pray aloud at unseemly length, and one of them, at least, keeps it up
in his sleep at frequent intervals through the night; horses and work-cattle
are rattling chains and munching hay, and an uneasy goat, with a bell
around his neck, fills the stable with an incessant tinkle till dawn.
Black bread and a cheap but very good quality of white wine seem about
the only refreshment obtainable at these little villages. One asks in
vain for milch-brod, butter, kdsc, or in fact anything acceptable to the
English palate; the answer to all questions concerning these things is
"nicht, nicht, nicht." - "What have you, then?" I sometimes ask, the
answer to which is almost invariably "brod und wein." Stone-yards thronged
with busy workmen, chipping stone for shipment to cities along the Danube,
are a feature of these river-side villages. The farther one travels the
more frequently gypsies are encountered on the road. In almost every
band is a maiden, who, by reason of real or imaginary beauty, occupies
the position of pet of the camp, wears a profusion of beads and trinkets,
decorates herself with wild flowers, and is permitted to do no manner
of drudgery. Some of these gypsy maidens are really quite beautiful in
spite of their very dark complexions. Their eyes glisten with inborn
avarice as I sweep past on my "silver" bicycle, and in their astonishment
at my strange appearance and my evidently enormous wealth they almost
forget their plaintive wail of "kreuzer! kreuzer!" a cry which readily
bespeaks their origin, and is easily recognized as an echo from the land
where the cry of "backsheesh" is seldom out of the traveller's hearing.

The roads east of Nezmely are variable, flint-strewn ways predominating;
otherwise the way would be very agreeable, since the gradients are gentle,
and the dust not over two inches deep, as against three in most of Austro-
Hungary thus far traversed. The weather is broiling hot; but I worry
along perseveringly, through rough and smooth, toward the land of the
rising sun. Nearing Budapest the roads become somewhat smoother, but at