Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/250

 of an hour, and madden us for an hour and a half with curiously faithful imitations of a steamer's whistle, the bray of a donkey, the clucking of a hen, and other familiar sounds. Roars of laughter, in which an attentive ear may perhaps detect a note of satire, burst from the crowd as the performer passes with singular psychological insight through each one of those varied phases of emotion which agitate the donkey between the broken gasps from which his bray begins, the passionate cri du cœur in which it culminates, and the long, desolate wail with which it concludes. And the blind artist gets his piastres ultimately, though there is a scramble among the mudlarks to grasp them first, the popular feeling being apparently opposed to robbing the afflicted. Still he greatly outstays his welcome. Indeed, he prolongs his performance as unconscionably as though he were giving imitations of eminent actors at an English evening party, and the incessant yelling which has, as at all times, considerably impaired