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 hehind Cerevic ; 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 Cerevic, 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 

 fetes ; for on the evenings when my brother-in-law and I 

 slept in the shooting-lodge, our friend Brehm collected the 

 female population of Cerevic 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 Cerevic 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 Cerevic in praise of this kindly visitor. 



In the evening we summoned the band of gipsy musicians 

 who live in Cerevic, 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." 



