52 AN'DALUSIAN SKETCHES. 



secretly to wear next my heart a talisman which acted as a sure pre- 

 servative against the effects of poison. Ahi esia," said Tio Juan, 

 producing to my view what appeared to be a small piece of shrivelled 

 discoloured parchment. " This is it," continued he ; "it is part of the 

 skin of a wild black dog which had not a spot of white about him. 

 The animal, when in perfect health, was killed near Alhamaby a single 

 blow with a stick blessed by a holy man, a descahado, a wandering 

 barefoot monk of the monastery of ' Nuestra Senora de los Reme- 

 dios.' Ya esia en el cielo ! (He is now in heaven!) Before the 

 kindness of my nurse had procured for me this never-failing protec- 

 tion, my health and the powers of my mind had been somewhat 

 affected. Thanks, however, to the friendly dog-skin, I survived, 

 most probably to the great surprise of my uncle. When I attained 

 the age of twenty-one, he refused to make over to me my property 

 on the plea of my being an idiot, and in the opinion that I was such, 

 I fear he was supported by most of the townspeople, who judged me 

 only by my wretched appearance. I did not, however, tamely sub- 

 mit. I loudly proclaimed his villany his treachery and disclosed 

 the means by which I had avoided the death intended for me. But, 

 alas ! the greater number of those to whom I related my wrongs con- 

 sidered my statement as indeed the raving of a madman. To save; 

 myself now from Felipe's certain vengeance, I fled from the town, 

 and sought refuge in the mountains. I established myself in yon A 

 wild Sierra, just above these baths. A cavern was my abode. At 

 first I subsisted upon roots and wild fruit ; then I became known to 

 the kind goatherds, who charitably gave me, from time to time, 

 bread and millet, and occasionally some rude article of dress. 

 Daily I descended the mountain to these springs, where I bathed 

 and drank to allay my thirst. At that period there were not any 

 buildings. The spot was rarely visited, and then only by curious 

 travellers as a place celebrated in the time of the Romans. It 

 must have been about five years that I lived this life. The 

 waters, of the virtues of which I was then ignorant, had gradually 

 and almost imperceptibly worked a wonderful cure upon me. All 

 the effects of the poison I had taken before wearing the talisman 

 (for that administered to me afterwards was powerless) vanished. 

 My intellects recovered their original vigour. I became sensible 

 that the life of a savage was unbecoming my station and claims. I 

 quitted the cave, and proceeded to Estepona. My appearance, you 

 will easily conceive, was singular enough ; and you cannot wonder 

 that on my entrance into the town I was followed by every cur-dog 

 and urchin in it. Thus attended, I sought refuge in the Convent of 

 San Juan de Dios. In the confessional, the pious Padre Cid learned 

 my story : he granted me absolution for my numerous sins in having 

 been absent for so many years from the ordinances and ceremonies of 

 the mother church. But the good father's Christian charity did not 

 stop here ; he furnished me with clothes, and assigned to me a dor- 

 mitory in the convent. He further sent for Don Pablo Espana, the 

 escribano of Estepona a wonderful lawyer, who undertook my cause 

 solely from a sense of its justice. I engaged and bound my self, however, 

 to give him one half of the value of the property recovered, and likewise 



