of our own
bagpipes. Here and there high falsetto notes strike in, varied from
verse to verse, and then the choruses of La and Ra come bubbling in
liquid melody, while the voices of the principal singers now join in
unison, now diverge as widely as it is possible for them to do, but all
combine to produce the quaintest, most melodious, rippling glee that ever
was heard."

This is the _himene_; such the singing which I heard in Egypt in a more
regular form; but it was exactly as the writer so admirably sets it forth
(and your description, my lady traveler, is, despite your disavowal,
quite perfect and a _himene_ of itself) that I heard the gypsy girls of
St. Petersburg and of Moscow sing. For, after a time, becoming jolly as
flies, first one voice began with "La, la, la--la--la!" to an unnamed,
unnamable, charming melody, into which went and came other voices, some
bringing one verse or no verse, in unison or alone, the least expected
doing what was most awaited, which was to surprise us and call forth gay
peals of happy laughter, while the "La, la, la--la--la!" was kept up
continuously, like an accompaniment. And still the voices, basso,
soprano, tenor, baritone, contralto, rose and fell, the moment's
inspiration telling how, till at last all blended in a locomotive-paced
La, and in a final roar of laughter it ended.

I could not realize at the time how much this exquisite part-singing was
extemporized. The sound of it rung in my head--I assure you, reader, it
rings there yet when I think of it--like a magic bell. Another day,
however, when I begged for a repetition of it, the girls could recall
nothing of it. They could start it again on any air to the unending
strain of "La--la--la;" but _the_ "La--la--la" of the previous evening
was _avec les neiges d'antan_, with the smoke of yesterday's fire, with
the perfume and bird-songs. "La, la, la--la--la!"

In Arab singing, such effects are applied simply to set forth erotomania;
in negro minstrelsy, they are degraded to the lowest humor; in higher
European music, when employed, they simply illustrate the skill of
composer and musician. The spirit of gypsy singing recalled by its
method and sweetness that of the Nubian boatmen, but in its _general_
effect I could think only of those strange fits of excitement which
thrill the red Indian and make him burst into song. The Abbe Domenech
{42} has observed that the American savage pays attention to every sound
that st