172 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 



a couple of queer-looking men, not calculated to inspire much 

 confidence ; and these were, with the exception of a few herds- 

 men, the only human beings not belonging to our party 

 whom we had encountered during the whole of our wander- 

 ings in the Fruska-Gora. Wretched clothes in perfect 

 tatters covered their sturdy forms, and their whole appear- 

 ance was of the thorough South Slavonic type. They asked 

 us the way to Cerevic, and a little while afterwards again 

 emerged from the wood, having apparently taken a short cut, 

 and run after us. One of them, a young man of about 

 twenty, drew himself up in good military style, and told me 

 that he belonged to the reserve of the Grand Duke Leopold's 

 53rd Regiment of Infantry, and that he was now on his way 

 to the manoauvres, but had no money for continuing his 

 journey, as he had been driven away by the cholera from 

 Southern Bulgaria, where throughout the winter he had been 

 in service with the Russians as a woodcutter in their various 

 camps. After receiving a slight gratuity they vanished as 

 quickly as they had appeared. 



Our road now led us up and down, along steep hillsides, 

 over wooded summits, and through little glades and thickets 

 to the " Prince Eugene's road " already mentioned. Along 

 this we drove a short way, and then turned towards the 

 northern slopes of the mountains, where a steep wretched 

 track, along part of which we had to walk, brought us into 

 regions already familiar to us ; for we passed a Sea-Eagle's 

 nest lately visited by Bombelles, at which the forester said 

 Prince Hohenlohe had killed a Cinereous Vulture some years 

 ago, and which was now inhabited by Sea-Eagles. We 

 afterwards arrived at the place where I had pursued the 

 Cinereous Vultures on the first afternoon. The terrible con- 

 dition of the forest-roads that we traversed during this drive 

 baffles all description ; but the views they afforded us of the 

 lonely woodland valleys and the lofty rustling beech woods 



