IN THE LAND OF THE MAGYAR

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 164, 11 July 1914, Page 18

IN THE LAND OF THE MAGYAR

(By MALCOLM ROSS, F.R.G.S.) Xo. 3. Some people will tell you that there is not much to &cc in Kiume, others that there i- a great deal. For my part I found it a most interesting place, with a special fascination that increased the more one studied its history and*Sts cosmopolitanism. Travelling- from Innsbruck to Verona, on Toute to Venice, one gathered that there was no love lost between the Austrian.* and the Italians. Indeed, on the borderland south of the Tirol there is a part of Austria that is morf Italian than Austrian. In Fiume. too. we found that the Italians were not very content under Hungarian rule. Italy is not in the Triple Alliance out of pure love and affection. Indeed, how could she be expected to be enthusiastic over an alliance with her hereditary enemy?

do you go on building battleship? and money on the fortifications of Yejuce when you are in the Allionre?" said a friend of mine to an Italian Admiral. And the reply was: "Do you think we are going to stand idly by when Austria i> building Dreadnoughts? It would never do to let Austria become stronger than we."* Similarly we found that many Austrian* preJierred the English to the (Jerrnans, and that the Hungarians were not at all enamoured of their German allies. Indeed, it would r-eeni as if the Triple Alliance is almost altogether upon fear, and very little upon friendship. ] Paly i< in it becam-e of her Tesentment against France, and Austria-Hungary are in it because of their fear of Russia. An alliance or an entente in these Eastern ■countries may be a thing of a generation or of a year. There is no saying what sudden "changes may be made. The anti-Austrian demonstrations in Venice the other day may smoulder or be fanned into flame. He would be a bold man who would undertake accurately to .forecast the happenings of the next decade in. these parts. Meantime the Balkan war has hit some of these countries rather hard, and the farther east we go the harder it hits. The SUvi and the Roumanians have also to be reckened with. for. at this very moment. they are being worked upon by Russian emissaries. We left Fiume ior K«zthely by train one evening after dinner. There wre no sleeping oars, but liberal tip 3to the enabled us to get a compartment to ourselves, and we drew the blind?, pushed the door to. and endeavoured to assume an air of possfs*ion that was perhatLS not wholly warranted. One man did endeavour to carry onr domicile by assault but Stefan assured him that a family of young children was soon coming in wits us, and he fled. «*rt«t*ed ourselves along the seats in somnolence, but presently a guard, other on him "1 *»»*«• he said, 'gnen five krona for this compartment for our-gelves-what sort of fairness ie « tha* vou"ow <-ome and a=k us to make phot for others?" Thereupon the guard went. a °vav somewhat crestfallen, and we «ctof .t. We l<" ft them log . n i umMM «mc up to us from the depths be o«. Higher up *f>ll. through tre« that hi* motor coat, and 1 into m.ne andje tried to sleep. But Stefan and 1. b- only one side of the cornpartoeiit £Wn us. found thfe a drftault matT . It was a cold night und M slumber we did get was of a Dtful nature, co that the hour* passed drearily. As dawn was brakm ? . I drew the. bUwfe and found that we were running across a ™-l!-ru1tivaW upland plain, Trith lines of tall poplare, but no ,fenr«« marking the boundaTies of the fields In the chill dawn women were already tracking along the .roads to work in fh.e fields, and men •were driving their oxen toward the plough. They were aD industrious people, and. apparently, there was no eight-hours' day here. A HTNGARIAX VILIAGE. AVc steametl into the town of K<v7.tbely in the early morn, engaged rooms at an inn that was none too clean, performed our morning toilet, and strolled off into the village, where we breakfasted in a cafe. We had eggs mixed up with a bueJi fungus, raw baron (smoked and fat, but quite tasty), and excellent coffee and bread. The piga here are fattened on maize, and get very fat. In other district* they have the" lean kind. In these restaurants you are charged for each item, so you have to remember what you eat. "How many breads have you eaten?" ie one of the usual qm-stione put to mc by Stefan, after a meal, or a morning or aiternoon coffee. You ca.n get tea. but it is -weak and flavourless, and they serve it with hot milk, which makes it taete etill worse. Some of the villager* iw-ere very quaintly dressed, and the ■women wore many petticoats, pleated and starched, co that they eaemed to have .bulbous liipe. very much like the Dutch women one pees on the Isle oi llurken. They have an erect carriage and a peculiar straying walk owing to their habit of tarrying baskets on their heads. Though it was a cold morning, several were walking barefooted in the streets and along the country roads. Some individuals wearing hard black liat- and white woollen petticoats ciiuie down a side r-treet ;raily. I wondered at their peculiar gait until they Ranif nearer, and I foil ml they were Premonter college men. a worldly order. mostly t.'.ie iion> of gentlemen with landed estates, who devote their live* to teaching. Following in their wai* came a tvpii-al Hunyariaa emoking hi* lonp-itemmed pipe, and a primitive distilling apparatus, by mean* oi which, under Government supervision tax. he makes a varietr of brandy from plums. He had brought ir. and *c>ld in the market a portion o! the croj> from hie vineyard, and was

