I Gave Him His Fee, And He Grunted His Thanks And
Left Me To Pursue My Journey More Leisurely.
A hut I came to had been
struck by lightning, and a woman and her child had been buried in the
debris.
Inquiring the particulars, I was informed that the woman was
herself to blame for the disaster. The saints, they told me, have a
particular aversion to the ombu tree, and this daring Eve had built
her house near one. The saints had taken spite at this act of
bravado, and destroyed both mother and daughter. Moral: Heed the
saints.
A FLEET-FOOTED DEER.
One day an old man seriously informed me that in those parts there
was a deer which neither he nor any other one had been able to catch.
Like the Siamese twins, it was two live specimens in one. When I
asked why it was impossible to catch the animal, he informed me that
it had eight legs with which to run. Four of the legs came out of the
back, and, when tired with using the four lower ones, it just turned
over and ran with the upper set. I did not see this freak, so add the
salt to your taste, O reader.
I SLEEP WITH THE RATS.
Hospitality is a marked and beautiful feature of the Uruguayan
people. At whatever time I arrived at a house, although a stranger
and a foreigner, I was most heartily received by the inmates. On only
one occasion, which I will here relate, was I grudgingly
accommodated, and that was by a Brazilian living on the frontier. The
hot sun had ruthlessly shone on me all day as I waded through the
long arrow grass that reached up to my saddle. The scorching rays,
pitiless in their intensity, seemed to take the energy from
everything living. All animate creation was paralyzed. The relentless
ball of fire in the heavens, pouring down like molten brass, appeared
to be trying to set the world on fire; and I lay utterly exhausted on
my horse's neck, half expecting to see all kindled in one mighty
blaze! I had drunk the hot, putrid water of the hollows, which did
not seem to quench my thirst any, but perhaps did help to keep me
from drying up and blowing away. My tongue was parched and my lips
dried together. Fortunately, I had a very quiet horse, and when I
could no longer bear the sun's burning rays I got down for a few
moments and crept under him.
Shelter there was none. The copious draughts of evil-smelling water I
had drunk in my raging thirst brought on nausea, and it was only by
force of will that I kept myself from falling, when on an eminence I
joyfully sighted the Brazilian estancia. Hope then revived in me. My
knowing horse had seen the house before me, and without any guidance
made straight towards it at a quicker pace. Well he knew that houses
in those desolate wastes were too far apart to be passed unheeded by,
and I thoroughly concurred in his wisdom. As I drew up before the
lonely place my tongue refused to shout "Ave Maria," but I clapped my
perspiring hands, and soon had the satisfaction of hearing footsteps
within. Visions of shade and of meat and drink and rest floated
before my eyes when I saw the door opened. A coal-black face peeped
out, which, in a cracked, broken voice, I addressed, asking the
privilege to dismount. Horror of horrors, I had not even been
answered ere the door was shut again in my face! Get down without
permission I dare not. The house was a large edifice, built of rough,
undressed stones, and had a thick, high wall of the same material all
around.
Were the inmates fiends that they let me sit there, knowing well that
there was no other habitation within miles? As the minutes slowly
lengthened out, and the door remained closed, my spirits sank lower
and lower. After a silence of thirty-five minutes, the man again made
his appearance, and, coming right out this time, stared me through
and through. After this close scrutiny, which seemed to satisfy him,
but elicited no response to a further appeal from me, he went to an
outlying building, and, bringing a strong hide lasso, tied it around
my horse's neck. Not until that was securely fastened did he invite
me to dismount. Presuming the lasso was lent me to tie out my horse,
I led him to the back of the house. When I returned, my strange,
unwilling host was again gone, so I lay down on a pile of hides in
the shade of the wall, and, utterly tired out, with visions of
banquets floating before my eyes, I dropped off to sleep.
Perhaps an hour afterwards, I awoke to find a woman, black as night,
bending over me. Not seeing a visitor once in three months, her
feminine curiosity had impelled her to come and examine me. Seemingly
more amiable than her husband, she spoke to me, but in a strange,
unmusical language, which I could not understand; and then she, too,
left me. As evening approached, another inmate of the house made his
appearance. He was, I could see, of a different race, and, to my joy,
I found that he spoke fluently in Spanish. Conducting me to the
aforementioned outhouse, a place built of canes and mud, he told me
that later on a piece of meat would be given me, and that I could
sleep on the sheepskins. I got the meat, and I slept on the skins.
Fatigued as I was, I passed a wretched night, for dozens of huge rats
ran over my body, bit my hands, and scratched my face, the whole
night long. Morning at last dawned, and, with the first streaks of
coming day, I saddled my horse, and, shaking the dust of the
Brazilian estancia off my feet, resumed my journey.
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