Litchfield enquirer., 1874-05-21
"Where shall I hide? See, I am tied l.
 Tied hand and foot. And in irons. to boot. o

And Tn irons, to boot"
 This song was very much in fashion then: God knows, the poor Hungarian sung it right from the bottom of his heart.
 This time, the girls sung it all through their weary way; and their quivering voices flung it up into the heavens so high, that the poor little larks hardly dared to to sing back again. When midday came, the whole caravan rested under the edge of the green mound which rose above the broad puszta.* Who built up this mound? Are our bones in it, or somebody's else? Probably only ours, because the whole region round there IS so very cold.
 There was no village and no town in the neighborhood. Here and there you would come on an open hamlet, what they called a ''Tanya," surrounded by hay-stacks; and even these were very far apart. There was no trace of cultivated land: the whole plain was given up to sheep and to cattle.
 But the "Fata Morgana," what the Hungarian call ''Delibab," |" and other peo- pie mirage, that wonderful, fanciful, and many-colored reflection in the air which you may see on the steppes of the Eastern world, and the prairies of of the West, would bejuggle them every day by showing it's ravishing pictures on the enormous plains of the Hungarian puszta. Yet the people of those regions are so much accustomed to them, that they pay no more attention to them than to shad- ows ill the sunshine. There might be the sight of raging seas: but nobody would think of going there to swim: or there might be the sight of broad forests; and nobody would go there for shade. All the cities and palaces which tie "Fata Morg- ana" represent are images to which they are all entirely accustomed; and nobody pays any more thought to them than you do to Peppers ghost when you see it. Just at this time, the Delibab was every morning in particularly good humor. Hot and heavy blazes the sun down upon the puszta; so that the earth cracked open, and the deep soil all broke into little bits. That is just the day for the "Fata Morg- ana" to delight in. A troop of young girls who wanted to see the wonder ran up to the top of the green mountd, and looked out upon the sky.
 All around them extended sea of rag in waves, as far as the horizon: from this there stretched up to the heavens all the different shadow pictures, blue is- lands swimming in the sea. which would grow larger and higher as they looked on, all covered with green forests of leafy trees. They could see the reflections of the trees pointing down into the water; then the island would sink away, and the | waves of the sea would flow together over 1 it, and cover 1t more and more, till it was altogether gone. There, on the other side, are great palaces with wonderful towers, and chuIches of pale blue; and all around these the sea is washing: and it shakes l o11 fbox, 4l 1. | at last they tumble into ruins,H and the each other. At last the sea is gone, all you can see is the track of stray crane who is quietly flying across from one side to the other. s
 l The girls on the top of the mound were talking about all these changes:- ssSee! that one is just like white church in De breczin. There is one just like the watch tower in Grosswardein. Thesroof is split l in just the same way"
 'Girls, girls!' cried out young moth CT, who was at the foot of the hill, hush ing her chubby baby, Git isn't good to play with witchcraft. Twill. bring no blessing to the house, when you make it out in the Delibab: it's bad luck for any city to be copied in the sky. Be still with your goddess chatter P el "Hushl" cried suddenly all of them to- gether; and then the words died away up- on their lips: they all looked speechIess, with eyes amazed.
 What was it that they saw on the sky!
 In the director of Hadhaz, high above the sea of the mirage. there was the i'm age of a horseman which appeared sud denly upon the pale sky. A horseman, not to be mistaken, of colossal propor. tions, with quiver over his shoulder, with pointed turban on his head. and
 "These Hungarian paszta are precisely simila. | to the Western prairies.