memory, and so did I, that I might impart it to one of you if ever the
opportunity should present itself. And in hopes to recognise you, I have
made it a practice to call every dog of your colour by your mother's
name, to see if any of them would answer to one so unlike those usually
given to dogs; and, this evening, when I saw you do so many things, and
they called you the wise dog, and also when you looked up at me upon my
calling to you in the yard, I believed that you were really the son of
Montiela. It is with extreme pleasure I acquaint you with the history
of your birth, and the manner in which you are to recover your original
form. I wish it was as easy as it was for the golden ass of Apuleius,
who had only to eat a rose for his restoration; but yours depends upon
the actions of others, and not upon your own efforts. What you have to
do meanwhile, my son, is to commend yourself heartily to God, and hope
for the speedy and prosperous fulfilment of the prophecy; for since it
was pronounced by Camacha it will be accomplished without any doubt, and
you and your brother, if he is alive, will see yourselves as you would
wish to be. All that grieves me is that I am so near my end, that I can
have no hope of witnessing the joyful event.
"I have often longed to ask my goat how matters would turn out with you
at last; but I had not the courage to do so, for he never gives a
straightforward answer, but as crooked and perplexing as possible. That
is always the way with our lord and master; there is no use in asking
him anything, for with one truth he mingles a thousand lies, and from
what I have noted of his replies it appears that he knows nothing for
certain of the future, but only by way of conjecture. At the same time
he so be-fools us that, in spite of a thousand treacherous tricks he
plays us, we cannot shake off his influence. We go to see him a long way
from here in a great field, where we meet a multitude of warlocks and
witches, and are feasted without measure, and other things take place
which, indeed and in truth, I cannot bring myself to mention, nor will I
offend your chaste ears by repeating things so filthy and abominable.
Many are of opinion that we frequent these assemblies only in
imagination, wherein the demon presents to us the images of all those
things which we afterwards relate as having occurred to us in reality;
others, on the contrary, believe that we actually go to them in body and
soul; and for my part I believe that both opinions are true, since we
know not when we go in the one manner or in the other; for all that
happens to us in imagination does so with such intensity, that it is
impossible to distinguish between it and reality. Their worships the
inquisitors have had sundry opportunities of investigating this matter,
in the cases of some of us whom they have had under their hands, and I
believe that they have ascertained the truth of what I state.
"I should like, my son, to shake off this sin, and I have exerted
myself to that end. I have got myself appointed matron to this hospital;
I tend the poor, and some die who afford me a livelihood either by what
they leave me, or by what I find among their rags, through the great
care I always take to examine them well. I say but few prayers, and only
in public, but grumble a good deal in secret. It is better for me to be
a hypocrite than an open sinner; for my present good works efface from
the memory of those who know me the bad ones of my past life. After all,
pretended sanctity injures no one but the person who practises it. Look
you, Montiel, my son, my advice to you is this: be good all you can; but
if you must be wicked, contrive all you can not to appear so. I am a
witch, I do not deny it, and your mother was one likewise; but the
appearances we put on were always enough to maintain our credit in the
eyes of the whole world. Three days before she died, we were both
present at a grand sabbath of witches in a valley of the Pyrenees; and
yet when she died it was with such calmness and serenity, that were it
not for some grimaces she made a quarter of an hour before she gave up
the ghost, you would have thought she lay upon a bed of flowers. But her
two children lay heavy at her heart, and even to her last gasp she never
would forgive Camacha, such a resolute spirit she had. I closed her eyes
and followed her to the grave, and there took my last look at her;
though, indeed, I have not lost the hope of seeing her again before I
die, for they say that several persons have met her going about the
churchyards and the cross-roads in various forms, and who knows but I
may fall in with her some time or other, and be able to ask her whether
I can do anything for the relief of her conscience?"
Every word that the old hag uttered in praise of her she called my
mother went like a knife to my heart; I longed to fall upon her and tear
her to pieces, and only refrained from unwillingness that death should
find her in such a wicked state. Finally she told me that she intended
to anoint herself that night and go to one of their customary
assemblies, and inquire of her master as to what was yet to befal me. I
should have liked to ask her what were the ointments she made use of;
and it seemed as though she read my thoughts, for she replied to my
question as though it had been uttered.
