The Purple Land/Volume 1/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
PEASANT HOMES AND HEARTS.
Several days passed and my second pair of boots had been twice resoled before Doña Tsidora's schemes for advancing my fortunes began to take form. Perhaps she was beginning to think us a burden on her somewhat nigeardly establishment; anyway, hearing that my preference was for a country life, she gave me a letter containing half-a-dozen lines of commendation addressed to the Mayordomo of a distant cattle-breeding establishment, asking him to serve the writer by giving her nephew—as she called me—employment of some kind on the estancia. Probably she knew that this letter would really lead to nothing, and gave it merely to get me away into the interior of the country, so as to keep Romola for an indefinite time to herself, for she had become extremely attached to her beautiful niece. The estancia was on the borders of the Paysandù department, and not less than two hundred miles from Montevideo. It was a long journey, and I was advised not to attempt it without a tropilla, or troop of horses. But when a native tells you that you cannot travel two hundred miles without a dozen horses, he only means that you cannot do the distance in two days; for it is hard for him to believe that one may be satisfied with less than one hundred miles a day. I travelled on one horse, and it therefore took me several days to accomplish the journey. Before I reached my destination, which was appropriately called Estancia de la Virgen de los Desamparados, I met with some little adventures worth relating, and began to feel very much at home with the Oriental gauchos.
Fortunately, after I left the town, a west wind continued blowing all day, bringing with it many light flying clouds to mitigate the sun, so that I was able to cover a good number of leagues before the evening. I took the road northwards through Camelones department, and was well on into the Florida department when I put up for the night at the solitary mud rancho of an old herdsman, who lived with his wife and children in a very primitive fashion. When I rode up to the house, several huge dogs rushed out to attack me; one seized my horse by the tail, dragging the poor beast about this way and that, so that he staggered and could scarcely keep his legs; another caught the bridle reins in his mouth, while a third fixed his fangs in the heel of my boot. After eyeing me for some moments, the grizzled old herdsman, who wore a knife a yard long at his waist, advanced to the rescue. Heshouted at the dogs, and finding that they would not obey sprang forward and with a few dexterous blows, dealt with his heavy whip-handle, sent them away howling with rage and pain. Then he welcomed me with great courtesy, and very soon, when my horse had been unsaddled and turned loose to feed, we were sitting together enjoying the cool evening air and imbibing the bitter and refreshing maté his wife served to us. While we conversed I noticed numberless fireflies flitting about; I had never seen them so numerous before, and they made a very lovely show. Presently one of the children, a bright little fellow of seven or eight, came running to us with one of the sparkling insects in his hand, and cried—
"Look, tatita, I have caught a linterna. See how bright it is!"
"The Saints forgive you, my child," said the father. "Go, little son, and put it back on the grass, for if you should hurt it, the spirits would be angry with you, for they go about by night and love the linterna that keeps them company."
What a pretty superstition, I thought; and what a mild, merciful heart this old Oriental herdsman must possess to show so much tenderness towards one of God's tiny creatures. I congratulated myself on my good fortune in having fallen in with so kind a man in this lonely place.
The dogs, after the rough reception they had given me, and the sharp punishment they had suffered in consequence, had returned, and were now gathered about us lying on the ground. And here I noticed, though not for the first time, that the dogs of these lonely and rude situations are not nearly so fond of being caressed and noticed by man as are the dogs of populous and highly civilized regions. On my attempting to stroke one of these surly brutes on the head, he displayed his teeth and growled savagely at me. Yet this semicivilized dog, though truculent in temper and requiring no kindness from its master, is just as faithful to man as his better-mannered brother in the thickly settled districts. I talked of this to my gentle herdsman, thinking it probable that he might have some interesting story bearing on the subject.
"What you say is true," he replied. "I remember once, during the siege of Montevideo, I was, with a small detachment, sent to watch the movements of General Rivera's army, when one day at noon we overtook a man on a tired horse. Our officer, suspecting him of being a spy, had him killed. We left him lying about two hundred yards from a small stream of water. A dog was with him, and when we rode off we called it to follow us, but it would not stir from its dead master's side.
