Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities 50

Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities 50

There was the grandfather, still hale and vigorous; the young mother,

with her infant in her arms, and half a dozen others scarce big enough

to go alone. When we asked about her family, she laughed and blushed

and pouted with true feminine coquetry, and quite vanquished the stout

heart of our gallant Ohio. Perceiving that I had some difficulty in

dissecting the joints of the chicken, she took up a fragment, and

tearing it to pieces with her fingers, laid them before me, one after

another, with an approving smile, and an exclamation of bueno at

every mouthful. I had no doubt, from this proof of her hospitality,

that she would have fed me with her fingers if I had desired. And,

presently, another incident showed still more strongly her lofty

disregard of what we, in our self-complacent wisdom, have styled the

laws of decorum. As there was a want of plates, one of our party had

cunningly appropriated to his own use that containing our scanty

supply of eggs. Snatching the dish from his hands, the young señora,

with the end of her forefinger, and with most amazing dexterity,

divided the only remaining egg in the middle, and slid half of it on

to Ohio's empty tortilla. "Bueno, bueno!" she exclaimed; and "Bueno!"

faintly echoed Ohio, as he fell back on his seat, and surveyed with

admiration the egg that had been so ruthlessly dissevered. The simple,

unsophisticated beings around us mistook the nature of the mirth

that followed this performance, and supposing it to arise from the

satisfaction produced by so good a supper, joined in it with hearty

good-will. But we had not yet learned all those uses of fingers which

nature designed, but which civilization has discarded. A favourite

beverage, with us as well as with the natives, was lemonade. To

sweeten this delectable compound, they used the coarse black sugar of

the country, which, to avoid the necessity of weighing, is commonly

cast in small oblong cakes, as maple-sugar is often seen at home.

Biting off a lump of the proper size, our hostess dropped it from her

mouth into one of the little gourds that served for tumblers, and

having stirred it with her finger, presented it to me with a simple

grace that Hebe might have tried in vain to equal. After the scenes I

had witnessed in the mines, and the far more disgusting exhibitions of

life at sea, I must plead guilty of affectation in refusing anything

from the hand of a woman. I courteously passed the gourd to my next

neighbour, who, either not having witnessed the mode of preparation or

proud of such an opportunity of displaying his gallantry, swallowed

the whole at a single draught.

 

We rose from table in high good humour with ourselves and our

entertainers, but our enthusiasm was not a little dampened by the

eagerness they manifested to obtain immediate possession of our money.

"Quatro reales," cried the grandfather, holding out his hand; "Quatro

reales," simpered the young mother; "Quatro reales," screamed all the

children in concert, and standing on tiptoe; while the sucking baby,

on its mother's breast, almost threw itself into convulsions in trying

to master the mysterious syllables.

 

As we intended to lodge and take breakfast with them, this impatience

might seem to imply some doubt of our honesty. We attributed it,

however, to a natural curiosity to feast their eyes on a larger sum

of money than they had probably ever possessed. Though they had all

their simple wants required, and might have been considered wealthy by

their poorer neighbours, yet I have no doubt that fifty dollars would

have been an ample equivalent for all their worldly possessions. A

single glance showed us the inventory of all their household goods.

Under a small open shed in one corner of the enclosure stood a rude

forge--our entertainer was the village smith--with a few clumsy tools

scattered around it. Their whole supply of crockery was displayed

upon our little table. Gourds, of different sizes, served them for

tea-cups, for coffee-pots, and for milk-pails. Their simple cookery

was performed in a few vessels of earthenware. A few steps from the

blacksmith's shop, stood the huge wicker basket containing their

sleeping apartments. This consisted of two rooms, the first of which

would undoubtedly have been the very smallest room in the world, if

the second had not been still smaller. The larger one contained a rude

bedstead, and a hammock was slung cornerwise across the other. There

was no other furniture, and no window, but the open door and numerous

cracks in the walls admitted sufficient light. As it was evident that,

under ordinary circumstances, the greater part of the family would

have to sleep out of doors, we had no hesitation in taking undivided

possession.

 

We were roused by the old man two hours before day; and, going out

into the yard, found the table set for breakfast, and the whole family

eagerly awaiting our appearance. Secretly envying the hens and turkeys

that were just settling themselves for their morning nap upon the

branches of the high tree above, we sat down to breakfast by the light

of the stars and an envious tallow candle. In addition to what we

had for supper, they had, according to promise, provided each of us

with a small gourd containing half a pint of milk--a luxury we seldom

succeeded in obtaining except in the morning, either because, as Texas

suggested, the heat of the day dried up the cows, or because the

natives were too indolent to take the trouble.

 

After breakfast, the same scene was repeated as on the previous

evening. Having obtained their quatro reales, and a medio apiece for

lodging, we saw them huddling together round the forge, and counting

their gains with an immense deal of jabbering and gesticulation. All

of our companions were aroused at the same unseasonable hour, and,

like ourselves, devoured with curiosity to learn the cause of so

strange a phenomenon, but our ignorance of Spanish defeated all our

efforts, and the subject yet remains in all its original obscurity.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XXV.

 

 

We stopped the fourth night at a town called San Pablo, containing

many substantial buildings and several thousand inhabitants. We

were obliged, however, to throw ourselves, as before, upon the

hospitality of private families. Our search for some time proved

unsuccessful,--the citizens were wealthier and more aristocratic,

and were not always disposed to receive such a set of ragamuffins

into their houses. But, at length, one of the principal storekeepers

consented to provide us with supper and lodging, and then the

following conversation took place:

 

"Have you any eggs--huevos?"

