His eyes
were half-closed, giving them a sulky look, and his head was averted. He
made no reply to Ingolby, but his head swayed from side to side in that
sensuous state produced by self-hypnotism, so common among the half-
Eastern races. By an effort of the will they send through the nerves a
flood of feeling which is half-anaesthetic, half-intoxicant. Carried
into its fullest expression it drives a man amok or makes of him a
howling dervish, a fanatic, or a Shakir. In lesser intensity it produces
the musician of the purely sensuous order, or the dancer that performs
prodigies of abandoned grace. Suddenly the sensuous exaltation had come
upon Jethro Fawe. It was as though he had discharged into his system
from some cells of his brain a flood which coursed like a stream of soft
fire.
In the pleasurable pain of such a mood he drew his bow across the strings
with a sweeping stroke, and then, for an instant, he ran hither and
thither on the strings testing the quality and finding the range and
capacity of the instrument. It was a scamper of hieroglyphics which
could only mean anything to a musician.
"Well, what do you think of him?" Ingolby asked as the Romany lowered
the bow.
Pages:
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67