I have
already had cause to mention Pepa the sibyl, and her daughter-in-
law, Chicharona; the manners of the first were sometimes almost
elegant, though, next to Aurora, she was the most notorious she-
thug in Madrid; Chicharona was good-humoured, like most fat
personages. Pepa had likewise two daughters, one of whom, a very
remarkable female, was called La Tuerta, from the circumstance of
her having but one eye, and the other, who was a girl of about
thirteen, La Casdami, or the scorpion, from the malice which she
occasionally displayed.
Pepa and Chicharona were invariably my most constant visitors. One
day in winter they arrived as usual; the One-eyed and the Scorpion
following behind.
MYSELF. - 'I am glad to see you, Pepa: what have you been doing
this morning?'
PEPA. - 'I have been telling baji, and Chicharona has been stealing
a pastesas; we have had but little success, and have come to warm
ourselves at the brasero. As for the One-eyed, she is a very
sluggard (holgazana), she will neither tell fortunes nor steal.'
THE ONE-EYED. - 'Hold your peace, mother of the Bengues; I will
steal, when I see occasion, but it shall not be a pastesas, and I
will hokkawar (deceive), but it shall not be by telling fortunes.
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