" Dreary, inexpressibly dreary to all
save those who are born within its limits; for, strange to say, they
love their level plain as well, every bit as well, as the mountaineer
loves his cloud-capped home.
This plain--the Alfoeld, as it is called--comprises an area of 37,400
square miles, composed chiefly of rich black soil underlain by
water-worn gravel--a significant fact for geologists. It is worthy of
remark that the Magyar race is here found in its greatest purity. Here
the followers of Arpad settled themselves to the congenial life of
herdsmen. At the railway stations one generally sees a lot of these
shepherds from the _puszta_, each with his axe-headed staff and
sheepskin cloak, worn the woolly side outwards if the weather is hot.
They can be scented from afar, and their scent, of all bad smells, is
one of the worst. The fact is, the shepherds keep their bodies well
covered with grease to prevent injurious effects from the very sudden
changes of temperature so common in all Hungary. This smearing of the
skin with grease is also a defence against insects, which seems
probable, if insects have noses to be offended.
Nowhere does the intrusion of modern art and its appliances strike one
more curiously by force of contrast than in the wilder parts of Hungary.
Just outside the railway station life and manners are what they were two
centuries ago, and yet here are the grappling-irons of civilisation.
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