Altogether he looked like an artiste in distressed circumstances, and such he really was.

At a word and a sign from the host he laid aside his bone and drew from under his green silk khalat a small wind-instrument resembling a flute or flageolet.

On this he played a number of native airs.

The first melodies which he played reminded me of a Highland pibroch--at one moment low, solemn, and plaintive, then gradually rising into a soul-stirring, martial strain, and again descending to a plaintive wail.

The amount of expression which he put into his simple instrument was truly marvellous.