One day, as I was in the Alcana of Toledo, a boy came up to sell some

pamphlets and old papers to a silk mercer, and, as I am fond of reading

even the very scraps of paper in the streets, led by this natural bent of

mine I took up one of the pamphlets the boy had for sale, and saw that it

was in characters which I recognised as Arabic, and as I was unable to

read them though I could recognise them, I looked about to see if there

were any Spanish-speaking Morisco at hand to read them for me; nor was

there any great difficulty in finding such an interpreter, for even had I

sought one for an older and better language I should have found him. In

short, chance provided me with one, who when I told him what I wanted and

put the book into his hands, opened it in the middle and after reading a

little in it began to laugh. I asked him what he was laughing at, and he

replied that it was at something the book had written in the margin by

way of a note. I bade him tell it to me; and he still laughing said, "In

the margin, as I told you, this is written: 'This Dulcinea del Toboso so

often mentioned in this history, had, they say, the best hand of any

woman in all La Mancha for salting pigs.'"

When I heard Dulcinea del Toboso named, I was struck with surprise and

amazement, for it occurred to me at once that these pamphlets contained

the history of Don Quixote. With this idea I pressed him to read the

beginning, and doing so, turning the Arabic offhand into Castilian, he

told me it meant, "History of Don Quixote of La Mancha, written by Cide

Hamete Benengeli, an Arab historian." It required great caution to hide

the joy I felt when the title of the book reached my ears, and snatching

it from the silk mercer, I bought all the papers and pamphlets from the

boy for half a real; and if he had had his wits about him and had known

how eager I was for them, he might have safely calculated on making more

than six reals by the bargain. I withdrew at once with the Morisco into

the cloister of the cathedral, and begged him to turn all these pamphlets

that related to Don Quixote into the Castilian tongue, without omitting

or adding anything to them, offering him whatever payment he pleased. He

was satisfied with two arrobas of raisins and two bushels of wheat, and

promised to translate them faithfully and with all despatch; but to make

the matter easier, and not to let such a precious find out of my hands, I

took him to my house, where in little more than a month and a half he

translated the whole just as it is set down here.




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