Page:A narrative of travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro.djvu/301

 1852.] ST. JOHN'S DAY. 269

him away out of the house ; the master then blacked his face, and made himself as much like the old nigger as he could. On the evening appointed Death came. ' Good-evening, Comadre,' said he ; ' where is my compadre ? — I'm obliged to take him with me. ' Oh ! Compadre,' said she, ' he didn't at all expect you, and is gone on some business into the village, and won't be back till late.' ' Now I'm in a pretty mess,' said Death; 'I did not expect my compadre would have treated me so ; it's very ungentlemanly of him to get me into this scrape after all I've done for him. However, I must take somebody ; — who is there in the house ? ' The woman was rather alarmed at this question, for she expected he would immediately have started off to the village in search of her husband : however, she considered it best to be civil, so replied, 'There's only our old nigger, that's in the kitchen, getting supper ready. Sit down, Compadre, and take a bit, and then perhaps my husband will be in ; I'm very sorry he should give you so much trouble.' 'No, I can't stay,' said Death ; ' I've got a long way to go, and must take somebody, so let's see if the old nigger will do ? ' and he walked into the kitchen, where the man was pretending to be busily engaged over the fire. 'Well, if Compadre won't come, I suppose I must take the old nigger,' said Death ; and before the wife could speak a word, he stretched out his hand, and down fell her husband a corpse.

"So you see," said the old woman to me, "when a man's time is come he must go : neither doctors nor anything else can stop him, and you can't cheat Death nohow." To which sentiment I did not think it worth while to make any objection.

About two days before had been St. John's day, when it is the custom to make bonfires and jump over and through them, which act is considered by the common people as an important religious ceremony. As we were talking about it, the old lady gravely asked if we knew that animals also passed through the fire ? We replied that we were not aware of the fact ; upon which she informed us that we might hereafter believe it, for that she had had ocular demonstration of it. " It was last year," said she, " on the day after St. John's, my son went out to hunt, and brought home a cotia and a paca, and both of them were completely scorched all along the belly : they had evidently passed through the fire the night before." "But