Round About the Carpathians

ide to Szaszka-Fine views-Drenkova-Character of th

, the elections are now always held outside the town. The voting was in a warehouse adjoining the railway station. A detachment of troops was there to keep order, in fact the two parties were divided from each other by a line of soldiers with fixed bayonets. It was extremely ridiculous. The whole affair was as tame as possible; no more sh

great talker, and when politics open the sluices of his mind, his speech is a perfect avalanche of words. His conversation is never of that kind that puts you in a state of antagonism,

en the House is sitting, and a grant of four hundred florins a-year is made for lodgings. There is this peculiarity about the Hungarian Parliament: hereditary members of the Upper Ho

denominations. The disabilities of the Jews were suffered to remain a few years later; but in 1867 they were entirely removed, and at the present moment several of the most active members of Parliament are of the Jewish persuasion. Elections are triennial, an

away. I had thoughts of changing my plans altogether, and of devoting myself to a serious study of the minerals of the Banat, making gay little Oravicza my head-centre. Looking back after the lapse of sober

a way of increasing which makes packing a progressive difficulty. However, at last I did persuade my portmanteau to shut, and forthwith

must say I prefer the saddle infinitely. I should observe that on leaving Szaszka I got into a dense mist on the top of the mountain. Fortunately I knew my bearings. When it cleared off I had a magnificent view all the way, reaching the Danube about nine o'clock. Here I spent the day and night at the house of Mr G--, with whom I was slightly acquainted, and who received me hospitably. The next morning very early I started for Svenica, a lovely ride along the Szechenyi road. I had been in the saddle from five to eleven a.m., and reaching Drenkova, I was not sorry to stop on account of the great heat. It has only a wretched inn, where myself and horse fared very

declared it was a couple of hours' walk, and he volunteered to show me the way. The inn was horribly dirty, as one might expect from the appearance of the village, which is inhabited entirely by Serbs, otherwise Rascians. It appears that a vast number of Slavs from Servia took refuge in Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century. Some were Roman Ca

n rupture with Austria. It seems that in the month of May in that eventful year the Rascians sent a deputation to Pesth, to the Diet, setting forth certain grievances and demanding redress. The Magyars rejected their petition with haughty contempt, "a grievous fault," says General Klapka in his history. The result was that the Rascian deputies returned home in a state of great disgust at their reception, and immediately took up arms against the H

ecause a good deal of confusion exists respecting

at my spirit-lamp, when it begins to boil up, makes a tremendous row for two or three minutes, as if it meant to burst up with a general explosion. This circumstance, and my other novel proceedings, had attracted a lot of idlers round the door, and before the tea-making was over a number of Serbs and Wallacks crowded into the room in a state of excited curiosity, and it was with difficulty that I defended my tea-machine from absolute dismemberment. Thou

ringe of wood, I was not a little surprised to see emerge from thence a sturdy Wallack, carrying the usual long staff, armed with an axe at one end. I say surprised, because he at once joined in with us, and though I had not seen him during our climb, I had my strong suspicions that he had followed us all the way. My guide spoke a little German, and I demanded of him in a sharp tone what the other fellow meant by joining us. My guide answered that

any progress without the light. Though we were again in a path, the way was frequently barred by the trunks of fallen trees. We were still ascending, occasionally coming upon a steep rough bit, difficult for the horse on account of the loose stones. I think we must have looked very much like a party of smugglers. The ex-forester walked first, swinging his lantern as he moved; then came the Wallack volunteer, stu

id to be full of them in summer, and he added that a lot of pigs belonging to a neighbour of his had been carried off by the wolves only the night before. I took this opportu

a light or two in the distance, and before long we came to a cottage, the first in what turned out to be the little village of Eibenthal. Here we came upon a party of miners, who gave me the pleasant information that we were still an hour's walk from Uibanya! There was nothing for it but to go on. I confess I breathed more freely in the open; we were quite clear of the forest now. On we went, a regular tramp, tramp, through a long valley skirted with woods on either side. This last part of the walk seemed interminable. It was eighteen

welcome firelight of a human habitation. This time it was my goal-Uibanya! I stopped for a moment and fired off a couple of shots to announce our approach, whereupon

I paid my guide for his night's work. I looked ro

nd, O ye gods, with what an appetite I ate t