The term Iron Gate leads one instinctively to expect a defile as stern as that of Kazan or many another further upstream; as a matter of fact, the term gate is more appropriate than it would be to a mere defile, which, however narrow, would be open. The gate consisted of ridges of rock in the river-bed, forming quite as great an impediment to river traffic as any iron barrier reared vertically. These rocks have been removed by blasting and now, though the channel requires navigation, it is quite practicable at any state of the water. The “Gate” was declared open by the rulers of the three countries which meet at this point in 1896, though the work had been completed by Hungary alone. The length of the rapids is 1700 yards more or less, and the drop is considerable. This is the end of our special subject in this direction, though a continuation of the trip to the Black Sea may be recommended. CHAPTER XI BOHEMIA AND OTHER LANDS There is a kingdom in the Austrian Empire which arose at one time to such a height of power that it might well have been the one eventually to overshadow the others and assume, as Prussia did, the leading position in the German confederation. This is Bohemia, at first a duchy, which became a kingdom about the thirteenth century. At one time its king had so extended his dominions by purchase and conquest that they included almost all the Empire of Austria as at present known, the kingdom of Poland, and more besides, and reached from the Adriatic to the Baltic Sea. It is well known that Shakespeare in _The Winter’s Tale_ gives Bohemia a sea-coast, a thing which at the present time, when many countries intervene between Bohemia and the sea, seems absurd. There is, however, no real absurdity in it. The date of the play is not fixed, and the traditions of Bohemia’s ancient dominions existed long in the minds of those who had known them. It is true that even in the “long ago” the sea-coast can hardly be described as Bohemia itself, but it was under the rule of the king, and therefore the “absurdity” at all events disappears. The word “Bohemian,” which has become so deeply rooted in our language as a synonym for those who despise convention and live careless artistic lives, has nothing to do with the real Bohemians, who, artistic as they undoubtedly are, especially in the direction of music, cannot be described as unconventional in any unusual way. It arises from the fact that certain wandering gipsies were supposed to have come from Bohemia in the Middle Ages, whether with truth or not seems unascertainable, and “Bohemian” was thenceforth used as a synonym for gipsy.