EIGHTH DAY. 141 



country, and a ring of peasant girls in their gay dresses were 

 dancing the national dance called "Kolo" in the square 

 in front of the church, a harshly sounding bagpipe being the 

 sole musical accompaniment to this wild and singular perform- 

 ance, which somewhat reminded one of the dances of the 

 South-Sea islanders. The people had heard of my arrival in 

 this part of the country, and, recognizing me by my Styrian 

 attire, which they evidently regarded with the greatest 

 astonishment, greeted me in the heartiest manner, and the 

 whole population followed our traps far beyond the village 

 an easy thing to do, for with our tired horses we could only 

 crawl along this miserable road at a walk. 



After a long drive up and down hill over the little out- 

 lying heights, we caught sight of the Danube just beyond 

 them ; and I must confess to being rather glad to see it, re- 

 minding me, as it did, of the steamer and of a good hot dinner. 

 We now soon got on to the main road at the river's edge, and 

 as our tired horses would no longer trot we galloped along 

 down- stream, with the water on our left and a succession of 



v 



steep hills on our right, reaching Cerevic in an hour. During 

 the last part of the drive I noticed a good many birds, for 

 herons and ducks of all sorts were flying over the river, while 

 close to the road were Red-backed Shrikes and a great variety 

 of small birds. Near the meadow by which our steamer lay 

 I saw on the solitary telegraph-wire which the posts carried a 

 gaily-coloured little bird, which subsequently turned out to 

 be a somewhat peculiar variety of the Whinchat; but taking 

 it, at first sight, for a Stonechat I jumped out and quickly 

 shot it. 



A x few minutes after this last incident we arrived on board 

 the steamer all right. There my companions were already 

 assembled, and were awaiting my rather tardy return with 

 lively expectations. I produced a pretty good effect on the 

 sportsmen by the huge Cinereous Vulture, but the Pygmy 



