Travel Reference
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a bridge, but under the condition that the young man would sell him his soul in payment for
hisservices.Theyouthagreedtothis,butwiththeunderstandingthatthebridgebecompleted
before sunrise, whereupon the devil immediately set to work, but when the first rays of the
sun came over the mountain tops there was still one stone missing to complete the bridge, and
the devil, finding himself thus defeated, jumped down the precipice into the foaming waters
below.
I later heard a similar legend about a bridge in Guatemala, as will be seen later, which
makes me think that it must be a story of Spanish origin, and the fact that the devil is men-
tioned suggests that it is a white man's legend, for the Indians had never heard about that gen-
tleman until the Spaniards told them about him and tried to convince them that they would all
make his acquaintance in after-life.
In many places the trail was so bad that I feared for the horses. Seemingly eternal zig-zags
took us slowly and painfully up terrific inclines and down again on the other side, and often
did I breathe with relief when we had finished bordering some yawning precipice.
IhadamostunpleasantandyetamusingincidentinonemiserableIndiansettlementwhere
I arrived very late, when it was already dark. Not a soul could be seen, and so I went from hut
to hut until finally I found a solitary hag. I had no end of trouble to make her understand that
I wanted to see the
cacique
(chief), and when she made signs to me to listen I could plainly
hear the beating of drums in the distance. Being no longer a novice among Indians I surmised
that some feast was being celebrated, or possibly a wedding had taken place that day. It was
so dark that I did not venture along the winding and uneven path, for the chances were that I
would never have arrived at the place where the noise came from, so I pushed the old woman
in that direction saying,
cacique
! Without protesting she waddled away and soon disappeared
in the dark, and I had to wait a long time until she appeared again with three men, one of
whom was the
cacique
. The trio were so intoxicated that they could hardly stand, and when
I asked the chief for food he seemed very annoyed and, judging by his voice and gestures,
he was insulting me. Being tired and as hungry as a wolf I did not feel inclined to argue, and
when I realised that I would not get far with kindness I changed my tactics, and grabbing the
drunken rascal by the neck gave him a sound shaking. This frightened the other two men and
the woman so much that they ran away in the direction they had come from. When I let the
cacique
go he also made off as fast as his balance permitted.
When I was alone once more I began to consider my situation, and it struck me that
something very unpleasant might happen if these people went to tell their friends what had
justhappenedtotheirchief.Toresumetravellinginthepitchdarkwasoutofthequestionand,
