the soil,
+synonymous with our English labourers. On our return we passed through
+the farm-buildings, and were shown the stud, consisting of about twenty
+horses. In the adjoining coach-house were carriages of all descriptions
+and of the most primitive design; whilst in the centre stood one the
+precise nature of which it was not easy to define.</p>
+
+<p>“That,” remarked our host, who had now joined us (pointing in the
+direction of the nondescript vehicle in question), “is the family
+pedigree.” And its history, narrated by himself, showed how appropriate
+was its title. It had in fact begun its career by being a modest
+species of <i>britzska</i>, but ended in becoming a house on wheels, a
+veritable genealogical tree.</p>
+
+<p>Our host, unlike his Magyar tenantry, was blessed with a “quiverful,”
+having eight children, the eldest of whom numbered little more than
+as many years, all having arrived with the greatest punctuality like
+daisies and buttercups in May. When the third “hardy annual” was old
+enough to take his daily exercise with his parents, the <i>britzska</i>
+was converted into a <i>barouche</i>. On the death of our host’s
+father, at which epoch the dowager took up her abode in the country
+château of her son, an excrescence was added to the back in the form
+of a “rumble,” to which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> the “hardy annuals” were transferred in her
+favour; and when the sixth arrived, our pater-familias resorted to the
+ingenious expedient of having the carriage closed in after the manner
+of a <i>landau</i>, and the hood elevated to the top after the fashion
+of a <i>banquette</i> on the summit of a <i>diligence</i>. At last
+twins came; upon which happy occurrence two small seats were attached
+to the inside of the doors, which were ingeniously contrived to let up
+and down like a bracket.</p>
+
+<p>“In this carriage,” he remarked triumphantly, when he had finished its
+history, his whole countenance beaming with benevolence and paternal
+pride, “we all travel together to Pest, where we have our winter
+residence.”</p>
+
+<p>One can picture to one’s self the start. The host and hostess, the
+dowager—our host’s mother—his sister, the eight small blessings, the
+governess, the lady’s maid, the footman, the postilion, the six horses
+and the dowager’s lap-dog; in all a Noah’s Ark of twenty-three bipeds
+and quadrupeds!</p>
+
+<p>In the early evening our host took us for a long drive across his
+estate, and as our way was fortunately not confined to the sandy wastes
+we traversed yesterday, we were not smothered with dust as on our
+way from the station. Never can I forget that drive, or the railway
+speed at which we skimmed over the level surface of the <i>puszta</i>.
+Railway speed! It is nothing to it—not that of Hungarian railways,
+at any rate. We absolutely flew on the wings of the wind. The pace at
+which a good team of Hungarian horses go is the most madly exciting
+thing possible to conceive.</p>
+
+<p>The domain of our host covered a large area of <i>puszta</i>; but it
+was small, he assured us, compared with many, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> often cover from
+thirty to forty square miles; whilst formerly there were instances in
+which some were even seven and eight hundred miles in extent. It is
+difficult for us, who live in our “tight little island,” to comprehend
+the existence of such vast estates belonging to one individual. Yet
+they were managed with great exactness under stewards, the labourers
+and their families sometimes consisting of an army of from a thousand
+to fifteen hundred souls. The word <i>puszta</i>, now so commonly and
+incorrectly applied to the great plains, originated in these estates;
+a nobleman’s property, which was farmed by his own labourers—that
+is to say, where there were no peasants, and consequently no forced
+labour—having been called a <i>puszta</i>. The revenues are often as
+enormous as the domains themselves; and the flocks that graze the land
+not under cultivation numbering hundreds of thousands, remind one of
+patriarchal times; whilst the ingatherings of wheat, rye, rape, and
+other cereals grown on the estate each amount to hundreds of thousands
+of bushels annually.</p>
+
+<p>Having dined before starting, the usual dinner hour in Hungary being
+two o’clock, we were enabled to prolong our drive, and did not return
+until a late hour in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>“They are dancing the <i>csárdás</i>,” exclaimed our host, as we
+approached a number of labourers’ dwellings and saw the red petticoats
+spinning round and round. “Would you like to see it? They dance it
+every evening; but this is evidently one got up for a particular
+occasion, for the girls are in full fig, and I hear the clash of spurs
+as the Magyar dandies knock their heels together to keep time to the
+scraping of the gipsies’ fiddles.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty scene: the rapid movements of the dancers in their
+gay costumes, the picturesque background of low sheds covered with
+the large round leaves of the melon, its tendrils hanging in graceful
+festoons, and its golden fruit resting on the thatch. We might have
+been witnessing a Spanish saraband.</p>
+
+<p>The Hungarians dance for their very lives. To them the practice of the
+Terpsichorean art is no mere languid and graceful undulation of the
+figure, but a perfect wild <i>abandon</i> of mirth; and they whirl, and
+spin, and gyrate with the velocity of dervishes, until their long black
+locks stand out straight, and their faces are ablaze with heat and
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Watch them as they perform the <i>csárdás</i>—their national dance—to
+the strange wild harmony of the <i>Czigánok</i>! Watch them as they
+balance themselves backwards and forwards whilst adapting their subtle
+movements to the measure of its animating strains!</p>
+
+<p>The <i>csárdás</i> is essentially pantomimic, and describes by mute
+action the unquiet “course of true love.” The music is at first slow,
+and the couples walk up and down the room together in a stately manner;
+then, affecting to have made each other’s acquaintance, and fallen
+victims to the tender passion, the music grows more lively, and the
+“courtship” begins in earnest.</p>
+
+<p>The lover advances towards his <i>innamorata</i>, she coyly responds
+and they spin round together for a few seconds, when, as if thinking
+she has given him too much encouragement, the maiden retires pouting,
+whereupon he again approaches, but this time she turns her back upon
+him and dances off in a contrary direction. Following her, however,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>
+he overtakes and seizes her round the waist, and away they go again
+whirling deliriously, until she manages to extricate herself from his
+grasp. Shy and friendly by turns, now encouraging her partner, and now
+retreating with offended dignity, the lover at length becomes chagrined
+at her caprices turns his back upon her, and they dance <i>dos à
+dos</i> for a while with indignant gestures, till the maid with signs
+of repentance seeks reconciliation. The music grows faster and faster,
+the lovers, in the ecstasy of reunion, whirl and twirl madly, nor do
+they stop until both are quite giddy and out of breath, when, retiring
+from the scene, another couple takes their place, and the performance
+begins again.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>csárdás</i>, of course, varies slightly in each instance,
+according to the locality and the spirit of the dancers, but the
+subject remains the same—love, courtship, jealousy, disappointment,
+reunion, and happiness “ever after.” Sometimes, in the closing scene,
+it winds up by the lover throwing himself on his knees before his
+mistress, whilst she dances round him in token of her complete triumph.
+Several couples are always occupied at the same time in this dance, in
+one phase or other of the would-be courtship; whilst the men’s hats,
+decorated with fresh flowers, the women got up in the most coquettish
+and picturesque costumes imaginable, the stamping of feet, clashing of
+spurs, and wildly exciting strains of the gipsies, as they saw away
+madly at their violins, all combine in rendering the <i>csárdás</i>
+a most interesting and animating spectacle. Nor is it danced only by
+the peasants: it is seen in the ball-rooms of the nobles even at the
+capital, where a gipsy-band is always summoned to accompany it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span></p>
+
+<p>The most interesting place in which to witness it is the harvest-field,
+where, laying down their sickles, half-a-dozen of them will often stand
+up, as if seized by some irresistible impulse, and begin dancing all
+amongst the sheaves of corn.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the national <i>csárdás</i>, however, there is one called
+the <i>Loshau csárdás</i>, a very slow dance, but it is by no means
+a favourite with the Magyars, who, so calm and phlegmatic in their
+ordinary moments, are wont during recreation to give themselves up to
+the wildest excitement. A third is often seen in the east of Hungary,
+where a number of men, linking arms, form a ring and dance together,
+accompanying their gyrations with clapping of hands, shouts, and
+stamping of feet, whilst the fair ones remain outside the magic circle,
+till an intrepid Adonis, breaking from his companions, seizes one of
+them round the waist and waltzes with her for awhile, after which he
+returns to the ring, and another repeats the ceremony.</p>
+
+<p>But whatever be the form which the Hungarian dance assumes, its
+constant theme is love, just as patriotism and the joys of home are the
+chief subjects of their song.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0560_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0560_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">GROSSWARDEIN.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">It is nightfall at Grosswardein and the fires of sunset have faded
+into cold grey ashes. All along the river Kőrős the stealthy vapours,
+following its leaden course, are slowly rising. Shadows deepen on the
+plains. The gilded steeples no longer glisten in the evening light, but
+stand out black and sullen, like huge sentinels, against the pale green
+sky. Everything in nature is sad and gloomy. Within the town, however,
+“high carnival” is nightly kept.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyars, as we have seen, possess a tinge of melancholy even
+in their most joyous moments. This, however, cannot be said of the
+Wallachs. There surely never was such a gay and pleasure-loving people;
+whilst in their love of dancing they far exceed even the Magyars
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Hark to the sound of music! the rhythmic beat accompanied by the rapid
+and hollow throb of steps. Let us follow its inviting strains, away
+through the broad streets to the great square.</p>
+
+<p>Not only here, however, is there music and dancing, but in many of
+the one-storied houses also. In the cafés too the <i>Czigánok</i> are
+fiddling away for dear life. Inside, persons, sitting before small
+tables, sip their coffee and smoke<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span> like chimneys. They applaud and sip
+and smoke, and then smoke and sip and applaud again; whilst the streets
+are crowded with promenaders and cheerful with the laugh of girls.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there, like moths amongst the butterflies, may be seen a group
+of middle-aged Wallachs or grave Magyars talking earnestly together,
+whispering of political complications between Russia and England, the
+result of the “Danube Commission,” or the rising of the bed of the
+river Theiss. The beauty of the Wallachs is the same as when last
+we were here four years ago: the delicate and refined features, the
+pouting lips, the broad, low forehead, the lithe figures of the women,
+and the deeply sunken eyes, long hair, and aquiline noses of the male
+descendants of the Dacians, all are the same; but the ancient costumes
+of the people and their characteristic traits are fast departing under
+the facilities which, in these modern days, are afforded for travel.
+The railways, extending their iron arms into the very centre of
+Transylvania, are gradually weaving this former <i>terra incognita</i>
+into the duller web of Western civilisation, and the beautiful and
+graceful costumes, which so delighted us once, are day by day becoming
+absorbed and replaced by those Gallic abominations invented to conceal
+and render hideous the human form.</p>
+
+<p>That monstrous article of female attire, the crinoline, which until
+recently was exploded by the fair sex of Western Europe, has been
+adopted by their Eastern sisters, and we recognise it not only
+beneath the skirts of the gaily dressed Jewess as her long train
+sweeps the streets, but under those of the Wallach lady also; whilst
+one peasant girl—though still dressed in her graceful, homespun
+garments—emulating<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> her superiors—had her narrow but classical
+<i>katrincza</i> distended to the condition of a sausage by the
+adoption of this hideous contrivance. We saw, I am thankful to say,
+only one who had thus travestied the lovely and pictorial costume
+of her race, but it was sufficient to demonstrate the silent march
+of—in this case misnamed—“civilisation,” which threatens ere long to
+obliterate all the distinctive external characteristics of nations and
+render every country alike.</p>
+
+<p>Off the beaten track the Wallachs still retain the customs of their
+ancestors both in dress and manner of living, and after our visit
+to this place is ended we shall be travelling in the interior of
+Transylvania—of which Grosswardein is the frontier—where we shall
+see the Wallachs in all their delightful simplicity. It is here that
+the traveller is first introduced to this people in their own home, of
+whom, concentrated in the eastern portion of Hungary, there are almost
+two millions and a half. The Wallachs of Transylvania, however, must
+not be confounded with the dwellers in the Wallachian or Roumanian
+Principality, although they are off-shoots of the same race, having
+been in olden times the overflow of the inhabitants occupying that
+province. Both races now form a distinct people, although they are
+alike descendants of the ancient Dacians, originally a Thracian people
+subjugated by Trajan in his conquests already alluded to in the
+chapters on the Lower Danube.</p>
+
+<p>The term Wallach is said to be a German version of the appellations
+“<i>Welsh</i>,” “<i>Welsch</i>,” “<i>Wallon</i>,” etc., given by the
+Teutonic conquerors to the provincials or subjects of the Roman Empire,
+whether in Britain, Italy, or Gaul;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span> <i>Welsh</i> being the word
+still used by the Germans in the present day to denote strangers or
+foreigners of whatever nation.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally preferring to trace their origin to the conquering, rather
+than to a vanquished people, the Wallachs affect to be the descendants
+of the Roman colonists introduced by Trajan after his subjugation of
+the province, and call themselves, though incorrectly, <i>Roumans</i>,
+or <i>Rummanyi</i>, and their country Roumania.</p>
+
+<p>The language spoken by the Wallachs, which greatly resembles in its
+pronunciation the Italian of to-day, is soft, rich, and melodious,
+and composed chiefly of Latin, with a considerable admixture of Slav,
+Turkish, and Greek words. That there should be such a marked Latin
+element in their language is certainly a singular fact, seeing that the
+dominion of the Romans over the Dacians extended for a period of 170
+years only; a circumstance tending to foster the idea that the Wallachs
+<i>have</i> some grounds for their pride of ancestry. There are,
+however, peculiarities about their language which prove that the origin
+of this people is more Dacian than Roman.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable Roman element was doubtless infused into the primitive
+inhabitants of Dacia by inter-marriage with the numerous Roman subjects
+who remained behind after the Emperor Aurelian relinquished Dacia in
+the middle of the third century, and this would account in a great
+measure for the resemblance between the Wallachian and Latin languages.
+Until the time of Alexander, the Dacians scarcely figured in history,
+and their original language is consequently not accurately determined.
+It is, however, believed to have been Slávic, not only from the number
+of Sláv words mingled with their corrupt Latin, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> also from the
+number of Slavonic names given to the rivers and mountains of Wallachia
+and Transylvania.</p>
+
+<p>In the fifth century the Wallachs peopled Thessaly, whilst the Thracian
+dialect of that period is said to have borne a strong resemblance
+to the Neo-Latin spoken alike by the Wallach tribes of the Pindus
+Mountains—the remnants of the former inhabitants of Thrace—and by the
+so-called Roumanian people at present occupying the province of ancient
+Dacia.</p>
+
+<p>So much does their pronunciation resemble Italian that we experienced
+no difficulty in understanding, or even conversing with them,
+particularly after having ascertained that they place the definite
+article at the end of their nouns, joining in fact both noun and
+article together. This singular construction is also found in the
+Bulgarian language, but, strange to say, in no other Slavonic dialect
+whatever, from which circumstance it is supposed that both the
+Bulgarians and Wallachians—whose countries join each other—must
+have derived this peculiarity from the same source, viz., from their
+north-eastern neighbours, the Dacians, whose language is believed to
+have been neither Neo-latin nor strictly Slavonic.</p>
+
+<p>In ancient time the province of Dacia comprised a district of 1300
+miles in circumference, and was bounded on the north by the Niester, on
+the west by the Theiss or Tibiscus, and on the south and east by the
+Lower Danube and Black Sea; comprising not only the mountainous country
+of the Eastern Carpathians, but Bukovina and the district of Banát. The
+population of Moldavia and Bessarabia is likewise almost exclusively of
+Dacian origin.</p>
+
+<p>On Trajan’s Column in Rome is sculptured the history of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> this first
+campaign of the young and ambitious Emperor, and the forms, cast of
+features, and dress of the Dacians, as there minutely represented,
+correspond, strange as it may seem after the lapse of sixteen
+centuries, in almost every particular with those of the Wallachs of the
+present day.</p>
+
+<p>Grosswardein, or Nagy-varád, as it is called in Hungarian, is a
+fortified town of Bihar, the largest county in Hungary. It contains
+36,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are Wallachs, and is, in spite
+of its gaiety, one of the most ecclesiastical places in Hungary, full
+of churches and convents. At present there are thirty of the former,
+whilst at one period it boasted of no fewer than seventy. It is also
+the see, alike of a Catholic bishop and one of the Greek rite. The
+suburbs of the town are very pretty, each house being surrounded by a
+garden and orchard, and shut in behind high walls.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0620_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0620_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Like Temesvár, the town of Grosswardein is exceedingly pretty with
+long streets and numerous marketplaces. From the bridge which crosses
+the Kőrős, a good view is obtained of the town with its glittering
+steeples of black<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> and gold, together with that of the new Catholic
+Church which, standing by the dome of the Jewish Synagogue, looks like
+a huge coronet of gems. On the river long rafts of pine logs from the
+Transylvanian forests are leisurely floating down stream, whilst women
+with skirts tucked up wade in the water and wash their linen, thumping
+away at it with a big stone, and with a vigour and perseverance as if
+every blow were aimed at a Turk’s or Austrian’s head.</p>
+
+<p>We were walking through one of the suburbs of the town when we heard
+the distant sounds of bitter wailing, and a little crowd of people soon
+approached, in the centre of which was an old Wallach woman who, with
+tears rolling down her shrivelled cheeks, was evidently telling her
+wrongs to the group of sympathisers following in her wake. On inquiring
+the cause of this unusual manifestation of grief, she clasped her hands
+and giving vent to renewed wailings cried,</p>
+
+<p>“Only a Jew, gentle lady, only for killing a Jew.”</p>
+
+<p>The meaning of which unintelligible sentence the bystanders—who
+appeared to take no small interest in the case—explained by informing
+us that her husband had in a street quarrel accidentally killed one of
+those despised children of Israel, and that the Judge, having taken
+a somewhat different view from herself of the value of human life as
+exhibited in that particular type of humanity, had just sentenced him
+to condign punishment the extent of which however did not transpire.</p>
+
+<p>As in all other towns in Hungary, Grosswardein is pervaded by the usual
+Hebrew element, and although Jews are no longer taxed as being such,
+but are permitted to enjoy all the rights and privileges common to the
+Gentile, they often find it difficult to hold their own even here<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>
+against the antipathy so universally entertained against them.</p>
+
+<p>All is bright and clean in this prettiest of towns save in the
+Hebraic quarter, which is full of marine stores where every kind of
+<i>bric-à-brac</i> is to be met with, even crucifixes, in dark dens
+which one would fear to enter. The Jew is the same here as elsewhere,
+the same miserable-looking, down-trodden outcast he has continued to
+be ever since Pompey the Great entered the Holy City and struck the
+first blow at the Israelitish nation. How, even to the letter, has the
+prophetic curse been fulfilled in this once “chosen people”!</p>
+
+<p>The <i>spécialité</i> of the Hungarian Jew in this quarter, as in all
+others devoted entirely to the class, is “ole clo,” and inside their
+hovels are found not only dirt and muddle, but pictorial rags, whilst
+over the doorways are seen such names as the following, Löwenstein
+Jukab, Kohn Mozesne, Fűred Jőzsef, and Szép Ábrahám, and on the walls
+sentences are written in Hebrew characters.</p>
+
+<p>The type of Hebrew physiognomy is more marked here than in other
+parts of Hungary, a consequence possibly of there having been less
+inter-marriage with the Christian community than elsewhere. Wherever
+we look we observe the long aquiline nose curving into the moustache,
+which only partially conceals the protruding lips. Now and then a fair
+young Miriam may be seen crossing the road and picking up a dirty
+little Moses who is wallowing in the mud; neither are Hagars and
+Ishmaels wanting, nor old Sarahs, fat, ugly, and repulsive-looking in
+their grease-begrimed garments.</p>
+
+<p>Turning now to the Christian quarter, we see how the Gentiles flourish
+like a green bay-tree. Yonder stands the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> princely palace of the Roman
+Catholic bishop, whose income is 300,000 gulden, or £25,000 a year,
+whilst that of his Lordship of Erlan in the East of Hungary is twice
+that amount, and that of the Prince Primate £60,000, the revenues being
+derived in each case from landed estates. Surrounding the palace are
+beautiful gardens laid out in broad straight walks and long avenues of
+chestnuts, under the shade of which at eventide the Dom Herren may be
+seen sauntering in the cool still air. Near the palace are the houses
+of the residentiary canons, and opposite, the grand church built by
+Maria Theresa, a building so vast in its proportions that, as the doors
+are thrown open to admit us and we stand beneath its lofty roof, rising
+one hundred and twenty feet above, we almost lose our breath.</p>
+
+<p>The church although built in the Doric style is cruciform, and its roof
+a succession of arches culminating in an immense central dome; the
+whole a gorgeous blaze of splendid colour, very rich and harmonious,
+but not adapted to inspire devotion. The Hungarian disposition is not
+suited to the “dim religious.” They are a people who dislike mysticism
+of every sort, and with a very few exceptions their churches, garish
+and sensuous, are better fitted for the gorgeous worship of some
+heathen goddess or their Pagan <i>Magyarok Isten</i> (ancient Magyar
+deity) than for the pure and simple worship of Christians.</p>
+
+<p>As we returned to our hotel, the sun just setting was gilding with
+impartial glory alike the temples of the Christian and the Jew.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.<br>
+<span class="subhed">GOOD FRIDAY IN THE GREEK CHURCH.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">A few miles from Grosswardein lies a valley, where, surrounded by
+undulating tertiary hills, is a mineral spring; and thither, a few days
+after our arrival, we made an excursion. Our way leads us through the
+market, where are milk-white oxen by the score, and hundreds of black
+swine with long noses and high backs, surrounded by swarms of piglings,
+the funniest little creatures imaginable, each with its back arched
+like a cat, and its tiny white legs and little black hoofs looking like
+shoes and stockings. In the centre of the square women are selling
+<i>tisch-wein</i> and hot soup thickened with macaroni, and wherever
+one turns there are gipsies selling baskets and wooden utensils.</p>
+
+<p>Forcing our way through the vegetable baskets and the oxen and the
+pigs, we reach a broad road in which singular conveyances are jogging
+along. More strange by far than any we have yet seen in Hungary are the
+vehicles met with here, which, though apparently belonging to a class
+far above the ordinary peasant, are so different from any found in the
+rest of Europe, that we might have arrived at an altogether new world.
+Under the cool shadows of the <i>robinias</i>, which grow luxuriantly
+in the Alfőld—a tree in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> England erroneously called <i>acacia</i>, but
+which is the “locust tree” (<i>Robinia pseudacacie</i>) of the United
+States, so strongly advocated for English cultivation by Cobbet—the
+women stand and gossip, whilst resting their heavy burdens on the
+ground.</p>
+
+<p>By the wayside are characteristic studies. A woman is making bricks,
+whilst standing beside her, smoking and languidly watching her
+movements, is her lord and master; for the male Wallach is a creature
+who loves to take life easily. A little farther on, and we see another
+woman hoeing away at the hard, sun-baked ground of her cottage garden,
+as her inferior half, sitting the while on the doorstep, nurses the
+baby.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0670_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0670_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>In this country it would seem that “women must” not only “weep,” but
+women must also work; whilst, by an inversion of the order of things,
+the men remain idle. But we are nearing our destination where there is
+a bathing establishment, for yonder is a broad still pool formed by the
+hot spring, in which, surrounded by clouds of vapour,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span> washer-women are
+wading waist deep, as they hammer away at the visitors’ clothes.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty sight that at length greeted our arrival at the Bathing
+Establishment, and one that reminded us of <i>Fêtes Champêtres</i> in
+olden times. It is situated in the centre of large grounds, where,
+standing or sitting, were some two hundred people, with here and there
+knots of young men and maidens dancing to the inspiriting strains
+of a gipsy band. Beyond a number of chestnut trees, rises a densely
+forest-clad hill which birds make merry all day with song, and where
+numerous nightingales trill. There are so few woods in the Alfőld that
+where they exist birds congregate in great numbers.</p>
+
+<p>The hotel contains eighty rooms, and the people we here see disporting
+themselves so gaily, and who appear so completely the reverse of
+invalid, are but the ordinary visitors to the Baths. The Hungarians,
+like the Romans, are a bath-loving people, and resort during the hot
+summer season to places of this kind, just as we do in England to the
+sea-side.</p>
+
+<p>The source of the hot spring lies at the bottom of a crater-like basin,
+from which the water comes bubbling to the surface as from a volcano,
+bringing with it a quantity of small shells of two kinds containing
+living creatures. Looking down into the water, which is clear as
+crystal, we see them not only being tossed up to the surface, but lying
+at the bottom of the crater, as well as round its sides.</p>
+
+<p>The water here forms another broad pool, the surface of which is
+covered in many places with the lotus (<i>Nymphæa thermalis</i>)
+brought from the Nile and kept alive during the winter by the high
+temperature of the water. It begins to <span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>blossom in the beginning of
+April, and was in perfection at the time of our visit.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0681_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0681_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+     <p class="p0 sm center">ALL AMONG THE SHEAVES.</p>
+   </div>
+
+<p>Besides the private baths attached to the hotel, there are large public
+ones also outside the grounds for the poorer classes, thousands of whom
+flock here during the season, and parboil themselves simply for the
+love of it. The charge for the use of these public baths is at the rate
+of thirty kreuzers (tenpence) for every twenty-four hours, so that the
+people who resort to them may be said at all events to have plenty for
+their money. They come hither from great distances. Slávs from Csaba,
+more than fifty miles away, and others from places equally remote, and
+simply divesting themselves of their top boots and fur jackets, plunge
+into the steaming tide, the men in their long-fringed <i>gatyák</i>,
+full white sleeves, and embroidered waistcoats, and the women in their
+gay bodices and coloured skirts. It is in fact an aquatic pic-nic,
+for they bring their provisions with them, and take their meals in
+the water, occasionally even dancing the <i>csárdás</i>, whilst some
+of the bathers, who possess a musical turn, sit on the edge of the
+bath with their feet and legs dangling in the water, and play their
+primitive instruments or keep time with the dance by clapping their
+hands, amidst the ringing and bewildering shouts of the dancers. They
+generally remain in the bath eighteen hours out of the twenty-four,
+and as our cicerone informed us, all for an “<i>ausflug</i>” (outing).
+Every now and then as they become faint and weak from the effects of
+the seething, they have recourse to the outer atmosphere for a while,
+where, lying down on the ground, wrapped in their bundas, they remain
+until the cool air has revived them, when they return and again join in
+the aquatic festivities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span></p>
+
+<p>Among the new arrivals we noticed two tall, fine-looking men wearing
+splendid lamb’s wool cloaks, embroidered at the edges in gay colours,
+and others in curious blanket-cloaks like those worn by the Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the evening, and dark shadows were gathering over the
+plains when, leaving this singular locality behind, we directed our
+course homewards. From the cottages along the road now and then came
+the sound of the nervous little <i>telinka</i>, embroidering with
+fitful and fanciful variations, the hoarse snore of the bag-pipes as
+they droned out their wild, weird music to the night; whilst from a
+distance reached us the rich, deep throb of the cymbals. In many of
+the houses there is dancing and revelry, and accustomed as we are to
+the quiet and sullen habits of our own peasantry, we regard these
+pleasure-loving people with astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>The Wallachs, like the Slovaks, belong chiefly to the Greek rite, of
+which there are two separate bodies, the non-united or “Oriental Greek
+Church,” which acknowledges the Patriarch of Constantinople as its
+head, and the “United Greek,” which recognises the supremacy of the
+Pope of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>The recurrence of a high festival affords us an opportunity during the
+time we are here of witnessing one of the gorgeous services of the
+Greek Church, the splendid vestments and the imposing, and to us novel,
+ritual filling us with a new delight. The music was heavenly, the grand
+old Ambrosial chants, begun by a long-robed priest whose beard extended
+far below his chest, being taken up by the fresh young voices of the
+choir, which, welling upwards in a flood of melody, echoed through the
+vaulted roof.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to give any adequate idea of the imposing ritual of
+the Greek Church to those who have not witnessed it, or of the apparent
+devotion and ecstatic adoration of the people as they prostrate
+themselves until their faces touch the marble floor, whilst the singing
+of the unseen choir seems to be that of a company of angels come down
+to earth to join in the Christian worship.</p>
+
+<p>It was this music, the most beautiful and touching in the whole world,
+that melted the stern, cold heart of the Russian prince of old—the
+Great Vladimir himself—causing him to give up his Pagan gods, and was
+the indirect origin of the Greek rite becoming the national church of
+the northern branch of the Slavonian family.</p>
+
+<p>Our visits to Grosswardein have been well-timed. On our last visit we
+happened to be here in the latter end of April and beginning of May,
+and were able to witness another, but a very different, ceremonial of
+these Eastern churches.</p>
+
+<p>It was Good Friday. This day of penitence and fasting falls nearly a
+month later in the Greek calendar than in our own, and high up in the
+open towers of both the “United Greek” and “Oriental Greek” churches,
+instead of the sweet chiming of bells, men were busy with wooden
+clappers producing such unearthly sounds, as they kept hammering
+against a beam to call the faithful to worship, that, until undeceived
+by a friendly passer-by, we were under the full impression that giants
+with wooden legs were disporting themselves amongst the clock-work.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0720_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0720_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Inside the “Oriental Greek” churches the banners, together with the
+tables on which the sacred relics reposed, were draped with black.
+Tall tapers burned at sombre<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> shrines erected for the occasion in
+the centre of the nave, and which were approached by a pathway of
+trees and flowers growing in large tubs—oleanders, geraniums, roses,
+lilies, and a variety of other plants, too numerous to mention, but
+all out of keeping to our thinking, for it was anything but a pathway
+of flowers which <i>He</i> trod, whose sufferings and death the people
+were commemorating. At the end of the long pathway was a canopy draped
+in violet, beneath which, on an altar, rested a silver crucifix
+and relics, and above a life-size figure of the Saviour hanging on
+the cross. Towards this men and women, both young and old, pressed
+reverently, and approaching the table on tiptoe lingered before it with
+sad faces and sometimes weeping eyes; they kissed the crucifix and
+relics, and dropped a coin into a bowl, and then stood and gazed again,
+as if reluctant to turn away; and when they did it was with steps soft
+and slow. Notwithstanding the immense crowd—for the great nave was as
+full as it could cram,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> there was perfect stillness and a hush almost
+supernatural, and our hearts were moved by the strong faith and love
+which the people evinced in and for the Holy Hero of the day, as they
+crossed themselves, and gently and sadly turned away to make room for
+other worshippers.</p>
+
+<p>There was no sermon here to-day, for their bishop was dead; but
+crossing the market-place, where men and women were sitting enveloped
+in black sheepskin cloaks and jackets, we entered the cathedral of the
+“United” Greek Church, where one was being preached, and where the
+people were standing and listening attentively to the “old, old Story.”</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>I have travelled in many lands, but it is in Hungary alone that I have
+observed such intense devotion of the people. To them the religion they
+profess is no mere shadow, but a deep, great, and abiding reality. It
+is, however, principally amongst the Greek Catholics of both rites
+that this earnestness in devotion is seen. Although the Greek Church
+is in mourning and its devotees are fasting, it is the vigil of a high
+festival day in the Roman Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>To-morrow is the first day of May, a month of rejoicing, so the
+churches are decorated with flowers, whilst in the streets young girls
+are carrying offerings to lay at the Virgin’s shrine. Following them
+we enter the church of the San Franciscan Friars, a gorgeous edifice
+all tinsel and gold, with life-size, gaudily-painted figures of the
+twelve Apostles, the Virgin, and the Holy Women, all so natural that
+they seem endowed with sound and motion. Round the ledge of the pulpit
+are smaller ones in almost every attitude, some of which are poised
+on one leg, whilst others are hanging to the cornice, all of them so
+marvellously life-like<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> that as we look at them we tremble lest they
+should break their little necks by toppling over on to the floor of the
+nave below. On the sounding-board there is another crowd of puppets,
+no less bewildering to the devout mind; but near the north entrance
+hangs a figure of our Saviour upon the cross, the blue lips, the livid
+face, and the expression of agony all so wonderfully depicted as to be
+painful to look at.</p>
+
+<p>As we left the church the bells were chiming and the people flocking to
+the “Benediction;” whilst in another part of the town devout Jews were
+hastening to their synagogue, for it was the beginning of their Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the hospital of “St. John of God” a funeral passed us.
+First came a small boy in a white surplice and black cassock bearing
+aloft a gilt cross veiled in white muslin, accompanied by other small
+boys; after whom came the priest, followed by several men in the
+ancient costume of the Magyars, in light blue embroidered <i>mentes</i>
+and caps of the same colour adorned with white feathers, the last of
+whom carried on a large white satin cushion a chaplet of flowers. Then
+came the bier, painted in blue and silver, and drawn by white horses
+draped in light blue cloth. Resting on the coffin, which was in the
+shape of a sarcophagus and looked as though it was made of silver,
+there lay at either end a beautiful wreath of flowers, the whole being
+covered with a white lace pall. Carriages followed, in which were
+ladies, but none of them were in mourning.</p>
+
+<p>Meeting a gentleman we asked him whose funeral it was.</p>
+
+<p>“Only that of some citizen,” he replied, and without doing more than
+turn his head, went on his way.</p>
+
+<p>I never saw such a place as Grosswardein for clocks:<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> almost every
+church steeple possesses four dials; but none of them agree as to the
+time, all maintaining a particular one of their own, and none of them
+being right!</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>May Day has come. We were awakened at five o’clock by the strains of a
+military band which according to ancient custom ushers in this golden
+morning by playing in front of the Palace of the Catholic Bishop,
+situated not very far from our own sylvan retreat. Everything wears
+a joyous appearance, even the trains, which are decked with robinia
+boughs, and full of holiday-makers on their way to a village a few
+miles from Grosswardein.</p>
+
+<p>In the evening the <i>cafés</i> are full to overflowing, and the
+gipsies playing in one of them such an exquisite melody as we pass
+that, after listening outside, we enter softly and take our seat.</p>
+
+<p>Like nearly all in Hungary the <i>café</i> in question was kept by a
+Jew; whose young and handsome wife sat beside us. So soon as she had
+ascertained that we were foreigners she sent for her four children and
+made them dance the <i>csárdás</i> to the music of the gipsies, who
+immediately began a lively air. The children were between the ages of
+four and nine, and it was the prettiest and most amusing sight possible
+to see the little creatures now advancing, now retiring coyly, then
+pouting with offended dignity as, pretending to make love, they went
+through all the phases of the dance.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>But to return after this digression to the period included in our
+present visit to Hungary. We get on “swimmingly” in our modest little
+quarters, and enjoying the quiet and repose which they temporarily
+afford us, regard them as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span> an oasis in our travels—a brief rest in
+which to review our past experiences and make plans for the future. All
+is tranquillity until the fourth day of our residence in our little
+Wallach’s rustic dwelling, when her husband, who had been absent on
+our arrival, returned. He was much older than his “better-half,” and,
+were it not that the Wallachs never intermarry with the Jews, one would
+unquestionably have said from his general appearance that he belonged
+to the family of Israel.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment our peace of mind grew less and less. It was quite
+astonishing the quantity of wine we managed to get through. Our tea
+also dwindled most unaccountably. I ventured to hint this to the little
+woman one morning, upon which, throwing her skirt over her head and
+bursting into tears, she exclaimed in broken accents, “<i>Es war immer
+so-o-o!</i>” and her sobs were quite overpowering.</p>
+
+<p>What could we do but beg her to think no more about it? assuring her
+that it must be the cat, or the rats, or the mice, all of which are
+well known to have a weakness for such beverages. How could we bear
+to see her sweet face distorted by weeping? and peace was once more
+restored.</p>
+
+<p>At length, our sojourn ended, the day of reckoning came. The bill,
+which was made out in German characters, was both exorbitant and a
+marvel of ingenuity. The number of eggs we managed to get through
+in one week would have sufficed for a banquet of Hannibal. It was
+surprising, too, the quantity of bread and butter we consumed; and as
+to our behaviour we must have been the most riotous of lodgers, for we
+broke three panes of glass, the backs of two chairs, and wrenched a
+castor off a leg of the sofa;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span> all of which misdemeanours were charged
+as separate items on the bill.</p>
+
+<p>It was amusing to witness András’s energy as he did battle with our
+miscreant host, whose wife did not appear upon the scene. It is only
+fair, however, to say that we saw her more than once during the stormy
+interview, standing behind the door bathed in tears. At length, after
+much expenditure of lungs, András came off victorious, the bill was
+settled to our entire satisfaction, and we were soon rattling over the
+uneven roads on our way to the station.</p>
+
+<p>Here we were detained some considerable time whilst a train was leaving
+with a crowd of emigrants on their way to the United States. We had
+read that morning in a Wallach newspaper that 8000 Slovaks had also
+started from the north of Hungary for the same happy region, after
+having sold their property for a mere nothing. But our own train is
+ready at last, and entering the blazing Alfőld, the heat becomes almost
+suffocating, the sun shining fiercely as it only does on plains. The
+sheep-dogs pant as they throw themselves down on the parched ground;
+in the distant horizon, however, long bands of dark cloud, extending
+perpendicularly to the thirsty earth, show that a gracious rain is
+falling. The cattle turn their heads to face the breeze which the storm
+brings with it. In the marshes the tall pampas canes bow their plumes
+and rock to and fro, and there is a grateful smell of earth refreshed
+by falling showers. The water ripples in the pools, and scuds before
+the wind, which soon increases to a gale. The storm overtakes us and
+the rain comes pattering down, but it is too fierce to last; in less
+than an hour it passes over, and the sun shines bright as ever, whilst
+to our left a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> rainbow embraces with its splendid arch half the circuit
+of the plains.</p>
+
+<p>In the carriage with us was a gentleman, a native of Szegedin,
+returning to that ill-starred city, after having been to Pest on
+matters connected with its rebuilding.</p>
+
+<p>A thriving place of seventy thousand inhabitants, it is difficult
+to realise that it has virtually passed away; that interesting city
+memorable as being near the spot where the first Hungarian Diet under
+Arpád was held, and which consequently received the name of “The
+district of organisation;” for here, on the establishment of the Magyar
+camp, a grand assembly was held, composed of heads of families and the
+chieftains of the various tribes, and at which the political affairs
+of the clans were discussed, and their relative positions determined;
+that strange city of pure Magyars, with its mixture of races; Germans,
+Christianised Jews, Nazarenes, and ennobled Greeks; above all, that
+city of Radicals, upon which Kossuth profanely declared he would build
+his dynasty; the words with which he ended his memorable speech, that
+was the immediate cause of the civil war of 1848, being, “<i>De én is
+mondom néked: Te Szeged vagy, és ezen a kősziklán épitem fel az én
+egyházamat: és a pokol kapui nem vehetnek azon diadalmat.</i>” (“And I
+say also unto thee that thou art Szegedin, and upon this rock I will
+build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”)</p>
+
+<p>But the foundations of that “rock” on which he was to build his
+dynasty—so much for the prophecies of the wisest of dictators—long
+undermined, have now crumbled to the dust, and Szegedin—the Szegedin
+that is that <i>he</i> knew, with its one-storied houses, white
+gables, and long wide streets,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> built, one would think, on the model
+of the camp of the Magyar’s warlike ancestors—is now no more, and
+a new Szegedin is fast rising like a phœnix from its ashes, a finer
+and better city with nobler houses, but one that will lack much of
+the historical interest of the former. Active measures have already
+been taken for its complete restoration, and the Dual-Monarchy is
+endeavouring to raise a loan of ten millions of florins to be lent to
+the inhabitants to enable them to rebuild their unfortunate capital.</p>
+
+<p>Not many years ago this ill-fated district, which has so often been
+the sport of nature, suffered fearfully from a severe drought which
+occasioned a terrible famine, and in 1863 from the ravages of cholera.
+In fact its dwellers have always existed on the confines of two
+impending calamities, which might occur at any moment—absence of rain,
+causing the destruction of their crops, and inundation, which might at
+any time not only overwhelm the surrounding country, but render their
+city a heap of ruins.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0790_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0790_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE “QUEEN OF THE ALFŐLD.”</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">The terrible catastrophe which overtook Szegedin in the spring of 1879
+must still be within the recollection of every English person. No
+surer destruction fell upon that other great City of the Plain than
+that which lately visited the “Queen of the Alfőld,”—as Szegedin was
+called—by an element no less omnipotent, and through whose destructive
+power seven thousand houses were utterly destroyed, many more rendered
+uninhabitable, and seventy thousand persons—the whole once thriving
+population—rendered homeless.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0800_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0800_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The floods which converted no fewer than nine hundred English square
+miles of rich pasture, and tracts of land cultivated with maize, into a
+turbid ocean, were caused by the bursting of the dykes.</p>
+
+<p>The position of Szegedin had always been a most perilous one. Situated
+in the centre of an alluvial plain, which lies<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> even below the surface
+of the river, it was impossible not to foresee that a time might, and
+no doubt would, come, when the Theiss, no longer capable of being
+restrained by any human barrier, would gain the mastery, and the
+imprisoned waters by bursting through the artificial boundaries must
+render the condition, not only of Szegedin itself, but of all the towns
+and villages in its vicinity, one of extreme danger.</p>
+
+<p>The greater number of the inhabitants of the unfortunate city, however,
+“laughed at the idea” of such a calamity befalling them, and pointed
+to the dykes of Percsora, which enclosed for thirty miles the windings
+of the river in a northerly direction, and also to that other means of
+defence, the dam of the Alfőld railway, which likewise afforded the
+city protection from the north.</p>
+
+<p>But whilst the majority of its dwellers denied the probability, like
+men who close their minds to a distant danger and will not allow it
+to take possession of their senses, there were others in whose hearts
+there always existed a latent dread that it would not be very long
+before a disaster of the kind would befal them. In the vain hope of
+averting the calamity, the dykes were raised to keep pace with the
+increase of the river’s bed each year, but none—not even the most
+gloomy of Szegedin’s prophets, anticipated how soon Nemesis would
+indeed descend upon them, or how terrible a catastrophe it would bring
+when it at length overtook the city.</p>
+
+<p>The river Theiss—the Tibiscus of the ancients—a broad and navigable
+river, takes its rise in the Carpathian Mountains not far from the
+provinces of Gallicia and Bukovina; and the inundations, which in
+a greater or less degree are of annual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> occurrence in some part or
+other of the Alfőld, are primarily due to the melting of the snow on
+the higher peaks, and the wearing away of the rocks through which the
+infant river passes, together with the sand it necessarily brings with
+it in its progress southwards, all of which cause its bed to rise
+slightly year by year. Flowing to meet the Theiss from the eastern
+frontier of Hungary come the waters of the Marős—the principal river
+in Transylvania, whose birth-place is in the Transylvanian Alps,
+and which empties itself into the Theiss at Szegedin. It was in the
+triangular space formed by the junction of these two great rivers, the
+Theiss flowing due south, and the Marős due west, that the fearful
+disaster occurred, the space in question being, as we have already
+shown, an immense alluvial plain.</p>
+
+<p>Our fellow traveller, before alluded to as a native of Szegedin, spoke
+German fluently, and we had consequently no difficulty in conversing
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>“Ah!” he exclaimed, referring to the fall of the city, “you see me an
+old man and my hair is grey, though before that time it was not so.
+Scarcely more than two years have passed since it happened, yet full
+twenty have been added to my life.”</p>
+
+<p>His appearance truly bore out his words; he was one who looked
+prematurely old, as those do on whom some overwhelming shock has
+passed, and whose nervous system has no strength to rally from the
+blow. He had somehow a kind of scared look, and as the harrowing memory
+of those long nights and days came over him his face grew inexpressibly
+sad.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you lose any friend during the floods?” we asked, not liking
+to cause him pain, yet at the same time unwilling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> to appear
+unsympathising in forbearing to make the inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he replied after a pause, sighing deeply, “yes, I lost—a
+<i>friend</i>,”—adding, “It was not only the loss of kith and
+kin—which, considering the colossal nature of the catastrophe, was
+comparatively small—that made shipwreck of the lives of so many of us
+big, strong fellows; it was the sight of the women and the children.
