Page:Tales of old Lusitania.djvu/160



hero of this story was a lad who left his home to seek for employment. He had not been long seeking a master when he was told of a house where a servant was required; he therefore applied for the situation. The very first question they asked him was whether he could read, and as he answered in the affirmative they informed him that that would be an objection to their engaging him, as they wanted a servant who could not read. After this he called at another house, where a domestic was wanted, but here again he was asked the same question as at the former house. The lad, fearing to make another mistake by owning that he could read, answered that he was so very ignorant that he did not even know his letters; and as it happened that they wanted an ignorant person, they gladly engaged him, believing that what he said was the truth.

The master of this house was a magician and a sorcerer. He spent all night writing upon the sciences of necromancy and geomancy, explaining divination