I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands.

What ought they to be in China. They are, however, I am told, very harmless and rather wanting in natural self-assertion. On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. 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. It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing.

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. 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.

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 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. 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. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches. 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. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. It was on the dark side of twilight when we got to Bistritz, which is a very interesting old place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.

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. In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in the East and North. Towards morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. What ought they to be in China.