ard, whilst she shrieked for help from the
fangs of that evil spirit. At these words, most present believed that I
must be one of those fiends who are continually at enmity with good
Christians. Some were for sprinkling me with holy water, some were for
pulling me off the old woman, but durst not; others bawled out words to
exorcise me. The witch howled, I tightened my grip with my teeth, the
confusion increased, and my master was in despair, hearing it said that
I was a fiend. A few who knew nothing of exorcisms caught up three or
four sticks and began to baste me. Not liking the joke, I let go the old
woman; in three bounds I was in the street, and in a few more I was
outside the town, pursued by a host of boys, shouting, "Out of the way!
the wise dog is gone mad." Others said "he is not mad, but he is the
devil in the form of a dog." The people of the place were confirmed in
their belief that I was a devil by the tricks they had seen me perform,
by the words spoken by the old woman when she woke out of her infernal
trance, and by the extraordinary speed with which I shot away from them,
so that I seemed to vanish from before them like a being of the other
world. In six hours I cleared twelve leagues; and arrived at a camp of
gipsies in a field near Granada. There I rested awhile, for some of the
gipsies who recognised me as the wise dog, received me with great
delight, and hid me in a cave, that I might not be found if any one came
in search of me; their intention being, as I afterwards learned, to make
money by me as my master the drummer had done. I remained twenty days
among them, during which I observed their habits and ways of life; and
these are so remarkable that I must give you an account of them.

_Scip._ Before you go any further, Berganza, we had better consider what
the witch said to you, and see if there can possibly be a grain of truth
in the great lie to which you give credit. Now, what an enormous
absurdity it would be to believe that Camacha could change human beings
into brutes, or that the sacristan served her for years under the form
of an ass. All these things, and the like, are cheats, lies, or
illusions of the devil; and if it now seems to ourselves that we have
some understanding and reason--since we speak, though we are really dogs
or bear that form--we have already said that this is a portentous and
unparalleled case; and though it is palpably before us, yet we must
suspend our belief until t