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.