Pastoral scene--Echoes--Picture of laziness--Rapids of the
Danube--Miller and his men--Pedestrian excursion--Wallachian
shepherdesses--Dancing boors--Priest of the parish--The governor--
George Dewar--Contest between the priest and the poet--Supper--
Musical treat--The Moldavian--Sketch of the inn room--Hospitable
invitation--Triple-bedded room--Latin harangue.
♦ PASTORAL SCENE ♦
Still falling down with the stream, as our rowers had not yet finished
their matin meal, we stole quietly along amid tremendous piles of rock,
which rose higher and higher as we proceeded, sometimes barren of the
slightest traces of vegetation, sometimes covered with brambles the
whole appearing as if they had been made the sport of more than one
volcanic convulsion. A grassy glen opening on our right, exhibiting a
clustre of elms, beneath which a Servian boy was tending his swine, and
amusing himself by playing a simple pastoral air on a reed, offered an
agreeable contrast to the frowning horrors around us. The eye ranged
beyond the glen over a richly-wooded valley, opening far among the
rocks, where a group of women seemed engaged in cooking by a fire, whose
smoke curled upwards among the trees.
The pipe of the swineherd seemed to awaken the musical faculties of
our boatmen, one of whom, a short thickbodied Wallachian, wearing on
his head a woolly sheepskin cap, might have been sketched as the very
personification of indolence. His oar was as short as himself, and
when he did permit it to come in contact with the water, his whole
object seemed to be to move it against the least possible quantum of
resistance. When he sated his appetite for garlic and fish, and washed
down those materials by a draught of some thin wine, which he drank from
a small wooden keg, instead of resuming his appointed labour he began to
sing a Wallachian ballad, of which, the following notes may, perhaps,
afford the musical reader some faint idea.
[Illustration: A musical score.]
♦ ECHOES ♦
It was a wild and melancholy strain, sung with a strong nasal accent;
and in the intervals between the verses, one of our Wallachians, a
lathy, hardy, bareheaded youth, who seemed to have been just brought in
from the woods, set up a shrill abrupt shout, which, from the effect of
the echo, seemed in a little while after to be answered by some voice
far away over the mountains.
When the process of eating had no longer any charms, and the
attractions, even of song, ceased to captivate our boatmen, they
deliberately went to sleep. As the morning was thus wearing fast away,
while we made little progress, the poet and I took the oars, and rowed
until he could hold out no longer. The narrow rocky gorge, through
which we had been stealing our course for upwards of two hours, at
length gradually opened into a wider channel, hemmed in by irregular
hills, thickly wooded with brambles. As the boat was still wandering
down the current, our fellows all fast asleep, it landed somewhat
roughly on a bed of rocks in the middle of the river. The patron awoke
from his dreams in a violent rage, the fire glancing from his diminutive
eyeball, as if we were all about to be lost in an inch or two of water!
♦ PICTURE OF LAZINESS ♦
The boatmen, when they were roused from slumber, seemed scarcely to
know where they were, or what they were to do: oars and poles were
in immediate requisition, and amid shouts of imprecations, commands,
interrogations, replies, rejoinders, and expressions of indignation
and wonder, how such a thing could happen, they endeavoured in vain to
move the vessel from its place of rest. At length the patron compelled
them to get out upon the rocks and shift the boat along, which they did
without much difficulty, restoring us once more to the deeper current.
The completion of this operation was the signal for another hour of
recreation, which our Wallachians devoted to smoking, keeping the while
under their legs the oars high out of the water. I never beheld such a
picture of laziness as that which these men presented. Our patron seemed
to have the faculty of guiding the boat, though wrapped in profound
sleep; and his companions, when they were not eating or drinking, were
either sleeping, smoking, singing, or lounging, any thing save working,
which they continued as much as they possibly could, to avoid.
♦ RAPIDS OF THE DANUBE ♦
So abrupt and frequent were the windings of the Danube, amid the
beauteous hills which form its banks below the narrow gorge of rocks
above described, that often, on looking back, we saw no trace of the
direction by which we had come; nor, on looking before us, could we
discern by what course we were to proceed. We seemed to be shut in on
all sides, as within a mountain lake, from which there was no apparent
egress, until, by turning a little cape, we found ourselves in another
and another lake, in succession. We left this charming scenery behind
us, on approaching the rapids of the Danube, where its bed is wholly
composed of rough rocks, sometimes starting up in masses nearly to the
surface of the river, sometimes forming a wall, running across from
bank to bank, and producing a perceptible fall in the current. We
were warned of the danger to be encountered on passing these rapids,
by the hoarse murmur of the waters which we had heard at a distance.
