[30] The Virgin Martyr, Santa Lucia, had her eyes burnt out of her head,
and is regarded, in the Catholic Church, as particularly powerful in the
cure of all diseases of the eyes. She is usually represented as bearing
her eyes on a salver, which she holds in her hand.

"And you will do well, daughter," replied the old woman. "Don't be
niggard, mind. It is a good thing to carry one's own candles before one
dies, and not to wait until they are offered by the heirs and executors
of our testament."

"You speak excellently, Mother Pipota," said Escalanta; and, putting her
hand into her pocket, she drew forth a cuarto, which she gave the old
woman, requesting her to buy two candles for her likewise, and offer
them to such saints as she considered the most useful and the most
likely to be grateful. With this old Pipota departed, saying,

"Enjoy yourselves, my dears, now while you have time, for old age will
come and you will then weep for the moments you may have lost in your
youth, as I do now. Commend me to God in your prayers, and I will
remember you, as well as myself, in mine, that he may keep us all, and
preserve us in this dangerous trade of ours from all the terrors of
justice." These words concluded, the old woman went her way.

Dame Pipota having disappeared, all seated themselves round the mat,
which Gananciosa covered with the sheet in place of a table-cloth. The
first thing she drew from the basket was an immense bunch of radishes;
this was followed by a couple of dozens or more of oranges and lemons;
then came a great earthen pan filled with slices of fried ling, half a
Dutch cheese, a bottle of excellent olives, a plate of shrimps, and a
large dish of craw-fish, with their appropriate sauce of capers, drowned