The Servian
women dress quite differently, wear tight-fitting garments, richly
embroidered when their means permit. The men also figure largely in
embroidery.
In the evening the peasants had a dance on the open space in front of
the _czarda_, or village inn. Of course we were there to look on. I
should observe that we had arranged to stay the night at Moldova, for
the afternoon had been taken up in visiting a large manufactory for
sulphuric acid in the neighbourhood. The dance which wound up the day's
amusements can be easily described. "Many a youth and many a maid" form
a wide circle with arms interlaced, they move round and round in a
marzurka step to the sound of music. It appeared to me rather slow and
monotonous. I do not know whether the figure breaks up, leaving each
couple more to their own devices; but we left them still revolving in a
circle.
The following morning we were off on our travels again. A short drive
took us to Old Moldova, a village within the Military Frontier,
regularly constructed, with guardhouse and other Government buildings,
facing the Danube. At this point begins the splendid road by the side of
the river, made by the Hungarian Government in 1840. It reaches as far
as Orsova, taking the left bank of the Danube. It would have been easier
to have followed Trajan's lead, and have made the road on the right
bank; but there were political reasons for deciding otherwise.
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