FÊTE OF ST. STEPHEN.

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but he protested so strongly against the insinuation, and desired me so cordially to throw him out of the window if ever such an event should happen, that I was fain to believe him. Alas! poor Stephan, I fear it was thy besetting sin.

Grinning a grim smile as he saw us rather struck by his reflections on the various fortunes of the rich and poor, and perceiving that he had caught our attention, Stephan turned the conversation to a subject of more immediate interest, and told us that we must positively remain at Trentsin for the morrow; it was the fête of St. Stephen, the patron saint of Hungary, and the peasants would come in from all the country round; there would be a great procession to the church, and every one as gay as possible. Warning the old fellow to keep himself sober in the early part of the day,--I never like to interfere with any one's scruples of conscience, and as I once had an Irishman in my service I know how conscientiously a man may get drunk on his patron saint's day, — I agreed to stay and leave Stephan to have as glorious a night as he chose.

The next morning the firing of the guns and the ringing of the bells warned us that the festival had commenced, and roused us up just in time to see the long procession of priests and choristers chanting their hymns, preceded by those emblems of ecclesiastical pomp, the floating banner, the robed attendants, and the rich ornaments of gold and silver which the church of Rome so well knows

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COSTUMES OF THE PEASANTS.

how to employ, entering the large church, followed by a train of town's people and peasants, of whom three-fourths at least were women.

During the whole morning, groups of peasants, in an endless variety of costume, nearly filled the little town. We were surprised to hear that almost every village in this mountainous country has its peculiar costume, and should by chance a girl of one village marry and live in another, she still keeps the dress of her native place. The most striking costumes among the women, were those chiefly composed of white linen, with white worsted boots on the feet: I call these latter articles of dress, boots, rather than stockings; for having persuaded one of them to take them off, we found them soled with leather, and so thick that they stood upright like leather boots. Occasionally the white skirt is relieved by a red or blue bodice. They all wear a little white cap at the back of the head, but the unmarried girls are distinguished from the matrons by a small red roll which just peeps out below the white of their caps.

Stephan persuaded two very modest and goodtempered girls to come and stand to us for a sketch. They were evidently quite as much satisfied with the attention their appearance excited as the vainest of their sex in Paris or London.

The men have less variety in their costume. It usually consists of thick, white cloth pantaloons, often embroidered with black worsted lace;

а

COSTUMES OF THE PEASANTS.

81

short woollen boots of the same colour, and ornamented in the same manner, slit at the sides and slouching; with a dark short coat or cloak with sleeves, but worn, at least in summer, like the Spanish cloak, and embroidered with red or light

green lace.

As we are now fairly in the land of the Sclavacks, and are likely to continue among them some time longer, it may be as well to let the reader more fully into the light as to who and what these Sclavacks are before we proceed any further.

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SCLAVACKS.

CHAPTER IV.

VALLEY OF THE WAAG.

The Sclavacks : their History, Character, Habits, and Appearance.

Monastery of Skalka. — Philosophy of Drunkenness. — Imaginary Dangers. — Castle of Trentsin. — The Legend of the Lovers' Well. — Travelling Expenses in Hungary. — Trentsin Bath. — Hungarian Tinkers. — Castle Architecture. – VaghBesztercze.-Ennobled Jews. Traveller's Troubles.—Lipsky's Map. — Szulyon. — Hrisco. — Szolna. – Teplitz. — Sophia

·

. Bosnyák. - Catholic Priests: their Hospitality.

The Sclavacks * are a branch of that great Sclavish family, which seems, at one period, to have occupied

* It is very desirable that the reader should distinguish carefully between the names Sclave, Sclavack, and Sclavonian. The name Sclave is given to a whole family, of which the Sclavacks and Sclavonians are only two insignificant members The first of these

the Sclavacks - occupy a portion of the west and north of Hungary, not distinguished by any particular name; the second, the Sclavonians,—occupy a district between the Danube and Save, formerly an independent country, and, although now a part of Hungary, still retaining the name of Sclavonia. I trust the

map

will enable the reader to understand this subject more perfectly ; it is one of particular interest, because Russia, by exerting the influence which similarity of language, and, in some parts, similarity of religion, also, gives her over these populations, has hitherto frightened Austria into doing almost anything she likes. One of the favourite dreams of Russian ambition is the re-union of the great Sclavish family into one nation under the crown of Russia.

nearly the whole east of Europe, from the Baltic and Adriatic to the banks of the Wolga. There can be little doubt that the greater part of Hungary was peopled by them, till the fierce Magyars drove them from the fertile plains to the barren mountains, which they still hold. The chief part of that mountainous district between the Danube, the Theiss, and the most northern range of the Carpathians, is peopled by Sclavacks, who still retain their original language (a dialect of the Sclavish, though differing both from the Bohemian and Polish), their national customs and characteristic appearance. Other portions of the same race occupy, in the south of Hungary, the countries now called Croatia and Sclavonia, and extend south, nearly to the ruins of Athens itself. In Hungary, they seem to have experienced the same fate as the British in our own country, where the bleak mountains of Wales, the Highlands of Scotland, and the west-coast of Ireland have preserved the pure blood of Britain's earliest lords; while Saxon churls, and Norman soldiers appropriated her fairest fields to their own use. Other Sclaves are found among the motley population of Hungary, but of a later origin; for instance, the Rusniacks, in the north-east of Hungary, are probably the descendants of a band of Russians who accompanied the Magyars in their first incursions; and the Serben, and others known under the name of Raatzen, are settlers of a much later date from Servia, Bosnia, and the neighbouring