Fantastics and other Fancies/The Devil's Carbuncle
THE DEVIL'S CARBUNCLE[1]
Ricard Palma, the Lima correspondent of La Raza Latina, has been collecting some curious South American traditions which date back to the Spanish Conquest. The following legend, entitled "El Carbunclo del Diablo," is one of these:—
When Juan de la Torre, one of the celebrated Conqistadores, discovered and seized an immense treasure in one of the huacas near the city of Lima, the Spanish soldiers became seized with a veritable mania for treasure-seeking among the old forts and cemeteries of the Indians. Now there were there ballesteros belonging to the company of Captain Diego Gumiel, who had formed a partnership for the purpose of seeking fortunes among the huacas of Miraflores, and who had already spent weeks upon weeks in digging for treasure without finding the smallest article of value.
On Good Friday, in the year 1547, without any respect for the sanctity of the day,—for to human covetousness nothing is sacred,— the three ballesteros, after vainly sweating and panting all morning and afternoon, had not found anything except a mummy—not even a trinket or bit of pottery worth three pesetas. Thereupon they gave themselves over to the Father of Evil—cursing all the Powers of Heaven, and blaspheming so horribly that the Devil himself was obliged to stop his ears with cotton.
By this time the sun had set; and the adventurers were preparing to return to Lima, cursing the niggardly Indians for the unpardonable stupidity of not having been entombed in state upon beds of solid gold or silver, when one of the Spaniards gave the mummy so ferocious a kick that it rolled a considerable distance. A glimmering jewel dropped from the skeleton, and' rolled slowly after the mummy.
"Canario!" cried one of the soldiers, "what kind of a taper is that? Santa Maria! what a glorious carbuncle!"
And he was about to walk toward the jewel, when the one who had kicked the corpse, and who was a great bully, held him back with the words:—
"Halt, comrade! May I never be sad if that carbuncle does not belong to me; for it was I who found the mummy!
"May the Devil carry thee away! I first saw it shine, and may I die before any other shall possess it!"
"Cepos quedos!" thundered the third, unsheathing his sword, and making it whistle round his head. "So I am nobody?"
"Caracolines! not even the Devil's wife shall wring it from me," cried the bully, unsheathing his dagger.
And a tremendous fight began among the three comrades.
The following day some Mitayos found the dead body of one of the combatants, and the other two riddled with wounds, begging for a confessor. Before they died they related the story of the carbuncle, and told how it illumined the combat with a sinister and lurid light. But the carbuncle was never found after. Tradition ascribes its origin to the Devil; and it is said that each Good Friday night travelers may perceive its baleful rays twinkling from the huaca Juliana, rendered famous by this legend.
- ↑ Item, November 2, 1879. Hearn's own title.