2 7 o BIRD-HUNTING 



From here we went back to Sulina, where I slept 

 one night in the hotel. It is a miserable place, 

 infested with hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes, 

 which must render miserable the lives of those un- 

 fortunates doomed to live there. During these hot 

 summer evenings everybody sits outside the cafes 

 and restaurants, listening to the tinkling strains of 

 the zithers and guitars of Tewish and Greek skirls, 

 who sing Roumanian melodies, not forgetting to 

 come round with the hat, or with a big shell, at 

 frequent intervals. But I have seen the singers 

 fairly stopped sometimes by mosquitoes, and hand- 

 kerchiefs and fans are in constant motion in the 

 attempt to keep moving the poisonous throng of 

 winged tormentors. Fans are in regular use by 

 men as well as women here. The feeble light of 

 the oil-lamps in the streets is almost obscured by 

 the countless numbers of insects, in spite of the 

 stifling fumes of the bonfires of reeds kept burning 

 in the streets during these evening hours. Grumblers 

 who complain of the vicissitudes of the English 

 climate ought to be condemned to pass a summer in 

 Sulina, just to see how they like it. 



Early in the morning we re-embarked in our 

 lodka, after laying in a stock of bread, chickens, and 

 other provisions ; and, passing out of the entrance 

 of the Danube mouth, set our sails, and steered out 

 into the Black Sea. There was a fresh breeze, and 



