THROUGH WILD EUROPE 285 



for refreshments, and to give the horses a rest, we 

 were interviewed by a prefect or a sub-prefect, and 

 had to show our passports, and answer innumerable 

 questions as to our business. Rettig was a very 

 useful companion in many ways, and he understood 

 these people thoroughly, being really very clever in 

 getting his own way with them. 



One of these sub-prefects I shall never forget. 

 He was drinking with a priest, a pope of the Greek 

 Church, at a wine shop we had stopped at for some 

 food. Seeing that we were strangers, he came up 

 and introduced himself and demanded our passports 

 and business. After that he became friendly, and 

 though he was then half-drunk we had to call for 

 a fresh bottle of wine, and after that another, and 

 yet another, while he talked of his adventures in 

 foreign lands. He had been everywhere, all over 

 Europe, and spoke French, Italian, and Spanish 

 fluently, but was especially proud of his English. 

 For my benefit he poured out a torrent of the foulest 

 and filthiest talk I have ever heard anywhere, in 

 such extraordinary English that I could not help 

 laughing, but I told him he had evidently learnt 

 in a very bad school. This he took for a compli- 

 ment. Then he bragged of his skill as a sportsman, 

 and told us of the enormous Bears and Wild Boars 

 he had shot in places where to Rettig's certain 

 knowledge they did not exist. Hearing I had a 



