dwelling-place for a season. Wood for firing
and water were to be had close by; they were also well provided with
smoked flesh of a tapir they had slaughtered a day or two before, so
that they could afford to rest for a time in so comfortable a shelter.
At a short distance from the cave they made a fire on the rock to toast
some slices of meat for their dinner; and while thus engaged all at once
one of the men uttered a cry of astonishment, and casting up his eyes
Nuflo beheld, standing near and regarding them with surprise and fear
in-her wide-open eyes, a woman of a most wonderful appearance. The one
slight garment she had on was silky and white as the snow on the summit
of some great mountain, but of the snow when the sinking sun touches and
gives it some delicate changing colour which is like fire. Her dark
hair was like a cloud from which her face looked out, and her head was
surrounded by an aureole like that of a saint in a picture, only more
beautiful. For, said Nuflo, a picture is a picture, and the other was
a reality, which is finer. Seeing her he fell on his knees and crossed
himself; and all the time her eyes, full of amazement and shining with
such a strange splendour that he could not meet them, were fixed on him
and not on the others; and he felt that she had come to save his soul,
in danger of perdition owing to his companionship with men who were at
war with God and wholly bad.

But at this moment his comrades, recovering from their astonishment,
sprang to their feet, and the heavenly woman vanished. Just behind where
she had stood, and not twelve yards from them, there was a huge chasm in
the mountain, its jagged precipitous sides clothed with thorny bushes;
the men now cried out that she had made her escape that way, and down
after her they rushed, pell-mell.

Nuflo cried out after them that they had seen a saint and that some
horrible thing would befall them if they allowed any evil thought to
enter their hearts; but they scoffed at his words, and were soon far
down out of hearing, while he, trembling with fear, remained praying
to the woman that had appeared to them and had looked with such strange
eyes at him, not to punish him for the sins of the others.

Before long the men returned, disappointed and sullen, for they had
failed in their search for the woman; and perhaps Nuflo's warning words
had made them give up the chase too soon. At all events, they seemed ill
at ease, and made up their min