Chapter V

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.

♦ 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.