A Girl's Wanderings in Hungary ... With illustrations, etc

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION I cannot but feel that the kindly interest which has been taken in my 'Wanderings in Hungary' is evi dence of a desire on the part of many of the reading public to become better acquainted with this most interesting country. The student of 'the national history of Hungary would be referred to the works of Szalay, Horv&th, Teleki and Jaszay ; but the best account of the manners and customs of the people is contained in M. Sandor Eeso's ' Magyarorszagi Nepszokasok,' which was published in Buda Pesth thirty years since, ami to which, through kind friends, I am largely indebted. \t present there is not to my knowledge any English translation of this classical work, and perhaps my little venture may help to stimulate some Hungarian student to undertake the task. The late Mr. Paget, an Englishman who settled in the country, published an interesting book entitled 'Hungary and Transylvania,' which is now somewhat A GIRL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY scarce ; and, later, Miss Gerard wrote ' Beyond the Forest,' upon the same subject.

In 1892, Mr. Louis Felbermann published, through Messrs. Griffith <fc Farran, his ' Hungary and its People,' which has already reached a Second Edition, and I am in debted to him for permission to publish the Map which was revised by Dr. John Janko for him. In describing the peasant customs we naturally travel over the same ground, but the most cursory glance at Mr. Felbermann's volume will show how entirely distinct his patriotic compilation is from my narrative.

PREFACE.

TO THE FIKST EDITION To begin with, let me confess that I belong to the category of ' mouse-screeching ' women ; though I wear cloth knickers under my gown and feel equally con temptuous towards an ' hysterical female ' and a dowdy has bleu. Their day is over ! I love the sea, and the mountains, and the frank ' natural-ness ' of the peasantry, but garlic and drunken men both disgust me. Swear ing frightens me, particularly when there's anything ' bluggy ' about it. It turns me instantly into a mass i if shivering goose-flesh : perhaps it's the tone that does it, quite as much as the words. I adore delicately-put compliments, and object to being considered man's equal, preferring to remain — his superior. Dancing is a delight to me anywhere — except in a London drawing-room. Beading, ridinp, and hockey are my favourite pastimes ; writing is henceforward to be my profession.

I am a devoted disciple of my distant kinsman Bobert Browning, and VArtpour I' Art is my ideal — but not in the Zola-esque sense of the phrase. X A GIRL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY I must beg, therefore, to emphatically disclaim any partisanship of any kind. In writing this book I have merely endeavoured to describe faithfully what I did, saw, and felt, during my wanderings in Hungary, and it must not be looked upon cither as a scientific book of travels, or a contribution to the eternal ' Sex-question.' Nor is it full of adventures and hair-breadth escapes. Things of that 'sort don't fall to the lot of a nineteenth-century girl, even at the other end of Europe. My religion is ' cosmopolitan,' my sympathies are broad, my politics are a liberal Conservatism, and my curiosity is insatiable. I am devoured by an over whelming desire, not only to do and see everything, but also to experience everything and feel it as others feel it. ' Put yourself in his place ' has been my motto, often unconsciously acted upon, and it has taught m. much in the way of that Charity which suffereth long and is kind. H. E. Browsing. in CONTENTS

Chapter I Paus

How and why I went there —What the Viennese told me about Hungary and the Hungarians — My impressions of Vienna — Strauss, the Waltz-king- Coffee a la civnie - -Madonnas ami Madeln 1

CHAPTER 11

My first plunge into barbarism — Tea a la Pozsony — A courteous guard -Nyek station— My arrival at Piizmand— Glimpses of life there — Maddalena— ' The Brown Hen ' — A Csikos encampment — An informal marriage - Magyar pigs— All Souls' Day .

Chapter III

liudapest -Lohengrin — Ice-fetes and hot springs — The Greek Church on the PetSfy Square— A Slav wife-beater the Margit-sziget — The Spring races - The Emperor Franz Joseph

Chapter IV

Transylvania— An ancient metropolis— A charming old lady and a bit of her history Fleas Midnight musings and what came of them Ilka, the actress— The woman who lived in a -7' case — The fortress on the hill at Ko'.ozs wir Myself as a modern Absalom -Kntuna to the rescue C8 A GIRL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY XII PACK 10S 12C

Chapter V

A Transylvanian village — Forest scenes — Le petit bleu — Some aristocratic beauties — Naczi as postillion — Masters and servants — Hungarian donkeys — A refractory team and a missing wheel— We are mistaken for Jews— Mosquitoes 74

