28 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
left stretched meadows and pastures, which, however, already 
belonged to the district of the “auen,” for behind them ran a 
long belt of woods. 
Evening was coming on, the cattle were returning to the 
villages, and the sun was setting over the hills and soon 
vanished behind them. Overhead was a cloudless sky, and 
the impressive silence was only broken by the tinkling bells 
of the herds and the scream of the Lapwing. We were able 
to travel on until nearly eight o’clock, so long did the light 
last ; but we had still to cover a good stretch of the way 
before the Captain could reach the spot where he intended to 
pass the night. 
We soon left behind us the treeless banks and reached the 
place where the Bega channel separates itself from the main 
stream, the island thus formed being covered with beautiful 
woods, with which we were to become more familiar in a few 
days. 
From this point we had again to pass through “ au” woods 
equally luxuriant on both banks. Here the sun went down 
in the true Hungarian manner, not at all as it does in Western 
lands, and only those who have seen the splendid sunset 
effects of Hungary can form any idea of them. In the west 
was a glowing semicircle of brilliant red, the trees swayed 
slowly in the evening breeze, the summits of the hills were 
gilded by the last rays of the setting sun, and the scarlet of 
the sky was mirrored in the quivering waters of the river. 
In the east the leaden darkness was separated from the light 
of the departing day by a belt of orange, and was broken by 
a few bright isolated stars, while the low-lying woods and 
swamps wrapped in blue vapours and feathery mists assumed 
ghostly indefinite shapes as they gradually melted into each 
other. The whole scene formed a marvellous picture of a 
truly oriental splendour, which, seen in the deep silence of 
