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Although driven away at least twenty times, Gringalet kept on returning to the attack, and he assailed the trowsers with so much ardor that a fresh rent was made. Then l'Encuerado became angry, and the dog having been punished, went and crouched down by the fire; but he still continued to show his teeth at the strange lining which seemed so offensive to him.
From the flashes of childish humor which he would display on such occasions, my friend sometimes gave him the nickname of "Sun-beam." Next to the child came l'Encuerado, an Indian of the Mistec race a strange mixture of delicacy, simplicity, kindness, candor, and obstinacy.
This joke was taken in a serious light by l'Encuerado, who smote his forehead as if suddenly struck by some idea. "It is the genius of the cave!" he cried. "Ah! the scoundrel, after all he owes me, and the precautions I took!" "What precautions?" asked Lucien, surprised. "I picked up seven white pebbles, and drew out a beautiful cross." "What did the cross matter to him?"
L'Encuerado, full of ingenuity, managed to fix some pieces of fox-skin on some old soles, and made for Lucien a pair of buskins as strong as they were inelegant. He promised to make us some like them, and Sumichrast, who succeeded only tolerably well in his cobbling, nominated the Indian "sandal-maker in ordinary and extraordinary to our majesties."
I at once recognized the black sugar-cane snake, which is only formidable on account of its size; the planters are in the habit of attracting it to their fields, to keep them clear of mischievous rodents. L'Encuerado noiselessly left the hut. The snake raised its head, and slowly contracting its rings, and throwing round a bright glance, turned towards us.
The trunk of the tree was five or six feet in circumference; the first branches sprang at a point no less than seven to ten feet from the ground, and I could not make out how the boy managed to reach them. As for l'Encuerado, or rather the ape that went by that name, I knew that no obstacle could stop him.
A slight noise was heard in the thickets, and our companion disappeared. We were listening, holding our breath, when we heard the screech as of an owl; we knew it was a call, so l'Encuerado also glided away through the bushes. "Why did M. Sumichrast call l'Encuerado?" asked Lucien, in a low voice. "Probably because he has discovered the trail of some animal."
But it never lost the habit of walking about in flocks, and of laying its eggs in thickets, in a shapeless nest, which the young chicks leave the second day after they are hatched. Lastly, the Aztec name of the turkey totole is applied by the Indians to simpletons and cowards. Lucien then told l'Encuerado about the magpie and the amphisbæna.
We were suddenly almost blinded by a flash of intense brilliancy; a formidable explosion, repeated by the echoes, burst upon our ears, and all became silence and obscurity. While we were returning to our bivouac, Lucien and l'Encuerado pressed us with questions. "What are meteors?" asked Lucien, eagerly.
After throwing away the remains of yesterday's meat, one night in this climate being enough to putrefy it, l'Encuerado arranged some fishing-lines along the stream, and our little party set off, struggling against the heat, the mosquitoes, and the horse-flies. The Indian, following the flight of a purple-feathered bird, led us close to an immense ant-hill.
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