The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the PeninsulaBorrow, George
Religion
The Bible in Spain: Or, the Journeys, Adventures, and Imprisonments of an Englishman, in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Spain; Spain -- Description and travel; Spain -- History -- 19th century
“O what a strange town it was that I found myself in, full of people who
had once been Candoré (_Christians_) but had renegaded and become
Corahai. There were Sese and Laloré (_Portuguese_), and men of other
nations, and amongst them were some of the Errate from my own country;
all were now soldiers of the Crallis of the Corahai and followed him to
his wars; and in that town I remained with my ro a long time,
occasionally going out with him to the wars, and I often asked him about
the black men who had brought me thither, and he told me that he had had
dealings with them, and that he believed them to be of the Errate. Well,
brother, to be short, my ro was killed in the wars, before a town to
which the king of the Corahai laid siege, and I became a piuli (_widow_),
and I returned to the village of the renegades, as it was called, and
supported myself as well as I could; and one day as I was sitting
weeping, the black man, whom I had never seen since the day he brought me
to my ro, again stood before me, and he said, ‘Come with me, little
sister, come with me, the ro is at hand’; and I went with him, and beyond
the gate in the desert was the same party of black men and women which I
had seen before. ‘Where is my ro?’ said I. ‘Here he is, little sister,’
said the black man, ‘here he is; from this day I am the ro and you the
romi; come, let us go, for there is business to be done.’
“And I went with him, and he was my ro, and we lived amongst the deserts,
and hokkawar’d and choried and told baji; and I said to myself, this is
good, sure I am amongst the Errate in a better chim than my own; and I
often said that they were of the Errate, and then they would laugh and
say that it might be so, and that they were not Corahai, but they could
give no account of themselves.
“Well, things went on in this way for years, and I had three chai by the
black man, two of them died, but the youngest, who is the Calli who sits
by the brasero, was spared; so we roamed about and choried and told baji;
and it came to pass that once in the winter time our company attempted to
pass a wide and deep river, of which there are many in the Chim del
Corahai, and the boat overset with the rapidity of the current and all
our people were drowned, all but myself and my chabi, whom I bore in my
bosom. I had now no friends amongst the Corahai, and I wandered about
the despoblados howling and lamenting till I became half lili (_mad_),
and in this manner I found my way to the coast, where I made friends with
the captain of a ship and returned to this land of Spain. And now I am
here, I often wish myself back again amongst the Corahai.”
Here she commenced laughing loud and long, and when she had ceased, her
daughter and grandchild took up the laugh, which they continued so long
that I concluded they were all lunatics.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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