Through Five Republics on Horseback Part 18

Well, how shall I conclude this short but pregnant chapter of my life?

Suffice it to say that my idol was shattered! The stones were found to be of little worth.

"The flower that smiles to-day, To-morrow dies; All that we wish to stay Tempts, and then flies."

A MAN WITH TWO NOSES AND TWO MOUTHS.

I was lost one day, and had been sitting in the gra.s.s for an hour or more wondering what I should do, when the sound of galloping hoofs broke the silence. On looking around, to my horror, I saw a _something_ seated on a fiery horse tearing towards me! What could it be? Was it human? Could the strange-looking being who suddenly reined up his horse before me be a man? A man surely, but possessing two noses, two mouths, and two hare-lips. A hideous sight! I shuddered as I looked at him. His left eye was in the temple, and he turned it full upon me, while with the other he seemed to glance toward the knife in his belt. When he rode up I had saluted him, but he did not return the recognition.

Feeling sure that the country must be well known to him, I offered to reward him if he would act as my guide. The man kept his gleaming eye fixed upon me, but answered not a word. Beginning to look at the matter in rather a serious light, I mounted my horse, when he grunted at me in an unintelligible way, which showed me plainly that he was without the power of speech. He turned in the direction I had asked him to take, and we started off at a breakneck speed, which his fiery horse kept up.

I cannot say he followed his nose, or the reader might ask me which nose, but he led me in a straight line to an eminence, from whence he pointed out the estancia I was seeking. The house was still distant, yet I was not sorry to part with my strange guide, who seemed disinclined to conduct me further. I gave him his fee, and he grunted his thanks and left me to pursue my journey more leisurely. A hut I came to had been struck by lightning, and a woman and her child had been buried in the debris. Inquiring the particulars, I was informed that the woman was herself to blame for the disaster. The saints, they told me, have a particular aversion to the _ombu_ tree, and this daring Eve had built her house near one. The saints had taken _spite_ at this act of bravado, and destroyed both mother and daughter. Moral: Heed the saints.

A FLEET-FOOTED DEER.

One day an old man seriously informed me that in those parts there was a deer which neither he nor any other one had been able to catch. Like the Siamese twins, it was two live specimens in one. When I asked why it was impossible to catch the animal, he informed me that it had eight legs with which to run. Four of the legs came out of the back, and, when tired with using the four lower ones, it just turned over and ran with the upper set. I did not see this freak, so add the salt to your taste, O reader.

I SLEEP WITH THE RATS.

Hospitality is a marked and beautiful feature of the Uruguayan people.

At whatever time I arrived at a house, although a stranger and a foreigner, I was most heartily received by the inmates. On only one occasion, which I will here relate, was I grudgingly accommodated, and that was by a Brazilian living on the frontier. The hot sun had ruthlessly shone on me all day as I waded through the long arrow gra.s.s that reached up to my saddle. The scorching rays, pitiless in their intensity, seemed to take the energy from everything living. All animate creation was paralyzed. The relentless ball of fire in the heavens, pouring down like molten bra.s.s, appeared to be trying to set the world on fire; and I lay utterly exhausted on my horse's neck, half expecting to see all kindled in one mighty blaze! I had drunk the hot, putrid water of the hollows, which did not seem to quench my thirst any, but perhaps did help to keep me from drying up and blowing away.

My tongue was parched and my lips dried together. Fortunately, I had a very quiet horse, and when I could no longer bear the sun's burning rays I got down for a few moments and crept under him.

Shelter there was none. The copious draughts of evil-smelling water I had drunk in my raging thirst brought on nausea, and it was only by force of will that I kept myself from falling, when on an eminence I joyfully sighted the Brazilian estancia. Hope then revived in me. My knowing horse had seen the house before me, and without any guidance made straight towards it at a quicker pace. Well he knew that houses in those desolate wastes were too far apart to be pa.s.sed unheeded by, and I thoroughly concurred in his wisdom. As I drew up before the lonely place my tongue refused to shout "Ave Maria," but I clapped my perspiring hands, and soon had the satisfaction of hearing footsteps within. Visions of shade and of meat and drink and rest floated before my eyes when I saw the door opened. A coal-black face peeped out, which, in a cracked, broken voice, I addressed, asking the privilege to dismount. Horror of horrors, I had not even been answered ere the door was shut again in my face! Get down without permission I dare not. The house was a large edifice, built of rough, undressed stones, and had a thick, high wall of the same material all around.

