3 May. Bistritz.—Left Munich at 8:35
P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning;
should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour
late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from
the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the
little I could walk through the streets. I feared
to go very far from the station, as we had arrived
late and would start as near the correct time as possible.
The impression I had was that we were leaving the
West and entering the East; the most western of splendid
bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width
and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish
rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall
to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night
at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather
supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper,
which was very good but thirsty. (Mem. get recipe
for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was
called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it
was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere
along the Carpathians.
I found my smattering of German very useful here,
indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to
get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London,
I had visited the British Museum, and made search
among the books and maps in the library regarding
Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge
of the country could hardly fail to have some importance
in dealing with a nobleman of that country.
I find that the district he named is in the extreme
east of the country, just on the borders of three
states, Transylvania, Moldavia, and Bukovina, in the
midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest
and least known portions of Europe.
I was not able to light on any map or work giving
the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there
are no maps of this country as yet to compare with
our own Ordance Survey Maps; but I found that Bistritz,
the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known
place. I shall enter here some of my notes,
as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my
travels with Mina.
In the population of Transylvania there are four distinct
nationalities: Saxons in the South, and mixed
with them the Wallachs, who are the descendants of
the Dacians; Magyars in the West, and Szekelys in
the East and North. I am going among the latter,
who claim to be descended from Attila and the Huns.
This may be so, for when the Magyars conquered the
country in the eleventh century they found the Huns
settled in it.
I read that every known superstition in the world
is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians,
as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative
whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.
(Mem., I must ask the Count all about them.)
I did not sleep well, though my bed was comfortable
enough, for I had all sorts of queer dreams.
There was a dog howling all night under my window,
which may have had something to do with it; or it may
have been the paprika, for I had to drink up all the
water in my carafe, and was still thirsty. Towards
morning I slept and was wakened by the continuous
knocking at my door, so I guess I must have been sleeping
soundly then.
