PIPERS AND MINNESINGERS 



27 



delectable concert begins usually in the late after- 

 noon and continues without ceasing until just before 

 dawn the next morning. Many times I have heard 

 the close of the concert; with the "weesma" hours 

 the rhythmic beat becomes slower ; toward dawn there 

 is a falling off in the number of players ; the beat is 

 still slower, and the notes are hoarse, as if the fiddlers 

 were tired and cold ; finally, when only two or three are 

 left, the music stops abruptly. Fitly and fortunately 

 the song of this cricket is the most soothing of all the 

 songs of insects. To listen to it consciously would 

 make the most unfortunate victim of insomnia drowsy. 

 It is the incarnation in sound of the spirit of slumber ; 

 it broods over the care-tired world, and with gentle 

 insistence hushes it to sleep. 



