large family of children.

The woman's business was evidently a paying one; the interior of her
house was conspicuously superior to the wretched hovels which surrounded
it, in the poorest and most squalid part of the town. Outside, indeed,
it differed little from its neighbors; in fact; it was intentionally
neglected, to mislead the authorities, for witchcraft and the practice
of magic arts were under the penalty of death. But the fittings of
the roofless centre-chamber in which she was wont to perform her
incantations and divinations argued no small outlay. On the walls were
hangings with occult figures; the pillars were painted with weird
and grewsome pictures; crucibles and cauldrons of various sizes were
simmering over braziers on little altars; on the shelves and tables
stood cups, phials, and vases, a wheel on which a wryneck hopped up
and down, wax images of men and women--some with needles through their
hearts, a cage full of bats, and glass jars containing spiders, frogs,
leeches, beetles, scorpions, centipedes and other foul creatures; and
lengthways down the room was stretched a short rope walk, used in a
Thracian form of magic. Perfumes and pungent vapors filled the air, and
from behind a curtain which hid the performers came a monotonous music
of children's voices, bells, and dull drumming.

Medea, so the wise woman was called, though scarcely past five and
forty, harmonized in appearance with this strange habitation, full as it
was of objects calculated to rouse repulsion, dread, and amazement. Her
face was pale, and her extraordinary height was increased by a mass of
coal-black hair, curled high over a comb at the very top of her head.

At the end of the first visit paid her by the two young women, who had
taken her by surprise, so that several things were lacking which on the
second occasion proved to be very effective in the exercise of her art,
she had made Heliodora promise to return in three days' time. The young
widow had kept her word, and had made her appearance punctually with
Katharina.

To be in Egypt, the land of sorcery and the magic arts, without putting
them to the test, was impossible. Even Martina allowed this, though she
did not care for such things for herself. She was content with her lot;
and if any change for the worse were in prospect she would rather not be
tormented beforehand by a wise prophet; nor was it better to be deluded
by a foolish one. Happiness as of Heaven itself sh