Vain effort! The serpent has no
sooner discharged the accumulated wind with a report like a cannon----"
"No, no, like a musket! I have heard it myself," interrupted Blas Aria,
one of the listeners.
"Like a musket, than it once more brings its power of suction to bear;
and in this manner the contest continues until the victim is finally
drawn into the monster's jaws. It is well known that the lampalagua
is the strongest of all God's creatures, and that if a man, stripped
to the skin, engages one, and conquers it by sheer muscular strength,
the serpent's power goes into him, after which he is invincible."
I laughed at this fable, and was severely rebuked for my levity.
"I will tell you the strangest thing that ever befell me," said Blas
Aria. "I happened to be travelling alone--for reasons--on the northern
frontier. I crossed the River Yaguaron into Brazilian territory, and
for a whole day rode through a great marshy plain, where the reeds
were dead and yellow, and the water shrunk into muddy pools. It was
a place to make a man grow weary of life. When the sun was going down,
and I began to despair of getting to the end of this desolation, I
discovered a low hovel made of mud and thatched with rushes. It was
about fifteen yards long, with only one small door, and seemed to be
uninhabited, for no person answered me when I rode round it shouting
aloud.
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