It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear.

Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.

He went, but immediately returned with a letter. 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. The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but they were very clumsy about the waist. He went, but immediately returned with a letter. When I came close she bowed and said, “The Herr Englishman?” “Yes,” I said, “Jonathan Harker.” She smiled, and gave some message to an elderly man in white shirt-sleeves, who had followed her to the door. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions. There was a dog howling all night under my window, which may have had something to do with it; or it may have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. The strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-white trousers, white linen shirts, and enormous heavy leather belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails.

I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. They had all full white sleeves of some kind or other, and most of them had big belts with a lot of strips of something fluttering from them like the dresses in a ballet, but of course there were petticoats under them. Some of them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming through France and Germany, with short jackets and round hats and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the outside edge of a river clear. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion. He went, but immediately returned with a letter. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.) I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams. All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which was full of beauty of every kind.

I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I was evidently expected, for when I got near the door I faced a cheery-looking elderly woman in the usual peasant dress—white undergarment with long double apron, front, and back, of coloured stuff fitting almost too tight for modesty.