NATIONAL TASTE FOR MUSIC. 
657 
are the very sinks of equality; masters, servants, thieves, and 
honest men, being all mingled in that sort of hail-fellow , well-met 
familiarity, that makes the same pipe and coffee-pot common to 
the whole party. In short, from the extreme coarseness of these 
most barbarously unmannered people, rude as my Janissary now 
and then seemed inclined to shew himself, I venture to pro¬ 
nounce it impossible for any Christian European to traverse 
these Turkish districts, without the protection of such an officer 
of the Porte. He brought supper forward in due order, which, 
in the true eastern style, when once the double mess was drawn 
from the same dish, published amnesty this time between him 
and me ; and by way of dessert, I might have amused myself 
very well with the motley group around me, could I have con¬ 
fined my senses to my eyes and ears. The latter, however, 
were called on for a little trial likewise ; the Surregee, or leader 
of our baggage horses, volunteering a few airs on an instrument, 
national with Turks, Persians, and Courds, a sort of guitar, the 
very appearance of which was sufficient hint that nothing but 
the most hideous din could be brought forth from such a con¬ 
trivance ; and the proof was no less ; its music consisting of a 
monotonous scratching on its wires with a piece of quill. A 
dead silence of attendant admiration accompanied the musician’s 
instrumental strains for five or six minutes, when he suddenly 
broke it himself, by bursting forth into a kind of savage bawling, 
now and then diversified by a growl or a yell, rising or falling 
as the boisterous or languishing demons possessed his musical 
faculties. The ecstacy of his auditors was often in full chorus ; 
but none joined so heartily in his raptures, both by gesticulation 
and responsive shouts, as his brother Courds, who seemed to 
feel the words and air of his song with something of the same 
4 p 
VOL. II. 