The obstacles which the river met in its course produced considerable
undulations on its surface, amounting now and then to waves, on which
our bark was hurried away, notwithstanding all the efforts of our
rowers, and dashed against the rocks. Had our boat not been a very
strong one, or had the impulse been somewhat stronger, we should
probably have been wrecked among these rapids, owing chiefly to the
unskilfulness of our people, as well as the ludicrous state of alarm in
which their ignorance involved them.
♦ RAPIDS OF THE DANUBE ♦
♦ MILLER AND HIS MEN ♦
The banks again assumed a wild rocky character, and approached so near
each other, that, when the river is full, the volume of waters which
rush through that space must be terrific. As it was, we were constantly
rubbing on the bottom, and might have walked almost dry-footed on
ledges which extended quite across the stream. The boat was literally
carried over these ledges, as there was not water enough to float it.
Our patron repeatedly told us that he, though seventy-three years old,
had never known the Danube so low as it was upon that occasion. In the
almost perpendicular wall which rose on our right, there was a singular
_lusus naturæ_ on a gigantic scale--it was the complete figure of a
water-mill and mill-house petrified, and slightly crushed by an enormous
rock which had fallen upon it from the higher precipices. The face of
the superincumbent mass presented the figure of a monk preaching from
a pulpit; and it only required the existence of a legend, to induce a
superstitious mind to believe, that the “miller and his men” had been
notorious criminals--that the monk had come to reprove them--and that,
while he was still vainly exhorting them to repentance, the whole living
scene was suddenly transformed into stone.
The whole of this narrow passage amongst the rocks was curious, and
highly romantic. A little beyond the petrified mill, on the opposite
side, we beheld a perfect outline of an immense lion, couching; the
head, the eyes, the mouth, and the paws, were as correctly delineated
on the naked stone, as if they had been drawn by the hand of an artist.
A cluster of rocks, somewhat further on, assumed all the appearance of
the ruins of a cathedral, with its towers and ivied walls, and Gothic
windows and gates. The effect of this pile was remarkably picturesque,
as it rose on an eminence above a mass of green foliage, which seemed to
conceal the lower parts of the cathedral.
♦ PEDESTRIAN EXCURSION ♦
The day was now far advanced, and as we lost all hope of reaching Orsova
that evening, and the further navigation of the rapids became tedious
and disagreeable, I proposed that we should put into what is here
generally considered the Wallachian shore; though, on the maps, it is
all Hungarian as far as Orsova. The inhabitants differ in no respect
from those of Wallachia; they speak the Wallachian language, wear the
Wallachian costume, and, though under the dominion of Austria, look upon
the people of the neighbouring province as of their own kindred. The
Jew and the poet readily complied with my suggestion, and the country
becoming quite level as soon as we emerged from the last rocky gorge, we
directed our helmsman to steer for the left bank, where we landed, with
a view of walking on to the village of Swinich, at a distance of about
ten miles, where we were to stop for the night.
♦ WALLACHIAN SHEPHERDESSES ♦
As we proceeded on our pedestrian journey, we met occasionally
Wallachian shepherdesses, driving before them goats and sheep. They
had uniformly distaffs in their hands, from which they actively
spun the wool round the spindle as they walked along. They were all
barefooted; and, over a canvass petticoat and chemise, usually wore a
stripe of plaid in front and another at the back, with long worsted
tassels hanging beneath. The hair was carefully braided round the
head, and sometimes fell in long plats on the shoulders. Those of the
shepherdesses who were mothers, carried their infants in small cradles
made of hoops, which were suspended by a cord round the neck. When the
baby was to be nursed, the cradle was borne in front; when the little
innocent was asleep, the cot was placed at the mother’s back, who then
resumed her distaff and spindle.
I was amused by the vigilance with which the shepherdesses, who were
generally fine strong-looking young women, with a bland expression of
countenance, avoided touching even with the hem of their garments any
of our party. Seeing the Jew in the Servian turban and pelisse, they
assumed that we had unlawfully crossed the river from the opposite
shore, and that they would catch the plague if by any misfortune they
had come in contact with us.
