As the dancers flitted here and there in their white
garments, or came out from the shade of the orange trees, they looked
ethereal, like the inhabitants of another world one sees at times in
romantic dreams, for this village is surely a hundred years behind
the moon.
From this scene of innocent happiness I was taken to more than one
sick-bed, for it soon became known that I carried medicines.
Will the reader accompany me? Enter then - a windowless mud hut See,
lying on sheepskins and burning with fever, a young woman-almost a
girl-wailing "Che raciy!>" (I am sick!) Notice the intense
eagerness of her eyes as she gazes into mine when I commence to
minister to her. Watch her submit to my necessarily painful treatment
with child-like faith. Then, before we quietly steal out again,
listen to her low-breathed "Acuerame" (Already I feel better).
In a larger house, a hundred yards away, an earthenware lamp, with
cotton wick dipping in raw castor oil, sheds fitful gleams on a dying
woman. The trail of sin is only too evident, even in thoughtless
Pegwaomi. The tinselled saints are on the altar at the foot of the
bed, and on the woman's breast, tightly clutched, is a crucifix, but
Mrs. Encarnacion has never heard of the Incarnate One whom she is
soon to meet.
