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