now making his way home with this new purchase. In this district, which is in the East of Hungary, one tumes upon .the pure Hungarians, ■who speak the real ilagyar language g with tscareely any foreign words intro- a dus«d. There -were Hungarian* end c Jewn. all speaking the same tongue, for „ here the Jew and the Magyar have lived r together in harmony for many genera- <r tions, until the Jew lias himself become a Hungarian. a A STATE SCHOOL. ; Strolling through the town. »p came c upon one of the Stale schools, and. being P curious to see the inside of it and t lie '' manner of teaching, we entered, anr l were most kindly received by the head n of the school, who took us all over it. * Jews, Catholics and Protectants attended- jit, and the pastors of each denomination give religious instruction to the children v of their own sect. In one classroom, as P we entered, a pleasant young priest was engaged in his teaching. At our entry. } the whole class of boys stood up. and ' said together, -<;od broujrbt you." As we ' shook hands with the young priest and l left the classroom, they said ajtngflher. " ""<iod be with yon."' They remained st&nding all the time we were in Ihe room. That i< the formula for worldly *j people, but if a priest should come in they would say. "Praise be the lx>rd .lesus Christ." If they were Protestant * or Jewish children, they would say, * "Praise be the Ijord."' In each classroom , there was prominently displayed a large . sheet with the printed words and music of the National Anthem, fairly literal , translation of which — "God do save the Hungarians, give j them good food and plenty, offer them i a protective arm if they are lighting with their enemies in bad hick, which is consuming them since a long time, bring to them years of joy. for they have suffered already sufficient penalty for the past and the future." £ The words were written by Franz c Kolesey, the dreamer, who wa!s a poet y and aji orator, as well as the founder m of the Hungarian School of Latcrary " Criticism. He was born in 1700. The music i≤ by the famous Franz Erkcl, - who was a contemporary of Liszt's, and the creator of Hungarian opera. He is best known by his works "Ladislaus Uunyadi" and ""Bauk Ban." the latter being a typical Magyar composition. His "Swan Song" and "Funeral March" are regarded as classical, and in the anthem his genius has produced A national song that, in its feeling and inspiration, seems to typify the strange Magyar race. He was born in ISIO. and lived to the ripe age of S3. AX AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. From the school we went to an up-to-date Agricultural College, where we were also most warmly welcomed and shown every attention. There are five such colleges in the country, so that the Hungarians quite put New Zealand in tie shade in this matter of scientific agricultural education. As we left the train • in the early morning Stefan had said to mc: "111 defy you twopence halfpenny that you won't hear English spoken in this town." 1 took the wager, but. #0 far, there seemed little chance of my winning it. 1 won it at the college, for the professor, on learning that 1 came from New Zealand, promptly ad dressed mc in English. He had learned it from one of his own countrymen who had been in America, and was quite delighted when heVtfound that the first Engii-Jvmen he had met could understand him quite well. For some years he had had no practice in it. except by reading, and lie had more difficulty in understanding mc than I had him, for as he himself very quaintly put it: "With my eyes I understand: with my : cars 1 do not understand." He ' had great difficulty in thinking in I English, so had to think in Hungarian j and then translate ]iis thoughts to givej ;hem Englfch expression. Wo went all : over the school, and finally came in 10 his own room, where was a library. H? opened a section of the bookcase, and. j diving into a lower eheif, produced but-1 tit* and some *mall glasses, remarking as he did so. with a merry twinkle in his eye. **tbi" mysteries of the BLbliotiquc. Various liquor* containing! spirit. Good for you. but '1 do not take, I because of a headache." However, we 1 had no headaches, and so w drank his I health in a liquor tli.it he himself had j distilled—from coffee! It wj* rather. Sweet and heavy, but quite good, and ■ there was no 'bad after-effe-cte. He was a j very clever man. and keen about, Iris college, and he was qnit-e excited :•> speaking English to fbe first English-1 man he had met. KVv parted with many hajidehn.kos and much bowing, and shall (probably hear from each other in the future. Hp uras much interacted in Ne.w Zealand, and in what we werp doing in connection with agricultural 1 education, but we have no such college ac this in all New Zealand.

THE FISHERIES. i\Ve now β-ougiit out one Barks Gyula. he to whom I had the letter of introduction from my friend Virtorio de Gauss Garady. *if the BioJogica Marina at Fiume, and him »v found, to Ix , a' charming ;>s all the irhere. The five of us lunched together at tlip chief restaurairt in the town —a typical Hungarian luncheon —and "we had much talk about the fish in the La-ke of Balaton and th-e river* that take their rice in the H;<?h C-arpathiajis. The fisheries in Hungary are looked upon from a purely economic poini. of view, and thes-e goo.i pwnple could not at all understand the Englishman's idea of tp-orf in connection wnh ill? catching of fleli. They marvelled gTpatly at some small flies and a iiiip casi that 1 had used on Loch Ijpven with t-nnie E-moct-r-. and happened to have with mc. We rmly old lzaak jnd Vwiator to complete the .sj-mpnsium. But after all our talk ] came to the conclusion that in ihh* matter of fi»hpnci~ -*o arc perhaps inclined to think too much of sport, and that in the ne.ir future wv shall have to consider it more frnm tho of (vnnomks. Tlii.-. T know, at the pTcsent time it= rank h-erosy, though in ilie end 1 shall pin my faith on economies. All the same 1 should dearly have liked to have n j»o at their raini>ow trout in ihe eaaftly-iflowing Carpathian rivers, or to have landed a pigamic tunny on a small roil from thr■wateTs of the Jiirtoric Quarnevo. We hoped to be tbi> pkrrveers of a new sport lin the Adriatic, for ihpy have the tunny ihere. and Knjrland doe.s not know it: But. a>as! wo had no lime to gn I>ack. ami StofanV TOd.s and at t!:e moment, were wanderjng somewhere across the Imminent. (To be Continued. , )