Translated From The Spanish.
How Matanzas came to be called Matanzas.
Or, Uncle Curro And His Club.
[Footnote 200]
[Footnote 200: Matanzas signifies murders or slaughters.]
Fernan Caballero. Here I am, Aunt Sebastiana, with a fixed intention to make you tell me a story.
Aunt Sebastiana. Say that to my Juan, señor; he can tell no end of stories, and when he don't remember them, he makes them to suit himself.
Fernan. Here comes Uncle Romance, who, if he wants a cigar and desires to give me pleasure, will tell me the story you have promised me in his name.
Uncle Romance. You must know then, señor, that there was once a man who lived gayly, without thinking of to-morrow; and, since to spend, to owe, and not to pay, is the way to the poorhouse, our man soon found himself without hacienda, and with but thirty days to the month for possessions, and nothing to eat but his finger-nails. He grew so spiritless that his wife used to beat him, and his children insult him, and say impertinent things to him when he came home bringing no provisions for the house.
He got so desperate at last that he borrowed a rope of his gossip, and went away to a field to hang himself. He had fastened the rope to an olive-tree; but just as he was going to put it around his neck, a little fairy-man appeared to him, dressed like a friar. "What are you doing, man?" said the friar. "Hanging myself, as your worship sees." "So, then, Christian, you are going to do like Judas. Go away from there. It wouldn't be well for you. Take this purse, which is never empty, and mend your fortune."
Our man took the purse, and drew out a dollar, then another, then another, and saw that it was like a woman's mouth, that pours out to all eternity words, and words, and still words, and its words are never exhausted. Seeing this, he untied the rope, wound it up, and started for home. There was an inn on the road; he entered it and began to ask for whatever they had to eat and drink, paying when it was brought; for the innkeeper, seeing him so greedy, would not trust him for all he wanted. He ate so much and drank so much that he fell under the table, and lay there more sound asleep than the dead in Holyfield.