The Press. (Stafford Springs, Conn.) 1883-1935, 1898-02-03
INCA WITCHCRAFT.

Bal Chico was the son of Mexican
matadore, and his early associations
were not of kind to develop stable
and law abiding character. Bal drank
because he saw everybody else drink,
and red wine brought into action in Bal
that courage which the matadore dis
played in the arena with sagacity and
prudence. Red wine does not mature
wisdom, theoretical or applied, and
without these, which are indeed sagac-
ity and prudence, courage becomes but
pugnacity that amuses or oHends Bal
soon became offensive, and in brawl
in an indecent quarter of his native
town he had the misfortune to knife a
young grandee of tastes and weaknesses
similar to his own, but of influential
connections The wounded youth recov-
cred, but political influence was suffi-
cient to cause his assailant's removal to
a penal settlement for 20 years.
Bal obtained no more red wine, but
the more he weighed the ofense of the
knife attack, its provocation, and its
punishment, the clearer it seemed that
he was suffering out of all proportion
to his transgression. The sense of foul
wrong, done because it could be done,
burned in upon him as if brand iron
were held against him, ever glowing
and never lifted. For months after he
discerned the immense range of this in
Justice, he lived in rage impedimental
to speeoh-he became inarticulate.
Slowly his good sense came to the
rescue, and he became calm that ne
might live, grow strong OF body and
powerful through accumulation and
meet Don Pico as master. There were
men of different nationalities in the set
Element, and Bal found that he absorbed
words as sponge absorbs water, and
he learned Portuguese, more than one
patois of his own land, and the dialect
Of Peruvian Indian sent from his OWE
province a year before, whom he hao
saved from imminent atrocity at the
hands of a vicious fellow convict.
This Indian had virtue little known
to civilization-he was capable of graft
tude-and the two formed mutual at
tachment that the friendships Of civil.
zation may scarcely parallel and which
was equaled but by their common hatred
of all rulers, their own in particular
This Indian Bal knew to be a snake
charmer of extraordinary accomplish
ments. His gift was not transferable tc
the younger man, nor did the latter soon
discover it's singularity, but in time he
found that Juan's power over certain
reptiles might be expressed as hypnotic
He seemed to impress his own master
fitness upon the serpents and to exert
his power upon them at a distance or tx
send them to perform some definite mis-
sion at distance and return within {
given time, after the habit Of human
subjects.
Once Bal saw Juan with his pets a
recreation. No word was spoken, bu
Juan looked meaningly at Bal and the1
at the top of the wall. Bal looked anC
saw lizard there with it's head a-til
and the sun shining pink through hi
palpitant throat. Then something slip
ped away from Juan, who watched thu
top of the wall, as did Bal. By and BY
bit of the wall moved-it seemed
bit of the wall-it moved and coileC
and leaped, and the little foray wa
over Then the devourer slipped back
and Juan snapped his fingers and whis
pered to it.
"Was the lizard hypnotized, too?'
Bal Chico asked himself
This branch of his accomplishment
Juan never showed the prison official
when they sent for him to exhibit TO
their amusement.
The weary years rolled by. eve viii
live; we must live. We will get even
you and me" Juan whispered to him
self over and over, and he whispered i
to Bal when he could, with the sam
imperious suggestiveness that he whis
pered something to his snakes.
At last Juan's 90 weary years wer
done, but the "man WITCH had 60
much power. Some he amused whel
tired of the commonplace, but the man,
feared him, and when he chose to wan
der around the settlement clad il
breeches, a poncho, and viper afte,
he was free to go far away none oh
jected, and few wondered at the whim
of SO fantastic a being.
When Bal, a young man white hairet
now, went out, old Juan awaited hin
at the prison gates, carrying clos
woven wicker crate, or basket, but nei
ther extra clothing nor the usual snake
were visible, and from that day neithe,
appeared in all that country.