158 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
monasteries. In the evening I was to drive back to the 
shooting-lodge and there meet my brother-in-law. 
We left the steamer about six in the morning, and getting 
into the carts which were ready waiting, separated in various 
directions. My brother-in-law and I went straight towards 
the Fruska-Gora, and I then turned eastwards down-stream 
and drove a good way along the so-called highroad at the 
base of the hills. There the flats by the river bank widen out, 
and the space between the steep outlying heights and the 
Danube is chiefly occupied by marshy meadows and pastures. 
Lapwings and ducks peopled this ground, and I noticed a 
White Stork standing bolt upright on one leg a long way 
off. As this bird has now become rather rare in other parts 
of the Empire, and I had never shot it, I determined to try 
and approach it in the carriage, a manceuvre which succeeded 
fairly well, for it allowed us to come remarkably near. My 
jiiger, however, persuaded me to fire a risky shot before we had 
got within really good range of it, and the poor bird flew 
over the river to the Hungarian plains only slightly wounded, 
while we regained the highroad by following a miserable 
and almost bottomless track through the marshes. 
An extraordinary sort of cart had followed us from Cerevié 
with two tat and not over-clean Greek priests, who had 
most kindly invited us to shoot in their woods, by a letter 
written half in Servian and half in Latin, and very badly 
spelt. One of these priests had an extremely beautiful head, 
with long black hair falling in ringlets over his shoulders and 
a glossy black beard hanging down below his chest. The 
other was an old gentleman already rather bent. 
Our way led us past a rather dilapidated farm-yard, also 
belonging to the monasteries, where pigs, miserable cattle, 
and emaciated horses were wandering about a meadow; and 
after a good half-hour we reached a village, drove through it, 
and passing a rather singular gipsy encampment penetrated 
