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. 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.

On the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental band of brigands. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. 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. Fifty years ago a series of great fires took place, which made terrible havoc on five separate occasions.

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. This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. I am going among the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina. 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. 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. 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. At every station there were groups of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire.