MUSICIANS AT THE ASIAN SWEET WATERS.       56

the young beauty is beside her, veiled and draped with jealous care, it is true, but with a heart as warm, and a fancy as buoyant, as though yashmacs and lattices were unknown in the land of her birth; her pale cheek flushes, and her pulses quicken as she listens; for to her the songs of the polgim-bards tell a deeper and a dearer tale than to her placid grand dame; while the attentive children gather together in groupes, and gaze and hearken in mute and wondering admiration. Many a wild legend to the minstrels chaunt, in a slow, drawling, monotonous tone, which can add but little to the charm of the subject-matter of their song;while an occasional rasp of the grating tambourine, a rapid rattling of its silver bells, and the hollow sound emitted by the small Arab drums which are their usual accompaniment, alone serve to relieve the tedium of recitation. Pleasant, however, must be the lays which they pour forth; for many of their fair auditors will remain unweariedly for hours, listening and applauding with low-breathed "Mashallahs!" and "Ajaibs!" (*) and without a single symptom of ennui.

Wallachian and Jewish musicians are commen; and the extraordinary lenght of time during which they will dwell umon a single note, with their heads thrown back, their mouths open, and their eyes fixed, and then follow it up with a whole sentence, rapidly and energetically uttered, is most singular. But these irental troubadours are not without their rivals in the admiration of the veiled beauties who surround them; conjurors, improvvisatori, story-tellers, and Bulgarian dancers, are there also, to seduce away a portion of their audience; while the unterruptions caused by fruit, sherbet, and water-venders, are incessant. They are, however, the most popular of all; and a musician, whose talent is known and acknowledged, seldom fails to pass a very profitable day at the Asian Sweet Waters on every occasion of festival.

(*) Wonderful!