The Eye of Zeitoon

I

cloud afloat i

ng shadow falls

ing gravel warms

ore wonderfu

myrtle and of aspho

noses sniff t

rkle of the lit

they hunt the

bs glitter with

of brown-it wa

ing music, and t

y heart is burst

or

a swinging crash

e-yah-the k

the foxes v

, no places t

to show wher

rint in the m

overed up the

ee-ay

2

rushes crowding

hite, the wild du

the sun-drawn, li

cret den wher

w sun-baskin

. He looks do

lowing light fr

ears alert be

of purple ri

warming for the

ng and crying

s where the partrid

or

e-yah-the k

he owls the vi

e the next, an

-very hours

d of whose hand

with opal and

ee, a

3

distances beyond a

e the people un

year's way

old! New gr

d rivers hol

athered si

etting where th

ddy highway st

n the open

usne* in the

arm raindrops dru

y on my feet

utflung! And oh,

or

e-yah-the k

the road the

reflected in

hony where seep

than laughter, of

n to where th

ee-ay

ipsy word-Gentile, or

have a smattering of most of the tongues men speak in those intriguing lands. Will and the girl beside him conversed in German, but th

be the only one which that particular individual did not know. All he got in reply was grins, and awkward silence, and shrugs of the shoulder

and she thrust the new mother-o-pearl-plated acquisition in the face of one of the men who dared drive his horse between hers and Will's. That not serving more than to amuse him, she slapped him three times back-handed across the face, and thrusting the pistol back into

an American in all the world knows how to meet Young Woman eye to eye with totally unpatronizing frankness, and he was without guile in the matter. But not so she. We did not know whether or not she was Gregor Jhaere's daughter; whether or not she was t

for sex-enlight

," Fred laughed, "and

roud besides

once because the horses were unused to his clanging concertina, but producing such high spirits that it became a joke to have to dismount in th

diate progress. Maga seemed to take to Fred's unchastened harmony with all the wildness that possessed her. Some c

re was planted in them a rare gift of seeing what the rest of us can only sometimes hear, and of hearing what only very few from the world that lives in houses can do more than vaguely feel when at the peak of high emotion. The gipsies do not understand what they see, and hear, and fee

interminable stanzas of unequal length, with a refrain at the end of each that rose through a thousand emot

rotted along under the snow-tipped fangs of the Kara Dagh oblivious of the passage of time, but very

n and upward, as if the panorama were unrolling and we were the static point, getting out of nobody's way for the best reason in the world-that everybody hi

d Fred serenely, "but

place, the wall of whose upper story was patched with ancient sacking, but whose owner came out and smiled so warmly on us that we overlooked the inhospitab

there is no man or woman free to behave as he or she sees fit. Every one drew aside from Monty, and he strode in alone through the split-and-mended door, we following next, and the gipsies with their animals clattered noisily behind us. Th

ce at the other. Wooden platforms for the use of guests faced each other down the two long sides, and the only promise of better

the man's own exciting claim on the imagination returned in full flood, as he arose leisurely from a pile of skins and blankets near the hearth to greet Monty, and shouted with the manner of a chieftain for fuel to be piled on instantly-"For a great man comes!" he announced to the rafters. And the k

he word astonishingly, "this is the furthest

He was bigger and better looking than Kagig, and there was no mistaking which was the abler man,

, not the lea

zd ne giriftah padshah ast!" (Pr

coat that had seen more than one campaign. Unmistakably the garment had been slit by bullets, and repaired by fingers mor

s land who didn't claim to be something

Fred answered. "Never

tion without mutual offense. Will cleaned for himself a section of the opposite end of the platform, and Fred and I spread our blankets next to his. That left Rustum Khan in a quandary. He stood irresolute for a minute, eying first the gipsies, who had s

leaned by the lean Armenian servant, gave the boy a few curt orders, and there among the shadows made his mind up. He returned and sto

mit? My izzat (hono

amned!" Mon

an colore

paign, sahib, in the days before-the

s your tent, Rustum Khan. Unless memory plays tricks with me, the Orakzai Pathans

y, hu

yours. I might have inconvenienced myself, and dishonored you, I suppose, by sleeping in the wet. You can dishonor the lot of us

