I am not surprised that my lawyer friend
said that there were still some lawsuits pending in connection with the
allotments of forest and pasturage in this part of Hungary, though
everything was definitely settled elsewhere. The Szekler is as
troublesome and turbulent in some respects as his own mountain streams;
added to which he dearly loves a lawsuit: it is in the eyes of the
peasant a patent of respectability, as keeping a gig formerly was in
England.
"Why do you go to law about such a trifle?" observed a friend of mine to
his neighbour.
"Well, you see I have never had a lawsuit, as all my neighbours have had
about something or another; so, now there is the chance, I had better
have one myself!"
It is well for the lawyers that there is "a good deal of human nature"
everywhere, especially in Hungary, otherwise they would have a bad time
of it, where the legal expenses of "transfer" are a few florins, whether
it be for an acre of vineyard or for half a _comitat_. I must observe,
however, that in the sale of lands or houses, Government intervenes with
a heavy tax on the transaction.
Leaving my hospitable entertainers at Csik Szent Marton, I went on to
Csik Szereda, where I was kindly taken in by the postmaster. In this
case I was provided with a letter; but a stranger would naturally go to
the postmaster or the clergyman to ask for a night's lodging. At first I
felt diffident on this score; but I soon got over my shyness, for in
Szeklerland they make a stranger so heartily welcome that he ceases to
regard himself as an intruder.
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