Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without a nice Christmas spam.
So here it is:
subject heading: “I felt a chill pass over me as I looked at t”
snippet: “Elf supplied, and I strongly suspect that it was made of burned cockle
shells.”
Then it goes: “Madre Moreno dressed peculiarly; she wore when I first remember her, a short black skirt and waist; a little cape of red woolen cloth hung over her shoulders, about her neck was a white ruff which set off her peaked face and made it look even more withered and yellow; her hair was short, and over a silk skull cap was drawn a black reboso, the ends of which were embroidered in colour with odd designs. Her whole person was the perfection of neatness, and she was welcome from Bolinas to San Rafael for the good she did, as her knowledge of herb and even mineral medicines was extensive…”
This is an extract from a fascinating 1894 novel, a “little story of Californian life,” by one Charles Gunnison, called The Beautiful Eyes of Ysidria. Read it for free, thanks to Project Gutenberg.
I’m pretty sure it contains no elves after that first one – or, thank God, burnt cockle shells, which simply don’t sound nice.
And who – or what – is” t”…?? Enter Boris Karloff…