, hu

n great style. The owner himself was a true Turk. He had subsided into a state of kaif already over on the far side of the fire, day-dreaming about only Allah knew what rhapsodies. But the Turks

d him-except that I noticed that Maga avoided all the men, and made herself a blanket nest in deep shadow almost within reach of a mule's heels at the far end. I b

likely, Kagig had exercised authority and purged the kahveh of other guests. Certainly our coming had been expe

shadows dancing up and down that made the scene one of almost perfect savagery, Gregor called agai

ree times like sudden pistol-shots. Will did not catch the words, and might not have

lacks their instincts. The gitanas, as they call their girls, are expected to have aversion to white men. They are allowed to lure a white man to his ruin,

man, gipsy hea

ked a trifle restless, but nobody else went so far as to exhibit interest, except that t

ged her out of the shadow by an arm, sending her whirling to the center of the floor. She did not lose her feet, but spun and cam

omen, would have tolerated one blow. But Will was nearest, and he is most amazing quick when his nervous New England temper is aroused. He had the whip out

enough to fight for title to the girl. It looks to me as if Will has claimed her by patteran* law. The only

ran, a gipsy wor

warned Will, without undue emotion, bu

n of the impasse, the one thing he could not do was retreat. We were fewer in number, but much better armed than the gipsy party, so that it was unlikely they would rally to their man's aid. Kagig was an unknown quantity, but except th

et. Maga drew no weapon, although she certainly had both dagger and pistol handy. Instead, she glanced toward Kagig, who, strangely enough, was lolling on hi

regor to send him back to his place between his women and the Turk unashamedly obedient, leaving Maga standing beside Will. Maga did not glance ag

Will and Kagig for that woman ought to be amusing, if only

to his place beyond Fred, leaving her standing there, as lovely in the glowing firelight as the spirit of by

o other illumination, except for the glow here and there of pipes and cigarettes, or matches flaring for a moment. Barring the tobacco, we lay like a

smoked beams that now glowed gold and crimson in the firelight, he grew inspired and made his nearest to sweet music. It was perfectly in place-simple as the sa

ed changed the nature of the music and seemed to be trying to recall fragments of the song she had sung that afternoon. Presently he came close to

platform opposite began to sway and swing in rhythm. Fred divined what was coming, and played louder, wilder, lawlessly. And Maga d

then. He made the rafters ring. And without a word Maga kicked the shoes and stocking

e heart of each of us that can unlock the flood-tides of emotion and carry us nolens volens to the peaks of possibility. Either Will, or else Fred's music, or the setting, or all three unlocked he

deepest approval stirred them, a little more quickly when her Muse took hold of Maga and t

o keep a link, as it were, through which her imagery might appeal to ours. Some sort of mental bridge between her tameless paganism and our twentieth-century

that drama and the tricks of colored light and shade have led them to a glimpse of th

knew. The history of a people seized her for a reed, and wrote itself in figures

stars, the day, the night-rain sweeping down-dew dropping gently-the hundred kinds of birds-the thousand animals and creeping things-and of man, who is

bs of sound that spurred her like the goads of overtaking time toward the peak of full expression-faster and faster-wilder

the anticlimax that sent her, having looked into the eyes of the unattainable, to lie sobbi

choes of the drum-taps died among the dancing shadows overhead a

ee, effendim," he said, pulling

han. The Rajput's eyes were still abla

hast manhood behind t

No man ever yet explai

and the gipsies came last, swarming behind us up the ladder through a hole among the beams, and clambering on to the roo

he sai

throbbing and swelling with hot life like the vomit of a crater. We watche

uppose it is?"

it is," said

l th

Armenia burning. Those are the

you suppose Miss Vander

ing into her eyes as if he hoped to