Chapter VI

Gipsies — A peasant wedding — My success as a cstirdds dancer — Marriage ceremonies — Divorce — Bathing anecdotes — Little Julscha -A Jew doctor— Death wails — Lona— The full, true and particular history of Jemima Snooks *""

Chapter VII

Bear-hunting in the Karpathians — My host and hostess— A shooting-box—Bears, black and brown — Wolf-yarns— A forest goilter and a buffalo-bull — A peasant woman and natural poetry — Melons for the pig — Instinctive courtesy — A peasant cottage— A Kaluka— Hailstorms— Evening rides — A rich peasant farmer .

Chapter VIII

Jewish penance on the Day of Atonement— Azor and the other dogs — Sir John Falstaff— An aristocratic suicide— Hungarian oaths — Dancing in the stable-yard — Mein Stem — Birthdays and namesdays — A morning call on the present Premier .

Chapter IX

A visit to Temesvar and the Banat— The Michaelmas Fair and a comical quarrel— Electric light — The river Tissa — Petofy's Alfiild— The 'crooked land ' and the land of the Great Plain — The Alfi.lders— Debreczin and its veiled women . i:;7 CONTENTS XIII

Chapter X Pack

On the road to Arad -Wayside inns and peasant vehicles— Wine, woman, and song — Agriculture and commercial prospects of the Alfoid — Return to Szt. Mihaly in a blinding snow-storm — Skating and sledging -A wolf and a, wild cat —A false step in the dark— Rat episodes — Wallach women- -Hermannstadt— A Wallach funeral— Hamelsdorf and Saxon toilettes— Interiors — Hiltau and its fortress church — Wallach villages —The male Wallach — A Bible Christian — Saxon marriages . . . 101

Chapter XI

Christmas in the UllO-utcza— Carnival in Budapest— The ' highest circle ' and the diplomatic world — A ministerial crisis — ' It ' — Ilka the actress again— A faithful lover — A Count and a Jewess — Emma Turolla, opera-singer — The marriage question in Hungary — The fortune-teller at ' The Blue Cat ' — An Empress-worshipper — New Year festivities at the royal castle — The ' Violet-Devourer ' — Nature versus decency — Une suicide manquie — Colour versus degeneration . . . . .217

Chapter XII

The Salon-Palmay and her authentic record — Anglo-maniacs and Franco-maniacs — Maurus Jokai, novelist — Woman's position in Hungary — The Kossuth episode and the fall of a Cabinet— The German language versus the Magyar tongue— The Hungarian peasant and the '48 Revolution 241

Chapter XIII

A trip down the Danube — Scene on board the steamer — Promontor and the cave-dwellers— Turkish, Bulgarian, and Servian ladies — Vingt-et-un on deck— Montenegrins— The breaking up of the ice— The Gibraltar of Europe— Semlin— The first cataract— The Castle of the Nine Towers— St. George's Cave and the furia t iifi-rmtlis— Eoman ruins— A moral shower-bath — The Iron-Gate Pass— Roumanian officials— Beggars— Water-mills and buoys on the Danube— Turnu Severin— Orsova and Trajan's column — Is it a revolution ? — Market-day— Costumes — A Roumanian village— Fairy-land ... \ GIRL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY PAGE 30C

The ice-caverns at Dobsina — Frozen butterflies and brown bears — The town of Dobsina — Cobalt mines— Dante and the ice-grottoes — A Slovak menu — Curious customs .... 29!)

Chapter XVII

Tatra-Fured Alpine delights— A delicious bill us fare Alpine flora —A mountain funeral— Slovaks ami Slavs — Character of mountaineers—Religion versus piety — Various masculine ideas— A remedy for toothache — Beggar kings and queens -An orphan indeed —A runaway wile — Housekeeping in Hungary The price of a wife- Slovak courtship - Karpathian heights .

