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South American Jungle Tales

Horacio Quiroga



  Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  "With a great roar an army of them came leaping down tothe river bank."]

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  SOUTH AMERICAN JUNGLE TALES

  BY

  HORACIO QUIROGA

  _Authorized translation from the Spanish (Cuentos de la Seloa) by Arthur Livingston_

  ILLUSTRATED BY

  A. L. RIPLEY

 

  NEW YORK DUFFIELD AND COMPANY 1922

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  COPYRIGHT, 1922 BY DUFFIELD AND COMPANY

  _Printed in U. S. A._

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  CONTENTS

  HOW THE RAYS DEFENDED THE FORD THE STORY OF TWO RACCOON CUBS AND TWO MAN CUBS THE PARROT THAT LOST ITS TAIL THE BLIND DOE THE ALLIGATOR WAR HOW THE FLAMINGOES GOT THEIR STOCKINGS THE LAZY BEE THE GIANT TORTOISE'S GOLDEN RULE

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  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "With a great roar an army of them came leaping down to the river bank"

  "Nice bird! Nice bird!" he growled. "Please come a little closer"

  "The flamingoes ... hopped down to the river, and waded out ... to relieve their pain"

  "He could not help feeling sorry for the poor turtle ..."

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  SOUTH AMERICAN JUNGLE TALES

  HOW THE RAYS DEFENDED THE FORD

  In South America there is a river called the Yabebiri; and it flowsthrough the city of Misiones. In this river there are many rays, a kindof mud fish like the salt-water skate; and the river, indeed, gets itsname from them: "Yabebiri" means the "river of ray fish." The ray is awide, flat fish with a long, slender tail. The tail is very bony; andwhen it strikes you it cuts, and leaves poison in the wound.

  There are so many rays in the river that it is dangerous even to putyour foot into the water. I once knew a man who had his heel pricked bya ray. He had to walk more than two miles home, groaning with pain allthe way and fainting several times from the poison. The pain from a raybite is one of the sharpest pains one can feel.

  But there are also other kinds of fish in the Yabebiri; and most of themare good to eat. That is why some evil men once began to fish for themwith dynamite. They put the dynamite under water and set it off. Theshock of the explosion stunned and killed all the fish nearby; and notonly the big fish, but also the little ones, which cannot be eaten. Itis very cruel and wasteful to hunt fish with dynamite.

  However, there was a man who lived on the bank of the river; and he wassorry for the poor fish, especially the little ones; and he told the badmen that they must stop bombing the fish. At first they were angry andsaid they would do what they liked. But the man was known everywhere tobe an upright, honest man, and finally they obeyed him and set off nomore bombs in the river.

  And the fish were grateful to this man, whom they had come to know themoment he approached the edge of the water. Whenever he walked along thebank smoking his pipe, the rays especially would swim along the bottomto keep him company. He, of course, did not know he had so many friendsin the river. He lived there just because he liked the place.

  Now, it happened one afternoon that a fox came running down to theriver; and putting his forepaws into the water he called:

  "Hey there, you ray fish! Quick! Quick! Here comes that friend of yours!He's in trouble!"

  All the rays who heard came swimming up anxiously to the edge of thewater.

  "What's the matter? Where is he?" they asked.

  "Here he comes!" answered the fox. "He has been fighting with a panther,and is trying to get away! He wants to get over to that island! Let himcross, for he is a very good man!"

  "Of course we will! Of course we will!" the rays answered. "As for thepanther, we will fix him!"

  "Yes, but remember a panther is a panther!" said the fox; by which hemeant that a panther is almost as hard to fight with as a tiger. And thefox gave a little jump and ran back into the woods, so as not to be nearwhen the panther came.

  A second or two later, the branches along the river bank were pushedaside, and the man came running down to the water's edge. He was allbleeding and his shirt was torn. From a scratch on his face the bloodwas streaming down off his chin, and his sleeves were wet with bloodalso. It was clear that the man was very badly hurt; for he almost fellas he ran out into the river. When he put his feet into the water, therays moved aside so that their tails would not touch him; and he wadedacross to the island, with the water coming up to his breast. On theother side he fell to the ground fainting from loss of blood.

