"
"Then," said Eyebrows, "the sooner you provide yourself with a hide
for the purpose, the better, for I will never return the lasso to you;
for who am I to fight against Providence, that took it out of my hands?"
To this Barbudo replied furiously:
"Then I will have it from this miserable starved foreigner, who comes
here to learn to eat meat and put himself on an equality with men.
Evidently he was weaned too soon; but if the starveling hungers for
infant's food, let him in future milk the cats that warm themselves
beside the fire, and can be caught without a lasso, even by a
Frenchman!"
I could not endure the brute's insults, and sprang up from my seat.
I happened to have a large knife in my hand, for we were just preparing
to make an assault on the roasted ribs of a cow, and my first impulse
was to throw down the knife and give him a blow with my fist. Had I
attempted it I should most probably have paid dearly for my rashness.
The instant I rose Barbudo was on me, knife in hand. He aimed a furious
blow, which luckily missed me, and at the same moment I struck him,
and he reeled back with a dreadful gash on his face. It was all done
in a second of time, and before the others could interpose; in another
moment they disarmed us, and set about bathing the barbarian's wound.
During the operation, which I daresay was very painful, for the old
negress insisted on having the wound bathed with rum instead of water,
the brute blasphemed outrageously, vowing that he would cut out my
heart and eat it stewed with onions and seasoned with cummin seed and
various other condiments.
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