Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - X. San Antonio
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
212 DAYS IN THE SUN
knew whither. My own son was one of them; so no-
body can say I am lying. And many of her brood are
still living in Granada. We never see them any larger,
for a snake takes a thousand years before she is full
grown. Since their mother is dead, they are always
looking for milk, and by night they creep into the beds
of women nursing their children, lay themselves over
their breasts and push the child aside. Then, to pre-
vent the child from crying, they stick their tails into its
mouth as a nipple, for they have some sense; and if the
child cries anyway, they make themselves scarce. ‘They
remain in hiding all day long, but you can always tell
that they have been around because the child has a
black mark around the mouth next morning and will
not grow properly.”
They continued talking about snakes and adders, but
persistently avoided using the Spanish word for snake,
culebra. They said, “the animal,” or “the large in-
sect.” I knew that there are certain words that may
not be mentioned because they will bring on some
dreadful event; perhaps this is one of them.
“I have never seen a culebra in Granada,” I said
quite innocently. The women stared at me with terri-
fied eyes and open mouths and began to scream. Beppa
addressed me with wails and reproaches and rushed
upstairs to San Antonio.
“Turn it away, turn it away!” she cried, lamenting,
and hastily began to repeat the charm, in which she
was joined by the voices of the other women: “La-
garto, lagarto—vete a comer esparto” (lizard, liz-
ard, go eat esparto grass). This was said to be an
excellent device for exorcising these monsters; but the
old gas-works operator completely lost control of him-
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
