or village, situated on a rising ground, with a very wild country
all about it. The road from Badajoz to Madrid passes through it;
and about two leagues distant, in the direction of Madrid, is the
famous mountain pass of Mirabete, from the top of which you enjoy a
most picturesque view across the Tagus, which flows below, as far
as the huge mountains of Plasencia, the tops of which are generally
covered with snow.

So this Don Martin Fajardo, judge, being at Jaraicejo, laid his
claw upon four Gitanos, and having nothing, as it appears, to
accuse them of, except being Gitanos, put them to the torture, and
made them accuse themselves, which they did; for, on the first
appeal which was made to the rack, they confessed that they had
murdered a female Gypsy in the forest of Las Gamas, and had there
eaten her. . . .

I am myself well acquainted with this same forest of Las Gamas,
which lies between Jaraicejo and Trujillo; it abounds with chestnut
and cork trees, and is a place very well suited either for the
purpose of murder or cannibalism. It will be as well to observe
that I visited it in company with a band of Gitanos, who bivouacked
there, and cooked their supper, which however did not consist of
human flesh, but of a puchera, the ingredients of which were beef,
bacon, garbanzos, and berdolaga, or field-pease and purslain, -
therefore I myself can bear testimony that there is such a forest
as Las Gamas, and that it is frequented occasionally by Gypsies, by
which two points are established by far the most important to the
history in question, or so at least it would be thought in Spain,
for being sure of the forest and the Gypsies, few would be
incredulous enough to doubt the facts of the murder and