 

"Si, Señor! huevos."--"Gallina?" "Si, Señor! gallina."--"Pan?"

"Si, pan."--"Milk?" (here our Spanish was at fault.) "Si,

mañaña."--"Frijoles?" "Si, Señor! frijoles." "Bueno! quantos reales?"

"Quantos reales?"--and at this important question he hesitated, while

he consulted with his wife by signs--"Cinquo reales."--"Cinquo reales

por uno?" "Si, Señor! bueno?" "Si! bueno! quantos horas?"

 

This question completely staggered him, as well it might; but we at

length succeeded in making him comprehend that we wished to know

at what hour we could have supper; and, this being satisfactorily

arranged, he again ran over our bill of fare:--"Huevos, gallina, pan,

frijoles, cinquo reales, esta bueno?"

 

"Si, Señor," we replied, "esta bueno," and set out on a stroll

through the town in search of a Panama hat Ohio was anxious to obtain.

We failed to find any sufficiently large, but going into what seemed

a shop, we found a fat padre swinging in his hammock, with one foot

lazily patting the floor, and an __EXPRESSION__ of entire complacency in

his little twinkling eyes and broad, good-humoured countenance. His

library was arranged on one or two small shelves, and consisted mostly

of ancient Latin folios written, probably, some hundreds of years ago.

The padre received us with the utmost courtesy; and, in spite of his

sluggish temper, really looked as if he would have liked to converse

with us if he could. But signs and single words, though they sometimes

answered a very good purpose in enabling us to make a bargain for

supper, or something equally simple, were of little service in

carrying on an abstract conversation; we therefore soon made our

adios, the padre returned to his hammock to meditate over his dinner,

and we continued our walk.

 

* * * * *

 

After an excellent supper, which, besides the dishes included in our

bill of fare, contained several that were entirely new to us, we threw

ourselves into the hammocks that were slung in the little shop and

composed ourselves to sleep. But the fumes of garlic and aguadiente,

the glancing of lights before my half-shut eyes,--I have the

misfortune to sleep, like the weasel, with one eye half open,--and an

interrupted note of preparation buzzing in my ears, kept all my senses

on the alert. At two in the morning we were summoned to breakfast,

and this time with a reason; for a long march was before us, and our

hombres desired to make an early start. The breakfast exceeded in

variety and abundance anything that had been set before us for months;

and, if our entertainers had understood English, they would have been

highly amused by our involuntary exclamations of delight.

 

The language of inarticulate sounds, however, is pretty much the same

the world over; and Dr. Johnson over his leg of mutton, and Sidney

Smith's South Sea islander over his slice of broiled missionary, would

have had no difficulty in responding to each other's emotions. When

our repast was ended, our host, with an enlarged and comprehensive

liberality, of which we had hitherto found no specimen among his

countrymen, insisted upon our drinking his health in a glass of his

own aguadiente; and we parted from him, his wife, and daughter, with

__EXPRESSION__s of mutual good-will, which lasted on our part as long as

the smack of his hospitality still lingered on our palate.

 

The length of this day's journey was rendered more fatiguing by

the various delays that we encountered. Among the other ingenious

novelties in the construction of our conveyance, we found that the

axle, now worn almost in two, was secured to the body simply by strips

of hide. These gradually loosened by the alternations of wet and dry,

and the violent strain to which they were subjected, till at length

the axle turned completely over, and thus brought so large a portion

of the load on to the heads of the oxen as fairly forced their noses

into the dirt. But our hombre proved himself equal to the emergency;

and, unyoking the oxen, he stationed Ohio at the pole to hold it as

high as possible, while he slipt under the cart and went to work in

restoring the axle to its proper place with a readiness and dexterity

for which we had not given him credit.

 

This nice and difficult operation was at length completed, but our

hombre still showed no inclination to set forward. We questioned,--we

bribed,--we expostulated in vain. Ohio bitterly lamented his ignorance

of Spanish; which prevented him from cursing the fellow in his own

vocabulary, but belaboured him with all the sturdy English oaths he

could muster, which fell on his imperturbable stupidity like drops of

rain on the hide of a rhinoceros. In the midst of the shower he took

from the cart an axe no bigger than a hatchet, with a handle four feet

long, and disappeared in the woods, leaving us sitting on a rotten

log and hardly knowing whether to laugh or cry.

 

Si examined his revolver and walked on ahead, under the pleasing

illusion that he should find some game; the others soon followed,

leaving us in charge of the cart. The wheezing sounds of the hombre's

axe were the only sounds that disturbed the immense silence; except,

now and then, we heard the far-off halloo of some half frantic driver

urging on his weary cattle. These gradually died away in the distance,

and we were left entirely alone. But such hours are often the most

delightful periods of a journey like ours. We forgot the cities we

had past, and the road by which we had come so far; our connection

with the world seemed broken, and we felt like a man who had climbed

to the moon and then thrown down the ladder by which he had ascended.

Robinson Crusoe in his desert island,--a frog at the bottom of his

well,--hardly a toad in his lump of granite, could be enclosed in a

profounder solitude. I tried to image to myself the great cities,

the mighty empires, that had once an existence in my brain; but the

feverish pulsation of their hearts, and the hum and stir of their

ceaseless bustle, were neither felt in the ground nor visible in the sleeping leaves.