s. The
bells awoke such rage within them that they seemed insane under its
influence. As they leaped and snapped around me, I felt like some
traveller in a Russian forest pursued by hungry wolves. A dog scarcely
six inches high, and but twice as long, would spring from the ground
as if a pound of dynamite had exploded beneath him, and would make a
desperate effort to throw himself into the wagon. Another, howling
in impotent anger, would jump full at a horse's throat, would roll
beneath the feet of the team, but in some miraculous fashion would
escape unhurt, and would scramble upon a bank to try again. It was a
real relief when the discouraged pack fell away. Had I shot one of the
animals, the gypsies would have found a way to avenge the death of
their enterprising though somewhat too zealous camp-follower. Animals
everywhere on these border-lines of the Orient are treated with much
more tenderness than men and women are. The grandee who would scowl
furiously in this wild region of the Banat if the peasants did not
stand by the roadside and doff their hats in token of respect and
submission as he whirled by in his carriage, would not kick a dog out
of his way, and would manifest the utmost tenderness for his horses.

[Illustration: Orsova.]

Much as the Hungarian inhabitants of the Banat hate the Roumanians,
they do not fail to appreciate the commercial advantages which will
follow on the union of the two countries by rail. Pretty Orsova may in
due time become a bustling town filled with grain- and coal-depots and
with small manufactories. The railway from Verciorova on the frontier
runs through the large towns Pitesti and Craiova on its way to
Bucharest. It is a marvellous railroad: it climbs hills, descends into
deep gullies, and has as little of the air-line about it as a great
river has, for the contractors built it on the principle of "keeping
near the surface," and they much preferred climbing ten high mountains
to cutting one tunnel. Craiova takes its name, according to a somewhat
misty legend, from John Assan, who was one of the Romano-Bulgarian
kings, Craiova being a corruption of _Crai Ivan_ ("King John"). This
John was the same who drank his wine from a cup made out of the skull
of the unlucky emperor Baldwin I. The old bans of Craiova gave their
title to the Roumanian silver pieces now known as _bani_. Slatina,
farther down the line, on the river Altu (the _Aluta_ of the
ancients), is a pretty town, where