4 SOME J3IRDS OF THE CANARY ISLANDS 



pantomimic way almost any word, converting himself 

 for the time being into a sort of child's alphabet imbued 

 with life ; when engaged in these little performances he 

 never liked being interrupted, and if I understood him 

 before he had finished acting them, as was generally the 

 case, he would still go through with them. One instance 

 perhaps I may mention as an illustration. Before I 

 engaged him to accompany me on the expedition in 

 which we are at present interested, I went with a friend 

 for a two days' excursion across the mountains in 

 Tenerife to a little town of the name of Guimar. On 

 our way up the mountains my friend told Lorenzo that 

 he had been informed one of the guides had covered 

 the distance between Orotava and Guimar in such and 

 such a time ; this Lorenzo doubted, and endeavoured 

 to make us understand, by marking off each word on 

 his finger in his impressive way, that the man would 

 have had to run the whole distance if he had done the 

 journey in the time stated. I could see he was still 

 doubtful as to whether we understood him clearly, so, 

 stopping us in the path and bidding us to remain where 

 we were, he began to prepare for one of his little 

 pantomimic shows, at the same time brushing aside, as 

 it were, all his previous explanations. He then started 

 off at full speed, running up the steep side of the hill as 

 hard as he could. We saw, of course, what he meant 

 almost before he had started, and called him back ; but 

 no, he had his dignity to preserve, and never liked to 

 be interrupted in these little exhibitions, so he continued 

 to run up the hill for perhaps a hundred yards, when he 

 turned and came down at the same pace, standing before 

 us panting, and saluting us by raising his hat ever so 



