lf, _senorito_, you'd say so. A lightning eel's about the
daintiest morsel I ever stuck teeth into; though they do have their
dwelling-place in mud, and as some say, feed upon it. Before cooking
them, however, something needs being done. You must cut away a portion
of their flesh; the spongy part, which it's said gives them power to
make their lightning play. In that lies the dangerous stuff, whatever
sort of thing it is."

"But what are they like, Gaspar? I've never seen one."

It is Ludwig who still interrogates; but to his last question Cypriano,
not Gaspar, gives the answer, saying:

"Oh, cousin! Do you mean to say you've never seen an electric eel?"

"Indeed do I. I've heard father speak of them often, and I know them by
their scientific name, _gymnotus_. I believe there are plenty of them
in the rivers of Paraguay; but, as it chances, I never came across one,
either dead or alive."

"I have," says Cypriano, "come across more than one, and many times.
But once I well remember; for an awkward circumstance it was to myself."

"How so, _sobrino_?"

"Ah! that's a tale I never told you, Ludwig; but I'll tell it now, if
you wish."

"Oh I do wish it."

"Well, near the little village where, as you know, I was born, and went
to school before coming to live with uncle at Assuncion, there was a
pond full of these fish. We boys used to amuse ourselves with them;
sending in dogs and pigs, whenever we had the chance, to see the scare
they would get, and how they scampered out soon as they found what queer
company they'd got into. Cruel sport it was, I admit. But one day we
did what was even worse than frightening either dogs or pigs; we drove
an old cow in, with a long rope round her horns, the two ends of which
we fastened to trees on the opposite sides of the pond, so that she had
only a little bit of slack to dance about upon. And dance about she
did, as the eels electrified her on every side; till at last she dropped
down exhausted, and, I suppose, dead; since she went right under the
water, and didn't come up again. I shall never forget her pitiful, ay,
reproachful look, as she stood up to the neck, with her head craned out,
as if making an appeal to us to save her, while we only laughed the
louder. Poor thing! I can now better understand the torture she must
have endured."

"But is that the awkward circumstance you've spoken of?"

"Oh, no. _It_ was altogether another affair; and for me, as all