, and their young voices
prattled away with a musical volubility fit to gladden the hearts of the
very birds. At each step they made some new discovery, some bed of
flowers, or some shady path at the bottom of which the sound of a
waterfall could be heard, carried off by sparkling brooks running on
beds of moss over the whole length of the park until they lost
themselves in the lake; over these brooks were placed at intervals
little foot-bridges painted in bright colours. All these things gave
rise to questions. Naturally Kondje-Gul was always the interpreter; they
all listened, opening their eyes wide; then they started off again,
plucking flowers from the bushes, which they placed in their hair, in
their bosoms, and round their necks. In order to attract my admiration
for these adornments, each of them kept running up to me as if she
wanted a kiss.

If you want to know the thoughts and feelings of a mortal under these
circumstances, I must confess that it is quite beyond my power to
explain them to you. I was bewildered, captivated, and surprised by such
novel sensations that without reflection or conscious analysis, I simply
abandoned myself to them. If you wish to understand them, my dear
fellow, you must first acquire some aesthetic notions which, artist
though you are, you do not yet possess; you must familiarise yourself
with these entirely exotic charms of the daughters of the East, their
youthful simplicity and ease combined with a certain voluptuous
_nonchalance_, the undulating movements of their hips acquired by the
habit of moving about in Oriental slippers, their lissom and feline
graces, and the overwhelming fascination of their languishing eyes. You
must see them in these strange picturesque costumes, so artistically
revealing their graceful forms, in wide silk trousers, tied round at the
ankles, and drawn in at the waist by a rich scarf of golden gauze: you
must see them in their jackets embroidered with pearls, and open bodices
of Broussan silk transparent as gauze; or in the long robe open in
front, the train of which they hold up by fastening it to the waist when
they want to walk about freely--all these things in soft well-toned
colours, blending wonderfully together. It was a dazzling scene of fresh
beauty and strange enchantment, such as I cannot attempt to describe.

Once we arrived at the end of a ravine, where we were obliged to cross
the brook by stepping-stones set in its bed. Thereupon they