THROUGH WILD EUROPE 191 



to realize that only 250 years ago it was still in the 

 paralyzing grip of the Turk. When the Turks left, 

 the population of Budapest was 250, now it numbers 

 800,000, and the city is second to none in Europe 

 in the beauty of its public buildings, its wide streets, 

 and its evident prosperity. 



For long almost exclusively a pastoral country, 

 breeding horses and rearing cattle being the chief 

 industry of its people, Hungary has recently realized 

 the importance of agriculture, and her vast plains 

 now produce great quantities of wheat, maize, roots, 

 tobacco, and vines. 



If the magnificent show of modern agricultural 

 implements and specimens is a proof of the up- 

 to-date and progressive state of things in rural 

 Hungary, the models and implements in the ethno- 

 graphical section show vividly the domestic occupa- 

 tions of the original inhabitants of the country — the 

 primitive herdsmen, shepherds, and fishermen, the 

 forerunners of the great Hungarian nation. Among 

 other interesting objects one may see a series of 

 models representing the evolution of the house. 

 From the first rude wind-screen of reeds or bushes 

 erected by primitive man as a protection against 

 the elements, we can see the slow stages by which 

 his posterity advanced towards civilization, until the 

 four walls, and finally the roof, placed him in posses- 

 sion of a home. And in the country villages to-day 