Were the inmates fiends that they let me sit there, knowing well that there was no other habitation within miles? As the minutes slowly lengthened out, and the door remained closed, my spirits sank lower and lower. After a silence of thirty-five minutes, the man again made his appearance, and, coming right out this time, stared me through and through. After this close scrutiny, which seemed to satisfy him, but elicited no response to a further appeal from me, he went to an outlying building, and, bringing a strong hide la.s.so, tied it around my horse's neck. Not until that was securely fastened did he invite me to dismount. Presuming the la.s.so was lent me to tie out my horse, I led him to the back of the house. When I returned, my strange, unwilling host was again gone, so I lay down on a pile of hides in the shade of the wall, and, utterly tired out, with visions of banquets floating before my eyes, I dropped off to sleep.

Perhaps an hour afterwards, I awoke to find a woman, black as night, bending over me. Not seeing a visitor once in three months, her feminine curiosity had impelled her to come and examine me. Seemingly more amiable than her husband, she spoke to me, but in a strange, unmusical language, which I could not understand; and then she, too, left me. As evening approached, another inmate of the house made his appearance. He was, I could see, of a different race, and, to my joy, I found that he spoke fluently in Spanish. Conducting me to the aforementioned outhouse, a place built of canes and mud, he told me that later on a piece of meat would be given me, and that I could sleep on the sheepskins. I got the meat, and I slept on the skins. Fatigued as I was, I pa.s.sed a wretched night, for dozens of huge rats ran over my body, bit my hands, and scratched my face, the whole night long.

Morning at last dawned, and, with the first streaks of coming day, I saddled my horse, and, shaking the dust of the Brazilian estancia off my feet, resumed my journey.

THE BURSTING OF A MAN.

A friend of mine came upon an ostrich's nest. The bird was not near, so, dismounting, he picked up an egg and placed it in an inside pocket of his coat. Continuing the journey, the egg was forgotten, and the horse, galloping along, suddenly tripped and fell. The rider was thrown to the ground, where he lay stunned. Three hours afterwards consciousness returned. As his weary eyes wandered, he noticed, with horror, that his chest and side were thickly besmeared. With a cry of despair, he lay back, groaning, "I have burst!" The presence of the egg he had put in his pocket had quite pa.s.sed from his mind!

I FIND A LONE SCOTSMAN.

One evening after a long day's journey, I reached a house, away near the Brazilian frontier, and was surprised indeed to see that the owner was a real live Scotsman. Great was my astonishment and pleasure at receiving such a warm Scotch welcome. He was eighty miles away from any village--alone in the mountains--and at the sight of me he wept like a child. Never can I forget his anguish as he told me that his beloved wife had died just a few days before, and that he had buried her--"there in the glen." At the sight of a British face he had completely broken down; but, pulling himself together, he conducted me through into the courtyard, and the difficulty of my journey was forgotten as we sat down to the evening meal.

Being anxious to hear the story of her who had presided at his board, I bade him recount to me the sad circ.u.mstances.

She was a "bonnie la.s.sie," and he had "lo'ed her muckle." There they had lived for twelve years, shut out from the rest of the world, yet content. Hand in hand they had toiled in joy and sorrow, when no rain fell for eight long months, and their cattle died; or when increase was good, and flocks and herds fat. Side by side they had stood alone in the wild tangle of the wilderness. And now, when riches had been gathered and comfort could be had, his "la.s.sie" had left him, and "Oh!

he grudged her sair to the land o' the leal!" Being so far removed from his fellows, he had been compelled to perform the sacred offices of burial himself. Surrounded by kind hearts and loving sympathizers, it is sad indeed to lose our loved ones. But how inexpressibly more sad it is when, away in loneliness, a man digs the cold clay tomb for all that is left of his only joy! When our dear ones sleep in "G.o.d's acre"

surrounded by others it is sad. But how much more heartbreaking is it to bury the darling wife in the depths of the mountains alone, where a strong stone wall must be built around the grave to keey the wild beasts from tearing out the remains! Only those who have been so situated can picture the solemnity of such a scene.

At his urgent request, I promised I would accompany him to the spot--sanctified by his sorrow and watered by his tears--where he had laid his dear one. Early the following morning a native servant saddled two horses, and we rode in silence towards the hallowed ground. In about thirty minutes we came in view of the quiet tomb. Encircling the grave he had built a high stone wall. When he silently opened the gate, I saw that, although all the pasture outside was dry and withered, that on the mound was beautifully green and fresh. Had he brought water from his house, for there was none nearer, or was it watered by his tears?

