drive his swine to market. From Debreczin, nay even from the Serbian
frontier, he has to make a journey on foot more toilsome than was ever
undertaken by the most adventurous traveler, pacing slowly over the
interminable heaths in rain, storm, or under a burning sun, behind
his pigs, which drive into his face hot clouds of dust. Every now and
then a hog has stuffed itself so full as to be unable to stir from the
spot; and there it lies on the road without moving, whilst the whole
caravan is obliged to wait for half a day or longer, until the glutted
animal can get on his legs again; and when at length this feat is
accomplished, frequently his neighbor begins the same trick. There
is truly not a more toilsome business in the wide world than that of
a Kanasz.... The fokos is a hatchet, with a long handle, which the
Kanasz hurls with great dexterity. Whenever he desires to pick out
and slaughter one of his hogs, either for his own use or for sale,
the attempt would be attended with danger, in the half-savage state
of these animals, without such a weapon. The fokos here assists him;
which he flings with such force and precision, that the sharp iron
strikes exactly into the center of the frontal bone of the animal
he has marked out; the victim sinks on the earth without uttering a
sound, and the drove quietly proceeds on its way. That he can strike
down a man with equal precision at eighty to a hundred paces, is
proved by the gallows at the entrance of the forest--the three-legged
monument of his dexterity. During recent events, too, the surgeons
of the Austrian army will readily furnish the Kanasz and Csikos with
certificates of their ability and skill."

* * * * *


THE "WILD HUSSAR" OF HUNGARY.