The Purple Land Read online

  CHAPTER III

  Leaving the eloquent old horse-tamer's _rancho_ early next morning,I continued my ride, jogging quietly along all day and, leaving theFlorida department behind me, entered upon that of the Durazno. Here Ibroke my journey at an _estancia_ where I had an excellent opportunityof studying the manners and customs of the Orientals, and where I alsounderwent experiences of a mixed character and greatly increased myknowledge of the insect world. This house, at which I arrived an hourbefore sunset to ask for shelter ("permission to unsaddle" is theexpression the traveller uses), was a long, low structure, thatched withrushes, but the low, enormously thick walls were built of stone from theneighbouring sierras, in pieces of all shapes and sizes, and presenting,outwardly, the rough appearance of a stone fence. How these rudelypiled-up stones, without cement to hold them together, had not fallendown was a mystery to me; and it was more difficult still to imagine whythe rough interior, with its innumerable dusty holes and interstices,had never been plastered.

  I was kindly received by a very numerous family, consisting of theowner, his hoary-headed old mother-in-law, his wife, three sons, andfive daughters, all grown up. There were also several small children,belonging, I believe, to the daughters, notwithstanding the fact thatthey were unmarried. I was greatly amazed at hearing the name of oneof these youngsters. Such Christian names as Trinity, Heart of Jesus,Nativity, John of God, Conception, Ascension, Incarnation, arecommon enough, but these had scarcely prepared me to meet with afellow-creature named--well, Circumcision! Besides the people, therewere dogs, cats, turkeys, ducks, geese, and fowls without number. Notcontent with all these domestic birds and beasts, they also kept ahorrid, shrieking paroquet, which the old woman was incessantly talkingto, explaining to the others all the time, in little asides, what thebird said or wished to say, or, rather, what she imagined it wished tosay. There were also several tame young ostriches, always hanging aboutthe big kitchen or living-room on the look-out for a brass thimble, oriron spoon, or other little metallic _bonne bouche_ to be gobbled upwhen no one was looking. A pet armadillo kept trotting in and out, inand out, the whole evening, and a lame gull was always standing onthe threshold in everybody's way, perpetually wailing for something toeat--the most persistent beggar I ever met in my life.

  The people were very jovial, and rather industrious for so indolent acountry. The land was their own, the men tended the cattle, of whichthey appeared to have a large number, while the women made cheeses,rising before daylight to milk the cows.

  During the evening two or three young men--neighbours, I imagine,who were paying their addresses to the young ladies of theestablishment--dropped in; and after a plentiful supper, we had singingand dancing to the music of the guitar, on which every member of thefamily--excepting the babies--could strum a little.

  About eleven o'clock I retired to rest, and, stretching myself on myrude bed of rugs, in a room adjoining the kitchen, I blessed thesesimple-minded, hospitable people. Good heavens, thought I to myself,what a glorious field is waiting here for some new Theocritus! Howunutterably worn out, stilted, and artificial seems all the so-calledpastoral poetry ever written when one sits down to supper and joins inthe graceful _Cielo_ or _Pericon_ in one of these remote, semi-barbarousSouth American _estancias_! I swear I will turn poet myself, and go backsome day to astonish old _blase_ Europe with something so--so--What thedeuce was that? My sleepy soliloquy was suddenly brought to a mostlame and impotent conclusion, for I had heard a sound of terror--theunmistakable _zz-zzing_ of an insect's wings. It was the hateful_vinchuca_. Here was an enemy against which British pluck andsix-shooters are of no avail, and in whose presence one begins toexperience sensations which are not usually supposed to enter into thebrave man's breast. Naturalists tell us that it is the _Connorhinusinfectans_, but, as that information leaves something to be desired,I will proceed in a few words to describe the beast. It inhabits theentire Chilian, Argentine, and Oriental countries, and to all thedwellers in this vast territory it is known as the _vinchuca_; for, likea few volcanoes, deadly vipers, cataracts, and other sublime naturalobjects, it has been permitted to keep the ancient name bestowed on itby the aborigines. It is all over of a blackish-brown colour, as broadas a man's thumb-nail, and flat as the blade of a table-knife--whenfasting. By day it hides, bug-like, in holes and chinks, but no soonerare the candles put out, than forth it comes to seek whom it may devour;for, like the pestilence, it walks in darkness. It can fly, and in adark room knows where you are and can find you. Having selected a nicetender part, it pierces the skin with its proboscis or rostrum, andsucks vigorously for two or three minutes, and, strange to say, you donot feel the operation, even when lying wide awake. By that time thecreature, so attenuated before, has assumed the figure, size, andgeneral appearance of a ripe gooseberry, so much blood has it drawn fromyour veins. Immediately after it has left you the part begins to swellup and burn as if stung by nettles. That the pain should come afterand not during the operation is an arrangement very advantageous to the_vinchuca_, and I greatly doubt whether any other blood-sucking parasitehas been equally favoured by nature in this respect.