  The rays did not have much time to sit there pitying him. Some distancebehind the man the panther came jumping along with great leaps to catchhim. The big wildcat stopped on the bank, and gave a great roar; but upand down the river the rays went calling; "The Panther! The Panther!"and they gathered together near the shore to attack him if he tried tocross.

  The panther looked up and down the stream, and finally he spied the manlying helpless on the island. He, too, was badly wounded and drippingwith blood; but he was determined to eat the man at any cost. Withanother great howl, he leaped into the water.

  Almost instantly, however, he felt as though a hundred pins and needleswere sticking into his paws. You see, the rays were trying to block theford, and were stinging him with the stingers in their tails. He gaveone big jump back to the river bank and stood there roaring, and holdingone paw up in the air because it hurt him to step on it. After a momenthe looked down into the water and saw that it was all black and muddy.The rays were coming in great crowds and stirring up the bottom of theriver.

  "Ah hah!" said the panther: "Ah hah! I see! It is you, you bad, wickedray fish! It was you who gave me all those stings! Well now, just getout of the way!"

  "We will not get out of the way," answered the rays.

  "Away, I tell you!" said the panther.

  "We won't!" said the rays. "He is a good man. It is not right to killhim!"

  "He gave me these wounds you see," said the panther. "I must punishhim!"

  "And you gave him his wounds, too," said the rays. "But that is all amatter for you folks in the woods to settle. So long as this man is onthe river, he is in our province and we intend to protect him!"

  "Get out of my way!" said the panther.

  "Not never!" said the rays. You see, the rays had never been to school;and they said "not never" and "not nothing" the way children sometimesdo and never ought to do, not never!

  "Well, we'll see!" said the panther, with another great roar; and he ranup the bank to get a start for one great jump. The panther understoodthat the rays were packed close in along the shore; and he figured thatif he could jump away out into the stream he would get beyond them andtheir stingers, and finally reach the wounded man on the island.

  But some of the rays saw what he was going to do, and they began toshout to one another:

  "Out to mid-stream! Out t
o mid-stream! He's going to jump! He's going tojump!"

  The panther did succeed in making a very long leap, and for some secondsafter he struck the water he felt no pain. He gave a great roar ofdelight, thinking he had deceived his enemies. But then, all of asudden, sting here and sting there, in front, in back, on his sides! Therays were upon him again, driving their poisonous stingers into hisskin. For a moment, the panther thought it was as easy to go forward asback, and he kept on. But the rays were now all over along the island;so the panther turned and went back to the shore he had left.

  He was now about done. He just had to lie down on his side to keep thebottoms of his feet off the ground; and his stomach went up and down ashe breathed deeply from fatigue and pain. He was growing dizzy, also,because the poison from the stings was getting into his brain.

  The rays were not satisfied, however. They kept crowding up along theshore because they knew that panthers never go alone, but always with amate. This mate would come, and they would again have to defend theford.

  And so it was. Soon the she-panther came down roaring through the bushesto rescue her husband. She looked across to the island where the man waslying wounded; and then at her mate, who lay there panting at her feet;and then down into the water, which was black with rays.

  "Ray fish!" she called.

  "Well, madam?" answered the rays.

  "Let me cross the river!"

  "No crossing here for panthers!" said the rays.

  "I'll bite the tails off every one of you!" said the she-panther.

  "Even without our tails, we won't let you cross!" said the rays.

  "For the last time, out of my way!" said the she-panther.

  "Not never!" said the rays.

  The she-panther now put one foot into the water; but a ray struck at herwith its stinger, and made a sting right between two of her toes.

  "Oooouch!" growled the she-panther.

  "We have at least one tail left!" mocked the rays.

  But the she-panther began to scowl now. When panthers are thinking veryhard they scowl. This one scowled her face into deep wrinkles; whichmeant that she had a very important idea. She did not let on what itwas, however. She just trotted off up the bank into the woods withoutsaying another word.

