disguise unpleasant smells by carrying a fumigating pot before us. On opening an inner door we entered a small room, in the corner of which lay two women on beds of straw. In the middle of the floor was an iron grate. This being opened by my guide, he descended first by means of a ladder, with a lamp in his hand, by the light of which I perceived that we were in a small antichamber or cell, from which a door opened into the dungeon, the usual sleeping-place of all the male prisoners. It was a small oblong vaulted cave, in which the only furniture was two straw mattresses. A few ragged articles of dress lay near the place where each prisoner was accustomed to rest upon the naked floor. In one corner of the room was a large strong chain, and about a foot and a half from the ground round the whole vault were rings let into the wall. The prisoners at night having laid themselves upon the ground, the chain is put through the irons which confine the ankles of three of them and is passed into a ring in the wall: it is then attached to three more, and is passed through a second ring, and continued in this way till a complete circuit of the room is made. The ends of the chain are fastened together by a padlock, by which the whole is firmly secured. It was painful to reflect that in this state some of these wretches had already passed their nights during seven years. The general appearance of the peasants and of their habitations in the vicinity of Presburg, is thus described by the same intelligent observer:-- No one peasant has proceeded in the arts of life and civilization a step farther than his neighbour. When you have seen one you have seen all. From the same little hat, covered with oil, falls the same matted long black hair, negligently plaited or tied in knots; and over the same dirty jacket and trowsers is wrapped on each a cloak of coarse woollen cloth or sheep-skin still retaining its wool. Whether it be winter or summer, week-day or sabbath, the Slavonian of this district never lays aside his cloak or is seen but in heavy boots. Their instruments of agriculture are throughout the same, and in all their habitations is observed a perfect uniformity of design. A wide muddy road separates two rows of cottages which constitute a village. From among them there is no possibility of selecting the best or the worst: they are absolutely uniform. In some villages the cottages present their ends, in others their sides to the road: but there is seldom this variety in the same village.