+Ah! there were scenes by the hundred occurring every day during that
+period that were dreadful enough to turn the hair of men far younger
+than I am as white as snow. Would you learn a little of the melancholy
+story from an eyewitness? It will make you sad, for you English have
+kind hearts as we in very truth experienced then.”—“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, it was on the fourth day of March that the danger began. The
+waters which had already inundated the surrounding country, impatient
+of restraint, made a wide breach in the dyke running to the north of
+the river, and rushed towards the one which extended to the eastern
+extremity of the town. From this moment the peril to the city became
+imminent, and measures were immediately taken to provide for the safety
+of other parts of the dykes, as well as to repair the ruptures already
+caused. Soldiers were summoned from Temesvár, and lifeboats from
+distant ports to rescue, in case of need, the threatened lives of the
+inhabitants. Every man in Szegedin worked night and day to barricade
+the dams, but all was vain, for after eight days’ agonising suspense,
+during which the water like a greedy monster continued to rise and
+swallow up the land, a fearful tempest of wind and rain, like a
+visitation from the avenging powers of Heaven, broke over the condemned
+city, and added to the might of the rivers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span></p>
+
+<p>“In the darkness of the following night, just before dawn began to
+break, the Alfőld dam, the very bulwark of Szegedin, gave way also,
+and the inundation of the town itself began. The waters burst in upon
+us with a roar, like that of a mighty cataract. Alarm-bells sounded to
+warn the citizens to flee the danger, and from that moment the scene
+was one of wild confusion, for all knew then that their beloved homes
+were doomed.</p>
+
+<p>“As soon as daylight enabled those who manned the pontoons to see their
+way through the turbid, seething volume of water, which tore through
+the thoroughfares, many thousands were borne in comparative safety to
+New Szegedin on the opposite side of the river, but most of the poor,
+frightened, panic-stricken souls clung with tenacity to their homes in
+the vain hope that the tempest might abate and the waters subside, till
+they were compelled at length to take refuge on the house-tops from the
+cruel death that assailed them on every side. But even here they found
+no safety, for the foundations of their dwellings—sapped by the raging
+current which tore up everything before it—gave way one by one, and
+their houses, crumbling beneath their feet, fell with a dull crash.</p>
+
+<p>“A boat having capsized, belonging to one of the rescuing parties, and
+all hands having perished, I volunteered to join the band. I had lost
+sight of my wife and children on that first terrible night, and knew
+not where they were, or if alive. Of the latter’s safety, however,
+I learnt two days after; for they had been found, and carried to a
+village six miles distant. It was quite impossible in those awful days
+of confusion and turmoil for families to keep together. Some lost
+their reason from the fright, whilst others—children especially—got<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>
+overwhelmed and separated from their parents by the very vehemence and
+pressure of the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>“But as I have said I was alone, and having none to care for, I joined
+those who went to the rescue with an aching heart, yet hoping that in
+this way I might chance to light upon my dear ones, and maybe save
+them. The shrieks of women and children were dreadful to hear above the
+terrific roar of waters, the deafening noise of the falling buildings,
+and the shouts of the rescuing parties as they poled their way along.
+It needed a strong, clear head, and a steady hand to steer through
+the floating timber and avoid the numerous objects that, collecting
+as they went, heaped themselves one upon another, and formed eddies
+and whirlpools strong enough to suck us under if we had not taken
+care. The piteous cries for help, too, that greeted us on every side
+were bewildering; sometimes we knew not to whose rescue first to go.
+Nor only this. Often, when we had succeeded in getting the pontoon
+alongside, and were just about to take a family on board, the swift
+current bearing down upon us with tremendous force, bringing down with
+it a tangled heap of household goods, with now and then a human body in
+the midst, would come against it, and hurl us ten or twenty yards away.
+My God! to hear the shrieks of the women then, as we were borne thus
+irresistibly away, and they knew that with us their hopes of safety
+vanished! The men, though, uttered not a groan, but as we left them,
+folded their arms as if to confront the king of terrors with a steady
+gaze, whilst others took the swooning women in their arms, and gently
+laid them down beside them, and chafed their hands and feet, as if,
+poor souls, it were better to bring life to them again, than to leave
+them to die all unconscious as they were.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Never can I forget one poor woman who was standing alone upon some
+scaffolding which, with a child in her arms, she had managed to climb.
+Carried along by the swift current we were passing down the middle of
+a broad thoroughfare with fearful speed, when looking up I saw her
+preparing to throw herself into the surging waters under the belief
+that we should be able to take her into the boat. We had lost our rope,
+however, the pontoon having been almost swamped a moment before, and
+without this it would have been impossible to save her.</p>
+
+<p>“‘Stay where you are,’ I shouted, ‘and wait for the next. It is your
+only chance of safety.’</p>
+
+<p>“Tearing the child from her bosom and uttering a despairing cry she
+threw it down in the direction of the boat. ‘Then, save my child,’ she
+cried, ‘or it will fall from my grasp, my strength is gone.’</p>
+
+<p>“One of my comrades caught it in his arms, and taking off his jacket he
+wrapped the little creature in it—it was but a mere infant—and laid
+it in the bottom of the boat, half dead as it seemed from long exposure
+to the cold.</p>
+
+<p>“As night wore on the horrors of the situation increased tenfold.
+Complete darkness reigned. There was no gas nor light of any kind to
+lessen the all-pervading gloom. The waters still rose, whilst, to add
+to our cup of misery already more than full, another hurricane more
+terrific than the first burst over us and ceased not to rage till
+morning broke. As I sit here and look back upon that awful night I
+wonder how any of us survived it, so exhausted were we by hunger and
+fatigue.”</p>
+
+<p>“But what of the child?” we enquired, interrupting him; for we were
+anxious to hear its fate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Washed away,” was the reply. “Our pontoon struck against a raft that
+came bearing down upon us, and upon which we ourselves had to take
+refuge whilst we baled the water out, for we had again been well-nigh
+capsized, and when we had accomplished this we found the little
+bundle—<i>Häufchen</i>, as our narrator called it—<i>gone</i>, washed
+away, though we perceived it not in the din, confusion, and difficulty
+consequent upon righting ourselves, for we were this time nearly made a
+wreck.</p>
+
+<p>“Hearing the following morning from the crew of a passing boat that
+numbers of persons had fled to the woods on the previous day, and
+knowing what their fate must be, we hastened to their rescue. As the
+waters rose they had climbed the trees, where, exhausted by fatigue
+and benumbed with cold, they were dropping off the branches one by one
+like flies. Some few poor creatures with a harrowing scream appeared to
+<i>throw</i> themselves in voluntarily to put an end to their misery,
+whilst others fell quietly with no sound beyond a dull, dull ‘plash’
+which will haunt me to my dying day.</p>
+
+<p>“We had managed to save several, and were just poling off with our
+human freight, when a woman floating in the water clutched violently at
+the boat.</p>
+
+<p>“In an instant I realised the danger. She would drown us all, for we
+were so heavily laden that the boat was scarce above the surface of
+the water. Stooping I seized her hands and wrenching them off the boat
+I pushed her back with all my strength. She recognised and called me
+by my name, but it was <i>too late</i>, she sank, and was—may Heaven
+forgive me!—<i>my wife</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>He was, alas! but one out of many, who, during this our last visit to
+Hungary—when men’s minds were still full of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> bitter recollections
+connected with the catastrophe—gave us a thrilling account of the
+fearful tragedies which occurred during that prolonged period of agony.
+Parents lost their children and husbands their wives, and in some
+instances were uncertain of their fate for weeks together, so great was
+the confusion that existed long after the source of the disaster had
+passed away.</p>
+
+<p>As we listened to these sad tales, feeling thankful our own lot had
+been cast in a more favoured land, we were gradually nearing Arád, and
+it was not long ere we reached the station, when with a hearty shake of
+the hand the Hungarian left us for a train that would take him on to
+Szegedin.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>A group of men were here engaged in the construction of a new line, and
+as we watched them we marvelled that anything was ever completed in
+this land of slow workers. Every man was smoking. Leisurely taking up
+a small shovel-full of earth he deposited it on the heap; then leaning
+on his implement he paused to take a whiff at his pipe to enable
+him to gather the needful strength to take up another shovel-full;
+after which followed another pause, and so on. These slow but strong,
+broad-shouldered, and muscular Hungarian navvies would soon drive an
+English engineer absolutely mad.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0890_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0890_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>At Arád we stay to dine, and ere we journey on again, the shadows
+have begun to lengthen on the plains, and peasants are returning from
+their toil. The pastures, which an hour ago were full of life, are
+now almost deserted, and by the time we see the first dim outline of
+the Transylvanian Alps, the sky’s deep orange has paled into citron,
+citron into faint green, green into pink and violet. Each moment<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>
+the hills grow higher, bluer they rest their summits on the sky, and
+evening is falling fast. A long row of stately poplars rearing their
+heads aloft guard the entrance to a peaceful village, where women in
+short red petticoats and blue kerchiefs round their heads are driving
+home herds of long-haired goats. At the station men in large, high
+lamb’s wool caps like mops come in groups to meet their friends,
+greeting them with words that sound like “<i>Sobosh! sobosh!</i>” An
+aged “pilgrim father” descends from the train and walks across the
+platform leaning on his staff, his long white hair hanging in tangled
+masses over his shoulders. Girls bring water in classical-shaped
+pitchers, and hold up glasses of it to the thirsty passengers, crying
+“<i>Frisches Wasser!</i>” And again starting on our way we reach the
+Marős, a beautiful stream, bounded on either side by lofty mountains.
+On the spur of a rocky promontory stands<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span> what appears to be an
+imposing castle, but which on nearer approach proves to be one of
+those fortified Burgher citadels of which we shall see so many in
+Transylvania and which add so great an interest to that land. The sun
+is setting behind the loftiest peak and casting its crimson reflection
+into the deep and winding river, on the margin of which some fishermen,
+having moored their boat, are cooking their evening meal. Away, beneath
+the mountain summits, and behind us out in the solitary plains, long
+belts of fires are gleaming red. Are the people burning down the
+precious forests as the Wallachs are known to do in the mountains of
+the Danube, or are they merely those of the thoughtful husbandmen
+burning the useless stubble of last year’s maize?</p>
+
+<p>In the marshes the frogs begin their concert, each tribe inhabiting one
+marsh doing its best to outdo their neighbours like “loud-contending
+factions;” whilst in the moist warm grasses of the surrounding plains
+the locusts do the same, and we are everywhere favoured with a
+deafening serenade.</p>
+
+<p>About eight o’clock the following morning we reach Karlsburg, the
+fortress of which stands on a prominent hill surrounded by mountains
+of very singular and unquestionably volcanic origin. It is here that
+the gold found in the districts of Abrudbánya and Verespatak is sent
+to be coined. The mineral riches of Transylvania are both various and
+abundant, gold, silver, and nearly all the less precious metals being
+found in these mountains.</p>
+
+<p>It is only 170 miles from Arád to Hermannstadt—our first
+stopping-place in Transylvania—but it takes eighteen hours to
+accomplish that distance, and we shall not reach<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> the pleasant little
+capital till to-morrow morning if we ever do. Fortunately a gentleman
+with whom we travelled from a place called Radna-Lippa, and who
+alighted at a lonely little village containing nothing, so far as
+we could see in the moonlight, but a few wattled huts and a wayside
+shrine, bestowed upon us ere he left the carriage a bottle of old Tokay
+which he had brought with him for his own refection. How we blessed him
+afterwards for the generous gift which alone imparted the necessary
+strength to enable us to survive the tedium of the journey. Were I
+but a poet and a man I would write an ode to thee, oh, thou fragrant,
+topaz-coloured wine of wines, sweet, full-bodied, but never-cloying
+“pick-me-up,” immortal Tokay!</p>
+
+<p>At length dawn comes creeping over the mountain-tops, followed by
+little crimson cloudlets winging their messages to man that night is
+over, and the toils of day must soon begin. One by one the sleepy
+villages awake, smoke curls upwards through the roofs of the wattled
+huts, and we pass a crucifix beneath which two persons are already
+kneeling. It is only in “Christian England” where men are ashamed to be
+seen praying.</p>
+
+<p>It is another saint’s day. Every day would seem to be one in Hungary!
+“Tinkle, tinkle” go the cracked bells from the small steeples which
+rise above the melancholy cemeteries filled with large square ungainly
+mounds, one of the peculiarities of the Greek Church in this part
+of Hungary, for we have now entered Transylvania which constitutes
+its most eastern portion, “The land beyond the forest,” as its name
+implies. On the low wall of a hut sits a youthful shepherd playing his
+pastoral pipe—a simple little instrument made of a piece of green
+stick,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> whilst his swine feed below on the hard dry stalks of last
+year’s maize and the thistles which grow between.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0920_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0920_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Beyond all is a glorious background of snow-clad Alps; till, arriving
+at a junction, at which we learn we have to wait two mortal hours for
+another train, we alight for breakfast, after which, lumbering on
+again, we enter a barren country surrounded by immense sand-hills,
+covered with stunted grass on which herds of buffalo are grazing.</p>
+
+<p>The lowlands are white with deposits of salt, which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span> lying upon the
+soil greatly impairs its fertility. In some places the earth is
+honey-combed with salt mines, and we crawl along at the magnificent and
+exciting speed of four miles an hour. In other places the line has been
+artificially raised to admit of our passing over many miles of bog;
+the whole country consisting of a huge morass in which grow clumps of
+pampas-grass, ten and twelve feet high. In the carriage with us is an
+Austrian engineer on his way to a part of the line where attempts are
+being made to build a bridge, but which as yet have been unsuccessful
+on account of the difficulty experienced in laying the foundations,
+the bog in the majority of places proving almost fathomless. Although
+constructed by an English company, this railway is said to be the very
+slowest line in Europe; but after twenty-four hours’ prolonged torture,
+for our train is of course two hours behind its time, our miseries are
+ended at last by its arrival at our destination.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p0930_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p0930_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.<br>
+<span class="subhed">HERMANNSTADT.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">What a quaint, funny, mediæval old town Hermannstadt is, with its
+heavy stone archways and strong oaken doors leading to passages and
+<i>inner</i> archways far far beyond! Wherever we cast our eyes we
+see objects that remind us of pictures of Albert Dürer, and one seems
+here to be living in the times and place in which Hans Sachs composed
+his rhymes whilst hammering away at his boots and shoes. Many of the
+houses are built over archways which lead to sombre courtyards, round
+which are high wooden balconies, where youthful Juliets make love to
+Romeos in the region of the gutters below, and women sit and knit and
+gossip—yes, and quarrel too; for have I not heard the sweet rancour
+of their tongues, whilst watching them from my own particular balcony,
+within the courtyard of the hotel? Aye, and sketched them too.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath these wooden balconies are stables and pumps and dark rooms,
+with walls so strongly built and doors so thick and massive that they
+might have been made to withstand a siege—as probably they were.
+Everything wears such an old-world look, that the brand-new houses
+which have managed to crop up here and there between the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> ancient ones
+appear so out-of-place, and altogether such anachronisms, that one
+feels inclined to request them to “move on,” in default of which to
+burn them down or blow them up, in fact <i>anything</i> to get rid of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>What a dear, ugly, hobgobliny old place the hotel is too, at which we
+are staying, with its heavy round buttresses bulging out far into the
+street, and deep-set windows with here and there a small room clinging
+to the walls, in the region of the upper story, like a convenient
+parasite. Our room, whose furniture takes us back to the middle ages,
+also juts out in the same way, and from the window we look down upon
+the heads of the passers-by. Nothing is new in the hotel but the
+waiting-maid, a rosy, fair-haired lass, with a pair of such ponderous
+“understandings” that we positively shudder as she walks across the
+room, everything is so old and shaky.</p>
+
+<p>The hotel itself is ascended by a long flight of irregular stone
+steps walled in on either side with heavy masonry, in which are
+loopholes commanding an extensive view of the stables and the kitchen
+below—apartments which in Transylvania are usually contiguous. The
+<i>Speisesaal</i> is entered through a long dark room with a polished
+floor, and contains besides a mangle, two oak presses black with age,
+and a coffer large enough to have been the sarcophagus of Cheops.
+Groping our way along with many a slide—surely the house must have
+been built at a time when some stringent law existed for excluding the
+light of heaven—we reach the dining hall. Here we nightly consume our
+<i>Hammelsbraten</i> and <i>Kalbs-schnitzel</i>, and, I am afraid,
+grumble. Then making our way back again in fear and trembling to our
+own room, we pass a balcony so shaky in its entire constitution that,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>
+were we but to cough or sneeze at the moment of crossing it, we feel
+sure the whole crazy structure must topple over into the yard beneath.</p>
+
+<p>Hermannstadt, although politically an important place, being the
+military capital of Transylvania, possesses nothing in its outward
+aspect to warrant the conclusion, its appearance differing little from
+a German town. Should, however, the proposed railway to Bucharest
+be carried into effect, Hermannstadt will be the shortest route to
+Constantinople, and, by becoming the connecting link between West and
+East, must greatly increase both in size and importance.</p>
+
+<p>In no part of Hungary does there exist so great an anomaly as this
+district of Transylvania, which is peopled by a race calling themselves
+“Saxons,” and their province “Saxon-land,” although their ancestors
+emanated from a widely different quarter.</p>
+
+<p>These colonists are in fact of Flemish origin, descendants of a people
+inhabiting Flanders, a district of the Upper Rhine, who, styling
+themselves Flandrenses, emigrated hither in 1141. Hungary, however,
+being a kingdom of anomalies, it is only natural and proper they should
+call themselves “Saxons,” and their adopted country “Saxon-land,” or
+anything else they choose.</p>
+
+<p>At the period of their immigration, Transylvania—which even now forms
+the border-land separating civilisation from barbarism—so beautiful
+and peaceful in its outward aspect, was frequently the scene of
+bloodshed and devastation arising from the incursions of barbarian
+hordes from the East, who, entering through the passes of the Southern
+Carpathians, menaced it perpetually, until the fruitful land had
+well-nigh become a desert.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p>
+
+<p>Transylvania was not wholly unknown to the ancient dwellers on the
+Western river; the Crusaders had passed through it on their way to and
+from the “Holy City,” and had carried home with them wondrous tales of
+the fair and fertile country on the eastern borders of Europe. It was
+a land of green hills and vales, and fertilising streams like their
+own, a land literally flowing with milk and honey; in short a goodly
+land where men might plant and reap the fruits of the earth, and gather
+into barns in rich plenty. So it came to pass that when the Voivode, or
+Palatine of the province—who in those days held office under the King
+of Hungary—sent an invitation to the quiet and industrious inhabitants
+of Flanders to come over and re-people the beautiful but unfortunate
+country he ruled, and accompanied his invitation by a promise of grants
+of land to any that would avail themselves of it, not a few responded
+to the call, nor did they come alone, but brought over with them men
+of their own race, skilled in “divers curious arts of workmanship, and
+cunning artificers in precious metals,” so that their fame soon spread
+abroad throughout the length and breadth, not only of Transylvania, but
+of the more eastern countries still, viz., Moldavia, Wallachia, and
+Bukovina. Their wares—the wonder and admiration of all—were sought
+after from every quarter, and the Flandrenses speedily became, not only
+a thriving, but even a wealthy, people.</p>
+
+<p>The position which these early colonists held in the country of
+their adoption was assured to them by a kind of <i>Magna Charta</i>
+which, whilst defining their rights and privileges, constituted them
+an entirely free people, ruled by no Voivode—as were the other
+inhabitants of the land—but governed simply by their own laws.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is both curious and interesting to read the history of this brave
+little band who ventured to roam thus far from their own kindred and
+people and tongue, to dwell in a strange and almost barbarian country;
+and—following their fortunes through its pages—note how they managed
+to hold their own against all attempts at aggression, and how stern
+and unflinching was their determination to prevent all outsiders from
+gaining a footing in their newly-acquired territory, not excepting
+even the peaceful dwellers of other parts of the Hungarian Monarchy,
+some of whom would fain have cast in their lot with these thriving
+and more civilised people from the West, of whom all spoke well and
+whom all envied. But the Flandrenses, like the Scots of our own time,
+are said to have been a “canny” folk, exclusive and conservative to
+a degree. They would have no interlopers, “not they.” None should be
+permitted directly or indirectly to share their new possessions, or
+who could tell but that such interlopers might increase and multiply,
+till, waxing bold in numbers, they might even intermeddle with their
+laws and manner of governing themselves, and if so there would be war
+and dissensions within their otherwise peaceful borders. No! they
+would crush at once and for ever such a possibility, and by excluding
+all outsiders, ensure peace and tranquillity to themselves and to
+their children for all generations. Nor were they firm adherents to
+their political institutions only, for they clung to the faith of
+their forefathers with the greatest tenacity and became the bulwark of
+Christianity in the east of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Of this so-called “Saxon-land,” a district occupying the south-eastern
+portion of Transylvania, Hermannstadt, as we have seen, is
+the chief town. It is situated on a plain at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> foot of the
+Fogaras Mountains—or Transylvanian Alps, as they are frequently
+designated—which for eight months in the year are covered with snow,
+and which, stretching a hundred miles in an easterly direction, embrace
+Kronstadt in their foldings.</p>
+
+<p>Like all towns in Transylvania, which at one time were so frequently
+menaced by the Turks and other wild hordes from the East, Hermannstadt
+was once surrounded by a wall, the remains of which still exist. In
+consequence of being the military capital of the province, and only
+twelve miles from Roumania and Moldavia, it is strongly garrisoned,
+there never at any time being fewer than 8000 soldiers quartered here.
+In 1438 the Turks besieged the town with an army of 70,000 men headed
+by the Sultan Amurad himself, who however was killed by an arrow shot
+from the battlements by one of the brave little band of Flandrenses.</p>
+
+<p>Times have changed since on taking up their dwelling in the land they
+enacted laws to exclude all neighbouring races from becoming residents
+in their midst—laws which, though rigidly maintained for centuries,
+proved not quite so unalterable as those of the Medes and Persians. By
+slow degrees, entering in the first instance either as labourers of
+the soil or domestic servants, the Wallachs have at length succeeded
+in gaining a permanent footing in “Saxon-land,” till in the 19th
+century we find them forming large colonies in that portion of their
+country which long years ago was ceded to the stranger. Nor is this
+the strangest feature of the case. This industrious and prosperous
+“Saxon” folk are not only losing their political ascendency but are
+fast dying out, and the Wallachs will soon take their place as the
+dominant race even within the ancient Flandrenses’<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> own borders; for
+the Wallach population is increasing in the same ratio as the “Saxon”
+is decreasing. In some of the villages in “Saxon-land” the population,
+without any emigration or other visible cause, has decreased to one
+half, and should the high rate of mortality which for the last century
+and a half has been steadily augmenting, continue to increase in future
+years in the same proportion, this Flemish people, who have done so
+much towards the civilisation of Transylvania, and aided so materially
+in the prosperity of the whole province, will soon cease to be lords of
+the soil which was given to their ancestors seven hundred years ago,
+and take a very secondary position.</p>
+
+<p>Although they have been so prosperous a people, these honest
+Flandrenses would have been far happier had they remained in their
+own quiet little corner on the peaceful borders of the Rhine than in
+allying themselves to the fortunes of this fertile but hapless country;
+for until a century ago they were beset with foes, and the troubles
+they continually encountered make dark blots on the pages of history.</p>
+
+<p>Like the rest of Hungary, Transylvania—which was annexed to the
+Kingdom of Hungary by St. Stephen in 1002 and governed by viceroys
+appointed by the king under the title of Voivode—has undergone
+manifold political changes as well as very painful vicissitudes. In
+the 14th and 15th centuries the Moslems, whose empire was then at its
+zenith, entering through the mountain passes, continued to menace this
+fair land with their wild hordes, until, like the waves of an advancing
+tide, they threatened to inundate the whole country.</p>
+
+<p>During this time, so complete had been the victories<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> of the Turks
+that only a small portion of Hungary, and that a long thin strip of
+country, bounded on the north-west by Poland and on the west by the
+German Empire, remained in the possession of the Christian. At length
+Transylvania, which had always been considered an integral portion of
+Hungary, was again reunited to that kingdom during the revolutionary
+period of 1848.</p>
+
+<p>It is mid-day and the stream of busy life is flowing steadily onwards
+to the market—Hermannstadt ladies, with small waists and fashionable,
+well-made garments, holding large fans to shield themselves from the
+sun in lieu of parasols, and merry laughing “Saxon” girls in large
+straw hats, and Wallach matrons with their heads swathed in numberless
+yards of snow-white muslin folded turban-wise, a species of head-gear
+called a <i>volutura</i>. Besides these are grave, but pretty, little
+Wallach damsels. Oh, <i>how</i> pretty! with their sweet, smooth, oval
+faces, and slender figures robed in the home-made “<i>kathrincza</i>,”
+an almost Roman dress, differing materially from that worn by the
+natives of Wallachia proper and far more classical. It consists of a
+long straight piece of cloth of many colours worn over the white under
+garment, the bodice and sleeves of the latter being embroidered in
+scarlet or black so as to bring out the graceful contour of the figure.
+Falling low over the neck and chest are endless rows of coral beads;
+whilst large silver earrings of an eastern pattern united to each other
+by a silver chain which hangs loosely under the chin complete the
+charming <i>tout ensemble</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The “Saxons” differ from their Wallach sisters in face as well as
+figure, and even if they wore a similar costume it would be quite
+impossible not to recognise them. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span> Wallachs are small and
+delicately formed, possessing features of a classic type and generally
+dark hair and eyes; the “Saxons,” on the contrary, are of a heavier
+build, their complexion is fair, and they have blue eyes, but were
+it not for their frank and pleasing expression of countenance, their
+features would be almost plain.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1030_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1030_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>There is no prettier sight in the whole of Hungary than that which
+Hermannstadt presents on the weekly market-day. The surroundings of
+the market-place itself; the quaint old steeples and metal cupolas of
+the cathedral and churches that form the background, the scores of
+milk-white oxen with their long horns; the bewitching costumes of the
+Wallach girls, and the bright faces and laughing eyes of the “Saxons”
+who look up at us archly, yet so innocently, from beneath the warm
+shadow of their large broad hats, all forming pictures for an artist.
+Look at that “Saxon” lass yonder, with her frank open face! See how
+her bosom throbs under her embroidered bodice, and the colour comes
+mantling to her brow as she sees she has attracted the attention of
+the two strangers, of whose nationality she is in doubt! Let us go
+across to that group of Madonna-like vegetable-sellers in their snowy
+“<i>voluturas</i>,” squatting on the ground all amongst the hay-carts
+and the long-horned cattle, and watch the bargaining! Near them sit
+other women selling fowls and little families of chickens, and by them
+stand “Saxon” <i>Bürgers</i> and natty <i>cuisinières</i> haggling over
+their purchases as though the money they had to spend was the very
+last farthing they had in the world. A Bürger female comes stalking up
+and commences negotiations for a brood so extremely juvenile that they
+ought to have been safe at home under the maternal wing. The Wallach
+Frau asks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> four gulden for the lot, at which the Bürger female holds
+up her hands in astonishment and declares they are not worth two, and
+turns aside. Hitherto they have been peaceably huddled together in a
+long circular basket the shape of a cone. But on seeing her customer
+depart, the Wallach Frau forces her hand through the small square
+hole in the side of the basket, and clutching hold of the chickens as
+though they had been a cluster of grapes, drags them forth, thrusts
+them into the hand of the Bürger, and asks her to name her own price.
+She offers two gulden, whereupon the Wallach Frau, with an air of
+offended dignity, uttering not a word, lays hold of the little brood of
+feathered bipeds and amidst their screams pushes them one after another
+into the basket, head first, legs first, just as it comes, and shuts
+down the cover. After a while the Bürger female returns to the charge,
+and peers at them again, upon which their possessor once more lugs them
+out of the basket in the same promiscuous fashion. The Bürger takes
+them in her hand and feels their weight—the whole ten of those little
+niggers together could not have weighed a pound—and this time offers
+two gulden twenty kreuzers, upon which the Wallach<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span> declares on the
+soul of her grandmother she will rather take them home than part with
+them at the price, and in they go again through the hole.</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes’ time the sanguine little band, alike forgetful of
+their sorrows and their wrongs, and quite at home in their familiar
+prison-house, begin to chirp quite a merry gladsome little song.
+But the Wallach meanwhile is narrowly watching the movements of her
+customer just in the act of concluding a similar bargain with a
+broad-faced “Saxon” Frau opposite. Making a sudden grab at them, she
+this time drags the poor, ill-used little wretches out by their wings
+and eagerly rushing towards the Bürger female, declares she shall have
+them for the sum offered, whereupon, crying piteously, they are finally
+thrown head over heels into a sack which the purchaser’s servant
+carries over his shoulder for the purpose, and are borne away to their
+premature doom.</p>
+
+<p>“Who is that youth yonder with his hat adorned with gold tinsel and
+flowers?” we inquire of a “Saxon” lady.</p>
+
+<p>“He is one who is just betrothed,” was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>“And those men standing in the centre of that group of people on the
+opposite side. Who can <i>they</i> be?”—we further ask on observing
+three men carrying white wands to which are attached bunches of flowers
+and long ribbons.</p>
+
+<p>“There is evidently to be a marriage in the course of a few days in a
+village near Hermannstadt, and they are going about to invite the bride
+and bridegroom’s friends. Such things are the custom here,” replied the
+same lady.</p>
+
+<p>From the market we stroll into the Cathedral, a very handsome edifice
+erected in 1440. Like every other Protestant<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span> church in Hungary it
+has suffered much from the “besom of reform,” the beautiful pillars
+being smothered with whitewash. Service was taking place there, and
+the “Saxon” clergyman robed in a garb of the middle ages looked like a
+picture of a Puritan “roundhead” in the time of Cromwell.</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the service he offered to show us the sacred
+edifice, and conducted us to some vaulted chambers which no doubt
+originally constituted the cloisters, the walls of which were covered
+with interesting relics of a past age, consisting of life-size
+portraits graven in marble and stone of worthies who flourished long
+ago—the ancient Bürgers who held office in the town—all depicted in
+the costumes of the period, and telling of people and customs long
+since passed away, yet barbarously, like the pillars of the church,
+daubed with whitewash. Some of these tablets were dated 1300, the
+greater number being of the 14th and 15th centuries. To us there was a
+strange fascination about these old monuments so grim and silent, and
+we lingered gazing at them, till the Herr Pfarrer, taking off his black
+cocked hat, requested us to re-enter the church to see the Sacristy,
+where he would show us the ancient vestments and sacred vessels.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the market-place we find a momentary lull in the busy hum
+of voices, and all eyes are turned towards a distant street where a
+funeral procession is slowly wending its way along. At this moment also
+the bells from the various church-steeples begin to twang, each in a
+different key, and every one of them pulled so fast and loudly, that
+were it not for the din and discord, they would have sounded like a
+merry peal. In the direction of the garrison at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> other end of the
+town come the strains of a military band, and amidst the inharmonious
+clamour the melancholy procession, with its flowers, white bows, and
+streamers, and delicate festoons of lace, crosses the market-place and
+disappears down an opposite street.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1060_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1060_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">“THE GOOD OLD TIMES.”</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">The country in the vicinity of Hermannstadt is very beautiful, and
+the villages in many of their characteristics wholly unlike those of
+any other country in the world. A few miles distant is the village of
+Hiltau, also a “Saxon” settlement, where the large straw hats are made
+which adorn the heads of the bonny “Saxon” lasses. At this place also
+the white frieze is manufactured of which the garments of both Saxon
+and Wallach men are composed, and which is exported in great quantities
+to Slavonia and Dalmatia.</p>
+
+<p>Hiltau lies picturesquely embosomed in sheltering hills, whose slopes
+at this time of year are pink with the blossom of the peach. The
+village, as we approach it, forms a charming picture, the quaint stone
+houses with their curious roofs nestling round the old fortress-church,
+which stands on an eminence in the centre; the whole impressing the
+stranger with the notion that the site of the church must have been
+chosen before any of the houses were erected.</p>
+
+<p>Exposed to the incursions of the Turk on one side and the Tartar on
+the other, these churches in Transylvania were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> complete fortresses
+in themselves, and, each possessing a moat, bastions, towers, and
+loop-holed walls of solid masonry, constituted the place of refuge
+to which the inhabitants fled when threatened by either foe. Within
+these consecrated strongholds the people also kept their corn, to the
+end that they might be ready at any moment to resist a siege. Thither
+the affrighted peasants repaired on the first approach of danger from
+the enemy, and whilst the women and children were well protected
+by the towers and battlements that surrounded the sacred edifice,
+the men, armed with matchlocks and rude arquebusses, defended them
+with soldier-like bravery. Within these fortresses the clergyman and
+schoolmaster invariably lived, and so accustomed were the people to
+these sieges that during the time they lasted there was no interruption
+whatever in the customary services of the church, and the children
+likewise attended school while their fathers fired upon the barbarian
+cavalry beneath.</p>
+
+<p>The high walls and elevated position of these little citadels
+rendering them all but invulnerable, they generally held their own
+against the infidel hordes that so frequently assailed them, and
+upon their departure the peaceful peasantry, once more emerging from
+their stronghold, repaired their ruined dwellings, replanted their
+vineyards, and sowed their crops anew, all of which had been ruthlessly
+destroyed by the enemy. In those terrible times a loud curfew, called
+the “Turk’s bell,” rang daily at the hour of noon from the tower of
+every church throughout the land to summon the people not only in the
+towns and villages, but others engaged in the pursuits of husbandry in
+distant fields, to unite in prayer for protection from the Christian’s
+foe.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span> The bells of these citadel-churches, which are very deep and
+sonorous, were also used for the purpose of apprising the people of
+the approaching foe as well as to bid them flee for refuge within the
+consecrated walls.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1090_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1090_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>These “peasant garrisons,” with their watch-towers, portcullises, and
+massive ramparts, are peculiarly interesting to the traveller, not
+only as bearing silent witness to the troublous times which we, in the
+peace of the nineteenth century, find hard to realise, but also to the
+bravery and heroism of the little bands who defended themselves so
+courageously against barbarian invasion; and there is something very
+beautiful in the sentiment that dictated the people’s thus fortifying
+their churches and constituting them their “arks of safety” in the time
+of trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Wandering round the ancient walls of the church in question with its
+many towers and turrets, we came to the church enclosure. Entering
+which we rang the bell of an inner door which we rightly conjectured
+to be that of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span> Pfarrhaus. It was answered by a “Saxon” Mädchen,
+who, informing us the Herr Pfarrer was within, ushered us into a room
+containing numerous flower-stands, on which rested large pots of
+exotics in full bloom, all seeming strangely at variance with their
+austere surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>These Lutheran pastors are always ready to welcome the stranger, and
+after pressing us to partake of refreshment, which in this instance
+we did not feel obliged to accept, he conducted us to the church,
+a singular old building, whose benches were full of black-letter
+prayer-books, and the pulpit surrounded by drapery of Turkish
+manufacture. After examining the interior of the building we walked
+round the enclosure, where, under arches built at regular intervals
+in the fortified walls, still stand the strong oaken coffers filled
+with corn as of yore; for the “Saxons,” no less than the Magyars, are
+a conservative people, adhering tenaciously to the customs of their
+forefathers and slow to relinquish any that have once been adopted,
+even when—as in this case—the necessity for their existence has long
+passed away.</p>
+
+<p>The sacred vessels belonging to the church—many of which were hidden
+in the ground during the stormy period of the Reformation—are of
+singular beauty and value, and consist of chalices and candlesticks of
+ancient workmanship, manufactured in silver-gilt by the early “Saxon”
+colonists, many of them containing enamelled tablets representing
+the various incidents in the life of our Lord. We were also shown a
+magnificent baptismal bowl of the 14th century, on which medallions of
+pure gold were laid in the form of anaglyphs. But besides these relics
+already enumerated were two of still more ancient date, viz. a superb
+crucifix<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span> containing pearls and rubies, and an “<i>Ostensorium</i>,”
+used for the purpose of exposing the consecrated host to the adoration
+of the “Faithful.”</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the church enclosure, the Pfarrer led us to the school,
+and showed us some specimens of free-hand drawing which would have done
+credit to any English seminary. To our surprise we also learnt that the
+higher branches of education were likewise taught, including botany and
+chemistry. Amongst the children we noticed many Wallachs, the Wallach
+peasantry liking of all things to send their children to the “Saxon”
+school, not that they appreciate the better education to be obtained
+there, but it gives them an opportunity of learning German, a language
+which they are quite as anxious to acquire as the Magyars to forget;
+one who can speak “High German” being regarded by the orthodox Wallach
+as a gentleman of distinction, and, in fact, quite a superior order of
+being.</p>
+
+<p>The windows of the school-house commanded a view not only of the church
+with its moat and battlemented walls, but of the village also. How
+peaceful all looked from this eminence, and how difficult it was to
+believe that such times of war and terror ever existed! How wretched
+must have been the lives of the inhabitants in those days—not so very
+long ago either—when they were kept in daily fear of the enemy! How
+could they toil under such circumstances and persevere in cultivating
+the land which was so frequently converted into a desert by the Tartar
+or the Turk, to whom even the stony girdle of the Carpathians proved
+no barrier? We can imagine the honest peasant as he guided the plough
+listening for the alarm bell which might echo through the hills at any
+moment, and the affrighted inhabitants,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span> with their children and aged,
+when it did so, hurrying for safety to the church citadel. To this
+day a Transylvanian mother is said to frighten her naughty child into
+obedience by threats of the Tartar’s approach in the words—“<i>Jhon
+jönnek a Tatárok!</i>”</p>
+
+<p>As we gazed at the picturesque old edifice beneath, which tells such
+a sad, sad history of the past, and whose pinnacles pointing to the
+peaceful sky have withstood so many sieges, a glory of sunlight
+bursting through the clouds shone upon them and kindled the metal balls
+that surmount each pointed turret into a bright and dazzling star.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the fortified churches before mentioned, perched here
+and there on the spur of contiguous mountains or hills are smaller
+ones, originally designed as supplementary defences to the former;
+one of which, erected between the years 1175 and 1223, exists at
+Michaelsburg, a short distance from Hiltau.</p>
+
+<p>Beneath this ancient citadel lies a small hamlet, the houses of which
+are built entirely of wood, and whose picturesque chimneys, high
+palings, and beams supporting the walls, give to it a very romantic
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Here we rest our horses, and climbing the staircase of a primitive
+little inn, find ourselves in a balcony covered in with freshly-cut
+boughs, whence we look down upon the village, almost deserted now, for
+most of its inhabitants, men, women, and children, alike have gone off
+to dig, hoe, or gather into barns the fruits of the fertile soil; for
+the women here take as active a part as their husbands in the pursuits
+of agriculture.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the narrow row of houses with their brown roofs and picturesque
+accessories, the great mountains capped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span> with snow shine out of the
+liquid azure like domes of alabaster; whilst a Wallach woman and child
+walking down the road, the former spinning and clad in a rich mingling
+of orange, red, and violet, complete the scene and form one of the most
+beautiful “colour pictures” I almost ever beheld.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1130_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1130_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The people of these villages speak what is called <i>Platt Deutsch</i>,
+a dialect so singular that we found it quite impossible to understand
+them. It is, however, the language they brought with them to this alien
+land, and which they have managed to preserve intact throughout nearly
+eight centuries of absence from their country, precisely the same
+dialect being spoken by the dwellers in the district of the Lower Rhine
+at the present day.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the “Saxon” settlements in Transylvania, the most interesting is
+perhaps Hamersdorf, also situated a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> few miles from Hermannstadt. It is
+here also that the singular costumes of the “Saxons” are seen in the
+greatest perfection.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a sweet, calm Sunday evening that we visited it for the first
+time. Too late for Divine service, which took place at an earlier hour
+than we anticipated, we arrived just as the villagers were pouring out
+of church, the unmarried women wearing high black velvet hats, from
+which, reaching to the hem of their garments, countless ribbons of
+every hue were suspended, the heads of the young married women being
+covered with embroidered muslin veils. The dress of both is exceedingly
+elaborate, and preparation for church must, I should say, involve
+considerable expenditure of time. There surely never were people so
+hopelessly given over to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world
+as these “Saxon” maids and matrons. Their ornaments also are not only
+beautiful, but often of a very costly description, and consist of
+immense flat circular brooches, resembling breast shields, wrought in
+a species of filigree and inlaid with garnets, turquoises, pearls,
+and amethysts, their waists being encircled with belts of scarcely
+less value and richness of design, inlaid in like manner with precious
+stones, one and all specimens of an art now obsolete—heirlooms handed
+down to them by their ancestors; aye! and perhaps even brought with
+them from the <i>Vaterland</i> when they came over to settle in this
+far distant country.</p>
+
+<p>“Where does the Herr Pfarrer live?” we inquired of three women whose
+heads we could just see peering through a number of flower-pots in a
+window high above us.</p>
+
+<p>“He is at the school,” replied a head enveloped in a blue kerchief,
+speaking with some difficulty in “High German,” as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> the pure
+mother-tongue is called, adding—“If you will walk in we will fetch
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>The process of “walking in,” however, was one of no small difficulty.
+First of all, to which flight of steps did the casement in question
+belong? was it the one round the corner, or that away to the right? or
+was the room approached through that quaint old doorway yonder leading
+to a small courtyard? We incline to the latter, but on entering the
+chamber find it occupied by three men. Meanwhile the owner of the head
+in blue had been searching for us, and coming to our rescue, just as
+we were beating a hasty retreat, conducted us through an archway, up
+six steps, along a passage, in which several immense oak coffers were
+reposing, across an open balcony and finally into the room itself,
+which proved to be quite full of womankind, two of whom, as we soon
+perceived by their dress and general appearance, were Wallachs.</p>
+
+<p>Requesting us to be seated whilst some one fetched the Pfarrer, they
+subjected us to the usual cross-examination.</p>
+
+<p>“Where do the strangers come from?” (a question interrogated in “High
+German” by a Saxon Frau).</p>
+
+<p>“England.”</p>
+
+<p>(Chorus of “Saxons.”) “<i>Ach, die guten Leute!</i>”—Then turning to
+the Wallachs and interpreting the interesting fact into Neo-latin, one
+and all exclaim, “The strangers are from England.”</p>
+
+<p>(Chorus of Wallachs.) “<i>Englesca! Englesca!</i>
+<i>la</i>—<i>la</i>—<i>la!</i>”—the final syllable prolonged
+indefinitely—“that <i>is</i> a long way”—a journey that no doubt
+represented to their minds thousands of miles traversed by the slow
+medium of a <i>szekér</i> or <i>Leiterwagen</i> filled with hay, the
+only modes of locomotion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> with which these simple folk are familiar,
+or, who knows! perhaps, even a ride on camels or elephants.</p>
+
+<p>“Ah!” said another woman, looking very learned, and reminding us of our
+Gallician friend Martcha, “that is where the tea comes from and the
+sugar across the sea in big ships;” for in the uneducated Hungarian
+mind England and India are generally believed to be contiguous islands!</p>
+
+<p>In a few minutes the Herr Pfarrer arrived, a benevolent-looking old man
+with grey hair, who, bearing us off at once to the Pfarrhof, conducted
+us to the room where the family were seated at <i>Abendessen</i>
+(supper). All rose at our entrance and shook us warmly by the hand, and
+the Pfarrer, placing chairs by the table, requested us to join them at
+their meal. Our arrival did not disconcert them in the least. There
+was no more bustle or fuss than if we had been expected guests, and,
+with that well-bred ease with which the stranger is everywhere greeted
+in Hungary, and that graceful inborn courtesy which characterises all
+classes, they bid us welcome to their frugal board.</p>
+
+<p>The dwelling contained numerous rooms, all of which though carpetless
+were comfortably furnished, and, like the Pfarrhaus we had visited
+at Hiltau, there was throughout a fragrant odour of exotic flowers,
+emanating not only from the white clusters of the beautiful
+<i>Stephanotis</i> that was trained round the inside of more than
+one of the windows, but from other flowers blooming on stands in the
+greatest profusion.</p>
+
+<p>Supper ended, they took us to the garden, a sun-dried plot on the slope
+of the hill, surrounded by lilacs, and in which lilies and hyacinths
+were doing their little best to grow; but where nothing seemed to
+luxuriate, save the vine, from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span> which hung clusters of grapes. In the
+dustiest and driest portion of the whole garden was a bower of lilacs
+beneath which were a table and chairs.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, how pleasant it is on a summer evening to have such a place to sit
+in,” exclaimed the Frau Pfarrer in gentle and grateful accents. “It
+is a large garden, is it not? and so full of fruit-trees; only look!
