HUNGARIAN LEGEND

Evening Star, Issue 22890, 23 February 1938, Page 17

HUNGARIAN LEGEND

BARON WHO ROBBED FRIENDS A peasant who recently obtained a permit to dig for treasure among the Deva mountains, in the country of Hunyad, has found proofs of the truth of the legend of “.Fatia Negra,” the nick-name by which the reigning Baron Nopcsa was known over a century ago, writes the Budapest correspondent of ‘ The Observer.’ In a disused gold mine the digger was astonished to come upon a suit of armour, some weapons, a mint for the production of false coin, and a bundle of the black silk masks which earned the_ strangest member of a strange family his nickname. The Nopcsa family was founded in the fourteenth century, and as it owned half the country of Hunyad its members wero at one time the richest aristocrats in Transylvania, Wealth, however, could not give Laszlo Nopcsa the same excitement which he obtained by a life of crime. The legend (now verified) went that he produced false coin and circulated it, quite superfluously; and he habitually robbed his rich neighbours of their money, jewels, and silver, disguised in a black silk mask. At Baron Nopcsa’s great dinners an artistocratic lady often lifted a fork or a spoon with exclamations on its resemblance to her own plate, while the bland host listened interestedly, examining the handle from which he had deftly erased the owner’s monogram. “ Fatia Negra’s ” family suffered much distress over his propensities, and called his hobby kleptomania, returning the stolen property to its owners whenever possible without his knowledge. The story of “ Fatia Negra ” lias been told by Jokai, the Hungarian Dickons, in a novel called ‘ The Poor Rich,’ but the story of the whole family would provide material for many novels.

One Nopcsa was treasurer and a second chief chancellor of Transylvania ; a third was county governor, and a fourth director of the Budapest Opera and National Theatre. One Nopcsa served with the Hussars till he became a cowboy on the American prairies, and one deserted his country to side with the Austrians in ’4B. The last Baron Nopcsa, who was director of the Hungarian Geological Instiution and member of many foreign institutions, committed suicide in Vienna in 1933, '