  Imagine then my sensations when I heard the sound of not one, but twoor three pairs of wings! I tried to forget the sound and go to sleep.I tried to forget about those rough old walls full of interstices--ahundred years old they were, my host had informed me. Most interestingold house, thought I; and then very suddenly a fiery itching tookpossession of my great toe. There it is! said I; heated blood, latesupper, dancing, and all that. I can almost imagine that something hasactually bitten me, when of course nothing of that kind has happened.Then, while I was furiously rubbing and scratching it, feeling abadger-like disposition to gnaw it off, my left arm was pierced withred-hot needles. My attentions were quickly transferred to thatpart; but soon my busy hands were called elsewhere, like a couple ofhard-worked doctors in a town afflicted with an epidemic; and so allnight long, with only occasional snatches of miserable sleep, thecontest went on.

  I rose early, and, going to a wide stream, a quarter of a mile from thehouse, took a plunge which greatly refreshed me and gave me strength togo in quest of my horse. Poor brute! I had intended giving him a day'srest, so pleasant and hospitable had the people shown themselves; butnow I shuddered at the thought of spending another night in such apurgatory. I found him so lame that he could scarcely walk, and soreturned to the house on foot and very much cast down. My host consoledme by assuring me that I would sleep the siesta all the better forhaving been molested by those "little things that go about," for inthis very mild language he described the affliction. After breakfast, atnoon, acting on his hint, I took a rug to the shade of a tree and, lyingdown, quickly fell into a profound sleep, which lasted till late in theafternoon.

  That evening visitors came again, and we had a repetition of thesinging, dancing, and other pastoral amusements, till near midnight;then, thinking to cheat my bedfellows of the night before, I made mysimple bed in the kitchen. But here also the vile _vinchucas_ found me,and there were, moreover, dozens of fleas that waged a sort of guerillawarfare all night, and in this way exhausted my strength and distractedmy attention, while the more formidable adversary took up his position.My sufferings were so great that before daybreak I picked up my rugs andwent out a distance from the house to lie down on the open plain, butI carried with me a smarting body and got but little rest. When morningcame I found that my horse had not yet recovered from his lameness.

  "Do not be in a hurry to leave us," said my host, when I spoke of it."I perceive that the little animals have again fought with and defeatedyou. Do not mind it; in time you will grow accustomed to them."

  How _they_ contrived to endure it, or even to exist, was a puzzle to me;but possibly the _vinchucas_ respected them, and only dined when, likethe giant in the nursery rhyme, they "smelt the blood of an Englishman."

  I again enjoyed a long siesta, and when night came resolved to placemyself beyond the reach of the vampires, and so, after supper, went outto sleep
on the plain. About midnight, however, a sudden storm of windand rain drove me back to the shelter of the house, and the next morningI rose in such a deplorable state that I deliberately caught and saddledmy horse, though the poor beast could scarcely put one foot on theground. My friends laughed good-humouredly when they saw me making theseresolute preparations for departure. After partaking of bitter _mate_, Irose and thanked them for their hospitality.

  "You surely do not intend leaving us on that animal!" said my host. "Heis unfit to carry you."

  "I have no other," I replied, "and am anxious to reach my destination."

  "Had I known this I would have offered you a horse before," he returned,and then he sent one of his sons to drive the horses of the _estancia_into the corral.

  Selecting a good-looking animal from the herd, he presented it to me,and as I did not have money enough to buy a fresh horse whenever Iwanted one, I accepted the gift very gladly. The saddle was quicklytransferred to my new acquisition, and, once more thanking these goodpeople and bidding adieu, I resumed my journey.

  When I gave my hand before leaving to the youngest, and also, to mymind, the prettiest of the five daughters of the house, instead ofsmiling pleasantly and wishing me a prosperous journey, like the others,she was silent, and darted a look at me, which seemed to say, "Go, sir;you have treated me badly, and you insult me by offering your hand; ifI take it, it is not because I feel disposed to forgive you, but only tosave appearances."

  At the same moment, when she bestowed that glance on me which said somuch, a look of intelligence passed over the faces of the other peoplein the room. All this revealed to me that I had just missed a verypretty little idyllic flirtation, conducted in very novel circumstances.Love cometh up as a flower, and men and charming women naturally flirtwhen brought together. Yet it was hard to imagine how I could havestarted a flirtation and carried it on to its culminatory point in thatgreat public room, with all those eyes on me; dogs, babes, and catstumbling about my feet; ostriches staring covetously at my buttons withgreat vacant eyes; and that intolerable paroquet perpetually reciting"How the waters came down at Lodore," in its own shrieky, beaky, birdy,hurdy-gurdy, parrot language. Tender glances, soft whispered words,hand-touchings, and a thousand little personal attentions, showing whichway the emotions tend, would scarcely have been practicable in such aplace and in such conditions, and new signs and symbols would have tobe invented to express the feelings of the heart. And doubtless theseOrientals, living all together in one great room, with their childrenand pets, like our very ancient ancestors, the pastoral Aryans, dopossess such a language. And this pretty language I should have learntfrom the most willing of teachers, if those venomous _vinchucas_ had notdulled my brain with their persecutions and made me blind to a matterwhich had not escaped the observation of even unconcerned lookers-on.Riding away from the _estancia_, the feeling I experienced at havingfinally escaped from these execrable "little things that go about" wasnot one of unmixed satisfaction.