Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-11-14
THE EVIL ONES OWN ARMY.
CHASTITY Stories of an Adventure in
the Interior of Central
America.
A Camp is Invaded by a Swarm of
TarantulaS. Which Plays Great.
Havoc.

he request OF the Munich Society Tor IRE
historic research, of which an a member,
to investigate the ancient ruins which
cover this country, with view Of obtai l.
lng. If possible. some clew to the nerioS to
which they belong, | got the ciyw l
sought fer from some hieroglyphicS among |
the Conquestador coins, which, according |
to my theory, are about 5000 years old, |
but, of course, absolute proof Is not avail |
able. | had as a guide a most intelligent !
half-breed, Manuel Besero. and he inform |
ed me that, according 10 the traditions of !
his Indian progenitors, there were some |
ruins of still greater antiquity some 100 |
miles to the northward. near the Rio SEGA |
Indeed, he said that this dry bed was once |
the bed of a river that had been turned !
from its course by the inhabitants of these |
same ruins. Thinking that | might pos
sibly find some corroboration for my theo-
~ among these earlier relics of the lost
race, | started to find them, accompanied
by my faithful guide. II was very hard
travelling through the jungleS, and we
made hardly fifteen miles day. The diff
fculties were multiplied by the enormous
number of snakes and poisonous insects
that infest this section. We lost one of
our pack mules through bite or = sting
of some sort on the third day.
On the afternoon of the fourth day we
camped in d little opening clear except for
grass. This we soon burned off.
We had just finished supper. and was
sitting at the base Of a tree smoking my
pipe, when an enormous tarantula came
out of the grass into tue cleared circle.
He WAS positively the largest specimen |
have ever. seen. and as the slanting rays of
the sun caught him | noticed a curious,
dull, indefinite, reddish line down his
back. | regretted that | had not the
means to preseve it, but Manuel settled my
regrets by crushing it with a billet of
wood. 1t had hardly ceased moving when
another equally large one appeared at the
other end of the burned patch. | did not
fear them much, as | wore heavy leather
legginS, reaching to my hips.
We have made a bad camp, Manuel,
| said; there seems to be smany tarantu-
las"
"One place is about as good as an
other, - he answered in Spanish; they US
ually go by twos.
He appeared more troubled, however,
than his careless answer seemed to indicate,
and while killed the second unwelcome
visitor, she began to poke around in the
grass with long branch, He uncovered
more of the great spiders ard killed them
when he turned around there were half 4
dozen more of them in the clear space
They fastened on the dead ones and seemed
to suck their blood
I'VE must get out of this screamed the
Indian.
At this moment the remaining mule be
gan TO struggle and kick. He soon broke
his picket rope and disappeared Then
became aware of a steady ruStllng In the
! grass. More tarantulas came out.
II have heari of it from the Indians, y
cried my guide. 1T is devils army.
They say that the people who lived in the
dead cities were killed by them. and that
no one can live there now. They come by
| thousands like red ants, and leave nothing
| alive where they pass. | thought 1t was a
squaw story. We must fight them with
| fire.
He seized a flaming brand from the
| campfire and yelled to me to do likewise.
He tried to fire the grass on all sides of
us, but where the trees grew ii was too
rank and wet, and the fires we started
would not burn.
Meanwhile the spiteful spiders became
more and more numerous. | crushed one
at least every step took; many of them
bit at my leggins and hung there by their
| fangs. We turned out fire-brands to
crushing the trantulas, but they seemed to
come thicker than we could drive them off.
Il am bitten, | heard the Indian
scream | passed him my flask | could
do nothing more for him, and dropping
nv stick started to run. Every step in
the grass seemed to bring me into worse
! quarters | tried every direction, but they
seemed everywhere. | noticed that they
were in the bushes and on the grass, so
high that my leggings would not protect
me. and presently found myself back at
the camp. There at least they could not
reach me without climbing up. The
ground was perfectly black with them.
| Poor Manuel was down on his knees and
and the great insects were all over him
| He seemed crazy, and have no doubt his
mind was nearly gone with terror and the
! pain of the bites.
| could hardly keep the tarantulas from
| getting above my legglngs. Suddenly 1t
occurred to me that | might find safety In
one of the trees. ] knew that | would
soon be exhausted if | remained among
! the black beasts, and that would end it.
| In moment had my arms about a small
| tree: | crushed the insects that chung to
my legs against the bark as | dragged and
| scrambled up A dozen feet from the
ground there was a branch from which
| | had hung some small game which had
shot pulled myself up on to this branch
! and got the first moments rest had since
| the tarantuIas first appeared. | had had
no time to think before this, but now
began to realize what had happened. 1t
seemed more like nightmare than any
thing real. looked down and almost fell
| off my branch at the horrid sight below
me. Nv Indian was now fairly on the
| ground. | could not see him for the poison
Gus things that covered him. but the ir-
regular black mass wiggled and squirmed
like a wonderful snake, and ] knew he
was not yet out of his agony. On every
side were more tarantulas hunerIly search
ing tor more victims. Their crushed fell
| lows were almost torn to pieces, so fierce
were they in their hunger. They were all
enormous; some of them were as big as
turtles. and when the sun struck them
could see the red line that distinguished
them from the non gregararlous species
that are familiar IN other places. They
crawled over one another IN their desire to
find something into which to sink their
fangs. Poor Manuel's wrlthlng body was
the objective point of most of them. They
fought hercely for spot Of flesh where
they could strike, and every movement OF
the still living man seemed to make them
yet more fierce.
1t did not take me as long to notice all
this as It does TO describe it, and | soon
saw that was not yet safe from the hOrri-
BILE fate that had overtaken my guide.
The insects began to crawl up the tree,
though not in any considerable numbers at
first. | brushed them down with a small
branch, and those that were hurt at all
were Immediately set upon by their fel-
lows.
Nv recital of these things may seem
tame, but | have no pen to describe the
awful horror Of it all. There were about
two hours of daylight left. ! knew this,
and | wondered what | could do in the
dark. Then ! remembered reading that
snakes or centipedes would not cross hair
rope, and | thought that perhaps the
same rule might apply to tarantulas.
The game was swinging from the branch
BIZ a horse-hair RATA, and 1t took me a
very few minutes TO cut the rabbits loose
and wind the rope around the trunk Just
below me. Pretty soon some more OF the
big spiders came up. Manuel was quiet
now at last, they wanted another victim.
Ny hair rope did some good. They
could not swarm over In such numbers
that | could not sweep them back with my
branch. How long | stayed there fighting
the insects back do not know.
Rr7t the LIGHT was fading when I M