The Village Notary: A Romance of Hungarian Life

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Eötvös József. The Village Notary: A Romance of Hungarian Life

PREFACE

THE VILLAGE NOTARY

CHAPTER I

CHAP. II

CHAP. III

CHAP. IV

CHAP. V

CHAP. VI

CHAP. VII

CHAP. VIII

CHAP. IX

CHAP. X

CHAP. XI

CHAP. XII

NOTES TO VOL. I

Note I. COURTS-MARTIAL

Note II. JAROMIR AND ANGYALBANDI

Note III. ACTIO

Note IV. NAGYIDAI NOTA

Note V. KANAZ

Note VI. GULYASHUS; PÖRKÖLT; TARHONYA

Note VII. PROTEST

Note VIII. TSHIKOSH AND GULYASH

Note IX. TURKEY

Note X. GATYA

Note XI. SZEGENY LEGENY

Note XII "I EAT HIS SOUL!" AND "I EAT HIS HEART!"

Note XIII. DERESH

THE VILLAGE NOTARY. VOL. II

CHAPTER I

CHAP. II

CHAP. III

CHAP IV

CHAP. V

CHAP. VI

CHAP. VII

CHAP. VIII

CHAP. IX

CHAP. X

CHAP. XI

CHAP. XII

CHAP. XIII

NOTES TO VOL. II

Note I. BUZOGANY

Note II. TOKANY

Note III. SWATOPLUK

Note IV. HUNGARIAN NAMES

Note V. WIZARD STUDENT

Note VI. TATOSH

Note VII. KONDASH

Note VIII. SCARCITY OF HANGMEN

Note IX. HASZONTALAN PARASZT

Note X. BATTLE OF MOHATSH

Note XI

THE VILLAGE NOTARY. VOL. III

CHAPTER I

CHAP. II

CHAP. III

CHAP. IV

CHAP. V

CHAP. VI

CHAP. VII

CHAP. VIII

CHAP. IX

CHAP. X

CONCLUSION

NOTES TO VOL. III

Note I. KITCHEN-PRISONER

Note II. AGONY

Note III. URBARIUM

Note IV. TRIPARTITUM

Note V. HAIDUKS ON HORSEBACK

Отрывок из книги

The traveller in the districts on the lower Theiss, however narrow the circle of his peregrinations, may be said to be familiar with the whole of that part of Hungary. Some families boast of the resemblance, not to say the identity, of their members. To distinguish one from another, we must see them long and often. The case of these districts is very much the case of those families; and the traveller, after a few hours' sleep on our sandy roads, has no means of knowing that he has made any progress, unless, indeed, it be by looking at the setting sun, or his jaded horses. Neither the general character nor the details of the country will remind him of his having been subjected to locomotion. As well might the seaman on the Atlantic endeavour to mark his course on the watery plain which surrounds him. A boundless extent of pasturage, now and then diversified by a broken frame over a well, or a few storks that promenade round a half dried up swamp; bad fields, whose crops of kukuruz and wheat are protected by God only, and by that degree of bodily fatigue to which even a thief is exposed; – perhaps a lonely hut, with a couple of long-haired wolf-dogs, reminding you of the sacredness of property; and the ricks of stale hay and straw, left from the harvest of last year, impressing you with the idea that their owners must either have an excess of hay, or a want of cattle: – such were the sights upon which you closed your eyes, and such, indeed, are the sights which you behold on awaking. The very steeples, which, before you fell asleep, were visible on the far plain, seem to have gone along with you; for there is as little difference between them, as between the village which you were approaching in the early part of the afternoon and the one to which you are now drawing near. The low banks of the Theiss, too, are the same; our own yellow Theiss is not only the best citizen of our country, – for it spends its substance at home, – but it is also the luckiest river in the world, since nobody ever interferes with it. The Theiss is, in fact, the only river in Europe of which it may be said that it is exactly such as God has made it.

Somewhere on the banks of the lower Theiss, in any of its districts, – say in the county of Takshony, – close to where the river flows in the shape of a capital S, and at no great distance from three poplars on a hill (there is not a hill for many miles in whichever direction you may go, and, least of all, a hill with trees upon it), lies the village of Tissaret, under the lordship of the Rety family, who have owned the place ever since the Magyars first came into the country, – a fact which Mr. Adam Catspaw, the solicitor of the family, is prepared to prove at all times, and in all places, to any one that might be inclined to doubt it.

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Mr. Skinner, not a little abashed, tried to stammer some excuses; but Mrs. Ershebet, knowing that she had the law on her side, refused to listen to his explanations. Her abuse of the justice kept pace with the hate she bore him, and she eagerly seized the opportunity to give him what we poetically call "a bit of her mind." She did this so effectually that the justice was at length compelled to muster all his courage to make a reply.

"Mrs. Tengelyi," said the worthy functionary, his voice trembling with suppressed rage, "Mrs. Tengelyi, moderate yourself; consider that you stand in the presence of a superior officer."

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