nguage, and are equally mad.

_Myself_. What language do they speak?

_Hungarian_. A strange mixture of Latin and Sclavonian--they themselves
being a mixed race of Romans and Sclavonians. Trajan sent certain
legions to form military colonies in Dacia; and the present Wallacks and
Moldavians are, to a certain extent, the descendants of the Roman
soldiers, who married the women of the country, I say to a certain
extent, for the Sclavonian element both in blood and language, seems to
prevail.

_Myself_. And what is drak?

_Hungarian_. Dragon; which the Wallacks use for devil. The term is
curious, as it shows that the old Romans looked upon the dragon as an
infernal being.

_Myself_. You have been in Wallachia?

_Hungarian_. I have, and glad I was to get out of it. I hate the mad
Wallacks.

_Myself_. Why do you call them mad?

_Hungarian_. They are always drinking or talking. I never saw a
Wallachian eating or silent. They talk like madmen, and drink like
madmen. In drinking they use small phials, the contents of which they
pour down their throats. When I first went amongst them I thought the
whole nation was under a course of physic, but the terrible jabber of
their tongues soon undeceived me. Drak was the first word I heard on
entering Dacia, and the last when I left it. The Moldaves, if possible,
drink more, and talk more than the Wallachians.

_Myself_. It is singular enough that the only Moldavian I have known
could not speak. I suppose he was born dumb.

_Hungarian_. A Moldavian born dumb! Excuse me, the thing is impossible;
all Moldavians are born talking! I have known a Moldavian who could not
speak, but he was not born dumb. His master, an Armenian, snipped off
part of his tongue at Adrianople. He drove him mad with his jabber. He
is now in London, where his master has a house. I have letters of credit
on the house: the clerk paid me money in London, the master was absent;
the money which you received for the horse belonged to that house.

_Myself_. Another word with respect to Hungarian history.

_Hungarian_. Drak! I wish to say nothing more about Hungarian history.

_Myself_. The Turk, I suppose, after Mohacs, got possession of Hungary?

_Hungarian_. Not exactly. The Turk, upon the whole, showed great
moderation; not so the Austrian. Ferdinand the First claimed the crown
of Hungary as being the cousin of Maria, widow of Lajos; he found too
many disposed to support