CHAPTER SIX.
THE TIGER-HUNTER.
Notwithstanding the change of attitude, the negro still continued thevictim of his fears. Instead of paying proper attention to what hiscompanion was saying, his eyes wandered abroad, searching the horizon onevery side of him, as if at every moment he expected to see the jaguarsreturning to attack them.
Noticing his uneasiness, the Indian made an attempt to reassure him.
"You have nothing to fear, comrade," said he. "The tigers have thewhole river to drink out of; and it is not likely they will come backhere."
"They may be hungry," rejoined Clara, "and I have heard say that theyprefer a black man, like me, to either a white or an Indian."
"Ha, ha!" laughed his companion. "You need not flatter yourself on thatscore. Bah, man! there's not a tiger in all the State that would befool enough to prefer a carcass tough and black as yours, to the fleshof a young colt or heifer, either of which they can have at any time.Ha, ha! If the jaguars only heard what you've said, they would shaketheir sides with laughter."
The fearlessness exhibited by the Indian himself in regard to thejaguars is easily explained, since it was by the destruction of thesefierce animals that he got his living. His calling was a peculiar one,though common enough throughout the tropical regions of America. Hewas, in fact, a _tigrero_, or tiger-hunter, a class of men whose soleoccupation consists in pursuing, _a l'outrance_, the different beasts ofprey that ravage the flocks and herds of the great _haciendas deganado_, or grazing estates. Among these predatory creatures the jaguaris the most destructive; and the hunting and slaying of these animals isfollowed by many men--usually Indians or half-breeds--as a regularprofession.
As the jaguar (_Felis onca_) in all parts of Spanish-America iserroneously called the tiger (_tigre)_, so the hunter of this animal istermed a tiger-hunter (_tigrero_). Many of the more extensive estateskeep one or more of these hunters in their pay; and the Indian we haveintroduced to the reader was the _tigrero_ of the hacienda Del Valle.His name and nation were declared by himself in the speech thatfollowed--
"Ah!" he exclaimed with an air of savage exultation, "neither tigers normen may laugh with impunity at Costal, the Zapoteque. As for thesejaguars," he continued after a pause, "let them go for this night.There will be nothing lost by waiting till to-morrow. I can soon getupon their trail again; and a jaguar whose haunt is once known to me, isa dead animal. To-night we have other business. There will be a newmoon; and that is the time when, in the foam of the cascade, and thesurface of the solitary lake, the Siren shows herself--the Siren of thedishevelled hair."
"The Siren of the dishevelled hair?"
"Yes; she who points out to the gold-seeker the rich _placers_ of gold--to the diver the pearls that lie sparkling within their shells at thebottom of the great ocean."
"But who has told you this?" inquired Clara, with a look of incredulity.
"My fathers--the Zapoteques," replied Costal, in a solemn tone of voice;"and why should _they_ not know? They have learnt these things fromTlaloc and Matlacuezc--gods they were, as powerful as the Christ of thepale faces. Why--"
"Don't speak so loud!" interrupted Clara, in a voice that betokenedalarm. "The priests of the Christians have their ears everywhere. Theymight call it blasphemy; and _carrambo_! the Inquisition has its dangersfor blacks as well as whites!"
On hearing the word Inquisition the Indian involuntarily lowered hisvoice; but continued speaking in a tone that his companion could stillhear him.
"My fathers," said he, "have told me that the Siren never appears to anyone who is alone. It is necessary that two be present--two men of triedcourage they must be--for the divinity is often wrathful at beinginvoked, and at such times her anger is terrible. As two men arerequired, I need another besides myself. Will you then be mycompanion?"
"Hum!" said Clara. "I may boast that I am not afraid of a man; though Iconfess I cannot say the same about a tiger. As to your Siren, thatappears to be the very devil--"
"Man, tiger, or devil," cried Costal, "why fear any of the three? Whatneed one care for them--one who has a stout heart--especially when thereward of his courage is gold, and enough of it to make a grand lord outof a poor Indian?"
"And of a negro as well?"
"Without doubt."
"Say, rather," rejoined Clara, with an air of discouragement, "that goldcould serve neither one nor the other. Black and Indian, both areslaves, and our masters would soon take it from us."
