Dracula | Page 6

but on learning that I was English,
he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye.
This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an unknown place to
meet an unknown man. But everyone seemed so kind-hearted, and so
sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched.
I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and its
crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves, as they stood
round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of oleander
and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the yard.
Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of
the boxseat,--"gotza" they call them--cracked his big whip over his four
small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey.
I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of the
scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or rather
languages, which my fellow-passengers were speaking, I might not
have been able to throw them off so easily. Before us lay a green
sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there steep hills,
crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses, the blank gable end
to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass of fruit
blossom--apple, plum, pear, cherry. And as we drove by I could see the
green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen petals. In and out
amongst these green hills of what they call here the "Mittel Land" ran
the road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve, or was shut
out by the straggling ends of pine woods, which here and there ran
down the hillsides like tongues of flame. The road was rugged, but still
we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste. I could not understand
then what the haste meant, but the driver was evidently bent on losing
no time in reaching Borgo Prund. I was told that this road is in
summertime excellent, but that it had not yet been put in order after the
winter snows. In this respect it is different from the general run of roads
in the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to be kept

in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not repair them, lest the
Turk should think that they were preparing to bring in foreign troops,
and so hasten the war which was always really at loading point.
Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty slopes
of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians themselves. Right and
left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun falling full upon them
and bringing out all the glorious colours of this beautiful range, deep
blue and purple in the shadows of the peaks, green and brown where
grass and rock mingled, and an endless perspective of jagged rock and
pointed crags, till these were themselves lost in the distance, where the
snowy peaks rose grandly. Here and there seemed mighty rifts in the
mountains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and
again the white gleam of falling water. One of my companions touched
my arm as we swept round the base of a hill and opened up the lofty,
snow-covered peak of a mountain, which seemed, as we wound on our
serpentine way, to be right before us.
"Look! Isten szek!"--"God's seat!"--and he crossed himself reverently.
As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and lower
behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep round us. This
was emphasized by the fact that the snowy mountain-top still held the
sunset, and seemed to glow out with a delicate cool pink. Here and
there we passed Cszeks and slovaks, all in picturesque attire, but I
noticed that goitre was painfully prevalent. By the roadside were many
crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselves.
Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine,
who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in the
self-surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer
world. There were many things new to me. For instance, hay-ricks in
the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch,
their white stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the
leaves.
Now and again we passed a leiter-wagon--the ordinary peasants's
cart--with its long, snakelike vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities
of the road. On this were sure to be seated quite a group of

homecoming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks
with