+Are things so <i>very</i> different in your country? Surely they must
+be, or you would not come so far. Have you a garden in your land where
+asparagus, and lilacs, and sweet hyacinths grow?”</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to hear these dear people talk, and see how thoroughly
+contented they were with their simple idyllic lives. After showing us
+the dry little garden and dusty bower, they took us into the <i>hof</i>
+(yard), where the horses were being tended by an idyllic groom, dressed
+in a white leather jacket covered with embroidery, and a felt hat with
+a feather in it, who was talking to the idyllic Mädchen of the manse,
+a blue-eyed “Saxon” lass, attired in a short striped skirt of blue and
+red, violet bodice, and white embroidered chemisette covered with rows
+of coral beads.</p>
+
+<p>“Do many English persons visit Transylvania?” we inquired.</p>
+
+<p>“No! very few,” was the reply. “Some years ago—ah, how time flies!
+it must be fifteen—twenty, an Englishman—Herr Bonar, whom everybody
+loved, stayed many months and wrote a book about our country. He
+visited us a fortnight, and after his departure we received one
+letter, but he never wrote again; it was so long, long ago, he must
+have forgotten us quite, or he would have written,” continued the
+old Pfarrer with something like a sigh; adding after a few moments’
+pause, an expression of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> joy suffusing his whole countenance as a happy
+thought occurred to him, “You live in the same country and may see him;
+if so tell him how he lives in our memories still.”</p>
+
+<p>“We will,” I replied, thinking that as England was such a <i>very</i>
+small place we should in all probability be able to deliver the message!</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>The dew was still lingering on the grass as we journeyed towards
+Hamelsdorf the following Sunday morning on our second visit. The sky
+was cloudless, and as we drove through the lanes, the villagers,
+Bible and nosegay in hand, were walking to their respective churches
+far away. There was a sweet Sabbath feeling in the air, and all
+nature seemed to have hushed itself in harmony with the day. We were
+determined not to be late again on this occasion, and as we reached
+the old pile, which, like all citadel churches in Transylvania, is
+built upon an eminence, the same friendly heads we saw last time
+peeped out of the little high casement and asked us to walk in and sit
+awhile, as it still lacked half an hour ere the bell would sound for
+<i>Gottesdienst</i> (service).</p>
+
+<p>On entering the cottage an unexpected scene awaited us. Two young
+girls, one single, the other married, were being dressed in all their
+finery for church; and, oh! what a heap of pomps and vanities—exhumed
+weekly from the family locker—we saw lying on the table! Dressing
+for church in Hamelsdorf is an operation that cannot be accomplished
+by the individual herself, and is one invariably performed by the old
+married women who have relinquished such superfluities in favour of
+their daughters, who sit before a looking-glass whilst they are being
+attired.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p>
+
+<p>As we stood watching the performance we thought it would never end.
+The young women, already clothed in their long white garments, the
+sleeves and bodices of which were beautifully embroidered in stripes of
+red and orange, were first arrayed in blue petticoats and large white
+net overskirts handsomely worked in “tambour” stitch, after which, a
+beautiful girdle studded with turquoises and garnets was fastened round
+the buxom waist, and a small white net cap put upon the head of the
+young wife, a girl of seventeen years, whose long hair had been cut off
+on the day of her marriage in token of subjection to her husband. The
+cap was bound tightly round the head with a scarlet ribbon four yards
+in length, which, fastened at the back, hung almost to the heels of the
+wearer. And now began the real vanities, for over this scarlet band a
+dozen ribbons of similar length were laid, each varying in colour as
+well as pattern, the upper one of which consisted of brocade. A thin
+muslin veil embroidered with gold was now thrown over the head, and
+secured by large silver pins inlaid with precious stones; and lastly a
+crimson satin handkerchief edged with fringe was placed at the side,
+and made to hang down over the dress diagonally by one corner being
+tucked under the belt. The object of this last article of attire is
+purely ornamental, but to my mind it injured the effect of an otherwise
+really pretty costume.</p>
+
+<p>The head-dress of the unmarried girl differs materially from that
+of her married sister, and consists of a high cardboard hat covered
+with black velvet, those who are betrothed being distinguished by a
+band of ribbon worn round the top of the hat, as in the accompanying
+illustration, taken from a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> photograph; whilst, to complete the
+costume, a black garment resembling a clergyman’s hood hangs down
+behind.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1200_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1200_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Top boots, which are <i>de rigueur</i> on week days, are not so,
+however, on Sundays, and the feet are often covered with high-heeled
+patent leather boots open up the front, and laced so as to show the
+stocking beneath. But to-morrow these elaborately-dressed daughters of
+Eve will lay aside their finery, and be seen with bare feet working in
+the fields, if that term can be truthfully applied to places where no
+boundaries exist.</p>
+
+<p>It was a pretty sight to see these “Saxon” maids and youthful matrons
+flocking to the church with their long, bright, many-coloured ribbons
+fluttering in the breeze, and the whole village looked <i>en fête</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The interior of the church is very quaint and curious, and contains,
+in addition to the ordinary seats, several others high-backed,
+brightly surmounted with wooden canopies, where sit the deacons,
+severe-looking men in a costume of the Cromwell period. On each side
+of the chancel sit the unmarried girls in their high drum-shaped hats;
+whilst the young married women take their places in the body of the
+church with their elders, one side of which is set apart for the men,
+and the other for the women. The sermon, which appeared very earnest
+and was delivered with great impressiveness of manner, was in the
+ancient dialect. Every other Sunday, however, it is preached in the
+pure tongue,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> the <i>patois</i> being used for the sake of “<i>die
+alten Mütterchen</i>” (old grannies), to whom the former is an almost
+unintelligible language.</p>
+
+<p>As we left the church with the Pfarrer, the young women of the
+congregation, who were evidently waiting for the purpose, pressed
+round him and either kissed his hand, or taking hold of a portion of
+his long black cassock raised it reverently to their lips. The scene
+took us back to the times of the early Christian Church, and we left
+the porch greatly impressed with the simplicity of the service and the
+patriarchal lives of the people.</p>
+
+<p>All, however, is not “gold that glitters” in this seemingly happy
+“valley,” for we saw, alas! more than one child-wife already separated
+from her husband at the age of seventeen. Here, as in France, marriages
+are those of <i>convenance</i>, and, if the Pfarrer spoke truly, they
+seldom turn out well. The suitor for a girl’s hand, if not actually
+chosen, is at any rate accepted or refused by her father, totally
+without reference to her own personal feelings in the matter. If he
+hold a good position in the little commonwealth, and can give her a
+good home, he is accepted, the girl is told she is to marry him, and
+they are betrothed with much ceremony. In due course, when the harvest
+is over, with which no domestic occurrence is permitted to interfere,
+save the final and inevitable one over which finite man has no control,
+the marriage takes place, and the young wife is expected to be “happy
+ever after.” But unfortunately for these “Saxon” women, they have
+hearts like those of other lands, and the tender passion is not always
+to be controlled. Previously to their marriage they are sometimes
+undutiful enough to set their affections upon some poorer lover, whom
+they cannot forget, and the marriage turns out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> ill. Occasionally,
+however, if she does not like the suitor chosen by her father, the
+girl refuses to submit to his authority, upon which commences a
+long-sustained war in the hitherto peaceful and happy family. Her
+mother, possibly influenced by the bitter remembrance of her own wrongs
+and heartbreak under similar circumstances—and entertaining, perhaps,
+in some hidden and secret corner of her heart a sneaking fondness even
+yet for the old, white-haired man over the way, whom she once loved
+dearly but was not allowed to marry, and who is now wedded to another
+buxom Hausfrau—sighs as she sees her pretty fair-haired lass, the
+reflection of her own girlhood, called upon to unite herself for aye to
+one she cannot love, and naturally takes her part against the father.
+Squabbles now take place between John and Joan, and the neighbours,
+together with the Pfarrer, are summoned to make peace between them,
+whilst the girl—seldom more than fifteen—mopes and makes her sweet
+blue eyes red with weeping. Sometimes, however, the father, under
+combined persuasion and the continuance of female agitation, is
+compelled to submit, but he does not forgive his daughter for her want
+of subjection to his rule, and the happiness of the little household is
+gone for many a day.</p>
+
+<p>We return to Hermannstadt through the waving corn-fields. As we
+approached the capital the sun was setting, and the porcelain tiles
+of the steeples and cupolas in the Haupt Platz glistening like liquid
+fire. How picturesque is the dear old place in the mellow evening
+light! and how pictorial is it in every line and curve! The streets
+are full of people in their “Sunday best:” Wallach peasant girls with
+arms entwined, their large silver earrings and coral beads jingling as
+they walk along; bonny fair-haired<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> “Saxons,” in large Hiltau hats with
+ribbons flying out behind, and spruce young soldiers in smart uniforms.
+As we rattle through the roughly-paved streets and shoot round the
+corners, heads crane out of windows all amongst the red tiles. A dandy
+Jew in canary-colour gloves, with a bouquet in his button-hole and a
+small cane in his hand, comes out of an archway as from a bandbox, and,
+swaggering down the street, is just about to make an elaborate bow to a
+group of Hermannstadt ladies coming from the opposite direction, when
+our droszky, dashing through the gutter that runs down the middle of
+the street, splashes him, alas! from head to foot, takes the starch
+out of him both physically and morally, and destroys the effect of the
+“occasion.”</p>
+
+<p>The bells from the steeples toll the hour of departing day, and at the
+entrance to the hotel we find András waiting to know our pleasure for
+the morrow.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1230_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1230_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">WITH THE WALLACHS.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Heigh-ho! Pretty little Wallach girl tripping along so gingerly over
+the muddy thoroughfares on thy way to the fountain opposite, and
+stooping to kiss—shall I say it—the dirty hand of the <i>Popa</i>,
+who just at this moment passes in his long black toga. Why does he
+linger so long speaking to thee, and why is thy head bent low, and
+thy sweet face, which until this moment was suffused with smiles, so
+downcast, whilst he addresses thee gravely in an undertone? Hast thou
+been remiss in thy observance of the thousand and one fasts of the
+Greek Church? Ah, no! The Popa points to the fountain, where, sitting
+in my projecting room, as in a martin’s nest, I have often seen thee
+talking with a handsome “Saxon” lad, as he filled thy classical-shaped
+pitcher for thee and lingered in the doing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> of it as though he loved
+thy company; and here thou art again at the trysting place.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1240_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1240_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Steel thy heart, little Wallach, against that handsome “Saxon” lad, for
+thy spiritual father hath marked you both, and will not let thee wed
+a “Saxon” unbeliever. Think not harshly of him, for he means kindly.
+It is not well or customary for the Wallachs to intermarry with the
+“Saxon” folk; thy people are not their people, nor thy ways their
+ways. Forget this little bit of romance, and wait till some swain from
+amongst thine own people bestows his love upon thee.</p>
+
+<p>How I feel for that pretty little maiden as the tears roll down her
+cheeks, and her full round lips tremble as she struggles with her sobs!
+What a pity there are hearts to break! for, love him as she may, she
+must not marry him. That a “Saxon” youth should wed even with a lass
+of the same kith from another village is regarded with the greatest
+disapprobation, and woe to the girl who is brought into one that is
+not hers by right of birth, for the whole female population rise up in
+dudgeon against the interloper. But—a Wallach!</p>
+
+<p>“Mean, dirty, shabby, idle Wallachs!” are epithets often hurled at
+their unhappy heads—“A Wallach to intermarry with decent ‘Saxon-folk,’
+who has scarce anything to her back, and washes her house-linen every
+week—Bah!”</p>
+
+<p>In “Saxon-land,” as in many parts of Germany, a bride’s trousseau of
+under-linen is so enormous that the family washing is of scarcely
+more than annual occurrence, or at the very most quarterly; and as
+in England the respectability of a family is estimated according to
+the amount of its butcher’s bill, so public opinion in “Saxon-land”
+is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> principally governed by the number of “washes” a family may have
+in the course of a year. The Wallach women, therefore, muddling in
+their weekly wash-tub, are held in great contempt by the thrifty
+“Saxon” dames, who possess clothes in their lockers they have never
+even worn. And, although tolerated as common citizens, the Wallachs
+are considered quite outside the pale of “Saxon” society. In fact
+there is no love lost between the two races. The Wallachs regard their
+“Saxon” neighbours as a “canny folk,” prone to get rich too fast and
+sometimes by practices that are scarcely within the bounds of honesty;
+whilst the “Saxons” look down upon their Wallach brethren as idle,
+thriftless loons, possessing lax notions as to the respective merits
+of <i>meum</i> and <i>tuum</i>, and the exclusiveness of individual
+property.</p>
+
+<p>During the war of Hungarian Independence, however, the canny “Saxons”
+curried favour with the Wallachs, and induced them to unite with
+them in siding with Austria against the Magyars. And fearful were
+the atrocities committed by the Wallachs on the defenceless Magyar
+residents and “Nobles” of Transylvania, many of whose children were
+carried round the villages spiked on the top of the Wallachs’ bayonets,
+whilst women were cruelly tortured, and by a refinement of cruelty some
+of the men were buried up to their necks, and then mown down.</p>
+
+<p>In this once exclusive “Saxon”-land there are at present large
+villages almost wholly inhabited by Wallachs, some of which contain a
+population of several thousand souls. The approach to these villages
+may invariably be recognised by the number of wayside crosses and
+little temples met with along the road; the latter crowded with statues
+and paintings<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> in fresco, there being, as in Gallicia, no limit to the
+construction of saints, which are of every colour and material. These
+Wallach villages are far less clean, but they are more picturesque,
+than those of the “Saxons.” Instead of stone, the houses are almost
+entirely built of wood, and their gables are surmounted by a cross. The
+streets are long and narrow; while each house has its own courtyard
+enclosed behind high wooden palings carved roughly but in beautiful
+designs, entered by a doorway covered with a small wooden roof.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1270_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1270_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The Wallach churches are very singular, and are often painted on the
+outside from top to bottom with grotesque figures. Inside they are
+invariably dark and gloomy, the walls being painted in sombre colours
+interspersed with gold. The small lancet windows begrimed with dust
+admit but little light, for the Wallachs, unlike the Magyars, indulge
+in the “dim religious” to such an extent that their churches resemble
+Buddhist temples far more than edifices dedicated to the worship of
+Christ. The roofs are dome-shaped, and the naves, which are paved with
+black marble, empty. There are no seats of any kind, and the people
+during the service either stand or kneel.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span></p>
+
+<p>In these villages one sees no rags nor even mended garments, and if an
+“idle,” the Wallachs would nevertheless seem to be a very thriving,
+people. Like the “gentle Slovaks,” they have their cow, their poultry
+and little plot of land which their women sow with seed and hoe and
+cultivate, whilst the men guide the plough, or more frequently stay
+at home and look after the children. The Wallach woman is a most
+industrious creature, and much maligned by her “Saxon” sister, and if
+she does not possess a great store of ready-made linen in her locker,
+and washes once a week, she has at any rate large rolls of unbleached
+homespun on her shelves. In the autumn she begins spinning vigorously
+for the winter’s weaving, after which she makes the material into
+garments for her numerous progeny. Too much, however, cannot be said
+concerning the indolence of the male Wallach, whose prosperity is
+generally due to his wife’s industry rather than to his own. More slow
+even than the Magyar, he works as though it were a matter of the most
+sublime indifference whether the occupation in which he is engaged be
+ever finished, and if he goes to market with farm-produce other than
+his own, he usually lies in the waggon fast asleep, and arrives at his
+destination just when the “Saxon-folk” are returning home.</p>
+
+<p>He is in truth but too often a poor, feeble, and effeminate creature,
+greatly fallen from the courage and valour of his first estate. The
+form of Christianity taught him by the ignorant Popas, doubtless does
+much to foster this indolence and effeminacy, for the teaching of the
+Greek Church in these secluded villages is almost exclusively confined
+to the observance of its fasts.</p>
+
+<p>“If God,” so argues the Wallach peasant, “clothes the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span> lilies of the
+field and feeds the fowls of the air, who never go to church, how much
+more will He clothe and feed me, who go there every Sunday, and fast
+almost every alternate day in the week besides?”</p>
+
+<p>The orthodox Wallach will do anything rather than violate these fasts,
+which occupy more than a third part of the entire year. He believes
+in ghosts, vampires, and changelings, and spends much of his time in
+inventing charms against the machinations of the Devil. The belief in
+witchcraft also is still prevalent in Transylvania, and more than one
+old woman was pointed out to us even by the enlightened “Saxons” as
+being gifted with that art.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst other superstitions, the Wallachs entertain a strong objection
+to beginning anything either on Tuesday or Saturday; whilst the
+reverential awe in which they hold Friday may be evidenced by an
+amusing incident which has been related of two men who were committed
+to trial for having waylaid and murdered a traveller. When brought
+to justice they confessed the crime; but upon being asked by the
+magistrate what they had done with the plunder, they replied that they
+had only found upon their victim a few florins and a roasted fowl, the
+former they had divided between them, but the latter they had given to
+the dog, as, being Friday, they were afraid to eat it on account of
+committing a sin.</p>
+
+<p>So ignorant are the priests of the Oriental branch of the Greek Church,
+that few can do more than read and write, whilst some are so miserably
+poor, that they are compelled to eke out their scanty subsistence by
+working as day-labourers. The priests of the “United Greek” and “Latin”
+Churches are, on the contrary, both better educated<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> and better paid,
+their livings being largely endowed by the State.</p>
+
+<p>Less picturesque in itself than some others, but beautifully situated,
+is the Wallach village of Czood, which lies at the foot of mountains
+that enclose it on all sides. In the centre of the village rises the
+metal cupola of the church, whilst nestling round it are the wooden
+houses with their heavy carved palings and doorways.</p>
+
+<p>On first entering its cottages we were under the impression that they
+were shops for the sale of native manufacture, for the walls were
+covered, not only with rows of jugs and cups, but square pieces of
+striped drapery likewise. We soon found, however, that these articles
+were simply placed there to decorate the apartment, for, whereas the
+“Saxon” <i>Hausfrau</i> prides herself in her stock of linen, the glory
+of the Wallach matron, like that of her Magyar sister, consists in the
+number of articles of crockery she has hanging round her walls, much
+of the money received by the “gudewife” on market days for her butter,
+poultry, and eggs being spent, ere she returns, on these singular
+frivolities. Not only this, the Wallach woman covers her walls with
+useless square patches of woollen fabric, woven by herself in divers
+colours and patterns.</p>
+
+<p>Wherever we go amongst the Wallachs, we are received with the utmost
+courtesy and kindness. They are adepts in the art of pleasing, and
+invariably meet us with a smile, addressing us in their corrupted Latin
+with such sweet, musical voices that they completely win our hearts.
+The men, too, doff their hats as we pass them on the road, and give us
+a word of greeting; but the less courteous “Saxons”—<i>never</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span></p>
+
+<p>We had travelled already more than ten days in Transylvania without
+having yet seen a Wallach baby, these little mortals seeming to be
+as scarce here as Slovak ones are numerous; but on entering another
+cottage we found, lying fast asleep in a cradle swathed <i>al
+bambino</i>, a funny stiff little atom of humanity that one could no
+more have bent than if it had been an idol made of wood or stone,
+whilst near it stood its mother, a child herself of sixteen years,
+scrubbing away vigorously at the weekly wash.</p>
+
+<p>As is usually the case, the house formed the abode of several
+generations of the same family, and consisted of three apartments,
+the inner one being very prettily furnished, its tables covered with
+Oriental-looking cloths of home manufacture. Beneath the walls of the
+room were ranged benches with high backs, on which flowers were painted
+in a style that would have done for models of the so-called “high art”
+of the period. The Wallachs not only spin their wool and flax, and
+weave their own materials, but dye them also, and their arrangement of
+colours is always harmonious.</p>
+
+<p>Great excitement prevailed in the cottage when it was discovered
+we were strangers from Ángol-land, and we felt pretty much as an
+illustrious couple from the Sandwich Islands might be supposed to
+feel on visiting our shores. What a lifting up of eyes and hands in
+astonishment, and cries of “La, la!”—the Wallach’s favourite mode of
+expressing surprise. One ejaculated “<i>Intestate</i>,” intimating
+thereby that she was bewildered at the very thought of it; whilst
+another, in adding gesture to her exclamation of astonishment, upset
+the washing-tub, and awoke the chrysalis in the cradle, which,
+beginning to cry, added its own small voice<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> to the general tumult, in
+the middle of which in walked the village Popa.</p>
+
+<p>A young man, with a soft expression of countenance, and with dark hair
+parted down the middle and hanging loosely over his shoulders, he might
+have sat for a picture of St. John. In intelligence he appeared far
+above the average of Popas of the Oriental Greek Church, and spoke
+German well. On ascertaining who the “illustrious strangers” were, he
+kissed our hands, and begged we would permit him to conduct us to his
+dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>Passing under the massive wooden archway that led to the enclosure,
+we entered the house, which differed little from the one we had
+just quitted. His wife, to whom he introduced us in quite European
+fashion, was a sweet young woman dressed in the costume of the Wallach
+peasantry. We had scarcely seated ourselves, when, pattering about with
+her naked feet, she began to spread a white cloth on the table, and
+arrange upon it such things as their larder afforded, consisting of
+black bread, honey, butter, fruit, white wine, and Borszék—a mineral
+water with which wine is usually partaken of in Transylvania. We
+required nothing, but felt instinctively that by refusing to partake of
+the refreshment so gracefully offered, we should hurt their feelings.
+As soon, therefore, as we were bidden to the little feast, we took our
+seats as a matter of course and without demur.</p>
+
+<p>According to the rules of their Church these Popas are obliged to
+be married men; but possessing in common with the Magyars somewhat
+Oriental ideas on many points, they regard their wives as slightly
+inferior in the scale of humanity to themselves. Whilst we partook of
+the simple repast prepared for us, the little wife sat at the other end
+of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> the room working, maintaining the while that respectful silence
+which she naturally would who felt she held an inferior position.</p>
+
+<p>“My wife is always industrious,” said the young Popa—calling our
+attention to her—“that is all her work”—pointing to a number
+of shelves on the opposite side of the apartment on which rested
+large rolls of unbleached linen. “At this time of year we have many
+out-of-door pursuits,” he continued, “but in the winter days, when
+there is little to be done in the fields and there is no sowing or
+planting or ingathering of grain, our women work busily at their looms.”</p>
+
+<p>Going across the room to the bench where his demure little wife sat
+with her feet crossed one over the other, I looked at her work. She was
+embroidering, in scarlet and black silks, the bodices and sleeves of
+the white under-garment always worn by Wallach women, the stitch being
+that familiarly known as “sampler,” two threads of the material being
+taken up on the needle diagonally, and then crossed: the effect of a
+broad stripe of embroidery in this stitch in a close Eastern pattern
+being very beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Quanto graziosa tu sei!</i>”—(How lovely you are!)—I exclaimed in
+Italian, as with her sweet, pensive, Madonna-like face she looked down
+on her work.</p>
+
+<p>She understood me perfectly, and lifting her eyes to mine, regarded me
+with a frank, unconscious smile, for to the Hungarian women, wherever
+they are met with, vanity is a vice unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst F. and the Popa talked religion and politics, I lingered at her
+side examining her pretty bodice and sleeves, together with her large
+silver earrings, just for an excuse to look at and admire her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p>
+
+<p>Those of the Wallachs generally consist of a ring some three or four
+inches in diameter, from which hang loose pendants of rich design.
+They do not go through the ear, but are fastened round it; hence the
+necessity of the long, loose chain which crosses the neck and connects
+them for safety to each other. These circular earrings are very
+becoming to their Wallach wearers, who have oval faces, and possess,
+like the Magyars, bewitching beauty when young, but, alas! how soon
+their beauty fades.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Bonar was evidently well known here also, our host remarking that
+he remembered having seen him when a lad, and whenever he is alluded to
+it is invariably as “<i>the</i> Englishman.”</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1340_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1340_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE ROTHER THURM PASS.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">People never keep time in Transylvania, neither do the clocks. By the
+one ticking in our room it is just half-past four, whereas our watches,
+differing somewhat in opinion, point to a quarter to seven.</p>
+
+<p>The previous evening a droszky had been ordered to be ready at six
+o’clock to take us on our proposed excursion to the Valley of the
+Aluta, but still it made no sign. At length, after sending András,
+two waiters, and the landlord himself to hasten its arrival, at
+half-past seven it came dashing under the old archway with “exemplary
+punctuality” according as that substantive is understood in Hungary.</p>
+
+<p>Anxious to see some of the by-ways of Transylvania, and having left our
+own carriage at Pest on starting for the Danube, we hire one here for a
+week, together with a stout pair of horses, for which András agrees to
+pay eight gulden a day and the driver’s expenses.</p>
+
+<p>Some difficulty, however, was experienced in finding a driver, the
+landlord of the hotel being unable to spare his own for so long a
+period. There were plenty of Wallachs to be met with who could drive,
+but the difficulty was to find one of sufficiently lax morals to
+consent to start on the day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span> we desired. To do so on a <i>fast</i>
+day would be out of the question, and as Tuesday and Saturday are
+<i>unlucky</i> days, and to start on a Friday would inevitably result
+in the most disastrous consequences, there were not many days left to
+choose from. Monday, however, fortunately happened to be an “off” day.
+True, it was the Vigil of St. Philomena, V.M., but on our proposal to
+start so early in the morning, that little obstacle was in some measure
+overcome.</p>
+
+<p>Few arrangements were necessary for the journey. In a country where
+such Oriental hospitality exists, more than one day’s provisions
+were unnecessary. Our programme in the first instance was to travel
+due south through the Valley of the Aluta into Roumania, and then,
+rejoining the high-road at Vestan, journey to Kronstadt, the latter
+being only two or at most three days’ distance from Hermannstadt.</p>
+
+<p>The morning is heavenly, and our hearts light as air, as, thundering
+through the archway, we emerge into a street and go rattling off
+towards the Fogaras Mountains. As we pass the barracks the cavalry are
+parading on the plain outside, and fifes and drums playing vigorously;
+but away we go into the open country between boundless stretches of
+yellowing corn. The road which is wide is crowded with vehicles on
+their way to market; waggons filled with hides, barrels of wine, and
+farm produce; pedestrians driving cows and calves, the latter so
+extremely juvenile that they cannot walk alone and require assistance,
+for infantine veal is much esteemed by the “natives.” Other pedestrians
+are driving small colts—also weak on the legs—and carrying in their
+bosoms tenderly and lovingly wee, snow-white lambs.</p>
+
+<p>Next comes a Transylvanian swine-herd driving his unsavoury flock
+of yellow pigs—lean as Pharaoh’s kine—and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span> in form hyenas, with
+long, red-brown hair and high backs resembling those we saw when
+travelling amongst the Slovaks. All have come from distant villages,
+and who shall say how early in the dawn their owners started, for the
+Wallachs, whatever else may be laid to their charge, are at any rate
+no sluggards. Plenty of “Saxons,” too, are hastening along the road
+clothed in white frieze jerkins and felt hats.</p>
+
+<p>The two races are not easily distinguished by their dress, but we
+recognise them by a truer sign. The Wallachs as they pass us lift
+their hats, and in their soft and melodious tongue exclaim “<i>Bune
+deminiace!</i>” (good morning). A carriage passes us containing a
+Wallachian gentleman, who also takes his cigar from his lips and
+greets us with the word, “<i>Applecaciune!</i>” which also means “good
+morning,” but a form of salutation used between equals, the former
+expression being invariably adopted by an inferior when addressing
+a superior. Even when lying down in their coats, the otherwise lazy
+Wallach, unless he happen to be fast asleep, will rise to perform this
+little act of civility, but the “Saxons” take no notice of us whatever,
+and go trudging on their way in dogged silence. Very pleasing is the
+courtesy of the Wallach, and we are careful to return it, upon which
+they lift their hats again and again and add something which we cannot
+understand.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a waggon covered with an awning of plaited reeds, and
+filled with peasant women and girls clad in holiday attire, comes
+lumbering along, and sometimes an old weather-beaten, time-worn
+<i>calèche</i> drawn by three horses abreast, with nodding hood, in
+which sit the squires and squireens of the neighbouring country,
+smoking long pipes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> on their way to Hermannstadt to see the price at
+which the produce of their estates sells at the market.</p>
+
+<p>Away right before us tower the Transylvanian Alps, their summits
+covered with snow. All the market people have passed by this time on
+their way—the last herd of swine; the last shaky little calves and
+long-legged, straddling colts; the last waggon-load of “Saxon” or
+Wallach girls; and the last family of unkempt, unwashed gipsies, their
+legs bound up in flannel <i>à la Wallach</i>, and tied round with
+leather thongs—all have passed, and we have the road to ourselves with
+the exception of a heavy bullock cart driven by a woman with a baby in
+her arms, and now and then a waggon driven lazily by a drowsy Wallach.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1380_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1380_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Already women from distant and unseen villages have begun their labours
+in the pastures, some guiding the rude plough, whilst others are sowing
+seed, grain by grain from their blue aprons, like people in the Bible.
+On the uplands,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> stretching across the mystery of blue mountains, stand
+the dead stalks of last year’s corn; the brown of the untilled land,
+and the yellow lanceolate leaves upon which the sun is shining, forming
+just the golden tint the picture needed to rest against the azure
+background and render it complete. In other places oxen are turning
+up the soil that has been left fallow for three years; for land is so
+abundant here that it is only after that interval has elapsed that it
+is again cultivated. On these uplands sturdy “Saxon” matrons may be
+seen riding <i>en cavalière</i> the leading bullock which drags the
+heavy plough, maintaining to this day many of the characteristics of
+their Gothic ancestors, who associated themselves with the stronger
+sex, not only in the labours of the field, but also to a life of
+danger and glory, and whom we read of as “martial heroines,” wearing
+“<i>braccæ</i>”—whatever those articles of attire may have been—and
+when taken captive in arms accompanying the triumphal processions of
+Aurelian on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>The Rother Thurm Pass, to which we are bound on this loveliest of
+summer mornings, lies in a beautiful valley twelve English miles from
+Hermannstadt. Our driver, with a bunch of blue and pink hyacinths in
+his hat and another in his button-hole, keeps the horses well up to
+their pace. The road, which follows the river, is excellent the whole
+way, and we soon come in sight of the red tower which, standing to our
+right on the steep mountain side, has given the Pass its name. Behind
+its ramparts a soldier was patrolling, although there is little need
+of this guard-post now that nothing is to be dreaded from the Eastern
+tribes. In 1493 there was a terrible carnage in this peaceful pastoral
+valley, when its green<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> hills echoed to the shrieks of the drowning
+and the slain, for the Turks, expecting to meet with no resistance,
+marched fearlessly over the border and entered the Pass on their way
+to the capital. Their intended foray, however, was happily discovered,
+and, under the prompt measures taken by the <i>Burgomeister</i> of
+Hermannstadt, speedily suppressed. Sending out secret emissaries to
+all parts of the district, he gathered together every male peasant
+in the borders, and causing them to lie in ambush, they awaited the
+coming of the unsuspecting foe, who as they advanced were routed and
+driven back with great slaughter. Half-way through the gorge in the
+very centre of the stream, a solitary tower is seen, which at one time
+no doubt also defended the Pass. It is in a state of ruin now, and,
+forming a very picturesque object, adds not a little to the beauty of
+its surroundings. At this point the Litriora meets the Aluta and both
+flow on side by side without mingling in the least, the one clear as
+crystal, reflecting the forest-clad mountains which rise above it, the
+other thick and sandy.</p>
+
+<p>At noon we reach the Roumanian frontier, where, in the large kitchen
+which formed the entrance to the hostel, we found a number of footsore,
+weary-looking women resting whilst they ate their mid-day meal of black
+bread. They wore a very Oriental-looking costume, besides which their
+lips and finger-tips were dyed, but all looked dreadfully worn and
+exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>“They have not yet recovered from their long <i>Fastenzeit</i>,”
+exclaimed the landlord, a benevolent-looking man, on observing that we
+regarded them with pity. “It is wonderful how the poor creatures live,
+they eat so little food and do such hard work. They are on their way
+to Hermannstadt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span> with fruit and honey, and will have to be back again
+to-morrow or they will be beaten by their idle husbands. They are good,
+quiet creatures, these Roumanian women; I know them well. The Popas
+keep them up to their weekly fasts, and during the forty days of Lent
+I have many a time seen them faint upon the road under their heavy
+burdens.”</p>
+
+<p>A tumbler of white wine, which we ordered to be given all round as an
+accompaniment to their black bread, soon brought light to their eyes
+and colour to their pallid cheeks, and we were much struck on observing
+that, ere tasting it, each woman stood up, turned her face to the wall,
+and uttered a prayer. If they had only known what they were about to
+partake of, it would not, I suspect, have been a very fervent one, for
+on tasting the wine afterwards we found it to be as sour as vinegar. So
+grateful were they, however, at the moment, and so much warmth did it
+bring to their hearts, that untying their bundles they withdrew from
+them handfuls of walnuts and forced them upon our acceptance, some even
+benevolently offering to crack them for our immediate refection in the
+most primitive of all methods. Several of these poor women I observed
+had <i>goitre</i>, that disease so prevalent in all mountainous
+districts.</p>
+
+<p>This neighbourhood has an evil reputation for robbers. In an inner
+room, the door of which was open, we could see hanging to the wall a
+musket and two revolvers, but all were, I suspect, used more frequently
+for purposes of sport than as weapons of defence, for the forests in
+the vicinity are full of game. Deer abound in the wooded hills that
+enclose the Pass; whilst in the higher ridges beyond bears and even
+chamois are found; besides which a lynx is occasionally met with,
+together with wild-boars and wolves,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> the latter being the very terror
+of the shepherds. Bearing down in large packs they will often destroy
+a whole flock of sheep in a single night, killing even when they do
+not devour; bears, on the contrary, never attack, and have sometimes
+been known, as in the great Slavonian forests on the Lower Danube, to
+fraternise with the herds when led to the mountains for pasture.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day, walking further up the gorge, we crossed a bridge,
+and, passing the frontier with its custom-houses and guard-post,
+entered Roumania. The trees throwing cool shadows across the road
+rendered the walk delightful. How silent all was! not a sound was heard
+save the roar of the river, as it flowed beneath over its rocky bed;
+not a sign of human life was visible. How dreary must be the lives of
+these few soldiers who guard the frontier, completely shut out as they
+are from the world of men! To the right, high above us, on the steep
+slope of the mountain, were sad evidences, however, not only of their
+living, but also dying, here far away from their fellows. Climbing a
+rugged path, and looking over the high hurdles which protected it from
+the ravages of wolves, was a lonely little cemetery. In the corner lay
+the usual pathetic heap of battered wooden crosses—types of man’s
+forgetfulness of those who lie in the domain of silence. Near the gates
+some gipsies or other travellers had evidently been bivouacking, for a
+fire was still smouldering, though all traces of themselves had fled.</p>
+
+<p>Above, rose the summits of Surul and Negoi, the former, though
+completely covered with verdure, attaining an elevation of 8000 feet.</p>
+
+<p>The mountains that enclose this valley are very beautiful, and form a
+succession of mighty buttresses, between every<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> one of which is a leafy
+gorge whence issues a stream of water foaming down its rocky channel to
+swell the classic Aluta, which, taking its rise not far from Moldavia,
+wends its way southwards till it finally empties itself into the Danube.</p>
+
+<p>Weary with our walk we throw ourselves down by the side of one of
+these streams, and watch it running in and out amongst the stones as
+it comes gurgling towards us with a pleasant dreamy sound. Presently,
+borne over the still air, comes the plaintive sound of a woman’s
+voice singing a melancholy strophe, and looking over the crest of the
+opposite hill we descry a dark speck which, growing more definite as it
+comes zig-zagging down the path, turns out to be a young gipsy with a
+baby at her back. She was singing one of those Roumanian <i>doïne</i>
+or ballads which, like those of the ancient troubadour, are full of
+tenderness and love, the one in question ending each verse with the
+words <i>Yuchza! Yuchza!</i> which sounded like a call.</p>
+
+<p>Like nearly all the Transylvanian and Roumanian gipsies she was
+exceedingly pretty, with small features, full lips, and large lustrous
+eyes, her complexion as dark as that of an Asiatic, whilst her hands
+were of that peculiar shade of blue black one often sees in the Indians
+of the south. We spoke to her in German, but she could not understand
+us, the only word she herself seemed capable of speaking in that
+language being <i>Deutsch</i>, which she uttered interrogatively as
+though wishing to know to what nation we belonged.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>No!</i>” we replied, in Italian—“<i>Inglese!</i>”</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Englesca! Ah! Dei pace! Dei pace!</i>” was the rejoinder, in that
+sad intonation in which every gipsy speaks.</p>
+
+<p>“Where are you going to take those?” we inquired in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> the same language,
+pointing to a number of new baskets she carried on her arm, and which
+appeared to be for sale.</p>
+
+<p>“To Hermannstadt, <i>buona Signora</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>“To Hermannstadt? But where will you sleep? You cannot reach that town
+to-night.”</p>
+
+<p>“There!” was the laconic reply, motioning in the direction of the woods
+opposite.</p>
+
+<p>The bestowal of ten kreuzers brought upon our heads a shower of gipsy
+blessings, and as she kissed our hands and went wandering on her way,
+we watched the blue mist rising from the valley and shuddered as we
+pictured to our minds the young creature lying with her baby in the
+lonely woods through the hours of darkness. To the free, unfettered,
+true-born gipsy, however, the canopy of heaven is her roof, the horizon
+the boundary of her habitation, the stars her companions, and grim
+night itself the kind and gentle mother soothing her to sleep, for
+familiarity with nature has made her one with it, and it with her.</p>
+
+<p>As we recross the Roumanian frontier, and once more plant our feet on
+Hungarian soil we see approaching in picturesque procession a large
+herd of long-haired goats accompanied by a man playing the bag-pipes,
+the harsh strains of which he seems to be thoroughly enjoying as he
+slowly heads his woolly charge. He is a wild-looking fellow, clad from
+head to foot in sheepskin, but we address him also in Italian, and he
+understands our simple questions perfectly, and tells us he is leading
+his flock over into Turkey for pasture. On observing that we take an
+interest in his rude instrument, he takes from the capacious pocket of
+his loose jacket another consisting of a long horn made from the bark
+of a tree, through which he blows lustily,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> waking the echoes along the
+valley for many a mile. He is followed by two lovely Roumanian girls,
+of whom it is said there are many in the Sultan’s Harem, who have been
+stolen from this district from their parents and carried back captive
+to Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>The natives of Roumania or Wallachia proper have a very Grecian type of
+feature, and seem to possess even yet the reflection of the Thracian
+blood of their ancestors.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1450_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1450_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XL.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE GREEK HERMITAGE OF BUCSECS.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">In consequence of its proximity to Turkey, Kronstadt wears an almost
+Eastern look, while, lying as it does between mountains that separate
+Transylvania from Wallachia, its position is exceedingly picturesque,
+its walls and towers and bristling spires standing out against a
+background of green. It is a bustling town, full of life and animation,
+a considerable trade being carried on between it and Moldavia and
+Wallachia in articles manufactured in the district, from which cause
+Kronstadt is frequently called the “Transylvanian Manchester.”</p>
+
+<p>Its population, which consists of about 50,000 souls, is, like that
+of many other parts of Hungary, “mixed,” and the stranger, as he
+walks the streets, is jostled, not only by the canny “Saxon” and wily
+Székler, the cunning Jew, and the polished Greek, but by the demure and
+smooth-faced Armenian, likewise the “Quaker of the East.”</p>
+
+<p>If everything in Hermannstadt reminds one of the “life and times” of
+Albert Dürer, how much more does Kronstadt, in spite of its polyglot
+population and Eastern habits. What curious old passages, staircases,
+and galleries are there, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> strong buttresses, gateways, and towers
+which seem to be enclosing prison walls!</p>
+
+<p>In the old quarter no two houses are alike. There are high ones
+against which small “leans-to” are clinging like barnacles against a
+ship’s side, whilst others seem to have thrown out bulbs and bulbous
+protuberances like miniature reproductions of themselves, and there is
+a hopeless and bewildering medley of masonry everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>In this neighbourhood, as in Hermannstadt, the churches are surrounded
+by high battlemented walls and other means of defence against the wild
+Moslem hordes, which, pouring in through the passes of the south-east
+Carpathians, once swept over the smiling plains of Kronstadt. In the
+quaint little suburban villages we are reminded of those of the Sieben
+Gebirge on the Rhine, their heavy stillness being full of the poetry of
+the middle ages.</p>
+
+<p>In one of these villages it was also our fate to spend Sunday. As the
+great bell began to toll for <i>Gottesdienst</i>, the people pour out
+of the massive oak doorways of the houses as from old picture-frames,
+the women in their high, drum-shaped, black velvet hats, and the men
+in quaint leathern sleeveless jerkins and small clothes precisely like
+those worn in England in the 17th century.</p>
+
+<p>On many of the houses in these villages, painted in large German
+characters above the doors or windows, and sometimes stretching across
+the whole length of the house, are appropriate verses of Scripture,
+such as the following: “The Lord bless thy going out and thy coming
+in.” “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build
+it;” whilst on a barn where corn was housed, we read the words, “The
+earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span> and on a house at the
+entrance to the village were the words, “Except the Lord keep the
+city, the watchman waketh but in vain,”—all testifying to the devout
+minds of the inhabitants. But let us follow them into the old church,
+and taking our seats on the benches that are arranged, one side for
+the men, the other for women, await the commencement of the Lutheran
+service. The sermon, happily for us, on this occasion is in “High
+German.” The preacher, a funny little man of unusual volubility of
+speech for one of the Teuton race, takes for his subject the “Peace of
+Heaven.” No sooner had the hymn ceased and the sermon begun, than, with
+one accord, the old men and women deliberately folded their arms and
+went off into a comfortable doze!</p>
+
+<p>Within the pulpit, as in many old Roman Catholic churches, were several
+steps, and the preacher, beginning his sermon on the lowest, mounts
+one by one as he warms to his subject. In olden times it would seem to
+have been the custom for these “Saxon” grandsires and grandams to fall
+victims to slumber, for in the ancient archives of their church are
+rules framed when they first settled in the land, one of which imposes
+a penalty of eight kreuzers—a large sum in those days—on any one who
+should fall asleep during Divine service—a rule that would, however,
+seem to be relaxed in these degenerate days.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, whilst the other sleepers maintained rigid silence, an old
+goody clad in a black cloth cloak of mediæval pattern, and sitting on
+a bench immediately before me, began to snore, an occasion which was
+“improved” by a younger woman, who, by a series of strong-minded and
+well-directed pokes with her elbow, endeavoured to keep the offender
+awake. These demonstrations, however, had no effect, beyond that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span> of
+arousing her for the moment. Raising her heavy eyelids and fixing them
+upon the region of the pulpit, her head soon drooped upon her chest
+again.</p>
+
+<p>The preacher, as he advanced in his discourse, grew more eloquent.
