Round About the Carpathians | Page 5

groups gathered here and there, sauntering under the greenery, gay with lanterns; and many a blue-eyed maiden was there, with looks coquettish yet demure, as German maidens are wont to appear.
A concert was going on, and I for the first time heard a gipsy band. Music is an instinct with these Hungarian gipsies. They play by ear, and with a marvellous precision, not surpassed by musicians who have been subject to the most careful training. Their principal instruments are the violin, the violoncello, and a sort of zither. The airs they play are most frequently compositions of their own, and are in character quite peculiar, though favourite pieces from Wagner and other composers are also given by them with great effect. I heard on this occasion one of the gipsy airs which made an indelible impression on my mind; it seemed to me the thrilling utterance of a people's history. There was the low wail of sorrow, of troubled passionate grief, stirring the heart to restlessness, then the sense of turmoil and defeat; but upon this breaks suddenly a wild burst of exultation, of rapturous joy--a triumph achieved, which hurries you along with it in resistless sympathy. The excitable Hungarians can literally become intoxicated with this music--and no wonder. You cannot reason upon it, or explain it, but its strains compel you to sensations of despair and joy, of exultation and excitement, as though under the influence of some potent charm.
I strolled leisurely back to the inn, beneath the starlit heavens. The outline of the mountains was clearly marked in the distance, and in the foreground quaint gable-ends mixed themselves up with the shadows and the trees--a pretty picture, prettier than anything one can see by the light of "common day."
The following morning I set about making inquiries respecting the mines which I knew existed in the neighbourhood of Oravicza. I found that an English gentleman owned a gold mine in the immediate vicinity, and that he was then living in the town. This induced me to go off at once to call upon him, and I was immediately received in a very friendly manner. This accidental meeting was rather curious, for on comparing notes we found that we had been schoolfellows together at Westminster. H---- being my senior, we had not known each other well; but meeting here in the wilds, we were as old familiar friends. H---- kindly insisted on my leaving the inn and taking up my quarters with him in his bachelor residence, which was in fact big enough to accommodate a whole form of Westminster boys. I was not at all sorry to avoid a second night at the Krone, and gladly fell into my friend's hospitable arrangements.
I was in great luck altogether, for that very evening a dance was to come off at Oravicza, and my friend invited me to accompany him. Dancing is one of the sins I compound for; moreover, I had a lively recollection of the bright eyes I had encountered yesterday.
Oravicza is a central place, in a way the chief town of the Banat. It has a pleasant little society, composed of the families of the officials, and of the military stationed there; they are mostly German by origin. Amongst the belles of the evening I soon discovered my merry critics of yesterday. I was duly presented, and we laughed together over my "first appearance." It was one of the pleasantest evenings I ever remember. I hate long invitations to anything agreeable; this party, for instance, had the charm of unexpectedness. If unfortunately I should prove not quite good enough to go to heaven, I think it would be very pleasant to stop at Oravicza--supposing, of course, that my friends all stopped there as well.
Here I first danced the czardas; it is an epoch in a man's life, but you must see it, feel it, dance it, and, above all, hear the gipsy music that inspires it. This is the national dance of the Hungarians, favoured by prince and peasant alike. The figures are very varied, and represent the progress of a courtship where the lady is coy, and now retreats and now advances; her partner manifests his despair, she yields her hand, and then the couple whirl off together to the most entrancing tones of wild music, such as St. Anthony himself could not have resisted.
[Footnote 1: The Danube at Buda-Pest. Report addressed to Count Andrassy by J.J. Révy, C.E. 1876.]
CHAPTER II.
Consequences of trying to buy a horse--An expedition into Servia--Fine scenery--The peasants of New Moldova--Szechenyi road--Geology of the defile of Kasan--Crossing the Danube--Milanovacz-Drive to Maidenpek--Fearful storm in the mountains--Miserable quarters for the night--Extent of this storm--The disastrous effects of the same storm at Buda-Pest--Great loss of life.
My friend H---- is the very impersonation of sound practical sense. The