against the conquered powers of hell. And I can give no adequate
conception of the love that shone forth from them when pitying sympathy
for human sorrow, or even for the pain which brute beasts suffered,
touched that most tender heart for which they spoke in tones richer and
fuller than the tones of words.

Don Rafael, standing without the door that he had opened in order that I
might precede him, did not perceive that we had interrupted Fray Antonio
in his prayers; and began, therefore, in the lively manner natural to
him, when I had been in due form presented as an American archaeologist
come to Mexico to pursue my studies of its primitive inhabitants, to
commend the undertaking that I had in hand, and to ask of Fray Antonio
the aid in prosecuting it that he so well could give.

Perhaps it was that Fray Antonio understood how wholly my heart already
had gone out to him--assuredly, later, there was such close sympathy
between us that our thoughts would go and come to each other without
need for words--and so was disposed in some instinctive way to join his
purposes with mine; but, be this as it may, before Don Rafael well could
finish the explanation of my wishes, Fray Antonio had comprehended what
I desired, and had promised to give me his aid.

"The senor already has a book-knowledge of our native tongues. That is
well. The speaking knowledge will come easily. He shall have the boy
Pablo for his servant. A good boy is Pablo. With him he can talk in the
Nahua dialect--which is the most important, for it is sprung most
directly from the ancient stock. And I will arrange that the senor shall
live for a time in the mountains--it will be a hard life, I fear--at
Santa Maria and at San Andres, in which villages he can gain a
mouth-mastery of both Otomi and Tarascan. A little time must be given to
all this--some months, no doubt. But the senor, who already has studied
through ten years, will understand the needfulness of this short
discipline. To a true student study in itself is a delight--still more
that study which makes the realization of a long-cherished purpose
possible. The senor, I know, reads Spanish, since so perfectly he speaks
it"--this with a gracious movement of the hands and a courteous
inclination of the body that enhanced the value of the compliment--"but
does the senor read with ease our ancient Spanish script?"

"I have never attempted it," I answered. "But as I can read easily the
old printed Spanish,