  But the rays understood what she was up to. She was going to some placefarther along the stream where there were no rays and would swim acrossbefore they could reach her. And a great fright came over them. Rayscannot swim very fast, and they knew that the she-panther would getthere before they did.

  "Oh, oh!" they cried to each other. "Now our poor man-friend is donefor. How can we let the rays down there know we must prevent the pantherfrom crossing at any cost?"

  But a little ray, who was a very bright and clever little fish, spoke upand said:

  "Get the shiners to carry a message! Shiners can swim like lightning;and they too ought to be grateful to the man for stopping those bombs!"

  "That's it! That's it! Let's send the shiners!"

  A school of shiners happened to be just going by; and the rays sent themoff with a message to all the rays along the river:

  "Sting the she-panther if she tries to cross! Hold the ford against theshe-panther!"

  Though the shiners swam very, very fast, they were barely in time. Thepanther was already in the water, and had begun to swim out beyond herdepth. In fact, she was almost over on the other side toward the island.But when her paws struck bottom and she began to wade again, the rayswere on hand. They rushed in packs upon her legs and feet, stinging themwith tens, hundreds, thousands of stings. At the same time more rayscrowded in between the panther and the shore. Roaring with pain andanger, she finally swam back to the place where she had jumped in, androlled about on the ground in agony. When she came back to where herhusband was lying, her paws and legs were all swollen from the poison.

  The rays, for their part, were getting very tired from all this stingingand hurrying to and fro. And they were not much relieved when they sawthe panther and the she-panther get up all of a sudden and go off intothe woods. What were they up to now? The rays were very much worried,and they gathered together in council.

  "Do you know what I think?" said the oldest ray. "I think they have goneoff to get all the other panthers. When they come back, they will be toomuch for us and they will surely get across!"

  "That is so!" said the other rays, the older and more experienced ones."At least one or two will get across. That will be the end of ourfriend, the man! Suppose we go and have a talk with him!"

  For the first time they now went over to where the man was lying. Theyhad been too busy up to then to think of him.

  The man had lost a great deal of blood, and was still lying on theground; but he was able to sit up enough to talk. The rays told him howthey had been defending the ford against the panthers who had beentrying to eat him. The man could hardly keep in his tears as he thoughtof the friendship these fishes had for him. He thanked them by reachingout his hand and stroking the nearest ones on the nose. But then hemoaned:

  "Alas! You cannot save me! When the panthers come back there will bemany of them; and if they want to get across they can."

  "No they can't," said a little ray. "No they can't! Nobody but a friendof ours can cross this ford!"

  "I'm afraid they will be too much for you," said the man sadly. After amoment's thought he added:

  "There might be one way to stop them. If there were someone to go andget my rifle ... I have a Winchester, with a box of bullets ... but theonly friends I have near here are fish ... and fish can't bring me arifle!"

  "Well...?" asked the rays anxiously.

  "Yes ... yes ..." said the man, rubbing his forehead with his righthand, as though trying to collect his thoughts. "Let's see.... Once Ihad a friend, a river hog, whom I tamed and kept in my house to playwith my children. One day he got homesick and went back to the woods tolive. I don't know what became of him ... but I think he came to thisneighborhood!"

  The rays gave one great shout of joy:

  "We know him! We know him! He lives in the cave just below here in theriver bank. We remember now that he once told us he knew you very well.We will send him to get the rifle."

  No sooner said than done! A shiner, who was the fastest swimmer in hisschool, started off down the river to where the river hog lived. It wasnot far away; and before long the river hog came up on the bank acrossthe river. The man picked up a fishbone from the ground near him; anddipping it in some blood that was on his hand wrote on a dry leaf thisletter to his wife:

  "Dear Wife: Send me my Winchester by this river hog, with a full box of a hundred bullets.

  (Signed) The Man."