"This ointment," she said, "is composed of the juices of exceedingly
cold herbs, and not, as the vulgar assert, of the blood of children whom
we strangle. And here you may be inclined to ask what pleasure or profit
can it be to the devil to make us murder little innocents, since he
knows that being baptised they go as sinless creatures to heaven, and
every Christian soul that escapes him is to him a source of poignant
anguish. I know not what answer to give to this except by quoting the
old saying, that some people would give both their eyes to make their
enemy lose one. He may do it for sake of the grief beyond imagination
which the parents suffer from the murder of their children; but what is
still more important to him is to accustom us to the repeated commission
of such a cruel and perverse sin. And all this God allows by reason of
our sinfulness; for without his permission, as I know by experience, the
devil has not the power to hurt a pismire; and so true is this, that one
day when I requested him to destroy a vineyard belonging to an enemy of
mine, he told me that he could not hurt a leaf of it, for God would not
allow him. Hence you may understand when you come to be a man, that all
the casual evils that befal men, kingdoms, and cities, and peoples,
sudden deaths, shipwrecks, devastations, and all sorts of losses and
disasters, come from the hand of the Almighty, and by his sovereign
permission; and the evils which fall under the denomination of crime,
are caused by ourselves. God is without sin, whence it follows that we
ourselves are the authors of sin, forming it in thought, word, and deed;
God permitting all this by reason of our sinfulness, as I have already
said.
"Possibly you will ask, my son, if so be you understand me, who made me
a theologian? And mayhap you will say to yourself, Confound the old hag!
why does not she leave off being a witch since she knows so much? Why
does not she turn to God, since she knows that he is readier to forgive
sin than to permit it? To this I reply, as though you had put the
question to me, that the habit of sinning becomes a second nature, and
that of being a witch transforms itself into flesh and blood; and amidst
all its ardour, which is great, it brings with it a chilling influence
which so overcomes the soul as to freeze and benumb its faith, whence
follows a forgetfulness of itself, and it remembers neither the terrors
with which God threatens it, nor the glories with which he allures it.
In fact, as sin is fleshly and sensual, it must exhaust and stupefy all
the feelings, and render the soul incapable of rising to embrace any
good thought, or to clasp the hand which God in his mercy continually
holds out to it. I have one of those souls I have described; I see it
clearly; but the empire of the senses enchains my will, and I have ever
been and ever shall be bad.
"But let us quit this subject, and go back to that of our unguents. They
are of so cold a nature that they take away all our senses when we
anoint ourselves with them; we remain stretched on the ground, and then
they say we experience all those things in imagination which we suppose
to occur to us in reality. Sometimes after we have anointed and changed
ourselves into fowls, foals, or deer, we go to the place where our
master awaits us. There we recover our own forms and enjoy pleasures
which I will not describe, for they are such as the memory is ashamed to
recal, and the tongue refuses to relate. The short and the long of it
is, I am a witch, and cover my many delinquencies with the cloak of
hypocrisy. It is true that if some esteem and honour me as a good woman,
there are many who bawl in my ear the name imprinted upon your mother
and me by order of an ill-tempered judge, who committed his wrath to the
hands of the hangman; and the latter, not being bribed, used his plenary
power upon our shoulders. But that is past and gone; and all things
pass, memories wear out, lives do not renew themselves, tongues grow
tired, and new events make their predecessors forgotten. I am matron of
a hospital; my behaviour is plausible in appearance; my unguents procure
me some pleasant moments, and I am not so old but that I may live
another year, my age being seventy-five. I cannot fast on account of my
years, nor pray on account of the swimming in my head, nor go on
pilgrimages for the weakness of my legs, nor give alms because I am
poor, nor think rightly because I am given to back-biting, and to be
able to backbite one must first think evil. I know for all that that God
is good and merciful, and that he knows what is in store for me, and
that is enough; so let us drop this conversation which really makes me
melancholy. Come, my son, and see me anoint myself; for there is a cure
for every sorrow; and though the pleasures which the devil affords us
are illusive and fictitious, yet they appear to us to be pleasures; and
sensual delight is much greater in imagination than in actual fruition,
though it is otherwise with true joys."
