“I have,” says Cypriano, “come across more than one, and many times. But once I well remember; for an awkward circumstance it was to myself.”
“How so, sobrino?”
“Ah! that’s a tale I never told you, Ludwig; but I’ll tell it now, if you wish.”
“Oh I do wish it.”
“Well, near the little village where, as you know, I was born, and went to school before coming to live with uncle at Assuncion, there was a pond full of these fish. We boys used to amuse ourselves with them; sending in dogs and pigs, whenever we had the chance, to see the scare they would get, and how they scampered out soon as they found what queer company they’d got into. Cruel sport it was, I admit. But one day we did what was even worse than frightening either dogs or pigs; we drove an old cow in, with a long rope round her horns, the two ends of which we fastened to trees on the opposite sides of the pond, so that she had only a little bit of slack to dance about upon. And dance about she did, as the eels electrified her on every side; till at last she dropped down exhausted, and, I suppose, dead; since she went right under the water, and didn’t come up again. I shall never forget her pitiful, ay, reproachful look, as she stood up to the neck, with her head craned out, as if making an appeal to us to save her, while we only laughed the louder. Poor thing! I can now better understand the torture she must have endured.”
“But is that the awkward circumstance you’ve spoken of?”
“Oh, no. It was altogether another affair; and for me, as all the others, a more serious one. I hadn’t come to the end of the adventure—the unpleasant part of it—which was the chastisement we all got, by way of reward for our wickedness.”
“Chastisement! Who gave it to you?”
“Our worthy schoolmaster. It so chanced the old cow was his; the only one he had at the time giving milk. And he gave us such a thrashing! Ah! I may well say, I’ve a lively recollection of it; so lively, I might truly think the punishment then received was enough, without the additional retribution the eels have this day inflicted on me.”
Cypriano’s narration ended, his cousin, after a pause, again appeals to Gaspar to give him a description of the creatures forming the topic of their conversation. To which the gaucho responds, saying:—