From Cuentos Populares en Chile (Chilean Folktales) – by Ramón A. Laval
Part 2 – Myths, Traditions, Things (Mitos, Tradiciones, Casos)
(Told in 1911 by the young student D. Ramón Fernández, 15 years old, from Santiago.)
057. The Pudahuel Lagoon (La Laguna de Pudahuel)
Many years ago, when the railroad line linking Santiago and Valparaíso had not yet been laid, six cart drivers with their corresponding loaded carts left the port at the capital and arrived at the Pudahuel lagoon on a Good Friday. Five cart drivers did not want to continue in consideration of the sacredness of the day; but the sixth said that it mattered not to him that this was a Good Friday and that he was not ready to make delays [because this]. And with the cattle prod he urged his oxen on, entering the water, with the cart, at the most shallow part of the lagoon. At the moment in which they were more or less in the middle of the lagoon, a Cuero at the bottom grabbed the oxen and carts and pulled them towards it. The cart driver, upon seeing that the oxen were sinking, prodded and yelled at them to leave that area; but this was done to no avail, because the Cuero did not release them; on the contrary, once it had secured its preys at the deepest part of the lagoon, it also seized the cart driver, whom his companions saw disappearing moments later.
Since then, on every Good Friday they’d hear the voice of the cart driver, calling out for his oxen.
[Note from D. Ramón Fernández:] The Cuero, or Manta, is a type of thick skin, or cloth, spread out at the bottom of rivers and lagoons, which attracts people, animals and small manned vessels that pass within its reach. It gets irritated by simply having any living being within its proximity, and would rise and grab between its folds which formed with its movements anyone who has had the ill luck of getting close to it and who would inevitably perish by drowning. The Cuero or Manta feeds on its victims (R.F.).
—– VOCABULARY —–
Carretero – (cart maker) cartwright; (person who drives a cart); cart driver; (rude person) boor; (related to the road) road
Sagrado – (venerated) holy, sacred; (highly important) sacred; (old-fashioned) (religious) sanctuary (refuge in church or monastery), consecrated ground (sacred land)
Picana – (pointed stick) (South America) cattle prod, goad; (torture instrument) electric prod
Cuero – (material) leather; (untanned animal pelt) hide, skin; (leather canteen) wineskin; (whip) whip; (hardware) washer; (sports) ball
Asir – (to seize) to grab, to take hold of, to grasp
Asirse – (to seize) to grab hold of, to cling, to grab
Hundir – (to submerge) to sink; (to bring down) to destroy, to ruin, to sink; (to go down into) to plunge, to sink
Hundirse – (to submerge) to sink; (to fall down) to collapse, to cave in; (to go down) to subside; (to be ruined) to go under, to collapse, to go to the wall; (to become sad) to get depressed
Especie – (biology) species; (type) kind, sort; (literary) (hearsay) rumor
Extendido – (opened out) spread-out, outstretched, outspread; (far-reaching) widespread
Embarcación – (ship) vessel, craft, boat; (act of embarking) embarkation
Tripulado – manned, crewed
Alcance – (grasp) reach; (extent) scope, reach; (significance) importance; (resources) means; (distance) range; (negative balance) deficit (accounting)
Vecindad – (district) neighborhood; (nearby area) vicinity, neighborhood; (people living nearby) neighbors, residents; (slum) (Mexico) tenement house, tenement block
Recogerse – (to go to one’s place) to go home; (to go to sleep) to go to bed; (religion) to withdraw, to retire; (clothing) to lift up (skirt), to roll up (pants, sleeves)
Recoger – (to lift up) to pick up; (to collect) to gather; (to organize) to clean up; (to fetch) to pick up; (to put hair up) to put up; (to harvest) to pick; (to contain) to include, to show (image)
Asir – (to seize) to grab, to take hold of, to grasp
Asirse – (to seize) to grab hold of, to cling, to grab
Plegar – (to pleat) to fold; (to close) to fold up
Plegarse – (to concede) to yield, to submit, to give in; (to close) to fold up, to fold away; (to get folded)
Irremisiblemente – (unforgivably) irremisibly; (inevitably) irremissibly
Perecer – (to pass away) to perish, to die
Perecerse – (to feel intensely) to die; (to crave) to long to, to be crazy about