shoulders, which reaches to their thighs, they are indifferent to other covering. The women are beautiful and modest. They wear long leather robes, which reach down to the ground. Most of them have three husbands, who wait upon them alternately by months. The husband that is to live with the wife the following month waits upon her and her other husband the whole of the month that the latter has her, and so each takes his turn. The women have a great many children, but have no milk in their breasts. They therefore feed them with their mouths, and thus their under-lips are longer than their upper ones, which is an ugly thing to see." Polyandry seems to have been practised only in this island, though it may have been also in Fuerteventura. In all the other islands monogamy was maintained by law. The MS translated by Glas classes these two islands together in most of their habits and customs. It mentions that the natives "were of a humane, social, and cheerful disposition, very fond of singing and dancing. They were very nimble, and took great delight in leaping and jumping, which were their principal diversions." They lived in stone houses, built without cement. They appear to have also had houses of worship, built in circular form and of the same material, in which they do not seem to have worshipped idols, but one God, to whom they offered libations of milk and butter, raising their hands heavenwards in supplication. Their dress was a cloak and hood of goat-skins, and shoes of skins, with the hairy side outwards. The dead were buried in caves, and goat-skins laid above and below them. A little to our right as we ride along lies Aquila Tower, the castle of Rubicon, so often mentioned. The southern coast of this island is very beautiful, deeply indented as it is by little bays and sandy coves, bound by steep rocks. The Punta de Papagayo runs into the sea beyond, protecting the bay of the same name, towards which we are now riding. Suddenly we come upon a steep descent, almost a precipice, near the edge of which, by a solitary hut, we dismount. The scene is one of exquisite beauty. Basaltic precipices are upon two sides, a silvery strand, backed by a cliff of sand, forming the third. The sea is deep blue, and upon its rippling surface, PAPAGAYO BAY. 425 in the shelter of the bay, float white-plumaged sea-fowl and a boat. The men shouldered our baggage, and signing to us to follow, disappeared over the edge of the cliff. Hurrying after them, we found a narrow path descending partly in steps, and, jumping and clambering, we arrived in a few minutes at the bottom on a firm, sandy beach. Here we were completely sheltered from the wind. A man carried me on board, a boy having previously divested himself of his clothing, a ragged shirt and short trousers, and after swimming out to the boat, brought her near shore. The sail, a sort of lug, was immediately hoisted, and, by the aid of a few strokes of the oars, we got out to where a slight breeze rippled the calm blue waters, and where the gulls floated, regardless of our presence. Looking back as we glided out of the bay, we were enchanted with its beauty, as it nestled at the feet of the stern rocks on either side. Our crew consisted of two old men and two boys besides the skipper, who sat with the tiller in his hand. He was dressed in a straw hat and linen smock and trousers, and had a rich brown beard and a fine face. All had open countenances, and were much superior to the fishing population of the other islands. The two other men wore hats that were once black and were now soiled, brown, and old; the boys were dressed similarly, save that they were barefooted, and their trousers were turned up to their knees. Instead of encountering a small gale, as we expected, we found that the wind, which blew so fiercely a few hundred feet above the sea across Papagayo, was only a pleasant breeze on the surface of the water as we glided out of the bay and beyond the point. As we reached mid-channel, however, it failed us, or we got into calms, until near the island of Lobos, where the wind again filled our sails, and we sped merrily on into Corralejo. Lobos is an islet or rock, with low ground on each side, where now there is a little green vegetation, but the greater part is sand. Shipwrecked mariners would find shelter now, for there is a lighthouse upon its northern extremity. It was 2 P.M. as we passed it, our expected half-hour's voyage being really one of nearly two and a half hours. Our boat was about twenty feet in length, broad in the beam and stoutly built, and her crew were the most sailor-like men we came across. The proximity of the two islands is conducive to intercourse, and encourages a seafaring life. As we looked towards Fuerteventura we could see a number of rocks, like castles, which no doubt misled the first conquerors, who thought that the Majos, as the inhabitants of this island were called, had fortified dwellings. CHAPTER XLI. FUERTEVENTURA-CORRALEJO-OLIVA-BEEHIVE GRAIN STACKS-PUERTO CABRAS-MISMO. I will fear you, O stars, nevermore. I have felt it! Go on, while the world is asleep, We FUERTEVENTURA extended a friendly greeting to us. The whole fishing population of Corralejo-not a great multitude, however met us on the rocks as we dropped our sail and glided in. The good wives of the fishermen urged us to enter their houses and have some coffee. Poor souls, they would have given us of the best they had, though they had scarcely a stitch on their backs or a cuarto in their pockets. went into one house, or rather room, for the four walls contained but the single apartment. Two low stretcher-beds, a few chairs, and one table formed the furniture. The floor was earthen and uneven, and the whole bespoke poverty of the necessaries of life, but not of the beauties, for through the open door sparkled the blue sea, as it lay like a lake, surrounded by the black rocks of Lobos, the mountains of Lanzarote, and the white strand of Fuerteventura. Saying good-bye to our fine Conejero fisherman, who took the money bargained for cheerfully, and did not worry us with tiresome bickerings, we started in comfortable chairs on one camel, the luggage being on another. Behind Corralejo the sand extends for some distance, a little vegetation holding it together. Leaving the sand, we entered a curious district, consisting of clumps of rocks, or rather large volcanic stones, massed together and forming separate heaps. The black stones were partially covered with a grey lichen, and green vegetation of all kinds cropped up between them, giving them the appearance and beauty of rockeries. Beyond, towards Toston, and hidden among these hillocks, are the remains of some Majo dwellings. The ascent was gradual. On our right lay some volcanic hills and craters, the highest being Vahuhu, the caldera of which is large. The ground to our left and in front is entirely covered with greyish black stones, lichen-grown, and green with rama (?) bushes, which appear luxuriant and abundant. For a couple of hours we ascended slowly and gradually, without meeting any living thing. At last we met a boy on donkey-back, bound for Corralejo, and a little further on a couple of men and camels. All raised their hats civilly as we wished each other "buenas tardes." The roads here and in Lanzarote are broad, as broad as made roads, and it depends upon the nature of the ground what they are like. We reached Villa Verde at 5.30, all the country until then being one mass of stones. Herbage, however, grows plentifully among them, and large districts are enclosed with strongly built, high walls of loose stones, inside which the camels, donkeys, horses, goats, and sheep of the various owners feed. The unusual appearance of a quantity of blue smoke against the clear sky made me ask what was astir. We found that there was a baking of bread going on for a fiesta on Saturday of the patron saint of the village, the Virgin of Candelaria. Bread is a luxury only for feast-days. The people of this island seem to be bright, cheerful, and witty, like the inhabitants of Lanzarote, but the appearance of the Majoreros is different. They are tall, high-shouldered, and angular, with very large, liquid brown eyes. The women one notices more particularly, as they are even more cheerful than the men—a condition of mind sadly wanting in the other islands. Villa Verde is a cluster of houses, or rather a slope on which are brown huts, with slanting roofs, chiefly of mud. It well deserves its name at present, for everything is young and green, even the ugly cochineal cactus. Stone walls divide the land into square fields, which in this village are planted chiefly with potatoes and the cochineal cactus. As we reached the |