A YOUNG NATURALIST. 59 



Lucien had an idea of hanging on to Gringalet's tail, who 

 was the only one that could avoid these mishaps. This plan 

 answered very well at first ; but the dog soon after broke away 

 by a sudden jerk, and the boy rolled backwards like a ball, 

 losing all the ground he had gained, but he at once got up again, 

 quite in a pet with the dog, for whom he predicted a fall as a 

 punishment for his treacherous behaviour. 



The troublesome piae-needles obliged us again to resort to the 

 stake and lasso plan ; for I'Encuerado, with his load, strove in 

 vain to keep up with us. 



"Can any one understand the use of these horrible trees?" 

 grumbled the Indian. " Why can't they keep their leaves to them- 

 selves ? Why don't they grow in the plains instead of making 

 honest folks wear the flesh off their bones in a place which is 

 quite diflScult enough to traverse as it is 1" 



" God makes them grow here," said the child. 



" Not at all, Chanito ; God created them, but the devil has 

 sown them on these mountains. I have travelled on the large 

 plateau, where there are whole forests of pines, which proves that 

 it was only for spite that they grow on this ascent.'' 



Fortunately Lucien only half believed what the Indian said, 

 and very soon asked me all about it. 



"The pines," I replied, "are trees of the north, which never 

 grow well except in cold climates and dry soils. If I'Encuerado 

 had been acquainted with the history of his ancestors, he would 

 have been able to give you some better information about 

 them ; he would have known that, in the Aztec mythology, 

 they were sacred to the mother of the gods, the goddess 

 Matlacueye, who, curiously enough, fills the part of Cybele 

 among the Greek goddesses, whose favourite tree was also the 

 pine." 



Just at this moment we were passing close to a giant of the 

 forest which had been broken by a squall of wind ; from three or 

 four cracks in its trunk a transparent resin ran trickling out. 

 Lucien, thinking these globules were sohd, wished to take hold of 

 one of them ; but his fingers stuck to it. 



" I fancied," said he, " that turpentine was obtained by crush- 



