314 BIRD-HUNTING 



Towards evening, as we approached a sparsely 

 inhabited region, we made for a house we could see 

 afar off in hopes of a night's lodging, but found it 

 almost deserted, and half under water. One solitary- 

 being sat in a boat moored to the front of the 

 house, but after an inspection we decided to move 

 on to his nearest neighbour an hour away, leaving 

 him sitting disconsolately half-way up a ladder lead- 

 ing to the roof,. as though he contemplated roosting 

 in the Stork's nest there placed. It was, no doubt, 

 the only dry spot in the whole establishment. 



We found the other house on the shores of the 

 Black Sea, on a narrow strip of sand which divided 

 the salt water from the fresh. Here we met large 

 flocks of cattle and a lot of men, Bulgars, who were 

 employed by the Government, destroying locusts. 

 But Bulgars are notoriously the most inhospitable 

 people in Europe ; and though a heavy thunder- 

 storm was brewing, they never asked us into the 

 house, which was a fairly big one for these parts, 

 and barely condescended to take any notice of us at 

 all. All we could get was permission to sleep on 

 the strip of sand between the cowshed and the 

 water. If we hadn't had a fine carp with us we 

 might have gone supperless to bed, but we had a 

 good supper, and in return for their churlish behaviour 

 we pulled down a part of their dilapidated cowshed 

 with which to make our fire. As soon as it was dark, 



