Ricardo Palma, the Lima correspondent of _La Raza Latina_,
has been collecting some curious South American traditions
which date back to the Spanish Conquest. The following
legend, entitled "El Carbunclo del Diablo," is one of these:
When Juan de la Torre, one of the celebrated Conquistadores, discovered
and seized an immense treasure in one of the huacas near the city of
Lima, the Spanish soldiers became seized with a veritable mania for
treasure-seeking among the old forts and cemeteries of the Indians.
Now there were three ballesteros belonging to the company of Captain
Diego Gumiel, who had formed a partnership for the purpose of seeking
fortunes among the huacas of Miraflores, and who had already spent
weeks upon weeks in digging for treasure without finding the smallest
article of value.
On Good Friday, in the year 1547, without any respect for the sanctity
of the day--for to human covetousness nothing is sacred--the three
ballesteros, after vainly sweating and panting all morning and
afternoon, had not found anything except a mummy--not even a trinket
or bit of pottery worth three pesetas. Thereupon they gave themselves
over to the Father of Evil--cursing all the Powers of Heaven, and
blaspheming so horribly that the Devil himself was obliged to stop his
ears with cotton.
By this time the sun had set; and the adventurers were preparing to
return to Lima, cursing the niggardly Indians for the unpardonable
stupidity of not having been entombed in state upon beds of solid gold
or silver, when one of the Spaniards gave the mummy so ferocious a kick
that it rolled a considerable distance. A glimmering jewel dropped from
the skeleton, and rolled slowly after the mummy.
"Canario!" cried one of the soldiers, "what kind of a taper is that?
Santa Maria! what a glorious carbuncle!"
And he was about to walk toward the jewel, when the one who had kicked
the corpse, and who was a great bully, held him back with the words:
"Halt, comrade! May I never be sad if that carbuncle does not belong to
me; for it was I who found the mummy!"
"May the Devil carry thee away! I first saw it shine, and may I die
before any other shall possess it!"
"Cepos quedos!" thundered the third, unsheathing his sword, and making
it whistle round his head. "Sol am nobody?"
"Caracolines! Not even the Devil's wife shall wring it from me," cried
the bully, unsheathing his dagger.
And a tremendous fight began among the three comrades.
The following day some Mitayos found the dead body of one of the
combatants, and the other two riddled with wounds, begging for a
confessor. Before they died they related the story of the carbuncle,
and told how it illumined the combat with a sinister and lurid light.
But the carbuncle was never found after. Tradition ascribes its origin
to the Devil; and it is said that each Good Friday night travelers may
perceive its baleful rays twinkling from the huaca Juliana, rendered
famous by this legend.