Sancho observed all, contemplated all, and everything won his heart. The
first to captivate and take his fancy were the pots, out of which he
would have very gladly helped himself to a moderate pipkinful; then the
wine skins secured his affections; and lastly, the produce of the
frying-pans, if, indeed, such imposing cauldrons may be called
frying-pans; and unable to control himself or bear it any longer, he
approached one of the busy cooks and civilly but hungrily begged
permission to soak a scrap of bread in one of the pots; to which the cook
made answer, "Brother, this is not a day on which hunger is to have any
sway, thanks to the rich Camacho; get down and look about for a ladle and
skim off a hen or two, and much good may they do you."
"I don't see one," said Sancho.
"Wait a bit," said the cook; "sinner that I am! how particular and
bashful you are!" and so saying, he seized a bucket and plunging it into
one of the half jars took up three hens and a couple of geese, and said
to Sancho, "Fall to, friend, and take the edge off your appetite with
these skimmings until dinner-time comes."
"I have nothing to put them in," said Sancho.
"Well then," said the cook, "take spoon and all; for Camacho's wealth and
happiness furnish everything."
While Sancho fared thus, Don Quixote was watching the entrance, at one
end of the arcade, of some twelve peasants, all in holiday and gala
dress, mounted on twelve beautiful mares with rich handsome field
trappings and a number of little bells attached to their petrals, who,
marshalled in regular order, ran not one but several courses over the
meadow, with jubilant shouts and cries of "Long live Camacho and
Quiteria! he as rich as she is fair; and she the fairest on earth!"
Hearing this, Don Quixote said to himself, "It is easy to see these folk
have never seen my Dulcinea del Toboso; for if they had they would be
more moderate in their praises of this Quiteria of theirs."
Shortly after this, several bands of dancers of various sorts began to
enter the arcade at different points, and among them one of sword-dancers
composed of some four-and-twenty lads of gallant and high-spirited mien,
clad in the finest and whitest of linen, and with handkerchiefs
embroidered in various colours with fine silk; and one of those on the
mares asked an active youth who led them if any of the dancers had been
wounded. "As yet, thank God, no one has been wounded," said he, "we are
all safe and sound;" and he at once began to execute complicated figures
with the rest of his comrades, with so many turns and so great dexterity,
that although Don Quixote was well used to see dances of the same kind,
he thought he had never seen any so good as this. He also admired another
that came in composed of fair young maidens, none of whom seemed to be
under fourteen or over eighteen years of age, all clad in green stuff,
with their locks partly braided, partly flowing loose, but all of such
bright gold as to vie with the sunbeams, and over them they wore garlands
of jessamine, roses, amaranth, and honeysuckle. At their head were a
venerable old man and an ancient dame, more brisk and active, however,
than might have been expected from their years. The notes of a Zamora
bagpipe accompanied them, and with modesty in their countenances and in
their eyes, and lightness in their feet, they looked the best dancers in
the world.