Magnificent black hair streams down her back.

It is as full as a wave, as lustrous as polished obsidian.
Her dress consists of a buckskin wrap without girdle, embroidered at the lower end with multi-coloured porcupine-quills.

Bracelets of white shells, a necklace of feldspar crystals and turquoises, and strings of yellow cotton threads around her ankles complete the costume.

Such is the woman who has played and still plays an ominous part in the history of Okoya's mother, and in the history of the people at the Rito de los Frijoles.

Now that we have seen her home and her person, let us proceed with the tale of her doings on the afternoon to which the close of the preceding chapter has been devoted.
Shotaye had been rummaging about in the inner cell of her rocky house in search of some medicinal plant, for that cell was her storeroom, laboratory, and workshop.