"Three days later we returned to the same spot to find the corpse lying just where we had left it. The foxes and birds had not touched it, for the dog was still there to defend it. Many vultures were near waiting for a chance to begin their feast. We alighted to refresh ourselves at the stream, then stood there for half an hour watching the dog. He seemed to be half-famished with thirst, and came towards the stream to drink; but before he got halfway to it the vultures, by twos and threes, began to advance, when back he flew and chased them away barking. After resting a few minutes beside the corpse, he came again towards the stream, till, seeing the hungry birds advance once more, he again flew back at them, barking furiously and foaming at the mouth. This we saw repeated many times, and at last, when we left, we tried once more to entice the dog to follow us, but he would not. Two days after that we had occasion to pass by that spot again, and there we saw the dog lying dead beside his dead master."
"Good God," I exclaimed, "how horrible must have been the feelings you and your companions experienced at such a sight!"
"No, señor, not at all," replied the old man. "Why, señor, I myself put the knife into that man's throat. For if a man did not grow accustomed to shed blood in this world, his life would be a burden to him."
What an inhuman old murderer! I thought. Then I asked him whether he had ever in his life felt remorse for shedding blood.
"Yes," he answered; "when I was a very young man, and had never before dipped weapon in human blood; that was when the siege began. I was sent with half-a-dozen men in pursuit of a clever spy, who had passed the lines with letters from the besieged. We came to a house where, our officer had been informed, he had been lying concealed. The master of the house was a young man about twenty-two years old. He would confess nothing. Finding him so stubborn, our officer became enraged, and bade him step out, and then ordered us to lance him. We galloped forty yards off, then wheeled back. He stood silent, his arms folded on his breast, a smile on his lips. Without a cry, without a groan, with that smile still on his lips, he fell pierced through with our lances. For days afterwards his face was ever present to me. I could not eat, for my food choked me. When I raised a jug of water to my lips I could, señor, distinctly see his eyes looking at me from the water. When I lay down to sleep, his face was again before me, always with that smile that seemed to mock me on the lips. I could not understand it. They told me it was remorse, and that it would soon leave me, for there is no ill that time will not cure. They spoke truth, and when that feeling left me I was able to do all things."
The old man's story so sickened me that I had little appetite for supper, and passed a bad night thinking, waking or sleeping, of that young man in this obscure corner of the world who folded his arms and smiled on his slayers when they were slaying him. Very early next morning I bade my host good-bye, thanking him for his hospitality, and devoutly hoping that I should never look upon his abhorred face again.
I made little progress that day, the weather proving hot, and my horse lazier than ever. After riding about five leagues, I rested for a couple of hours, then proceeded again at a gentle trot till about the middle of the afternoon, when I dismounted at a wayside pulperia, or store and public house all in one, where several natives where sipping rum and conversing. Standing before them was a brisk-looking old man—old, I say, because he had a dark dry skin, though his hair and moustache were black as jet—who paused in the discourse he appeared to be delivering, to salute me; then, after bestowing a searching glance on me out of his dark hawk-like eyes, he resumed his talk. After calling for rum and water, to be in the fashion, I sat down on a bench, and, lighting a cigarette, prepared to listen. He was dressed in shabby gaucho habiliments—cotton shirt, short jacket, wide cotton drawers and chiripà, a shawl-like garment fastened at the waist with a sash, and reaching down halfway between the knees and ankles. In place of a hat he wore a cotton handkerchief tied carelessly about his head; his left foot was bare, while the right one was cased in a colt's-skin stocking, called bota-de-potro, and on this distinguished foot was buckled a huge iron spur, with spikes two inches long. One spur of the kind would be quite sufficient, I should imagine, to get out of a horse all the energy of which he was capable. When I entered, he was holding forth on the pretty well-worn theme of fate versus free will; his arguments were not, however, the usual dry philosophical ones, but took the form of illustration, chiefly personal reminiscences and strange incidents in the lives of people he had known, while so vivid and minute were his descriptions— sparkling with passion, satire, humour, pathos, and so dramatic his action, while wonderful story followed story—that I was fairly astonished, and pronounced this old pulperia orator a born genius.