+He stood on the topmost step, and leaning over the side looked down
+upon the sleepers. “The peace of Heaven? Ah, yes! But not for you who
+slander and defraud your neighbour”—turning his head in the direction
+of the high-backed canopied seats, where sat the lay dignitaries of the
+church;—“not for you who spend your time in idle talk, in dancing and
+at <i>Fests</i>,” regarding this time the young girls seated demurely
+in the chancel with their floating ribbons and drum-shaped hats;—“not
+for you-a-a-ah! not for you, and you, and you, and you,”—pointing each
+time to an individual still in a state of somnolency, “who waste the
+golden moments in this sacred place by yielding to slumber.”</p>
+
+<p>This homethrust was evidently more than the strong-minded female could
+endure; for, giving her neighbour an indignant protest with her elbow,
+she exclaimed in no gentle tone—</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Erwachet!</i> (Awake!) The Herr Pfarrer is talking to you.”</p>
+
+<p>Thus aroused, the sleepers—accustomed only to the sonorous
+ejaculations of the preacher—suddenly awake, and there is a general
+stir throughout the little congregation, during which the sermon
+happily draws to a close.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, bidding adieu to Kronstadt, we started for the
+Castle of Terzburg and the Greek Hermitage of Bucsecs, situated in the
+most south-eastern portion of Transylvania. We are now so near the
+Fogaras<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> Mountains that they appear within a stone’s throw, their noble
+buttresses and steep sides scoured by a thousand watercourses, showing
+rugged in the sunlit portions, and blue, deep, and mysterious in the
+shadows.</p>
+
+<p>Towards noon, passing through a forest, a family of gipsies pounce out
+upon us unexpectedly, and follow our carriage, turning somersaults,
+hopping on one leg, and performing other gymnastic exercises, with the
+view to attract our attention whilst keeping pace with us, one and
+all looking so inhuman with their dark skin and matted hair that they
+might have been demons of the woods. As we near a village, others come
+pouring out of a nest of huts on its outskirts, who, joining the first
+company, hold out their little hands for kreuzers, and clutch them when
+bestowed with a greed as if each had been an infant miser and every
+coin had been of sterling gold.</p>
+
+<p>The whole of the plains here are cultivated with hemp, flax, poppies,
+buckwheat, and tobacco, and seem a beauteous garden; the deep crimson
+and purple of the poppies, tender blue of the flax, delicate pink of
+the buckwheat, and yellow flower of the colza forming a wonderful
+harmony of colour in the brilliant atmosphere; whilst here and there in
+the uncultivated portions a herd of black buffaloes idly browsing give
+quite an Eastern appearance to the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Here, as in the Tátra, Slavonia, and other parts of Hungary, many of
+the forests have been either cut or burnt down, but nowhere could we
+detect signs of replanting, and the romantic name of this beautiful
+country—Transylvania—will soon cease to be appropriate unless some
+counteracting influences are brought to bear against such reckless
+spoliation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p>
+
+<p>The castles in Hungary are very interesting, and, like those of the
+Robber Knights of old, are almost invariably perched on the summit
+of some inaccessible mountain or high pinnacle of rock, where the
+dwellers could defy all foes. The village of Terzburg, situated on the
+extreme confines of Transylvania, is of the most barbarous description,
+inhabited solely by herdsmen and their families, who graze their cattle
+on the mountains. The castle or fortress, which, with its many turrets
+and towers, is a mixture of the Byzantine and Gothic architecture,
+stands on the topmost ridge of an isolated rock commanding the pass
+into Wallachia, and was originally garrisoned by a military religious
+Order of Teutonic Knights. It is approached by a steep pathway, the
+interior of the castle being entered by a small postern under the tower
+now reached by a wooden staircase, but in ancient time by a movable
+ladder.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1510_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1510_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Anything more wild and romantic than the position of the castle cannot
+be conceived, its accessories reminding the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> spectator of the nursery
+tales of his childhood—of Bluebeard and Giant Despair. Inside there
+are grim passages, trap-doors, and yawning depths, all bearing silent
+witness to the troublous times when these borders were invaded by the
+Tartar and the Turk.</p>
+
+<p>In order to make the excursion to and from the Greek Hermitage in
+one day, it was necessary we should sleep at Terzburg this and the
+following night; but to bivouac in the “open” with so barbarous and
+formidable a folk as the Terzburger herdsmen was a thing we had by no
+means bargained for in our travels; András, however, apostrophising his
+favourite deity—assured us, “<i>der Teufel!</i>” that they were not
+a bad “<i>Herrschaft</i>”, if we only knew how to take them; and at
+once made friends with them by enlisting their services in procuring
+wood for our camp-fire, after which, having learnt many useful lessons
+from the gipsies, we soon erected the orthodox tripod, and cooked our
+evening meal whilst the setting sun was blazing on the castle walls.</p>
+
+<p>Although the day had been extremely hot and sultry the evening air
+was chill, and crouching round our cheery camp-fire we watch the
+night creeping silently over the hills and upon the castle walls till
+they stand out black against the sky. Then, wrapping ourselves in
+our <i>bundas</i>, we follow with our gaze the stars on their silent
+track through space, and note how some burn red to the very verge of
+the horizon, while others rise above it but to set again, like those
+dear ones who come on earth to bless us for awhile, and then leave
+us with nought but their shining pathway to tell us whither they are
+gone. Suddenly out of the deep blue zenith shines forth one of those
+strange visitants of our firmament, a shooting-star. With inconceivable
+velocity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> the fiery traveller took its course from east to west and
+then vanished into space.</p>
+
+<p>Night had far advanced ere we laid our weary limbs to rest within
+the shelter of the carriage, which, like our own old friend, was
+constructed to permit of our lying in it at full length. How strange
+it was to be listening to the soft and gentle noises outside, the
+mysterious rustlings of insects in the grass, and the muffled sound
+of voices proceeding from the huts, in which lights are flickering
+here and there, but we slept soundly and did not awake till a loud
+<i>Alpenhorn</i> blown by some muscular herdsman aroused the echoes of
+the dawn.</p>
+
+<p>András was already up, and had not only made a fire but was preparing
+breakfast for us on the dewy green-sward, his figure, weird and
+mysterious in the dim light, looking like some <i>Erd-Männchen</i> as
+it moved about. From out the veil above the stars were shining feebly,
+and blinking like the weary eyes of persons who have been keeping vigil
+all the night. The air which fans our cheeks comes fresh and moist from
+its bath of dew, and there is everywhere around a succession of small,
+tremulous, and intermittent sounds like those of living creatures
+roused from a state of inaction into new life.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was rising, and, like a row of mighty altar-fires, glowed the
+snowy pinnacles of the Transylvanian Alps, as, mounting our mules, we
+started on our journey, one of the Terzburg herdsmen accompanying us in
+the capacity of guide.</p>
+
+<p>Like the Northern Carpathians, those of the south also are
+characterised by dense forests and narrow gorges. Our path, formed by
+the dry bed of a watercourse, was stony and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span> difficult, but we soon
+entered a forest of pines, through whose tall straight stems the snowy
+peaks could here and there be seen glistening like silver. At length,
+making our way along the rocky sides of a mountain—our path often
+scarcely more than two feet wide—we looked down upon a dark and narrow
+valley filled with black pines, from which wreaths of vapour were
+ascending as from a huge cauldron.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the Wallachian frontier-post on the edge of the mountain, we
+have a splendid panorama, and look down not only upon Burzen-land—as
+the country round Kronstadt is called, on account of the river Burzen
+which flows through it—but likewise on a portion of Szeklerland with
+its sombre pine-clad mountains.</p>
+
+<p>In an hour’s time, and after a most fatiguing ride, far exceeding
+in difficulty any of our equestrian experiences in the Snowy Tátra,
+we find ourselves at the bottom of a valley terminating in a narrow
+gorge, the rocks of which assume all the appearance of cliffs. On the
+highest pinnacle of one of the rocks stands a wooden cross, whilst
+another erected a little above the pathway indicates the approach to
+the cave. Entering the gate of a small enclosure surrounded by a paling
+of pine-logs, we ascended the narrow zigzag path, and soon caught
+sight of one of the hermits in his long loose toga and high cap, who,
+having heard our voices, had wandered out to see who could be coming to
+profane these sacred solitudes.</p>
+
+<p>Greeting us in Wallachian, he conducted us to a small door in a wall
+built to enclose the entrance to the cave, passing which we found
+ourselves standing in the gloomy recesses where, screened from the
+light of day, these poor hermits spend their lives.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span></p>
+
+<p>The cave, which is between sixty and seventy feet high and three
+hundred long, contains a small Greek church and two rows of buildings
+divided into cells, eight being the full number of the little band when
+all are there. At the time of our visit two were “itinerising” in the
+neighbouring districts in quest of food—for these brethren of the Holy
+Cross live entirely on charity.</p>
+
+<p>Though the cavern is large, the atmosphere, from the absence of
+ventilation, was exceedingly damp, the walls in many were dripping, and
+we were soon glad to return to the open air.</p>
+
+<p>How suitable is the spot chosen by these hermits for their seclusion!
+Shut in on all sides by lofty cliffs and pine-clad mountains which
+almost shut out the sky, they are indeed separated from the outer
+world; whilst the complete stillness and gloom of their surroundings
+naturally favour contemplation. No sound is heard save the murmur of a
+waterfall plashing from rock to rock as it comes foaming and tumbling
+down a narrow gorge, and now and then the scream of an eagle as
+circling over head it settles on some lofty crag.</p>
+
+<p>After wandering about in the vicinity of the cavern for half an
+hour, sounds reach us, the meaning of which we had previously been
+taught, and, hastily returning to the little community, we find one
+of the hermits striking a wooden hammer against a board to announce
+to the brethren the hour of worship. Occasionally, facing the east,
+he prostrated himself to the earth, and then, walking round and round
+the church, continued his hammering, while repeating some prayer in an
+undertone as though he had been uttering an incantation or weaving a
+mystic spell.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span></p>
+
+<p>Entering the dark little edifice, which contained anything but the
+odour of sanctity, we stood awaiting the commencement of the service.
+There were the usual genuflexions and painful bowings to the earth that
+are invariably seen in Greek churches, but the chanting of those holy
+men was the most barbarous thing I ever heard or could have imagined
+possible even in my wildest dreams. Two were exceedingly decrepit, with
+long white hair and flowing beards. These hermits belong to the Order
+of St. Basil and follow the rules of that fraternity, and it was very
+painful to witness the evident difficulty with which they accommodated
+their enfeebled and stiffened limbs to the various postures imposed by
+the Greek rite.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the church we were conducted to one of the cells in which
+a small oil-lamp was burning, but so feebly that it did little else
+than render its immediate surroundings dimly visible—a small brown
+and well-worn crucifix standing on a bracket against the wall, a few
+dark-coloured pictures of saints, the narrow pallet at the side, and a
+gourd and leathern bottle hanging from a nail being all the furniture
+it possessed.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the cavern a fire was burning on the ground, over
+which was an iron pot, suspended from a tripod, containing a kind of
+porridge made of Indian corn; whilst in a little three-legged earthen
+pot, here called a <i>labos</i>, which stood on the red-hot ashes, some
+edible fungus was being cooked.</p>
+
+<p>The hermits were very hospitable, and produced from their larder wild
+cherries, strawberries, and a kind of sloe, pressing us to partake with
+them their homely fare. We had brought provisions with us, however,
+and amongst other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span> things a roasted chicken, which we offered them
+in return, and which was not only gratefully received but eagerly
+devoured in our presence. It is seldom these poor monks get anything
+better to eat than <i>mamaliga</i>, black-bread—which they make
+themselves—together with the roots, fruit, and wild honey which in
+summer they manage to find on the surrounding hills; their drink the
+milk of goats. Occasionally the Wallachian shepherds bring them fresh
+food, but only during a few months in summer, as, during two-thirds of
+the year, these exiles from humanity are cut off from all communication
+with their fellows, the passes being blocked by snow. There was
+something very sad not only in the thought of the complete isolation of
+these poor men and their self-imposed exile, but in the uselessness of
+their lives and the mistaken zeal which prompts them to renounce the
+world and their share in its cares and toils for the love of Him who
+“<i>went about</i> doing good.”</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1570_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1570_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>A <i>douceur</i> of five gulden being put into the unwashed palm of a
+grey-headed old hermit, and our animals sufficiently rested, we take
+our leave of the brethren, and, ascending the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> valley, are glad to feel
+once more the warmth of the blessed sun, which seldom or never visits
+the lonely hermits’ caves.</p>
+
+<p>Though the days were long, the sun had set upon the castle walls, and
+the last golden gleam had faded in the west, ere we again neared the
+village of Terzburg, the distant smoke of fires where the ruthless
+Wallachs were burning down the forest trees showing against the purple
+ridges of the hills like that from burning craters.</p>
+
+<p>The herdsmen, who by this time had begun to take quite a proprietary
+interest in us all, turned out <i>en masse</i> to welcome our return.
+A large fire was blazing near our carriage, and during our absence
+they had made for us a <i>Laubhütte</i>, or hut of boughs, in the
+construction of which these hill Wallachs, who are essentially a nomad
+people, are great adepts; whilst some fish caught in a neighbouring
+stream, eggs, buffalo cream, and delicious honey were also provided for
+our repast by these hospitable but uncanny-looking herdsmen.</p>
+
+<p>In these Transylvanian streams and rivers fish abounds, not only
+salmon-trout of enormous size, but grayling also, and the angler would
+here find ample food for his rod.</p>
+
+<p>As night wears on clouds dim the empyrean, and in addition to their
+fires some of the herdsmen—possibly in our honour—light torches made
+of resinous pine-wood, which add not a little to the wildness of the
+scene, as, with curious lamb’s wool caps and knives stuck in their
+belts, they flit to and fro, now standing out black against the fires,
+and now disappearing again into the mysterious outer circle of darkness
+like demons of unrest rather than peaceful shepherds guarding their
+flocks.</p>
+
+<p>A soft bed of leaves with which the Wallachs had lined<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> our hut
+rendered it a very dry and comfortable abode for the night. Throwing
+one glance around us through the impromptu doorway of freshly-cut
+branches, we see that our neighbours, the herdsmen, have already
+delivered themselves up to the slumber-god. All have retired within
+their dwelling, and the fires themselves, sending up a blaze now
+and then by way of expiring effort, are fast dying out. Our wild
+<i>entourage</i>, however, is anything but provocative of sleep, and
+the great silence, broken only now and again by the harsh scream of a
+night-bird, becomes eloquent, as the “voices of the night,” now that
+human speech is hushed, come whispering on the air like dim echoes from
+the far-off unknown land. At midnight the wind rises high and threatens
+the stability of our little habitation; whilst a ladder placed against
+one of the herdsmen’s huts falls with a loud clatter and awakens all
+the sleepers.</p>
+
+<p>The morning broke amidst heavy clouds and threatening rain, but at
+seven o’clock, our camp-breakfast partaken of and our coachman punctual
+for once, we are once more bowling along towards Western Transylvania.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1590_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1590_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLI.<br>
+<span class="subhed">WESTWARD.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Kolozsvár, situated in the valley of the Szamos, and surrounded by
+hills on every side, contains 25,000 inhabitants. Although enclosed
+on all sides by a Wallach population, that of the town itself is
+principally Magyar, with the exception, however, of one portion of it,
+which contains a little colony of “Saxons.”</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever such a clatter as we made driving down the streets of
+this little Magyar capital of Transylvania? If the four hoofs of every
+horse had each been a vigorously played castanet, and each paving
+stone a cracker, I doubt whether we could have made more noise. If the
+railway locomotives take their time in Hungary, the horses make up for
+it by the pace they take the traveller—at any rate on starting. As
+they gallop through the streets we startle the whole neighbourhood.
+Waggoners, who, Hungarian-like, have left their teams in the middle
+of the road, come rushing out of wine-shops where they are leisurely
+sipping their morning’s <i>glässchen</i> of <i>Slivovitz</i>. Frantic
+mothers are seen issuing from dark doorways, gazing distractedly up
+and down, in quest of their small “blessings,” who, as a rule, are
+squatting quite composedly in a nice cool puddle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> in the centre of the
+road. Pigs grunt and use unparliamentary language; whilst the genius of
+a group of youthful engineers, engaged in the erection of earthworks
+and fortifications at the side, is very nearly nipped for ever in the
+bud by the wheels of our chariot, as, deviating slightly to the left,
+we make room for a timber-waggon coming down the street.</p>
+
+<p>As the four capital little horses which we have brought with us
+from the “Saxon” town of Shässburg, a place midway between this
+and Kronstadt, and the most spruce and <i>betyár</i> of coachmen,
+pull up at the hotel archway, a crowd of spectators gathers to see
+the turn-out, and we once more hear the words “<i>Ángolok</i>” and
+“<i>Ángolorszag</i>,” spoken in an undertone—which have not greeted
+our ears since leaving the plains of the Magyars—proceeding from mouth
+to mouth in a “stage whisper.”</p>
+
+<p>It is market-day, too, and in the square opposite the hotel and beneath
+the shadow of the fine old cathedral is a kaleidoscope of perpetually
+shifting colour. Unlike the market at Hermannstadt, the space devoted
+to the purpose is filled with booths and covered stalls, whilst to the
+left is a gipsy’s tent, close to which, squatting on the ground, are
+its owners, their simple wares of home manufacture displayed before
+them on a piece of matting.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1620_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1620_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p><i>Bäuerinnen</i>, too, in scarlet top-boots, black skirts lined
+with yellow and looped up over scarlet petticoats, sit also by
+<i>their</i> wares, whilst Koloszvár Bürger ladies, in black silk
+shawls worn cross-ways over the head, stand over them and haggle, as
+usual, for salads, flowers, vegetables, infantine chicken—yes! and
+<i>snails</i>—the large wood species being regarded<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> by Hungarian
+epicures as an <i>objet de luxe</i> in the gastronomic line. A
+Hungarian housewife’s ordinary winter supply of these little animals
+is several thousand. Here and there boys are carrying coloured candles
+for sale, and two Hungarian peasants with long corkscrew curls are
+bargaining for a long string of garlic, for which they eventually
+pay five kreuzers—a cheap luxury! On the ground are little islands
+of Transylvanian pottery and classical-shaped bowls and pitchers,
+resembling a coarse kind of Majolica. There is a penny theatre, also,
+the audience of which is principally composed of men; and booths
+innumerable for the sale of ready-made clothes and vestments of
+Hiltau frieze beautifully embroidered in green and red. We pass one
+in which hang hundreds of embroidered waistcoats of the cut, colour,
+and material of the costume of each neighbouring village.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span> How amusing
+it is to stand and watch the purchasers try them on, and see how vain
+mankind is even when exhibited in the “Saxon” or Wallach peasant, and
+how difficult to please. Here is one negotiating for a baggy coat with
+large sleeves and a hood—an out-of-doors, red-letter-day garment
+that would fit anybody; but he tries it on notwithstanding, and views
+himself up and down to see how it hangs, then looks over his shoulder
+to judge of its effect behind, and finally regards himself intently
+in a glass provided for the purpose by the seller. He has already
+tried on eight or nine, when he fixes at last upon one which he thinks
+will do. The material is white frieze embroidered in black, and its
+price—fourteen gulden—is marked on the article, but he beats the
+seller down to thirteen gulden forty-seven kreuzers, and has almost
+decided to buy it, when the owner of the booth takes from his store
+one lined with scarlet and embroidered in green, the price of which is
+thirty-three gulden. The purchaser’s spirits sink. He is now quite put
+out of conceit with the unpretending black-embroidered garment and is
+caught in the trap. The seller, a wily “Saxon,” induces him to put it
+on, and, drawing the hood over his head, bids him look in the glass to
+see how it becomes him and judge of the charming effect. Passing on to
+other booths we have quite forgotten all about our Wallach purchaser,
+when, returning that way in half an hour’s time, we still witnessed the
+same little scene being enacted, at that moment, however, drawing to a
+conclusion. Slowly taking from his purse thirty gulden which, together
+with his pipe and tobacco-pouch, he kept in his topboot, the bargain
+was struck, and with a somewhat dejected air, for the Wallach loves not
+to part with his money, away he goes with his splendid garment tucked
+under his arm.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span></p>
+
+<p>There are booths, too, where “<i>Kipfer</i>” and delicious Hungarian
+bread are sold, and gilded sweetmeats; and stalls pervaded by a strong
+odour of turpentine, where repose piles of Szekler cheese, the flavour
+of turpentine being imparted to it by the bark of the pine-wood in
+which it is packed. These stalls are presided over by Szeklers, a
+people occupying a large tract of country in the extreme east of
+Transylvania on the borders of Moldavia, and whose origin for a long
+time was one of the historical puzzles with which Hungary abounds. But
+they are now believed to be the remnant of the Huns of Attila, who,
+after the Romans in the time of Aurelian had retired from Dacia and
+left the country defenceless, perpetually menaced it from the north,
+and finally formed a colony where they now exist.</p>
+
+<p>How it came to pass that this remnant of the great people, the Huns,
+who subjugated Pannonia, got left behind, does not appear, but it
+is determined beyond all controversy, that when the third Turanian
+horde—the Magyars—bore down upon the country in 886, they found a
+people settled in an eastern corner of Transylvania calling themselves
+Szeklers, who not only spoke their own language, but possessed the same
+characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Koloszvár possesses the honour of having given birth to the great
+Matthias, “Matthias the Good” as he is called by the grateful
+Hungarians. It was also on a mountain near here, overlooking the valley
+of the Szamos, where poor Rákótzy II., the last of Transylvania’s
+native princes, witnessed the defeat of his army under the overwhelming
+forces of Austria. Brought up as a Jesuit, he notwithstanding fought
+for religious freedom, but, on being defeated, he fled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> to Turkey, a
+country which has afforded an asylum to so many of Hungary’s patriots,
+where he died.</p>
+
+<p>The Cathedral dates from the 13th century, but since its completion
+it has passed through many vicissitudes and into various hands,
+its chancel having been sadly mutilated and altered, to suit the
+requirements of the various forms of worship which have been celebrated
+within its walls. Originally Roman Catholic, it subsequently fell
+into the hands of the Lutherans, who discarded its statues, pictures,
+and shrines. In the 15th century its walls echoed to the doctrines of
+Unitarianism under the teaching of Francis David, after which it was
+given over to the Jesuits, but was soon regained by the Unitarians, who
+continued to hold it until 1716, when the altar was once more adorned
+with the great crucifix which had been strangely preserved through
+all its varied fortunes, and the church passed into the hands of its
+original possessors, the Roman Catholics, who retain it to the present
+day.</p>
+
+<p>There are no fewer than 50,000 Unitarians in Transylvania, and they
+have erected a large brand-new church here, on which is inscribed in
+imposing letters their distinctive motto, “<i>Soli Deo Gloria</i>.” The
+doctrines of this sect were introduced into the country by Isabella,
+daughter of the King of Poland and wife of Zápolya I., and they are
+doing their utmost to extend their influence here, a deputation from
+England visiting both Koloszvár and Hermannstadt every year for this
+purpose. During the time we were at the former place we found it
+difficult to persuade its inhabitants that the English National Church
+was otherwise than “Unitarian.”</p>
+
+<p>“What,” said they, “the English not ‘Unitarian’? Why, you send money to
+help to support them.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Transylvanian capital does small credit to the province, and the
+hotel at which we have put up is by far the worst we have encountered
+in our travels. How many a time as I walked up and down its stairs
+I wished that I wore top-boots and short petticoats like the
+<i>Bäuerinnen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the hotel, and just round the corner where women sit at
+stalls and sell parched Indian corn and “gipsy-roasts,” is a shop
+where ready-made coffins are sold, and where a woman, standing within,
+looks through the window and over her grim wares invitingly at the
+bystanders, and appears quite disappointed when they do not turn in.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter season many of the “magnates” reside here, and their
+splendid equipages enliven the little city; but it is so dull during
+our present visit, that we have no inducement to prolong our stay.
+Summer is passing, and autumn, when heavy rains will render the roads
+almost impassable, is stealing upon us with noiseless wheels. The
+following morning, therefore, we bid adieu to the mountains, the domain
+of the Wallach, the “Saxon,” and the Szekler, and journey towards
+Debreczin, the very centre of Hungary, and the most Magyar portion of
+all Magyarland, and the exclusive realm of the Magyar.</p>
+
+<p>Once more reaching the plains, we are seized with a sort of poetic
+enthusiasm akin to that which inspired Petöfi and Eötvös and Vorösmartz
+in their great love for their Mother Alfőld. Again beholding its
+immense breadth and length, and enwrapped in its wondrous repose, we
+no longer marvel at the affection entertained for it by its people—an
+affection which must grow upon all who travel long over its boundless
+tracts.</p>
+
+<p>There again in the horizon is the Alfőld’s faithful daughter,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>
+“Deli-báb,” beguiling the traveller with her shifting slides of mystic
+pictures, now of pale and hazy lakes, as of those from which the
+morning mists are rising to greet the god of day; anon, of fair green
+islands surrounded by a golden shore—silent and majestic ever. Oh!
+immortal daughter of a mythic past!</p>
+
+<p>There are some who call these plains monotonous. Monotonous!
+<i>That</i> they are only to those who are blind to the ever-varying
+effects of light and shade; but to those who are alive to the Alfőld’s
+ever-changeful moods, “day unto day uttereth speech,” and each hour
+brings a new revelation.</p>
+
+<p>Those who travel across the great Alfőld by the iron roads which,
+linking places together, follow only that portion of it where towns
+and villages are most frequent, can form no conception of the thinness
+of the population nor of the infinite vastness of the plains; but as
+we are borne onwards in our own carriage over these almost trackless
+wastes, we realise why this region, not only in ancient times, but
+even up to the seventeenth century, has been so peculiarly the theatre
+of barbarian incursion. It is no doubt due in a great measure to the
+geographical position of the country, but chiefly to its physical
+characteristics. Those vast plains watered by the great rivers, the
+Danube, the Marős, and the Theiss, offered great attractions to the
+pastoral nomads of the north and north-east.</p>
+
+<p>No associations such as those which attend the cultivation of the
+ground amongst Aryan nations, bound them to their native soil. Freed
+from all the labours of husbandry, and living either by the chase or on
+the flocks and herds which grazed these steppes or prairies, they never
+attached<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> themselves to any place in particular, but roamed from one to
+another as, the herbage around them exhausted, they were compelled to
+migrate to other pastures. The same may to some extent be said of the
+Osmanlis, to whom these plains with their rich pasture offered every
+facility for camping out.</p>
+
+<p>Journeying steadily onwards we pass salt marshes, with which this part
+of the Alfőld abounds, with their tall, dark-green reeds, concealing
+snow-white waterfowl and endless peewits, and a little farther on an
+<i>ágas</i> with the usual accompaniment of a shepherd’s hut. It is
+noon and the shepherd lies fast asleep. The sheep are likewise taking
+their noontide siesta. Another mile or so and we come upon a group of
+happy peasants surrounded by their “<i>jószág</i>”—a few goats, sheep,
+and cows, their sole possessions—dining like kings on black bread
+and bacon, and drinking water from a large gourd like the people in
+the Bible. Then we pass a village and drive out again into the great,
+silent, solitary plains, with nothing between us and the flickering
+horizon—which seems to melt into the sky—but a clump of trees. The
+plains are streaked here and there with golden stretches of sand and
+rich brown soil, and in other places with long miles of vivid green
+showing where the husbandman has sown his grain, now rapidly ripening
+unto harvest.</p>
+
+<p>At two o’clock, beneath the very clump of trees we had seen from a
+distance, we come to a halt for lunch, and whilst absorbed in all the
+intricacies of a truffled chicken, which had been provided for us at
+Kolozsvár, we hear a slight rustle in the grass behind us, and looking
+round see a poor, lean, and apparently half-starved dog, which might<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>
+easily have been mistaken for a wolf, had we made his acquaintance in
+the dusk of evening instead of in broad day. Dogs are so officious
+in Hungary and so much in the habit, as I have said, of considering
+themselves in the light of “rural police,” that we regarded this one
+as a member of that canine body simply come to request us to “move
+on.” F. consequently, by way of returning the compliment, threw his
+stick at him. He was not to be daunted long, however, for, emboldened
+by the sight of food, he soon made another advance, and this time it
+was evident that his feelings were those of friendship. Whether his
+instinct enabled him to detect in the expression of my face a feeling
+of sympathy towards him, I cannot tell, but as he stealthily approached
+us he wheedled round to my side; and there was something so human in
+the beseeching way he looked, first at us and then at the viands, that
+we could no longer find it in our hearts to repulse him and he was
+consequently allowed to share our repast. The poor creature must have
+come from a long distance too; for, look where we would, there was no
+sign either of habitation or of flocks grazing, the pastures all around
+us being one great and absolute void. Perhaps he had fled from the
+tyranny of an unkind master; for there were scars upon his body and his
+lean limbs bore witness to long fasting.</p>
+
+<p>Quite at home by the time we had completed our meal, he attempted after
+canine fashion to assist in the process of “washing up,” and was so
+pressing in his offers of assistance that András was at length obliged
+to have recourse to the driver’s long whip.</p>
+
+<p>The horses harnessed, and the pic-nic hamper safely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span> deposited in the
+rumble—for we are again in our own carriage which was sent to await
+our arrival at Kolozsvár—we take our seats, and move on again. But
+here we are beset by an unexpected difficulty. The dog follows us,
+and that notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts to send him away.
+We console ourselves however by the pleasing assurance that in all
+probability he will leave us at the next village, which we now descry
+resting on the remote horizon. Having arrived at which comforting
+conclusion we one and all subside into the usual half-somnolent state
+produced by the heat and drowsy motion of the carriage as the horses
+drag it slowly along, and scarcely open our eyes again for another hour
+or two, when we see before us the same village in precisely the same
+position, the only difference being that its houses have grown larger
+and its steeples higher. At length we approach its outskirts, and a
+large straggling place it is.</p>
+
+<p>We had by this time forgotten all about the dog which had been the
+source of so much annoyance to us on starting from our last place of
+bivouac; but happening to look over the side of the carriage, there we
+see him, no longer following as before at a becoming and respectful
+distance, but limping along on three legs close to the very wheels.
+Passing the village at last, which has been in sight for so many hours,
+with its one-storied houses and gables facing the same direction;
+passing its Magyar girls, with their long, many-coloured ribbons
+flying out behind, on whom the incorrigible András—sitting demurely,
+so far as bodily attitude is concerned, with his arms folded—smiles
+sweetly from his lofty eminence on the box, we shudder as we picture to
+ourselves<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span> our entry into Debrecen, accompanied by this disreputable
+“hanger-on.” Once there, however, we could give him in charge of
+András, and possibly by stealing away without his seeing us, we might
+get rid of him altogether; with which ungenerous and inhospitable
+intention, we take no further notice of him for the present.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1710_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1710_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">DEBRECZIN.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">It has been aptly observed that no country in the world presents
+such a number of paradoxes as Hungary, and this statement is perhaps
+in no instance more marked than in the terms applied to its towns
+and villages, which are designated in exactly the opposite way to
+those in other parts of Europe. The towns (<i>mezővárosok</i>)
+contain an exclusively agricultural population; whereas, the villages
+(<i>faluk</i>) are very large, and often possess many thousand
+inhabitants, an example of which may be given in Orosháza, “a village”
+in the neighbourhood of the Theiss, which contains no fewer than 13,000
+souls.</p>
+
+<p>Having arrived at another <i>mezőváros</i>, we find a tolerable inn,
+and decide to anchor for the night.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments the usual scuffle takes place in the
+<i>basse-cour</i>, and the shrieks of feathered bipeds announce the
+fact that <i>paprika hendl</i> is about to be prepared for our benefit.
+The cook, a lusty female in top-boots and white petticoat and black
+bodice, is seen in hot pursuit of a victim, which, once captured, she
+summarily dismisses from this world by twisting its neck. Then plunging
+it bodily into a pot of boiling water which is standing on the stove
+in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> the kitchen, she allows it to remain for a few seconds, when it is
+again dragged out minus its feathers and skin, all of which it has lost
+by the process. It is forthwith cleansed, cut into small pieces, and
+thrown into another pot containing cream, butter, flour, and a quantity
+of red pepper, and served—the whole accomplished in the brief space of
+twenty-five minutes. It is, however, a national dish to which, from the
+precipitate nature of its manufacture, we do not take kindly, and throw
+out a gentle hint to the landlady, through the medium of András, that
+some other kind would be more acceptable, whereupon one passing under
+the euphonious name of <i>gulyás húz</i> is presented to us—a kind
+of stew, also swimming in a sauce thickened with red pepper. It must
+not be supposed, however, that this condiment at all corresponds with
+cayenne. It is made from the long red pods of a plant called in France
+<i>poivreon</i>, which, though a species of chilli, is not very pungent.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1730_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1730_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+     <p class="p0 sm center"></p>
+   </div>
+
+<p>As in other provincial towns and villages on the Alfőld<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> the cottages
+are here unpoetically neat and uniform, and one looks everywhere in
+vain for a bit of pictorial dilapidation. No starling ventures to
+burrow its nest in the warm thatch of a Hungarian cottage nor martin
+build beneath its eaves; the outer walls are pink as sea-shells, and
+the casements, painted bright green, with their flower-pots arranged in
+a row, look like those of Dutch toys.</p>
+
+<p>The tobacco-harvest has begun, and all around the cottages are festoons
+of leaves hanging up to dry. The leaves are gathered as they become
+“ripe,” and not all at once, the lowest being taken first and then
+the higher. The harvest consequently occupies a considerable time,
+occasionally lasting a month, and depending greatly on the season.</p>
+
+<p>As we take a stroll into the suburbs of the village we see the people
+coming in from the fields in merry groups, bringing with them the
+peace-inspiring weed, the men carrying it in large bundles on their
+shoulders, and the women in the ample folds of their upturned skirts,
+followed by <i>székers</i> laden with the same. The peasants’ horses
+appear dreadfully ill-used in this district; their downcast, abject
+look bearing testimony to years of oppression and wrong. How sad it was
+to see them dragging their heavy loads, and as I look at them how sure
+I feel that some “happy hunting-grounds” await these patient servants
+of man which receive his cruel kicks and cuffs so uncomplainingly and
+do his work so nobly. God bless a thousand times the patient worker who
+died a year ago, and left the savings of her own hardly-earned wages
+to the cause of London horses, and who each morning for many a year in
+frosty weather might be seen in the heart of the great city with her
+heavy load of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span> sand, scattering it over the slippery thoroughfares ere
+she went forth to her daily toil. Some men called thee mad; but, mad or
+sane, God give thee rest and peace and “keep thy memory green!”</p>
+
+<p>At the extreme end of the village were three gipsy-tents, and near
+them a camp fire, round which sat smoking a ragged, bronze-faced
+<i>Zingary</i>. At his side stood one of those ancient silver goblets,
+for the possession of which the gipsies are so noted. A little distance
+off sat others of both sexes, and the ruddy glow of the fire lighting
+up their many-coloured rags and creating a zone of darkness beyond,
+contrasted oddly with the pale, cold grey of the surrounding twilight,
+and produced weird alternations of glow and gloom. They are a wild
+uncanny-looking people, very unlike the ordinary itinerant gipsy. As we
+went across to them they seemed to regard our presence in their midst
+as a decided intrusion, and several withdrew from the fire and hid
+themselves in the surrounding darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Tethered a short distance beyond the camp, but hidden by the
+surrounding darkness, were several horses, and from the frequent
+neighing and pawing of the ground that proceeded from that direction,
+we were led to imagine them to belong to a type of animal vastly
+different from the poor, miserable <i>Rosinantes</i>—the beasts of
+burden which had dragged the heavily-laden carts over the rough roads,
+and were now left to graze and roam at will on the opposite side of the
+camp.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Bitang!</i>” exclaimed F. at my elbow in an undertone, throwing
+away the end of his cigar—“bitang” being a term applied to strayed or
+stolen cattle.</p>
+
+<p>Possibly the term was correctly applied in this instance,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span> but
+horse-stealing is by no means “made easy” in this country, and the
+stringent laws regarding the possession of horses bear evidence to
+the low state of morals of one or more sections of the community at
+any rate; no one being permitted to sell a horse without previously
+presenting to a member of the constabulary, or some other official
+appointed by Government for the purpose, a paper duly signed by the
+magistrate of the town or village at which the purchase has been made,
+and in which a full description is given, not only of the animal itself
+but of the manner in which its possession has been acquired. Without
+such a document no horse is admitted for sale at any fair, at which
+small offices are invariably erected and presided over by officers of
+the constabulary, whose duty it is to inspect these forms, and where
+both the sellers and purchasers of horses have to repair before either
+transaction is completed. Here the seller has to deliver up his “pass,”
+when another is made out and placed in the hands of the purchaser,
+giving a full description of the animal and its antecedents.</p>
+
+<p>There are no doubt many instances in which even these preventive
+measures have proved unavailing, and ways have been found of
+ingeniously evading the law, but the precautions that are taken must
+still be a great check on the proverbial cupidity of the “wandering
+tribe.” Should a horse awaken the suspicion of the <i>pandurok</i>,
+and its pedigree seem of doubtful origin, it is impounded for a year,
+during which time it is advertised in every police-station throughout
+the country, or at all events until the true owner comes forward to
+claim the “<i>bitang</i>” as his long-lost steed, or the person whose
+ownership was doubted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> can prove beyond all question that he obtained
+it by lawful means.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst the suspected animal is kept by the police in durance vile,
+it is let out on hire by the authorities; but whether, in the case
+of the suspicions of the <i>pandurok</i> having been incorrect, any
+compensation is made to the unfortunate individual who has lost the
+use of his beast during the period it was kept in “<i>bitangság</i>,”
+I cannot say. Probably he has to rest satisfied with the ultimate
+restitution of his rightful property, and like persons in our own land
+who, when they have been falsely accused of some crime, have been tried
+for it and found innocent, he will be consoled by receiving a “full and
+free pardon” at the hands of a benevolent and magnanimous Government.</p>
+
+<p>Familiarity having by this time rendered the gipsies far less
+formidable, we seat ourselves by their fire, the warmth of which is
+pleasant, for the nights already begin to be frosty, although we have
+only arrived at the end of August. The dog had followed us, and was
+crouching at my side. The gipsies both understood and spoke German, and
+as we were explaining how we came by him, he looked up sharply, his
+ears well pointed, and regarded us inquiringly, looking first at one
+and then at the other. The gipsies, to whom a dog more or less never
+comes amiss, will, they say, take him off our hands, and we tip them a
+gulden to confirm the bargain; but on casting our eyes towards the spot
+where he had been lying, we find he had silently slunk away and hidden
+himself in the darkness, as though he had heard all we had been saying.
+Well is it, my <i>bánya</i> (dog), that thou didst so, or thy fate
+would surely have been decided there and then.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was not till the following evening, just as the sun was closing his
+great scorching eye, that we drove through the broad streets of the
+ancient and “Royal Free City” of Debreczin, and found ourselves not
+only in the very heart of Hungary, but in the very centre of the most
+exclusive and rigid Protestantism.</p>
+
+<p>The territory of Debreczin in its capacity of “Royal Free City”—a
+privilege which it has enjoyed since the middle ages—covers an area
+of no less extent than 378 English square miles, and as the meaning
+of that term has already been described, the flourishing state of the
+municipality can easily be imagined. The city contains between sixty
+and seventy thousand inhabitants, but, in driving through it—unless
+he has been previously undeceived—the traveller will imagine it to
+be scarcely more than a large village. Like every other place on the
+Alfőld, where land is so abundant, the houses are nearly all built
+of one storey. There have been great improvements, however, since we
+were last here, particularly in the paving of the streets. In the
+place of a mere plank which formerly kept the foot-passengers out of
+the sea of mud that constituted the road in rainy weather, there now
+exists a broad and even pavement in all the chief thoroughfares, a
+fact which does credit to the enterprise of the municipality, who must
+have accomplished the undertaking at immense cost, every stone having
+been brought at least a hundred miles. There is a tradition of no very
+remote date to the effect that at a period anterior to the improvement
+of the roads a cow had sunk into the “Slough of Despond,” and having
+been swallowed up in it, was no more seen. But whether this is a mere
+fable or not, it is quite true that officers quartered on one side of
+the street formerly were often obliged to mount<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span> their chargers to
+cross over to the other. At that time the “pavements” consisted of
+merely a single plank, and it is said to have been a great amusement to
+the inhabitants, whenever they met a soldier of the Imperial Army—whom
+they cordially hate—to push him off the narrow path into the sea of
+liquid mud below.</p>
+
+<p>Having brought with us a letter of introduction to one of the
+Professors of the College, we hasten to deliver it in person. Reaching
+the edifice in question, we see standing in the square that encloses
+it a number of students, of whom we inquire the way to the Professor’s
+quarters, addressing them in German. Great is our surprise, however,
+to find they cannot understand a word of what we say. Failing to make
+ourselves intelligible in that tongue, we try in turn French, Italian,
+Spanish, Latin, and Greek, putting the question in each of these
+languages in the most simple form possible, with the same result, and,
+for anything they appeared to comprehend of the European languages,
+either living or dead, we might have arrived in the very heart of the
+Chinese Empire. With a look of extreme mystification, and a shrug of
+the shoulders, they raised their hats, and, passing on, left us to our
+fate.</p>
+
+<p>At length, spurred on by defeat and waxing bold, F. ascends the broad
+flight of steps leading to the College, and soon returns, accompanied
+by two students whose rooms he had invaded, the trio laughing heartily
+on finding they were unable to understand each other. The letter of
+introduction, however, bearing the name of the Professor furnished
+a clue to our inquiries, and beckoning us to follow them across the
+College garden, the taller of the two students ran to announce our
+arrival, doing so, as we afterwards learnt, in the following words:—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Some foreigners have arrived with a letter for you. They speak every
+language under the sun, and have tried to make themselves intelligible;
+but to what nation they belong we cannot tell, but think they may be
+<i>Ángolok</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>Following our conductor across a road ankle-deep in dry sand, we reach
+a wooden archway leading to a porch, where we find the astonished
+Professor, and standing behind him our pioneer, looking very happy in
+having at last succeeded in bringing us to the right place. A few words
+addressed to the former in English accorded us in broken accents a warm
+greeting in the same tongue. The Professor was a very handsome and
+distinguished-looking man, dressed in the Hungarian costume, consisting
+of Hessian boots and braided <i>attila</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing we were anxious above all things to see the College, he at once
+proposed accompanying us.</p>
+
+<p>“Every square yard of this paving,” remarked the Professor, “cost us
+twenty florins; the stones were brought by railway from Tokay. And is
+not this nice and soft to the feet?” he continued, as we stepped off
+the pavement into the dust of the road, which was at least eight inches
+deep, and which, though doubtless very delightful to a Hungarian, had
+scarcely suggested itself to us in that light.</p>
+
+<p>We soon again reach the College, which is a large and very imposing
+structure, where two thousand students are educated. At present there
+are three hundred studying Theology, one hundred and fifty Law and
+Philosophy, upwards of one hundred in the Normal Department, and seven
+hundred in the so-called gymnasium; but we were <i>not</i><span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> informed of
+the number who were studying as a necessary branch of education any of
+the modern or ancient languages!</p>
+
+<p>Besides the students who form the academical portion of the College,
+there are six hundred boys in the elementary school. Within the last
+three years two new wings have been added where three hundred of the
+<i>togati</i> (students) are lodged.</p>
+
+<p>In the Hungarian kingdom there are three universities, one at
+Buda-Pest, one at Koloszvár, and one at Agram, the capital of Croatia.
+There are also schools of Law and Jurisprudence at Pressburg, Kashau,
+and Grosswardein, besides the <i>Collegii</i> of Debreczin, Eperies,
+Raab, and others; that of Debreczin being exclusively Protestant and
+Calvinistic.</p>
+
+<p>Attached to the College is an immense church in the <i>Renaissance</i>
+style, capable of containing 2,000 people. There is also a smaller
+private chapel <i>within</i> the College, which is interesting as
+having been used by Kossuth for the assembling of his Diets in the
+memorable year of 1849, and in which he announced the independence
+of Hungary and the downfall of the Hapsburg Dynasty. To add to the
+solemnity of this latter occasion, preceded by the great agitator
+himself, the members of the Diet adjourned to the large Calvinistic
+church above alluded to, where, standing beneath the pulpit, he read
+the proclamation which sent such joy into every Hungarian home, but
+which was destined, alas! to be of such short duration. The windows of
+the College look out upon the battle-field so memorable in Hungarian
+history, where Austria, with Russia as her ally, crushed the national
+independence of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> Hungarians which they had only recently regained,
+and on which occasion so much Magyar blood was shed.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest part of the building is devoted to the Library, which
+contains many ancient and valuable manuscripts, together with two
+original copies of the tenets of the Hungarian Calvinistic faith.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the silence and solemnity which pervade the place,
+Debreczin is the most commercial town in Hungary, a brisk trade being
+carried on not only in the manufacture of meerschaum pipes, but of
+<i>bundas</i> also, between two and three thousand of these splendid
+garments being exported annually.</p>
+
+<p>It would have been impossible to leave without carrying home as
+souvenirs to our friends—who are victims to the vice of which pipes
+are the medium—some of these interesting articles which are displayed
+so temptingly and in such endless variety in the windows.</p>
+
+<p>Going into a shop to make some purchases on our way from the College
+the Professor exclaimed to the woman in attendance:—</p>
+
+<p>“I have brought you a lady and gentleman who have come all the way from
+England.”</p>
+
+<p>“Merciful Heaven!” she replied, “is it possible? And they are not
+Hungarians? What a pity!” regarding us as she uttered this pious
+ejaculation with a look in which not only the deepest compassion, but
+contemptuousness also was mingled.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyars are passionately attached to their country—“<i>Áldott</i>
+<i>Magyarország</i> (Blessed Hungary), as they call it, the
+half-educated looking upon the subjects of all other countries with
+the greatest pity and contempt. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span> following mediæval rhyme in
+confirmation of this fact is still quoted:—</p>
+
+  <div class="poetry-container">
+   <div class="poetry">
+      <div class="stanza">
+        <div class="ileft">“Extra Hungariam non est vita,</div>
+        <div>Et si est vita, non est ita.”</div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+
+<p>Whilst the greatest toleration exists in other parts of Hungary amongst
+all classes of society, the Debrecziners form an exception to the rule,
+and are exceedingly exclusive in matters of religion.</p>
+
+<p>In the estimation of the Debrecziner, there is only one true faith,
+which he calls the “<i>Magyar vallás</i>,” and which he believes
+he alone of all others has preserved in its completeness. There
+may be other forms of religion by the observance of which men may
+scramble into heaven, but the one true and narrow road is that which
+was instituted by their apostle Calvin. In consequence of its being
+the headquarters of this faith, Debreczin is often spoken of as the
+“Calvinistic Rome,” and its inhabitants, with their plain attire, their
+simple deportment, and the stillness of the place itself, as well as
+the earnestness that sits on every countenance, give to it a character
+wholly different from that met with elsewhere in Hungary; and as we
+walked through the town pervaded by this deep Calvinistic gloom, and
+noted the stern and rigid countenances of the people, we felt thankful
+we were not compelled to cast in our lot with them “for aye.”</p>
+
+<p>Every three months an immense fair is held in the great plains in the
+vicinity of Debreczin, when an enormous space of ground which the eye
+can scarce command is covered with tents, booths, and immense flocks
+and herds. At one time no fewer than 20,000 fairs were held each year
+in Hungary, their number, however, as well as their importance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> have
+lessened considerably since the opening of the Alfőld Railway, before
+which time the dwellers of the plains were completely locked in from
+all communication with distant towns.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of our visit to Debreczin, the municipality, or whatever
+form the governing body takes in these “Royal Free Cities,” was
+carrying on an anxious debate on the subject of the supply of fuel
+for its 50,000 inhabitants. Plenty of coal is found in the country,
+and the prejudice once existing against its use—to which the
+Hungarians attributed the “pulmonary complaints of the English, their
+<i>melancholy disposition, and frequent felo-de-se</i>”—has partially
+subsided, but the expense of transport would be enormous. At the same
+time the forests in the neighbourhood are fast becoming exhausted.
