Dracula

the latter, who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns.

This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the country

in the eleventh century they found the Huns settled in it. 1^

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 interest-

ing. (Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)

I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable enough,

for I had all sorts of queer dreams. 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. Towards morning

I slept and was wakened by the continuous knocking at my door,

so I guess I must have been sleeping soundly then. 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.

It seems to me that the further east you go the more unpunctual

are the trains. What ought they to be in China?

All day long we seemed to dawdle through a country which

was full of beauty of every kind. Sometimes we saw little towns

or castl^ 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. It takes a lot of water, and running strong, to sweep the

outside edge of a river clear. At every station there were groups

of people, sometimes crowds, and in all sorts of attire. Some oi

Jonathan Harker’s Journal 3

them were just like the peasants at home or those I saw coming

through France and Germany, with short jackets and round hats

and home-made trousers; but others were very picturesque.

The women looked pretty, except when you got near them, but

they were very clumsy about the waist. 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. 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. They wore high boots, with their trousers tucked

into them, and had long black hair and heavy black moustaches.

They are very picturesque, but do not look prepossessing. On

the stage they would be set down at once as some old Oriental

band of brigands. They are, however, I am told, very harmless

and rather wanting in natural self-assertion.