Page:Weird Tales v02 n01 (1923-07-08).djvu/58

 A Strange Tale of the Mayan Snake Worshipers

T WILL BE SAID: "It is impossible; such a thing could not be!" Yet, it shall be told:

Cortesana Serrano, most beautiful, most alluring of all the ladies in the ranchito at Socorro, or for that matter throughout the whole of San Bendito, was also the "Senorita Serpente," and lovers who tasted her lips died quickly, or worse!

It is hard to believe.

But they who are skeptical know not of the mysteries that take place in the land of the Azteccas, where whispering voices, evil and good, come from the Llano Sonora at night; and in the darkness of the Sierra Negrito gorges there is enchantment.

Padre Algonza de Reya, the holy priest who cares for the Mission at Magdalena and has seen many things, both pleasant and terrible, saw three men, all strong in body, young and with souls when they went to the hacienda La Queratto, where Cortesana Serrano had enticed them; and when they came back they were creatures scarcely human or animal, writhing and hissing, unable to speak, making noises in their throats like Blunt Nose, the rattlesnake who lives under the Black Boulder among the cactus beds and the basalt boulders on the slope of San Miguel.

Padre Algonza saw, and Padre Algonza would not lie.

Besides that, there was the thing which happened to Skinny Rawlins, called by

Rh