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- Стр. 1/23
The Country of the Blind
Three
hundred
miles
and
more
from
Chimborazo
,
one
hundred
from
the
snows
of
Cotopaxi
,
in
the
wildest
wastes
of
Ecuador
's
Andes
,
there
lies
that
mysterious
mountain
valley
,
cut
off
from
the
world
of
men
,
the
Country
of
the
Blind
.
Long
years
ago
that
valley
lay
so
far
open
to
the
world
that
men
might
come
at
last
through
frightful
gorges
and
over
an
icy
pass
into
its
equable
meadows
;
and
thither
indeed
men
came
,
a
family
or
so
of
Peruvian
half-breeds
fleeing
from
the
lust
and
tyranny
of
an
evil
Spanish
ruler
.
Then
came
the
stupendous
outbreak
of
Mindobamba
,
when
it
was
night
in
Quito
for
seventeen
days
,
and
the
water
was
boiling
at
Yaguachi
and
all
the
fish
floating
dying
even
as
far
as
Guayaquil
;
everywhere
along
the
Pacific
slopes
there
were
land-slips
and
swift
thawings
and
sudden
floods
,
and
one
whole
side
of
the
old
Arauca
crest
slipped
and
came
down
in
thunder
,
and
cut
off
the
Country
of
the
Blind
for
ever
from
the
exploring
feet
of
men
.
But
one
of
these
early
settlers
had
chanced
to
be
on
the
hither
side
of
the
gorges
when
the
world
had
so
terribly
shaken
itself
,
and
he
perforce
had
to
forget
his
wife
and
his
child
and
all
the
friends
and
possessions
he
had
left
up
there
,
and
start
life
over
again
in
the
lower
world
.
He
started
it
again
but
ill
,
blindness
overtook
him
,
and
he
died
of
punishment
in
the
mines
;
but
the
story
he
told
begot
a
legend
that
lingers
along
the
length
of
the
Cordilleras
of
the
Andes
to
this
day
.
He
told
of
his
reason
for
venturing
back
from
that
fastness
,
into
which
he
had
first
been
carried
lashed
to
a
llama
,
beside
a
vast
bale
of
gear
,
when
he
was
a
child
.
The
valley
,
he
said
,
had
in
it
all
that
the
heart
of
man
could
desire
--
sweet
water
,
pasture
,
and
even
climate
,
slopes
of
rich
brown
soil
with
tangles
of
a
shrub
that
bore
an
excellent
fruit
,
and
on
one
side
great
hanging
forests
of
pine
that
held
the
avalanches
high
.
Far
overhead
,
on
three
sides
,
vast
cliffs
of
grey-green
rock
were
capped
by
cliffs
of
ice
;
but
the
glacier
stream
came
not
to
them
but
flowed
away
by
the
farther
slopes
,
and
only
now
and
then
huge
ice
masses
fell
on
the
valley
side
.
In
this
valley
it
neither
rained
nor
snowed
,
but
the
abundant
springs
gave
a
rich
green
pasture
,
that
irrigation
would
spread
over
all
the
valley
space
.
The
settlers
did
well
indeed
there
.
Their
beasts
did
well
and
multiplied
,
and
but
one
thing
marred
their
happiness
.
Yet
it
was
enough
to
mar
it
greatly
.
A
strange
disease
had
come
upon
them
,
and
had
made
all
the
children
born
to
them
there
--
and
indeed
,
several
older
children
also
--
blind
.
It
was
to
seek
some
charm
or
antidote
against
this
plague
of
blindness
that
he
had
with
fatigue
and
danger
and
difficulty
returned
down
the
gorge
.
In
those
days
,
in
such
cases
,
men
did
not
think
of
germs
and
infections
but
of
sins
;
and
it
seemed
to
him
that
the
reason
of
this
affliction
must
lie
in
the
negligence
of
these
priestless
immigrants
to
set
up
a
shrine
so
soon
as
they
entered
the
valley
.
He
wanted
a
shrine
--
a
handsome
,
cheap
,
effectual
shrine
--
to
be
erected
in
the
valley
;
he
wanted
relics
and
such-like
potent
things
of
faith
,
blessed
objects
and
mysterious
medals
and
prayers
.
In
his
wallet
he
had
a
bar
of
native
silver
for
which
he
would
not
account
;
he
insisted
there
was
none
in
the
valley
with
something
of
the
insistence
of
an
inexpert
liar
.
They
had
all
clubbed
their
money
and
ornaments
together
,
having
little
need
for
such
treasure
up
there
,
he
said
,
to
buy
them
holy
help
against
their
ill
.
I
figure
this
dim-eyed
young
mountaineer
,
sunburnt
,
gaunt
,
and
anxious
,
hat-brim
clutched
feverishly
,
a
man
all
unused
to
the
ways
of
the
lower
world
,
telling
this
story
to
some
keen-eyed
,
attentive
priest
before
the
great
convulsion
;
I
can
picture
him
presently
seeking
to
return
with
pious
and
infallible
remedies
against
that
trouble
,
and
the
infinite
dismay
with
which
he
must
have
faced
the
tumbled
vastness
where
the
gorge
had
once
come
out
.
But
the
rest
of
his
story
of
mischances
is
lost
to
me
,
save
that
I
know
of
his
evil
death
after
several
years
.
