1828. The Maid of Covadonga. 503 
sion, I proceeded towards the place. On arriving at the entrance of the 
first hut, I found an old and a young goatherd, who appeared as much 
surprised at my visit there, as I was with their uncouth dress and be- 
wildered looks. I hastened to remove their suspicions. 
« My good friends,” said I, “ you seem startled at my approach ;— 
what alarms you? Surely there is nothing very terrible in my appear- 
ance to excite this dread ?” 
« Your appearance, Senor,’ 
but there are so many rogues, that 
« Hold your peace, good man; I am no gentleman robber : no—for 
I merely come to demand——” 
The word demand did not tend to remove the anxiety of the simple 
goatherds, and they evinced unequivocal signs of mistrust in their still 
lennthened visages. _ 
« Gently, gently ; you quite misapprehend me ;—what I wish to 
demand of you is only information—a cheap commodity, I imagine, and 
which no doubt you can conveniently spare, if it indeed be that you 
possess it.” , 
« Well, Senor,” said the elder goatherd, somewhat reassured, “ such 
I may contrive to bestow.” 
« That’s rightly spoken. Now tell me, do you know any thing con- 
cerning a strange being that seems to haunt these places ?” 
« Strange beings, Senor! I don’t quite understand what you mean. 
Sure enough, there’s no lack of strange beings hereabouts. In the first 
place, there’s that wicked tia majura, as great a witch as ever deserved 
to be burnt. Ah! Senor, did you but see her chin! Virgen Santa! 
what a suspicious chin! Then her mustachios, and her unnatural-looking 
eye! Well, I always cross myself whenever she comes into my mind ; 
and I can assure you I am constantly thinking about the witch.” . 
« Why, then, my honest fellow, your time must be, if not very pro- 
fitably, at least very piously occupied, in prayer against her spells.” 
The old man returned no comment, but fervently made the sign of the 
cross—in which devout operation he was joined by his younger com- 
panion, whom I concluded to be his son. After a short pause, the 
speaker continued. 
_ “ Then there is the cripple tailor, who came from Oviedo—a very 
ugly little man ; and then such things as he tells of the foreign parts he 
has visited !—and a great kingdom, called Madrid ; to which, no doubt, 
he arrived in some large ship! Oh! Sir, he is a very learned man ; but. 
Heaven preserve me from all his wisdom !” 
« Hold, my honest fellow ; I mean not to dispute the claims of those 
whom you mention to be called strange beings ; but the person of whom 
I speak is neither the witch with the long chin, nor the learned cripple 
tailor.” 
_ © Then,” quoth the son, “ mayhap you mean, Senor, the mischievous 
hunchback who made his appearance amongst us some days ago. He 
was full of tricks, the wicked, deformed monster! But he is no longer 
here. Some say that he returned to Oviedo, seeing how roughly he was 
treated, and how carefully shunned, by all honest people. For my part, 
Senor, I verily think he was carried away by the devil, one of whose 
imps he surely is. Certainly, his sudden coming and going was very 
’ replied the old man, “is comely enough; 
” 
_Inysterious.” 
