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Borrow, George Henry, 1803-1881

"The Romany Rye"

"No, I thank God that I do
not belong to the stupid sluggish Germanic race, but to a braver,
taller, and handsomer people;" here taking the pipe out of his
mouth, he stood up proudly erect, so that his head nearly touched
the ceiling of the room, then reseating himself, and again putting
the syphon to his lips, he added, "I am a Magyar."
"What is that?" said I.
The foreigner looked at me for a moment, somewhat contemptuously,
through the smoke, then said, in a voice of thunder, "A Hungarian!"
"What a voice the chap has when he pleases!" interposed the jockey;
"what is he saying?"
"Merely that he is a Hungarian," said I; but I added, "the
conversation of this gentleman and myself in a language which you
can't understand must be very tedious to you, we had better give it
up."
"Keep on with it," said the jockey, "I shall go on listening very
contentedly till I fall asleep, no bad thing to do at most times."

CHAPTER XXXIX

The Hungarian.

"Then you are a countryman of Tekeli, and of the queen who made the
celebrated water," said I, speaking to the Hungarian in German,
which I was able to do tolerably well, owing to my having
translated the Publisher's philosophy into that language, always
provided I did not attempt to say much at a time.


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