+The construction of a canal between Debreczin and Tisza-lök—about
+thirty-five miles distant—has consequently been decided on, by
+which timber may be floated down from the forests of the north-east
+Carpathians.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1840_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1840_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE WINE DISTRICTS OF TOKAY.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">From earliest dawn a throng of human life has been pouring into the
+Square outside the hotel, and the ceaseless hum beneath our window
+of female voices, the quacking of geese, gobbling of turkeys, and
+agonising cry of smaller birds whose legs are tied too tightly, assail
+our ears in a perpetual din and confusion, very hard upon tired
+pilgrims, to whom, for once, morning sleep might have been sweet.</p>
+
+<p>Looking down upon that busy, hurrying hive who would think it is Sunday?</p>
+
+<p>At ten o’clock the “Big Ben” of the College church begins solemnly to
+toll for service, which is the signal for the bells of other churches
+to do likewise, but still the people buy and sell and haggle and
+bargain and depreciate. The buyer saith, “it is naught, it is naught,”
+and then going his way, vaunteth himself, just as men did in the days
+of Solomon; and altogether the Debreczin “<i>cívis</i>,”<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> stern
+Protestant though he be, manages to combine the worship of God and
+Mammon on the Sabbath-day in a way that would do credit to any Roman
+Catholic country on the face of the globe.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> A term used to denote a Debrecziner citizen.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>But now the bells stop, and entering the church in the market-place we
+find that a few stragglers are already there,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> whilst a man standing
+behind a small desk is singing lustily for his own honour and glory to
+a small congregation of admirers. Presently he mounts the pulpit—his
+hair is unkempt, and his dress proclaims him one of the lower
+orders—and begins reading the lessons, during which people one by one
+come straggling in till the church is full, and the clergyman, robed in
+a costume of the Vandyck period, makes his appearance, when the real
+service begins by the singing of another hymn, accompanied this time by
+a rather fine organ. Singing forms a very important part of the worship
+of the National Church of the Magyars, and the people sing with their
+whole heart and lungs, pausing momentarily after each line to take
+breath, and then beginning again with renewed vigour, embroidering the
+“Plain Psalm” with little turns and quivers.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the hymns sung in these Calvinistic churches were composed by
+Bethlen Gábor, one of the governing princes of Transylvania, a firm
+adherent to the doctrine of Calvin, who flourished about 1620, and
+whose memory is much cherished by the Magyars.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1860_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1860_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>It was a curious sight, and somehow took one back to the times of
+the “Covenanters”—the plain building, the men wearing large cloaks
+fastened loosely across the chest with heavy clasps, their long white
+hair hanging over their shoulders. Wonderful to look at are these
+earnest, almost scowling, old Debrecziner “<i>cives</i>,” there being
+scarcely<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span> one of Rembrandt’s studies which does not possess its perfect
+counterpart in the assembly. What fine old pilgrim fathers leaning on
+their staffs, as they sit and listen to the clergyman now lifting up
+his voice in prayer to the great <i>Isten</i>—the hearer of all prayer!</p>
+
+<p>The women, on the contrary, their heads and faces wrapped in large
+woollen kerchiefs, are anything but picturesque. The greater number
+wear handsome and very full cloaks, richly embroidered in silk of every
+shade <i>originally</i>, but now assuming, by reason of many years’
+wear and tear, a rich mingling of mellow tints, delightful only to
+the eyes of an artist. The men sit in one part of the church and the
+women in the other, and thus clothed, the latter form a very dismal
+assemblage. There are some men whose long hair is held back over the
+forehead by a large circular comb, and others with ringlets all round
+the head like women; but these are principally men of middle age.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyar, for oratorical purposes, is a most telling language, clear
+sounding, rich, and melodious. Though understanding little, I enjoyed
+listening to the fine enunciation of the preacher, whose manner was
+very earnest and impressive.</p>
+
+<p>On the conclusion of the sermon the organ pealed forth, and the
+congregation, one and all lifting up their voices, united in singing
+the grand old hymn—</p>
+
+  <div class="poetry-container">
+   <div class="poetry">
+      <div class="stanza">
+        <div>“Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott.”</div>
+      </div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+
+<p class="p-left">But the sound was deafening. In vain the organist pulled out his
+<i>bourbon</i> stop and tried hard to hold his own; the voices so
+completely drowned him, that he might have been a tuning fork in the
+midst of a full orchestral band, for anything we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> could hear of him or
+his noble instrument. But the singing, though loud, was at any rate
+harmonious, and in all their hymns there was a grandeur and solemnity
+as well as heartiness that made one feel there must be, notwithstanding
+their apparent coldness in externals, a real depth in their religion
+after all.</p>
+
+<p>Just as I was leaving the porch I was joined by F., who had been to the
+large church attached to the College, and had likewise been greatly
+impressed with the quiet and deep solemnity of the service.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day a heavy shower of rain, accompanied by thunder and
+lightning, broke over the town and kept us prisoners to our rooms till
+the evening, when thinking a walk in the suburbs might be pleasant, we
+happened to mention our intention in passing to an old woman—a servant
+of the hotel—who was standing on the staircase; whereupon, lifting up
+her eyes she exclaimed—</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p1880_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p1880_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>“What! The lady is going out in those boots? <i>Bóldog Isten!</i>”</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon Julinka, the chambermaid, runs off to her own apartment, and
+brings thence her own Sunday “tops,” entreating me to wear them—a
+two-fold hint so eloquent of the state of the Debreczin roads<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> in
+rainy weather that we determined to defer our acquaintance with the
+<i>rus in urbe</i> of the “Royal Free City” until the morrow, when
+we should be driving through it on our way to the wine districts. We
+therefore visited instead several Calvinist places of worship in the
+town itself, all of which exhibited the same baldness as those we had
+seen previously, the walls being covered with whitewash, and the arches
+and original character of the structures completely destroyed by these
+Magyar Calvinists in their puritanical horror of anything that savoured
+of the Gothic in their style of architecture.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival here, our intention had been to travel hence to the
+bright little city of Kashau, but meeting by accident an old Magyar
+acquaintance who lived half-way between that place and Debreczin,
+and who, hearing us express a desire to see one of the wine-growing
+districts of Hungary, hospitably proposed to conduct us to his home not
+many miles from Tokay, a proposition that was far too tempting to be
+declined. A direct line of railway is now open between Debreczin and
+Kashau, but as we had our own carriage, and he assured us it would only
+be a day’s journey with four horses, we decided to post as usual, our
+friend promising to accompany us.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning, in spite of the earliness of the hour, the usual
+crowd assembled at the archway of the hotel to witness our departure.
+The sky, cleared by the rain of yesterday, was brilliant, the sun just
+risen in all his glory from out the mist that still hovered above the
+warm moist plains. The coachman, in his heavily frogged jacket, small
+felt cap adorned with an eagle’s feather, and with his moustaches
+twisted into a stiff curl at each end, was making, as we emerged from
+the hotel, the demonstrations customary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> with such functionaries, and,
+flogging the air with his long whip, pretended to be dispersing the
+little knot of anxious spectators, who, determined to see the last of
+the <i>Ángolok</i>, returned each time to the charge shrieking with
+laughter.</p>
+
+<p>András had evidently made great friends with the servants of the hotel;
+the old woman comes out and almost weeps over him; the chambermaid,
+standing shyly behind, wipes a tear from her eye with the corner of her
+apron; the waiters throw themselves upon him and call him “Brother.”
+Sundry nondescript menials from the back premises also present
+themselves and affectionately embrace his legs as he mounts the box.
+Finally, the landlady comes out, and with the prettiest speech possible
+places a bouquet in the hands of the “<i>tekintetes asszony</i>”
+(worshipful lady), and expresses the hope she may see her again. And
+thus, our coachman gathering up the ribbons, we bid adieu to the “Royal
+Free City,” and with the usual clatter tear madly through the streets
+into the open country—the dog following us.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst at Debreczin, András had done his best to dispose of this
+miserable hanger-on, but failed in finding a home for him. He was a
+sheep-dog, and as such no one seemed inclined to accept him here; but
+as András assured us that, being a valuable kind of animal, we should
+have no difficulty in getting rid of him as soon as we should again
+find ourselves in the agricultural districts, we gave him permission to
+retain him pending that happy moment.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, under the nourishing influence of hotel bones and
+possibly something else to boot, the poor creature wears a far less
+miserable appearance. He still limps occasionally on three legs, but is
+evidently fast getting the better of his injuries, from whatever cause
+they may have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span> arisen, and no longer creeps along by the side of the
+carriage, but runs on in advance as our pioneer, making incursionary
+forays now and then into huts by the wayside, and beginning to look
+as though he thought life, after all, was not half so bad as he had
+hitherto imagined. At one moment he nearly got himself into serious
+trouble with other sheep-dogs whose territory he invaded, and us also
+with the shepherd, whose flock he chased for fully half a mile.</p>
+
+<p>The districts surrounding Debreczin are much better wooded than in
+other parts of the Alfőld, there being large forests of robinia, the
+sandy nature of the soil favouring the production and growth of these
+graceful trees.</p>
+
+<p>Our friend the Magyar who accompanied us, although living in the
+very centre of Hungary, and a Hungarian to the backbone, was not
+above speaking German fluently. He had travelled a good deal in
+other countries besides his own, and was in all respects a highly
+educated and enlightened man. In asking him how it came to pass that,
+notwithstanding the acquirement of foreign languages was frequently
+pursued amongst the upper classes at Pest to an extent which sometimes
+excluded the study of other and more necessary branches of education,
+yet at Debreczin—one of the chief seats of learning—the Magyars spoke
+nothing but their own language, he replied—</p>
+
+<p>“Our brave Queen Maria Theresa did her utmost to extinguish the Magyar
+language by introducing German in its stead, hoping thereby to blend
+all the nationalities into one. At the present time, however, the
+effort of our people is to stamp out the German tongue, and cause the
+Hungarian to be the only one spoken throughout the country. Debreczin
+may be called with truth the seat of patriotism<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> and Magyarism, as well
+as one of learning, and there is no place in the whole country where
+such strong prejudices exist. Just as the people here are exclusive in
+matters of religion, so are they in language. In fact, their speaking
+nothing but Magyar may be said to be in effect a mild form of political
+demonstration.</p>
+
+<p>“I dare say you have long ago discovered,” he continued, “whilst
+travelling in my country, that we Magyars are the proudest race living,
+and likewise I fear the most prejudiced. A Magyar who has not travelled
+beyond his own country is deeply imbued with two ideas, one being that
+the world was created for his express benefit, the other that his is
+the only language that ought to be spoken. Another characteristic trait
+is his dislike of all foreigners with the exception of the English,
+whom he condescends to regard as an enlightened and advanced people,
+who have a right to a share of his natural inheritance, and from
+whom something is to be learnt. You may also have observed that the
+Hungarians often speak of themselves as the ‘English of the East!’”</p>
+
+<p>It was a delightful day that we spent in this Hungarian’s society. We
+have had the privilege of knowing many, and our impression has always
+been that a travelled, well-born, and well-educated Hungarian is one of
+the most polished and perfect gentlemen in the world.</p>
+
+<p>It was a splendid day, too, so far as the weather was concerned. The
+rain had cooled the atmosphere, and instead of the fierce, dry heat,
+which at this season of the year generally envelopes the whole region
+of the Alfőld, a balmy breeze was blowing, and, reclining in the
+languid luxury of our comfortable old carriage, we drank it in, and
+felt<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> strengthened and invigorated. It was like the climate of Italy
+without its summer heat.</p>
+
+<p>Long before the sun began to sink and throw long shadows on the plains,
+we came in sight of the volcanic hill of Tokay, rising out of them
+like a promontory from a vast expanse of ocean, and ere it set we had
+reached our friend’s dwelling. He was expected to arrive by the 6.25
+train, and his carriage had been sent to meet him at the Tokay station
+five miles distant. Great, therefore, was the surprise of his wife and
+daughter, who came running out at the sound of wheels, to find he had
+arrived not only an hour earlier than they had anticipated, but in
+the company of strangers and in a strange carriage. There was a great
+barking of dogs in the great courtyard behind the house, and a general
+buzz of welcome, in which we could perceive that we also were included.</p>
+
+<p>A brief introduction soon made us feel perfectly at ease, and, as on
+similar occasions, our arrival created no more confusion than if we
+had been expected guests. Ascending the steps we entered the large,
+one-storied building, and were at once ushered into the drawing-room.
+A burst of joy and gladness followed our immediate entry, proceeding
+from the younger members of the family, who came trooping in to welcome
+their father. All kissed our hands, and then, without the slightest
+appearance of forwardness, endeavoured to satisfy their very natural
+curiosity as to who we were and whence we had come.</p>
+
+<p>“And have you come from very far away?” inquired, in French, a
+fair-haired child of about eight years old, wishing to elicit, but not
+liking to ask, the direct question as to what nationality we belonged
+to.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p>
+
+<p>“The strangers are from <i>Ángol-orság</i>!” replied the father, in the
+same language.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Ángol-orság</i>!” repeated a chorus of little voices. “Oh, how glad
+I am you have come, it is always nice to have <i>les étrangers</i>
+staying with us, but <i>les Anglais</i> we have never before seen.
+<i>Oh! quelle joie!</i>”</p>
+
+<p>“Come, let me show you to your rooms,” exclaimed the lady of the house
+presently after we had partaken of coffee.</p>
+
+<p>Like so many houses in the plains, one room opened into another, and
+we had consequently to pass through several, including the library
+and a lady’s boudoir, before reaching those to which our hostess now
+conducted us.</p>
+
+<p>They were pretty rooms with cool pink and white hangings, the floor
+covered with Indian matting; the open windows, which were shaded by
+Venetian blinds, looking out into a garden where there were vines and
+melons growing in wild luxuriance, and crowds of heartsease holding up
+their expressive little faces to the light and straggling flowers in
+sweet disorder, reminding one of Lothair and Lady Corisande’s garden.
+To the left was a long range of stables and out-offices, rendered
+picturesque by vines and other climbers which covered their walls
+completely. Beyond all were the plains lying in the crimson sunset,
+immersed in their drowsy peace and breadth of calm, while the air was
+filled with a pleasant odour of flowers mingled with ripe fruit.</p>
+
+<p>The Hungarians, particularly those who live in the country, dine early
+and take supper at eight o’clock, but that meal is, however, quite
+synonymous with “dinner,” and includes not only soup, but a variety of
+courses. The table was laid very prettily, and adorned with flowers and
+oldfashioned<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> plate. After supper, which lasted more than an hour, we
+went out into the garden at the front of the house, where was a table
+on which wine and glasses were set, our host declaring we must not be
+longer under his roof without tasting “Imperial Tokay.”</p>
+
+<p>As we sat in the warm star-lit alley of robinias, we could see into
+the drawing-room, where on a centre table a large lamp was burning.
+Round it fluttered insects, and near it sat two of the elder children
+reading. In a distant part of the room was the eldest daughter playing
+the piano—a fragile, pensive girl with blue eyes, dressed in a
+cloud of white, her hair tied back with a cherry-coloured ribbon,
+and looking, as she sat with the light falling full upon her, almost
+spiritual in her pale prettiness.</p>
+
+<p>We soon found that our host’s family was not so numerous as we
+previously imagined. He had three children only, the eldest daughter,
+Őrzse, a son at school in Pest, and Irma, the little girl who had
+spoken to us on our arrival. The others were nephews and nieces, who,
+with their governess, were merely on a visit.</p>
+
+<p>On going into the breakfast-room the following morning we find the
+whole family already assembled. As we make our appearance the children
+cluster round us and silently kiss our hands, a universal custom in
+Hungary, where children in greeting do not kiss the cheeks, even of
+their parents, but their hand, in token of deference and submission.</p>
+
+<p>Our hosts were Lutherans, and the meal was preluded by those beautiful
+lines from the 145th Psalm: “The eyes of all wait upon Thee and Thou
+givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine hand and
+satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p>
+
+<p>“I purpose driving you to one of the Hegyalia, to-day,” exclaimed
+our host, as we rose from his hospitable board, at the same time
+interpreting that Magyar word into French, and informing us that it
+means literally “mountain slopes,” a term that is invariably used in
+reference to the vine-clad hills in the neighbourhood of Tokay.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o’clock a splendid pair of horses appeared at the door; the
+carriage, however, was an ordinary one of the country, with open sides,
+and but a refined and improved species of the genus <i>Leiterwagen</i>.</p>
+
+<p>“You have grown used to our style of locomotion by this time, I trust,”
+exclaimed our host, after we had mounted, and he had taken the reins.
+“This sort of thing is lighter and better suited to our country roads,
+which can scarcely be dignified by the name, and that you will speedily
+discover for yourselves, I fear, when we have proceeded a short
+distance on our way.”</p>
+
+<p>Striking off the main road, we now pass through plantations of tobacco
+and buckwheat; the various shades of green as we look across the
+plains being exceedingly beautiful as well as refreshing to the eye.
+Yonder, in graceful outline, rise the hills, that of Tokay assuming
+the appearance of a cone. This, however, we leave to the left, and
+gradually near another hill, like all the rest, vine-clad from its base
+to its summit, every tree and shrub having been eradicated to make room
+for the cultivation of the grape.</p>
+
+<p>These Hegyalia are said to have been similarly planted, even before
+the Magyars entered Pannonia; but the cultivation of the vine was
+subsequently greatly promoted by Hungary’s mediæval kings, who seem to
+have been no less<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> capable than other crowned heads of appreciating
+that which “maketh glad the heart of man.”</p>
+
+<p>During the dominion, however, in this country of the Moslem
+hordes—against whose creed it is to drink any fermented liquors—the
+whole district was laid waste and almost every plant uprooted; but
+after their expulsion a number of Italians were called in by King
+Bela IV., who not only restored the former cultivation, but improved
+the species of vine, causing the wine made here to attain its present
+celebrity.</p>
+
+<p>We had lunch, or rather what they call dinner here, at one of the
+vine-growers’ houses, and then walked up the zigzag paths through the
+vineyards. The slopes of the hills, where they are steep, are cut
+up into terraces. The soil is exceedingly light, and it is to this
+peculiar character that the excellence and distinct quality of the
+Tokay wine is attributed.</p>
+
+<p>The vintage in this district does not commence until the 26th of
+October, by which time it is over in other parts of Hungary. The season
+is ushered in with great festivity; all the noble families of the
+neighbourhood gather together, when there is a succession of balls and
+fêtes which last for a fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>There are three kinds of Tokay so called, the most luscious and costly
+being <i>Essenz</i>, which is, however, seldom used except to give
+“bouquet” to other wines. It consists entirely of juice extracted
+without the agency of any external force, and simply pressed out by the
+weight of the fruit itself, and also from grapes that have been allowed
+to shrivel and dry upon the stalk. <i>Ausbruch</i>—by which name the
+kind of Tokay best known is designated—is made by mixing the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> juice
+of ripe grapes, which have been pressed by the ordinary mechanical
+process, with a certain quantity of thick pulp, formed of the dried
+fruit. The third kind—<i>Mászlás</i>, being similar to the former, the
+only difference consisting in its possessing less of the flavour of the
+dried fruit, a smaller quantity of pulp having been added to the juice.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the grapes being allowed to hang so long upon the
+tree, they naturally lose a great deal of their juice, and in withering
+become exceedingly sweet; but the particular kind called Essenz, though
+luscious, is not sickly.</p>
+
+<p>The very finest of all the wines made in the districts of the
+Hegyalia is manufactured at Tokay itself, and at a small place named
+<i>Mézes-Mále</i>. The vineyards of these mountain slopes are said to
+cover an area of 68,000 acres, and produce annually from nine to twelve
+million gallons of the precious beverage; the most ready purchasers
+being merchants from North Germany and Scandinavia. During our visit,
+however, an American arrived and purchased 300 hogsheads.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the fruit, already ripe, was hanging in rich clusters, and,
+sauntering up the sunny slopes, how many we plucked and ate as we
+forced our way through the narrow paths!</p>
+
+<p>On our return, the gentleman at whose house we dined, insisted on our
+tasting some of the vintages. The first was only three years old, the
+last twenty, but one and all had a delicious bouquet. “Imperial Tokay”
+is a most fascinating wine, but inclined to make one “joyful,” and it
+was perhaps well that the carriage was at the door, and the horses too
+impatient to be kept standing any longer, or the consequences might
+have been serious.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening by the time we again reached our friend’s hospitable
+mansion. An early supper had been ordered,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span> which gave us a long
+evening afterwards to wander about the sweet, flower-scented alleys in
+the garden, and after darkness had set in we sat in the porch listening
+to music within, Örzse being a brilliant musician, having studied for
+three years at the <i>Conservatoire</i> at Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst here we were surprised to find how much our English literature
+is appreciated and read. On the table I noticed a Magyar translation
+of “Ádám Bede,” and other English authors, amongst whom, by the way,
+Bulwer is almost invariably the favourite with the Hungarians.</p>
+
+<p>Our host and hostess were most earnest in their efforts to induce us to
+prolong our visit to an indefinite period, and the time we had already
+spent in this delightful home had been so full of sunshine, that we
+would gladly have availed ourselves of their proffered hospitality had
+we been able.</p>
+
+<p>During our stay in this charming and well-appointed household, we were
+made aware of the fact that it was customary for a gipsy to form one
+of the regular staff of servants in a Hungarian family. The one in
+question was a pretty young woman with masses of raven hair and a clear
+skin; but notwithstanding her neat dress and civilised surroundings,
+we recognised her immediately. It is in truth not until one sees the
+<i>Czigánok</i> translated to an entirely new form of existence, and
+under circumstances inconsistent with their ordinary lives, that one
+realises how completely different they are from the rest of mankind
+in form and feature. Instead of disguising, the garb of civilisation
+only enhances the type and renders it the more apparent. No matter
+what dress they may assume, no matter what may be their calling, no
+matter whether they are dwellers in tents or houses, it is impossible
+for gipsies to disguise their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> origin. Taken from their customary
+surroundings, they become at once such an anomaly and anachronism, and
+present such an instance of the absurdity of attempting to invert the
+order of nature, that we feel more than ever how utterly different
+they are from the rest of the human race, that there is a key to their
+strange life which we do not possess—a secret freemasonry that renders
+them more isolated than the veriest savages dwelling in the African
+wilds—and a hidden mystery hanging over them and their origin that we
+shall never comprehend. They are, indeed, a people so entirely separate
+and distinct that in whatever clime or quarter of the globe they may
+be met with, they are instantly recognised, for with them nearly forty
+centuries of association with civilised races have not succeeded in
+obliterating one single sign.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2000_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2000_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+     <p class="p0 sm center">Old Cronies.</p>
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIV.<br>
+<span class="subhed">TEMPLES OF THE NIGHT.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Kashau—the winter residence of many of the “Nobles”—is an exceedingly
+nice little city, and, after Pest, by far the most pleasant in Hungary.
+The houses are irregular and picturesque, and the cathedral, erected in
+1300, is a splendid Gothic structure with five naves, and contains rich
+fret-work of great elegance and purity of style. The whole, however, is
+spoilt, in a great measure, by the gilded and gaudily painted altars,
+which, resting against the beautiful groups of pillars, greatly detract
+from the harmony and size of the building.</p>
+
+<p>The best time to see this splendid edifice is at the hour of
+“Benediction,” when the shades of evening are gathering beneath the
+lofty arches of the central nave, and the setting sun, glistening
+through the painted windows, shoots soft arrows of gold and blue and
+crimson, which fall upon the pavement and the white kerchiefs of the
+women kneeling below the altar in the western transept.</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to linger in the cathedral whilst the evening service
+was taking place, listening to the heavenly voices of the choir singing
+high up over the western porch, and hearkening with bated breath to the
+sounds which, travelling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> along the Gothic roof and in and out amongst
+the arches and side chapels, seemed not to come from human lips, but
+through the painted windows; as though angels had brought it on their
+wings.</p>
+
+<p>On our second visit, one of the <i>Dom Herren</i> (canons of the
+cathedral) observing we were foreigners, showed us several costly
+chalices, libariums, ancient missals and vestments, all of which were
+well worth seeing. He also caused to be uncovered the forty-eight
+pictures over the high altar illustrative of incidents in the lives
+of Jesus and Mary, twelve only of which are exhibited save on high
+festivals.</p>
+
+<p>To the south of the cathedral is the little mediæval church dedicated
+to St. Michael, and further still, opposite the Promenade, that of the
+Jesuits.</p>
+
+<p>As at Kolozsvár, one of the first things that arrests the stranger as
+he walks along the streets of Kashau, and looks into the shop windows,
+is the conspicuous display of coffins of all shapes and sizes, some
+of very elaborate designs, the most common being a sarcophagus in
+white enamel, with gilt cornices, standing on lion’s claws. There
+are, however, others to suit all comers and all tastes. One of these
+shops is situated close to a grocer’s, and hard by a Jew of elastic
+conscience sells crucifixes.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of all its gaiety there was something very sad to us in Kashau
+after all.</p>
+
+<p>Close to the hotel at which we were staying, a large building was
+being erected, upon which prisoners were employed in such numbers that
+they swarmed about the scaffolding, and in and out of the windows and
+doorways, like a lot of busy ants. They were all young men, and it was
+painful to watch them working under the vigilant eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> of the guards
+who stood over them with their bayonets, and to notice how they toiled
+hour after hour without pausing for an instant—working on with a
+perpetual motion that made one weary and wretched to witness.</p>
+
+<p>It is in the hilly country, the Felföld of Kashau, that are found the
+mines from which the precious opal is taken, a gem that is alleged to
+exist in no other part of the world, for the species called “Oriental”
+is in reality brought from these mines, which also contain jasper,
+agate, and chalcedony of great brilliancy.</p>
+
+<p>Anxious as we were to see these celebrated and interesting mines, we
+had no time to visit both these and the caves of Aggtelek. We therefore
+decided to accomplish the latter, for which purpose we requested
+András to be ready with the carriage and four horses at five o’clock
+the following morning, the distance being considerable. The hotel bill
+was accordingly paid over night, our luggage packed even to the rugs,
+and we retired to our “<i>napi</i>” with the uncomfortable sensation
+all travellers have who know they must be up in the morning before the
+world is awake. Since leaving Debreczin, we have been spoiled for early
+rising and got into bad habits in this respect, taking our coffee in
+our own room, and coming down to breakfast at the sluggard hour of ten.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning at dawn, we were awakened by a loud pattering
+against the window panes. It was raining heavily. At half-past five,
+the inevitable porter comes, “rapping, tapping, at my chamber door.”
+But so strongly do we object to starting on a journey in wet weather,
+unless obliged, that we send a message to András and inform him that we
+shall not leave Kashau till the morrow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span></p>
+
+<p>The morn had indeed broken drearily. On the rigid leaves of the
+oleander trees in the balcony outside, doing their best to grow in
+tubs much too small for them, the rain drips from the roof in heavy
+drops. An hour later, and chamber-maids with skirts held tightly round
+them, and heads bent low, dodge in and out of doorways, and waiters,
+carrying steaming coffee and other creature-comforts to the gentlemen
+guests, likewise pass and re-pass on their errands of mercy, holding
+dripping umbrellas. Dark clouds hang over head; there is a steady
+and calm determination about the rain as it comes pattering down
+perpendicularly, and falls from the roof through a shoot outside, with
+a swish, swash, and gurgle, that seems to say it is not going to cease
+yet awhile now it has come at last. A little half-drowned bird perches
+on the window-sill, and shakes itself, and then looks in pathetically
+with its head on one side. More little birds do likewise, and trim
+their dripping feathers, and then go hopping amongst the oleander
+branches, carolling as sweetly as if they had been in their native
+woods. How much they must have “made believe” those happy little birds,
+and what an example of contentment under difficulties did they not
+preach to us who were grumbling within. But it was such a dreary sight
+looking down upon the dingy streets—the draggle-tailed Hungarians
+with their white-fringed <i>gatyák</i> dangling against their muddy
+top-boots as they walked along, and the poor ants opposite still
+toiling in their “daily round and common task”—that after breakfast we
+hailed a <i>droszky</i> and drove to the station. A train happened to
+be just leaving for Abos, by which we could also return early in the
+evening, and jumping into a coupé, we soon felt glad we had come, for
+the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span> scenery in the neighbourhood of Kashau is exceedingly beautiful;
+our route takes us through a narrow gorge along which winds the Hernat,
+changing its fitful course from right to left and left to right
+continually. The mountains, scarcely less than 4000 feet in height,
+which enclose the gorge on either side, consist of rugged limestone,
+and the further we go, the more sublime the scenery becomes—mountain
+rising above mountain, and crag above crag, foaming torrents, and
+pyramids of rock jutting out here and there, over which the birch
+droops its slender and silvery stems. At length we come to the region
+of dark pines, which, spreading their branches, almost span the gorge.
+At long distances apart are little hamlets, whose cottages are built
+on the extreme edge of rocks. What fairy glens we pass, filled with
+lovely wild flowers, lilies of the valley, Alpine anemones, and the
+<i>Polygada amara</i> with its purple spikes! And wherever we turn our
+eyes we see a bewildering prodigality of beauty and luxuriance.</p>
+
+<p>In an hour’s time we reach our destination. There had been no rain
+here, which had evidently been confined to the region of the Plains;
+and we spent a most delightful day in wandering about amongst the
+woods, entering some of the little cottages and making friends with
+their simple dwellers. The peasantry in this locality eke out their
+livelihood by keeping bees, which they guard in little sheds, built
+high up the mountain slopes. The honey is delicious, perfectly clear,
+and much esteemed by people of other countries whither it is sent for
+sale.</p>
+
+<p>On our returning to the Abos station to take the down train for Kashau,
+we found it crowded with emigrants on their way to America, viâ
+Hamburg; and as there was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> sufficient room in the train to contain
+them, a delay was occasioned on account of more carriages having to
+be attached. A crowd of persons—men, women, and children—had come
+to see them off. The Hungarians are a warm-hearted people, deeply
+attached to their kindred, and it was almost more than we could witness
+unmoved—the fine, stalwart young fellows sobbing on the necks of aged
+parents, and bidding adieus to wives, children, and sweethearts, whom
+they might never again behold on earth.</p>
+
+<p>It is a singular fact that, notwithstanding the superabundance of
+land and the thinness of the population, the Hungarians are every day
+leaving their country in vast numbers. There surely must be something
+radically wrong in the system of a Government which does not offer
+inducements to the labouring classes under these circumstances to
+remain in their own country.</p>
+
+<p>In the same carriage with us was a gentleman on his way to Debreczin,
+who, in course of conversation, informed us he was a tobacco planter,
+having an estate of 3000 <i>jochs</i>—a <i>joch</i> being, I believe,
+rather less than an acre—for which he had paid at the rate of £15
+per <i>joch</i>. With land, then, not only so cheap, but so abundant
+everywhere, we again wonder what is the reason for these people
+emigrating?</p>
+
+<p>It had evidently been raining all day at Kashau, but as we arrive, the
+leaden clouds, gathering themselves together, are sailing away from the
+golden west, where the sun, setting gloriously, promises better things
+for the morrow.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting at dinner in the hotel restaurant we were taken aback by a
+person at an opposite table accosting us in English in the following
+words, which were uttered in the most unmistakable Transatlantic
+brogue, and with a fine,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> bold, nasal twang that would have done credit
+to the oldest inhabitant of that quarter of the globe:</p>
+
+<p>“How long since you left England, sir, and what have ye come here for?
+I guess there isn’t much in Hungary that you have found to your liking.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where do <i>you</i> come from?” was the reply that followed his
+questions, which seemed slightly to savour of impertinence.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve jest come from Amurica, sir. I’ve been there ten years.”</p>
+
+<p>“But you are surely an American yourself?”</p>
+
+<p>“Wall, sir, I guess I’m a Hungarian. I went to the United States to
+make my fortune, but instead of that I lost one.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do your countrymen do when they get there—such men, for
+instance, as we saw leaving to-day?” inquired F.</p>
+
+<p>“They die by a fence,” was the laconic reply.</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, jest this. When they get out there, they can’t speak any language
+the Amuricans know, and so no one will employ them. They go around from
+place to place in search of work, but find none; then, having spent the
+few florins they had in their pockets when they landed, they starve
+right away.”</p>
+
+<p>“Who induces them to emigrate? Surely some prospect must be held out to
+them of doing better there than in their own country, or they would not
+go in such numbers.”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s the newspapers that does it,” continued he, with the same brogue,
+in which he was evidently an apt scholar, “the <i>Government</i>
+newspapers, I mean. They are always telling our chaps the wonderful
+things they will do if they go there,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> and how that in a few years’
+time they will come home rich, and he able to settle down in the old
+country and be landowners; and they know it is a wicked lie they are
+telling all the while, and that there is nothing good to be gained
+there by our poor fellows. But what do they care <i>what</i> happens
+to them? they only want to get them out of the way that they may
+<i>Austrianise</i> our country the easier by colonising it with their
+own people.”</p>
+
+<p>Whether the above statement is correct or not I cannot say; I only
+repeat exactly what we heard. It is quite possible, and would doubtless
+be in the interest of Austria to induce Hungary’s oft-times too
+patriotic sons to emigrate, that she might be enabled by degrees to
+colonise it with her own; but this, of course, is one of those matters
+which can never be more than mere conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>At five o’clock <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> we took our leave of this pleasant
+little city. Notwithstanding the matutinal hour, a crowd of attendants
+benevolently presented themselves to bid us adieu, possibly remembering
+that it is the early bird that catches the worm. “Worms” we were on
+that occasion at any rate, as well as on most others of the like
+nature, but a small <i>douceur</i> goes a long way with Hungarian
+servants, who are often ill-paid. Passing other hotels we see similar
+little performances being enacted, where more disinterested menials are
+assembled to speed the parting guest.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyars are by no means a grasping people, and are always satisfied
+with whatever is given them, returning a hearty “Thank you,” no matter
+how small the gift, which, by the way, they have the good taste never
+to look at in your presence.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span></p>
+
+<p>About noon, arriving at a village, we found some difficulty in
+procuring a relay of horses, and whilst strolling about its labyrinths
+to pass away the time, we saw before us a church, and were just about
+to enter it, when a woman, who had evidently witnessed our approach,
+and who was standing at the door, closed it abruptly on the outside
+to prevent our doing so. Upon our asking her the reason in German,
+she replied, somewhat uncivilly, in her own tongue, that as we spoke
+an <i>idegen nyelv</i> (foreign language), we could not belong to the
+Magyar religion, and therefore it could afford us neither pleasure nor
+profit to see her church. “The national religion of the noble Magyar,”
+I regret to say, does not “light up well.” Its people are, for the
+most part, stern, demure, and exclusive—a fact even more apparent
+on our journey from Debreczin to Kashau than in the capital of the
+“<i>Magyar vallas</i>” itself, and of which the above little episode is
+an example. It was an amusing instance of bigotry, but I felt sorry it
+should have been from a Protestant that for the first time throughout
+the whole of our previous and present travels amongst Gallicians,
+Rusniaks, Slovaks, Wallachs, and even Croat-Serbs, we received any
+incivility. In the minds of the ignorant, the Magyar language and
+Protestantism are inseparable, whilst the Magyar language is, they
+believe, the only one known in heaven.</p>
+
+<p>It is related of an old Magyar nurse attending a sick lady, that on
+hearing her make use of the common German exclamation, addressed to the
+Deity, she cried, “Ah, my lady, forgive me! but how can you expect the
+good God to listen to you if you speak to Him in a language He does not
+understand?”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span></p>
+
+<p>At nine o’clock at night we reach Rosenau, a mining town situated on
+the river Sajó. The roads were execrable the whole way, but the scenery
+was both varied and beautiful. Our fatigue, however, had not been
+great, and the mountain air infused such new life into us that the next
+day we felt equal to anything; even to the announcement which greeted
+us on descending to the little restaurant of the inn for breakfast,
+that we should have to proceed to Agtalek by “<i>shaker</i>,” the roads
+being, as we were assured, too bad for anything else on wheels.</p>
+
+<p>We had already passed over so many hundred miles of Hungarian roads,
+that we scarcely believed there could be anything in store for us
+of a worse nature than we had hitherto experienced. Our ardour was
+consequently not in the least degree damped by the above announcement,
+and we set out with light hearts, András and <i>the dog</i>
+accompanying us. <i>A propos</i> of the latter, we had found a home for
+him at our friend’s with whom we stayed, near Tokay, who assured us he
+was in need of just such a quadruped, but who advised us to keep him
+with us until we should be returning to Tokay, when we could leave him
+behind as we passed through the district.</p>
+
+<p>As this waif was now a respectable member of society, and belonged to
+“the quality,” it was necessary to give him some name. We therefore
+bestowed upon him that of <i>Essek</i>—the Magyar signification for
+Archbishop—on account of his resemblance to that ecclesiastical
+dignitary; his long black hair, and white front, giving him the
+appearance, when assuming a sitting posture, of a person in a black
+robe and lawn sleeves. We are once more in the land of gipsies, whom we
+have not met with on our travels for some time,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> but who now greet us
+at the entrance to every village, and exhibit, as elsewhere, the old
+Roman contempt for the superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>Essek—a name which for the sake of brevity soon resolved itself into
+Esk—was at first a dog of somewhat low proclivities, much given to
+fraternise with gipsy children; but he already begins to turn up his
+episcopal nose whenever we now happen to fall in with a party of
+<i>Czigánok</i>, and is wont to pass by proudly on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at the village of Agtalek, after many a jolt and bump—our
+<i>shaker</i> true to its appellation to the last—we are met by guides
+who accompany us to the caverns situated a short distance above the
+village.</p>
+
+<p>Like all others of the kind they are formed in the limestone rock, and
+extend a distance of many miles into the heart of the mountains. On
+entering, the <i>Tanz-saal</i> is the first great cavern we see, a vast
+hall where the peasants of the neighbourhood often resort on festivals,
+and dance by torch-light, arrayed in their pretty costumes.</p>
+
+<p>Magnificent, however, as is the <i>Tanz-saal</i> in its vast
+proportions, we do not linger here, our desire being to penetrate
+farther into this marvellous region by one or more of its intricate
+windings.</p>
+
+<p>Leading from the “great dome” is a narrow passage, through which a
+brook forces its way. Following it we reach, in a quarter of an hour’s
+time, what is called the <i>Paradiesgarten</i>, a name given to this
+part of the cavern on account of the resemblance which the objects
+it contains bear to those which are supposed to have existed in the
+garden of Eden, and certainly the exquisite beauty and elegance of form
+which the stalactite and stalagmite matter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> here assume, far exceeds
+anything of the kind we ever beheld. Trees, fruits, and even the
+serpent—a good likeness of him too—were severally pointed out to us,
+nothing being absent, in fact, but Adam and Eve to complete the guide’s
+<i>epitome</i>!</p>
+
+<p>How those guides wearied us! In vain we besought them to be still, and
+leave us to our own imaginings; they continued to point out first this
+object and then that, and talked so perpetually, whilst we desired
+nothing so much as complete silence, in which to admire in awe and
+wonder, these great mysteries of nature, that, maddened at last by
+their persistence, F. let off, like a succession of pistol-shots, a
+string of telling Magyar expletives which he had previously learnt by
+diligent study, and which so astonished the guides by the fervour with
+which they were administered, that we heard nothing afterwards but the
+beating of our own hearts.</p>
+
+<p>As we henceforth pursue our way, we do so almost with bated breath, for
+the farther we wander through these labyrinths the more the feeling of
+awe grows upon us; and as the guides precede us with their torches, the
+giant fragments of dripping stalagmite gleam grimly in the fitful light
+and take shape of living things, which seem to move, or stand spectral,
+and colourless before us. Sometimes these passages lead to small side
+chambers, hewn out roughly and majestically by nature in the solid
+rock, like ancient funereal vaults, in which lie rude <i>sarcophagi</i>
+and dead men’s bones, guarded by wan figures, standing enveloped in
+half transparent drapery which covers them from head to foot. Anon we
+come upon shattered and ruined temples with Gothic arches, and fonts,
+and windows, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span> Hand that formed these objects of weird and
+fantastic beauty is still at work upon them, for we hear, above the
+muffled sound of our foot-fall, the steady “drip, drip” of the water in
+near and far-off passages.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst examining a beautiful little grotto enclosed on all sides
+by slender pillars and drooping garlands, and in which were ferns
+and mosses and a net-work of fanciful leaves engraved on a mass of
+stalagmite, I suddenly found myself in darkness. F. and the guides had
+all passed on, and I was alone. It was useless to attempt to follow, I
+could only shout to them to return, and as I did so, how my own voice
+frightened me, as it echoed above, below, around, and then went rolling
+off into distant passages till it seemed to die away in boundless space!</p>
+
+<p>They soon responded to my call and came tramping back with all speed,
+and then we reached the brook again flowing on through its lonely
+prison-house, the torches reflecting themselves strangely in its black
+waters.</p>
+
+<p>We could not ascertain whether this subterranean stream contained
+the little animal, half-fish half-lizard—the <i>Proteus</i>
+<i>Auquinus</i>—found in the river Poik in the caverns of Adelsberg
+near Triste; those poor little eyeless creatures which, born
+in darkness, have—when taken by the curious from their native
+solitudes—to be shielded from the light of heaven in order to be kept
+alive.</p>
+
+<p>The temperature of the caverns was so low that on returning to the hot
+outer atmosphere I nearly fainted. We were in fact both exhausted by
+fatigue and fasting; but found on reaching the village inn, where we
+had left András, that but for his exertions we must have lunched off
+honey, milk, and rye bread. There was in fact literally nothing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> else
+to be had. The brave little man, however, during our absence had again
+gone to the priest and obtained from him a fat pullet which had been
+already trussed for his Reverence’s own dinner; and which, stewed and
+served with cranberry sauce, quite set us up for the day, and sent us
+on our way rejoicing.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2140_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2140_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLV.<br>
+<span class="subhed">DICKENS <i>alias</i> “BOSH.”</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Nothing can be more charming than the town of Tokay from a distance.
