Hungarians which they had only recently regained, and on which occasion so much Magyar blood was shed.

The oldest part of the building is devoted to the Library, which contains many ancient and valuable manuscripts, together with two original copies of the tenets of the Hungarian Calvinistic faith.

Notwithstanding the silence and solemnity which pervade the place, Debreczin is the most commercial town in Hungary, a brisk trade being carried on not only in the manufacture of meerschaum pipes, but of bundas also, between two and three thousand of these splendid garments being exported annually.

It would have been impossible to leave without carrying home as souvenirs to our friends-who are victims to the vice of which pipes are the medium-some of these interesting articles which are displayed so temptingly and in such endless variety in the windows.

Going into a shop to make some purchases on our way from the College the Professor exclaimed to the woman in attendance:

"I have brought you a lady and gentleman who have come all the way from England.”

"Merciful Heaven!" she replied, "is it possible? And they are not Hungarians? What a pity!" regarding us as she uttered this pious ejaculation with a look in which not only the deepest compassion, but contemptuousness also was mingled.

The Magyars are passionately attached to their country -"Aldott Magyarorsag" (Blessed Hungary), as they call it, the half-educated looking upon the subjects of all other countries with the greatest pity and contempt. The

following mediæval rhyme in confirmation of this fact is still quoted:

"Extra Hungariam non est vita,

Et si est vita, non est ita."

Whilst the greatest toleration exists in other parts of Hungary amongst all classes of society, the Debrecziners form an exception to the rule, and are exceedingly exclusive in matters of religion.

In the estimation of the Debrecziner, there is only one true faith, which he calls the " Magyar vallás," and which he believes he alone of all others has preserved in its completeness. There may be other forms of religion by the observance of which men may scramble into heaven, but the one true and narrow road is that which was instituted by their apostle Calvin. In consequence of its being the headquarters of this faith, Debreczin is often spoken of as the "Calvinistic Rome," and its inhabitants, with their plain attire, their simple deportment, and the stillness of the place itself, as well as the earnestness that sits on every countenance, give to it a character wholly different from that met with elsewhere in Hungary; and as we walked through the town pervaded by this deep Calvinistic gloom, and noted the stern and rigid countenances of the people, we felt thankful we were not compelled to cast in our lot with them "for aye."

Every three months an immense fair is held in the great plains in the vicinity of Debreczin, when an enormous space of ground which the eye can scarce command is covered with tents, booths, and immense flocks and herds. At one time no fewer than 20,000 fairs were held each year in Hungary, their number, however, as well as their importanco

have lessened considerably since the opening of the Alföld Railway, before which time the dwellers of the plains were completely locked in from all communication with distant

towns.

At the time of our visit to Debreczin, the municipality, or whatever form the governing body takes in these "Royal Free Cities," was carrying on an anxious debate on the subject of the supply of fuel for its 50,000 inhabitants. Plenty of coal is found in the country, and the prejudice once existing against its use--to which the Hungarians attributed the "pulmonary complaints of the English, their melancholy disposition, and frequent felo-de-se "-has partially subsided, but the expense of transport would be enormous. At the same time the forests in the neighbourhood are fast becoming exhausted. The construction of a canal between Debreczin and Tisza-lök-about thirty-five miles distanthas consequently been decided on, by which timber may be floated down from the forests of the north-east Carpathians.

CHAPTER XLIII.

FROM

THE WINE DISTRICTS OF TOKAY.

ROM earliest dawn a throng of human life has been pouring into the Square outside the hotel, and the ceaseless hum beneath our window of female voices, the quacking of geese, gobbling of turkeys, and agonising cry of smaller birds whose legs are tied too tightly, assail our ears in a perpetual din and confusion, very hard upon tired pilgrims, to whom, for once, morning sleep might have been sweet.

Looking down upon that busy, hurrying hive who would think it is Sunday?

At ten o'clock the "Big Ben" of the College church begins solemnly to toll for service, which is the signal for the bells of other churches to do likewise, but still the people buy and sell and haggle and bargain and depreciate. The buyer saith, "it is naught, it is naught," and then going his way, vaunteth himself, just as men did in the days of Solomon; and altogether the Debreczin "civis," stern Protestant though he be, manages to combine the worship of God and Mammon on the Sabbath-day in a way that would do credit to any Roman Catholic country on the face of the globe.

But now the bells stop, and entering the church in the market-place we find that a few stragglers are already there,

A term used to denote a Debrecziner citizen.

whilst a man standing behind a small desk is singing lustily for his own honour and glory to a small congregation of admirers. Presently he mounts the pulpit-his hair is unkempt, and his dress proclaims him one of the lower orders and begins reading the lessons, during which people one by one come straggling in till the church is full, and the clergyman, robed in a costume of the Vandyck period, makes his appearance, when the real service begins by the singing of another hymn, accompanied this time by a rather fine organ. Singing forms a very important part of the worship of the National Church of the Magyars, and the people sing with their whole heart and lungs, pausing momentarily after each line to take breath, and then beginning again with renewed vigour, embroidering the " Plain Psalm " with little turns and quivers.

Many of the hymns sung in these Calvinistic churches were composed by Bethlen Gábor, one of the governing princes of Transylvania, a firm adherent to the doctrine of Calvin, who flourished about 1620, and whose memory is much cherished by the Magyars.

almost scowling, old Debrecziner "cives," there being scarcely