dead corse,) your husband is at Granada, fighting with king
Ferdinand against the wild Corahai! (May an evil ball smite him
and split his head!) Within three months he shall return with
twenty captive Moors, round the neck of each a chain of gold. (God
grant that when he enter the house a beam may fall upon him and
crush him!) And within nine months after his return God shall
bless you with a fair chabo, the pledge for which you have sighed
so long. (Accursed be the salt placed in its mouth in the church
when it is baptized!) Your palm, blessed lady, your palm, and the
palms of all I see here, that I may tell you all the rich ventura
which is hanging over this good house; (May evil lightning fall
upon it and consume it!) but first let me sing you a song of Egypt,
that the spirit of the Chowahanee may descend more plenteously upon
the poor woman.'

Her demeanour now instantly undergoes a change. Hitherto she has
been pouring forth a lying and wild harangue without much flurry or
agitation of manner. Her speech, it is true, has been rapid, but
her voice has never been raised to a very high key; but she now
stamps on the ground, and placing her hands on her hips, she moves
quickly to the right and left, advancing and retreating in a
sidelong direction. Her glances become more fierce and fiery, and
her coarse hair stands erect on her head, stiff as the prickles of
the hedgehog; and now she commences clapping her hands, and
uttering words of an unknown tongue, to a strange and uncouth tune.
The tawny bantling seems inspired with the same fiend, and, foaming
at the mouth, utters wild sounds, in imitation of its dam. Still
more rapid become the sidelong movements of the Gitana. Movement!
she springs, she bounds, and at every bound she is a yard above the
ground. She no longer bears the child in her bosom; she plucks it