His argument over, he fixed his keen eyes on me and said—"My friend, I perceive you are a traveller from Montevideo: may I ask what news there is from that city?"
"What news do you expect to hear?" said I; then it came into my thought that it was scarcely proper to confine myself to mere commonplace phrases in replying to this curious old Oriental bird, with such ragged plumage, but whose native woodnotes wild had such a charm in them. "It is only the old story over again!" I continued. "They say there will be a revolution some day. Some of the people have already retired into their houses, after chalking in very big letters on their front doors, 'Please come into this house and cut the owner's throat for him, so that he may rest at peace, and have no fear of what may happen." Others have climbed on to their roofs and occupy themselves there looking at the moon through spy-glasses, thinking that the conspirators are concealed in that luminary, and only waiting for a cloud to obscure it, in order to descend upon the city unobserved."
"Hear!" cried the old man, rapping delighted applause on the counter with his empty glass.
"What do you drink, friend?" I asked, thinking his keen appreciation of my grotesque speech deserved a treat, and wishing to draw him out a little more.
"Rum, friend, thank you. They say it warms you in winter, and cools you in summer —what can you have better?"
"Tell me," said J, when his glass had been refilled by the storekeeper, "what I shall say when I return to Montevideo, and am asked what news there is in the country?"
The old fellow's eyes twinkled, while the other men ceased talking, and looked at him as if anticipating something good in reply to my question.
"Say to them," he answered, "that you met an old man—a horse-tamer named Lucero—and that he told you this fable for you to repeat to the townspeople: Once there was a great tree named Montevideo growing in this country, and in its branches lived a colony of monkeys. One day one of the monkeys came down from the tree and ran full of excitement across the plain, now scrambling along like a man on all fours, then erect like a dog running on its hind legs, while its tail with nothing to catch hold of wriggled about like a snake when its head is under foot. He came to a place where a number of oxen were grazing, with some horses, ostriches, deer, goats, and pigs. 'Friends all,' cried the monkey, grinning like a skull, and with staring eyes round as dollars, 'great news! great news! I come to tell you that there will shortly be a revolution.' 'Where?' said an ox. 'In the tree—where else?' said the monkey. 'That does not concern us,' said the ox. 'Oh, yes it does!' cried the monkey, 'for it will presently spread about the country and you will all have your throats cut.' Then the ox replied, 'Go back, monkey, and do not molest us with your news, lest we get angry and go to besiege you in your tree, as we have often had to do since the creation of the world; and, then, if you and the other monkeys come down to us, we will toss you on our horns.'"
This apologue sounded very well, so admirably did the old man picture to us with voice and gesture the chattering excitement of the monkey and the majestic aplomb of the ox.
"Señor," he continued, after the laugh had subsided, "I do not wish any of my friends and neighbours here present to fly to the conclusion that I have spoken anything offensive. Had I seen in you a Montevidean I should not have spoken of monkeys. But, señor, though you speak as we do, there is yet in the pepper and salt on your tongue a certain foreign flavour."
"You are right," I said; "I am a foreigner."
"A foreigner in some things, friend, for you were doubtless born under other skies; but in that chief quality, which we think was given by the Creator to us and not to the people of other lands—the ability to be one in heart with the men you meet, whether they are clothed in velvet or in sheep skins—in that you are one of us, a pure Oriental."
I smiled at his subtle flattery; possibly it was only meant in payment of the rum J had treated him to, but it pleased me none the less, and to his other mental traits I was now inclined to add a marvellous skill in reading character.
After a while he invited me to spend the night under his roof. "Your horse is fat and lazy," he said with truth, "and unless you are a relation of the owl family, you cannot go much further before to-morrow. My house is a humble one, but the mutton is juicy, the fire warm and the water cool there, the same as in another place."
