192 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 



as if he weighed every word, and taxing his memory 

 of the historical calendar of saints, continued, 



" Se murio aquella santissima muger en el ana 175 

 es decir ya hacen mil quatro cientos anos" [That 

 most holy woman died in the year 175 ; that is to say, 

 one thousand four hundred years ago.] 



" Oh, what a strange thing is this ! " the padre con- 

 tinues devoutly. " After so many ages spent in heaven 

 in company of the angels, of most holy men, and of 

 virgins the most pure ; and, perhaps, also in the com- 

 pany of my worthy and esteemed friend and patron, 

 Don Vincente Carvajal y Calvo, who died a few years 

 ago in San Lucar of Xeres, (bequeathing me certain 

 arrobas of dry wine, of a class I greatly esteem for 

 which act he deserved to be canonised, and, I have no 

 doubt, is,) the said Don Vincente Carvajal y Calvo 

 being, moreover, a man of the purest and holiest 

 thoughts (Dios mio ! what a puchero that man always 

 had on his table !) this holy woman comes here to 

 these wild and remote regions ; this holy woman, (who 

 died fifteen hundred years ago,) abandoning the com- 

 pany of angels, of holy men, and sanctified women 

 and virgins, and also of Don Vincente Carvajal y 

 Calvo (that worthy man !) comes here, I say, where 

 there are neither pucheros, nor garbanzos, nor dry 

 wine, nor sweet wine, neither of Xeres, nor of Val de 

 Penas, nor of Peralta ; where " (sobbed the padre, and 

 bellowed the last word) " there is nothing either to eat 

 or to drink. Valgame Purissima Maria ! And what is 

 the name of this holy woman 1 ? the world will ask," 