♦ DANCING BOORS ♦
Whenever we approached them, therefore, on the narrow paths, they
scampered off into the adjacent fields until we passed, as if we had
been objects of terror. I once unwittingly lifted up the coverlet of a
little crib, which I found on the ground, to peep at the cherub that was
nestled beneath it, when the mother ran up breathless, and hurried away
with her burden, as if she imagined that I had intended to make a victim
of her offspring.
In the midst of this pastoral scene the sounds of a violin reached our
ears, accompanied by shouts of people dancing. On reaching a clump of
trees we found a rude hut, occupied by a number of the labourers who
were engaged in the works going on upon that bank of the Danube. A large
fire was blazing before the hut at which some of the men were engaged
in roasting kid and frying fish, and stewing vegetables, while others
were dancing to the notes of a fiddle, played by a savage-looking fellow
who was elevated on a chair. They seemed to have abundance of wine, and
they invited us to partake of their fare as well as of their amusement,
with a rough hospitality. The Jew, however, as well as the poet, urged
me with certain shrugs and looks to hasten on; as much as to say, that
our new acquaintances were no better than they should be. I must say,
that when we walked off, some of them did gaze after us with a peculiar
expression of countenance, indicating something like regret that they
had not inquired into the state of our finances.
♦ PARISH PRIEST ♦
Having walked above three hours, we arrived about seven o’clock in the
evening at Swinich, a wretched-looking village, composed of a dozen
or two of huts built in the most primitive style. A flight of ruinous
stone steps led to, what I must call for want of a more appropriate
name, the _auberge_ of the village, where I found several motley groups
of people assembled. In the principal apartment were two large beds, a
few rush-bottomed chairs and wooden stools, a stone stove, and a table
placed near the wall, over which were suspended wax images and little
gaudy daubs of the virgin, the crucifixion, and some of the saints. The
governor of the village, dressed in his blue uniform, was seated at one
end of the table drinking wine, which from its colour as well as its
taste, I should have called cider.
♦ THE GOVERNOR ♦
The Greek priest of the parish, Gregory Georgovitch by name, was
stationed at the other end drinking from a small bottle, without the
interposition of a glass, a weak, pale spirit, called in that country
sleigovitch. The former was a short decent-looking kind of a person,
a picture of good nature, degenerating almost into simplicity, with a
spice of vanity not altogether unbecoming in the “great man” of the
village. The priest had the advantage of the governor in stature,
rivalled him in good humour, and seemed excessively anxious to show
himself greatly superior to his companion, in intelligence. For the
usual sacerdotal hat he substituted a small cloth cap, his beard was of
the ordinary dignified dimensions, and his dress consisted of a large
white figured waistcoat, loose nankeen trousers, over which his boots
were drawn, and a short mantle. His shirt collar was open, _à la Byron_.
The remainder of the company in this “double-bedded” room consisted
of the overseer of the works going on upon the Danube, the captain of
the patrol which formed the police of the country, an officer of the
quarantine, an officer of the customs, a nondescript with silly face,
a little girl and two or three urchins with whom she was playing. The
priest seemed to have all the talk to himself. No subject was started
in which he did not take the lead, and with which sooner or later he
did not contrive to mix up a quotation in bad Latin from a favourite
theological author, probably the only author in that way with whose
works he had ever made himself acquainted. He spoke fluently, with an
air of self-complacency, but at the same time in a tone of kindness and
hilarity quite patriarchal. Nothing in this world seemed to afford the
governor so much delight as either to put down the priest in argument,
or to witness that operation executed by another; all, however, for
the sake of amusement. He would sometimes in the course of an attack
upon the clergyman’s positions work himself up into a simulated passion
until the latter was provoked into a real one; and then, to the great
entertainment of his _official_ friends, he would suddenly resume
his goodhumoured smile, disconcerting all the angry eloquence of his
antagonist.
