The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-13

Cnantnent, Tor the table was laid out in European style, and we had counted
 upon the pleasure of setting around the tifour-the low table which all
 African Hebrews use when by theh- 1 selves;-of washing our hands in the copper dish, handed to everybody at
 the beginning of the meal;-of hearing
 the head or the family utter the accus-
 toned prayer, God be praised who | has made this bread to issue from the earth"-of seeing him cut slice of 1 bread and distribute it in fragments
 among all his guests; of plunging a
 wooden spoon into the single dish | placed in the center of the tifour.
 Alas! we had nothing but ordinary, though expensive china, evidently i trotted out from its accustomed seclu-
 sion for our especial benefit. Every
 body tried to appear at ease with his
 knife and fork and napkin and assumed for the occasion European manners;
 but with such indifferent success that
 your correspondent registered anew a
 solemn VOW that if ever the king of { Timbucto, or any other foreign poten- tate, comes to visit her, she will stick u iltl every -udy NdyS, Idllle1 liletil iou
 him of the pleasure of seeing some
 thing new by trying to initiate his!
 The fantastic viands that issued from
 the kitchen of our entertainers
 brought across the sunny court-yards
 on the heads of women wrapped like
 spooks in white bernouses-gave q flat
 contradiction to those commonplace
 forks and napkins. There were inter-
 minable def1les of betil, small meat
 cakes, which might be about forty-sec-
 ond cousins to American cooking
 schooleroquettes; of yaprague-balls of
 minced meat, fried in oil; of brania--a
 mixture of vegetables. also done in
 oil; and many other culinary extrava-
 gances whose ingredients we could not
 guess. The principal dish of the din-
 ner was the inevitable couscouss or stew--of fish, flesh, fowl and vegeta-
 bles in wonderful conglomeration- served on top of majestic riee-cake
 fanked by hard boiled eggs, sur mounted by pigeon wings. There were also nuts and sweets and wine; and afterwards coffee. served in the now shadawy cloister of the courtyard.
 Luckily we were saved from return to the cordiality- -discouraging parlor by the arrival of hired musicians for the evening entertainment. Such concert as followed would be worth going all the way to Africa to hear-and much farther to see, if one has eyes and ears for the quaint and picturesque. Cush- ions were provided, upon which the musicians seated themselves cross legged, in a semi i-circular row, near the fountain. These Jewish orchestras are composed invariably of five pieces, and the artists execute only concerted mel odies. They have no such thing as song, or theme, only fragments of phrases, repeated for hours in rude, monotonous yet attractive strains, without the slightest variation. The tambourine beats the rhythm and is master of the situation. The urbad is a kind of glorified violin, made of Indi- an walnut, incrusted with mother of pearl. It is strung with two chords; the table formed in it's upper half of { hck copper plate, pierced with three roses, and in it's lower half of an out stretched skin firmly glued. The bridge is nothing more than bit of bamboo, placed obliquely under the strings These are stretched by means of couple of pegs The bow used in playing the urbab Is nine inches long, curved like a scimetar, it's handle in crusted with silver and' precious stones.
 Next comes the kouistra, or Moorish It resembles the ancient lute, but is of smaller size. It Is formed of convex case, made of spindes of beech wood, fastened together with thin strips of Indian walnut The ta- ble Is of cedar. The eight cat-gut strings are arranged in pairs, thus four tunes which harmoniza in chords. The handle is of ebony, inlaid with mother-o pearl. | Sounds of exceeding softness are ob- 1 tained from the kouestra. by means of | ! feather held between the thumb and | index finger of the left hand "The 1 Last Rose of Summer" for instance. | rendered in this manner by an artist in | music, can be equaled by nothing short of the heavenly choirs.
 The kamendia Is simply the Euro [ oean violin, dating from the days when | he Moors occupied sunny Andalusia It is related that one day at court | concert in the Alhambra, when the mu- sician had enchanted all his hearers. | he Sultan exclaimed "El kamel djah!" Perfection at lastD And ever since he eulogy, with slight modification, 1as been the name of the wonder.work- ng fiddle. hTe Jews do not play it in he European fashion, but hold the in- ltrument upright before them.
 Then comes the centhr-the only in- ;trument used in Africa which yields LII the notes of the gamut. It it the lncient psalterion, or rather the tym- haped like trapeze, about four inch IS deep by sixteen long. The cedar table" is enriched with painted and ;ilded ornamentation; it is pierced with numerous "rosts," and bears one
 hundred and twenty strings. arranged n fours, each string stretched by neans of an iron peg. Each group of our is raised by means of bridge sometimes to the right some ines to the left, for a fourth of the whole length of the instrument. This ecures an attenuation of grave and harp sounds. The performer holds in ach hand a hammer, shaped like the Jade of a knife, and with this he trikes the strings. The derboricha, or tambourine, is lade if glazed earth, not unlike a bot