Sometimes we saw little towns or castles on the top of steep hills such as we see in old missals; sometimes we ran by rivers and streams which seemed from the wide stony margin on each side of them to be subject to great floods. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. At the very beginning of the seventeenth century it underwent a siege of three weeks and lost 13,000 people, the casualties of war proper being assisted by famine and disease. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe.

It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. What ought they to be in China. He went, but immediately returned with a letter. What ought they to be in China.

I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind. What ought they to be in China. Being practically on the frontier—for the Borgo Pass leads from it into Bukovina—it has had a very stormy existence, and it certainly shows marks of it. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion. I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga,” and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata.” (Mem., get recipe for this also.) I had to hurry breakfast, for the train started a little before eight, or rather it ought to have done so, for after rushing to the station at 7:30 I had to sit in the carriage for more than an hour before we began to move.

Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then.