I told her, moreover, that within three years she
would marry the son of the King of France, and it was her bahi to
die Queen of France and Spain, and to be loved much, and hated
much.'
'And did you not dread her anger, when you told her these things?'
'Dread her, the Busnee?' screamed Pepita: 'No, my child, she
dreaded me far more; I looked at her so - and raised my finger so -
and Chicharona clapped her hands, and the Busnee believed all I
said, and was afraid of me; and then I asked for the pardon of my
son, and she pledged her word to see into the matter, and when we
came away, she gave me this baria of gold, and to Chicharona this
other, so at all events we have hokkanoed the queen. May an evil
end overtake her body, the Busnee!'
Though some of the Gitanas contrive to subsist by fortune-telling
alone, the generality of them merely make use of it as an
instrument towards the accomplishment of greater things. The
immediate gains are scanty; a few cuartos being the utmost which
they receive from the majority of their customers. But the bahi is
an excellent passport into houses, and when they spy a convenient
opportunity, they seldom fail to avail themselves of it.
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