Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached, but seemed to have neither eyes nor ears for the outer world. There were many things new to me. For instance, hay-ricks in the trees, and here and there very beautiful masses of weeping birch, their white stems shining like silver through the delicate green of the leaves.

Now and again we passed a leiter-wagon - the ordinary peasants's cart designed to suit the inequalities of the road. On this were sure to be seated quite a group of homecoming peasants, the Cszeks with their white, and the Slovaks with their coloured sheepskins, the latter carrying lance-fashion their long staves, each with an axe at the end.

Sometimes the hills were so steep that, despite our driver's haste, the horses could only go slowly. I wished to get down and walk up them, as we do at home, but the driver would not hear of it. "No, no," he said. "You must not walk here. The dogs are too fierce." And then he added, with what he evidently meant for grim pleasantry - for he looked round to catch the approving smile of the rest - "And you may have enough of such matters before you go to sleep." The only stop he would make was a moment's pause to light his lamps.

Vocabulary:

Shrine: A small sacred place
Hay-ricks: For storing dried grass
Stem: The bottom part of a plant
Cart: For carrying heavy loads, pulled by horses
Inequalities: Here it means bumps and twists
Lance: The spear of a horseman
Stave: A pole
Grim: Dark and depressing
Pleasantry: A joke