Round About the Carpathians | Page 2

Bukovina--Destruction of timber--Maladministration of
State property--An unpleasant night on the mountain--Snowstorm 282
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Visits at Transylvanian châteaux--Society--Dogs--Amusements at
Klausenburg--Magyar poets--Count Istvan Széchenyi--Baron
Eötvos--'The Village Notary'--Hungarian self-criticism--Literary taste
291
CHAPTER XXIX.
A visit at Schloss B------National characteristics--Robber
stories--Origin of the "poor lads"--Audacity of the robbers--Anecdote
of Deák and the housebreaker--Romantic story of a robber chief 302
CHAPTER XXX.
Return to Buda-Pest--All-Souls' Day--The cemetery--Secret burial of
Count Louis Batthyanyi--High rate of mortality at Buda-Pest 315
CHAPTER XXXI.
Skating--Death and funeral of Deák--Deák's policy--Uneasiness about
the rise of the Danube--Great excitement about inundations--The
capital in danger--Night scene on the embankment--Firing the
danger-signal--The great calamity averted 321
CHAPTER XXXII.
Results of the Danube inundations--State of things at Baja--Terrible
condition of New Pest--Injuries sustained by the island garden of St.
Marguerite--Charity organisation 335

CHAPTER XXXIII.
Expedition to the Marmaros Mountains--Railways in Hungary--The
train stopping for a rest--The Alföld--Shepherds of the plain--Wild
appearance of the Rusniacks--Slavs of Northern Hungary--Marmaros
Szigeth--Difficulty in slinging a hammock--The Jews of
Karasconfalu--Soda manufactory at Boeska--Romantic scenery--Salt
mines--Subterranean lake 339
CHAPTER XXXIV.
The Tokay district--Visit at Schloss G------Wild-boar
hunting--Incidents of the chase 355
CHAPTER XXXV.
Tokay vineyards--The vine-grower's difficulties--Geology of the
Hegyalia--The Pope's compliment to the wine of Tállya--Towns of the
Hegyalia--Farming--System of wages at harvest--The different sorts of
Tokay wine 364
Map of the Banat and Transylvania with Mr Crosse's route.

ROUND ABOUT THE CARPATHIANS.
CHAPTER I.
Down the Danube from Buda-Pest--Amusements on board the
steamer--Basiash--Drive to Oravicza by Weisskirchen--Ladies of
Oravicza--Gipsy music--Finding an old schoolfellow--The czardas.
One glorious morning in June 1875, I, with the true holiday feeling at
heart, for the world was all before me, stepped on board the Rustchuk
steamer at Buda-Pest, intending to go down the Danube as far as
Basiash.

Your express traveller, whose aim it is to get to the other end of
everywhere in the shortest possible time, will take the train instead of
the boat to Basiash, and there catch up the steamer, saving fully twelve
hours on the way. This time the man in a hurry is not so far wrong; the
Danube between Buda-Pest and the defile of Kasan is almost devoid of
what the regular tourist would call respectable scenery. There are few
objects of interest, except the mighty river itself.
Now the steamer has its advantages over the train, for surely nowhere
in this locomotive world can a man more thoroughly enjoy "sweetly
doing nothing" than on board one of these river-boats. You are wafted
swiftly onward through pure air and sunshine; you have an armchair
under the awning; of course an amusing French novel; besides, truth to
say, there is plenty to amuse you on board. Once past Vienna, your
moorings are cut from the old familiar West; the costumes, the faces,
the architecture, and even the way of not doing things, have all a
flavour of the East.
What a hotch-potch of races, so to speak, all in one boat, but ready to
do anything rather than pull together; even here, between stem and
stern of our Danube steamer, are Magyars, Germans, Servians, Croats,
Roumanians, Jews, and gipsies. They are all unsatisfied people with
aspirations; no two are agreed--everybody wants something else down
here, and how Heaven is to grant all the prayers of those who have the
grace to pray, or how otherwise to settle the Eastern Question, I will
not pretend to say.
Meanwhile the world amuses itself--I mean the microcosm on board
the steamer: people, ladies not excepted, play cards, drink coffee, and
smoke. There is a good opportunity of studying the latest Parisian
fashions, as worn by Roumanian belles; they know how to dress, do
those handsome girls from Bucharest.
When steam navigation was first established on the Danube, as long
ago as 1830, Prince Demidoff remarked, that "in making the Danube
one of the great commercial highways of the world, steam had united
the East with the West." It was a smart saying, but it was not a thing
accomplished when the Prince wrote his Travels, nor is it now; for

though the "Danube Steam Navigation Company" have been running
their boats for nearly half a century, they are in difficulties, "chiefly,"
says Mr Révy,[1] "from the neglect of all river improvements between
Vienna and Buda-Pest, and between Basiash and Turn-Severin." He
goes on to say that the dearest interests of the Austro-Hungarian
monarchy are involved in the rectification of the course of the Danube,
recommending a Royal Commission to be appointed. Those who
follow the course of the river may see for themselves how little has
been done, and how much remains to be done before it can be safely
reckoned one of the great commercial highways of the world.
We had started from Buda-Pest on Monday morning at seven o'clock,
and arrived at Basiash at nine the following morning. We