Chapter XVIII

Somogy-megye The majolica and faience factory a i Pica Wild-boar hunting— A precocious baby- Wild ducks and herons- Snow-storms— Planting fir-trees -Farewell to Hungary Eljin MagytutUmd! . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FULL PAUL Budapest Frontispiece Kolozsvab To face p. 59 Gergely •_ 99 iiioi.ii Herdsmen ........ ,, 1-17 At ' The Dropper-in' Csahda 160 Peasant Pottery ........ ., 190 Fortress-Church vi Hiltau 206 Saxon Giri 210 o Fibbing „ 25s 1 ian Au.is ,,294 IX TEXT Kiosk on Corso 53 Market-day, Kolozsvar 66 Peasant Sharpening his Scythe 119 Wallach Peasants 201 An Elderly Mother of Christ A GIRL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY PACE Gellerthegy ........... 262 Danubian Water-mill- ......... 268 Vag Valley Railway .....-••• 307 Slovak Peasants 312 Shepherd's Crook, Salt Box and Mug 322 M.iP Tin Crownlands of the Kingdom of St. Stephan's, Croatia, Slavonia, and the Military District . . To face p. Longman*, Ov««i .f- /... Condon . Bis** I&r<fc 4 Bomby.

Chapter I

How and why I went there — What the Viennese told me about Hungary and the Hungarians — My impressions ot Vienna— Strauss, the Waitzking — Coffee a la crerne — Madonnas and Miideln. Shall I ever forget the delightful sensation of finding myself alone in a country where I knew absolutely no one, and could not speak a single word of the language ? As far as Vienna I had enjoyed the cultivated com panionship of a high-placed Englishman and his wife, whose long residence in the gay Austrian capital had naturally imbued them with a good many Austrian prejudices. They looked upon Hungary as ' the end of the earth,' and the Hungarians as a nation of ' barbarians.' They also wondered greatly what could ibly induce me to go a step beyond bright, beautiful Vienna, with all its fascinations of Art, Music, Society, and life in general.

Both of them v. ere very kind, very polite, very helpful. They gave me lots of advice, changed my money for me, looked after my luggage, saw that I had plenty to eat and drink on B my way, and gave me as much information about the Magyars and Magyarland as they were able; but beneath all this veneer of kindness ran a strong under current of strong disapproval. ' What an eccentric young person!' 'What can her people be thinking of to allow it'.'' were the thoughts evidently echoing through their minds, even whilst they tried to help me. Inwardly this amused me. I have always been of an independent turn of mind, and I never could see why a well-brought-up girl should not be allowed exactly the same liberty of action that is accorded to her brothers — in fact to every young man in every grade of life ; but, of course, it is useless trying to make people, who are still held in thrall by the 'good, old-fashioned notions.' see this side of the question.

I could have given them some very pertinent reasons for my journey, but I didn't. After studying hard, and passing (with great success) a stiffish University examination, I had lost my dear father, to whom I was devotedly attached. This combination of circumstances had nearly succeeded in destroying my health for ever. Month after month passed, and I was gradually sinking into a state of nervous invalidism that threatened to incapacitate me for hfe. Thorough and complete change of scene and of daily life, and a total cessation of brain-work, was the only remedy advocated by the medical faculty. So then I took the matter into my own hands. The family finance minister easily decided that there were funds for one to go a-travelling, but not for two. I had plenty of courage. Through a friend I could get introductions to some people in Hungary ; so to Hungary I would go.

It was a country of which, beyond the mere name, very IluW AND WHY I WENT THERE 3 little was known in Western Europe. A visit there would enable me to extend my knowledge of geography and ethnology in a practical manner. Everything and everybody would necessarily be strange and un-English, therefore it would be just the place in which to recover ' tone.' Body and nerves might ' convalesce ' at lei whilst I studied new phases of human nature, and grew gain. It's wonderful how old you can feel at twenty-three if anything happens to crush the vitality out of you, isn't it ? The Sun-god has always i much worshipped by me, but just at that period of my life he seemed a very cruel and unfeeling deity, for he actually went on shining, regardless of the fact that J, one of his most ardent devotees, moaned broken hearted over what appeared to me a blank future.

But, tout passe, tout lasse — even sorrow. There is a marvellous power of recuperation in human nature, for which those who are wise feel unutterably thankful. If it were not so, where would impressionable people, like myself, for instance, be ? Nowhere — just simply no where. We should burn ourselves out in a very short space of time, and ' our place would know us no more.' We should 'fret and fume our little part,' and thru make our exit off the stage of life before we had well realised our entry upon it. On reaching Vienna I drove straight to the Hotel Meisl und Schadn in the Kartnerstrasse, drank a cup of delicious coffee with whipped cream floating on the top of it, crunched up a couple of crisp little golden St mrneln, and then lay down to have a good nap. It was at 6.0 a.m. on a soft, fresh September morning that the fast train from Cologne steamed into the big station at the terminus of the Elizabeth-Bahn.

