acks left by former travelers; they often twisted around
masses of rock fallen from the summits, and again they forded streams
which ran across their path. They skirted mountains; they climbed
heights into a silent region seldom penetrated by man, where eagles
screamed, flapping their wings in anger at this invasion. They rode down
into gorges, deep crevices, in which reigned a sepulchral penumbra and
where buzzards hopped close by the dead body of some abandoned animal.

In the distance they saw beside a stream in a little valley, a group of
mud-walled cabins with straw-thatched roofs, with an open hole to let
light into the dwelling and to give exit to the smoke. The women, bony
and dressed in skins, surrounded by naked children, came out of their
hovels to stare at the passing caravan, with wild expressions of alarm
as if the approach of strangers could only bring misfortune. Others
younger, barelegged, with ragged aprons hanging from their waists, were
reaping the stunted wheat, which barely rose like a golden film above
the sterile, whitish earth. Girls, strong and ugly, with masculine
limbs, came down from the mountains, bearing great bundles of fagots on
their backs, while the men sat in the shade of nut and oak trees
braiding bull-tendons for making their shields, or they practiced
hurling, darts and handling the lance, their tangled hair falling over
bronzed and bearded faces.

On the highest points along the way appeared warriors of doubtful
aspect, a mixture of bandit and shepherd, armed with long lances and
carrying leather shields, mounted on small horses with long and filthy
hair. They looked the company over, and after measuring its strength,
and seeing it would be difficult to conquer, they turned back to their
sheep pasturing in the deep mountain gorges filled with a tangle of
shrubbery. The innumerable flocks of lambs and herds of cattle,
accustomed to the wild solitude, fled terrified as they heard the
passing of the caravan. Bevies of quail ran in search of food like gray
ants among the rosemary and thyme growing on the slopes, and flew away
at the sound of the horses' hoofs, whirring like a hiss over the
travelers' heads.

Actaeon was interested in the rude customs of these people. The cabins
were made of red adobe, or of stones laid in clay, and roofed with
branches. The women, uglier and more energetic than the men, performed
the fatiguing labor. Only boys worked, imitating their mothers. Young