The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-02-16
A BARD or TIE DESERT.
An English Artist Writes interestingly
az n Rn0n,1.-,

An English Artist Writes interestingly
OF Bcdouin Poet.
Mr.. r. Talbot Kelly, the English
artist, writes Of MY Bedoujn
Friends" i'll The Century. Mr. Kelly
says Of the tribal bard:
He was an old man, gray bearded
and sun dried, and the look of i'm
portance upon his brow was repeat
ed in the expression of reflected
glory which animated the counte-
nance of his son. Each carried an in
strument called ell kemengeh, a kind
of two stringed fiddle.
Shutting his eyes and comfortably
rubbing his hands together, the old
man began, in a harsh, strident
voice, to deliver panegyric upon
the song he was going to sing, call
ing forth repeatedly CALCULATIONS of
"Aiwal'' "Yeuss'' and other ap-
proving signs from the assembled
crowd. After ten minutes of this I
became impatient and exclaimed, "I
drub ell kemengeh va usta'' CPlay
your fiddle, o my mastery where
upon, with sympathetic grunts from
all, he began the overture, weird,
wailing melody, to which the son
played a kind of second in a minor
key which it is impossible to tran
scribe correctly in our annexation.
Beginning like the signing Of the
wind among the palm trees, it grad
ually gathered power and volume in
a crescendo, then died away again to
a breath, playing infinite changes
upon the opening theme. The effect
was distinctly artistic and quaint,
and I was gradually drifting into
state of dreamy imaginings when
suddenly the bard broke silence, and
in voice of amazing power and in
cisiveness began tointonethe "Song
of the Nephaata.
Going back for generations, the
legend described the growing of the
parent tribe into power in Mesopo-
tamia, and how, in course of time,
when men and camels and horses
were in plenty, the head sheik de-
cided upon the conquest of Tunis.
Admirably accompanied On their in
struments, one seemed to hear the
hurried riding Of messengers dis
patched to summon distant families !;
their horses hoof strokes gradually
dying in the distance until naught
was heard but the signing of the
night wind across the desert. Pres
emily from far away was caught the
distant laundering of the gathering
hordes, gradually approaching near
er and nearer until the volume of
sound eliminated in a general salu-
tation to the sheik who summoned
them. Then came the sheik's ex-
hortation, and the description of
their desert journey, which was to
occupy many months.
Incidents by the way-heat, thirst,
noise and dust by day and the eter-
nal silence of the desert by night,
the brightness of the stars, the wax
ing and waning of the moon, the
hardships, excitements, plenty and
poverty of condition-were each in
turn graphically described to the
Same weird accompaniment.
Hour after hour this went on, the
bard's eye cleaning and his voice
growing stronger and stronger, un.
til was almost stunned by its thun-
derjng monotone Meanwhile the
tribesmen, shifting excitedly i'll their
seats and uttering quick ejacula-
tions Of approval, constituted a scene
which kept me spellbound. Even
tually, in the narrative, Tunis was
reached and the horde of Arabs en-
camped beneath its walls.
twas now midnight, and FOR four
long hours l had listened to this
wonderful epic, but realizing that l
was too thoroughly exhausted for
further amusement, l decided to
"turn in and, getting up, I left the
assembly in the zenith of their ex-
citement and qualification.