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When Mr Boner was travelling in Szeklerland he was also, nolens volens, raised to the peerage, so I suppose it is a settled conviction of the people that we are all lords in Great Britain. We had for supper a capital filet d'ours from a bear that had been shot only two days before. I enjoyed my supper immensely; the wine was as good as the food.
I must now drop the itinerary of my journey and speak more in generalities; for after leaving the wilder districts of the Szeklerland, I took the opportunity of presenting some of the letters of introduction that I brought with me from England. For the succeeding six weeks or more I spent my time most agreeably in the châteaux of some of the well-known Transylvanian nobles.
There are, it is stated, seven well-marked mountain groups of volcanic rocks, and two of these are in Transylvania. The most interesting in many respects is the chain of hills separating Szeklerland from Transylvania Proper. It is within this district that most of the mineral springs are found. These volcanic rocks are of undoubted Tertiary origin, say the geologists.
Feeling curious not only about the geology of the Szeklerland, but interested also in the inhabitants, I resolved to pursue my journey by going through what is called the Csik. I made all my arrangements to start, but wet weather set in, and I remained against my inclination at Kronstadt, for I was impatient now to be moving onwards.
My host puffed out a volume of smoke, and after a pause observed, before he placed his pipe again between his lips, "In this part of the country, in the Szeklerland, the better class of merchants are nearly all Armenians."
Curiously enough, foreigners get off better than the natives themselves; people of indifferent honesty have been known to say, "One would not rob a stranger." It happened to me that one day when riding along in this very Szeklerland of ill-repute I dropped my Scotch plaid, and did not discover my loss till I arrived at the next village, where I was going to sleep.
When I was in Hungary Proper they told me that travelling in Transylvania was very dangerous, and that it was a mad notion to think of going about there alone. Now that I was in Transylvania, I was amused at finding myself most seriously warned against the risk of riding alone through the Szeklerland. Every one told some fresh story of the insecurity of the roads.
The Rothen Thurm or Red Tower Pass is extremely picturesque. It is traversed by the Aluta, which though rising in the Szeklerland in the north-east, finds its way through the Carpathian range, flowing at length into the Lower Danube.
I have given this passage from Mr Judd's paper because there exists a good deal of misapprehension amongst English travellers as to what has really been done with regard to the geological survey of Austro-Hungary. A ride through Szeklerland Warnings about robbers Büksad A look at the sulphur deposits on Mount Büdos A lonely lake An invitation to Tusnad.
"If Transylvania is an odd corner of Europe," then is the Csik or Szeklerland a still more odd corner; by no possibility can it ever be the highroad to anywhere else. I am not surprised that my lawyer friend said that there were still some lawsuits pending in connection with the allotments of forest and pasturage in this part of Hungary, though everything was definitely settled elsewhere.
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