ka_; I think it has no counterpart in female fashions
elsewhere. When the under-garment is white and fresh the effect is very
good; but in the case of the very poor, if there are but scanty rags
beneath, then, to speak mildly, the fringe is an inefficient covering.
But to-day every damsel is in her best; and how jauntily she wears the
coloured scarf twisted round her head, which falls in graceful folds!
The Wallacks generally have their bare feet covered, not with boots, but
with thongs of leather, something in the form of a sandal. The Servian
women dress quite differently, wear tight-fitting garments, richly
embroidered when their means permit. The men also figure largely in
embroidery.

In the evening the peasants had a dance on the open space in front of
the _czarda_, or village inn. Of course we were there to look on. I
should observe that we had arranged to stay the night at Moldova, for
the afternoon had been taken up in visiting a large manufactory for
sulphuric acid in the neighbourhood. The dance which wound up the day's
amusements can be easily described. "Many a youth and many a maid" form
a wide circle with arms interlaced, they move round and round in a
marzurka step to the sound of music. It appeared to me rather slow and
monotonous. I do not know whether the figure breaks up, leaving each
couple more to their own devices; but we left them still revolving in a
circle.

The following morning we were off on our travels again. A short drive
took us to Old Moldova, a village within the Military Frontier,
regularly constructed, with guardhouse and other Government buildings,
facing the Danube. At this point begins the splendid road by the side of
the river, made by the Hungarian Government in 1840. It reaches as far
as Orsova, taking the left bank of the Danube. It would have been easier
to have followed Trajan's lead, and have made the road on the right
bank; but there were political reasons for deciding otherwise. The
Hungarian Government, as a matter of course, would only construct this
great work within their own territory: the other side of the river is
Servian. The engineering difficulties in making this road were very
great, but they have been everywhere overcome, and the result is a
splendid piece of work.

Arriving at the Danube, we took a steamboat that would land us in
Milanovacz in Servia. The scenery here is magnificent; we were now in
the defile of Kasan. The waters of the mighty river are con