o had perceived at a table a
comfortable-looking man, evidently wealthy, and on a pleasure
excursion in the town, came down from their platform, and ranged
themselves round him to give him a serenade all to himself, as is
their custom. They call this 'playing into the ear.'

"They first asked the gentleman his favorite air, and then played it
with such spirit and enthusiasm and overflowing richness of variation
and ornament, and with so much emotion, that it drew forth the
applause of the whole company. After this they executed a czardas,
one of the wildest, most feverish, harshest, and, one may say,
tormenting, as if to pour intoxication into the soul of their
listener. They watched his countenance to note the impression
produced by the passionate rhythm of their instruments; then,
breaking off suddenly, they played a hushed, soft, caressing measure;
and again, almost breaking the trembling cords of their bows, they
produced such an intensity of effect that the listener was almost
beside himself with delight and astonishment. He sat as if
bewitched; he shut his eyes, hung his head in melancholy, or raised
it with a start, as the music varied; then jumped up and struck the
back of his head with his hands. He positively laughed and cried at
once; then, drawing a roll of bank-notes from his pocket-book, he
threw it to the gypsies, and fell back in his chair, as if exhausted
with so much enjoyment. And in _this_ lies the triumph of the gypsy
music; it is like that of Orpheus, which moved the rocks and trees.
The soul of the Hungarian plunges, with a refinement of sensation
that we can understand, but cannot follow, into this music, which,
like the unrestrained indulgence of the imagination in fantasy and
caprice, gives to the initiated all the intoxicating sensations
experienced by opium smokers."

The Austrian gypsies have many songs which perfectly reflect their
character. Most of them are only single verses of a few lines, such as
are sung everywhere in Spain; others, which are longer, seem to have
grown from the connection of these verses. The following translation
from the Roumanian Romany (Vassile Alexandri) gives an idea of their
style and spirit:--

GYPSY SONG.

The wind whistles over the heath,
The moonlight flits over the flood;
And the gypsy lights up his fire,
In the