After this long harangue she got up, and taking the lamp went into
another and smaller room. I followed her, filled with a thousand
conflicting thoughts, and amazed at what I had heard and what I expected
to see. Cañizares hung the lamp against the wall, hastily stripped
herself to her shift, took a jug from a corner, put her hand into it,
and, muttering between her teeth, anointed herself from her feet to the
crown of her head. Before she had finished she said to me, that whether
her body remained senseless in that room, or whether it quitted it, I
was not to be frightened, nor fail to wait there till morning, when she
would bring me word of what was to befal me until I should be a man. I
signified my assent by drooping my head; and she finished her unction,
and stretched herself on the floor like a corpse. I put my mouth to
hers, and perceived that she did not breathe at all. One thing I must
own to you, friend Scipio, that I was terribly frightened at seeing
myself shut up in that narrow room with that figure before me, which I
will describe to you as well as I can.
She was more than six feet high, a mere skeleton covered with a black
wrinkled skin. Her dugs were like two dried and puckered ox-bladders;
her lips were blackened; her long teeth locked together; her nose was
hooked; her eyes starting from her head; her hair hung in elf-locks on
her hollow wrinkled cheeks;--in short, she was all over diabolically
hideous. I remained gazing on her for a while, and felt myself overcome
with horror as I contemplated the hideous spectacle of her body, and the
worse occupation of her soul. I wanted to bite her to see if she would
come to herself, but I could not find a spot on her whole body that did
not fill me with disgust. Nevertheless, I seized her by one heel, and
dragged her to the yard, without her ever giving any sign of feeling.
There seeing myself at large with the sky above me, my fear left me, or
at least abated, so much as to give me courage to await the result of
that wicked woman's expedition, and the news she was to bring me.
Meanwhile, I asked myself, how comes this old woman to be at once so
knowing and so wicked? How is it that she can so well distinguish
between casual and culpable evils? How is it that she understands and
speaks so much about God, and acts so much from the prompting of the
devil? How is it that she sins so much from choice, not having the
excuse of ignorance?
In these reflections I passed the night. The day dawned and found us
both in the court, she lying still insensible, and I on my haunches
beside her, attentively watching her hideous countenance. The people of
the hospital came out, and seeing this spectacle, some of them
exclaimed, "The pious Cañizares is dead! See how emaciated she is with
fasting and penance." Others felt her pulse, and finding that she was
not dead, concluded that she was in a trance of holy ecstacy; whilst
others said, "This old hag is unquestionably a witch, and is no doubt
anointed, for saints are never seen in such an indecent condition when
they are lost in religious ecstacy; and among us who know her, she has
hitherto had the reputation of a witch rather than a saint." Some
curious inquirers went so far as to stick pins in her flesh up to the
head, yet without ever awaking her. It was not till seven o'clock that
she came to herself; and then finding how she was stuck over with pins,
bitten in the heels, and her back flayed by being dragged from her room,
and seeing so many eyes intently fixed upon her, she rightly concluded
that I had been the cause of her exposure. "What, you thankless,
ignorant, malicious villain," she cried, "is this my reward for the acts
I did for your mother and those I intended to do for you?" Finding
myself in peril of my life under the talons of that ferocious harpy, I
shook her off, and seizing her by her wrinkled flank, I worried and
dragged her all about the yard, whilst she shrieked for help from the
fangs of that evil spirit. At these words, most present believed that I
must be one of those fiends who are continually at enmity with good
Christians. Some were for sprinkling me with holy water, some were for
pulling me off the old woman, but durst not; others bawled out words to
exorcise me. The witch howled, I tightened my grip with my teeth, the
confusion increased, and my master was in despair, hearing it said that
I was a fiend. A few who knew nothing of exorcisms caught up three or
four sticks and began to baste me. Not liking the joke, I let go the old
woman; in three bounds I was in the street, and in a few more I was
outside the town, pursued by a host of boys, shouting, "Out of the way!
