d to make friends with him,
and was successful.

Chapter XXXV

Amine had just returned from an afternoon's walk through the streets
of Goa; she had made some purchases at different shops in the bazaar,
and had brought them home under her mantilla. "Here, at last, thank
Heaven, I am alone and not watched," thought Amine, as she threw
herself on the couch. "Philip, Philip, where are you?" exclaimed she;
"I have now the means, and I soon will know." Little Pedro, the son of
the widow, entered the room, ran up to Amine, and kissed her. "Tell
me, Pedro, where is your mother?"

"She has gone out to see her friends this evening, and we are alone. I
will stay with you."

"Do so, dearest. Tell me, Pedro, can you keep a secret?"

"Yes, I will--tell it me."

"Nay, I have nothing to tell, but I wish to do something: I wish to
make a play, and you shall see things in your hand."

"Oh! yes, shew me, do shew me."

"If you promise not to tell."

"No, by the Holy Virgin, I will not."

"Then you shall see."

Amine lighted some charcoal in a chafing dish, and put it at her feet;
she then took a reed pen, some ink from a small bottle, and a pair of
scissors, and wrote down several characters on a paper, singing,
or rather chanting, words which were not intelligible to her young
companion. Amine then threw frankincense and coriander seed into the
chafing dish, which threw out a strong aromatic smoke; and desiring
Pedro to sit down by her on a small stool, she took the boy's right
hand and held it in her own. She then drew upon the palm of his hand
a square figure with characters on each side of it, and in the centre
poured a small quantity of the ink, so as to form a black mirror of
the size of a half-a-crown.

"Now all is ready," said Amine; "look, Pedro, what see you in the
ink?"

"My own face," replied the boy.

She threw more frankincense upon the chafing dish, until the room was
full of smoke, and then chanted.

"Turshoon, turyo-shoon--come down, come down.

"Be present, ye servants of these names.

"Remove the veil, and be correct."

The characters she had drawn upon the paper she had divided with the
scissors, and now taking one of the pieces, she dropped it into the
chafing dish, still holding the boy's hand.

"Tell me now, Pedro, what do you see?"

"I see a man sweeping," replied Pedro, alarmed.

"Fear not, Pedro, you shall see more. Has he done sweeping?"

"Yes, he has."

And Amine muttered