"Did you ever see this Devil-tree?" asked her visitors.
"Yes; a few years ago, I took my two pumas and went to the cave for a certain purpose. As we stood looking at the monstrous thing one of its long, horny branches crept toward us, and one of the pumas sprang forward to bite it. Instantly it curled around the body of the poor creature, dragging it until they came to the trunk of the tree. Here shorter and thicker limbs knotted together over the struggling puma, and finally all rose in the air and almost disappeared in the hollow trunk."
"Did you make no effort to rescue your pet?"
"I hacked the first branch with an axe until it bled a dark, crimson liquid that smelled so badly I was deathly sick. Every inch of the bark is covered with small mouths that pierce the flesh and suck the blood of its victims. I kept watch until the moon came out, and then the knots of limbs unrolled and out fell something. Each branch tossed it before it reached the ground, when I saw it was the crushed and lifeless puma. Out of a slimy pool near by rushed huge alligators, and in a few minutes they were eating what the Devil-tree left of the puma."
"Let us go away from here," said the Spaniards among themselves. "Instead of being an earthly paradise, this is an infernal region."
When they were bidding the old crone good-bye the next morning, she looked at them sharply and said:
"You came here searching for gold, and expected to find it ready for your use. My friends, the great blessings of life must be worked for and earned. You cannot cheat your way into Heaven, nor will you or your people ever find any more hidden treasures belonging to other races. You will earn all the fortunes you get after this adventure."
The Amazon Queens
WE should all get very tired I am sure if we tried to follow the Spaniards into every nook and corner of the New World where they went in search of El Dorado, but we are interested in knowing that the name Costa Rica means the rich coast, because it was one of the El Dorado regions, and in Panama, the little narrow strip of land which unites North and South America, they expected to find a Castle of Gold, while the Island of Porto Rico is also one of the homes of El Dorado. It made no difference to the Spaniards whether the natives in these places had heard of the Golden Hearted or not. They only wanted to find the riches of the country, and would not have listened to any teaching other than that brought by the padres. So for years and years they kept on making mistakes and undergoing the most terrible hardships trying to acquire sudden wealth.