Lippincotts Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 | Page 9

to look for a small- and dull-eyed
race, but the eloquent orbs of youths and maidens in all this Banat land
are rarely equalled in beauty. I found it in my heart to object to the
omnipresent swine. These cheerful animals were sometimes so
domesticated that they followed their masters and mistresses afield in
the morning. In this section of Hungary, as indeed in most parts of
Europe, the farm-houses are all huddled together in compact villages,
and the lands tilled by the dwellers in these communities extend for
miles around them. At dawn the procession of laborers goes forth, and
at sunset it returns. Nothing can give a better idea of rural simplicity
and peace than the return of the peasants of a hamlet at eventide from
their vineyards and meadows. Just as the sun was deluging the broad
Danube with glory before relinquishing the current to the twilight's
shades I came, in the soft April evening, into the neighborhood of
Drenkova. A tranquil afterglow was here and there visible near the hills,
which warded off the sun's passionate farewell glances at the vines and
flowers. Beside the way, on the green banks, sat groups of children,
clad with paradisiacal simplicity, awaiting their fathers and mothers. At
a vineyard's hedge a sweet girl, tall, stately and melancholy, was
twining a garland in the cap of a stout young fellow who rested one
broad hand lightly upon her shoulder. Old women, bent and wrinkled,
hobbled out from the fields, getting help from their sons or grandsons.
Sometimes I met a shaggy white horse drawing a cart in which a dozen
sonsie lasses, their faces browned by wind and their tresses blown back
from their brows in most bewitching manner by the libertine breeze,
were jolting homeward, singing as they went. The young men in their
loose linen garments, with their primitive hoes and spades on their
shoulders, were as goodly specimens of manly strength and beauty as
one could wish to look upon. It hurt me to see them stand humbly
ranged in rows as I passed. But it was pleasant to note the fervor with
which they knelt around the cross rearing its sainted form amid the
waving grasses. They knew nothing of the outer world, save that from
time to time the emperor claimed certain of their number for his service,
and that perhaps their lot might lead them to the great city of
Buda-Pesth. Everywhere as far as the eye could reach the land was
cultivated with greatest care, and plenty seemed the lot of all. The

peasant lived in an ugly and windowless house because his father and
grandfather had done so before him, not because it was necessary. It
was odd to see girls tall as Dian, and as fair, bending their pretty bodies
to come out of the contemptible little apertures in the peasant-houses
called "doors."
Drenkova is a long street of low cottages, with here and there a
two-story mansion to denote that the proprietors of the land reside there.
As I approached the entrance to this street I saw a most remarkable
train coming to meet me. One glance told me that it was a large
company of gypsies who had come up from Roumania, and were going
northward in search of work or plunder. My driver drew rein, and we
allowed the swart Bohemians to pass on--a courtesy which was
gracefully acknowledged with a singularly sweet smile from the driver
of the first cart. There were about two hundred men and women in this
wagon-train, and I verily believe that there were twice as many children.
Each cart, drawn by a small Roumanian pony, contained two or three
families huddled together, and seemingly lost in contemplation of the
beautiful sunset, for your real gypsy is a keen admirer of Nature and
her charms. Some of the women were intensely hideous: age had made
them as unattractive as in youth they had been pretty; others were
graceful and well-formed. Many wore but a single garment. The men
were wilder than any that I had ever before seen: their matted hair, their
thick lips and their dark eyes gave them almost the appearance of
negroes. One or two of them had been foraging, and bore sheeps' heads
and hares which they had purchased or "taken" in the village. They
halted as soon as they had passed me, and prepared to go into camp; so
I waited a little to observe them. During the process of arranging the
carts for the night one of the women became enraged at the father of
her brood because he would not aid her in the preparation of the simple
tent under which the family was to repose. The woman ran to him,
clenching her fist and screaming forth