A Day in Chitral 2 1 



The dancers having all retired, music began. 

 The band consisted of some six or eight string 

 instruments made from yellow gourds rather like 

 the zither in shape, and two tambourines without 

 the jingle. The singers were three in number, 

 all tenors. Swaying their bodies to and fro, and 

 keeping time with a gentle clapping of the hands, 

 they soon got into the swing of the Chitrali gazal, 

 and with half-closed eyes became lost to all but 

 their own melody. The general effect is not bad 

 if listened to in the way all Eastern music should 

 be, or rather not listened to, for the art of en- 

 joying the music of the Orient is to assume an 

 absolutely passive attitude, and allow the sounds 

 to be borne into one's ears without the mental 

 effort of listening. 



After one rather pleasing air the Mehtarjau 

 inclined himself towards me. 



"My own composition," he whispered. 



I congratulated him. This scion of nobility 

 was himself an excellent performer on the sitar, 

 and delighted the audience later on by himself 

 taking the instrument in hand and producing 

 some very good effects out of it. 



" Call not his sitar a gourd," says a Persian 

 poet, " but a golden bowl, filled to the brim with 

 the wine of song ! " 



Eefreshments were brought, and the evening 



