Page:Glimpses of Bohemia by MacDonald (1882).pdf/48

 but the Jesuits have now almost succeeded in stamping this practice out. Pastor SèbestaŠebesta [sic]’s colporteur, however, lately found a Roman Catholic family in which the Bible was read night and morning, and on inquiring how it came about that they observed this habit, he was told, “It has come down to us from our fathers.” In the same neighbourhood, two years ago, a priest found a man with a Bible. Seizing the book the priest said, “To the peasant belongs the hay-fork, to the priest the Bible.” “No,” replied the peasant, as he wrested the book from the other’s grasp, “the Bible is mine, and I will keep it.”

Our next visit was to Lhota, in the Little Carpathians, the highland parish of which Mr. Karafiat is pastor. The journey was one which neither of us will readily forget. From Auspitz we had taken train to Vienna, where we spent a couple of days. Leaving Vienna at 8 P.M., we reached a town in the eastern part of Moravia, named Pohl, at four next morning. At that early hour, in the dark, and with several degrees of frost, we had to transfer ourselves from the warm railway carriage to a cold, draughty, cumbrous “post waggon,” not unlike, but much heavier than the old mail-coaches we were familiar with at home. In this conveyance we were jolted over rough roads at a leisurely pace until seven o’clock, when we reached Wallachish Meseritsh, a town of about 6000 people. Here we were met by Mr. Karafiat’s beadle, who was to guide us over the hills to his master’s house. After breakfasting in the principal inn, at the cost of twopence each (12 kreuzers), we hired a carriage, in which we drove to Stritez, a village with a good Protestant congregation., From Stritez we had to walk, as there is no proper road over the hill, although occasionally, after special preparation, carriages have been brought over. The ridge between Stritez and Lhota forms the watershed, the streamlets on the north draining to the Baltic, while those on the south find their way to the Danube and Black Sea. Three-quarters of an hour’s sharp climbing brought us to the top of the ridge, at a point where it was clear of wood, and then we had the full enjoyment of the view. Glimpses through the trees had given us some foretaste of what we might expect, but had not prepared us for so grand a panorama as now