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 Folklore of the Azores. 129

water from Lagoa Secca was turned into the present lake, leaving the original bed dry.

b. In the sixteenth century there was in the valley of the Furnas a convent; and near this one day the peoplewere sing- ing and dancing. One of the women went out to draw water from a spring, and was terrified at finding that it was so hot as to scald her hand. Rushing back to the dancers, she called to them to stop, for the day of judgment was come ; but they laughed at her warning, saying, " You are not God to tell us of judgment," and continued their sports. Then she told the friars ; and when one of them went with her to the spot, flames were bursting forth ; but as he held a crucifix above them, the woman found that the flames did not burn her. As she could not persuade her friends to fly, she left them to their fate ; and three days later a terrible eruption took place, when all the houses were swallowed up and the inhabitants destroyed. In digging many years ago for the foundations of a house, it is said that the arches and part of the convent were found deep-buried in the earthy and under them many human bones ; and these arches are still visible.

c. Another version of the above story represents the good woman as having gone with her pitcher to the place now called the ' Griita do Padre Reis.' Finding the water hot she hastened back to warn her neighbours, but they only mocked at her. Her husband and children, how- ever, accompanied her, and with them she climbed by a steep path to the top of the Pico de Ferro, when looking down she saw the waters roll over from the Lagoa Secca into the present lake ; and the hamlet disappeared for ever.

O Serrado da Freira {The Nun^s Field'), a Story of the Seven Cities.

In the plain by the Lake of the Seven Cities there existed in the beginning of the world a convent. No one knew how it came there or how it disappeared ; but many, many

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