his place."

"'In short, all of them, having left me by myself, went out of that
fortress, and shut the door. At that moment I wept bitterly at my
solitary and helpless state, and began to kick the corpse of that
woman, saying, "O cursed corpse, if thou wast to perish in child-birth,
why didst thou marry and become pregnant?" After thoroughly beating
her, I again sat silent. In the meantime, the day advanced, and the
sun became very hot; my brains began to boil, and I was dying by reason
of the stench. On whatever side I looked, I saw the bones of the dead,
and boxes of precious stones in heaps. I then, having gathered some old
chests together, placed them over each other, so that there might be a
shed against the heat of the day, and the dews of the night. I began
to search for water, and on one side I saw something like a cascade,
which was cut out of stone in the wall of the inclosure, and had a
mouth like a pot. In short, my life was [sustained] for some time on
the food [they had left with me], and the water [I had found.]

"'At last, the victuals were exhausted, and I became alarmed and
complained to God. He is so beneficent that the door of the inclosure
opened and another corpse was brought in; an old man accompanied
it. When, having left him also, they went away, it came into my head to
kill the old man, and take possession of his chest of provisions. So,
having taken up the leg of an old chest, I went up to him; he was,
poor wretch, sorely perplexed, seated with his head resting on his
knees. I came behind him, and struck him such a blow, that his skull
was fractured and his brains came out, and he instantly resigned his
soul to God. I seized his stock of provisions, I began to live on
it. For a long while this was my way, that whatever living beings
came in with the dead, I used to kill the former, and having taken
their provisions, I fared plentifully.

"'After some time, a young girl once came with a corpse; she was very
handsome, and I had not the hard heart to kill her [as had hitherto
been my practice]. She espied me, and swooned away through fear. I
took up her stock of provisions, and carried it to where I lived; but
I did not eat it alone; when I was hungry, I used to carry her some
victuals, and we ate together. When the young girl perceived that
I did not molest her, her timidity lessened daily and she became
more familiar, and used to come to my shed. One day I asked her
her story, and who she w