I could hear them saying a lot of words very often, foriegn words, for there were many different nationalities in the crowd. I quietly took my multilingual dictionary from my bag and looked the words up. I must say the definitions did not make me any happier. There was "Ordog"- the Devil, "Pokol"- hell, "stregoica"- witch, and "vrolok" and "vlkoslak". Both of these last two words mean the same thing. One is Slovak and the other is Serbian, and they mean either werewolf or vampire.

(I must ask the Count about these superstitions.)

By the time we started, the crowd around the inn door had become quite large. Everyone made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me. I asked one of the people on the coach to tell me what this meant. At first he did not want to tell me, but when he found out that that I was English, he explained that it was for protection against the evil eye.

This was not very pleasant for me, since I was about to go to an unknown place to meet an unknown man. Everyone seemed so kind, and so sad. I shall never forget the last view which I had of the inn and its crowd of colourful people outside. They stood round the wide entrance, and in the background there were leafy trees in green pots standing together in the centre of the courtyard.