172 WILD SPAIN. 



balancing, what scrambling and crawling on hands and 



knees one finds necessary, and what a " cropper " one 



would have come but for the friendly arm of Enrique, 



who, as he arrests one's perilous slide, merely mutters 



" Ave Maria purissima ! " 



****** 



Now we have left the ice and snow and the ibex to wander 

 in peace over their lonely domains. To-night we have 

 dined at a table : there is a cheery fire in the rude little 

 posada and merry voices, contrasting with the silence of 

 our cave, where no one spoke above a whisper, and where 

 no fire was permissible save once a day to heat the olla. 

 Now all we need is a song from the Murillo-faeed little 

 girl who is fanning the charcoal-embers. " Sing us a 

 couplet, Dolores, to welcome us back from the snows of 

 Alpuj arras ! " 



Dolores : With the greatest pleasure, Caballcro, if Jose 

 will play the guitar. No one plays like Jose, but he is 

 tired, having travelled all day with his mules from 

 Lanjaron. 



Jose : No, senor, not tired, but I have no soul to-night to 

 play. This morning they asked me to bring medicine from 

 the town for Carmen : but when I reached the house she 

 was dead. I find myself very sad. 



Dolores: "Pero, si ya tiene su palma y su corona?" 

 .... but as she already has her palm and her crown '? 



Jose : That is true ! Bring the guitar and I will see if it 

 will quit me of this tristeza ! 



Next morning the snow prevented our leaving : and the 

 day after, while riding away, we met some of the villagers 

 carrying poor Carmen to the burial-ground on the 

 mountain-side. The body, plainly robed in white, was 

 borne on an open bier, the hands crossed and head sup- 

 ported on pillows, thus allowing the long unfettered hair 

 to hang down loose below. It was an impressive and a 

 picturesque scene ; and as I rode on, the rejoinder of 

 Dolores came to my mind — " Ya tiene su palma y su 

 corona." 