the wise dog is gone mad." Others said "he is not mad, but he is the
devil in the form of a dog." The people of the place were confirmed in
their belief that I was a devil by the tricks they had seen me perform,
by the words spoken by the old woman when she woke out of her infernal
trance, and by the extraordinary speed with which I shot away from them,
so that I seemed to vanish from before them like a being of the other
world. In six hours I cleared twelve leagues; and arrived at a camp of
gipsies in a field near Granada. There I rested awhile, for some of the
gipsies who recognised me as the wise dog, received me with great
delight, and hid me in a cave, that I might not be found if any one came
in search of me; their intention being, as I afterwards learned, to make
money by me as my master the drummer had done. I remained twenty days
among them, during which I observed their habits and ways of life; and
these are so remarkable that I must give you an account of them.
_Scip._ Before you go any further, Berganza, we had better consider what
the witch said to you, and see if there can possibly be a grain of truth
in the great lie to which you give credit. Now, what an enormous
absurdity it would be to believe that Camacha could change human beings
into brutes, or that the sacristan served her for years under the form
of an ass. All these things, and the like, are cheats, lies, or
illusions of the devil; and if it now seems to ourselves that we have
some understanding and reason--since we speak, though we are really dogs
or bear that form--we have already said that this is a portentous and
unparalleled case; and though it is palpably before us, yet we must
suspend our belief until the event determines what it should be. Shall I
make this more plain to you? Consider upon what frivolous things Camacha
declared our restoration to depend, and that what seems a prophecy to
you is nothing but a fable, or one of those old woman's tales, such as
the headless horse, and the wand of virtues, which are told by the
fireside in the long winter nights; for were it anything else it would
already have been accomplished, unless, indeed, it is to be taken in
what I have heard called an allegorical sense: that is to say, a sense
which is not the same as that which the letter imports, but which,
though differing from it, yet resembles it. Now for your
prophecy:--"They are to recover their true forms when they shall see the
exalted quickly brought low, and the lowly exalted by a hand that is
mighty to do it." If we take this in the sense I have mentioned, it
seems to me to mean that we shall recover our forms when we shall see
those who yesterday were at the top of fortune's wheel, to-day cast down
in the mire, and held of little account by those who most esteemed them;
so, likewise, when we shall see others who, but two hours ago, seemed
sent into the world only to figure as units in the sum of its
population, and now are lifted up to the very summit of prosperity. Now,
if our return, as you say, to human form, were to depend on this, why we
have already seen it, and we see it every hour. I infer, then, that
Camacha's words are to be taken, not in an allegorical, but in a
literal, sense; but this will help us out no better, since we have many
times seen what they say, and we are still dogs, as you see. And so
Carnacha was a cheat, Cañizares an artful hag, and Montiela a fool and a
rogue--be it said without offence, if by chance she was the mother of us
both, or yours, for I won't have her for mine. Furthermore, I say that
the true meaning is a game of nine-pins, in which those that stand up
are quickly knocked down, and the fallen are set up again, and that by a
hand that is able to do it. Now think whether or not in the course of
our lives we have ever seen a game of nine-pins, or having seen it, have
therefore been changed into men.
_Berg._ I quite agree with you Scipio, and have a higher opinion of your
judgment than ever. From all you have said, I am come to think and
believe that all that has happened to us hitherto, and that is now
happening, is a dream; but let us not therefore fail to enjoy this
blessing of speech, and the great excellence of holding human discourse
all the time we may; and so let it not weary you to hear me relate what
befel me with the gipsies who hid me in the cave.
_Scip._ With great pleasure. I will listen to you, that you in your turn
may listen to me, when I relate, if heaven pleases, the events of my
life.
_Berg._ My occupation among the gipsies was to contemplate their
numberless tricks and frauds, and the thefts they all commit from the
time they are out of leading-strings and can walk alone. You know what a
multitude there is of them dispersed all over Spain. They all know each
other, keep up a constant intelligence among themselves, and
reciprocally pass off and carry away the articles they have purloined.
