psies, where
a band of these wild sons of Hagar were creating a perfect furor by
the shrillness and discord of their voices. Never was such terrific
music inflicted upon mortal ears. It went through and through you,
quivering and vibrating like a rapier; but the common classes of
Russians delight in it above all earthly sounds. They deem it the very
finest kind of music. It is only the dilettante who have visited Paris
who profess to hold it in contempt.

Very soon surfeited with these piercing strains, I rambled away till I
came upon a party of rope-dancers, and after seeing a dozen or so of
stout fellows hang themselves by the chins, turn back somersaults in
the air, and swing by one foot at a dizzy height from the ground, left
them standing upon each other's heads to the depth of six or eight,
and turned aside into a grotto to enjoy a few glasses of tea. Here
were German girls singing and buffoons reciting humorous stories
between the pauses, and thirsty Russians pouring down whole oceans of
their favorite beverage.

Again I wandered forth through the leafy mazes of the garden. The
gorgeous profusion of lights and glittering ornaments, the endless
variety of colors, the novel and Asiatic appearance of the temples,
the tropical luxuriance of the foliage, the gleaming white statuary,
the gay company, the wild strains of music, all combined to form a
scene of peculiar interest. High overhead, dimly visible through the
tops of the trees, the sky wears an almost supernatural aspect during
these long summer nights. A soft golden glow flushes upward from the
horizon, and, lying outspread over the firmament, gives a spectral
effect to the gentler and more delicate sheen of the moon; the stars
seem to shrink back into the dim infinity, as if unable to contend
with the grosser effulgence of the great orbs that rule the day and
the night. Unconscious whether the day is waning into the night, or
the night into the morning, the rapt spectator gazes and dreams till
lost in the strange enchantment of the scene.

At a late hour a signal was given, and the company wandered down to
the lake, along the shores of which rustic seats and divans,
overshadowed by shrubbery, afforded the weary an opportunity of
resting. Here we were to witness the crowning entertainment of the
evening--a grand display of fire-works. A miniature steam-boat, gayly
decorated with flags, swept to and fro, carrying passengers to the
different landing-places.