Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/52

34 If one can put faith in popular tradition, human sacrifices had been offered several times in the kapas; but there is hardly any extinct religion to which these abominable rites have not been attributed, and I imagine one could justify a similar theory with regard to the ancient Lithuanians from historic evidence.

We came down from the tumulus to rejoin our horses, which we had left on the far side of the fosse, when we saw an old woman approaching us, leaning on a stick and holding a basket in her hand.

" Good day, gentlemen," she said to us as she came up, " I ask an alms for the love of God. Give me something for a glass of brandy to warm my poor body."

The Count threw her a coin, and asked what she was doing in the wood, so far from habitation. For sole answer she showed him her basket filled with mushrooms. Although my knowledge of botany was but limited, I thought several of the mushrooms looked Hke poisonous ones.

" My good woman," I said, " you are not going to eat those, I hope."

" Sir," the old woman replied, with a sad smile, " poor folk eat all the good God gives them."

" You are not acquainted with Lithuanian