" MUSIC HATH CHARMS." 385 



stretched forward ; men and women crowded round me, 

 while 6bserving the utmost silence. 



I say it without blushing, I felt completely moved, 

 and I do not think that any debutant, appearing for the 

 first time on the stage of one of the great European 

 theatres, ever trembled more nervously before a fashion- 

 able public than did I in the presence of these men of the 

 wood, these men of rude and uncultivated intellect, these 

 men of primitive and savage habits. 



Soon, overcoming all timidity, my lingers became more 

 nimble, and my harmonies more exact. The melody 

 flowed as if by enchantment, and the cadence was marked 

 by more than two hundred heads bending to and fro in a 

 very picturesque manner. I ceased not to play until I 

 had exhausted my repertory : Meyerbeer, Auber, Halevy, 

 Caraffa, Bellini, Donizetti, and the immortal Rossini had 

 alternately inspired me; and never did the most brilliant 

 performer receive more enthusiastic applause than the 

 wlioo whoos lavished upon me by the Sioux, ravished by 

 this unexpected improvisation. 



Among these bronzed figures, whose brick-red colour 

 so strangely contrasted with the paleness of my comrades 

 and myself, I had remarked a young girl, of slender form, 

 with tiny feet, and black eyes sparkling like diamonds, 

 who, at the first chords of my guitar, had made her way 

 through the crowd, placed herself by my side, and with 

 her face resting on her two delicate little hands, never 

 turned her gaze from the movements of my fingers upon 

 the resounding strings. 



As soon as my performance terminated, I received the 

 compliments of Rahm-o-j-or and all the Sioux, who 

 wished, each in his turn, to touch the guitar, and discover 



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