I wished I had made the
horse his own medicine-chest, and given him his three doses at once.
Let the weather be ever so warm in Hungary, it is not wise to take even
a day's ride without a good warm plaid; the changes of temperature are
often very sudden, and herein is the danger of fever. The peasant says,
"In summer take thy _bunda_ (fur cloak)."
To complete the catalogue of my travelling appendages, I may mention a
revolver, a bowie-knife, a compass, good maps of the country, and a
flask. My flask held exactly a bottle of wine; it was covered with thick
felt, which on being soaked in water has the effect of keeping the wine
quite cool for an incredibly long time, even in the hottest weather. I
have been told that the Arabs in the desert have long been up to this
dodge with respect to their water-bottles, which are suffered to leak a
little to keep up the evaporation. The food I carried was of course
renewed from time to time, according to circumstances. Naturally I
economised the lamp spirit whenever I could obtain sticks for boiling
the water, as the spirit could not always be procured in the Hungarian
villages.
In starting for Dognacska and Reschitza, we had before us a ride of more
than thirty miles through a very rough country, and with uncertain
prospects of accommodation, so I took with me all my travelling
"contraptions," as they say in the west of England. The weather was
excessively hot the morning H---- and I started on our expedition.
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