Round About the Carpathians | Page 3

were
fortunate in not having been detained anywhere by shallow water, so
often the cause of delay by this route.
Up to the present time Basiash is the terminus of the railway; it is a
depôt for coal brought from the interior, and though not out of its teens,
is a place fast growing into importance.
As my object was to get to Oravicza in the Banat, I had done with the
steamboat, and intended taking the rail to my destination; but, in the
"general cussedness" of things, there turned out to be no train till the
evening. I did not at all enjoy the prospect of knocking about the whole
day amongst coal-sheds and unfinished houses, with the alternative
refuge of the inn, which was swarming with flies and redolent of many
evil smells; so I thought I would find some conveyance and drive over,
for the distance was not great. If there is anything I hate, it is waiting
the livelong day for a railway train.
There chanced to be an intelligent native close by who divined my
thoughts, for I had certainly not uttered them; he came up, touched me
on the arm, and pointed round the corner. Notwithstanding the intense
heat of the day, the Wallack, for such he was, wore an enormous
sheepskin cloak with the wool outside, as though ready for an Arctic
winter. I followed him a few steps to see what he wanted me to look at;
the movement was quite enough, he regarded it evidently in the light of
ready assent, and in the twinkling of an eye he possessed himself of my

portmanteau and other belongings, motioned me to follow him, which I
did, and then found that my Heaven-sent friend had a machine for hire.
I call it a machine, because it was not like anything on wheels I had
seen before: later on I became familiar enough with the carts of the
country; they are long-bodied, rough constructions, wonderfully
adapted to the uneven roads. In this case there were four horses abreast,
which sounds imposing, as any four-in-hand must always do.
I now asked the Wallack in German if he could drive me to Oravicza,
for I saw he had made up his mind to drive me somewhere. To my
relief I found he could speak German, at all events a few words. He
replied he could drive the "high and nobly born Excellency" there in
four hours. The time was one thing, but the charge was quite another
affair. His demand was so outrageous that I supposed it was an implied
compliment to my exalted rank: certainly it had no adequate reference
to the services offered. The fellow asked enough to buy the whole
concern outright--cart and four horses! They were the smallest horses I
almost ever saw, and were further reduced by the nearest shave of
being absolute skeletons; the narrow line between sustaining life and
actual starvation must have been nicely calculated.
We now entered upon the bargaining phase, a process which threatened
to last some time; all the stragglers in the place assisted at the
conference, taking a patriotic interest in their own countryman. The
matter was finally adjusted by the Wallack agreeing to take a sixth part
of the original sum.
Seated on a bundle of hay, with my things around me, I was now quite
ready for the start, but the driver had a great many last words with the
public, which the interest in our proceedings had gathered about us.
Presently with an air of triumph he took his seat, gave a loud crack or
two with his whip, and off we started at a good swinging trot, just to
show what his team could accomplish.
We took the road to Weisskirchen, leaving the Danube in the rear. The
country was fairly pretty, but nothing remarkable; fine scenery under
the circumstances would have been quite superfluous, for the dust was

two feet deep in the road, and the heels of four horses scampering along
raised such a cloud of it that we could see next to nothing.
We had not proceeded far when the speed sensibly relaxed; I fancy the
horses went slower that they might listen to what the driver had to say,
he talked to them the whole time. He was not communicative to me; his
knowledge of German seemed limited to the bargaining process, a
lesson often repeated, I suspect. As time wore on the heat became
almost tropical; as for the dust, I felt as if I had swallowed a sandbank,
and was joyful at the near prospect of quenching my thirst at
Weisskirchen, now visible in the distance.
Hungarian towns look like overgrown villages that have never made up
their minds seriously to become towns. The houses are