"
"What did he mean--how did he know?" I asked, very much surprised.
"The priests tell us," he replied, "that we must believe and live a
religious life in this world to be saved. Your priests tell you the
same, and as there is no other world and we have no souls, all they
say must be false. You see all this with your eyes," he continued,
waving his hands to indicate the whole visible world. "And when you
shut them or go blind you see no more. It is the same with our brains.
We think of a thousand things and remember, and when the brain decays
we forget everything, and we die, and everything dies with us. Have
not the cattle eyes to see and brains to think and remember too? And
when they die no priest tells us that they have a soul and have to go
to purgatory, or wherever he likes to send them. Now, in return for
what you told me, I've told you something you didn't know."
It came as a great shock to me to hear this. Hitherto I had thought
that what was wrong with our native friends was that they believed too
much, and this man--this good honest old gaucho we all respected--
believed nothing! I tried to argue with him and told him he had said a
dreadful thing, since every one knew in his heart that he had an
immortal soul and had to be judged after death.
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