Poor
stray
from
that
remoteness
!
The
stream
that
had
once
made
the
gorge
now
bursts
from
the
mouth
of
a
rocky
cave
,
and
the
legend
his
poor
,
ill-told
story
set
going
developed
into
the
legend
of
a
race
of
blind
men
somewhere
"
over
there
"
one
may
still
hear
to-day
.
And
amidst
the
little
population
of
that
now
isolated
and
forgotten
valley
the
disease
ran
its
course
.
The
old
became
groping
and
purblind
,
the
young
saw
but
dimly
,
and
the
children
that
were
born
to
them
saw
never
at
all
.
But
life
was
very
easy
in
that
snow-rimmed
basin
,
lost
to
all
the
world
,
with
neither
thorns
nor
briars
,
with
no
evil
insects
nor
any
beasts
save
the
gentle
breed
of
llamas
they
had
lugged
and
thrust
and
followed
up
the
beds
of
the
shrunken
rivers
in
the
gorges
up
which
they
had
come
.
The
seeing
had
become
purblind
so
gradually
that
they
scarcely
noted
their
loss
.
They
guided
the
sightless
youngsters
hither
and
thither
until
they
knew
the
whole
Valley
marvellously
,
and
when
at
last
sight
died
out
among
them
the
race
lived
on
.
They
had
even
time
to
adapt
themselves
to
the
blind
control
of
fire
,
which
they
made
carefully
in
stoves
of
stone
.
They
were
a
simple
strain
of
people
at
the
first
,
unlettered
,
only
slightly
touched
with
the
Spanish
civilisation
,
but
with
something
of
a
tradition
of
the
arts
of
old
Peru
and
of
its
lost
philosophy
.
Generation
followed
generation
.
They
forgot
many
things
;
they
devised
many
things
.
Their
tradition
of
the
greater
world
they
came
from
became
mythical
in
colour
and
uncertain
.
In
all
things
save
sight
they
were
strong
and
able
,
and
presently
the
chance
of
birth
and
heredity
sent
one
who
had
an
original
mind
and
who
could
talk
and
persuade
among
them
,
and
then
afterwards
another
.
These
two
passed
,
leaving
their
effects
,
and
the
little
community
grew
in
numbers
and
in
understanding
,
and
met
and
settled
social
and
economic
problems
that
arose
.
Generation
followed
generation
.
Generation
followed
generation
.
There
came
a
time
when
a
child
was
born
who
was
fifteen
generations
from
that
ancestor
who
went
out
of
the
valley
with
a
bar
of
silver
to
seek
God
's
aid
,
and
who
never
returned
.
Thereabouts
it
chanced
that
a
man
came
into
this
community
from
the
outer
world
.
And
this
is
the
story
of
that
man
.
He
was
a
mountaineer
from
the
country
near
Quito
,
a
man
who
had
been
down
to
the
sea
and
had
seen
the
world
,
a
reader
of
books
in
an
original
way
,
an
acute
and
enterprising
man
,
and
he
was
taken
on
by
a
party
of
Englishmen
who
had
come
out
to
Ecuador
to
climb
mountains
,
to
replace
one
of
their
three
Swiss
guides
who
had
fallen
ill
.
He
climbed
here
and
he
climbed
there
,
and
then
came
the
attempt
on
Parascotopetl
,
the
Matterhorn
of
the
Andes
,
in
which
he
was
lost
to
the
outer
world
.
The
story
of
the
accident
has
been
written
a
dozen
times
.
Pointer
's
narrative
is
the
best
.
He
tells
how
the
little
party
worked
their
difficult
and
almost
vertical
way
up
to
the
very
foot
of
the
last
and
greatest
precipice
,
and
how
they
built
a
night
shelter
amidst
the
snow
upon
a
little
shelf
of
rock
,
and
,
with
a
touch
of
real
dramatic
power
,
how
presently
they
found
Nunez
had
gone
from
them
.
They
shouted
,
and
there
was
no
reply
;
shouted
and
whistled
,
and
for
the
rest
of
that
night
they
slept
no
more
.
As
the
morning
broke
they
saw
the
traces
of
his
fall
.
It
seems
impossible
he
could
have
uttered
a
sound
.
He
had
slipped
eastward
towards
the
unknown
side
of
the
mountain
;
far
below
he
had
struck
a
steep
slope
of
snow
,
and
ploughed
his
way
down
it
in
the
midst
of
a
snow
avalanche
.
His
track
went
straight
to
the
edge
of
a
frightful
precipice
,
and
beyond
that
everything
was
hidden
.
Far
,
far
below
,
and
hazy
with
distance
,
they
could
see
trees
rising
out
of
a
narrow
,
shut-in
valley
--
the
lost
Country
of
the
Blind
.
But
they
did
not
know
it
was
the
lost
Country
of
the
Blind
,
nor
distinguish
it
in
any
way
from
any
other
narrow
streak
of
upland
valley
.
Unnerved
by
this
disaster
,
they
abandoned
their
attempt
in
the
afternoon
,
and
Pointer
was
called
away
to
the
war
before
he
could
make
another
attack
.
To
this
day
Parascotopetl
lifts
an
unconquered
crest
,
and
Pointer
's
shelter
crumbles
unvisited
amidst
the
snows
.
And
the
man
who
fell
survived
.
