"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

glasses of this, and nothing else.

When I got on the coach the driver had not taken his seat, and I saw
him talking with the landlady. They were evidently talking of me,
for every now and then they looked at me, and some of the people who
were sitting on the bench outside the door- which they call by a
name meaning "word-bearer"- came and listened, and then looked at
me, most of them pityingly. I could hear a lot of words often
repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd;
so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them
out. I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were
"Ordog"- Satan, "pokol"- hell, "stregoica"- witch, "vrolok" and
"vlkoslak"- both of which mean the same thing, one being Slovak and
the other Servian for something that is either were-wolf or vampire.
(Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions.)

When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this
time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross
and pointed two fingers towards me. With some difficulty I got a
fellow-passenger to tell me what they meant; he would not answer at
first, but on learning that I was English he explained that it was a
charm or guard against the evil eye. This was not very pleasant for
me, just starting for an unknown place to meet an unknown man; but
every one seemed so kind-hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic
that I could not but be touched. I shall never forget the last glimpse
which I had of the innyard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all
crossing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its
background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green
tubs clustered in the centre of the yard. Then our driver, whose
wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the box-seat- "gotza"
they call them- cracked his big whip over his four small horses, which
ran abreast, and we set off on our journey.

I soon lost sight and recollection of ghostly fears in the beauty of
the scene as we drove along, although had I known the language, or
rather languages, which my fellow-passengers were speaking, I might
not have been able to throw them off so easily. Before us lay a
green sloping land full of forests and woods, with here and there
steep hills, crowned with clumps of trees or with farmhouses. the
blank gable and to the road. There was everywhere a bewildering mass
of fruit blossom- apple, plum, pear, cherry; and as we drove by I
could see the green grass under the trees spangled with the fallen
petals. In and out amongst these green hills of what they call here
the "Mittel Land" ran the road, losing itself as it swept round the
grassy curve, or was shut out by the straggling ends of pine woods,
which here and there ran down the hillsides like tongues of flame. The
road was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish
haste. I could not understand then what the haste meant, but the
driver was evidently bent on losing no time in reaching Borgo Prund. I
was told that this road is in summertime excellent, but that it had