to sell the
hides. He knocked at the house, and asked a woman he found there for
a night's lodging. She told him that she could not do anything for him
until her husband arrived. So Andres had to wait on the road near the
house. Not long afterwards a man came towards the house. Andres went
up to him, and asked him if he was the master of the house; but the
man said he was not, so Andres had to go back to the road. From where
he was sitting, Andres could see that the woman inside was preparing
a good supper for the stranger, who meanwhile had entered. While she
and the stranger were sitting at the table, Andres saw another man
approaching in the distance. The woman hastily opened a big empty
trunk and hid the man inside, then she put all the cooked fish in
the cupboard.

When the other man, who was the husband, arrived, Andres asked for
a night's lodging, and was received kindly. While the husband and
Andres were talking, the wife told them that supper was ready, and
they went to the table to eat: but there they found nothing for them
but rice; so Andres told the husband that he had an enchanted hide,
and that they could have fish if he wished. The husband wished to see
the skin tested. Andres ordered the skin to bring a man into the trunk;
and when the trunk was opened, there was the man. Next he ordered the
skin to bring cooked fish to the cupboard; and when the cupboard was
opened, there was the cooked fish. The husband then offered Andres
a very high price for the enchanted skin, and Andres willingly sold it.

Early the next morning Andres left the house before the others were
up. It was not long, however, before the husband found out that the
skin was not magic, and he was determined to punish the skin-seller
if he should catch him again. Meanwhile Andres had returned to the
village. There he met Juan, who, noticing the money in his pocket,
asked him where he had gotten it. Andres told him that it was the price
of the skins of his dead mules, which he had sold in the neighboring
town. On hearing this, Juan went directly home, killed all his mules,
and flayed them. As he was passing by the solitary house on his way
to the town, he cried out that he had skins for sale. The husband in
the house thought that it must be the same man who had sold him the
enchanted skin, so he went down and whipped Juan nearly to death.

After this experience, Juan returned home, determined to kill his
friend. But Andres was very cunnin