d heard--the singing of Lurleis, of syrens, of
witches. First, one damsel, with an exquisitely clear, firm voice began
to sing a verse of a love ballad, and as it approached the end the chorus
stole in, softly and unperceived, but with exquisite skill, until, in a
few seconds, the summer breeze, murmuring melody over a rippling lake,
seemed changed to a midnight tempest roaring over a stormy sea, in which
the basso of the black captain pealed like thunder, and as it died away a
second girl took up the melody, very sweetly, but with a little more
excitement--it was like a gleam of moonlight on the still agitated
waters--a strange contralto witch gleam, and then again the chorus and
the storm, and then another solo yet sweeter, sadder, and stranger--the
movement continually increasing, until all was fast, and wild, and mad--a
locomotive quick step and then a sudden silence--sunlight--the storm had
blown away;" and adds, "I could only think of those strange fits of
excitement which thrill the Red Indian, and make him burst into song."

"After the first Gipsy lyric then came another to which the captain
especially directed my attention as being what Sam. Petalengro calls 'The
girl in the red chemise'--as well as I can recall his words. A very
sweet song, with a simple but spirited chorus, and as the sympathetic
electricity of excitement seized the performers we were all in a minute
going down the rapids in a spring freshet. 'Sing, sir, sing!' cried my
handsome neighbour, with her black Gipsy eyes sparkling fire."

Some excuse ought to be made for Leland getting into this wild state of
excitement, for he had on his right and on his left, before and behind
him, dark-eyed Gipsy beauties--as some would call them--among whom was
one, the belle of the party, dressed in black silk attire, wafting in his
face the enchanting fan of fascination till he was completely mesmerised.
How different this hour's excitement to the twenty-three hours' reality!

The following is the full history of a remarkable case which has recently
occurred in Russia, taken from the London daily papers last November, and
it shows the way in which Gipsy witches and fortune-tellers are held and
horribly treated in that country. It is quite evident that Gipsies and
witches are not esteemed by the Russians like angels:--

Agrafena Ignatjewa was as a child simple and amiable, neither sharper
nor more stupid than all the other girls of her native vill