“I am.”
* * *
1 A colorless liqueur distilled in Galicia. —Trans.
2 Fictitious saint, patron of the male sexual organs. —C.J.C.
3 A spicy pork sausage. —Trans.
4 The easternmost city of Spanish Morocco where an uprising among army officers on July 17, 1936 signalled the start of the Spanish Civil War. —Trans.
5 Galician artist (1875–1960) best known for his portraits and studies of manners, also director of the Prado Museum. —Trans.
6 Los Figueroas Romanones—family of Spanish aristocrats and landowners. —Trans.
7 Popular festivals of a religious nature rather like a fair or carnival. —Trans.
8 Cneorum Tricoccon: a flowering shrub with small berries, widespread in Mediterranean countries. —Trans.
9 Rosalía de Castro Murquía (1837–85), Galicia’s best-known poet, wrote in both Galician and Castilian. —Trans.
10 Birthplace of C.J.C. —Trans.
11 Manuel Curros Enriquéz (1851–1908), Galician poet/journalist. —Trans.
12 Ramón Cabanillas Enriquéz (1876–1959), Galician poet. —Trans.
13 Ponson du Terrail (1829–71) French novelist and Vicomte de Bordeaux. His serialized novels—particularly Las Hazañas de Rocambole (The Exploits of Rocambole)—gained immense popularity in Spain. —Trans.
14 By Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920). Los Episodios Nacionales is in three series, comprising twenty-six volumes. —Trans.
15 Fabulous beings which guard hidden treasure. —C.J.C.
16 Poet and dramatist, born in Barcelona 1879 and died in New York 1946. En Flandes se ha puesto el Sol was awarded the Real Academia Española’s prize for historical drama. —Trans.
17 Under the command of General Fernández Silvestre, the Spanish army suffered a humiliating defeat when they were overwhelmed by Riffian tribes led by Abd-el-Krim at Annual, Morocco in 1921. For the Spanish public the defeat was as shocking as it was unexpected. —Trans.
18 Unión General de Trabajadores, a powerful socialist trade union. —Trans.
19 A Falangist hymn.
20 A Basque anthem.
21 The Republican hymn which became the Spanish National Anthem during the Second Republic. —Trans.
SOLE APPENDIX
FORENSIC REPORT
Place and date as previously indicated etc.
Name of deceased: Fabián Minguela Abragán.
EXTERNAL EXAMINATION OF BODY
The deceased is an adult male of some twenty-five years of age, 1.60 m. in height and approximately 55 kilos in weight. Typologically asthenic. Nutritional state satisfactory. Frontobiparietal seborrhea and incipient baldness, dark brown hair. Nevus hypertrichosis in frontal region.
The deceased, in prone decubitus with the upper limbs in flection, was dressed in worn brown corduroy trousers which revealed tears as well as being soaked and spattered with blood stains, particularly upon the upper part. Greenish corduroy jacket damaged and showing tears on the left sleeve and shoulder of the same. Lapel soaked and spattered from dripping blood. Tear on right pocket. Grey cotton shirt, worn and grubby at the collar, with one button missing. The shirt collar is soaked with stains from dripping blood, the said blood also soaking a blue woolen jersey which the deceased was wearing beneath his shirt. Grubby white serge drawers with sticky traces of defecation and damp urine stains. The undershirt is also white serge, short sleeved, and bloodstained in the area of the right shoulder and front. The deceased was wearing brown boots over black cotton socks, both in tatters and soaked with blood.
Examination of the body revealed the following external injuries:
Tears on the right side of the neck where the muscles in the area are seen to be almost severed. A flap of skin hanging loose with subcutaneous cell tissue and many cutaneous fibres of the neck situated at 2 cms. below the thyroid cartilage and one cm. from the sternum shaft. One section of the wound runs as far as the frontal curvature of the collarbone and is some 7 cms. in length, while the other section runs up to the area of insertion before the hyoid bone and is some 5 cms. in length. The lips of the wound are not clean-cut but jagged and about 1 cm. from the main area of the wound. Lesions caused by toothmarks are clearly visible along an acute notional injury line (made by nonhuman teeth); a dental imprint is also to be found on the right lateroposterior area of the neck, that is to say behind the sternocleidomastoid and in front of the descending edge of the trapezius muscle. There are large tears in the right sternocleidomastoid muscle and in the thyroid on the same side and the anatomical relationship has been destroyed within the vascular-nervous system, which is in a state of total attrition with tears in the jugular and carotid.
Likewise, there are injuries caused by toothmarks on the outer ear and the right orbital area with a large tear starting in the malar region and ending close to the right corner of the lips. The nose also reveals grazing and small tears which are not of the same aetiology as the other lesions, given that they do not reveal toothmarks and by their longitudinal configuration may have been caused by a fall and subsequent dragging. The head of the deceased is thickly strewn with fallen leaves from the site in which it was discovered. Traces of blood are to be found in the mouth and nose.
