  We report on a long X-ray observation of the slow-rotating binary pulsar GX
1+4. BeppoSAX observed, in the 0.1-200 keV energy range, an event in which the
source flux dropped for almost a day, and then recovered. During this event
only the high-energy emission was found to be pulsed and the pulsations were
shifted in phase of ~0.2 . The spectrum during the event was well fitted by a
Compton-reflection model. A broad iron line at ~6.55 keV was present outside of
the event, where instead two narrow emission lines at ~6.47 keV and ~7.05 keV
were detected. The pulse profile was highly variable as a function of both
energy and time. We interpret this low-flux event as an occultation of the
direct X-ray emission, due to the increase of a torus-like accretion disk; we
then discuss similarities between this source and the recently discovered
highly absorbed INTEGRAL sources.