They render less obedience to their king than to one of their own people
whom they style count, and who bears the surname of Maldonado, as do all
his descendants. This is not because they come of that noble line, but
because a page belonging to a cavalier of that name fell in love with a
beautiful gipsy, who would not yield to his wishes unless he became a
gipsy and made her his wife. The page did so, and was so much liked by
the other gipsies, that they chose him for their lord, yielded him
obedience, and in token of vassalage rendered to him a portion of
everything they stole, whatever it might be.
To give a colour to their idleness the gipsies employ themselves in
working in iron, and you may always see them hawking pincers, tongs,
hammers, fire-shovels, and so forth, the sale of which facilitates their
thefts. The women are all midwives, and in this they have the advantage
over others, for they bring forth without cost or attendants. They wash
their new-born infants in cold water, and accustom them from birth to
death to endure every inclemency of weather. Hence they are all strong,
robust, nimble leapers, runners, and dancers. They always marry among
themselves, in order that their bad practices may not come to be known,
except by their own people. The women are well behaved to their
husbands, and few of them intrigue except with persons of their own
race. When they seek for alms, it is rather by tricks and juggling than
by appeals to charity; and as no one puts faith in them, they keep none,
but own themselves downright vagabonds; nor do I remember to have ever
seen a gipsy-woman taking the sacrament, though I have often been in the
churches. The only thoughts of their minds are how to cheat and steal.
They are fond of talking about their thefts and how they effected them.
A gipsy, for instance, related one day in my presence how he had
swindled a countryman as you shall hear:
The gipsy had an ass with a docked tail, and he fitted a false tail to
the stump so well that it seemed quite natural. Then he took the ass to
market and sold it to a countryman for ten ducats. Having pocketed the
money, he told the countryman that if he wanted another ass, own brother
to the one he had bought, and every bit as good, he might have it a
bargain. The countryman told him to go and fetch it, and meanwhile he
would drive that one home. Away went the purchaser; the gipsy followed
him, and some how or other, it was not long before he had stolen the
ass, from which he immediately whipped off the false tail, leaving only
a bare stump. He then changed the halter and saddle, and had the
audacity to go and offer the animal for sale to the countryman, before
the latter had discovered his loss. The bargain was soon made; the
purchaser went into his house to fetch the money to pay for the second
ass, and there he discovered the loss of the first. Stupid as he was, he
suspected that the gipsy had stolen the animal, and he refused to pay
him. The gipsy brought forward as witness the man who had received the
alcabala[63] on the first transaction, and who swore that he had sold
the countryman an ass with a very bushy tail, quite different from the
second one; and an alguazil, who was present, took the gipsy's part so
strongly that the countryman was forced to pay for the ass twice over.
Many other stories they told, all about stealing beasts of burden, in
which art they are consummate masters. In short, they are a thoroughly
bad race, and though many able magistrates have taken them in hand, they
have always remained incorrigible.
[63] A tax on sales and transfers.
After I had remained with them twenty days, they set out for Murcia,
taking me with them. We passed through Granada, where the company was
quartered to which my master the drummer belonged. As the gipsies were
aware of this, they shut me up in the place where they were lodged. I
overheard them talking about their journey, and thinking that no good
would come of it, I contrived to give them the slip, quitted Granada,
and entered the garden of a Morisco,[64] who gladly received me. I was
quite willing to remain with him and watch his garden,--a much less
fatiguing business in my opinion than guarding a flock of sheep; and as
there was no need to discuss the question of wages, the Morisco soon had
a servant and I a master. I remained with him more than a month, not
that the life I led with him was much to my liking, but because it gave
me opportunities of observing that of my master, which was like that of
all the other Moriscoes in Spain. O what curious things I could tell
you, friend Scipio, about that half Paynim rabble, if I were not afraid
that I should not get to the end of my story in a fortnight! Nay, if I
were to go into particulars, two months would not be enough. Some few
specimens, however, you shall hear.
[64] A Christian of Moorish descent.