"
"No. He wants to kill a faithful animal in order that he may steal a
poor man's only treasure--his wife."
"How so?"
"Listen, my lady, and I will tell you. After this had happened, Juon
Tare's wife, Mariora, came to me at an unusual hour. Generally she only
comes on a Sunday for prayers. What she said to me was not so much a
confession made to a priest as a confidence reposed in a friend; I am
therefore not committing sacrilege by retailing it to another person.
That young woman is exposed to temptation."
"What! in the midst of the forest?"
"Yes, in the midst of the forest, where, for weeks at a stretch, the
herdsman hears no other human voice than his own thrown back to him by
the echoes. The seducer in this case is Fatia Negra."
"Then he must dwell hard by."
"None knows his abiding dwelling, but his temporary resting places among
the high Alps are these herdsmen's lonely huts. For this reason he lives
in good fellowship with the mountain goatherds, does them no harm,
brings presents for them and their wives, pays handsomely for every bit
of bread, and thus makes it pretty sure that they will never betray him.
The place where Juon Tare's wife dwells is called the ice valley. They
call it so because it is here that the first ice of the winter appears;
as early as mid-September the stream is fringed with it. There, by the
side of the stream, stands a little wooden hut, one of whose walls
reposes on the ascending rock behind it.
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