+Lying snugly at the foot of the Hegyalja with its picturesque wooden
+roofs peeping above the forest of willows which here grow luxuriantly,
+it looks like an ideal spot where one might spend one’s days in
+pastoral tranquillity, a happy valley in which even Rasselas himself
+might have been contented to remain for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Tokay is surrounded on one side by what appears to be a series of small
+lakes; they are, however, but the inundations of the Theiss, which
+here joins the Bodrog; and Tokay, notwithstanding its appearance from
+a distance, is a delusion and a snare, a long and inexpressibly dirty
+town whose houses are little better than hovels.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the ordinary population of Hungary, Tokay is inhabited by an
+ethnological medley composed of Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, the latter
+being the “middle men” between the manufacturers of the wine and the
+merchants who purchase it. They consequently congregate in numbers at
+this place, and the Israelitish element is perhaps stronger here than
+elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span></p>
+
+<p>Although containing a population of five thousand souls, Tokay boasts
+of only one hotel—a straggling barrack-like building, with long, dark,
+cut-throat passages.</p>
+
+<p>“Alas!” exclaimed András as he carried our portmanteaus up to our
+room—“to think that my sweet master and mistress should have to sleep
+in such a den, and that in my country too. It is a bad place, full of
+thieves and Jews; but they shall come to no harm, their faithful András
+will watch all night. Let not my master and mistress fear.”</p>
+
+<p>We have reason at any rate to thank the kind priest at our last resting
+place for his present of the fowl, for the only thing we could meet
+with on arrival here was <i>halász lé</i> or “fisherman’s soup,” a
+dish consisting of various kinds of fish stewed together in a gravy,
+thickened with red pepper, a celebrated Szegedin dish, at which place
+we had eaten it with relish two years previously; but we do not feel
+inclined to partake of it here, and having ordered a small bottle of
+Tokay, for which the charge was five gulden, we sallied forth to the
+town, staggering under the old archway and over the rough stones like
+drunken folk, not from the effects of our libations, but from the road
+being full of deep holes which were hidden in sand, and of which we
+did not know the existence till we found ourselves plunging headlong
+into them. Crossing the street and passing at length under another
+old archway that must have been built in the time of Moses, we found
+ourselves standing on the banks of the river.</p>
+
+<p>The Theiss here, as elsewhere, is a muddy and sluggish stream, but
+there is a great deal of navigation on its waters. It contains fish in
+great variety, and the sturgeon caught in this neighbourhood, whether
+from the superior muddiness of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> the water, or from whatever cause, is
+said to exceed in richness of flavour that found even in the Danube.
+So great is the quantity of fish left behind on the subsiding of the
+waters after an inundation, that the people of the town collect it to
+feed their numerous pigs, and to manure their land.</p>
+
+<p>This now wretched and mean little place has had, however, a glorious
+past, and was in olden time the site of one of Attila’s royal camps,
+who, barbarian though he was, united the splendour and magnificence of
+the East with the luxury and licentiousness of Rome. We are told by an
+ancient historian that his table was covered with goblets of silver and
+gold, wrought in divers rich devices, the dress of his warriors being
+embroidered with the same, whilst portions of their attire were studded
+with precious stones, as also were their sandals and the trappings of
+their horses. The entrance of the great chief to Tokay—then called
+“the royal village”—was celebrated with great solemnity and pomp. A
+numerous company of women, going forth to welcome their hero and their
+king, formed themselves into long and regular files, and held aloft
+a canopy of thin white muslin veils for him to pass under, whilst a
+number of maidens marched before him, chanting hymns in the Scythian
+language.</p>
+
+<p>As we wander along the willow-fringed banks of the river, the basaltic
+Hegyalja with their vine-clad slopes, against which the town is built,
+rise above us.</p>
+
+<p>These mountains extend for twenty miles in a northerly direction, and
+are separated from the plains by the river Bodrog, which, as I have
+said, falls into the Theiss at this spot.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p>
+
+<p>Sauntering along, we were giving vent to our impressions of the place
+and its inhabitants in the most unguarded English, when a young man,
+the only respectable individual, by-the-way, we had yet seen in Tokay,
+whom we observed standing on the banks of the river as we passed, came
+toward us, and, taking off his hat, remarked abruptly—</p>
+
+<p>“I sch-peak English.”</p>
+
+<p>He wore some kind of uniform, and we began to fear we might have
+offended the sensitive ear of an Austrian spy who might possibly get us
+into trouble, but our minds were soon relieved by his informing us that
+he liked our English literature, from which fact we judged him to be a
+man of peace rather than of war.</p>
+
+<p>“I like your <i>Boulvair</i>,” he continued, “but I cannot always
+understand your <i>Bosh</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>This seemingly uncomplimentary statement was, at first, not a little
+astounding, until we remembered that Dickens is always spoken of in
+Germany—and that therefore he would most probably be so in Hungary
+likewise—by his <i>nom de plume</i> of “Boz,” and that that word on
+the lips of a Hungarian, if he happened to mistake the final letter
+and substitute “s” for “z”—which in the Magyar language is invariably
+pronounced like “sh”—would result in “Bosh.”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope we have not hurt your mind by anything we have spoken about
+this place and its inhabitants,” broke in F., wishing to be gracious.
+“If we have I trust you will forgive us; you must have heard much that
+we said.”</p>
+
+<p>“You need not apologise,” he replied. “I am not a native of
+Tokay,”—speaking partly in English and partly in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> German—“and fully
+sympathise with your feelings concerning the place. There is some
+excuse for its inhabitants, however; Government, which takes care to
+receive the revenues, does nothing towards helping them to improve the
+condition of the town, a circumstance which naturally engenders apathy
+in the minds of the people themselves on the matter.”</p>
+
+<p>“Probably,” we replied. “Yet it would cost them nothing to be clean;
+there is plenty of water in the river here, such as it is.”</p>
+
+<p>“Eh!” rejoined he, after a pause, during which he was searching in
+the tablets of his memory for an English adjective, “the people are
+<i>faul</i> (idle),”—a word which, being pronounced <i>foul</i> in its
+own vernacular, was a much more suitable one in its present application
+than than of “idle,” which he was desirous of expressing in English.</p>
+
+<p>As we were returning to the inn, the church nearest to it rang out the
+“Ave Maria,” and climbing the hill we entered the building by a side
+door. All was quiet and dark inside, for the evening light came feebly
+through the dusty windows. There were tapers on the altar, and a little
+lamp was glimmering here and there before some shrine. Few of us can go
+out of the daylight into a dimly lighted church without feeling subdued
+and solemnised, whatever creed be taught within its walls; and it was
+all very simple and impressive, and the contrast very great between its
+hush and peace and the noise and turmoil of busy life outside, which
+reached us in muffled tones, as though the sounds of earth were not
+permitted to enter the abode of peace and rest, save softly and subdued.</p>
+
+<p>The door opens, and an old woman comes hobbling in, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> setting down
+her crutches begins praying aloud; then the priest enters silently from
+the sacristy, and, kneeling on the lowest step, begins reciting in a
+monotonous voice, the “Rosary,” <i>Ave Maria</i>, <i>Gratia plena</i>,
+etc. The old woman and ourselves form the only congregation, and even
+she hobbles out again before the service is over, although it only
+lasted half an hour. We, however, remained to the end, by which time
+it was almost dark outside. As we reeled back to the hotel over the
+uneven pavement, there were sounds of drinking and revelry in almost
+every house; men singing Bacchanalian songs, or shouting at each other
+in argument; whilst passing beneath one window we heard, high above
+other voices, those of Jews—whose intonation we had ere this learnt to
+recognise—clamouring as usual about money. Again and again the words,
+“<i>gulden</i>,” “<i>hundert tausend</i>,” “<i>million gulden</i>,”
+“<i>joch</i>,” and “<i>massen von geld</i>,” reached our ears.</p>
+
+<p>I dare say we did the inhabitants of Tokay great injustice, for they
+were doubtless harmless enough, but we took care on retiring for the
+night to double-lock our door and look well to the window fastenings,
+for the whole place somehow had a brigand look.</p>
+
+<p>András’s room was next to ours, a fact in which <i>I</i> at any rate
+took comfort. He had prepared a light supper for us by the time we
+returned, which we partook of pic-nic fashion, in our own room. Esk,
+our faithful <i>bányá</i> (dog), was left in charge of the carriage in
+the <i>álas</i> close by, and, howling terribly during the night, he
+must, I fear, have disturbed the slumbers of the whole town or village,
+whichever Tokay may happen to be; but beyond this, no sound broke the
+stillness of the hours of darkness,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> and the worthy inhabitants gave us
+no annoyance whatever.</p>
+
+<p>The church bells awoke us at an early hour the following morning.
+Looking down into the yard at the rear of the hotel, we see servants
+walking to and fro, and wading through the mud right valiantly. It is
+too deep even for top-boots, and they plunge into it with naked feet;
+but a large dog with long brown hair stalks about gingerly, like a tame
+bear, and chooses the driest places. The ducks and geese have a fine
+time of it, and flourish accordingly. On one side of the yard is a shed
+where the cows are kept, and having seen them milked, we lose for once
+our relish for “white coffee.”</p>
+
+<p>At seven o’clock, András comes to the door with the information that he
+has made arrangements for us to breakfast at the station restaurant,
+and recommends us to quit this <i>elendes dorf</i> (wretched village)
+as soon as we can.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving our room after a hasty toilet, and proceeding along the dingy
+passage, we see two dark objects ascending the stairs and “stopping the
+way.” Tourists possibly; but no! they turn out to be the pet pigs of
+the establishment, no doubt on their way to the <i>salle à manger</i>,
+situated on the landing. They are, however, checked in their bold
+career, for on catching sight of us they turn round, and with much
+demonstration of annoyance, a look of injured innocence, and many a
+grunt and squeak, they hastily retrace their steps.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however much I may doat on a pig in its proper sphere, I do
+not quite like him as a domestic animal; but tastes differ, and the
+Hungarian pig, as we have already seen, is a much more civilised
+quadruped than his English brother.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span></p>
+
+<p>At eight o’clock we make our triumphal departure from Tokay, and by
+dint of “sitting tight,” and holding on to the sides of the carriage,
+succeed in reaching the station without broken bones. We have had
+rather a hard time of it, taking it altogether, but, happily for us,
+our philosophy is of that practical kind that seeks, and invariably
+finds, consolation wherever a particle of it can be found. We had made
+the discovery of how much human nature can endure and live, which is
+a knowledge worth acquiring in this “vale of tears;” we had tasted
+“Imperial Tokay” in the place where it is manufactured, and had seen
+the worst of the “<i>honfoglalás</i>” (Kingdom of Hungary), which is a
+thing to be proud of.</p>
+
+<p>The kind Hungarian friends with whom we had been lately staying, had
+made us promise, before leaving them, to pay them a visit on our
+return; but wishing to go down the Save—the second largest river in
+Hungary—before the setting in of the autumnal rains, we decide to send
+a messenger from this place with the dog, and a note of apology for
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>And so, <i>bányá</i> mine, we are going to label thee, “This side up,
+with care,” and send thee away, but thou art going to a better home.</p>
+
+<p>For the first time since we had him, Esk refrained from wagging his
+shaggy tail when I spoke to him. There must have been something in my
+tone of voice that boded evil; for he looked up at me with his large,
+earnest eyes, and trembled from head to foot; then, putting his front
+paws on my knees, he buried his head in my lap.</p>
+
+<p>Poor beast, he had won our affections, and it was hard to part with
+him now that the moment had come. Having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span> given him a good breakfast,
+however, and commended him to the tender mercies of the man who was
+to take him to his new home, we arranged for our own journey south.
+The train from Kashau was due at ten o’clock, and we decided to travel
+in it as far as Schemnitz, and then cross the plains in a southerly
+direction towards the capital, our carriage following us to Miscólsz in
+the evening, a place at which we meant to break our journey.</p>
+
+<p>As the train slid out of the station, the great basaltic rocks of the
+volcanic hill of Tokay frowned down upon us with forbidding aspect,
+and it remained in sight for nearly an hour, when it gradually faded
+from our view, and appeared but a faint grey cloud on the verge of the
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>The plains in the north of Hungary are much more fertile than in the
+south, and we pass through thousands of acres of waving corn, and
+pastures as smiling as those of the Bánat. There has been a great deal
+of rain here, which we have partially escaped in our more northern
+travels, and the roads, as we approach the towns and villages, are
+such quagmires that in one place we saw a “shaker” and party of
+travellers—who had evidently driven from some distant horizon to
+start by our train—literally buried in the mud, which was half way up
+the wheels. Whether the unfortunate occupants were able to extricate
+themselves from their ridiculous position we could not tell. Under the
+circumstances, it would have been impossible for them to get out and
+walk. It is therefore not unreasonable to assume, in the silence of
+history concerning them and their fate, that they are there still.</p>
+
+<p>Wandering about the plains, in proximity to each village,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span> are large
+families of geese, the parents waddling with sedate and solemn mien as
+they follow their tribe of yellow goslings. Whichever way one looks
+there are geese snowing the distant pastures or swimming in the marshes.</p>
+
+<p>Approaching a village, we observed a vast concourse of people gathered
+together on its outskirts. A fair is being held, and the ground is
+inundated to such an extent that the booths are actually standing in
+water, a day or two’s rain being quite sufficient to cause it to lie on
+the surface, for the soil in this district is already saturated with
+moisture, in consequence of its proximity to the Theiss. Accustomed
+to this state of affairs, the people of both sexes, nothing daunted,
+hold up their petticoats and paddle through the water like ducks. Here
+and there, in the little patches of green that, like wet islands, rise
+above the water, are sellers of pottery displaying their wares, and a
+<i>colporteur</i> his tracts, whilst, standing about in groups, are
+Jews, dragging their long togas in the mire, and gipsy children taking
+mud baths. Away beyond the fair, with its booths and wet islands and
+general slush and slipperiness, are thousands of horses, cattle, and
+pigs—<i>pet</i> pigs, affectionately watched over by buxom Magyar
+females, ankle deep in water. The train stopped in full view of this
+scene, for no apparent reason so far as we could ascertain, for
+three-quarters of an hour, and then lumbered on again, and brought us
+to Mád Zomber—what <i>insane</i> names these Hungarian villages have!
+Once more reaching the solitary plains, we pass through vast tracts
+of uncultivated land, roamed by immense herds of cattle, which form
+dark groups on the horizon. On, past a well, on one side of which are
+a countless number of horses, and on the other of cows; but they do
+not intermingle in the least.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span> These vast herds are a never-ending
+source of astonishment to the English traveller journeying through
+these thinly-populated districts. Near them stand sheep-dogs, with
+long hair, pointed noses, and bushy tails, like wolves. Overhead,
+flights of birds are hovering in the sky. How gracefully they skim
+through the translucent air! and now they soar away, and hover, rising
+and falling, in the distance; whilst one or two, less rapid in their
+flight, get left behind. What is the reason they cry so piteously?
+See that large bird yonder, following in their wake with outstretched
+neck! It is a falcon in hot pursuit. It overtakes the one most distant
+from the rest, seizes it in its cruel grip, and they fall to earth
+together, the victim and its prey. A tall crane plumes itself on the
+border of a marsh. A windmill in the distance throws its big arms about
+languidly in the sultry breeze, and we reach districts cultivated with
+maize, tobacco, hemp, poppies, and flax, the flowers of the three
+latter creating with the golden shade of the ripe grain, an exquisite
+modulation of colour. Every now and then we see in the distance
+swelling tumuli, commonly called “<i>Kún halom</i>” (Cuman-hill),
+believed by some to contain the tombs of military chieftains of ancient
+times; by others to be Turkish mounds (<i>török domb</i>). The learned,
+however, attribute to them a still more ancient origin even than
+the former, and declare that they are the remains of the artificial
+boundary made by the Romans not only to define the borders of their
+empire, but also to protect themselves from the incursions of the
+warlike barbarians of the surrounding countries.</p>
+
+<p>There is evidence that a similar frontier-line extended from Pest to
+the south-east, towards the mountains of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span> Transylvania, and the green
+mounds which we here meet with at regular intervals are the places on
+which the watch-towers stood that protected the frontier-line. Beneath
+some of these mounds the dykes on the outside are still visible, which
+are called by the peasantry <i>Ördög árka</i> (devil’s ditch).</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2260_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2260_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVI.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE GOLD MINES OF SCHEMNITZ.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">A narrow mountain gorge with irregularly built houses on either side,
+and churches with red domes and shining cupolas, backed by wondrous
+mountains, introduce us to Schemnitz.</p>
+
+<p>The street is both steep and rugged, so that, leaving our coachman
+to find some place below where he can deposit the carriage, we walk
+leisurely up the hill, where women are sitting surrounded by huge
+baskets of lilies of the valley and forget-me-nots; whilst other women
+are selling snow-white lambs, the little creatures, whose legs are tied
+together, panting piteously as they lie on their backs in baskets much
+too small to contain them. At length, reaching the hotel, and passing
+under the archway, we are shown through a yard, up two flights of stone
+steps, across a balcony built against the steep side of the mountain,
+and commanding a near view of the shingled roofs of neighbouring houses
+with their respective cats, and are ushered into a large apartment,
+where we are welcomed by mediæval celebrities, who, as we enter, gaze
+at us furtively out of their dark frames, and follow us suspiciously<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>
+about the room with staring eyes—a most ghostly chamber truly, and one
+that looks anything but conducive to sleep.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2280_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2280_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Although we have ascended at least thirty steps, we still find
+ourselves on a level with the heads of persons walking in the street;
+a window at the end of the room looking out upon a fountain where
+women stand gossiping and slopping, exchanging salutations with the
+passers-by, and occasionally screaming at the top of their voices
+at other females leaning far out of windows in the upper stories of
+the high houses. Pretty girls in red bodices and large white sleeves
+frilled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span> at the elbow, come tripping down the hill, laughing merrily,
+and carrying wooden pails to fill with the yellow water of the
+fountain, its colour <i>said</i> to be due to the attrition of the
+rocks containing gold ore, through which the stream flows that feeds
+this fountain.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal of gold dust is found in the rivers of Transylvania,
+caused either by the decomposition of the metalliferous rocks or from
+the rupture of ore-veins. The upper part of the river Maros is one of
+the richest streams in Hungary, pieces of the precious metal being
+sometimes found in it as large as a marble. The gold found in these
+rivers is, or was until a comparatively recent period, a monopoly in
+the hands of the gipsies, who paid an annual tax to Government for
+the privilege. It is found in the greatest abundance after rain, when
+the sand left by the flood has collected on the edges of the mountain
+torrents.</p>
+
+<p>This celebrated town, the capital of the mining districts, founded in
+745, contains twenty thousand inhabitants. The town itself, together
+with the mountain on which it is built, is completely undermined,
+veins of the precious metal traversing it in all directions. In 1865
+the quantity of gold raised from the Schemnitz mines was 650 lbs. in
+weight, and of silver, 13,000 lbs. The mines throughout the whole
+of Hungary that year produced no less than 5000 lbs. weight of the
+former, and about 63,000 lbs. of the latter. The mines richest in gold
+and silver at present are, however, those in the east of Hungary, in
+the province of Transylvania, the metal found here in the greatest
+abundance now being lead, in which, however, gold and silver, to some
+extent, are always intermingled.</p>
+
+<p>There are two principal adits, the upper and the lower.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span> Having applied
+for permission to view the mines at the office immediately opposite
+the entrance to the latter, we were ushered into an inner apartment
+where we were vested in two loose long garments like surplices, and,
+if the truth must be told, very ragged and dirty ones too, in addition
+to which F. was provided with a species of green felt jelly-bag by way
+of head gear, the exact pattern of those worn by the ancient Druids.
+Having resigned ourselves into the hands of a stout foreman of the
+mines, who gives us both a mining lamp to carry, we issue from the
+office with the farewell salutation from those within of “<i>glück
+auf!</i>” an expression invariably used by the miners to each other
+on descending the mines, and which literally means “Happy return to
+daylight!”</p>
+
+<p>As we crossed the street in this strange guise we wondered what our
+friends at home would think was happening to us if we could have been
+photographed at that instant! The passers-by however were evidently
+accustomed to such apparitions, for they took no notice of us, nor did
+they even turn their heads as they also exclaimed “<i>glück auf!</i>”
+and we vanished in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>This adit, which is worked by Government, extends to galleries and
+other adits. The passage is about eight feet high by four broad; but,
+the floor being only roughly covered with planks, beneath which water
+rushes, progress is neither a pleasant nor easy task.</p>
+
+<p>The mountain perforated by these mines is of Trachyte formation and
+contains Plutonic rock, which geologists affirm must have been sent up
+from beneath by volcanic agency after the deposition of the Tertiary
+deposits. It is in this Plutonic rock that the veins exist which
+contain the precious metals.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span></p>
+
+<p>No fewer than three thousand families—the greater number of whom are
+Slovaks—are employed in the various Schemnitz mines, twelve of which
+are worked by Government, the others belonging to private companies.
+After following our guide through the damp, dark passage by a gradual
+but continuous descent of about eighteen hundred feet, we came to the
+huge iron tube through which the water flows that drains the mines,
+and the noise was almost deafening. We were here joined by a second
+guide, and at length reached a staircase leading to the machinery and a
+still lower level. As we descended and stood by the immense wheel, we
+looked down into a black and, to our eye, measureless abyss; bridged
+by a narrow and frail platform on which the man stood who was working
+the machinery. As he stood there alone with his one feeble lamp—no one
+within ear-shot—there was something appalling in the thought of his
+being there day after day without any companionship save that of the
+great broad, black wheel, which keeps turning slowly round and round in
+endless revolution to the deafening splash of waters, and we wondered
+he did not actually go mad. His fate seemed somehow much more terrible
+than that of the men who were working far beneath in the depths of the
+earth, for they were not alone but in companies. As a rule, the men
+work alternately twelve and eight hours a day, but in some portions,
+the mines are so hot and unhealthy that they are only allowed to work
+fourteen days at a time, when they are changed, the heat and foul air
+acting very prejudicially upon their health. How can they work, these
+poor creatures, all their lives in this living grave? As we saw them
+with their feeble lamps hacking away at the hard rock, I realised for
+the first time, with what labour and misery the beautiful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span> metals are
+procured with which we so unthinkingly adorn ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>The gigantic wheel to which—after having descended deeper into the
+mine—we have just returned, pumps the water out of the passages, the
+water being utilised by means of a smaller wheel, to raise the ore from
+the lower adits. The ore is first placed in large square sacks, and,
+after being raised, is shunted through a hole in the rock into another
+adit, where a train-truck waits to receive it, after which it is sent
+either to Neusohl or Kremnitz to be smelted.</p>
+
+<p>These mines were also begun by the Romans, who, having in those days
+no such force as dynamite or gunpowder within their command, drilled
+some of these passages, as in the cobalt mines of Dobsina, by the
+slow method of chisel and hammer. Such portions even yet are easily
+distinguishable by the smoothness and evenness of their surface.</p>
+
+<p>In the “Roselia,” the oldest of all the mines here, coins, lamps, and
+even articles of dress of the Roman period have been found. There is
+also a cavern of considerable extent likewise attributed to Roman
+excavation, a process believed to have been accomplished by fire and
+vinegar, a method alluded to by Pliny, the rocks having been evidently
+split and not hewn, traces of fire in both caverns and passages being
+still visible.</p>
+
+<p>But, however interesting and instructive our exploits had been, we
+felt thankful when, after having traversed the mine a distance of no
+less than three thousand six hundred feet, we once more saw the sweet,
+fair daylight gleaming through the aperture, and knew that our journey
+through the dark and toilsome regions of the night was accomplished.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span></p>
+
+<p>There is a mining school at Schemnitz founded by Maria Theresa, where
+two hundred students receive a gratuitous and liberal education. The
+branches taught, besides metallurgy, mineralogy, and mining, being
+chemistry, mathematics, drawing, and surveying. The students wear
+a uniform of dark green, turned up with red; the sleeves of their
+jackets curiously padded at the shoulders to protect the arms from
+being grazed by the walls of the mines. They also wear funny little
+leather aprons behind. Both their caps and jackets are ornamented with
+the mining <i>insignia</i>, a crossed hammer and pickaxe. In full
+dress, these academical students, the more advanced of whom are called
+“Practicants,” wear black velvet aprons, gold epaulets, and a sabre.</p>
+
+<p>Having explored the mines, the next thing to be done, after an hour
+or two’s rest from fatigue, was to inspect some of the treasure they
+contain. The mineralogical collection, however, is not so good as might
+be expected, all the finest specimens being sent to the National Museum
+of Pest, which possesses the third best collection in Europe; there is,
+however, a very fair one here, and quite sufficiently good to give the
+visitor an idea of all the minerals and stones which the mountain holds
+concealed within its hidden recesses.</p>
+
+<p>The gold is found in various forms, sometimes in round smooth globules
+the size of shot, embedded in a porous and spongy-looking stone; at
+others it assumes the most beautiful shapes, simulating a succession of
+leaflets on a stalk, anaglyphs, and every sort of device conceivable,
+so exquisitely moulded that it was difficult at first to realise that
+some had not been wrought by a skilled goldsmith, from special designs;
+whilst silver is often found in a thin, brittle, and yellowish stone
+called <i>spath</i>, which looks as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span> though it had been moulded from
+the most beautiful vine, or some other large leaf. More frequently,
+however, it is seen lying in compact beds, either in small angular
+pieces of a slightly leaden colour, or in bead-like masses.</p>
+
+<p>It would be impossible to describe the variety and splendour of the
+minerals, one of the most beautiful stones being the amethyst, which
+is found in large beds, in which the dark purple rectangular crystals,
+shooting upwards in cones of equal size, are so polished and regularly
+formed that they appear as if they had just come out of the hands
+of the lapidary. Malachite is likewise found in a transition state,
+together with ocherite, both of which stones are intermingled with
+globules of gold. These Plutonic rocks also contain opal; which is
+found in the whitish-grey calcined rock, generally in strata of about
+four inches thick, where it forms a compact and seeming opaque mass,
+possessing the appearance—if I may so express it—of petrified and
+etherealised fire. When seen in its original stratum, opal presents
+quite a different aspect from that which it assumes after it has passed
+into the hands of the lapidary, and is far less beautiful to my mind in
+its <i>rounded</i> and artificial form. Of all the stones found in the
+Hungarian mountains, none impressed us so greatly as this one in its
+natural state.</p>
+
+<p>It is exceedingly interesting to see the minerals which are used by
+the professors in lecturing to the mining students. There are the
+round hollow stones in which crystals are just beginning to form,
+and others showing the progressive stages of their growth. Amethysts
+are invariably found, like other crystals, in pebbles, some of which
+measure half a yard in diameter, and which, on being broken in two,
+are seen to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span> thickly lined with lustrous purple stones. There were
+clayey substances also in every phase of transition, from the primary
+matter, which in the process of drying had cracked into small squares
+of equal size, to the fully developed marble, which, when cut through
+diagonally, formed the most beautiful hexagons, each as perfect as
+those of a honeycomb, and each hexagon separated from the other by a
+perfectly white and well-defined line created by a deposit of chalk
+working its way into the original interstices in the course of—who
+shall conjecture how many ages?</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>A wet evening sends us home to our dismal room, where in due time they
+bring us candles and a pair of snuffers—modern improvements in the
+manufacture of the former not having apparently extended to Schemnitz.
+In the feeble, glimmering light, the large room appears even more
+hobgobliny than ever, whilst the eyes of the ancient celebrities in
+the picture frames seem to grow larger and to revolve in their sockets
+as we look at them. To make matters worse, we are perpetually reducing
+ourselves to a state of darkness whenever it becomes necessary to snuff
+the candles—which it does about every five minutes—and we realise
+that, like the wearing of pattens, candle-snuffing is an art which, to
+be accomplished gracefully, must be acquired in early life.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately all the rain fell during the night. Towards the small
+hours we could hear it tearing madly down the street like a mountain
+torrent, which I should imagine the narrow gorge in which the town
+is situated must originally have been. Looking out of the window at
+nine <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> we see above the mountain a small piece of sky
+about the size of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span> pocket-handkerchief. It is all that is visible
+of that aerial region, but it is intensely and encouragingly blue,
+and, after breakfast, we sally forth to see the town with its fine
+old castle built against the steep hill-side, and looking down at
+us over the picturesque roofs of the houses, every one of which was
+formerly a fortification. The castle dates from 1491, and the custodian
+entertained us with blood-curdling tales of Turkomans and Templars, and
+told us how that the Christians fought and the infidel marauders fled.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2360_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2360_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>It is the weekly market. Forcing our way through sacks of scarlet
+pepper, stands of Slovak cheeses—which, moulded in cloths, look
+precisely like gigantic puddings—baskets running over with pink and
+white radishes, the classic garlic, and other commodities, we reach
+the opposite side of the road. The little lambs we saw yesterday have
+been kept alive for to-day—God knows how—and are lying in the same
+baskets, only panting more sadly, their heads thrown back and eyes
+half-open, the whites of which alone are visible. So cruel and piteous
+a sight makes our hearts ache, and we endeavour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span> by much gesture, to
+induce their owners to change their constrained positions, and give
+them a little food. They only think we are beginning a bargain, and
+lug them out of the baskets by the four legs, which we can see are
+tied together far too tightly, and then, finding we are not bent on
+purchasing, they throw them in again, just as if they had been bundles
+of turnips or vegetables. The lilies of the valley have been freshened
+up, and the forget-me-nots, reflecting with their meek blue eyes the
+sky above, appear as though they had but just awakened from their bath
+of dew. Women, hundreds of women, in dark blue skirts bordered with
+light green, stand about the stalls, and look like figures painted on
+old china. Priests, in long black robes which sweep the street, come
+wriggling in and out of the crowd. Now and then we hear close behind us
+a plaintive, supplicating voice, uttering words, the meaning of which
+we cannot understand, save that of “<i>Christus</i>.” It is a beggar,
+asking kreuzers for the love of Him who died for us. And everywhere
+the people throng and jostle each other in the narrow street. Looking
+upwards, all is colour, motion, and a sea of heads, above which rise
+the high houses, with their overhanging roofs, and the black domes and
+cupolas of the <i>Rath-haus</i> and the beautiful old churches, with
+their lancet windows and porches, entered by long flights of steps.
+There is a rapid stir in the crowd as way is made for a long country
+cart, drawn by three donkeys and two small black oxen, the latter
+forming the wheelers of the rustic team!</p>
+
+<p>In the lateral streets, which are almost as steep as the roofs of
+houses, we see bullock-waggons laden with hay and corn, and pots and
+pans innumerable. Up these steeps women struggle and toil, with large,
+square, wooden pails<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span> or baskets attached to their backs, and carrying
+babies swathed in linen, like small white mummies.</p>
+
+<p>Presently we descry above the sea of heads a tall man, in what has been
+graphically designated a “stove-pipe” hat.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Buval Jankó!</i>” we hear a Hungarian gentleman observe, in a
+somewhat amused tone, to a friend standing at his elbow.</p>
+
+<p>He is certainly an Englishman of some sort, we could swear to the cut
+of his sartorial garments anywhere. Is he an archdeacon, with that high
+collar and swallow-tailed coat? What an incongruous object he looks
+amongst all these pretty costumes, so full of colour! No wonder that
+the Arab who first saw an Englishman in this guise hastened to inform
+his neighbours and acquaintances that he had seen “his Satanic Majesty
+with a saucepan on his head, and his tail slit in two!”</p>
+
+<p>Strange as it may appear, he is the only Englishman we have seen during
+either of our travels in Hungary, and it is quite impossible to pass
+him by without a greeting.</p>
+
+<p>His speech soon reveals the mystery of his <i>genre</i>. He belongs to
+the “Society of Friends,” and is, he informs us, a travelling agent for
+a firm in Birmingham.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2380_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2380_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE “CALVARY.”</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Returning to the hotel we hire a carriage to take us to the foot
+of a mountain forming one of the most conspicuous objects in the
+neighbourhood of this interesting town, and upon which is a “calvary,”
+well worthy a visit. Climbing the rugged street with some difficulty,
+we pass under the old tower, where a blind man sits, telling his beads
+“for the love of God;” but with a mental eye open to the possibility of
+stray kreuzers.</p>
+
+<p>At the base of the steepest part of the mountain is an avenue of
+trees leading to the first of the line of small chapels which contain
+representations of the “stations of the Cross.” At this point, one of
+the horses began kicking so violently, and had evidently made up its
+mind so firmly not to proceed another inch, that we were obliged to
+alight. Possibly the thought of the steep ascent caused it to arrive
+at this decision, or perhaps it was a stern Protestant and objected to
+“Calvaries” on principle.</p>
+
+<p>A hot and fatiguing pilgrimage up a narrow path, takes us past the
+fourteen stations, all of which describe most touchingly the scenes in
+our Saviour’s passion. The figures, which are either plaster or carved
+in wood, standing out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span> completely in relief, being, in no one instance,
+grotesque in either form or colour, but most skilfully and artistically
+devised.</p>
+
+<p>The first “station” represents the Garden of Gethsemane, where the
+Saviour is kneeling in agony, whilst the Disciples sleep. In the chapel
+where He is being crowned with thorns, the sight, as we look through
+the grating, is quite startling, the figures and their grouping are so
+painfully natural. In the centre sits the meek and patient sufferer,
+surrounded by Roman soldiers. A real halter and chain are round His
+neck, and a Jewish beggar dressed in brown rags, squatting in the
+corner and pulling the cord with which the Holy hands are tied, is so
+life-like in his rags, and in the patches of his coarse gabardine, and
+so villainous in the expression of his wrinkled, dirty countenance, and
+the satanic smile of derision with which he regards the pale Saviour,
+from whom drops of blood are falling, that it is difficult to realise
+He is not an actual living person.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the summit of the mountain is the “Nailing to the Cross,”
+in the representation of which incident not a detail is wanting. One
+man is hammering a nail into the right hand, and another is boring a
+hole through the left with a gimlet; whilst the low brows and square
+chins of those who are doing the cruel deed, make us wonder from what
+class the artists can possibly have taken their models.</p>
+
+<p>Then comes the large chapel on the extreme summit, containing the
+“Crucifixion.” The three crosses stand on a large block of real rock,
+beneath which and on a level with the ground is a small grating, behind
+which souls are represented grilling in the flames of purgatory, the
+only really grotesque thing about the whole.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span></p>
+
+<p>Walking round to the other side of the chapel, and entering by another
+door, we find the “Entombment,” and then another tableau of the pale
+and lifeless form lying in the sepulchre with the angels watching
+beside Him, and the women in the distance bringing spices.</p>
+
+<p>Before several of the “stations” were persons kneeling, tears falling
+down the cheeks of some, and there is no doubt that the vivid
+representation by these life-size lay-figures of these touching
+incidents, bring them before the minds of the ignorant in a manner we
+cold Protestants can hardly understand, and I must confess that I could
+myself witness few of these scenes so graphically portrayed without
+deep emotion.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours have passed away ere we descend the zigzag path, and
+traversing the avenue reach our carriage, for we tarried long upon the
+sacred heights to see the view, which is wonderful, of the fine old
+town, nestling in its amphitheatre of mountains, and the little houses
+of the miners dotting the green slopes, and nestling amongst trees. The
+horse again kicked on our way back, from which I infer that the first
+little demonstration was an exhibition of temper rather than one of
+sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>Passing by the kitchen of the hotel which is near the entrance, we
+observe, lying on the table amongst sundry joints of meat, vegetables,
+and other comestibles, what appears to be a cod divested of its tail
+and trussed for boiling, but which now proves on closer inspection to
+be the cook’s chrysalis of a baby that she had placed there for safety.
+The little creature was as stiff as a board and could not have moved
+so much as a finger or a toe to save its life. It looked quite happy
+however in its small mummy-wrappers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span> and smiled sweetly as I spoke to
+it, seeming as though in its little heart it had a mind to “crow” if it
+could only have expanded.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2420_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2420_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>“Why don’t you hang it up to a door-nail, or to the wall there?”
+inquires F. “It is dangerous here, you might pop it into a pot by
+mistake.”</p>
+
+<p>At which the mother only laughed and looked down upon her infant so
+lovingly that I half expected to see a halo of glory around her head,
+the look of love was so ineffable.</p>
+
+<p>It was a bright starlight night, and, a dinner partaken of, we wandered
+out to see how the old place looked by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span> lamp-light. Here and there a
+feeble light glimmering through some window threw its reflection across
+the uneven street, and made the quaint old archways stand out weird and
+grim. High above us the lofty and precipitous mountains frowned down
+upon the townlike prison walls, and almost shut out the sky. Strolling
+up and down the narrow streets, we pass miners on their homeward way;
+whilst at the fountain, women stand gossiping as they fill their
+pitchers even at this late hour of night. Now and then we come to a
+tavern where miners are singing their celebrated songs in hoarse rough
+voices, the theme of which is invariably the dangers to which they are
+exposed. The airs were sad, and as we listened there seemed something
+very pathetic in the thought that the perils to which the lives of
+these poor fellows are exposed, should even form the subject of their
+thoughts during their hours of recreation.</p>
+
+<p>The lights in the many-storied old houses now begin to die out one by
+one, and presently a bell, the tone of which is the deepest and most
+sonorous I ever heard, begins to toll slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“It cannot be the hour it is striking,” exclaimed F., as in slow and
+measured beat it reached the eleventh stroke. He took out his watch and
+held it up to the light thrown from a window of a little wine-shop,
+where three men sitting on a bench were drinking.</p>
+
+<p>“It is the ‘<i>Todtenglocke</i>’ (death knell),” said some one in
+German that moment passing by, as it continued to toll out the tidings
+that another soul was departing, and summoned the inhabitants to pray
+for its repose. And the slow and solemn “boom” went rolling and echoing
+up the gorge, as one swelling buttress after another caught the wave
+of sound and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span> sent it on, and up, and up, until it seemed to die away
+amidst the stars.</p>
+
+<p>The three men, impelled possibly by its solemn warning, left the shop,
+and went staggering homewards; and we ourselves felt it was high time
+to “turn in,” if we were to get any rest at all, as we had to be up
+again at four o’clock on the morrow to meet the train at Altsohl, to
+which place we purposed driving.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+
+<p>What a ghastly-looking meal is breakfast by candle-light! The large
+<i>salle-à-manger</i>, lighted at one end only; the long stretch of
+gloom beyond; the dark doorways which appear to lead to mysterious and
+unknown caverns; the ghostly old wooden presses standing against the
+wall; the last night’s crumbs lying still unswept upon the floor; and
+the marks of wine upon the tablecloth—how wretched it all is!</p>
+
+<p>The coffee is gritty and cold, the butter is flabby, and the rolls
+have a peculiar flavour of last night about them. Getting up in the
+small hours is, however, as nothing compared with the discomfort
+and unsavouriness of the breakfast with which one feels compelled
+to fortify oneself before starting on the journey. Above all, how
+cadaverous in the dim light look the guests who sit beside one, and who
+are also condemned to make an equally early start! What a gloomy and
+dishevelled band we appear, as we sit in moody silence, each possessed
+of a vague and undefined sensation of melancholy and ill-usage, as
+though something doleful were about to happen to us, the precise nature
+of which we cannot define!</p>
+
+<p>Emerging from the dark room, we find it is daylight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span> outside, but the
+Schemnitz world is still asleep, as we walk down the silent street to
+join our carriage. Above the summits of the mountains a long vermilion
+streak proclaims that the sun has risen, though yet invisible to us,
+and there is a solemn feeling in the cold, still air as though the
+spirit of the “passing bell” had not yet died away. All nature seems
+to join in telling its sad meaning. The morning star recounts it as it
+disappears within the veil. The crescent moon foreshadows it, as it
+sinks beneath the hills. The great silence tells it. Yes! the very echo
+of our footsteps preaches the sad, unwelcome doctrine, that “all is
+passing away.”</p>
+
+<p>We feel much more cheery, however, by the time we reach the bottom of
+the hill, and see our carriage—to which <i>two</i> horses only are
+harnessed this time—and András’s nimble little figure dodging from
+one side to the other, as he arranges the cushions for us, and makes
+all “taut” for starting, and we are quite jolly again when once more
+jolting along the road to the music of the horses’ bells.</p>
+
+<p>Clattering under the old gateway, we soon reach the open country, and
+see the train ascending the hill on the opposite side of the narrow
+valley. How the engine puffs and snorts, and what difficulty it seems
+to have in dragging itself up the steep incline! It scarcely appears
+to move at all, as, cantering down the hill, we quickly leave it far
+behind. On the way our progress is momentarily arrested by a little
+procession, which, leaving the main road, is wending its way upwards
+by a mountain path. It is the “Kost” being carried to a dying person.
+Peasant women follow, with little children clinging to their skirts,
+some holding lighted tapers, and all walking with heads bent low.
+How picturesque,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span> but how melancholy at the same time, are all Roman
+Catholic countries!</p>
+
+<p>At Altsohl we find all the women in full costume, the day being
+evidently a festival of some sort. There is a great display of
+ravishing little top-boots in scarlet and yellow leather, and brilliant
+<i>peltz rökel</i>—short sheepskin jackets, worked not only in
+coloured silks, but in gold and silver thread. The men, too, are in
+their Sunday-best, with feathers and flowers in their hats, and smoking
+their holiday pipes.</p>
+
+<p>At Altsohl station another painful scene awaits us. More emigrants
+are starting for “Amurica,” that country whose streets are paved with
+gold. As usual, there are not enough carriages to convey them, and
+the agony of the men, women, and children who come to see the last
+of them is prolonged. At length the bell rings. Friends embrace each
+other passionately, and weep like children. The emigrants take their
+places, and the train moves slowly from the platform. The last look is
+given through the carriage windows. A thrilling cry of pain goes up
+from those left behind—it haunted us for many a long day after—and we
+whirl away, the very wheels as they rotate, seeming to echo the words
+of the Hungarian whom we met at Schemnitz: “They die by a fence—they
+die by a fence!”</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2460_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2460_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLVIII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE MODERN BABEL.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">It is Fair-day in the Hungarian capital, and the hotels are as full
+as they can cram. There is not an inch of space left anywhere. The
+restaurants, as we pass them, are so choked with human life, half
+savage, half civilised, that not even an eel, were it ever so hungry,
+could manage to insinuate itself, suppose it had the <i>courage</i> to
+face so polyglot an assemblage.</p>
+
+<p>In the streets the traveller is jostled not only by Hungarians of
+each nationality, Magyars, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Széklers, Wallachs,
+Croatians, Serbs, and Illyrians—a “mosaic of nations” which,
+constituting the inhabitants of the entire Austro-Hungarian dominions,
+numbers upwards of 150,000—but Germans, Poles, Muscovites, Bohemians,
+Frenchmen, Italians, Turks, Heretics, and Infidels. There are Jews and
+gipsies by the thousand, German Jews, Hungarian Jews in the costume
+of the <i>Magyar-orság</i>, Polish Jews, in black toga and corkscrew
+curls, from the province of Gallicia, Transylvanian Jews, in greasy
+brown cloth dressing-gown and sandalled feet, looking like dissipated
+Capuchin friars out for a holiday, and who evidently ignore the maxim
+concerning the proximity of cleanliness to godliness no less than their
+Christian brethren.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span></p>
+
+<p>There are men in hats made of rushes, others with conical-shaped hats
+of fur, the precise pattern of that worn by Robinson Crusoe; others
+again wearing large broad ones like Spanish <i>sombreros</i>. There are
+men whose pale olive complexions proclaim them to be Greeks. There are
+Turks and Bosnians wearing the becoming fez, and here and there an Arab
+in a turban, besides whom there are also men from Upper Hungary whose
+long hair hanging to the waist is plaited in four tails, and who wear
+immense leather belts and sandals, and such wonderful garments, that
+they must be seen even to be believed in; men, too, from the country
+of Somogy clad in blanket-like cloaks, like those of Bedouins, whilst
+working their way in and out amongst the crowd, their looks bold and
+defiant, are numerous Magyars in snow-white petticoats fringed or
+embroidered at the edges. There are women, too, with coloured scarves
+coiled gracefully round the head; women—beautiful women, whose
+raven hair is covered with gold coins, flashing and quivering in the
+sunlight! Women again—natives of Pest—wearing dark-blue kerchiefs
+so disposed as to conceal the whole face, with the exception of eyes,
+nose, and mouth, and who only need the addition of a <i>yashmak</i> to
+give them the appearance of veritable daughters of the Prophet. What a
+medley! and what a Babel of tongues greets the ear of the stranger as
+he stands in the thick of the fair. At these fairs, four of which take
+place annually, no fewer than twenty-eight thousand strangers pour into
+Pest.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that <i>mein Herr</i> Dulovic shook his head and intimated
+that he could not take us in as we dashed up to the door of his hotel
+one morning in a droszky and pair, some Armenians having previously
+engaged the room we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span> had occupied for two days at the “<i>Königinn von
+England</i>,” a circumstance that compelled us to seek shelter in some
+other hotel.</p>
+
+<p>The little old man was well-nigh beside himself; his tow-coloured wig
+almost stood on end, and his countenance was suffused by a warm dew as
+he endeavoured to withstand the importunities of three other “parties,”
+who had arrived at the same moment, on the same errand as ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>We however, as may be remembered, had stayed at this small but
+well-ordered hotel once before, and, as old acquaintances, had no
+intention of being turned away. Moreover we were <i>Ángolok</i>, and
+just at that time the English nation happened to be at an unusual
+premium in the estimation of the Hungarians.</p>
+
+<p>“Stay! Yes! No! Yes!” exclaimed Herr Dulovic, hesitatingly—“If you do
+not mind——”</p>
+
+<p>“Mind?” broke in F., descending from the carriage. “We don’t mind
+anything at such a time as this,” adding, as we follow mein Herr up the
+stairs and into a chamber of such limited dimensions that to have swung
+even a cat in it one must have taken that animal by the head and not by
+the tail, “<i>Si on ne peut pas avoir ce qu’on veux, il faut prendre ce
+qu’on peut</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>After a hurried repast we stroll out to have a peep at the fair, which,
+save in the matter of costumes and diversity of peoples and tongues,
+differs little from that of other countries. There are the same long
+avenues of booths, containing every conceivable article for man or
+beast. Stands of juicy melons, pomegranates and oranges from Croatia,
+presided over by girls and stately women, looking like Druidical
+priestesses in their long white robes; booths<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span> of <i>édességek</i>
+(sweetmeats); booths of imitation jewellery much frequented by the
+Magyar girls; booths of hard-ware, and wooden utensils, belonging to
+nut-brown specimens of the wandering tribe; Slovak cheese, carpets
+from Servia, bacon from Slavonia, booths of ready-made under-clothing,
+sheepskin <i>bundas</i>, <i>pelz-röckel</i>, and beautifully
+embroidered cloaks; high boots for men, and others for women and girls,
+with scarlet and yellow sides, trimmed with coquettish little rosettes,
+not to speak of Turkish-looking slippers worn by the women of Szegedin.
