The journalists also appeared to
recognize them, for Blount said to his companion, "These are
the Tsiganes of Nijni-Novgorod."
"No doubt of it," cried Alcide. "Their eyes, I imagine,
bring more money to these spies than their legs."
In putting them down as agents in the Emir's service, Alcide Jolivet was,
by all accounts, not mistaken.
In the first rank of the Tsiganes, Sangarre appeared,
superb in her strange and picturesque costume, which set off
still further her remarkable beauty.
Sangarre did not dance, but she stood as a statue in the midst
of the performers, whose style of dancing was a combination
of that of all those countries through which their race
had passed--Turkey, Bohemia, Egypt, Italy, and Spain. They were
enlivened by the sound of cymbals, which clashed on their arms,
and by the hollow sounds of the "daires"--a sort of tambourine
played with the fingers.
Sangarre, holding one of those daires, which she played between
her hands, encouraged this troupe of veritable corybantes.
A young Tsigane, of about fifteen years of age, then advanced.
He held in his hand a "doutare," strings of which he made
to vibrate by a simple movement of the nails. He sung.
During the singing of each couplet, of very peculiar rhythm,
a dancer took her position by him and remained there immovable,
listening to him, but each time that the burden came from the lips
of the young singer, she resumed her dance, dinning in his ears
with her daire, and deafening him with the clashing of her cymbals.
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