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9 UN DEBAT : L.ES MENTALITES COLLECTIYES 609

nobleman, in whose [Fol. 4J absence his wife a very elegant & handsome woman did the honors completely & la Grecąue, whieh style is in my opi-nion exceedingly becoming to an handsome woman with a fine figurę, as that dress shows it off to great advantage. Here we slept upon a divan which is neither morę nor less than a taylors shopboard covered with cushions & which, in sununer especially is fuli as comfortable as a bed. Bukorest is a singular town & appeared particularly so to us being the first we liad seen where the buildings & the inhabitants were in the orien-tal style. The streets were boarded & in many parts closed in, particularly where the bazaars or “rows of shops are. It is the Capital of Wallachia a country independent of Turkey with which it is albed only in time of war. The Wallachians profess the Greek reUgion, & do nottolerate Maho-metism nor do they even suffer the Turks to bring their wives with them to Bukorest. the appearance of this place together with the dresses of the inhabitants &c &c reminded me strongly of what I had read in the Ara-bian nights. After one day’s stay at Bukorest we took the opportunity of accompanying 2 Janissaries who were going to Constantinople with the Post, & after 2 days journey through a dreary plain cross’d the Danube & arrived at Czistova where the last treaty of peace between the Turks &c was sign’d. Here we entered Turkey & began our journey on horsebaek much to my satisfaction as I was heartily tired of tavelling in a cai-riage. Our route lay chiefly through bare & uneveu downs but in the evening we passed some grove.s of fine oaks & late at night came by moonUght into some country which borę morę resemblance to England than any I had seen sińce my departure from it. We then entered a beautiful defile with high rocks on each side & a river in the middle. This continued to Ternova which we reach’d about 1 in the morning. From the lateness of the hour to which we travelled we began to be convinced of the absur-dity of the ideas respecting danger, with which every body had seem’d to wish to impress us. At Viemia we w'ere told that we must take an escort from Temesvar, there they laugh’d at the notion but said that upon the frontiers one would be necessary. Arriving upon the frontiers we were in-J formed that there a guard was needless but ab agreed that upon entering Turkey we must take one & also be cautious of travelling in the evening. [Fol. 6] Accordingly on the first day of our entrance into Bułgaria w© without the least molestation or even apprehension ol it continued our journey till past midnight which custom we have often fobowed sińce, on account of the yiolent heats during the day, whieh till we were a Uttle accustom’d to them were sometimes almost insuppoitable. This account merely shows how little credit is to be given to ab the idle stories about <Ianger with which one is so often entertain’d by kind friends. two months ago indeed there may have been reason for alarm as the people were then in open insurrection over some part of the country. This however had been ąuelled some time sińce by calling in the military. The symptoms we saw of it were about 8 or 9 men impaled ab of whom excepting one had been hanged or beheaded first. Having slept a few hours at Temova we again took horse & rode through a beautiful & web cultivated country charmingly diversified with hills & yallies [sic]& resembbng some of the finest parts of England. [Fol. 7] Such a sight is at any time delightfub but became particularly so to us when contrasted with the miserable