mpossible for mother or someone else out
of curiosity to be listening at the keyhole, waiting for Lorand's voice.

All at once Lorand took over the lead in the conversation.

He introduced the question "Which is the most celebrated drinking nation
in the world?"

He himself for his part immediately said he considered the Germans were
the most renowned drinkers.

This assertion naturally met with great national opposition.

They would not surrender the Magyar priority in this respect either.

Two peacefully-inclined spirits interfered, trying to produce a united
feeling by accepting the Englishman, then the Servian as the first in
drinking matters--a proviso which naturally did not satisfy either of
the disputing parties. Lorand, alone against the united opinion of the
whole company, had the audacity to assert that the Germans were the
greatest drinkers in the world. He produced celebrated examples to prove
his theory.

"Listen to me! Once Prince Batthyany sent two barrels of old Goencz wine
to the Brothers of Hybern. But the duty to be paid on good Magyar wine
beyond the Lajta[71] was terrible. The recipients would have had to pay
for the wine twenty gold pieces[72]--a nice sum. So the Brothers, to
avoid paying and to prevent the wine being lost, drank the contents of
the two barrels outside the frontier."

[Footnote 71: A river near Pressburg, the boundary between Austria and
Hungary.]

[Footnote 72: Probably 200 florins.]

Ah, they could produce drinkers three times or four times as great, this
side of the Lajta!

But Lorand would not give in.

"Well, your namesake, Pepo Henneberg," related Lorand, turning to Gyali,
"introduced the custom of drawing a string through the ears of his
guests, who sat down at a long table with him, and compelled them all to
drain their beakers to the dregs, whenever he drank, under penalty of
losing the ends of their ears."

"With us that is impossible, for we have no holes bored in our ears!"
cried one.

"We drink without compulsion!" replied another.

"The Magyar does all a German can do!"

That assertion, loudly shouted, was general.

"Even draining glasses as they did at Wartburg?" cried Lorand.

"What the devil was the custom at Wartburg?"

"The revellers at Wartburg, when they were in high spirits used to load
a pistol, and then to fill the barrel to the brim with wine: then they
cocked the trigger, and drained this curious glass one after another for
friend