More Than Once During My Life, When Recalling That Episode, I Have
Asked Myself If I Did Right In Taking The Shepherd's Advice?
Would it
have been better, when I went out to him with the bamboo cane, and he
asked me
What I was going to do with it, if I had gone up to him and
shown him my face with that broad band across it from the chin to the
temple, where the skin had come off and a black crust had formed, and
had said to him: "This is the mark of the blow you gave me the day
before yesterday, when you knocked me off my horse; you see it is on
the right side of my face and head; now take the cane and give me
another blow on the left side"? Tolstoy (my favourite author, by the
way) would have answered: "Yes, certainly it would have been better
for you - better for your soul." Nevertheless, I still ask myself:
"Would it?" and if this incident should come before me half a second
before my final disappearance from earth, I should still be in doubt.
One of our favourite games at this period - the only game on foot we
ever played with the gaucho boys - was hunting the ostrich. To play
this game we had bolas, only the balls at the end of the thong were
not of lead like those with which the grown-up gaucho hunter captures
the real ostrich or rhea. We used light wood to make balls, so as not
to injure each other. The fastest boy was chosen to play the ostrich,
and would be sent off to roam ostrich-fashion on the plain, pretending
to pick clover from the ground as he walked in a stooping attitude, or
making little runs and waving his arms about like wings, then standing
erect and mimicking the hollow booming sounds the cock bird emits when
calling the flock together.
The hunters would then come on the scene and the chase begin, the
ostrich putting forth all his speed, doubling to this side and that,
and occasionally thinking to escape by hiding, dropping upon the
ground in the shelter of a cardoon thistle, only to jump up again when
the shouts of the hunters drew near, to rush on as before. At
intervals the bolas would come whirling through the air, and he would
dodge or avoid them by a quick turn, but eventually he would be hit
and the thong would wind itself about his legs and down he would come.
Then the hunters would gather round him, and pulling out their knives
begin operations by cutting off his head; then the body would be cut
up, the wings and breast removed, these being the best parts for
eating, and there would be much talk about the condition and age of
the bird, and so on. Then would come the most exciting part of the
proceedings - the cutting the gizzard open and the examination of its
varied contents; and by and by there would be an exultant shout, and
one of the boys would pretend to come on a valuable find - a big silver
coin perhaps, a _patacon,_ and there would be a great gabble over
it and perhaps a fight for its possession, and they would wrestle and
roll on the grass, struggling for the imaginary coin.
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