hedness and deformity, who have collected on the ground at one
side.

Here a water-carrier makes his appearance, with his goat-skin "bottle"
and tinkling bell--a swarthy Soudanese in most tattered garb. The
players and many listeners having been duly refreshed for the veriest
trifle, the performance continues. A prayer is even said for the
solitary European among the crowd, on his being successfully solicited
for his quota, and another for his father at the request of some of
the crowd, who style him the "Friend of the Moors."

At last a resort is made to coppers, and when the story-teller
condescendingly consents to receive even such trifles in return for
prayers, from those who cannot afford more, quite a pattering shower
falls at his feet, which is supplemented by a further hand-to-hand
collection. In all, between four and five dollars must have been
received--not a bad remuneration for an hour's work! Already the ring
has been thinning; now there is a general uprising, and in a few
moments the scene is completely changed, the entertainer lost among
the entertained, for the sun has disappeared below yon hill, and in a
few moments night will fall.

XVIII

SNAKE-CHARMING

"Whom a snake has bitten starts from a rope."

_Moorish Proverb._

Descriptions of this art remembered in a book for boys read years
before had prepared me for the most wonderful scenes, and when I first
watched the performance with snakes which delights the Moors I was
disappointed. Yet often as I might look on, there was nothing else to
see, save in the faces and gestures of the crowd, who with child-like
simplicity followed every step as though for the first time. These
have for me a never-ending fascination. Thus it is that the familiar
sounds of rapid and spasmodic beating on a tambourine, which tell that
the charmer is collecting an audience, still prove an irresistible
attraction for me as well. The ring in which I find myself is just a
reproduction of that surrounding the story-teller of yester-e'en, but
where his musicians sat there is a wilder group, more striking still
in their appearance.

This time, also, the instruments are of another class, two or three of
the plainest sheep-skin tambourines with two gut strings across the
centre under the parchment, which gives them a peculiar twanging
sound; and a couple of reeds, mere canes pierced with holes, each
provided with a mouthpiece made of half an inch of flattened re