His greatest longing was, as he had explained to me the previous night, that she should have a Christian burial, and if I would read some chapter over her grave he would feel more content, he said. As with bared heads we reverently knelt on the mound, I now complied with his request. Then, for the first time in the world's history, the trees that surrounded us listened to the Christian doctrine of a resurrection from the dead. "It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." And the leaves whispered to the mountains beyond, which gave back the words: "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

Never have I seen a man so broken with grief as was that lone Scotsman.

There were no paid mourners or idle sightseers. There was no show of sorrow while the heart remained indifferent and untouched. It was the spectacle of a lone man who had buried his all and was left--

"To linger when the sun of life, The beam that gilds its path, is gone-- To feel the aching bosom's strife, When Hope is dead and Love lives on."

As we knelt there, I spoke to the man about salvation from sin, and unfolded G.o.d's plan of inheritance and reunions in the future life. The Lord gave His blessing, and I left him next day rejoicing in the Christ who said: "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live."

As the world moves forward, and man pushes his way into the waste places of the earth, that lonely grave will be forgotten. Populous cities will be built; but the doctrine the mountains then heard shall live when the gloomy youth of Uruguay is forgotten.

THE WORD OF G.o.d CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE R. C. CHURCH.

"Thou shalt wors.h.i.+p the Lord thy G.o.d, and Him only shalt thou serve."--The Christ.

"Mary must be the first object of our wors.h.i.+p, St. Joseph the second."--Roman Catholic Catechism.

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy G.o.d am a jealous G.o.d."

"I most firmly a.s.sert that the images of Christ and of the mother of G.o.d, ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and retained, and that due honor and veneration are to be given to them."--Creed of Pope Pius IV.

"My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."--Jehovah.

"The saints reigning together with Christ are to be honored and invocated; ... they offer prayers to G.o.d for us... their relics are to be venerated."--Creed of Pope Pius IV.

"For there is one G.o.d, and one mediator between G.o.d and men--the man Christ Jesus."--Paul.

"Mary is everything in heaven and earth, and we should adore her."--The South American Priest.

"Who changed the truth of G.o.d into a lie and wors.h.i.+pped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever."--Paul

"All power was given to her."--Peter Damian, Cardinal of Rome.

"Search the Scriptures."--The Christ.

"All who read the Bible should be stoned to death."--Pope Innocent III.

PART VI.

MARIOLATRY AND IMAGE WORs.h.i.+P.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR LADY OF GUADALOUPE. Many legacies are left to this image.]

CHAPTER XIV.

MARIOLATRY AND IMAGE WORs.h.i.+P.

Before the light of Christianity dawned on ancient Rome, the Pantheon contained G.o.ddesses many and G.o.ds many. Chief of these deities to receive the wors.h.i.+p of the people seems to have been Diana of the Ephesians, a G.o.ddess whose image fell down from Jupiter; the celestial Venus of Corinth, and Isis, sister to Osiris, the G.o.d of Egypt. These popular images, so universally wors.h.i.+pped, were naturally the aversion of the early followers of Christ. "The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse of images. The Jewish disciples were especially bitter against any but the triune G.o.d receiving homage, but, by a slow, though inevitable, progression, the honors of the original were transferred to the copy, the devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint, and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense stole into the Christian Church." [Footnote: Gibbons' "Rome."]

Having Paul's masterly epistle to the Romans, in the first chapter of which he so distinctly portrays man's tendency to change "the glory of the uncorruptible G.o.d into an image made like to corruptible man," and wors.h.i.+p and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, they were careful to remember that "G.o.d is a spirit," and to be wors.h.i.+pped only in spirit. Peter, in his epistle to them, also wrote of the One "whom having not seen ye love." As time wore on, however, the original inclination of man to wors.h.i.+p a G.o.d he could see and feel (a trait seen all down the pages of history) a.s.serted itself, and Mary, the mother of Christ, took the place in the eye and the heart previously occupied by her predecessors. [Footnote: Just as this work goes to press, the dally papers of the world announce that the oldest idol ever discovered has just been unearthed. The idol is a G.o.ddess, who is holding an infant in her arms.] Being in possession of the Acts of the Apostles, which plainly declares that Mary herself met with the rest of the disciples "for prayer and supplication," and, knowing from the four Gospels that no wors.h.i.+p had been at first given to her, the innovation was slow to find favor; but, in the year 431, the Council of Ephesus decided that Mary was equal with G.o.d.