She was eating a banana, and
against her knees, which were drawn up, sat a beautiful girl about
fifteen years old, with a dark pale face. She was dressed in white,
her arms were bare, and round her head she wore a gold band keeping
back her black hair, which fell unbound on her back. Before her, on
his knees on the cloak, was an old man with a face brown and wrinkled
as a walnut, and beard white as thistle-down. With one of his hands
he was holding the girl's arm, and with the other offering her a glass
of wine. All this I saw at one glance, and then all of them together
turned their eyes up at the crack as if they knew that someone was
watching them. I started back in alarm, and fell with a crash to the
ground. Then I heard loud screams of laughter, but I dared not attempt
to look in on them again, I took my rugs to the farther side of the
room, and sat down to wait for morning. The talking and laughter
continued for about two hours, then it gradually died away, the light
faded from the chinks, and all was dark and silent. No person came
out; and at last, overcome with drowsiness, I fell asleep. It was day
when I woke. I rose and walked round the hovel, and, finding a crack
in the wall, I peered into the hag's room. It looked just as I had
seen it the day before; there was the pot and pile of ashes, and in
the corner the brutish woman lying asleep in her skins.
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