I readily accepted his invitation, wishing to see as much as I could of so original a character, and before starting I purchased a bottle of rum, which made his eyes sparkle so that I thought his name—Lucero—rather an appropriate one. His rancho was about two miles from the store, and our ride thither was about as strange a gallop as I ever took. Lucero was a domador, or horse-tamer, and the beast he rode was quite unbroken and vicious as it could be. Between horse and man a fierce struggle for mastery raged the whole time, the horse rearing, plunging, buck-jumping, and putting into practice every conceivable trick to rid itself of its burden; while Lucero plied whip and spur with tremendous energy and poured out. torrents of strange adjectives. At one moment he would come into violent collision with my old sober beast, at another there would be fifty yards of ground between us; still Lucero would not stop talking, for he had begun a very interesting story at starting and he stuck to his narrative through everything, resuming the thread after each tempest of execration vented on his horse, and raising his voice almost to a shout when we were far apart. The old fellow's staying-powers were really extraordinary, and when we arrived at the house he jumped airily to the ground and seemed fresh and calm as possible.
In the kitchen were several people sipping maté, Lucero's children and grandchildren, also his wife, a grey old dame with dim-looking eyes. But then my host was old in years himself, only, like Ulysses, he still possessed the unquenched fire and energy of youth in his soul, while time bestowed infirmities together with wrinkles and white hairs on his help-mate.
He introduced me to her in a manner that brought. the modest flame to my cheek. Standing before her, he said that he had met me at the pulperia and had put to me the question which a simple old countryman must ask of every traveller from Montevideo—What the news was? Then, assuming a dry satirical tone, which years of practice would not enable me to imitate, he proceeded to give my fantastical answer, garnished with much original matter of his own.
"Señora," I said when he had finished, "you must not give me credit for all you have heard from your husband. I only gave him brute wool, and he has woven it for your delight into beautiful cloth."
"Hear him! Did I not tell you what to expect, Juana?" cried the old man, which made me blush still more.
We then settled down to maté and quiet conversation. Sitting in the kitchen on the skull of a horse—a common article of furniture in an Oriental rancho was a boy about twelve years old, one of Lucero's grandchildren, with a very beautiful face. His feet were bare and his clothes very poor, but his soft dark eyes and olive face had that tender half-melancholy expression often seen in children of Spanish origin, and which is always so strangely captivating.
"Where is your guitar, Cipriano?" said his grandfather, addressing him, whereupon the boy rose and fetched a guitar which he first politely offered to me.
When I had declined it, he seated himsel once more on his polished horse skull and began to play and sing. He had a sweet boy's voice, and one of his ballads took my fancy so much that I made him repeat the words to me, while I wrote them down in my note-book, which greatly gratified Lucero, who seemed proud of the boy's accomplishment. Here are the words translated almost literally, therefore without rhymes, and I only regret that I cannot furnish my musical readers with the quaint plaintive air they were sung to.
Where high are born amidst the hills,
The streams that gladden all the south,
And o'er the grassy desert wide,
Where slakes his thirst the antlered deer,
Hurry towards the great green ocean.
With azure air-flowers on their crags,
Where cattle stray unowned by man;
The monarch of the herd there seems
No bigger than my hand in size,
Roaming along the tall steep summit.
Those hills of God, and they know me;
When I go there they are serene,
But when the stranger visits them,
Dark rain-clouds gather round their tops—
Over the earth goes forth the tempest!
"Tis sorrowful to dwell alone:
My heart within the city pent
Pines for the desert's liberty;
The streets are red with blood, and fear
Makes pale the mournful women's faces.
On swift sure feet my trusty steed:
I do not love the burial-ground,
But I shall sleep upon the plain,
Where long green grass shall round me wave—
Over me graze wild herds of cattle.
It is necessary to explain that the peasants in this part of South America have imbibed some of the Indian superstitions: the third stanza in the above composition refers to one of them—a belief that every mountain, lake, sea, forest, is the local dwelling-place of a demon or spirit, and that this powerful being resents the intrusion of strangers, by raising storms, while regarding with benevolent toleration those whose faces are familiar to it.
After supper, consisting of roast meat sans bread or vegetables, Lucero entertained me with many curious anecdotes, and our conversation was continued till a late hour. He told me one story, which was a complete little romance in itself, and gave so vivid an idea of the native life and customs, that I determined to introduce it into my narrative. I only regret that its greatest charm disappears in the translation, but it is impossible to give in English anything resembling that poetical South-of-Spain Spanish, enriched with the peculiar flavour it has imbibed from the Oriental soil. In the following chapter Lucero speaks.