+There are Jews in the characters of money-lenders and sellers of
+<i>bijouterie</i>; gipsies in that of horse-dealers, cunning-looking
+men with long whips ornamented with bows of many-coloured ribbons, and
+gourds hanging from their girdles; there are shepherds, too, splendid
+looking fellows with forms like those of Roman athletes; besides which
+are men in coarse gabardines directing games of chance, acrobats by
+the dozen, and the off-scourings of the four winds of heaven. What a
+hurly-burly!</p>
+
+<p>Along the banks of the Danube, however, an entirely novel scene
+presents itself to our gaze. For the space of half a mile boats and
+barges are moored together in close proximity; some of them are heavy,
+flat-bottomed craft, whilst others, gaudily painted in red, white, and
+green, look like miniature Chinese junks. These boats and barges, in
+conjunction with the <i>quai</i>, form a market-place of themselves
+for articles consisting chiefly of the produce of the country; wines,
+badacsony, from the Platten-See; the white wines of Transylvania, and
+the more delicious ones of Tokay; <i>slivovitz</i> and <i>fenüviz</i>,
+a spirit made from juniper-berries; tobacco, wool, hides, and other
+commodities “far too numerous to mention.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span></p>
+
+<p>Beyond, there are the usual vast herds of sheep, pigs, and cattle,
+guarded by wild, top-booted graziers and strange, fierce-looking
+shepherds; whilst outside the fair the road is lined with vehicles of
+every description.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite is a booth where a sheep is being roasted whole, while on
+stands arranged in front are savoury “gipsy roasts,” consisting of
+small pieces of hot meat for the refection of the hungry. Hard by
+is a seller of macaroni soup, ladling out her steaming esculent to
+numerous comers; and near her a stout Magyar <i>Frau</i> vending
+“<i>Tisch-wein</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>It is when the fires of sunset have faded in the west, and the curtain
+of night has dropped upon the most beautiful scene in the world—the
+Blocksberg and the Danube and the rock-built citadel of Buda—that
+the real fun begins. By that time the stern business of the day is
+over, the bargaining has come to an end till the morrow, and the whole
+twenty-eight thousand visitors give themselves up to pleasure. In the
+warm shadow of the booths merry groups stand idly chatting. Managers
+of theatres shout and scream and yell. Marionettes whirl and twirl
+and curtsey, and move their heads up and down with sudden jerks, and
+go through their little antics with the same melancholy precision as
+elsewhere. Acrobats climb poles and perform juggling tricks to the
+astonished multitude. In the eating-booths the fires gleam like “mad
+Sarabands,” and the people cooking the gipsy roasts stand out against
+them like black imps.</p>
+
+<p>Passing the Jägerhorn on our way back to our hotel, we find the
+<i>Czigánok</i> are sawing away there as usual, whilst the people
+sitting beside the snowy tables pave the way for night-mares as
+they devour their “<i>gebratene Ente</i>” and “<i>geschmortes
+Lämmerchen</i>.” It is worth while entering to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span> see the costumes
+and various physiognomies of the visitors: the soft, caressing, and
+almost effeminate features of the Sláv from the South, and the pale,
+olive-complexioned Greek, contrasting forcibly with the robust and
+majestic Magyars—off-shoots of a kingly race—with their frank and
+manly countenances.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the hotel, we find ourselves unexpectedly plunged in the
+lap of luxury, a Hungarian gentleman having offered to exchange our
+little chamber <i>au quatrième</i> all amongst the chimneys and the
+cats, for his own handsome and commodious room on the first floor, one
+of the thousand acts of kindness we received whilst travelling in this
+country. There is no city where there is greater amusement and gaiety
+than Pest, particularly in the winter, when the “nobles” bring their
+families to the Capital from their country chateaux. At this season
+there is a perpetual round of balls and entertainments, skating being
+the favourite occupation during the hours of day. In May the <i>beau
+monde</i> return to their country seats, and the traveller may then
+look in vain for the beautiful horses and handsome equipages, which in
+the winter months brighten the streets of the city.</p>
+
+<p>Pest, too, is the seat of the National Government. Accompanied by
+a member of the Diet, to whom we had a letter of introduction, we
+visited the Lower House at the time when the Delegates were sitting.
+Received at the entrance hall by a number of lackeys, dressed in a
+handsome Hussar uniform of black and scarlet, we were at once shown
+to the visitors’ gallery. Many of the members wore the black cloth
+<i>attila</i>, and embroidered waistcoat, but by far the greater
+number the severe garments of Western Europe, even the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span> nobles having
+relinquished the brilliant costumes with which they formerly sat in
+Assembly.</p>
+
+<p>There are 441 Delegates, all of whom are chosen irrespective of
+religious sects. Of this number 39 are Croatians, who speak in their
+native language—Slavonian.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyars, as a rule, evince great calmness in council. Their warm
+and impulsive natures, however, and susceptibility to excitement,
+render them victims to the most violent and rapid changes of
+temperament, and, even in the midst of the calmest deliberation, they
+not unfrequently manifest the wildest outbursts of feeling.</p>
+
+<p>On the occasion of our visit, the debate was rather a noisy one, and
+the President’s bell was in frequent requisition, but the very instant
+Baron Sennyei rose to speak, the most perfect silence reigned, and the
+eyes of every Delegate in the House were steadily fixed upon him. He is
+a great politician and the present leader of the Conservative party,
+or what is called <i>Mérsékett ellenzék</i> (moderate adverse party),
+and is spoken of as the one who will, in all probability, be chosen
+President of the Council at the next election.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyar language, which is spoken by almost 6¼ millions of
+inhabitants, or 40 per cent. of the entire population, is forcible,
+energetic, and capable of the most impassioned eloquence, and although
+pathetic in its tones when spoken in conversation, when declaimed it
+becomes bold and emphatic. It is copious in idiomatic expressions, and
+rich in its vocabulary of words. Although the Magyar language possesses
+no auxiliary verb “to have,” no primitive possessive pronouns, no
+gender for the distinction of sexes, and scarcely any true declension
+for objective terms, yet it is said to surpass every Teutonic,
+Slavonic, Italic, and IndoEuropean<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span> language in the richness of its
+verbal formations. Of all the letters in the alphabet, <i>k</i> is the
+one most conspicuously heard, and all the more so from the fact of its
+coming at the end of so many words, being generally used to denote the
+plural.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyar language, if for no other reason, would be deeply
+interesting to the stranger from the fact of its being the only
+non-Aryan tongue throughout Europe (if we except that of the Finns) in
+which Christian rites are performed and Parliamentary debates carried
+on, and also from its having been established in Europe and subjected
+to Aryan influences for nearly a thousand years, without having lost
+its essential Turanian features, its etymology and syntax still
+preserving their ancient characteristics.</p>
+
+<p>Until forty-five years ago, Latin was the language universally used
+throughout Hungary in all proceedings connected with law and diplomacy.
+The country having at one period been under the dominion of two foreign
+powers, viz., the Austrian and Mahomedan, a common language was
+necessary for these deliberations. By mutual consent, therefore, the
+mediæval Latin was adopted, and but for this the three languages spoken
+in the country, viz., Magyar, German, and Turkish, would necessarily
+have created great confusion.</p>
+
+<p>In fact, so commonly was it in use until twenty or thirty years
+ago, that it was called “<i>Stataria</i>,” whilst Magyar itself was
+even taught by the means of Latin, the grammar being designated
+“<i>Hungarica</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>In some parts of Hungary, even in comparatively recent times, Latin
+was used by the peasantry to converse with persons belonging to
+nationalities other than their own, whilst the Huns, whose language was
+a harsh and barren<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span> idiom, likewise strove to make Latin—which was
+spoken in Pannonia in the time of Augustus—the medium of communication
+with their fellows.</p>
+
+<p>After we had remained listening some time to the expressive utterances
+of Baron Sennyei, Herr Franz Pulszky—a man of considerable note,
+not only in his own country, but in many European circles—conducted
+us to the Upper House, situated over the National Museum, where
+sit the nobles. The gallery surrounding the grand staircase by
+which the room and its antechambers are approached is adorned
+with fresco-paintings—very creditably executed by Hungarian
+artists—representing the history of the civilisation of Hungary and,
+beginning with the entry of the Huns into the country, portraying the
+various epochs of history, and ending with the revolutionary period of
+1848.</p>
+
+<p>Our cicerone was one whose features proclaimed that nature had destined
+him for no ordinary career. Pointing to a fresco situated in one of the
+most conspicuous places, viz., close to the entrance of the Chamber of
+Debate, he exclaims:</p>
+
+<p>“You see there the great leader of our Patriotic party.”</p>
+
+<p>“What, <i>Kossuth</i> here, and Louis Batthyani?” we cried as we
+observed a figure bearing the palm branch of martyrdom, and knew at
+once for whom it was intended.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and <i>I</i> am here,” he added significantly. “The Austrian
+Government made a great fuss about it at first, but was obliged to
+give in at last.” And as I looked up at the commanding figure of the
+revolutionary leader haranguing the populace, I must say I could not
+help wondering it had done so.</p>
+
+<p>The picture in question besides Kossuth represented Deák,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span> Széchenyi,
+Louis Batthyani, who was executed at Temesvár, and Petőfy, the poet of
+the Revolution.</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to hear the very grateful terms in which Herr Pulszky
+alluded to the Emperor of Austria for having spared his life. He was
+condemned to death on two occasions, once to be shot and the other to
+be hanged. He had, however, the honour of being burnt in effigy.</p>
+
+<p>The Hall of Assembly, though small, is a very handsomely decorated
+apartment. On the lowest tier stand the chairs of crimson and gold,
+where sit the Cardinals, whilst on the desks in front of the seats
+above we recognised the familiar names of Graf Festetics and Prince
+Windishgraitz, which, on those gentlemen paying a visit to England some
+years ago, were, as might have been anticipated, converted into the
+more intelligible, if not euphemistic ones, of “Count Fiddlesticks,”
+and “Prince Windowscratch.”</p>
+
+<p>It is singular that Count Andrássy—the correct pronunciation of
+whose name is <i>Andrasshy</i>—though a Magyar and also condemned to
+death for the part he took in the insurrection under Kossuth, should
+until recently have filled the post of Prime Minister to the Austrian
+Government, an anomalous position one can scarcely understand any
+Hungarian patriot occupying with their very natural repugnance to the
+Austrian supremacy.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2560_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2560_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XLIX.<br>
+<span class="subhed">ÓBUDA.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Fair-time is by no means the most pleasant at which to visit the
+capital, and we were right glad to learn one morning soon after our
+arrival that it was over. Oh, the dust and muddle and hurry-skurry of
+the whole business of packing up! But even that too is almost over
+now. The booths have disappeared; the pedlars have shouldered their
+wares, and the acrobats their bundles; the young ladies in pink tights
+have resumed their top-boots; the Mesdames Jarley have packed up
+their wax-works, and the decapitated bodies of Bem, Kossuth, Matthias
+Corvinus, and Joan of Arc, stripped of their finery and with their
+heads carefully stowed away elsewhere, are lying in boxes filled with
+straw, and jogging along the road in dreary fellowship. All are gone
+off to the next fair. Nor will they have long to rest on their laurels,
+for there are two thousand fairs in Hungary every year. Little is left
+to remind us of the existence of this one but sundry heaps of dust and
+straw mingled with scraps of paper of various colours which the wind
+has benevolently blown under doorways and into safe snug corners, and
+all things have shaken down and resumed their wonted complexion in
+bright, beautiful Pest. Persons come and go as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span> usual. In the markets,
+vendors of <i>Tisch-wein</i> and hot macaroni soup assert their former
+sway, and Magyar women, once more left alone, shine forth in solitary
+glory, in all the convolutions of their short but voluminous petticoats.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2580_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2580_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>It is amusing to linger about the square and regard the “common
+objects,” sturdy Magyar matrons bargaining over their purchases, as
+they stand at the stalls on which repose whole yards of bread and miles
+of sausage, or see them turning over the contents of the vegetable
+baskets guarded by female rustics, sitting under huge umbrellas.
+Equipped in their top-boots which extend above the knee, and which are
+well greased to resist the manifold vicissitudes of Hungarian roads,
+these Magyar females resemble groups of Amazons, rather than peaceful
+house-wives.</p>
+
+<p><i>A propos</i> of these Magyar sisters of ours I never could determine
+at all satisfactorily to my own mind whether the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span> enormous rotundity of
+hip is due to a peculiar type of human form, or to extraneous matter
+in the shape of pads or pillows. I incline to the latter theory, but I
+seldom saw a full-blown specimen of the <i>genus</i> without wishing
+to solve the mystery. As they go marching home with their purchases,
+one cannot help thinking what admirable weapons the long, narrow,
+crusty loaves would make which they carry under their arms; these
+and three quarters of a yard of sausage—an edible made of raw meat,
+well flavoured with garlic, and so compressed as to assume almost the
+hardness and heaviness of iron—might furnish implements of warfare
+for an army; and appear to be exactly the kind of weapons with which
+the ancient inhabitants of Eastern Hungary defended themselves against
+the Romans in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 103 as seen in the sculptures on Trajan’s
+Column at Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Steamers ply constantly throughout the day between Pest and Ofen, as
+well as Promontorium and other towns and villages in the neighbourhood
+of Pest, and few things are more interesting than to stand on the long
+steps of the quays and watch their arrival and departure. Here stand
+or sit groups of men and women waiting for the steamers to take them
+to their respective destinations, and I never grew tired of sketching
+them, for they occasionally formed themselves into groups that were
+perfectly statuesque. I never knew people—to make use of artistic
+phraseology—who “composed” so well.</p>
+
+<p>Embarking on these boats may sometimes be seen not only Bosnians,
+Servians, and natives of the Sublime Porte; but occasionally an
+Albanian in gay and martial attire with a sabre at his side and pistol
+in his girdle, and now and then a Dervish. Indeed at no hour of the day
+are these splendid quays devoid of interest; whilst lying close into
+the shore<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span> are gaily painted fishing-boats looking like exaggerated
+Dutch toys.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting on one of the benches at the place of embarkation for
+Promontorium, enveloped from head to foot in his long black cloak,
+we often observed an exiled Pole—a refugee from that part of his
+hapless country upon which Russia has set her iron grasp. He never
+spoke, but sat moodily watching the river flowing by, his thoughts
+evidently far away, and was verily the saddest spectacle we saw the
+whole time we were at Pest. There are a number of Polish refugees
+in this charming little capital, and it is easy to recognise them,
+their downcast but resigned look, more eloquent far than any spoken
+demonstration of sorrow, plainly indicating who and what they were.
+Taciturn always, it was seldom we could engage them in conversation,
+but if fortunate enough to do so, their incessant themes were loss of
+nationality and love of country. “Unpaternal” as are most continental
+Governments in their treatment of political refugees, Austro-Hungary is
+a very favourite place of exile with the Poles; nor is this altogether
+strange, for the Hungarians naturally sympathise with the Poles as
+a people situated in some measure similarly to themselves, besides
+which it is said that the Austrian Government is far more indulgent to
+political refugees than the Prussian. Probably Austria is influenced
+in some degree—as well she may—by the remembrance of the assistance
+Poland once afforded her in the hour of her greatest need, when in 1683
+she was almost overwhelmed by 300,000 Turks and Tartars who had already
+made a breach in her walls.</p>
+
+<p>Every night as we retired to our room in Hôtel Dolovics we observed,
+resting on a door-mat on the same floor as that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span> on which our own room
+was situated, a solitary boot. What silent pathos was there in it! It
+was a small boot too, a woman’s, and its loneliness haunted me somehow,
+and kept me awake thinking of it. I did not feel half so much for the
+wearer as for the lonely thing itself, which in the solitude of its
+<i>sole</i> seemed even more than human. We never saw the wearer,
+though we watched long and patiently; at last, one night, we found it
+gone. It had moved off our stage, and was once more on its lonely walk
+through life. Upon inquiring of the manager of the hotel, who occupied
+a gloomy little office glazed in at the top of the stairs, he satisfied
+our curiosity by informing us that it belonged to a lady residing in
+the north of Hungary, whose leg had been amputated in childhood in
+consequence of injuries sustained from grape-shot, at the commencement
+of the bombardment of the city in 1849, during the war between the
+Imperial troops and the Revolutionists—a struggle which resulted in
+the gallant Magyars making themselves masters of the Citadel of Buda,
+on whose ramparts, after a three-weeks’ heavily-sustained combat on
+both sides, the Hungarian flag floated over the city.</p>
+
+<p>During the troublous annals of their history the Magyars have
+invariably displayed dashing heroism, noble self-sacrifice, and loving
+devotion to their country, but in no instance, perhaps, so notably
+as in the struggles of 1848–9, when, although numbering as a nation
+only six millions and a quarter, they fought for their independence
+against the combined forces of Russia and Austria, and notwithstanding
+the immense resources at their foes’ command, succeeded for a while
+in not only asserting their national independence, but in quelling at
+the same time the insurrection of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span> own subjects the Wallachians,
+Slavonians, and “Saxons” of Transylvania.</p>
+
+<p>In the square at Buda there stands a cross erected in memory of
+General Henzi and his Croatian compatriots who, fighting on the side
+of the Imperialists, fell during that sanguinary conflict. Pest
+suffered severely on this occasion, and its wretched inhabitants,
+who had so often been driven away by the inundations—a foe scarcely
+less terrible—now fled in terror by thousands and tens of thousands
+from the shells which—the Austrians once more in possession of the
+fortress—were directed towards the city by one hundred pieces of
+ordnance stationed on the heights of Buda.</p>
+
+<p>The Hungarians are scarcely likely, I should say, to unite in another
+struggle for their national independence, unless they are indifferent
+to the fate of their magnificent city, for, since the last revolution
+when they succeeded in becoming masters for a while of their citadel,
+the Austrian Government has taken warning and erected fortifications
+on the summit of the Blocksberg which command not only the city but
+the fortress itself. The Hungarians speak of these fortifications with
+contempt, but this, I fancy, is a piece of very natural bravado, for
+the position of these ramparts not only renders them invulnerable in
+themselves, but the capital thus menaced could not possibly hold its
+own against a bombardment from the heights which command it on all
+sides.</p>
+
+<p>I was sitting on the banks of the Danube one morning, opposite the
+Blocksberg, peacefully sketching the boats on the river, when I was
+startled by a voice behind me saying in German:</p>
+
+<p>“I will thank you for your card.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span></p>
+
+<p>I had been conscious for some time past that I was not alone, but,
+thinking I was merely surrounded by the usual curious spectators,
+I went on quietly with my occupation; but now turning round I see
+standing beside me a soldier in the Austrian uniform.</p>
+
+<p>“For what purpose do you wish my card?” I demanded.</p>
+
+<p>“You are taking the plan of our new fortress yonder,” was the reply.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2630_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2630_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>“Well, and what if I am?”</p>
+
+<p>“You must have some object in doing so. What may it be?”</p>
+
+<p>“I do not like to see it there,” I replied, just to hear what he would
+say. “It is an ugly object, and I would like to have it knocked down.”</p>
+
+<p>He coloured deeply, and again demanded my card, or name and address.</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Jó Isten!</i>” here broke in an old woman piously, setting<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span> down
+her basket, and elevating her hands and eyes the better to give full
+expression to her feelings,—“as though we hadn’t trouble enough in
+’48! the <i>Nagyságos Asszony</i> (foreign lady) must needs take the
+measure of the fortress;” whilst a child squatting down beside me set
+up a piteous howl. One of the spruce young waiters from the <i>café</i>
+at the corner of the Petőfi tér also came out to see what could be
+the matter, together with a cook, and sundry other menials from other
+establishments hard by, all of whom, taking their stations on the steps
+in front of me, appeared to think I was gifted with the power of seeing
+through opaque substances, till I was finally hemmed in by a hot and
+eager crowd, all anxious to hear the upshot of the parley.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning to fear I might have gone too far in thus venturing to
+jest with an Austrian soldier, on such an awful subject as the
+fortifications of the Imperial Government, I endeavoured to pour oil on
+the troubled waters by at once declaring my nationality, and informing
+him that I was an English lady.</p>
+
+<p>“You speak German too well to be English,” he retorted curtly. “Show me
+your passport, <i>Madame</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>“I do not usually carry it about with me,” I replied meekly; “but if
+you do not mind waiting a few moments till I have finished sketching
+these boats, you can, if you will, accompany me to my hotel, where I
+can show it you, or, if you prefer it, you can come with me to the
+British Consulate, which is nearer. My nationality is known there, for
+the Vice-Consul signed a document for us this very morning.”</p>
+
+<p>He waited patiently and civilly whilst I coolly put the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span> finishing
+touches to my sketch, when, having packed up, we walked off together.</p>
+
+<p>Before we had proceeded very far, however, I saw F. coming down the
+Pfarr Kirche Platz, on his way to meet me. As may be imagined he was
+greatly astonished to see me in the company of an Austrian gendarme;
+but fortunately having our passport with him, he was able at once to
+convince my interrogator as to my nationality, who, after inscribing
+our names in his pocket-book, made a polite bow, and went on his way.</p>
+
+<p>During our stay at this pleasant city, we often made excursions up and
+down the river, scarcely a day passing without our going by steamer to
+Óbuda or Alt Ofen, the latter being the German appellation for this
+straggling town or village, which being literally interpreted means
+“Old Stove,” a name given to it probably on account of the hot springs
+which since time immemorial have existed here, or else from there
+having formerly been numerous lime-kilns in the neighbourhood. Of much
+more ancient origin than even Buda itself, it somehow had a strange and
+weird sort of fascination for us, such an odd old place as it is, so
+still, so silent, everything in it so arid and parched, that it looked
+as though it had been baking for centuries past in its own oven! Surely
+time must have passed it by with folded wing, for, as we wander through
+its almost deserted thoroughfares, the very atmosphere seems to tell
+of a long-forgotten past. Yet, silent as it now is, these hills must
+at one time have resounded to the murmur of many voices, as well as to
+bright music and revelry, for Alt Ofen was once, as we have seen, a
+city of kings.</p>
+
+<p>Recent excavations bear witness to the fact that a city<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span> formerly stood
+here capable of containing two hundred thousand inhabitants, a number
+equalling the population of Buda and Pest together at the present time.
+It was known to the Romans as Aquincum, and there exist in the vicinity
+many interesting Roman remains, amongst which is an aqueduct, one mile
+and a half long, whose pillars are still partially standing, together
+with a Roman amphitheatre larger than that of Pompeii, containing
+numerous Roman inscriptions, proving that a temple of Nemesis once
+existed in its immediate vicinity. A bust of the goddess has also been
+discovered, together with one of Jupiter, whilst in the amphitheatre
+itself, some of the stone benches are not only inscribed with numbers,
+but with the names of the persons to whom the seats belonged. But
+our days began to be numbered, and the time sped only too swiftly,
+as we loitered now on the banks of the river, now in the beautiful
+Margarethen Island or Stadtwäldchen, eating ices in the <i>kiosks</i>,
+till at length the time not only drew near but the last day of our
+visit had actually arrived, and an excursion to the Kaiserbad was all
+that was left for us.</p>
+
+<p>It is not easy to tear oneself away from this interesting place,
+with all its historical associations and elements of novelty to
+the stranger; for there is an individuality about it which renders
+it unlike every other city in the world. The Hungarians, too, with
+their singular pedigree, how different they are in themselves from
+the dwellers of all other cities in Europe! and what warm and kindly
+natures they possess! Verily, all things conspire to render Pest a
+charming place of sojourn.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER L.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE WITCHES’ CARNIVAL.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Of all the pleasure resorts in the neighbourhood of Pest, none is so
+great a favourite as the Kaiserbad, on account of its mineral springs,
+which are recommended as a cure for almost every ill to which frail
+humanity is prone. To the passing stranger, however, who only sees
+the outward aspect of the frequenters of these baths, and knows not
+the inward miseries they suffer, the only malady the majority of them
+would seem to possess, as he watches them regaling themselves at the
+restaurant, and notes with what marvellous rapidity one viand after
+another is made to disappear, is that of insatiable hunger.</p>
+
+<p>As we sit in the pleasant gardens the flowering trees and shrubs waft
+their perfume over us, and in the tepid pool the lotus, which opened
+wide its fan-like leaves to catch the noon-day sun, now spreads them
+wider still as they drink in gratefully the falling dews.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbourhood of the Kaiserbad is not only interesting as
+containing one of the old Turkish baths, but also on account of the
+belief held by Hungarian archæologists that it was originally founded
+by the Romans. Above the gardens is a small octangular building
+surmounted by a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span> cupola, the tomb of Sheikh Gül Baba, a Mussulman
+Saint, who died nearly two hundred years ago, and whose resting place
+is protected from Christian desecration by a special clause in the
+Treaty of Karlowitz of 1699. Hither come once a year a number of
+pilgrim dervishes to pay homage to the “holy shrine.”</p>
+
+<p>To the Turks also is due the true Egyptian Lotus which grows here, for
+they brought it from the Nile and placed it in a pool formed by the hot
+springs, where, protected from the effects of the cold atmosphere by
+the high temperature of the water, it blooms freely as at Grosswardein.</p>
+
+<p>Not an inch of soil here but has been the scene of some sanguinary
+struggle between the Christian and the Turk. Never was resistance more
+desperate than that made by the latter, nor triumph of the Christian
+arms more complete.</p>
+
+<p>During this siege, one of the most memorable in history, and which
+continued for three months without any cessation, under the leadership
+of the Duke of Lorraine, many English officers joined the Imperial
+forces, together with volunteers from almost every nation in Europe,
+all firmly bent on expelling the Ottoman foe. Every Hungarian who could
+wield a sword went forth to the conflict, till the Turks, compelled
+at length to surrender, fled across the Danube and were engulphed by
+thousands in that mighty stream.</p>
+
+<p>The moon had risen by the time we left the gardens of the Kaiserbad and
+found ourselves in the quiet streets of Buda. In the quaint old square,
+fantastic shadows, thrown by the gabled houses, lay sharply defined
+upon the dusty ground. In the small square windows, burning red,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>
+gleamed here and there a solitary light, contrasting strangely with the
+silvery moonlight; whilst above, the palpitating stars shone pale from
+out their purple deeps, and looked down upon the ruined amphitheatre
+with its rugged lines.</p>
+
+<p>On the Danube, boats and barges moored along its margin lay black upon
+its surface, and now and then heaved and tossed as a passing steamer,
+displacing the water, made them rock, and knock against each other.
+All else was as still as in the dead of night. At long intervals a
+foot-passenger came walking by, but with the usual greeting he, too,
+passed on his way, and soon became lost to view in the gloomy shadow of
+the hill.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Buda and the regal palace with its terraced gardens and
+majestic flights of steps behind, we soon reach the suspension bridge,
+and find the stream of busy life still flowing there. Carriages are
+thundering through the tunnel beneath the Schlossberg to and from the
+station, and people passing and repassing the bridge on their homeward
+way. We, however, drawn thither by a mysterious fascination, are about
+to climb the Blocksberg, for this, according to German fable, is the
+night when witches dance upon its heights.</p>
+
+<p>Scrambling up the steep, rough road through the Raitzenstadt, with
+its funny little houses and white gables, like the tents of an army
+(a quarter inhabited exclusively by Servians), we pass a ghastly
+“calvary,” and soon arrive at the summit of the mountain.</p>
+
+<p>The view of Pest and the surrounding country never appears so beautiful
+as from the heights of the Blocksberg on a moonlight night. The noble
+city lying peacefully, beneath, the rigid lines of its solid blocks of
+masonry and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span> tall black cupolas cutting sharp into the sapphire sky,
+the deep brown shadows where the streets run parallel, the brilliant
+lights of the restaurants and cafés illumining the opposite houses with
+almost prismatic hues, the broad Danube rolling onwards its majestic
+waves till it loses itself in the pale and misty distance, the wooded
+islands sleeping calmly on its surface, and the lamps upon the bridge,
+linking together as with a chain of diamonds the ancient and modern
+cities into one; all form a scene to go home and dream about.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2700_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2700_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>It was from this well-chosen spot, which commands both sides of the
+Danube, that Görgei, the military leader of the insurrectionary party,
+with his forty thousand troops and battery of artillery from Kömorn
+shelled the fortress of Buda, then in the hands of the Imperialists,
+and succeeded after a prolonged siege of twenty-one days in hoisting on
+its ramparts the standard of Hungarian liberty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span></p>
+
+<p>The outer walls of the bastion have a very imposing aspect,
+being pierced at every few steps with holes for cannon, which
+seem perpetually to menace the inhabitants of the twin-cities
+lying so peacefully beneath. Wherever one gazes from below, these
+fortifications, crowning the mountain, form the most conspicuous
+object, reminding the Hungarians, not only of their signal defeat,
+but also of what they have to expect should they ever again attempt
+to regain their national independence. I must confess, that with my
+sympathies ever on the side of the Hungarians, these fortifications
+were, to me, a most objectionable spectacle. For although the powers
+of governing the Hungarian kingdom are now equally divided between the
+two nations, so long as the sovereign power is vested in the House of
+Hapsburg, the term “dual-monarchy” will in many respects continue to be
+a miserable misnomer.</p>
+
+<p>As a portion of the Austrian empire, Hungary, however, is not badly
+off, and there are those who think her people have reason to be
+grateful to Austria for its clemency after the insurrection of ’48–9.
+It is, however, only natural that the Hungarians should wish their
+vast and beautiful country to be again governed by a king of its own,
+instead of one of an alien race. They complain, and very naturally
+too, of the liquidation of the Austrian national debt, for which the
+Hungarian Ministry, to a certain extent, became responsible in 1867,
+but which debt includes many millions which were raised abroad for the
+purpose of enabling the Austrian Government to subjugate them.</p>
+
+<p>The Magyars are wont to attribute to Austria every ill from which
+they suffer. Amongst the higher classes, however, as may naturally be
+supposed, there is greater toleration<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span> in matters political; but, on
+speaking of the “dual-monarchy” to a Magyar merchant, with whom we were
+once travelling, he said—summing up all in that melancholy inflexion
+of voice which is so characteristic of the Hungarians—“Ah, well! we
+are married to a wife we do not like, but we must bear with her, for
+divorce is impossible.”</p>
+
+<p>It is, however, only fair to say that the Hungarians invariably speak
+of the Emperor of Austria in terms of great respect, and it is to be
+regretted that Prince Rudolf, the heir to the throne, is not as popular
+as his royal father.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fortunate stroke of policy, that of Deák’s advising Francis
+Joseph to allow himself to be crowned King of Hungary at Pest in 1876.
+He knew well the feelings of his countrymen, and that that alone would
+enable the Emperor to find his way into the hearts of the Hungarian
+people, who would never recognise him as their true king until he had,
+like their early monarchs, been crowned with the sacred diadem of St.
+Stephen.</p>
+
+<p>How singular and dazzling a pageant must have been the royal procession
+to “Coronation Hill,” formed as it was of the representatives of
+the various nationalities all dressed in their ancient costumes.
+How splendid those of the Delegates in their <i>mentes</i> and
+<i>dolmans</i> of rich blue or ruby velvet, trimmed with sable and
+ermine! The nobles, clad in silver coats of mail and mantles of
+leopard’s skin, fastened across the chest with magnificent diamond
+clasps, their caps adorned with waving plumes, and the trappings of
+their chargers, like those of Attila of old, adorned with precious
+stones. Following the King came the archbishops and Prince Primate
+on horseback, arrayed in their gorgeous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span> vestments and gold mitres,
+bearing in their hands their gem-bespangled croziers. Reaching the
+mound, formed of earth brought from the various provinces of the
+kingdom, the King, giving spurs to his horse, dashed up the eminence,
+the sacred crown upon his head, and robed in the coronation mantle
+of light blue silk, embroidered by Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen,
+a garment which, kept under safe guardianship with the crown in the
+Castle of Buda, is never repaired except by royal hands. Facing the
+four quarters of the globe he waved his sword in each direction in
+accordance with the custom of Hungary’s ancient kings and in token that
+he would defend the country from foes from whatever side they might
+come.</p>
+
+<p>The Empress is greatly beloved. She speaks their language thoroughly,
+is beautiful, and flatters their vanity—one of the weak points in the
+Magyar character—not only by professing a fondness for them, but by
+spending a portion of every year in the palace of Gödöllő, near Pest.
+On the other hand, I have occasionally heard the Empress’s delight in
+field-sports deprecated in no measured terms. It is said that they are
+the only subjects upon which she ever converses at Court, which some of
+the Hungarians regard as not only unfeminine, but <i>mauvais ton</i>.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>As we saunter round the bastions of the Blocksberg, all is so silent
+that the rumble of carriages still crossing the bridge reaches us even
+on these dizzy heights. Beyond the city the full, round moon, shining
+upon some stretch of fresh green herbage or ripening corn, transforms
+it into pale tints of chrysoprase, the mighty Alfőld stretching away in
+one unbroken level to Belgrade. Dark clouds, however, are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span> rising from
+the south, and a cool refreshing breeze is springing up from the same
+direction.</p>
+
+<p>At length, stationing ourselves under the lee of the northern ramparts
+for shelter, we were both immersed in deep thought, when we were
+startled by an Austrian soldier on patrol, who, appearing suddenly and
+mysteriously from out the shadow of the great walls near which we were
+loitering, demanded in a loud and peremptory tone, in German—</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Wer geht da?</i>” (Who goes there?)</p>
+
+<p>“We are only English travellers, admiring the prospect,” we replied in
+the same language.</p>
+
+<p>“You have been a long time about it,” continued he, sarcastically; “and
+I should think you must have made yourselves acquainted with it by this
+time;” adding after a few moments’ pause, “You have been hovering about
+here for the last hour and a half at the very least.”</p>
+
+<p>“Probably,” I replied, “for we have come to see the witches dance
+to-night. You need not be afraid of our laying a train to blow up these
+precious fortifications of yours; we have no dynamite with us.”</p>
+
+<p>“I will thank you for your cards,” was the only rejoinder.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of complying with his request, however, F. withdrew from his
+pocket our passport, which since my little encounter on the quai he
+invariably carries with him, and which evidently made on this officious
+and sensitive offshoot of the Austrian Government such an impression,
+with its veritable British lion and unicorn easily distinguishable in
+the clear moonlight, that with a polite bow he exclaimed—</p>
+
+<p>“<i>Passieren Sie!</i>”</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this little episode, whilst continuing our stroll, a sudden
+change came over the spirit of the scene.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span> The clouds we had observed
+rising from the south awhile ago, but which as we stood behind the
+northern ramparts we had failed to see approaching us with rapid
+strides, had now silently stolen upon us and obscured the moon’s
+disk. The wind, too, increased rapidly, and began to blow against the
+bastions with reports like that of musketry. It was a weird spot, this
+black and silent mountain summit, as the dense clouds scudded past.</p>
+
+<p>“We are in for a storm!” cried F., throwing the end of his cigar away.
+“Perhaps this is the witches’ herald. If they don’t turn out on such a
+night as this, all I can say is they ought.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes; here they come,” he added, with a laugh; “or, at any rate, their
+broomsticks,”—as the wind, suddenly blowing almost to a hurricane,
+caught up a cluster of stalks of Indian corn that had been lying on the
+ground, and hurled them high in air.</p>
+
+<p>As we turned our faces homewards with all speed, the thunder began to
+peal, and, approaching the <i>Raitzenstadt</i>, a signboard, which had
+become loosened from its fastening, suddenly flapping against the wall
+of a cavernous doorway with a great noise, made us start. Reaching a
+small warehouse, we entered it for shelter.</p>
+
+<p>The storm was destined to be of short duration, for, deviating slightly
+from its course, it travelled towards the mountains of Buda, the
+thunder reverberating grandly, till the hills, answering each other
+with sounds like the roar of artillery, seemed to be the scene of a
+bombardment. The clouds, too, swept past, following the storm, and as
+we issued from the <i>Raitzenstadt</i>, the heavens were again clear,
+and the wind had laid itself down exhausted.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER LI.<br>
+<span class="subhed">PARTINGS.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">As we crossed the suspension bridge for the last time on our way from
+Pest on the morning of our departure, the sun had risen, but the
+shadows still lingered beneath the white colonnades and archways that
+flank the Palace Gardens. On the Danube sleepy little fishing boats
+were floating with sails still furled, but on the quays, men were busy
+unloading merchandise from the larger boats that lay alongside.</p>
+
+<p>We had bidden a sorrowing adieu to our carriage the previous evening,
+and as we looked at it for the last time, and the remembrance of our
+pleasant picnics and roadside bivouacs came floating back upon the
+mind, we almost wept over it, for it was akin to parting with an old
+and valued friend.</p>
+
+<p>Our last journey had tried its enfeebled constitution sorely, and
+looking at it we felt its work was done. It would no longer rumble
+along the road to the merry jingle of horses’ bells. The patches
+which András had sewn over the rents in its poor old hood, no longer
+excluded the rain; it was leaky in every pore, and the canvas in some
+places hanging to it in ragged filaments gave to the whole, a woebegone
+appearance indeed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span></p>
+
+<p>We were once more on our way to Fűred, there to await the departure of
+the Austrian Lloyd’s Steamer on the Save, and had scarcely taken our
+seats when we heard a plaintive voice saying in rather questionable
+German and still more questionable grammar,</p>
+
+<p>“Would any lady or gentleman be so good as to exchange their seats and
+allow me to sit in this carriage? I am <i>so</i> afraid to travel near
+the engine.”</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2770_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2770_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Looking out of the window, I recognise the typical Englishwoman at
+last. There she is, arrayed in the typical brown ulster, large straw
+hat of the mushroom species, and green gauze veil. Nothing wanting to
+render the type complete.</p>
+
+<p>“All right!” replied the manly voice of a Magyar seated in the farthest
+corner, evidently glad of an opportunity of befriending an unprotected
+female; “take my seat, I’ll go into the next carriage.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span></p>
+
+<p>She too was on her way to Fűred, having just arrived from Vienna, and
+we soon ascertained that she was an “unappropriated blessing,” roaming
+about the “wide wide world” as “unappropriated blessings” sometimes
+will; whilst a maid, who accompanied her in her wanderings, was seated
+in the next carriage with András.</p>
+
+<p>The landing-place at Fűred on this occasion of our visit presented a
+most animated scene, and was thronged with people in gay attire. We
+had secured rooms some weeks previously in the same hotel, or rather
+boarding-house, for strictly speaking there are no hotels here; but
+for which it is not likely we should have found accommodation, for the
+little place is evidently as full as it can cram.</p>
+
+<p>On the landing, amongst the loiterers who were either there to meet
+their friends or watch the new arrivals, we recognised the imposing
+form of András’s “better half,” who had come to greet her lord and
+master. He did not, however, appear to be so glad to meet his Katicza
+as husband should; on the contrary the previous evening he had
+presented himself with a doleful countenance, and entreated us to take
+him with us to Ángolország.</p>
+
+<p>“How could he leave his <i>édes kedves</i> (sweet, beloved) master
+and mistress?” the warm-hearted little man in his sorrow at parting
+with us adding another adjective to his usual form of address—“He
+would be our butler, our cook, our groom,” in short our everything.
+“He would be scarcely any expense to his <i>édes kedves uram</i>
+and <i>asszonyom</i>,” he only wanted black bread, bacon and
+kurkurnty soup; and as to clothes!—he had plenty of strong, homespun
+<i>gatyák</i>, etc., etc., a pair of <i>czimák</i> (top-boots) once
+a year was all he would need; and as he completed the category, we
+could not help<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span> smiling inwardly at the thought of the sensation
+his appearance would create amongst the English natives with his
+embroidered petticoats and feather-adorned cap, and with a sore heart
+we told the little man he must return to his Hungarian master and to
+the bosom of his family.</p>
+
+<p>Greatly to our surprise and delight we found here the friends with whom
+we had stayed in the north of Hungary, and with whom in the evening
+we strolled down to the lake. To the right was the bold promontory of
+Tihany sloping its rugged cliffs into the bosom of the lake and bearing
+on its summit the Benedictine Monastery founded by King Andreas I. in
+1055, one of the very earliest Christian institutions established in
+this country.</p>
+
+<p>These Benedictines are said to have been the chief agents in the
+conversion to Christianity of the heathen hordes who fixed their
+abode on the Alfőld in the 9th century. The breeze blowing from the
+south-west wafts over the still, blue waters the distant and plaintive
+sound of the monastery bell, as it tolls the <i>Ave Maria</i>, calling
+up within us a feeling of deep reverence for the descendants of the
+first preachers of the cross in this once heathen land. There are some,
+however, who ascribe the first germ of Christianity in this land to
+the Eastern Church and the Byzantine Greeks, many of whom it is well
+known were in Hungary previous to the adoption by the Magyars of the
+new religion. But whether the glory of Hungary’s original conversion to
+Christianity is due to the Benedictines or not, they were at any rate
+the principal means of keeping alive and spreading that faith which
+in various modifications is now held by all the nationalities of this
+vast country. It was, moreover, to the teaching of this order that the
+Hungarians are indebted for the first lessons in both architecture and
+agriculture, for, whilst instilling into their minds the doctrines of
+Christianity,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span> they taught them the dignity and importance of labour,
+and just as we ourselves are indebted to the Benedictines for many of
+our beautiful churches, and the majority of our abbeys, the Hungarians
+owe to these early Christian monks the greatest architectural
+achievements their country possesses.</p>
+
+<p>As we saunter along the margin of the lake the weird and banshee
+strains of a gipsy band reach us, which the echoes give back in
+muffled harmony. On calm and peaceful nights like the present, the
+air in this vicinity is said to resound with the enchanting songs of
+fairies who live in the rocky fastnesses of Tihany. How delightful to
+find ourselves in a land where fairies still exist! The lake also is
+believed to be the abode of Naiads; whilst that of Neusiedler, near
+Presburg, is said to contain within its watery depths whole palaces
+of gold and precious stones. This being a happy country where these
+fascinating little people abound, it might reasonably have been
+expected, since the gipsies had favoured us with a serenade, that they
+also would have turned out to bid us welcome. Possibly they did so, but
+our eyes, blinded by the hard, stern civilisation of the West, were
+not at any rate permitted to see nor our ears hear them; or we may,
+perhaps, have sought at too early an hour for those dissipated spirits.
