console themselves, amid their multiplied discomforts, with the pipe, a German's unfailing resource; but being withstood by a small minority, fortified by the printed laws of the steamer, each satisfied himself with ruminating over his empty meerschaum suspended from the lips, écrachant with all the dignity of a real smoker, till the floor became as dangerous for pedestrians by day as for the mattresses destined to be spread on it by night.

Breakfast began to be served at the early hour of six, when each was provided with a cup of coffee and a solitary roll. Conversation was then resumed and kept up, with a little pelting of orange-peel and all the concomitants of the most essentially vulgar mirth, till twelve o'clock, when the cloth was spread for dinner. This tantalizing sight doomed the ennuyés to an hour of anxious expectation; and surely never did the "walls and battlements" and "chimney-tops" of the imperial city witness a more intense anxiety

"To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome," than was exhibited by Germans, Hungarians, Armenians, and Italians, to see dinner served. A rude contest for chairs took place long before its arrival; but vain would be an attempt to describe the scene which ensued. Loud con

versation and still louder laughs became more thickly interspersed with boisterous complaints as the desired gag was withheld from the craving herd. At length vociferations commenced. "Jacob" was called, commanded, scolded, abused, but without effect. An universal roar was then raised for Fleisch, Fleisch, Fleisch, followed by a Bacchanalian yell for Wein, Wein, Wein!* The food brought was greedily and speedily devoured, when another sad delay in the arrival of the next dish gave rise to shouts similar to the former. An observation that one of the ladies was suffering from headach and fever produced only a momentary cessation of uproar, which was almost immediately renewed, the invalid being forgotten because the noisy animals could feel but little sympathy for a human sufferer. Two hours and a half passed painfully at dinner. From three to seven o'clock, cards and tumultuous mirth below, with drizzling rain above, continued uninterruptedly. At that hour candles were brought in; and we took the precaution to lay out our cloaks on the spots we intended to occupy for the night, knowing that there would be a scramble for places. By this time, some departures had reduced the numbers to fifteen

Fleisch in German is meat; and wein, wine.

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women and thirty men; but the benches in the two cabins afforded sleeping room for only twelve, and the tables for six; so that more than three of the gentlemen could not expect accommodation.

Coffee and singing, succeeded by meat suppers and cards, kept up a few of the party till some hours after the rest became unconscious of their proceedings; but, unfortunately, consciousness long survived comfort.

The females were so fond of gossip, that, not sated with the tattle of their own sex, they had during the day permitted the gentlemen free access into the inner apartment. When one of the English ladies retired to rest, the room was cleared of three intruders, and it was hoped that the hint might be generally understood.

She had not, however, been undressing above five minutes, when a man of respectable appearance opened the door and looked in. On being reproved for this breach of delicacy, he considered himself much aggrieved, and said he only wished to see whether a window had not been left unclosed; nor did it seem to strike any of the natives present that he was justly chargeable with indecorum. So much do continental ideas of propriety differ from our own! On another occasion, the consul was obliged to

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INDELICATE HABITS OF

turn two men out of the cabin when his ladies wished to repair thither; and his just representation of the inexpediency of their entering it led to a sharp reply in defence of this violation of delicacy. Above deck others of the party were guilty of acts equally rude and inconsiderate, mounting on the steps of the carriages, and even seating themselves in the interior, without asking permission. Nor were the women less deficient in propriety. While one of the gentlemen was sitting with some ladies in the cuddy, a female standing close to him, preparatory to a siesta, suddenly stripped herself of very nearly all her clothes but one garment; they fell from her by a single action of the arms, as if prepared beforehand for an exhibition; at the same time, her manner indicated an utter unconsciousness of indecorum, which could not be supposed to be intentional on the part of a mother advanced in years, in the company of her daughter and husband. When the time of repose arrived, each individual undressed as much as he thought fit; the men for the most part but little, the women entirely; and a girl of seventeen years, with her mother and another female, disrobed themselves in the presence of twenty men, and in the full light of six candles, without attempt

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ing to conceal their persons. From these examples, however, we would not draw too sweeping a conclusion. A steamer is not the fittest place in which to seek for polished manners or the highest society. Accident may carry there the most refined, but the majority will be of an inferior class; and we would deprecate an inference from the above recital unfavorable to the high bred ladies of Hungary, of whom we enjoyed little opportunity of forming an opinion. Of the gentlemen of that country the excursion from Presburg afforded a pleasing specimen.

During a voyage of fifteen hours through a hundred and forty-five miles, we passed no town of note. Among the numerous islands formed by the separation and reunion of branches of the river, the largest is that of Csepel, which contains nine villages and a town, and is thirty-six miles in length. In the time of Marie Thérèse, the whole was laid out as a garden and belonged to the Jesuits, who cultivated it till their banishment from the empire. Towards evening we stopped to take in wood at Tolna, and anchored at night in a solitary spot not far from the village of Baja.

From Pest the Danube flows due south through the comitat,* or county, of the same

• Latin, comitatus; whence Hungarian, comitat; French, comté; Italian, contea; and English, county.