♦ GEORGE DEWAR ♦
I was initiated in the characters and habits of these “village
politicians” by an Englishman named George Dewar, who had made his
appearance in the room after I entered it: he had been already apprized
at the other extremity of Swinich that a countryman of his had arrived
at the auberge, and it was so long, he said, since he had heard his own
language spoken, that he came instantly to see me. Dewar was a very
intelligent though humble adventurer in the engineering line, who had
managed the diving-bell which was employed in recovering the treasure
sunk near the Mexican coast, in consequence of the wreck of the Thetis a
few years ago. He had performed his duties so much to the satisfaction
of his employers on that occasion, that he was strongly recommended to
the Count Szechenyi Istvan, when that nobleman was in London, as a very
useful assistant, as well for superintending the construction of roads,
as for working the diving-bell in making excavations which were intended
to be executed in the rocky parts of the bed of the Danube, with a view
to remove the obstacles that at present interrupt its entire navigation
by steam-boats. Dewar was delighted to see me--the sounds of my “How do
you do?” filled his eyes with tears, it appearing that I was the first
Englishman whom he had met so far down the Danube, where he had been
employed for nearly a twelvemonth.
♦ THE PRIEST AND POET ♦
The poet now joined the circle, and having ordered his bottle of wine,
made himself as much at home amongst his new acquaintances as if he had
known them a hundred years. He treated the company to a history of his
travels, which he extended on this occasion to Grand Cairo. His audience
seemed at a loss to know where Grand Cairo was, until the priest
enlightened them by declaring that it was in Asia. “In Asia!” exclaimed
the Moldavian, with indescribable disdain; “no such thing; Grand Cairo
is in Africa.” The governor was in raptures at this decided triumph
over the clergyman, who, in order to restore his character, inveigled
the poet into a theological controversy. But to my surprise, and to the
great chagrin of the priest, and the boundless joy of the governor, the
Moldavian proved himself quite as well read in theology as he was in
geography: he repeatedly convicted the priest of entire ignorance of the
works with which he had pretended to be most familiar, and so merciless
was he in following up his conquest, by challenging the divine on the
more abstruse points of doctrine, that the latter literally felt obliged
to decamp from the field. The governor shouted with excessive mirth, and
ordered another bottle, which he compelled the poet to drink in addition
to his own.
♦ SUPPER ♦
While this entertainment was going on, there came into the room a pretty
young woman, who seemed to be well known to all the party present. The
nondescript above mentioned turned out to be her husband, and Dewar
being her lodger, she had come to announce to them that their supper was
ready. Both appeared unwilling to go: it having been, however, conceded
on her part that they might return after supper, if they liked, the
three took their departure; but not before the governor exacted from the
lady a promise that she also would make her appearance again, and bring
with her her guitar. In the mean time I profited of the suggestion which
the idea of supper prompted to my mind, and laid waste a dish of stewed
chicken. The wine being, to me, at least undrinkable, I was obliged to
have recourse to sleigovitch and water.
In less than half an hour the lady, the guitar, and her friends
joined our circle, followed by the priest, who, notwithstanding his
discomfiture, could not prevail on himself to stay away, and by two or
three very fine young men, whom I had not seen before. The instrument
having been tuned, our poet asked permission to look at it, and swept
his mutilated fingers over the strings with the skill of a professor.
The priest looked amazed. After preluding in a singularly graceful
manner, which captivated the Swinicheans, the tatterdemalion, clearing
his voice with a fresh bottle of wine, which was voted to him by common
accord, treated us to “Di tanti palpiti,” not only with great taste, but
in one of the best tenor voices I ever heard. The priest exclaimed that
he knew not what to think of this fellow, unless he was the devil, for
that not only were his talents and knowledge universal, but of a degree
of excellence in every thing that left him without a rival.
♦ MUSICAL TREAT ♦
The lady was quite ashamed to touch the guitar after the poet;
nevertheless she was induced to favour the company with two or three
Wallachian songs, which, after the splendid performances we had just
heard, lost all the effect they might otherwise have produced. One of
the young men, jealous of the musical character of Swinich, next took up
the guitar, but after vexing the chords with a long series of humdrum
tinklings, which he would fain persuade us were Servian melodies, he was
reluctantly compelled, by the unanimous voice of the company, to resign
the instrument to our Mephistopheles, who showed himself, still more
even than before, a perfect master of the art, and that too of the very
best school. Italian, German, Hungarian, and Moldavian airs followed
each other in rapid succession, and in the most admirable style. The
fair owner of the guitar remarked, with a charming simplicity, that she
really did not know her own instrument in the hands of this enchanter.