+There is more than one superstition believed in concerning this lake,
+nor is it to be wondered at. There are phenomena, too, peculiar to
+it which give it a very eery character, one of them being that it is
+occasionally violently agitated without any apparent cause, and the
+other that in the winter the ice which covers it sometimes bursts with
+a loud report.</p>
+
+<p>These phenomena are the more remarkable from the fact of its being so
+shallow, spreading itself out as it does over no less an area than four
+hundred square miles.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span></p>
+
+<p>The water-drinkers were up betimes, and from earliest dawn there was
+such a tramping of feet in the corridor outside the door, that sleep
+any longer was out of the question. I wonder what particular qualities
+the waters are supposed to possess at that unearthly hour? Opening the
+window, I let in the sweet morning air. The lake is sleeping calmly
+below, the long line of distant shore scarcely perceptible, whilst
+horizon and sky are blended into one. In the marshes beyond the lake,
+the white vapours which hovered over them in the darkness, now rising,
+begin to take shape, and, separating into fleecy cones, wear the
+appearance of a procession of phantoms, or attendant spirits of Night,
+as, scarcely touching the surface of the earth, they glide away to that
+mysterious region where they hide themselves till evening comes again.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the earliness of the hour, a small, flat-bottomed boat
+comes skimming along close to the shore, filled with fishing-nets,
+baskets, and men, muffled up in sheepskins, their heads covered with
+woollen caps with long flaps to them.</p>
+
+<p>A little later, and the priest is seen taking his matutinal walk. He
+exchanges salutations with the doctor of the bathing establishment,
+who stands in the portico beneath. And now the abbey bell with muffled
+beat again comes floating over the still air, as it summons the worthy
+monks to matins! How full of romance and sentiment is their cloistered
+dwelling, and of beauty its surroundings!</p>
+
+<p>But the sun is up, and, looking like part of the morning, comes the
+chambermaid. Following the pretty custom of the country, she stoops
+and kisses my hand, and then presents a small tray on which is placed
+“white coffee,” the milk in some way or other being whipped to a froth.</p>
+
+<p>As I sit by the open window it is amusing to watch the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span> people pass.
+All little Fűred is astir by this time, and an important-looking
+personage comes stalking along, followed by a dog. His figure, pompous
+and comfortable, is enveloped in a long cloak lined with some beautiful
+fur resembling sable, which sways backwards and forwards, with the
+regularity of a pendulum. He is evidently a person of distinction, the
+<i>polgár mester</i> (mayor) probably or <i>biró</i> of Dorf-Fűred, a
+village not far distant. Coming from an opposite direction is another,
+but somewhat less pompous individual, also accompanied by his own
+particular quadruped. They meet and exchange salutations in the most
+elaborate and approved method of the Hungarian period; they begin
+talking confidently, on municipal matters probably, or more likely
+still the condition of the dykes, a much vexed question at the present
+time, and a source of never-ending dispute and clamour amongst the
+various municipalities of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Presently, after a quarter of an hour has elapsed, the colloquy
+apparently draws to a close; they bestow upon each other a parting
+benediction, at which the dogs—without so much as raising their
+heads—open their eyes drowsily and then close them again. They know
+by experience there are many last words to be said before the real
+farewell is taken, and they are perfectly right. The disputants
+separate, and walk in contrary directions, but only to turn back
+and resume the argument for awhile, and then repeat the ceremony of
+leave-taking. The whole process has been gone through many times, when
+there comes at length a peculiar flourish of the walking stick, and a
+wave of the hand indicative of the conclusion of the whole matter, upon
+which the dogs jump up in an instant, and follow the heels of their
+respective masters.</p>
+
+<p>Another lovely day, of which we make the most—for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span> summer heats
+are passing and the rains of autumn will soon be here—tempts us to
+make an excursion to the monastery of <i>Sacer Mons Pannoniæ</i>, the
+chief monastic institution of the country, dedicated to St. Martin, and
+erected, so it is said, on the precise spot on which the dwelling of
+the parents of St. Martin stood.</p>
+
+<p>There would, however, appear to have been some slight confusion in the
+minds of historians concerning the birth-place of this charitable and
+amiable saint, a manuscript in the library of the monastery itself
+declaring him to have been born in a town at the <i>foot</i> of the
+hill; whereas his biographer and disciple Sulpicius Severus contends
+that he was born in a district more remote, namely, at a place called
+in the present day Steinamanger.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever place may have had the honour of giving him birth, here at
+any rate he dwelt in manhood, and although born of heathen parents
+and having entered the Roman army, he became a soldier of the cross,
+and fighting against Arianism, which was rife in Pannonia in the 4th
+century, became in the reign of Constantine the Great the light of the
+Western Church.</p>
+
+<p>The monastery is situated on the spur of a mountain which forms one of
+the chain enclosing the Hungarian plains to the west, and beneath which
+lie the forests of Bakony, of unenviable notoriety as the hiding place
+of Hungarian brigands.</p>
+
+<p>Hither come swarms of pilgrims weak in the knees and otherwise shaky
+in the lower extremities, hobbling up the steep hill-side, to sit
+and shiver in a marble chair contained in a crypt beneath the abbey,
+and in which the Saint is said to have sat during mass. To recline
+in this chair with a minimum of clothing is said to be a cure for
+rheumatism—probably acting on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span> the homœopathic principle “Like cures
+like;” a remedy that even rivals the baths of Fűred, and moreover
+possesses the additional advantage of being gratuitous.</p>
+
+<p>The present monastery is the third which has been erected on this site,
+the first having been destroyed by the Pagans, the secret warfare that
+had been going on between Christianity and Paganism during the reign of
+King András I., having come to an open rebellion in that of King Béla.
+The second was demolished by the Turks; whilst the one now standing is
+interesting as having been built by the Abbot Urias who made himself so
+conspicuous in the “Holy War.”</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the statue of the patron saint, who as usual is
+represented in the act of giving his mantle to the beggar, the church
+contains two others of Hungary’s mediæval kings, both of whom were
+canonised by the Pope, viz., St. Stephen, and St. Ladislaus.</p>
+
+<p>Our last day at Fűred has also come, and, like all things pleasant, far
+too speedily. We have bid a sorrowful adieu to our honest little guide,
+who with his belongings has gone back to his master, taking with him a
+substantial token of our appreciation of his services, and we are only
+waiting the steamer’s signal to cross the lake on our way to Croatia
+ere we turn our backs upon the classic land of Attila and Árpád and
+bend our steps towards the region of the setting sun.</p>
+
+<p>The service at the hotel was charged for on the bill, and I
+need scarcely say paid for also; but who could resist giving a
+<i>douceur</i> to the bright-eyed chambermaid who kissed our hands
+when she brought our white coffee every morning, and who happens to
+be brushing away an imaginary cobweb just outside our bedroom door
+as we make our exit, and looking up so sweetly, wishes us a pleasant
+journey;—or the civil waiter<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span> who happens to be in the middle of the
+stairs and who wishes us a speedy return;—or the porters who pant so
+exceedingly, as they carry our luggage down to the steamer and stand
+mopping their faces with their large full white sleeves;—or the boots,
+who helps to stow it away;—or the shoes, or in short anybody, and
+everybody—who, I ask, could resist the bestowal of a few kreuzers
+upon these civil people as they shower <i>lebewohls</i> and <i>auf
+wiedersehens</i> upon us as we depart? We at any rate are not of those
+strong-minded children of men.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2850_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2850_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER LII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">AGRAM.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Evening has come, and the still, smooth waters of the Save, reflecting
+the sky, are like an upturned shield of gold. Not a ripple laves the
+shore. The black ibis and crested grebe have gone to roost in the
+low brushwood that fringes it on either side. Not a zephyr stirs the
+slender stems of the pampas-grass. All nature is still, but over the
+corn-fields comes the sound of voices, singing a Slavonian melody, slow
+and sweet, like an evening hymn, which, rising and falling in pathetic
+cadence, is in wondrous harmony with the scene.</p>
+
+<p>Casting our eyes in the direction of the sound we see a number of
+reapers, whose sickles flash in the setting sun as they lop the golden
+grain, the women, wearing scarlet kerchiefs round their heads, looking
+like poppies in the corn. They are singing in unison a <i>piesma</i>,
+one of those national ballads which have descended from the ancient
+troubadours, or <i>guslars</i> as they are here designated.</p>
+
+<p>To the right rise undulating hills resting their summits on the saffron
+sky; and from a belt of forest at their base now comes the distant
+jingling of bells, upon which the reapers, leaving their sickles on the
+ground, traverse a narrow pathway<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span> through the <i>heide-korn</i> and
+wend their way homewards. We watch them crossing the darkling landscape
+in picturesque procession till they are nearly out of sight, and then
+turn our faces towards Agram, for since the sun has sunk to rest,
+miasmatic vapours have been slowly rising from the marshes. In the
+vicinity of this placid stream, fevers lurk, and the “pestilence that
+walketh in darkness” waits not for the night.</p>
+
+<p>As we hastily pursue our way towards the little Croatian capital, the
+distant throb of a <i>kobsa</i> comes wafted over the calm waters, and
+the voice of a peasant singing in a clear rich tenor, as he accompanies
+himself on his simple instrument. Floating on the glassy bosom of the
+stream a small black speck now comes in sight. It is a <i>bredvos</i>,
+containing happy peasants on their way from Agram or some village on
+the opposite bank; and the musical “burr” of the <i>kobsa</i> comes
+nearer, for the boat, a heavy flat-bottomed craft almost as broad as it
+is long, with its large square prow rising high above the water, makes
+for the shore.</p>
+
+<p>These ballads, which the traveller hears continually in Croatia, and
+said to be older than old Homer himself, are the very mainspring of
+national life, and are the chief means of keeping alive in the hearts
+of the Slávs, that yearning after national unity of which in these days
+we hear so much.</p>
+
+<p>To the left of the river are the plains on which a lonely shepherd’s
+hut and two water-lifts are seen standing out black against the sky,
+but to the right are clusters of wooden huts roofed with shingles,
+and lying beneath blue mountains. On the balconies, overshadowed by
+sheltering eaves, the dwellers sit or stand, the bright colour of their
+costumes gleaming warmly in contrast with the prevailing gloom, for
+night is falling fast. As we approach the capital, lights are burning
+in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span> many a window, whilst away in the west and above the irregularly
+built houses, though the sun set fully an hour ago, a long streak of
+intense carmine melting into orange reminds us of the far East.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2880_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2880_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The summer nights are delightful in Agram itself, and resemble those
+at Venice. The air is balmy, the sky soft and tender, and the great
+stars, flashing out of the purple sky, scintillate with the changeful
+splendour of the ruby, the topaz, and the emerald.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the outskirts of the little city, the most important place on
+the Save, our way takes us through the long street that leads to the
+Jellachich Platz, so called from a Ban of that name, who once ruled the
+province as Viceroy. Let us stroll into the restaurant of the hotel
+“K’Carnu Austrianskomu!” The instant we do so we realise our distance
+from the civilised<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span> West, for on asking for a newspaper, several are
+instantly handed to us, every one of which is either in Windic or
+Croat, the latter called <i>hrvatsky</i>, being the colloquial dialect
+of the district. Although Agram is the centre of Slavonic literature,
+the language spoken here is less pure than that spoken by the Slávs of
+the south-east.</p>
+
+<p>No fewer than nine periodicals are published in this thriving little
+capital, whilst a Literary Society has recently been formed for the
+purpose of circulating books, journals, and pamphlets throughout the
+Sláv provinces, to further which clubs and reading rooms have been
+established in almost every village. Like the Magyars, the Croatians
+are very jealous of German influence, and the publication of books and
+papers in that language is in every way discouraged.</p>
+
+<p>Croatia enjoys a political autonomy, and has a Diet of its own, of
+which every Croatian noble is a member, the affairs of the State being
+vested in the Ban. The Croatians are bent on self-improvement, and one
+of their greatest ambitions is to become independent of Austria in the
+way that Hungary is, and to form with these nations a triple-monarchy.
+In religious tenets they belong exclusively to the Greek and Roman
+Catholic Churches; using, as Slávs of the Western Church, what is
+termed the Glagolic alphabet in contra-distinction to that used by the
+Bulgarians, invented by Cyrillus. The most ancient and pure Slavonic
+is found in what is called the “Ecclesiastical Slavonic” or “Old
+Bulgarian,” into which the Bible was translated in the middle of the
+9th century.</p>
+
+<p>This clean, bright little city contains between eighteen and twenty
+thousand inhabitants, and consists of an upper and lower town. The
+former is built on the side of a rocky hill, so steep that the houses
+in the narrow streets, which rise abruptly tier above tier<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span> and are
+approached by long flights of zigzag steps, look down the chimneys of
+those on the opposite side of the way. This part of the city, which was
+once fortified, constituted the citadel. It is now, however, occupied
+by the <i>canaille</i> of Agram, and this quarter may be said to rival
+ancient Cologne in its variety of perfumes that are not found in either
+Messrs. Rimmel or Piesse and Lubin’s distilleries. Climbing the steep
+and rugged steps, we pass groups of people sitting at their doorways
+in the evening air; whilst the moon, prodigal of her gifts, bears her
+blessing up the unwholesome, narrow streets, and silvers each crazy
+tenement with a touch as soft and loving as though it were the abode of
+kings. Making our way upwards, and passing the quarter of the “great
+unwashed,” we at length reach broad, clean streets and lofty houses,
+and come to the Palace of the Ban, the various public offices, the
+Academy of Law, and the Museum. On another hill, separated by a narrow
+sandy gorge, and surrounded by fortifications and high battlemented
+walls, stand the Cathedral and Palace of the Archbishop. Exposed for
+centuries to the incursions of the Turks, many of the churches of
+Croatia, like those of Transylvania, were strongly fortified.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the foreground of picturesque house-tops, the Save, creating a
+shimmering pathway across the plains, is seen winding its way towards
+the Bosnian Mountains, whose outlines are softly pencilled on the sky.
+This river, taking its rise on the confines of Istria, after flowing
+through Croatia, divides Slavonia from Bosnia, and still forms the
+boundary between Christianity and Islam.</p>
+
+<p>The Save also forms with the Theiss one of the principal tributaries
+of the Danube, and, swelling its waters by emptying itself into the
+mightier river at Semlin, is one cause of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span> the disastrous inundations
+which so frequently occur in the region of the Alfőld.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>It is Sunday, and, like the Protestant Debrecziners, the Agramese,
+combining the service of God and Mammon, on this day hold their weekly
+market. The streets are one blaze of colour, and it is to be doubted
+whether even Rome itself, before the sharp traits of her people began
+to be obliterated by modern innovations, presented a more splendid
+spectacle. It is well we planned that our last wanderings in the
+Austro-Hungarian dominions should be in Croatia, for the costumes are
+far more beautiful here than any we have hitherto met with on any of
+our travels, this scene alone being worth coming all the way from
+Ángolország to see.</p>
+
+<p>Looking down the long straight street that leads to the Jellachich
+Platz, we find it thronged with people hurrying to the market, and the
+predominating tints of their costumes, white, scarlet, and green, are
+rendered all the more striking by the black, curled lamb’s wool, with
+which portions of their dress are trimmed.</p>
+
+<p>The women are attired in short white skirts, stiffly starched, and
+fluted to the waist, over which a long straight calico frontal is
+worn, trimmed with broad horizontal stripes of scarlet braid, laid on
+in a gradation of widths, the white full bodice, embroidered at the
+throat, being covered with innumerable rows of coral beads. Over this
+is generally worn a small white jacket of white kid, bordered with
+the black lamb’s wool before mentioned, a beautiful fleece resembling
+that known in England under the rather vague term of “Astracan.” The
+jacket in question is made so as to leave the front of the bodice
+exposed to view with its wealth of coral beads, and is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span> not only one
+mass of the richest embroidery in various coloured silks, but small
+pieces of silver foil in the shape of stars are also added, which
+glisten in the sunshine. In addition to all, the fronts of this costly
+article of attire called a “<i>cabanitza</i>” are adorned all over with
+scarlet tassels. The girls wear a scarlet kerchief round the head,
+but the married women a very imposing and effective head-dress, which
+in some respects resembles the square white <i>taglia</i> worn by the
+Neapolitan women, but much larger, consisting of a large square of
+muslin or calico, trimmed either with lace and scarlet braid supported
+on two curiously shaped pieces of wood called “horns,” round which the
+back hair is coiled. Nothing can be more becoming or dignified than
+this covering for the head, and a group of women thus attired form
+pictures that an artist would love to portray. How their dazzling,
+spotlessly white, and fan-like petticoats glisten as they trudge
+merrily along, some carrying long white bundles in their arms, which
+on closer inspection turn out to be <i>bambinos</i>, swathed in yards
+and yards of homespun linen, whilst others, like graceful Caryatids,
+are supporting on their Juno-like heads large flat round baskets filled
+with fruit or vegetables. Even the old women wear embroidered bodices
+and scarlet and white skirts. Yonder sit a group of ancient Amazons
+in close conclave, who may have been amongst those who in 1848 clad
+themselves in the panoply of war, and went forth to aid their husbands
+in the battle against Kossuth, singing patriotic songs, and improvising
+others as they marched towards the Imperial city.</p>
+
+<p>The Croatian men also figure largely in embroidery. Their brown or
+black cloth tunics are handsomely worked in scarlet; whilst, slung
+over the shoulder by a cord of the same colour, is a large square bag,
+designated a “<i>torba</i>,” which, hanging<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span> at the side, is completely
+covered with little scarlet tassels an inch and a half long. These
+Croatians, male and female, except in the matter of jewellery, are more
+given up to the pomps and vanities of this wicked world than even the
+Hamelsdorf girls themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In the square, peasants from the country round have been arranging
+their goods since break of day, and the whole place, from its gaiety
+and bustle, wears the appearance of an annual fair, rather than that of
+a weekly market. All is so bright, so gay, with such a delicious and
+harmonious mingling of colour, that we look down at our own hideous
+garments of the civilised West with their Quaker-like sobriety and
+sartorial gloom, with feelings almost akin to shame. Verily there is no
+prettier sight in the universe than Agram on a Sunday morning; but the
+traveller must be no sluggard, and must be up and out at seven o’clock,
+the hour when the villagers come trooping in. At ten the market is
+over, and, obedient to the summons of the bells, the people flock to
+church, and kneeling down before the service commences may be seen
+devoutly praying, the men on one side of the church, the women on the
+other, whilst kneeling on the steps of the altar may be seen a small
+but promiscuous gathering of men, women, and children.</p>
+
+<p>“Who are they?” I inquired in German of a lady who was sitting on the
+same bench with me in a church close to the market, and pointing to the
+group round the altar, all of whom seemed to be oppressed with sorrow
+of some sort.</p>
+
+<p>“They are poor country-people,” she replied softy, “and have some
+especial blessing to ask, some member of their family is sick or dying.
+Look at that young woman to the right of the altar! She has brought her
+sick baby and laid it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span> beneath the picture of the ‘Good Shepherd.’ Ah!
+surely He will have pity,” and crossing herself devoutly she too knelt
+down to pray.</p>
+
+<p>Gazing in the direction indicated I saw the wee thing lying helplessly
+in its bandages, its tiny face so pale and wan, that the former might
+in truth have been its winding-sheet. In the centre of the group two
+little boys were kneeling side by side, their small hands clasped and
+their heads bent low. They came into the church alone, and, making
+their way at once to the altar, threw themselves on their knees. What
+grief was theirs, we wondered, and what blessing had they come to seek?
+There was a silent pathos about these lonely children that moved me
+even to tears.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2940_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2940_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+  </div>
+
+<p>Mass is sung in the Slavonic tongue, a concession granted by the popes
+to these Yougo-Slávs, in recognition of their heroic struggles against
+the Osmanlis, and nothing can be more beautiful and touching than their
+deep, slow chanting.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span></p>
+
+<p>The country round Agram is very picturesque. A little beyond the city
+lies the peaceful valley of St. Xavier, together with that of Tuskanac,
+with their fragments of feudal castles, backed by a lofty hill crowned
+with pines.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p2950_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p2950_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>Hiring a passing carriage, we drive towards the cool waters of the
+Save. Shadows are lengthening across the plains, and the villagers,
+crowding into the boats, are being ferried to the nearest church,
+possibly two or three miles away. Far away on the hills the narrow
+zigzag paths are indicated by strings of people coming in the same
+direction, and we soon reach a church, in the enclosure of which
+numbers of persons have already assembled waiting the arrival of the
+priest; stately girls and women in their beautiful scarlet and white
+garments and square head-gear, looking like Druidical priestesses in
+their white fluted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span> skirts, one and all affording a living mass of rich
+and varied colour.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> These pages were written just before the terrible
+earthquakes, which not only rendered many of the inhabitants homeless
+by reducing their houses to a heap of ruins, but which, by the violence
+of the shocks and their frequent occurrence, kept the inhabitants in
+such a state of alarm that, on four occasions, panic-stricken they fled
+from the city and encamped in the plains beyond.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Our steamer, which starts at six <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> to-morrow, awaits
+us on the Kulpa at the junction of that river with the Save, a few
+miles further down the stream. Returning to the hotel, we pick up our
+luggage, and meet the steamer by the train which leaves for Sissek at
+nine o’clock.</p>
+
+<p>After passing Agram, the Save spreads itself out till it seems to
+encircle the whole district in its embrace, reminding us of the
+Lagoons at Venice. The moon is full, and, as the train rolls us along,
+everything is so calm, so peaceful, and presents such an even surface
+to the eye, that we appear to be surrounded by a broad sheet of silver.</p>
+
+<p>Sissek—a miserable place with wide unpaved streets—contains many
+objects of interest to the archæologist. The village of Old Sissek,
+which adjoins it, contains numerous remains of pillars and ancient
+buildings of Roman origin, together with a Roman causeway of massive
+masonry by which it is approached.</p>
+
+<p>On arrival, making our way at once to our steamer the “<i>Zrini</i>,”
+we soon discern her amongst the dark objects with which she is
+surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>Sissek, though possessing a population of little more than 1200,
+contains, at this time of year, when the harvest is being gathered in,
+almost as many thousand. Being the centre of the corn trade, it is here
+that the huge flat-bottomed boats freighted with grain are unloaded,
+the men employed, called Latianer,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span> coming each year to Sissek for
+this purpose and leaving as soon as the season has passed. After being
+unloaded the corn is conveyed by train to its destination, a great deal
+finding its way to the English market.</p>
+
+<p>A curious scene surrounds us. There are boats with houses on their
+decks, others lying empty on their sides and half heeled over, and
+others again close alongside taking in cargo. Here and there coloured
+lights are twinkling faintly from the masts of smaller boats, and
+far down the river’s reach more lights are burning where caravans of
+merchants are bivouacking on the shore. In an hour’s time all is still,
+the vessels have finished taking in their cargo, and no sound is heard
+save the voices of boatmen weighing anchor, and the soft lapping of
+ripples driven by the zephyrs of night against the steamer’s side.</p>
+
+<p>At six o’clock <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> the “<i>Zrini</i>” bursts from her
+moorings, and, soon leaving the Kulpa, bounds like a captive let loose
+into the waters of the Save.</p>
+
+<p>More singular far than on the Danube boats is the motley assemblage
+that greets the eye of the traveller as he cruises in one of the
+steamers on the Save. Close to us, with their long chibouks standing by
+their sides, are two Turks, or Osmanlis as they prefer being called,
+for the term Turk is one of ridicule, signifying “rustic.” Beside them
+sit a trio of young Servian ladies, dressed in black velvet jackets
+with large hanging sleeves richly embroidered in silver. Standing near
+the galley are a group of Albanians, warlike, magnificent-looking men
+armed to the teeth, with square shoulders and limbs like athletes.
+There are also men whose erect carriage, resembling that of the Serbs,
+and frank open brows, proclaim them to belong to Montenegro, that brave
+and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span> independent little nation, which, although constituting a portion
+of the border-land that fringed the dominions of European Turkey, has
+never, like the other Sláv nations of the South, submitted to its rule.
+As they walk the deck it is easy to see they have never been a subject
+people. Their dress is a white tunic encircled by a shawl at the waist,
+blue trousers tied in at the knee, and a small round cap with a crimson
+crown adorned with gilt ornaments, the latter worn as a symbol of their
+national freedom. Until lately they also wore an emblem of mourning
+for the subject condition of their Sláv brethren, the Serbs, to the
+vassalage of Turkey.</p>
+
+<p>On the forecastle is a mass of human life quite Eastern in its aspect:
+bright intelligent little Turks full of life and animation; heavy
+Bulgarians with downcast eyes and beetling brows, who, sitting apart,
+hold communication with no one; Armenians, Illyrians, Bosnians,
+Croatians, Hungarians, and uncivilised-looking men from the villages
+lower down the Save.</p>
+
+<p>Occupying one side of the stern is a huge heap of sheepskins and
+striped blankets, which we imagine must be covering passengers’ luggage
+or bales of merchandise. Presently however the heap of what we supposed
+to be inert matter moves slightly, and a little hand appears and then a
+small Oriental-looking head, for beneath these blankets and sheepskin
+rugs a Greek family were lying huddled together.</p>
+
+<p>There is a little boy on board who interests us greatly. From early
+morning we had noticed him sitting silently on his bundle, and
+apparently alone. There was something in the expression of his face
+that attracted our attention, as he sat with his head slightly elevated
+and his eyes directed upwards. What could he be gazing at so intently
+in the dazzling sunlit sky? Making my way towards him through the
+groups of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span> passengers, some of whom were gambling with curious cards,
+others singing softly to themselves or lying at full length fast
+asleep, I reached the spot where he was seated, and at once perceived
+that he was blind. No one appeared to take any notice of him, as, with
+pale face and that vacant, and infinitely pathetic expression which one
+sees in the countenances of the blind, he sat alone.</p>
+
+<p>Standing against the bulwarks smoking was a man who from his uniform I
+recognised as a corporal in the Austrian army. Addressing me in German,
+and pointing to the child, as though he had been a bale of merchandise,
+he said,</p>
+
+<p>“He was put on board at Jassenovatz.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where is he going?” I inquired.</p>
+
+<p>“How should I know,” was the rejoinder, as, shrugging his shoulders,
+he walked across to some other part of the ship, adding, as he did so,
+that he supposed “<i>somebody</i> would meet him <i>somewhere</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>He was in fact a piece of goods “to be left till called for.” Taking
+his small hand in mine, I led him to the other side of the deck under
+the shadow of the awning. What an odd quaint little specimen of
+humanity he was, with his loose brown garments, cut precisely like
+those of his elders, and his funny shapeless little shoes such as all
+the Sláv peasantry wear, consisting of a flat piece of hide laced into
+shape at toe and heel, with leather thongs!</p>
+
+<p>At this moment the captain, passing by, enlightened me further as to
+the history of this waif of humanity.</p>
+
+<p>“That little urchin,” said he, looking down kindly upon him, “is a
+<i>Minnesinger</i> or <i>guslar</i> as they call them in Croatia; the
+Yougo-Slávs dedicate from their infancy to the Muses all male children
+who are born blind. As soon as they are old<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span> enough to handle anything,
+a small mandoline is given them, which they are taught to play, after
+which they are taken every day into the woods, where they are left till
+evening to commune in their little hearts with nature. In due time they
+become poets, or at any rate rhapsodists, singing of the things they
+never saw, and, when grown up, are sent forth to earn their livelihood,
+like the troubadours of old, by singing from place to place and asking
+alms by the wayside.</p>
+
+<p>“It is not difficult for a Sláv to become a poet; he takes in poetic
+sentiment like a rivulet does water from its source. The first sounds
+he is conscious of are those of his mother singing to him as she rocks
+his cradle, or trudges along to market with him tucked under her arm a
+stiff little bundle. Then as she watches the dawning of intelligence
+in his infant face, her mother-language is that of poetry, which she
+improvises at the moment, and so, though he never saw the flowers,
+nor the snow-capped mountains, nor the flowing streams and rivers, he
+describes them out of his inner consciousness and the influence which
+the varied sounds of nature have upon his mind.”</p>
+
+<p>The interest this little <i>guslar</i> awakened in us soon became
+general, and, seated high upon a heap of rugs, he was made to sing in
+his childish voice some of the sweet and simple Slavonian melodies.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER LIII.<br>
+<span class="subhed">THE IMPALED RAÏA.</span></h2></div>
+
+
+<p class="drop-cap p-left">Hark to the measured tramp of feet as the Slavonian peasants whirl and
+twirl in the intricate mazes of the <i>kolo</i>, the national dance
+of the Slávs! Bright eyes flash beneath heavy lashes, bosoms heave,
+hearts go pit-a-pat, the charms and beads that hang round the women’s
+necks rise and fall in unison with the rapid movement, fire-flies
+dart about the steamer’s deck, now hovering on the bulwarks, and now
+playing at hide-and-seek above the head of the dancers. On the margin
+of the river, glow-worms begin to light their lamps and scintillate in
+the bushes; whilst over on the Bosnian hills long rows of fires are
+flickering where the gipsies have pitched their encampments.</p>
+
+<p>Faster and faster go the feet; louder and louder sounds the “burr” of
+the <i>kobsa</i>. The bag-pipes, played by a Wallachian shepherd, drone
+out their harsh music, above which the shrill little <i>svira</i><a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+tries hard to hold its own, and pours forth its plaintive pipings in a
+feeble and somewhat intermittent treble.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> A small flageolet.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The theme of the <i>kolo</i> is the same as that of the Csárdás, love
+expressed in rollicking pantomime. The dance was got up by a number
+of peasants who came on board at<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span> Xupanje, but who left us again at a
+village further down the stream.</p>
+
+<p>While the dancing was going on, our attention was attracted to a gipsy
+woman, who, taking no apparent interest in the proceedings around her,
+was sitting apart, close to the bows of the steamer. Almost masculine
+in stature, and with the prominent features which so many of the
+Bosnian gipsies possess, she looked, with her large lustrous eyes fixed
+immovably upon the horizon, like some Sibyl prophesying dark things to
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>Excited by the strains of music that followed the <i>kolo</i>, the
+little guslar took up his tiny instrument—a mere toy—and began
+singing some more ballads, which won for him no end of kreuzers and
+applause. At ten o’clock, however, all was silent, every one being
+asleep, with the exception of a tall and sturdy young Montenegrin, who
+was standing against the galley smoking, as motionless as a statue,
+his eyes fixed intently upon the fading hills. Was he thinking of his
+beloved <i>Vaterland</i>—the land of Slavo-Serv liberty, and of its
+<i>Tserna Gora</i>, that dark pine-covered mountain from which his
+brave little country takes his name? Judging from the small amount of
+luggage carried by the other passengers, which consisted, as a rule,
+solely of a gourd or leather bottle, a rug, and an iron pot containing
+food for their journey, our Montenegrin must have been an emigrant, so
+numerous are the bundles with which he is surrounded. His gun was slung
+across his shoulder, and from his shawl-girdle hung some other weapon.
+But he, too, soon spread his <i>straka</i> on the deck, as the large
+cloak that forms the Montenegrins’ outer garment is called, and turning
+to the east, he makes the sign of the Greek cross, and, lying down, is
+soon fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span></p>
+
+<p>The night was delicious, the air fresh, but without chill. We had
+come to anchor opposite a dense belt of forest on the Slavonian side,
+through which the moon, penetrating here and there between the boughs,
+shone like silver spray. Everything was calm and dreamy. Occasionally a
+night-bird, roosting within its leafy labyrinths, uttered a plaintive
+cry, or a fish rose with a sudden plash; but these sounds seemed in
+complete harmony with the silence, and, retiring to our cabins, we soon
+subsided into the general slumber, and did not awake until the sun,
+shooting golden arrows through our window, summoned us on deck.</p>
+
+<p>To the right, gently undulating hills, which constitute a portion of
+the Diarnic Alps, and on whose summits snow lies for nine months in the
+year, now begin to unfold themselves in a solemn rhythm.</p>
+
+<p>We left Croatia behind long ago, and on our right the shore wears an
+Oriental appearance, for we have reached Bosnia—“Golden Bosnia,”
+as it is familiarly called—whose efforts, together with those of
+Herzegovina, to obtain emancipation from Mahomedan oppression and
+misrule, called forth the sympathies of Europe, and elicited the
+diplomatic action of the great Powers on her behalf.</p>
+
+<p>The shores of this river are especially interesting in a historical
+point of view. It was on the conquest of Bosnia by the Osmanlis, who
+at that time spread themselves over the whole district of the Save,
+that the Military Frontier was established, or rather systematically
+organised, by Ferdinand of Austria. Extending from the shores of the
+Adriatic to Moldavia, it embraced Slavonia and Transylvania, as well as
+a portion of Croatia and the southern belt of Dalmatia, thus covering
+an area of nearly a thousand miles. At distances<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span> of about half a
+mile apart, we see the Military Frontier posts, which previous to the
+Treaty of Berlin were vigilantly guarded. They consist of small wooden
+houses raised on stakes, and surrounded by a verandah in which the
+guard patrolled. By the side of each house is still seen a high pole
+to which straw and wood are tied, and which, when ignited, formed a
+primitive mode of signalling at night to neighbouring frontier-posts on
+the occurrence of local disturbances of a political character. On the
+advance of an invading foe the guard of one station signalled to the
+next, and so on, till the whole line, apprised of the danger, arose to
+arms and hastened to the threatened district; from three to four hours
+being the time which is said to have been occupied in communicating
+from one end of the frontier to the other; whilst during the day when
+disturbances arose, the wild tocsin—with which every guard-post was
+provided—resounding along the banks of the river, called the border
+regiments to arms.</p>
+
+<p>In consequence of the geographical positions of the Danube and the
+Save, the immediate districts of the rivers were from an early period
+infested by bands of fugitives from neighbouring countries who lived
+principally by war and plunder, but whom the Hungarian Government
+under Matthias Corvinus—that great champion of Christendom against
+Mahomedan invasion—permitted to remain on condition of their defending
+the boundaries from the inroads of barbarian hordes from the East. The
+system adopted was precisely that of the ancient Romans in the defence
+of their frontiers on the shores of the Rhine and the Danube. These
+border men-at-arms received no pay, but had fiefs allotted to them on
+the payment of a heavy tax to the State, and also on the condition
+of furnishing a certain number of guards. The owners of the fief’s
+were united under a chieftain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span> who governed the little commonwealth,
+which generally consisted of fifty families. In times of peace, forty
+thousand men were on duty at the various posts, but in case of war the
+whole military force was capable of furnishing two hundred thousand
+men, all of whom were compelled, if necessary, to serve in the regular
+army. Under Austria, this border-line became one of the most perfect
+military institutions of modern times, whereby not only two hundred
+thousand men were added to her standing army without any cost whatever
+to the Empire, but a complete system was formed for the maintenance of
+quarantine. Since the organisation of this frontier line by Austria,
+the plague, which formerly was seldom absent from Hungary more than
+twenty years together, has not once visited that country.</p>
+
+<p>On the Bosnian shore we also see at regular intervals the guard posts,
+which, previous to the Treaty of Berlin, were similarly used by the
+Turks to protect their frontier lands from Austrian invasion.</p>
+
+<p>What a splendid country Bosnia is, with its luxuriant vegetation and
+fertile soil. Hundreds of miles of it have never as yet been turned by
+either spade or plough. Nothing is wanting to render it a happy and
+prosperous country but colonists to bring its rich virgin soil under
+cultivation. The population of Bosnia is small, scarcely amounting
+to one million, of whom thirty-five thousand are Jews, and twelve
+thousand gipsies, the former being descendants of refugees from Italy
+and Spain. The remaining inhabitants are divided between Mahomedans and
+Christians, a Sláv people, the original inhabitants of the country,
+who speak a Sláv dialect, containing a large admixture of Turkish
+words. There are no sons of the Prophet so truly bigoted, strange as
+it may seem, as these Slávs of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span> Bosnia, although they only embraced
+Islam to protect themselves from persecution, and their property from
+spoliation when invaded by the Turks. More fanatical far than even the
+true-born Turk himself, the Bosnian Mahomedan persecutes in his turn
+his Christian compatriot, the <i>raïa</i>, and calls him “dog.”</p>
+
+<p>The <i>raïas</i>, who form the Christian portion of the Sláv population
+of Bosnia, the greater number of whom belong to the Greek Church,
+constitute almost exclusively the peasant class. Although the former
+feudal system, of which these <i>raïas</i> were the serfs, was
+abolished by the reforms of 1852, yet forced labour still exists to
+some extent in Bosnia, the imperious Infidel obliging the Christian
+<i>raïa</i> to work for him almost at the point of the bayonet.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of these poor Bosnian peasantry is consequently still
+one of the most humiliating servitude, and is very little mended.
+Not only are they oppressed by the Mussulman population but they are
+impoverished by their ecclesiastical superiors, the <i>popas</i>, who
+impose burdens on them grievous to be borne, and who on non-payment of
+their imposition are said not unfrequently to refuse them the rites and
+consolations of religion. Between the intimidation of their ghostly
+advisers and the vengeance and cruelty of the Mahomedans, the poor
+<i>raïas</i> still have a hard time of it, and are kept in a state of
+perpetual poverty and fear.</p>
+
+<p>The banks on the left or Slávonian side, the extreme south-east of
+which territory we skirted when traversing the Danube, are extremely
+picturesque. We pass numerous villages, the houses of which, built on
+stakes, are all gables, balconies, and palisades. In the open windows
+of these dwellings a woman is occasionally seen, her bright costume
+creating a charming bit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span> of colour set in its dark wooden frame-work,
+whilst on the Bosnian shore a long caravan is seen preparing for the
+day’s march, consisting of thirty or forty people and as many mules.
+How picturesque they are, with their Eastern-looking packs, and deep,
+rich brown colouring, as they stand grouped in one mass against the
+background of glowing horizon!</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p3070_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p3070_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The dense primeval forests which have been skirting us for some hours
+now give place to morasses, and leaving these behind we enter a
+sandy region roamed by pigs. A number of these animals, the precise
+colour of the sand, come down to drink, driven by a man enveloped in
+a mantle made of long finely split grass, which, forming a fringe
+many inches thick, is plaited at the neck, and reaches almost to the
+heels. This garment, believed by the learned to be the very first
+that was invented, is also occasionally worn by the shepherds on the
+Croatian plains. Wherever we cast our eyes there are pigs, pigs,
+pigs: canary-coloured pigs; pigs with long golden hair (probably
+the embodied<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span> spirits of the water-nymphs, transmigrated into these
+domestic pachyderms, which the Slávs, like the ancient Greeks, still
+believe sit upon the banks of the Save, and, combing their golden
+tresses, sing sweetly to lure the unwary boatman into the shifting
+sands); sienna-coloured pigs; pigs of every gradation of yellow and
+light brown, surrounded by little families of pink piglets, whose
+bodies, not yet impregnated with the prevailing sand, seem not to
+belong to the same genus as their progenitors, as one and all stand out
+in bold relief and artistic contrast against the intense blue sky.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Bertsch, I lose my little guslar, a woman carrying a
+distaff—which, like the women of Transylvania, a Sláv is seldom seen
+without—having come on board to fetch him. Before he left I threw into
+his bundle a quantity of Turkish sweetmeats, given me by a Bosnian
+gentleman, which must I fear have sown the seed for a rich harvest of
+indigestion and night-mares sufficient to drown his little pipe and
+extinguish his muse for many a day to come.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching the province of Syrmien, whose banks skirt us on the Hungarian
+side, a group of Amazons with red and blue scarfs, folded round their
+heads like turbans, are standing knee-deep in the water washing their
+<i>chuddas</i>, just as they are seen to do in the Ganges. They scuttle
+away at our approach, and hide in the low bushes which are growing in
+the sandy soil, whence they gaze at us furtively like Miriams and the
+maidens of Pharaoh’s daughter. The shore here is covered with hundreds
+of pigs, no longer golden, but grimly black, with long bushy hair and
+hanging tails, looking from a little distance like bears. We have now
+left the region of sand behind, and again enter a morass, the abode of
+myriads of wild fowl, numbers of which are taking their bath on the
+confines of the river, or diving for fish; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span> shore being literally
+edged with them as by a fringe. More tame by far than the human bipeds
+of Syrmien, they take no notice whatever of our approach. A raft passes
+close to them, but they do not move; whilst an eagle standing alone,
+its great yellow feet planted on a small green promontory, was so lost
+in contemplation that it did not stir for full a quarter of an hour,
+but remained as immovable as if it had been the Sphinx beneath the
+pyramids of Gezah.</p>
+
+<p>At every turn in the river we are reminded of our gradual approach to
+the East. Women, walking in the roadway or coming down to the river’s
+brink for water, now wear yack-mashes, and the Austro-Hungarian traits
+have almost died out. Presently we see, apparently standing alone
+with no habitation within sight, a long pole, to which is lashed what
+appears from a distance to be a human form, and our minds involuntarily
+revert to the famous newspaper controversy of “Impaled Bosnian”
+<i>versus</i> “faggot of haricot beans.”</p>
+
+<p>There he was sure enough, his black hair standing on end, as well
+it might, and his loose, Oriental-like garments fluttering in the
+breeze, with his poor wizened legs dangling black and helpless. It
+was a blood-curdling sight, and fain would we have turned our eyes in
+the contrary direction, but no! we would be brave and view through a
+field-glass this unfortunate <i>raïa</i>—another victim to Mahomedan
+cruelty and barbarism. We would view him in all his ghastly details,
+in order that we might expose the horrors of the deed throughout the
+length and breadth of Christendom. Our courage almost fails us, but we
+raise the glass, through which we see the sickening picture. Across
+the breast, his epitaph was written in black letters painted rudely on
+a narrow strip of board. What are the tragic words? They are Slávish
+for “good cheer for man and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span> beast,” and point to a small, one-storied
+“<i>gastina</i>” or wayside inn now seen amongst a cluster of low
+bushes!</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p3100_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p3100_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+<p>The resemblance was complete and the object of our commiseration a
+veritable fact, until with calm eyes we were able to dissect him limb
+by limb. His head was formed of a bundle of sticks, that doubtless when
+originally placed there were freshly gathered boughs, but from which
+the leaves since dropped had left simply a little bundle of dry twigs
+which formed a capital shock head of hair. The upper part of his body
+consisted of a piece of old sacking, and his flowing nether garments of
+a sheaf of Indian corn without the ears, the long, pointed leaves of
+which, bleached by the sun, fluttered in the air; the narrow board, by
+dividing the body, formed the waistbelt, and the legs, which hung black
+and helplessly, were two somewhat crooked stakes, to which the whole
+fabric was tied previous to its being hoisted to the pole.</p>
+
+<p>Plenty more victims to “impalement” saw we on our farther progress down
+the Save, but we henceforth witnessed them with stoical indifference,
+and they no longer awoke our pity or moved us to tears.</p>
+
+<p>The time occupied in steaming down the Save is twenty-six hours, and
+we are fast reaching our destination. Already ambitious Servia lies to
+our right. We have passed Schabatz with its hospital and gymnasium,
+for since this brave little race of Slávs have achieved their
+independence, they are imitating the civilised West in many of its
+national institutions. After<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span> steaming into a flock of wild swans, we
+turn another bend of the river, and Belgrade, with its fortress-crowned
+hill, comes in sight, over which, thank God, the banner of Slavo-Serb
+liberty at last floats in the breeze. The Save now ends its career, and
+empties itself into the beautiful Danube, which here looks like the
+ocean.</p>
+
+<p>As we steam under the citadel of Belgrade with its minarets and towers,
+which for centuries has been alternately the bulwark of Christendom and
+the advanced post of the Infidel, a gun booming from its battlemented
+heights reverberated against the promontory of Semlin, the last
+Hungarian town on the banks of the Danube, and, stepping on shore, the
+red, white, and green colours of the kingdom of St. Stephen no longer
+float over us, for we have planted our feet on Servian soil.</p>
+
+  <div class="figcenter" id="p3110_ill">
+    <img
+    class="p1"   
+    src="images/p3110_ill.jpg"
+     alt="">
+   </div>
+
+
+<p class="center xs p2">FINIS.</p>
+
+
+<p class="p4 center xs">LONDON:<br>
+PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,<br>
+STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.</p>
+
+
+<p class="transnote p2">Transcriber’s Notes:<br>
+<br>
+1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been
+corrected silently.<br>
+<br>
+2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
+been retained as in the original.</p>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78675 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #78675
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78675)