Mofina. Straightway in God’s name to the fair of Trancoso will I go, and will make much money. With the money of the oil I will buy ducks’ eggs, which is the cheapest thing I can get there, and each egg hatched will give me a duck and every duck a shilling. At a low price they will yield over a million and a half (réis?). These ducks’ eggs will bring me a rich and honourable marriage, and on the day of my wedding I will go dressed in a robe of scarlet, and before me the bridegroom will go courting me. I will come from within dancing a dance like this and singing this song.
(So speaks Mofina Mendes with the pot of oil on her head, and as she gives her mind ever more to the dancing, it falls off.)[47]
VANITY OF VANITIES
Nigger. All the world is weariness,
To be a great lord, weariness;
Or a poor man, weariness;
A lovely woman, weariness;
An ugly woman, weariness;
A negro slave, weariness;
Or the slave’s master, weariness;