♦ THE MOLDAVIAN ♦
By this time our apartment was crowded. The door had been thrown open,
and was besieged by a numerous group of savage-looking figures, wrapped
in their cloaks and large hats, who stood staring in upon our musician,
as if they fully participated in the priest’s opinion of his unearthly
character. And in truth, when I looked at this Moldavian--remembered
how he had amused his companions on the deck of the steamer by his
anecdotes, his poetry, and his dramatic declamations; the variety of
information which he afforded to myself during the course of the day;
his undoubted acquaintance with many countries, though he sometimes
indulged in exaggeration on that subject; the wandering life he had led;
the offices, sometimes of trust, and responsibility, and peril, which
he had fulfilled; his various acquirements in science, history, and the
fine arts; and, to crown all, his musical powers, which were of the
very first order; and his ragged, unshaven, filthy appearance--I could
not help feeling that there was a mystery about him, such as perhaps
in a former age might have procured for him the dangerous honours of a
magician.
♦ OUR ROOM ♦
The scene to which I had been thus suddenly transferred from our
fishing-boat, was altogether so strange and picturesque, that I much
regretted my inability to preserve it in the form of a sketch. It would
have been a congenial study for Wilkie.--The loosely-boarded floor over
our heads, with its rude joists; the ladder for ascending to it in the
corner, on which four or five chubby wondering urchins were perched;
the whitewashed walls; the two immense beds; the waxen images, and
the daubs of sacred subjects; the cherry-tree square table, the lamp
burning upon it amidst numerous bottles and glasses; the goodhumoured,
half-simpleton governor; the pompous captain; the shrimp who ruled the
quarantine; the toad of the custom-house, who, whenever the governor
laughed, always laughed still louder; the patriarchal-looking priest;
the gentle proprietress of the guitar, her English lodger, and her
unmeaning husband, who looked upon her as the paragon of perfection; the
three stars of Swinich, as those young men were called, because they
knew Latin; and then our Moldavian sorcerer, who, while he held the
guitar, presented in his own person so inexplicable a combination of
intellectual affluence with the most sordid external poverty; together
with the bandit-looking group locking in at the door--furnished a
picture of rustic life on the Danube, to which the pencil of Wilkie
alone could have done justice.
♦ HOSPITABLE INVITATION ♦
I had engaged one of the two beds for the night, but as Dewar’s landlady
was the “lady patroness” of the village, and I for the moment a person
of no small distinction, an Englishman being looked upon as a kind of
god throughout all that country, she would not hear of my remaining
at the inn: she had in fact already prepared her own bed for me, as
Dewar laughingly said, and as a point of honour I could not refuse her
hospitality. As soon as our circle broke up, therefore, I proceeded with
my hostess and her husband, my countryman, and one of the three “stars,”
who happened to be her nephew, to her mansion. Ascending a large wooden
portico by a ladder, we all entered the bedchamber together, without any
ceremony: it was in fact the only room in the house, and served equally
as kitchen, dining-room, drawing-room, lumber-room, and dormitory. It
had the invaluable recommendation of cleanliness, notwithstanding the
variety of uses to which it was convertible; and the bed, moreover, to
which I was most graciously conducted, exhibited a variegated quilt, the
work of the lady’s own hands, and a pair of sheets fragrant as thyme,
and white as the falling snow.
♦ TRIPLE-BEDDED ROOM ♦
As the night was cold I spread my cloak on the bed, but my hostess,
after seeking an explanation from Dewar of this precaution on my part,
which she felt as a kind of reflection on her household propriety, went
to a handsome wardrobe, which stood at one end of the room, from whose
ample stores she drew forth a new blanket, the produce, also, of her
own industry, and substituted it for my cloak, which she folded up and
put by on a chair. In addition to the bed assigned to me there were
two others in the apartment, one large enough to accommodate at least
half-a-dozen men, and a small temporary pallet, which the presiding
genius of the place had arranged on chairs for her own use.
♦ LATIN HARANGUE ♦
I was very well inclined to form a more intimate acquaintance with my
neat nocturnal repository, the more especially as I had not enjoyed such
a luxury for a whole week; but unfortunately my landlady’s learned
nephew conceived, that it was his duty to entertain me with a long
harangue in Latin upon the various branches of knowledge of which he
was master, interspersing the more abstruse parts of his oration with
Hungarian songs, accompanied by himself on the guitar. I of course
listened to his address with all the gravity I could command, until
taking advantage of a momentary absence of our hostess, I slipped
quietly into bed. My friend had by that time arrived at the botanical
department of his lecture, which completely closed the curtains of my
memory for the night.