"True enough what you say; but let me tell you, Clara, that the bondageof the Indian is approaching its end. Have you not heard that up in thenorth--in the _tierra adentro_--a priest has proclaimed the emancipationof all races, and equal liberty for all?"
"No," replied the negro, betraying his total ignorance of the politicalaffairs of the country, "I have heard nothing about it."
"Know, then, that the day is at hand when the Indian will be on anequality with the white, the Creole with the Spaniard; and when anIndian, such as I, will be the master of both!"
The descendant of the Zapoteques delivered this speech with an air ofproud exultation.
"Yes!" continued he, "the day of our ancient splendour will soon return.That is why I am desirous at present of acquiring gold. Hitherto Ihave not troubled myself about finding it; since, as you say, it wouldsoon be wrested from the hands of a poor slave. Now that I am to befree, the circumstances are changed; and I want gold, by which I mayrevive the glories of my ancestors."
Clara could not help casting a look of astonishment at his companion.The air of savage grandeur, visible in the countenance of thetiger-hunter--vassal of the hacienda Las Palmas--surprised him, as didalso the pretentious manner in which he spoke about reviving the ancientsplendours of his race.
The look and its meaning did not escape the observation of the Indian.
"Friend Clara!" said he, in a confidential tone, "listen to me, while Ireveal to you a secret which I have kept for many long years--longenough for me to have seen fifty dry seasons, and fifty seasons of rain;and this fact can be confirmed to you by all of my colour and race."
"You have seen fifty seasons of rain?" cried the negro, in a tone ofastonishment, at the same time regarding his companion attentively, whoin truth did not appear to be over thirty years of age. "Fifty seasonsof rain?"
"Well, not quite fifty," replied Costal, with a smile, "but very nearit."
"Ah! I shall see fifty more," continued he. "Omens have told me that Ishall live as long as the ravens."
The negro remained silent, still held in surprise by the wilddeclarations which his companion was volunteering to make to him.
"Listen, friend Clara!" continued the tiger-hunter, extending his arm ina circle, and designating the four points of the compass; "in all thespace that a horseman could traverse between sunrise and sunset--fromnorth to south, from east to west--there is not a spot of ground thatwas not once possessed by my ancestors--the ancient lords of Zapoteca.Before the vessels of the white men touched upon our coasts, they weresovereign masters of all this land--from ocean to ocean. The sea alonewas their boundary. Thousands of warriors followed their banners, andcrowded around their plume-bedecked standards of war. In the ocean thepearl-banks, and on the land the _placers_ of gold belonged to them.The yellow metal glanced upon their dresses and armour, or ornamentedthe very sandals upon their feet. They possessed it in such abundance,they scarce knew what to do with it.
"Where now are the once powerful Caciques of Tehuantepec? Most of theirsubjects have been slaughtered by the thunder of the white men, orburied in the dark mines--while the conquerors have divided among themand made slaves of the survivors! An hundred needy adventurers havebeen transformed into grand magnates--each endowed with a portion of theconquered territory; and at this moment the last descendant of theCaciques is forced to earn his subsistence almost as a slave--to submitto the tyranny of a white master--to expose his life daily for thedestruction of fierce beasts, lest they should rav
age the flocks andherds of his thankless employer; while, of the vast plains over which heis compelled to pursue his perilous calling, there remains to him not aspot he can call his own--not even the ground occupied by his miserablehut."
The speaker might have gone on much longer without fear of his hearerinterrupting him. The latter was held mute with astonishment, as wellas by a kind of involuntary respect with which the words of hiscompanion had inspired him. In all probability the negro had neverbefore heard that a powerful and civilised people existed in thatcountry previous to the arrival of the Spaniards. At all events he hadnever suspected that the man who was thus enlightening him--thehalf-Pagan, half-Christian tiger-hunter--was the descendant of theancient masters of Tehuantepec.
As for Costal himself, after making these statements of the formersplendours of his family--in which, notwithstanding his pompous mode ofdeclaring them, there was much truth--he lapsed into a profound silence;and, his face turned with a melancholy expression upon the ground, hetook no notice of the effect produced on the mind of his blackcompanion.