After my luggage had been obtained from the Customs and piled on to the box of a victoria, I took my seat beside the roll of rugs, and off we trotted behind a pair of 'springy' little horses towards the hotel. It isa fairly Jong drive. The early sunshine was delicious, and I thoroughly appreciated it and my surround r Indeed, I began to revive from that moment. The Viennese are decidedly 'early birds.,' but whether they catch many ' worms ' is more than I am capable of decid ing. The streets were all alive with pedestrians, even at that hour. Bakers, milkmen, servant-girls, peasants, scavengers, water-carters, and market-people with baskets, trucks and wagons, besides numerous victorias similar to the one I sat in, conveying passengers with piles of luggage to and from the various stations, for nearly all the fast trains arrive and depart either between .5.0 and 7.0 A.M. or about 10.0 p.m. By the way, unless you are endowed with limitless patience, or lied with an armful of deeply enthralling literature, never be persuaded to travel by what is called Pcrsonen- Zug.

It sounds all right, and it's cheaper by a few guldens, but — its pace is snail-like. Its driver has absolutely no conception of the meaning of the proverb that I once heard translated by a Dutchman at Antwerp as : ' times ish monnies.' It stops at every single station for no other earthly reason, apparently, than to permit the guard and engine-driver to get off and spend a quarter of an hour comfortably chatting over daily paper with the station-master, or cracking jokes with any odd loiterers who happen to be about. I hate Baedeker a few degrees worse than Murray, so I never use either. They always make the most beautiful places seem like items classified and ticketed VIENNA 5 in a museum, and I am so Goth-like by nature as to detest museums — except as places to sit and rest in on a hot day.

For a whole week I just roamed about, seeing anything and everything that took my fancy, from Our Lady of Loretto — the black Madonna — in St. Michael's Church, and Murillo's Conception in the Liechtenstein Palace, to the royal stables, the Burg- Musik and the Gloriette at Schonbrunn. I grew to love the old Stephans-Dom ; and the graceful Gothic beauty of the Votiv-Kirche delighted me. The dazzling v, in the jewellers' and fancy shops on the Graben and in the Kartnerstrasse attracted my attention quite as much as the white-capped nurse-maids, the blue-clad police men with drooping feathers in their hard felt hats, and the brilliant uniforms of the numberless regiments who seemed to be constantly marching, or changing guard, or patrolling, all over the city, at any and every hour of the day.

When at last I stepped into my train and mentally bid adieu to civilisation, I already felt centuries younger than I had done two short weeks before, as the white cliffs of England had receded from my view. In Vienna, everybody seems to be always singing, laugl i ing, dancing, whistling or chatting whenever and wher ever you see them, and their gaiety is infectious. I began by watching them with grave, lack-lustre mien, and a sense of unutterable apartness, but ended by join ing in the universal bubble of gay laughter around me. ' Impressionableness ' has its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Consequently, when I crossed for the first time the Hungarian frontier, my mind was full of a delightful, indescribable feeling of expectation. As a matter of fact, I never had any hair-breadth escapes or thrilling adventures there, but a land of ' barbarians ' is a land of fascinating possibilities.

You can never be sure what will happen next. Had it not been for that healthful week in Vienna,I might have failed to appreciate my first entry into Hungary. Things and people wear such a different aspect when they fall ' flat ' on a dull, dead level of sickly indifference. CHAPTEB II My first plunge into barbarism— Tea a la Pozsony — A courteous guard — Nyek station — My arrival at Pazm&nd— Glimpses of life there— Maddalena — ' The Brown Hen '—A Csikos encampment— An informal marriage — Magyar pigs — All Souls' Day. We reached the line of demarcation between the two kingdoms at Pozsony (Pressburg), once the capital of Western Hungary, in the days when Kolozsvar was the metropolis of the eastern portion. It is supposed to be an interesting old town, but, never having set foot in it, I cannot speak from experience.

The station, with its polyglot crowd, is certainly most interesting to an observant foreigner. Indeed, if you want to get out of yourself and into somebody else (which, by the way, is an impossibility, because one's inner-consciousness will insist on asserting itself at the most unexpected moments) you can manage to do so better in Hungary than in any other country I know of — at present. One thing that I distinctly remember about Pozsony, is that in the Restauratum they make the tea with lukewarm water, but they put plenty of cream into the excellent coffee. The train accommodatingly waits twenty minutes there to enable you to partake of breakfast. It was at Pozsony, too, that I shocked the waiter by asking for a second ' porzion ' of coffee and rolls. He brought it to me dubiously and with a sad expression on his speaking countenance, as though it cut him to the quick to see any young lady with so unladylike an appetite.

