Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: STORY II. AMBA, THE WITCH'S DAUGHTER. As Coomba was one evening sitting on a low stool before her door, in the town of Addina, watching the gambols of her son, a wretched and emaciated female entered the path which led from the bush or forest. She was scarcely able to carry her own weight, much less that of a little girl, aged two years, who was tied to her back by a piece of ragged silk. The only clothing of this unhappy object was a small strip of dirty, tattered cotton, girt round her loins, and which scarcely reached her knees: her flesh was torn by the thorns in her path; her feet were swollen with fatigue; her skin, stretched over her projecting bones, was parched and cracked into large white flakes from the heat of the sun; her hair was dusty and brown, her eyes were sunk in their sockets, her cheeks were hollow, her knees touched each other at every step, and she was frequently obliged to pause and take breath, leaning on the rude staff with which she tried to support herself (1). Coomba beheld her with pity, and the little Tarbara crept with fear to his mother's knees. The poor woman at last stood opposite to Coomba's house: she was evidently in a famished state, and her child also bore the appear.nice of want; but from its being in a much better condition than its mother, the latter had probably deprived herself of nourishment to prolong the life of her offspring. She stopped, and looked at Coomba with a wistful eye. There was an appearance of resignation in her deportment; not a sound escaped her lips; but she turned from the robust form of the sturdy Tarbara to the delicate limbs of her own child, and a big tear moistened her burning eyelids: a dizziness then seemed to seize her, for she suddenly raised her hand, exclaiming Oh my head and sunk upon the ground. ...