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
next morning he coolly broke in upon my raptures over the beauty of the
Oravicza ladies by saying, "You want to buy a horse, don't you?"

Of course I did, but my thoughts were elsewhere at the moment, and with