Round About the Carpathians | Page 4

mostly of one
story, standing each one alone, with the gable-end, blank and
windowless, towards the road. This is probably a relic of Orientalism.
Getting up full speed as we approached the town, we clattered noisily
over the crown of the causeway, and suddenly making a sharp turn,
found ourselves in the courtyard of the inn.
I inquired how long we were to remain here; "A small half-hour," was
the driver's answer. This was my first experience of a Wallack's idea of
time, if indeed they have any ideas on the subject beyond the rising and
the setting of the sun.
I strolled about the place, but there was not much to be done in the time,
and I got very tired of waiting: the "half-hour" was anything but
"small;" however, one must be somewhere, and in Hungary waiting
comes a good deal into the day's work. I was rather afraid my Wallack
was indulging too freely in slivovitz--otherwise plum-brandy--a special
weakness of theirs; but after an intolerable delay we got off at last.
Soon after leaving the town we came upon an encampment of gipsies;
their tents looked picturesque enough in the distance, but on nearer
approach the illusion was entirely dispelled. In appearance they were
little better than savages; children even of ten years of age, lean,
mop-headed creatures, were to be seen running about absolutely naked.

As Mark Twain said, "they wore nothing but a smile," but the smile
was a grimace to try to extract coppers from the traveller. Two miles
farther on we came upon fourteen carts of gipsies, as wild a crew as one
could meet all the world over. Some of the men struck me as handsome,
but with a single exception the women were terribly unkempt-looking
creatures.
It was fully six o'clock before we reached Oravicza; the drive of
twenty-five miles had taken eight hours instead of four, as the Wallack
had profanely promised.
We entered the town with a feeble attempt at a trot, but the poor brutes
of horses were dead beat, and neither the pressure of public opinion nor
the suggestive cracking of the driver's whip could arouse them, to
becoming activity.
Oravicza is very prettily situated on rising ground, and the long
winding street, extending more than two miles, turns with the valley.
Crawling along against collar the whole way, I thought the street would
never end. There are very few Magyar inhabitants in this place, which
is pretty equally divided between Germans and Wallacks; the lower
part of the town belongs to the latter, and is known as Roman Oravicza,
in distinction to Deutsch Oravicza. The population is altogether about
seven thousand.
I fancy not many strangers pass this way, for never was a shy
Englishman so stared at as this dust-begrimmed traveller. I became
painfully self-conscious of the generally disreputable appearance of my
cart and horses, the driver and myself, when two remarkably pretty
girls tripped by, casting upon me well-bred but amused glances. All the
womenkind of Oravicza must have turned out at this particular hour,
for I had hardly passed the sisters with the arched eyebrows, when I
came upon another group of young ladies, who were laughing and
talking together. I think they grew merrier as I approached, and I am
quite sure I was hotter than I had been all day. "Confound the fellow!
can't he turn into an innyard--anywhere out of the main street?" thought
I, giving my driver a poke. He knew perfectly well where he was about
to take me, and no significant gestures of mine hastened him forward in

the very least. Presently, without any warning, we did turn into a side
opening, but so suddenly that the whole vehicle had a wrench, and the
two hind wheels jolted over a high kerbstone. Meanwhile the group of
damsels were still in close confab, and I could see took note that the
stranger had descended at the Krone. We were all in a heap in the
courtyard, but we had to extricate ourselves as best we could, for not a
soul was to be seen, though we had made noise enough certainly to
announce our arrival.
I pulled repeatedly at the bell before I could rouse the hausknecht, and
induce him to make an appearance. At length he deigned to emerge
from the recesses of the dirty interior. Having discharged the Wallack
in a satisfied frame of mind (he had the best of the bargain after all), I
was at leisure to follow mine host to inspect the accommodation he had
to offer me. A sanitary commissioner would have condemned it, but
_en voyage comme en voyage_. With some difficulty and delay I
procured water enough to fill the pie-dish that did duty for the washing
apparatus. I had an old