Page:Narrative of an Official Visit to Guatemala.djvu/138

118. Our hostess was accompanied in this duty by two other females, the one an ugly weird old woman, with a copper face, and white hair, and the other a little delicate girl about sixteen years old, with fair complexion, slightly bronzed, and with auburn coloured ringlets. The old woman was squatted down, before the cauldron, like one of the witches in Macbeth; whilst the young one seemed a fairy who did her bidding; and, as Henrico was communing with the gigantic hostess, in the doubtful glimmer with which the hut was lighted, I bethought me of the Knight of Salamanca in obsequious parley with some enchantress of his fancy.

The meal was now dished and ready to be served, but, as there was no table to put it upon, two or three trunks properly arranged before my bed, fully answered the purpose; whilst the latter fulfilled, very conveniently, the office of seats; on which we could recline or sit upright, at option. This was, so far, better than the "