The Press., 1898-02-03
INCA WITCHCRAFT.

matadore, and his early associations were not of kind to develop a stable and law abiding character. Bal drank because he saw everybody else drink, and red wine brought into action in Bal that courage which the matadore dis played in the arena with sagacity and prudence. Red wine does not mature wisdom, theoretical or applied, and without these, which are indeed sagac- ity and prudence, courage becomes but pugnacity that amuses or ofends- Bal soon became offensive, and in brawl in an indecent quarter of his native town he had the misfortune to knife a young grandee of tastes and weaknesses similar to his own, but of influential connections. The wounded youth recov- cred, but political influence was suffi- cient to cause his assailant's removal to . penal settlement for 20 years.
 Bal obtained no more red wine, but the more he weighed the offense of the knife attack, its provocation, and its punishment, the clearer it seemed that he was suffering out of all proportion to his transgression. The sense of foul wrong, done because 1t could be done, burned in upon him as if a brand iron were held against him, ever glowing and never lifted. For months after he discerned the immense range of this in justice, he lived in rage impedimental to speeoh-he became inarticulate.
 Slowly his good sense came to the rescue, and he became calm that he might live, grow strong of body and powerful through accumulation and meet Don Pico as master. There were men of different nationalities in the set. clement, and Bal found that he absorbed words as a sponge absorbs water, and he learned Portuguese, more than one patois of his own land, and the dialect of Peruvian Indian sent from his owr province a year before, whom he hao saved from imminent atrocity at tht hands of a vicious fellow convict.
 This Indian had a virtue little known to civilization-he was capable of grati tude-and the two formed mutual at tachment that the friendships of civih zation may scarcely parallel and whicl was eQualed but by their common hatred of all rulers, their own in particular This Indian Bal knew to be a snake charmer of extraordinary accomplish ments His gift was not transferable tC the younger man, nor did the latter soor discover its singularity, but in time h' found that Juan's power over certain reptiles might be expressed as hypnotic He seemed to impress his own master fulness upon the serpents and to exer his power upon them at a distance or tC send them to perform some definite mis sion at distance and return within given time, after the habit of human subjects.
 Once Bal saw Juan with his pets a recreation. No word was spoken, bu Juan looked meaningly at Bal and thel at the top of the wall. Bal looked ant saw a lizard there with its head a-til and the sun shining pink through hi palpitant throat. Then something slip ped away from Juan, who watched tn l top of the wall, as did Bal. By and b, a bit of the wall moved-it seemed bit of the wall-it moved and coilet and leaped, and the little foray wa over. Then the devourer slipped back and Juan snapped his fingers and whis pered to it.
 "was the lizard hypnotized, tooP' Bal Chico asked himself.
 This branch of his accomplishment Juan never showed the prison official when they sent for him to exhibit fo their amusement
 The weary years rolled by. "We vii live; we must live. We will get even you and me" Juan whispered to him self over and over, and he whispered to Bal when he could, with the sam imperious suggestiveness that he whis pered something to his snakes.
 At last Juan's 20 weary years wer done, but the "man witch'' had g. much power. Some he amused whe, tired of the commonplace, but the man feared him, and when he chose to war der around the settlement clad il brooches, 8 poncho, and a viper afte he was free to go far away none ot jected, and few wondered at the whim of so fantastic being
 When Bal, young man white haire now, went out, old Juan awaited hin at the prison gates, carrying a clos woven wicker crate, or basket, but nei ther extra clothing nor the usual snake were visible, and from that day neithe appeared in all that country.
 Among the stupendous mountains c Peru gold may be had for the seeking but death is for the white man wh seeks it. When old Juan went back t his mountains and some old acquaint ances, with another swarthy man wh spoke only as he did and was his friend their right of occupancy of hut an ! lands was unprecedented, as were thei bartering expeditions to the nearest sea port. But Juan and Bal Chico did nc always exchange their nuggets for com modities; oftener, with a wisdom learn ed abroad, did they demand coin. Jua! had come home with his old name c Casma, and Bal Chico had assumed new name for his new habitation, an the singular fact became known at tn town bank that Casma and Chira wer | Tx.I