independence, that appears to most advantage when united with the qualities of the heart. They possess a degree of vivacity even to impetuosity; their frankness many would construe into rudeness, but it is accompanied with an accommodating temper, and they are ever ready to do services. A sprightly manner, blended with their vivacity, and mixed with a certain head-strong inconstancy, makes their character, to speak freely, resemble that of the French. Having been admitted into a number of companies where French was universally spoken, and remarking the gaiety of some, the impassioned manner of others, the lively turns of the discussion, the desultory interruption of conversation, combined with the affability of all, I have forgot for a time that I was in a foreign country. This description is not, however, more applicable to the Magyares than to the Sclavonians, and must be understood as restricted to the higher classes.

The dress of the Magyare peasant resembles that of the Slowacks, but it is of a ruder kind. Large pantaloons of linen cloth, which fall into the stockings or over the boots, and a shirt which only comes down to the loins; these constitute the summer wear. A large pelisse of sheep skin, often embroidered with other colours, thrown over the shoulders, or a rough great coat, with very long hairs, to resemble the fleece of a sheep, makes up the winter apparel. But if the dress of the peasants be generally coarse, throughout Hungary, that of the gentlemen is very elegant; it is modeled on the equipment of our light cavalry, originally copied from the Hungarian cavalry, which has ever been in great reputation. Our hussars have borrowed their name, their helmets are similar, and some of their accoutrements, as Sako, Sabrack, &c. are terms of Hungarian derivation. According to report, the word Hussar originates from an edict of king Mathias Corvin, ordaining that every twenty labourers should provide a horseman; he was called, in Hungarian, Huzzas, whence hussar has been formed.

The Kumans, called by the Hungarians, Kun, appear to be of Magyare origin; their name, perhaps, comes from the river Kuma, which, from the Caucasean region, falls into the Black Sea. We find, in history, a branch of the Magyare people extending to Caucasus, and on the banks of the Kuma, are the ruins of a town called Madschar, or Madjar, which may indicate their pristine residence. Their history becomes more apparent about the end of the eleventh century, and the beginning of the twelfth, when king Stephen, to recompence their valour, in wars against the Greek emperor, assigned them a district on the banks of the Theysse, now known by the name of Great Kumania or Great Kunia; in Hungarian, Nagy Kunsag.

In a later time, under the reign of Bela IV., a tribe of Kumans, from the northern plains about the Black Sea, came to claim Hungarian protection, and received a portion of territory, now called Little Kumania, or Little Kunia, in Hungarian, Kis Kunsag. Their language is a dialect of the Hungarian. The people are almost wholly occupied in rearing cattle, their situation and soil being favourable for pasturage.

The Jaszons appear to be also a tribe of Kumans. The name of Jasz, which the Hungarians sometimes give to the Kumans, generally, is thought to be derived from their skill in jaculating arrows, and from their being employed in the corps of lancers. In ancient acts, they are mentioned under the names of Balistarii and Balistei, and, by corruption, Philistei, words which refer to a similar import. The Jaszons inhabit a particular district in the comitat of Pest, designated by Hungarian geographers, by the name of Jaszsag, and which was granted to them by king Ladislas I. Their language is the same as that of the Kumans.

The Szeklers must be of the same origin as the Magyares, as they speak the same language and exhibit the same traits of character. They are of a middling size and robust make; their complexion is brown, their hair black, their physiognomy ardent and animated. The people are considered as the remains of the Kuns, and have been settled for ages in Transylvania, where history exhibits them in all the wars and troubles that have ravaged that country. They occupy the eastern part in the local seats of Haromeszek, Udvarhely, Csik, and Aranyos, all conquered by force of arms and secured by treaties, which have likewise guaranteed to them a number of particular privileges. They form one of the three nations of Transylvania; the two others are the Hungarians, properly so called, and the Saxons.

The Wallachians, called by themselves Romans, (Rumaene) seem to be actually a remnant of the ancient Dacians and Roman colonists intermixed. During the incursions of the barbarous hordes, they sought refuge about Mount Hæmus, and afterwards found means to re-enter their own country. Their language is a mixture of corrupt Latin, or bad Italian and Sclavonian; and thus, with the exception of some words, a Frenchman, habituated to the dialect in the southern provinces of France, finds it easy to understand and converse with them. In writing they make use of Greek characters, disfigured more or less. These they have borrowed from the Sclavonians, among whom this alphabet was introduced by the two brothers, Cyril and Methodus, sent from Constantinople, about the end of the ninth century, to preach the gospel and translate the

scriptures into their language. These missionaries added several particular signs to the common Greek alphabet, to express all the sounds of the new language they were to adopt. As to the word Valaque or Wallach, German, it seems to come from the Sclavonian word Wlach, pronounced nearly Valaque, and which signifies an Italian: just as the words Walen and Wallon, in the middle ages, designated a people whose language had affinity to that of the Romans.