  He was just finishing the letter when the whole river valley began totremble with the most frightful roars. The panthers were coming back ina large company to force a crossing and devour their enemy. Quickly tworays stuck their heads out of the water. The man handed them the leafwith the letter written on it; and holding it up clear of the water,they swam over to where the river hog was. He took it in his mouth andran off as fast as he could toward the man's house.

  And he had no time to lose. The roaring was now very close to the riverand every moment it was getting nearer. The rays called anxiously to theshiners, who were hovering in the water nearby waiting for orders:

  "Quick, shiners! Swim up and down the river, and give a general alarm!Have all the rays gather about the island on every side! We will seewhether these panthers get across!"

  And up and down the river the shiners darted, streaking the surface withtiny black wakes, so fast did they move. The rays began coming out fromthe mud, from under the stones, from the mouths of the brooks, from allalong the river. They assembled in solid masses, almost, around theisland, bent on keeping the panthers back at whatever cost. Andmeanwhile the shiners came streaming up and down past the island,raising new recruits and ready to give the word when the panthersappeared.

  And the
panthers did appear, at last. With a great roar an army of themcame leaping down to the river bank. There were a hundred of them,perhaps; at least all the panthers in the woods around Misiones. But, onthe other hand, the river was now packed with rays, who were ready todie, rather than let a single panther across.

  "Get out of our way!" roared the panthers.

  "No trespassing on this river!" said the rays.

  "Gangway!" called the panthers.

  "Keep out!" said the rays.

  "If you don't get out of the way, we will eat every ray, and every sonof a ray, and every grandson of a ray, not counting the women andchildren!" said the panthers.

  "Perhaps," said the rays; "but no panther, nor any son, grandson,daughter, granddaughter, sister, brother, wife, aunt or uncle of apanther will ever get across this ford!

  "For one last time, get out of the way!"

  "Not never!" said the rays.

  And the battle began.

  With enormous bounds and jumps and leaps, the panthers plunged into theriver. But they landed on an almost solid floor of ray fish. The raysplunged their stingers into the panthers' feet, and at each prick thepanthers would send up the most bloodcurdling roars. Meanwhile thepanthers were clawing and kicking at the rays, making frightful splashesin the water and tossing up ray fish by the barrel full. Hundreds andhundreds of rays were caught and torn by the panthers' claws, and wentfloating down the Yabebiri, which was soon all tinged with ray blood.But the panthers were getting terribly stung, too; and many of them hadto go back to the shore, where they lay roaring and whining, holdingtheir swollen paws up in the air. Though many more of the rays werebeing trampled on, and scratched and bitten, they held their ground.Sometimes when a ray had been tossed into the air by a panther's paw, hewould return to the fight after he had fallen back into the water.

  The combat had now lasted as long as half an hour. By that time thepanthers were tired out and had gone back to the shore they came from,where they sat down to rest and to lick the stings on their paws.

  Not one of them had been able to cross the ford, however. But the rayswere in a terrible plight. Thousands of them had been killed; and thosethat still remained were about tired to death.

  "We cannot stand a second attack like this one," said the rays. "Hey,shiners! Go up and down the river again, and bring us reenforcements! Wemust have every single last ray there is in the Yabebiri!"

  And again the shiners were off up and down the river, flecking thesurface of the water with the wakes they left. The rays now thought theyshould consult the man again.

  "We cannot hold out much longer!" said the rays. And some of themactually wept for the poor man who was going to be eaten by thepanthers.

  "Never mind, please, my dear little rays!" answered the man. "You havedone enough for me! It's a pity that any more of you should die. Now youhad better let the panthers come across."

  "Not never!" cried the rays. "So long as there is a ray left alive, weshall defend the man who defended us and saved our lives from thebombers."

  "My dear friends," said the man in reply, "I think I am bound to dieanyway, I am so badly wounded. But I can promise you that when thatWinchester arrives, you will see some exciting things. That much I amsure of!"

  "Yes, we know! We know!" said the rays. But they could not continue theconversation: the battle was on again. The panthers had now rested, andwere crouching all on the river bank, ready to take off with great leapsand bounds.

