DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62355#0135
MUSICIANS AT THE ASIAN SWEET WATERS.
55
of Smyrna; and there is no island throughout the Archipelago where the pome-
granate is richer or more juicy. Oranges, lemons, peaches, and the delicate
golden apple, which resembles that of the West only in form, also abound; and
with a handful of piastres, the amused Frank, determined on a harmless expe-
riment, may freight his caique with an offering which would do no discredit
to Pomona herself.
MUSICIANS AT THE ASIAN SWEET WATERS.
We're coming, we're coming to gladden the throng,
With laughter and legend, with music and song;
Dark eyes gleaming round us ; light tones on the air:
And the greetings of childhood to welcome us there;
A sun in the sky, and a breeze on the sea,
Oh ! shew us the minstrels more happy than we!
MS. Poem.
A DESCRIPTION has already been given of the Asian Valley of Sweet Waters ;
of its majestic plane trees, its laughing river, and its delicious greensward; of the
young beauties who throng its recesses, the Sultanas who grace its drives; and
the rosy children who make its echoes vocal. But its musicians are a race apart,
and the artist demands for them
" A separate mention and a guarded page."
and in truth they are well worthy of it!
Their minstrelsy is none of the sweetest ; it requires not the ear of science to
detect their discords, nor the taste of the poet to smile at their absurdities; and
yet, it is impossible not to welcome them with smiles, for you know that joy and
laughter follow in their train : the calpac of the one, and the turban of the other,
alike covers a shrewd and a busy brain. How much may be told in a song, or
hinted in a stanza! Look at the group around them! The matron is there,
wary and watchful, remembering the years of her own youth, and the evils by
which she was then surrounded; and yet beguiled by the " cunning minstrelsie"
of the wandering bards into temporary forgetfulness of all save the charm of
their ready wit and simple seeming: the young beauty is beside her, veiled and
55
of Smyrna; and there is no island throughout the Archipelago where the pome-
granate is richer or more juicy. Oranges, lemons, peaches, and the delicate
golden apple, which resembles that of the West only in form, also abound; and
with a handful of piastres, the amused Frank, determined on a harmless expe-
riment, may freight his caique with an offering which would do no discredit
to Pomona herself.
MUSICIANS AT THE ASIAN SWEET WATERS.
We're coming, we're coming to gladden the throng,
With laughter and legend, with music and song;
Dark eyes gleaming round us ; light tones on the air:
And the greetings of childhood to welcome us there;
A sun in the sky, and a breeze on the sea,
Oh ! shew us the minstrels more happy than we!
MS. Poem.
A DESCRIPTION has already been given of the Asian Valley of Sweet Waters ;
of its majestic plane trees, its laughing river, and its delicious greensward; of the
young beauties who throng its recesses, the Sultanas who grace its drives; and
the rosy children who make its echoes vocal. But its musicians are a race apart,
and the artist demands for them
" A separate mention and a guarded page."
and in truth they are well worthy of it!
Their minstrelsy is none of the sweetest ; it requires not the ear of science to
detect their discords, nor the taste of the poet to smile at their absurdities; and
yet, it is impossible not to welcome them with smiles, for you know that joy and
laughter follow in their train : the calpac of the one, and the turban of the other,
alike covers a shrewd and a busy brain. How much may be told in a song, or
hinted in a stanza! Look at the group around them! The matron is there,
wary and watchful, remembering the years of her own youth, and the evils by
which she was then surrounded; and yet beguiled by the " cunning minstrelsie"
of the wandering bards into temporary forgetfulness of all save the charm of
their ready wit and simple seeming: the young beauty is beside her, veiled and