In those days my knowledge of German was, to say the least, extremely scrappy, though I could speak French fluently enough — considering my nationality. The English tongue does not seem to lend itself readily to foreign pronunciations somehow. Of the Magyar language I had never heard a syllable, not even the alphabet. The number of consonants used together, added to the abnormal length of many of the words I saw written up on the station-walls, rather con founded me. Indeed, it was several weeks before I could even distinguish where one word ended and another began. This explained itself to me later on when I attempted to solve some of the grammatical intricacies. Pronouns are very seldom used ; prepositions, conjunc tions, and case-endings innumerable, being all tacked on at the ends of the words in a way that is extremely bewildering to an unhappy foreigner.

The German spoken by the Austrians is not a little bit like the language we learn from the pages of that worthy Ollendorf , whose well-turned and irreproachably correct High-German sentences meet only with pitying contempt in Vienna. From the Court to the gutter everybody speaks a gemuthlich dialect, the chief charac teristics of which are the paucity of vowels and the abundance of words ending in I. Mutter becomes Mut terl; Messer, Messerl. Knabe changes itself to Bub ; mich abbreviates itself to mi, and so on. Therefore, when I attempted to glean information from officials or fellow travellers, my efforts scarcely met with the success they deserved. If, with great difficulty and many gestures, I managed to make them understand me, I was totally unable to understand them. Having no idea of the lin- BUDAPEST guistic abilities of the Hungarians, it never sintered my head to try French, a language universally familiar to the better classes, so I floundered on in ' a-nation-and a-dummy ' sort of way, thoroughly enjoying the strange ness of my position and always wondering delightedly what was going to happen next.

Nothing would have surprised me, however strange and unexpected. We reached Budapest, in the midst of much shouting and tapping of bells with wooden hammers, about two o'clock in the afternoon. The people to whom I was going lived near Szekes Fehervar, some thirty miles south of the capital, so I had to drive through the city of Pest across the magnificent suspension bridge to another terminus in Buda, whence a branch line ran to Nyek, the station nearest to the country seat of the hos pitable folk who ' hoped I would stay there as long as I felt happy amongst them.' Having restored myself in the Restauration at Buda, I strolled outside and sat on the sunny bank beside the Danube to while away the hours till my train started. From my coign of vantage I could watch the traffic along the road as well as the boats and steamers passing up and down the river.

The whole scene charmed me, in spite of the dust, which not even the perpetual water-cart seems able to lay for any length of time. When I got back to the station everybody seemed to be drinking coffee, and eating a delicious cakey sort of bread called Kolaczi. So, remembering the adage, ' When you are at Eome, do as the Romans do,' I followed their example. By holding up two fingers and saying ' Kyek ' I was able to secure a second-class ticket to my destination, and was shut into a very comfortable carriage by the guard to whom I showed it. This conducteur was either a man of very sociable disposition or else he had a strain of knight-errantry in his blood, prompting him to act the squire to one whom he held to be a dis tressed damsel, or (possibly) 'visions of a 'tip' at the journey's end hovered before his mental vision.

Any how, at each stop he invariably came to make polite remarks and point out the scenery to me. He was so high-bred, so courteous, in his demeanour, that I began to think he must really be a ' gentleman ' in disguise, or perhaps even a brigand of the Claude Duval style. In fact the same thought was continually crossing my mind about everybody I came in contact with, until it dawned upon me gradually that most of the men of all classes were gentlemen, not in disguise, but in reality. This was rather a nice discovery to make after you had been led to suppose that you had left civilization behind you in leaving Austria. It was then for the first time that a doubt of the true significance of the word entered my mind. In what did civilization consist '. Was it an unmixed Good, or a partial Evil, I wondered, as We whirled along, and — I am still wondering.