The Wallachians are, in general, little and robust; of an aspect rather lively, but of a brutal and perverse character. Their hair is black and clotted together, and of all the tribes in Hungary, they are the most remote from civilization. The men are naturally slothful, and if they can find means to satisfy the most urgent wants, are with difficulty excited to labour. Hence, they ever appear filthy and ill clothed, and they must drag out a miserable existence. From this indolence and wretched condition, De Sacy derives their name. He conceives that the Greeks, who first made mention of them, designated them by the name of Blax, which denotes idle, contemptible. The women, on the contrary, are very active; we never see them unemployed, and if we meet them in the highways, it is always with the distaff or knitting in their hands. It is they who manufacture all the clothing for the family; they assist, and often become substitutes for their husbands in the labours of the field. In their cabins they manage the household business, while the men are smoking their pipes, or reposing sluggishly in some corner of the tenement or garden, or waiting till their meal is brought them. This activity gives to the Wallachian women an advantage of an exterior more engaging than that of the men, attended at times with a certain elegance, and their costume in general has nothing in it disagreeable. They wear no petticoats, but their chemise, often embroidered with different colours, is. always very long, and they spread over it two aprons set off with fringes, one before and the other behind. Their headdress consists in a sort of little bonnet tucked out and rumpled, or in a handkerchief folded somewhat like a turban; the young women have their hair plaited, and sometimes pretty neatly combed.

Maize forms the chief article of sustenance with the Wallachiaus; of this they make a soup called memelige, and a sort of bad bread; they have scarcely any thing else but milk and its produce, with leguminous plants and roots. The men are immoderately addicted to drinking brandy. Their national character is that of crafty, vindictive, pilfering, and superstitious, with no fixed principles of morality or religion. To

which, when we add that they are destitute of arts and civilization, their condition must evidently be abject, and we need not wonder if the Hungarians, as well as other nations, treat them like slaves. They dwell chiefly in Transylvania and on the frontiers of Wallachia, but they are tolerated merely, and are not considered as forming a part of the nations that possess the country. Several, indeed, from some signal merits, have become members of these nations, and there are distinguished families among them, of Wallachian origin. The famous John Corvin Hunniades was of their race; history records his great actions in warring with the Turks, and his son, Mathias Corvin, was elevated to the throne of Hungary.

Exclusive of Transylvania, we find a great number of Wallachians in the Banat, where they are the most ancient inhabitants; we meet with them also along the frontiers of Transylvania, in the comitats of Arad, Bihar, Szathmar, and Marmaros. In general, the number of Wallachians is very considerable, and but little inferior, perhaps, to that of the Hungarians or Slowacks. In 1790 they rated their number, in Transylvania alone, at one million; at that time they were soliciting a participation in the privileges of the other nations. In Hungary, properly so called, they occupy 1024 villages along the frontiers of Wallachia and Transylvania. Their fecundity is very great, and in places where they inhabit, in common with the Servians, they supplant the latter, just as the Sclavonians do the Germans and Magyares. There are now among them, families of Russniacs, of Servians, and Bulgarians, which have lost every trace of their primitive language.

But

Next to the Sclavonians, the Germans undoubtedly form the most ancient nation of Hungary. In fact, many tribes of Germans settled in the western parts of the country, prior to the invasion of the Magyares, and especially after the destruction of the Awares. At the arrival of the Magyares, all the western part of the country, included between the Danube and the Save, had been subjected to the emperor Arnulph, and although that part was quickly wrested from him, a great number of the inhabitants would doubtless remain. subsequently to the establishment of the Magyares, the number of Germans increased considerably. King, or Sainted Stephen, the primitive legislator of Hungary, feeling the necessity of augmenting the population, granted privileges to invite German colonists, which were carefully preserved by his successors. And thus, from the eleventh century, the Germans possessed settlements in different parts of Hungary. But it was more especially in the twelfth century, under king Geysa II., that they arrived in numerous bodies, so as to fill entire

comitats and provinces. They mostly fixed their residence in the northern provinces and in Transylvania, so that from Presburg to the frontiers of Wallachia, they formed a sort of military cordon. They came from all countries, from Flanders, the Netherlands, Alsace, and the southern parts of Germany; they are designated, however, by the general name of Saxons. These ancient Germans have proved a valuable acquisition to the country, compensating amply for the privileges granted to them. The civil professions of the state of burgesses originate from them, and to them may be attributed the opening and labours of the mines. By the Germans, industry was introduced into the towns, and a commercial intercourse with the north created. They early adopted the manners and costume of the country, though partly mixed with their own; but in some cantons they have a particular mode, which appears odd, of wearing a white chemise over a dark-coloured culotte. The ancient colonists look with an evil eye on the fresh comers from the Palatinate, Franconia, Suabia, and Bavaria, that arrived in Hungary at the beginning of the eighteenth century, after the expulsion of the Turks. These last go by the name of Suabians (Schwaben) which is become a term of reproach, "he is a Suabian, es ist ein Schwabe."

The number of those whose vernacular tongue is German, is comparatively small; a circumstance which is owing to the influence of the Slowacks. In many places originally founded by the Germans, we at present only find Sclavonians. The vestiges are few of that great girdle that reached from the foot of the Carpathians into Transylvania. It is in the comitat of Lips, in the centre of the Carpathians, that they mostly abound, their number exceeding 60,000. There is another numerous assemblage of them in Transylvania; there the Germans, under the name of Saxons, occupy the local seats of Hermanstadt, Nagysink, Medgyes, Reps, Segesvar, Szaszsches, Szaszvaros, Szerdahely, and Uj Egyhaz, together with the districts of Bistricz and Kronstadt. Here they form one of the three nations, and possess particular privileges which rank them above the state of burgesses. There are also many Germans in the Banat, colonists of the eighteenth century. We trace them again in great numbers towards the frontiers of Austria, in the comitats of Edenburg, Eisenburg, and Wieselburg, besides which, there are many Germans scattered through all parts of Hungary. Several are to be found in all the mining towns, and whatever depends on industry or trading concerns, in the free towns, is chiefly in the hands of the Germans.

In the Population of Hungary, other nations require to be mentioned, though their number be, comparatively, inconsiVOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. L, Vol. IX.

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