Dracula. Bram Stoker

I saw him talking with the landlady. They were evidently

      talking of me, for every now and then they looked at me, and

      some of the people who were sitting on the bench outside the

      door which they call by a name meaning «word-bearer»

      came and listened, and then looked at me, most of them pity-

      ingly. I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for

      there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got my

      polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out. I must say

      they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were" Ordog»

      Satan, "pokol" hell, "stregoica «witch, "vrolokj» and» vlko-

      slak» both of which mean__the same thing, one being, Slovak

      and the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or

      vampire. (Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions>

      6 Dracula

      When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had

      by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of

      the cross and pointed two fingers towards me. With some diffi-

      culty I got a fellow-passenger to tell me what they meant; he

      would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English,

      he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye.

      This was not very plel^nt for me, just starting for an unknown

      place to meet an unknown man; but every one seemed so kind-

      hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not

      but be touched. I shall never forget the last glimpse which I

      had of the inn-yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all cross-

      ing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its

      background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green

      tubs clustered in the centre of the yard. Then our driver, whose

      wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the box-seat

      «gotza» they call them cracked his big whip over his four

      small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey.

      I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty

      of the scene as we drove along, although had I known the lan-

      guage, or rather languages, which my fellow-passengers were

      speaking, I might not have been able to throw them off so easily.

      Before us lay a green sloping land full of forests and woods, with

      here and there steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with

      farmhouses, the blank gable end to the road. There was every-

      where a bewildering mass of fruit blossom apple, plum, pear,

      cherry; and as we drove by I could see the green grass under the

      trees spangled with the fallen petals. In and out amongst these

      green hills of what they call here the «Mittel Land» ran the

      road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve, or was shut

      out by the straggling ends of pine woods, which here and there

      ran down the hillsides like tongues of flame. The road was

      rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste.

      I could not understand then what the haste meant, but the

      driver was evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo

      Prund. I was told that this road is in summertime excellent,

      but that it had not yet been put in order after the winter snows.

      In this respect it is different from the general run of roads in

      the Carpathians, for it is an old tradition that they are not to

      be kept in too good order. Of old the Hospadars would not re-

      pair them, lest the Turk should think that they were preparing

      to bring in foreign troops, and so hasten the war which was al-

      ways really at loading point.

      Beyond the green swelling hills of the Mittel Land rose mighty

      Jonathan Harker’s Journal 7

      slopes of forest up to the lofty steeps of the Carpathians them-

      selves. Right and left of us they towered, with the afternoon sun

      falling full upon them and bringing out all the glorious colours

      of this beautiful range, deep blue and purple in the shadows of

      the peaks, green and brown where grass and rock mingled, and

      an endless perspective of jagged rock and pointed crags, till these

      were themselves lost in the distance, where the snowy peaks

      rose grandly. Here and there seemed mighty rifts in the moun-

      tains, through which, as the sun began to sink, we saw now and

      again the white gleam of falling water. One of my companions

      touched my arm as we swept round the base of a hill and opened

      up the lofty, snow-covered peak of a mountain, which seemed, as

      we wound en our serpentine way, to be right before us:

      «Look! Isten szek!» «God’s seat!» and he crossed him-

      self reverently.

      As we wound on our endless way, and the sun sank lower and

      lower behind us, the shadows of the evening began to creep

      round us. This was emphasised by the fact that the snowy

      mountain-top still held the sunset, and seemed to glow out with

      a delicate cool pink. Here and there we passed Cszeks and Slo-

      vaks, all in picturesque attire, but I noticed that goitre was

      painfully prevalent. By the roadside were many crosses, and as

      w^sw^r^b^mj^mp_a_nions jill crossed themselves. Here and

      there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine,

      who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed in

      the self-surrender of devotion to have neither eyes nor ears for

      the outer world. There were many things new to me: for instance,

      hay-ricks in the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses

      of weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through

      the delicate green of the leaves. Now and again we passed a

      leiter-wagon the ordinary peasant’s cart with its long, snake-

      like vertebra, calculated to suit the inequalities of the road. On

      this were sure to be seated quite a group of home-coming peas-

      ants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their

      coloured, sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their

      long