ide
with costly articles of apparel, the value of one of which would have
sufficed to cleanse the whole house, and keep it clean for half a year to
come. Below the hammock sat an Indian girl, with a fan of feathers upon
her lap; her head was inclined upon her breast, and sleep had overtaken
her in the midst of the monotonous occupation of fanning the inmate of the
hammock. Near the bed or sofa stood a mulatto, holding a box of cigars and
a light.
"Oh! Ah! Ih!" again groaned the occupant of the bed, from which a nightcap
now emerged. A meagre grimy hand next appeared, pulled off the nightcap,
and disclosed a dry, brown physiognomy, of which the cheeks, temples, and
hollows round the eyes, were puckered into innumerable dark olive-green
wrinkles.
This lamentable interjection, which was somewhat louder than the preceding
one, caused a commotion in the hammock, from which there now appeared
another tawny countenance, ornamented with a few warts as large as peas,
and with a beard which would have been a fitting decoration for a
grenadier. All effort was made to raise the body as well as the head, but
the weight of the former made the attempt abortive, and the whole figure
again disappeared in the hollow of its hanging couch. A second, and more
vigorous trial was successful, and there came into view the head, neck,
shoulders, and other component parts of a female bust, the more minute
description of which we will spare our readers. The lady of the house, for
it was no less a person, did not seem in the least embarrassed by the
presence of the mulatto, but sat upright n her hammock.
"Manca!" cried she, in a voice like an ill-conditioned trumpet, and gazing
around her as she spoke. "Manca!" she repeated in a yet harsher tone; and
then throwing her right foot and leg over the side of the hammock, she, by
a tremendous kick, knocked the drowsy Manca off her perch. By this
exertion there was communicated to the hammock a swinging motion which
seemed highly pleasing to the Spanish lady, who allowed her left foot to
follow her right, neither of them being protected by stockings or any
other covering; and then, holding on with both hands to the cords of the
hammock, she rocked herself to and from with infinite satisfaction, her
sole garment being her chemise.
For the third time did the Spaniard utter his lamentable Oh! Ah!
"Don Matanzas!" screamed the senora, "it is impossible to shut one's eye
for your groans. Can one have
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