Journey from Vienna* 89 



prepared in Hungary, they presently decamped, not caring to 

 come in contact with it. 



The whole country of Poland seems very poor j we see 

 nothing but oats and potatoes in cultivation, and an air of 

 wretchedness pervades the peasants. Their clothing consists 

 of a surtout of coarse brown wool, fastened about the body 

 with a leathern girdle ; under this few of them wear a shirt ; 

 and they have nothing else but linen pantaloons, commonly 

 without stockings or shoes, or in lieu thereof, sandals bound 

 with thongs that pass under the feet. On their heads they 

 wear a round hat, or a woollen bonnet ; their hair, filthy and 

 greasy, hangs down behind. The villages contain cabins or 

 hovels of earth or clay, and in the town of Myslinice, except- 

 ing the inn, which is a neat building, and the Town-House, 

 which has nothing in it remarkable, the other dwellings are of 

 a similar J ascription. 



After two or three days' travelling, wherein one part of the 

 road lay between two hills very near each other, and on the 

 tops of which we could see the remains of old castles, that de- 

 fended the passage, and were celebrated in the last wars be- 

 tween Poland and Hungary, I arrived on the heights of Villiczka. 

 Here we survey a vast horizon with not an elevation that deserves 

 the name of a mountain. At a little distance, in the west, the 

 city of Cracow (Kra/cau) appears to great advantage, and even 

 Villiczka exhibited an object on which the eye might repose. 

 Hence, in less than a quarter of an hour, I arrived at the town, 

 the entrance to which is by a kind of suburbs. This part 

 was inhabited by Jews, who, with their large black robes, long 

 beards, and huge hair bonnets, reminded me of Robinson 

 Crusoe in his island. In the town I was shewn to a wretched 

 auberge,the only one in it, where my chamber, perfumed with 

 onions, was a sort of warehouse to the kitchen adjoining ; in- 

 deed, the passage lay through it. The windows and doors were 

 opened to let in the fresh air, but this had not been done of 

 some years, and they made me a bed as well as they could. 

 About three in the morning I heard the crowing of fowls ; I 

 thought, at first, they were under my window, but one of them 

 mounting on the bed, I found there were half a dozen others 

 perched on a pole. As I wished to get rid of them, I had some 

 exercise in driving them out at the window, and this thorough- 

 ly awoke me. I was for getting out also, but the doors being 

 secured, I followed the fowls and jumped out of the window. 



The little town of Villiczkais situated on the verge of the plains 

 of Poland, and at the northern foot of the mountains that sepa- 

 rate it from Hungary. Tradition reports that the mines, which 

 constituted wealth, were discovered by a shepherd, named Vil- 



VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. L, VOL. IX. N 



