The Full Horror Of It Came Only A Few Years Later, When I Was
Big Enough To Go About To The Native Houses And Among The Gauchos In
Their Gatherings, At Cattle-Partings And Brandings, Races, And On
Other Occasions.
I listened to the conversation of groups of men whose
lives had been mostly spent in the army, as a rule in guerilla
warfare, and the talk turned with surprising frequency to the subject
of cutting throats.
Not to waste powder on prisoners was an unwritten
law of the Argentine army at that period, and the veteran gaucho
clever with the knife took delight in obeying it. It always came as a
relief, I heard them say, to have as victim a young man with a good
neck after an experience of tough, scraggy old throats: with a person
of that sort they were in no hurry to finish the business; it was
performed in a leisurely, loving way. Darwin, writing in praise of the
gaucho in his _Voyage of a Naturalist_, says that if a gaucho cuts
your throat he does it like a gentleman: even as a small boy I knew
better - that he did his business rather like a hellish creature
revelling in his cruelty. He would listen to all his captive could say
to soften his heart - all his heartrending prayers and pleadings; and
would reply: "Ah, friend," - or little friend, or brother - "your words
pierce me to the heart and I would gladly spare you for the sake of
that poor mother of yours who fed you with her milk, and for your own
sake too, since in this short time I have conceived a great friendship
towards you; but your beautiful neck is your undoing, for how could I
possibly deny myself the pleasure of cutting such a throat - so
shapely, so smooth and soft and so white!
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