  "We'll give you one last chance!" they called to the rays. "Now bereasonable! Get out of our way!"

  "Not never!" said the rays, crowding up close along the shore in frontof the panthers.

  In a flash, the panthers were in the water again, and the same terriblefight as before was taking place. The Yabebiri from shore to shore wasone mass of bloody foam. Hundreds and hundreds of rays were tossed intothe air, while the panthers bellowed from the pain in their paws. Butnot a panther and not a ray gave an inch of ground.

  However, the panthers were little by little forcing their way forward.In vain the shiners darted up and down the river calling in more andmore rays to battle. There were no rays left anywhere along the stream.Every last ray was either fighting desperately in the army around theisland, or was floating bruised and bleeding down the current. Such aswere still left were all but helpless from the fatigue of their greatefforts.

  And now they realized that the battle was lost. Five of the biggestpanthers had broken through the lines of the rays, and were swimmingthrough clear water straight toward the island. The poor rays decidedthey would rather die than see their poor friend eaten by the panthers.

  "Retreat to the island!" they called to each other. "Back to theisland!"

  But this was too late, alas. Two more panthers had now broken throughthe line; and when the rays started for the island, every last pantheron the shore jumped into the water and made for the wounded man. Ten,twenty, fifty, perhaps a hundred panthers could be seen swimming withjust their heads out of water.

  But what was that down there? The rays had been so busy fighting theyhad not noticed before. From a point on the shore some distance belowthe ford a brown, fuzzy animal had gone into the water, and had beenswimming all this time toward the island. It was the river hog, paddlingalong as fast as he could with his head and neck out of the water andthe Winchester in his mouth. He was holding his head away up like thatto keep the rifle dry. On the end of the rifle hung the man's cartridgebelt, full of bullets.

  The man gave a great cry of joy; for the river hog was quite a distanceahead of the panthers, and he would be ashore by the time they began towade again. And the river hog did get there in no time. The man was tooweak to move much; so the river hog pulled him around by the collar sothat he lay facing the panthers. In this position the man loaded therifle and took aim.

  The rays, meanwhile, were heart broken. Crushed, scratched, bruised,bleeding, worn out from struggling, they saw that they had lost thebattle. The panthers were almost over to the island. In a few momentstheir friend would be eaten alive!

  C-r-r-ack! C-r-r-r-ack! Bing! Bing. The rays who had their eyes out ofwater suddenly saw a panther, who was just coming up out of the rivertoward the man, give a great leap into the air and fall back to theground in a heap.

  The rays understood! "Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray Hoo-ray!" shouted the rays. "Theman has the rifle! He is saved! We have won!" And they dirtied all thewater, so much mud did they stir up by the dancing they started on thebottom of the river. C-r-r-r-ack! C-r-r-ack! Bing-g-g! Bing-g-g! Therifle kept going off and the bullets kept singing through the air. Ateach shot a panther fell dead on the sand or sank drowning under thewater. The shooting did not last more than a minute and a half, however.After ten or a dozen panthers had been killed, the others swam back tothe opposite shore and ran off into the woods.

  The panthers that were killed in the water, sank to the bottom where thehorn-pouts ate them. Others kept afloat, and the shiners went down theYabebiri with them, all the way to the Parana, having a great feast offpanther meat, and jumping and hopping along the top of the water toexpress their delight. When the friends of the wounded man came to gethim, they skinned the panthers that were lying on the shore; and theman's wife had a set of new rugs for her dining room.

  Soon the man got well again. And the rays, who have a great manychildren each year, were as numerous as ever after one season. The manwas so grateful for what they had done in trying to save his life, thathe built a bungalow on the island and went there to live during hisvacations. On nights in summer, when the moon was shining, he would goout in front of his bungalow and sit down on a rock over the water tosmoke his pipe. The rays would creep up softly over the bottom and pointhim out to fish who did not know him. "There he is, see? The pantherscame across over here; we stood in line over there. And when thepanthers broke through, the man took his rifle, and...."