Las Hurdes 237 



the younger girls could a trace of good looks be detected. All 

 went bare-foot, indeed bare-leorered to the knee. 



On opening the door of a den — an old packing-case lid, three 

 feet high, secured by a thong of goatskin — two pigs dashed forth 

 squealing, and at the first step inside the writer's foot splashed 

 in fetid moisture hidden beneath a litter of green fern. It 

 being dark within, and too low to stand upright, I struck a match 

 and presently became aware of a living object almost underfoot. 

 It proved to be a baby, no bigger than a rabbit, and with tiny black 

 bead-like eyes that gleamed with a wild light — never before have 

 we seen such s-lance on human face. While examinino- this 

 phenomenon, a sound from the inner darkness revealed a second 

 inmate. We crept into this lair, scrambling up two steps in the 

 natural rock, and from the fern-litter arose a female. She stood 

 about three feet high, had the same wild eyes, unkempt hair, 

 encrusted brown with dirt, hauoina loose over her naked shoulders 

 — a merciful darkness concealed the rest. She appeared to be 

 about ten years old, and dwarfed and undersized at that ; yet 

 she told us she was fourteen, and the mother of the rabbit-child, 

 also that its father had deserted her a month ago — ten days 

 before its birth. The lair contained absolutely no furniture, 

 unless dead fern be so styled. Can human misery further go ? 



The next hovel did contain a batane, or hollowed tree, in 

 which lay some scanty rags like fragments of discarded horse- 

 cloths. So lacking are these poor savages in any sufticient 

 clothing, whether for day or night, that the children, we were 

 assured, were habitually laid to sleep among the swine, in order 

 to share the natural warmth of those beasts. In one abode only 

 did we discover such convenience as a wooden chest. It contained 

 a handful of potatoes, some chestnuts, and a broken iron cooking- 

 pot. We examined another den or tw^o — practically all were 

 alike. If anything was there that escaped our attention we had 

 an excuse — the aroma (personal, porcine, and putrid) was more 

 than the strongest could endure for many minutes on end. 



We turned away. Mingled feelings of loathing, of i)ity, and 

 of despair at the utter hopelessness of it all filled our minds. 

 There, not a hundred yards away, a contrasted sight met our 

 eyes, one of humbler nature's most perfect scenes : a fledgeling 

 brood of white wagtails tripped gaily along the burnside — types 

 of pure spotless beauty, overflowing with high spirits and the joy 



