182 FIFTEEN .DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
When we also had related our experiences and exchanged 
our notes, we had luncheon served—the steamer all the 
while lying quietly behind Gerevié; for we had decided 
to defer our excursion to the Hungarian side for a couple 
of hours. 
We were all very sorry at having to leave this splendid 
mountain-range, with which were connected perhaps the 
most delightful of the many charming incidents of our 
journey. 
The village of Cerevié, too, has a bright friendly look 
and is inhabited by good patriotic people. Brehm felt 
the parting much; and long will this naturalist live in 
the memories of these honest Slavonians, as he greatly 
contributed to their enjoyment by improvising country 
fétes ; for on the evenings when my brother-in-law and I 
slept in the shooting-lodge, our friend Brehm collected the 
female population of Cerevié on the meadow near our 
steamer, and got the girls to perform the national “ Kolo” 
dance for him. A wretched bagpiper, who had once 
played on board, was soon unearthed, and to the accom- 
paniment of his ear-splitting instrument the loveliest ladies 
of Gerevié bobbed round this German naturalist, who, seated 
on a stool within the circle, kept encouraging the dancers 
by presents. Naturally the whole village soon turned out, 
and so regular public festivities were organized—the country- 
people standing dumbfounded round this stranger, who con- 
versed with them in a language of signs, and whom they 
probably took for a magician. In afterdays, songs will 
doubtless be sung in Cerevié in praise of this kindly visitor. 
In the evening we summoned the band of gipsy musicians 
who live in Cerevié, and made them play to us during dinner 
in their mournful fashion; for there is no kind of music 
which I find so fascinating as the sad wild strains of the 
violins and cymbalos of these swarthy sons of the “ Puszta.” 
