What is that?
Benedict. - Ow! a haxweib, a witch; the Gallegos call them so in
their jargon, of which I can scarcely understand a word. So I
consented, and they sent for the meiga. Och! what a weib is that
meiga! I never saw such a woman; she is as large as myself, and
has a face as round and red as the sun. She asked me a great many
questions in her Gallegan, and when I had told her all she wanted
to know, she pulled out a pack of cards and laid them on the table
in a particular manner, and then she said that the treasure was in
the church of San Roque; and sure enough, when I went to that
church, it answered in every respect to the signs of my comrade who
died in the hospital. O she is a powerful hax, that meiga; she is
well known in the neighbourhood, and has done much harm to the
cattle. I gave her half the dollar I had from you for her trouble.
Myself. - Then you acted like a simpleton; she has grossly deceived
you. But even suppose that the treasure is really deposited in the
church you mention, it is not probable that you will be permitted
to remove the floor of the sacristy to search for it.
Benedict. - Ow, the matter is already well advanced. Yesterday I
went to one of the canons to confess myself and to receive
absolution and benediction; not that I regard these things much,
but I thought this would be the best means of broaching the matter,
so I confessed myself, and then I spoke of my travels to the canon,
and at last I told him of the treasure, and proposed that if he
assisted me we should share it between us. Ow, I wish you had seen
him; he entered at once into the affair, and said that it might
turn out a very profitable speculation: and he shook me by the
hand, and said that I was an honest Swiss and a good Catholic. And
I then proposed that he should take me into his house and keep me
there till we had an opportunity of digging up the treasure
together. This he refused to do.
Rey Romero. - Of that I have no doubt: trust one of our canons for
not committing himself so far until he sees very good reason.
These tales of treasure are at present rather too stale: we have
heard of them ever since the time of the Moors.
Benedict. - He advised me to go to the Captain General and obtain
permission to make excavations, in which case he promised to assist
me to the utmost of his power.
Thereupon the Swiss departed, and I neither saw nor heard anything
farther of him during the time that I continued at Saint James.