Will any one satisfactorily solve this problem for me ? ( >ur train was a fast one, so we did not take more than an hour and a half to cover the distance. At about 6.30 I stepped jauntily out on to the platform and waited whilst the polite conducteur gathered my belong ings into a heap beside me. He then handed me, and them, over to the care of the station-master, gave me a grand bow and a : ' Csokolom a kezet nagysdgos kissass .iini/.'' (I kiss your hand, honourable damsel!) before jumping into bis van and giving the signal for de parture. I replied to his greeting in a style that is NYEK STATION 11 'quite English.' What a Goth he must have thought me ! I ought, at least, to have said : ' God go with you ! ' or, ' A happy good evening to you ! ' One of the very first things that life in Hungary taught me was how to return a courteous greeting courteously.

But revenons d nos mou tons, as our French neighbours say. The mou tons in this case being me and my luggage. There we stood together on the otherwise empty platform. Be ide us stood the tall station-master, twirling his long moustaches patiently whilst he waited my com mands. With some difficulty I made him comprehend that there ought to be a carriage awaiting me from Pazmand. He looked dubious, went outside to gaze up the road, and came back shaking his head. There was no conveyance of any kind in sight on the long straight road. Would I be pleased to seat myself in the big, bare waiting-room and wait ? It would surely arrive directly. He spoke German, by the way, in a style that rather resembled Ollendorf, so that we understood each other (comparatively) well. Quarter of an hour passed — no carriage.

Half an hour — still no carriage. The peasantry from the cottages near at hand came crowding round to peep in through the door and the windows, all of wliich were thrown wide open. The sight of a foreign young lady with fair hair and blue eyes, who was so tall and slight, excited their curiosity greatly. She looked like a princess, but if she was a princess why was she travelling by herself, and sitting so long alone in the station of Nyek ? There was evidently something mysterious about her. She looked very tired too, and perhaps she might be hungry. This was evidently what they were saying to each other, for one woman A GILL'S WANDERINGS IN HUNGARY brought me some milk in a rough wooden bowl, and a very handsome girl offered me some peaches tlirough the window. I refused the milk with thanks, but took the fruit ; whereupon the woman ran home and came back with a slice of black bread, which she put to my lips, and then pointed to the peaches, signifying that they would be good eaten together.

When I took out my purse to pay them for their kindness there was a regular outcry of indignant protest, so I could only smile my gratitude for their hospitable attentions. I tried to eat the bread as though it was quite to my taste, for they all stood watching me, leaning with their elbows on the various window-sills. Have you ever tried to eat some article of food that is most unpalatable to you as though you enjoyed it? If so, you will understand how the next ten minutes passed. Fortunately the peaches were ripe and juicy, so I managed to dispose of half the bread by their aid. Then, human nature could no more, and I laid the remainder on the table. The Hungarian ' barbarians ' interested me greatly from the first moment. That they possessed one savage virtue was obvious, i.e. unbounded hospitality to strangers.

These Magyar women are generally of medium height ; they have broad, rather square shoulders and beautifully moulded figures, dark brown hair, peachy complexions, and big, soft, velvety brown eyes, full of a latent fire that requires very little to become a living flame. The men are tall, well-formed and graceful in figure, with bronzed features, dark, long moustaches and big dark eyes. Both sexes have particularly small hands and feet, daintily rounded wrists and ankles, and very luxuriant hair. The peasant girls generally go about bare-headed and bare- KINDLY BARBARIANS footed, except on Sundays or Saints-days. They are not the least shy under any circumstances, and as they lounged round they evidently discussed my every feature and all I had on without reserve. Their sonorous speech and their very energetic manner of speaking was pleasant to listen to and watch ; so the time did not lag, though an hour and a half went by and still found me sitting on there in the fast deepening twilight, listening in a half-drowsy way to the musical accents of the peasantry and trying to discover from their expressions and gestures what it was they were saying.

Tho longing from which Robert Burns was evidently suffering, when he sang : ' 0 ! wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithcrs see us,' burned within my breast. I felt that I would have given a great deal to know exactly what sort of im pression an Englishwoman made upon these kindly ' barbarians.' It grew quite dark at last. A porter lighted the smelly oil-lamps all over the station. The peasants bade me many good-nights and went home to bed. I sought the office of the polite station-master and asked him where I could get either a vehicle or a night's lodging. He informed me in well-rounded periods that a vehicle would be a difficult matter at such a late hour ; besides, the roads were very bad, and in the dark one could not see to drive ; moreover, the peasant-wagons were dreadfully shaky and not the fit thing for a foreign lady to ride in ; but there was a highly respectable inn down at the other end of the village where they could probably give me a bed and a meal.