untry so well? In that capacity we
could go and come as we pleased, and would have every opportunity to
search for the Siren with the dishevelled hair."

"But is the Siren to be seen everywhere?" naively inquired Clara.

"Certainly; she can appear at any place to her faithful worshippers,
wherever there is a pool of water in which she can mirror herself, a
stream or a cascade in which she may bathe herself, or in the great sea
where she searches for pearls to adorn her hair."

"And did you never see her when you were yourself a pearl-fisher on the
coast of the Gulf?"

"Certainly I have," replied Costal; "yes, more than once, too, I have
seen her at night; and by moonlight I have heard her singing as she
combed out her shining hair and twisted long strings of pearls about her
neck, while _we_ could not find a single one. Several times, too, I
have invoked her without feeling the slightest sensation of fear, and
intreated her to show me the rich pearl-banks. But it was all to no
purpose: no matter how courageous one is, the Siren will not do anything
unless there are two men present."

"What can be the reason of that?" inquired Clara. "Perhaps her husband
is jealous, and don't allow her to talk to one man alone."

"The truth is, friend Clara," continued Costal, without congratulating
the negro on the cleverness of his conjecture, "I have not much hopes of
seeing her until after I am fifty years old. If I interpret correctly
the traditions I have received from my fathers, neither Tlaloc nor
Matlacuezc ever reveal their secrets to any man who is less than half a
century old. Heaven has willed it that from the time of the conquest up
to my day none of my ancestors has lived beyond his forty-ninth year. I
have passed that age; and in me alone can be verified the tradition of
my family, which has been passed down in regular succession from father
to son. But there is only one day in which it may be done: the day of
full moon after the summer solstice of the year, in which I am fifty.
That is this very year."

"Ah, then," said the negro, "that will explain why all our efforts to
invoke the Siren has proved fruitless. The time has not yet come."

"Just so," said Costal. "It will be some months yet before we can be
certain of seeing her. But whatever happens we must start to-morrow for
Valladolid. In the morning we can go to the hacienda in our canoe, and
take leave of our master Don Mariano as two respectable