i<*52-] ST. JOHN'S DAY. 269 



him away out of the house ; the master then blacked his face, 

 and made himself as much like the old nigger as he could. 

 On the evening appointed Death came. 'Good-evening, 

 Comadre,' said he ; ' where is my compadre ? I'm obliged to 

 take him with me. ' Oh ! Compadre,' said she, * he didn't at 

 all expect you, and is gone on some business into the village, 

 and won't be back till late.' * Now I'm in a pretty mess,' said 

 Death ; ' I did not expect my compadre would have treated 

 me so; it's very ungentlemanly of him to get me into this 

 scrape after all I've done for him. However, I must take 

 somebody ; who is there in the house ? ' The woman was 

 rather alarmed at this question, for she expected he would 

 immediately have started off to the village in search of her 

 husband: however, she considered it best to be civil, so 

 replied, 'There's only our old nigger, that's in the kitchen, 

 getting supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, and take a bit, 

 and then perhaps my husband will be in ; I'm very sorry he 

 should give you so much trouble.' 'No, I can't stay,' said 

 Death ; ' I've got a long way to go, and must take somebody, 

 so let's see if the old nigger will do ? ' and he walked into the 

 kitchen, where the man was pretending to be busily engaged 

 over the fire. 'Well, if Compadre won't come, I suppose I 

 must take the old nigger,' said Death; and before the wife 

 could speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell 

 her husband a corpse. 



"So you see," said the old woman to me, "when a man's 

 time is come he must go : neither doctors nor anything else 

 can stop him, and you can't cheat Death nohow." To which 

 sentiment I did not think it worth while to make any objection. 



About two days before had been St. John's day, when it is 

 the custom to make bonfires and jump over and through them, 

 which act is considered by the common people as an important 

 religious ceremony. As we were talking about it, the old lady 

 gravely asked if we knew that animals also passed through the 

 fire ? We replied that we were not aware of the fact ; upon 

 which she informed us that we might hereafter believe it, for 

 that she had had ocular demonstration of it. " It was last 

 year," said she, "on the day after St. John's, my son went out 

 to hunt, and brought home a cotia and a paca", and both of 

 them were completely scorched all along the belly : they had 

 evidently passed through the fire the night before." "But 



