I Compromised The Matter, And Gave Him A Few Dollars, As I
Understood That He Was Mek Nimmur's Private Minstrel;
But I never parted
with my dear Maria Theresa (* The Austrian dollar, that is the only
large current coin in
That country.) with so much regret as upon that
occasion, and I begged him not to incommode himself by paying us another
visit, or, should he be obliged to do so, I trusted he would not think
it necessary to bring his violin.
The minstrel retired in the same order that he had arrived, and I
watched his retreating figure with unpleasant reflections, that were
suggested by doubts as to whether I had paid him too little or too much.
Taher Noor thought that he was underpaid; my own opinion was that I had
brought a curse upon myself equal to a succession of London
organ-grinders, as I fully expected that other minstrels, upon hearing
of the Austrian dollars, would pay us a visit and sing of my great
deeds.
In the afternoon we were sitting beneath the shade of our tamarind tree,
when we thought we could perceive our musical friend returning. As he
drew near, we were convinced that it was the identical minstrel, who had
most probably been sent with a message from Mek Nimmur. There he was, in
snow-white raiment, on the snow-white mule, with the mounted attendant
and the violin as before. He dismounted upon arrival opposite the camp,
and approached with his usual foppish bow; but we looked on in
astonishment: it was not our Paganini, it was ANOTHER MINSTREL! who was
determined to sing an ode in our praise. I felt that this was an
indirect appeal to Maria Theresa, and I at once declared against music.
I begged him not to sing; "my wife had a headache - I disliked the
fiddle - could He play anything else instead?" and I expressed a variety
of polite excuses, but to no purpose; he insisted upon singing. If I
disliked the fiddle, he would sing without an accompaniment, but he
could not think of insulting so great a man as myself by returning
without an ode to commemorate our arrival.
I was determined that he should NOT sing; he was determined that he
WOULD, therefore I desired him to leave my camp. This he agreed to do,
provided I would allow him to cross the stream and sing to my Tokrooris
in my praise, beneath a neighboring tree about fifty yards distant. He
remounted his mule with his violin, to ford the muddy stream, and
descended the steep bank, followed by his attendant on foot, who drove
the unwilling mule. Upon arrival at the brink of the dirty brook, that
was about three feet deep, the mule positively refused to enter the
water, and stood firm with its fore feet sunk deep in the mud. The
attendant attempted to push it on behind, and at the same time gave it a
sharp blow with his sheathed sword.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 82 of 175
Words from 41908 to 42411
of 90207
