Дракула / Dracula

I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd, so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out.

I must say they were not cheering to me, for amongst them were “Ordog”—Satan, “Pokol”—hell, “stregoica”—witch, “vrolok” and “vlkoslak”—both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either werewolf[13 - werewolf – вурдалак] or vampire. (Mem., I must ask the Count about these superstitions.

)

When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me.

With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they meant. He would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye[14 - guard against the evil eye – защита от дурного глаза].

This was not very pleasant for me, just starting for an unknown place to meet an unknown man. But everyone seemed so kind-hearted, and so sorrowful, and so sympathetic that I could not but be touched.

I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the yard.

Then our driver, whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the boxseat[15 - whose wide linen drawers covered the whole front of the boxseat – чьи широченные холщовые штаны закрывали собой почти все козлы],—“gotza” they call them—cracked his big whip over his four small horses, which ran abreast, and we set off on our journey.

While they were going as fast as they could Jonathan discovered many things that were new to him.

Along the road there were a lot of crosses and his fellow-passengers crossed themselves while passing near them. Sometimes the hills were so steep that, despite the driver’s haste, the horses could only go slowly. Jonathan wished to get down and walk up them but the driver would not hear of it. Several of the passengers offered him strange gifts with a kind word and with the sign of the cross.