Similarly, the left forearm reveals lesions caused by toothmarks although hematoma injuries in this area are slight as a result of the protective padding afforded by the clothing. On the left hand there are large tears from a bite along the inner edge and hypothenar area as well as on the ring and small fingers, the latter being severely damaged and with the tip hanging loose. The right carpal area also reveals tears although these are not very large owing to the protection afforded by the leather strap on the watch of which the face, it should be noted, has been smashed to pieces. The right hand shows the imprint of a single bite in the thenar area with multiple grazing on the metacarpal epiphysis. The aforesaid hand is drenched with blood and between the fingers and the nails we found some short, straight hairs of some 5 cms. in length, pointed at the tip and of a greyish white color. Under microscopic examination they proved not to be human hairs.
Upon the right forearm there is a clumsily executed black-colored tattoo of a heart pierced by an arrow with the letters R.T.
On both calves there are large tears caused by bites. Traces of congealed blood upon both legs.
The body was in an advanced state of rigor mortis; albuminoid membrane was present in both corneas and a green abdominal stain may be detected on the right iliac fossa. Judging by the length of stubble, the individual must have shaved for the last time some sixty hours earlier.
INTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE BODY
Autopsic examination performed in accordance with the modified Mata Method.
Cranial cavity. —We have detected no type of fracture either in the cranial vault nor at the base of the cranium. The meninges are normal, with a slight edema in the thickness of the arachnoids. The encephalon is normal and dissection revealed signs of ischemia. The periencephalitic arteries are normal and within the Willis’ polygon some small atheromas were found. Cerebellum, protuberance and bulb normal.
Thoracic cavity. —Lungs moderately congested with a large number of carbonic inclusions upon the surface and in cross section. Interpleural adhesions in the right hemothorax with signs of fibrosis on the right epical area, perhaps resulting from a former phymatic process. The heart in systole, exsanguine, with traces of frothy, blood-specked fluid in the right cavities. Both the cardiac valves and coronary arteries are normal.
Abdominal cavity. —The stomach contained traces of partly digested food (traces of leguminous foodstuffs were found mixed with meat fibers and traces of hard-boiled egg). The liver large, edematous, showing no signs of cyrrhotic deterioration but which may, nonetheless, be identified as the liver of a drinker. Gall bladder in tension. Kidneys pale. Bladder empty. The remaining viscera are normal and lacking in medico-legal interest.
Dissection of the neck. —After making an H-shaped inci
sion the frontal area of the neck, the findings of the external examination were corroborated. Detailed dissection revealed fractures of the thyroid cartilage in its apophysis or right lateral cornu as well as crushing and rupturing of three tracheal rings giving rise to frothy haemorrhaging in the trachea, likewise pervading the larynx, pharynx and the mouth. This blood is light pink in color and mingled with bronchial secretions. The jugular has been completely though raggedly severed and the carotid has a tear 1.5 cms. in length with a hematoma in the middle layer and lesions indicative of Amusant’s sign in close proximity to the glomus area.
On the basis of this autopsic study we hereby arrive at the following
MEDICO-LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS
1.) The death was not natural but violent and preceded by a struggle and defense (viz. grazing upon the knuckles of the right hand and multiple tears in the clothing).
2.) The aggressor does not appear to have been a human being, given that no injuries normally incurred by man are to be found (incision wounds, contusion, perforations, grazes, percussion injuries, strangulation marks, etc.). Only lesions caused by bites have been found, of which the biggest and those which incurred the death of the individual, were in the area to the right of the neck.
3.) Given the shape, size, distribution, intensity of the injuries and the geographical location where the attack took place, in addition to traces of hairs found in the right hand and nails of the victim, the attacking animal may have been a wolf.
4.) From the simultaneity and intensity of the bites, it is to be deduced that the individual was attacked not by a solitary animal but by at least two.
5.) In order to reconstruct the attack and struggle, we may summarize it thus:
a) The individual was walking up the mountain and, seconds before the attack, observed a wolf leaping towards his throat. Instinctively, and without time to make use of the firearm which he was carrying which was discovered at some distance from the body, the individual raised his left arm, thus covering his face and neck with his forearm, where the first bite was inflicted. The wolf then bit some centimeters farther to the left where the hand was, thus causing the injuries already described. At that moment the individual was knocked to the ground and struggled with the animal in an attempt to grasp it with the right hand, striking it likewise with the left fist, later to grasp it by the neck or the head (viz. grazes upon the hand and hairs in the aforementioned hand and nails). At that moment, seeing the individual fall, another, or other wolves pounced upon him, attempting to catch hold of the parts of the body which were most mobile (both legs), following the tropism instinct for mobility of prey (injuries to both calves with tears in the trousers). In the ensuing struggle the clothing was torn, buttons lost, etc. Finally, another wolf, or the same one as first attacked, seized on two occasions upon the area to the right of the neck (two dental imprints on the inframastoid area) thus inflicting the injuries described. Injuries in the malar region would be due to a bite immediately preceding those in the neck and which the animal then repeated (viz. two imprints).
b) Now lying upon the ground and with considerable hemorrhaging, the individual struggled in a more or less conscious state, releasing the animal and touching the injured areas (viz. both hands soaked with stains of blood) until the moment of death.
6.) It is most curious to note that the body of the individual, which was ravaged by bites, was not, however, in any way devoured, thus rendering incomprehensible this violent attack by wolves. The only logical explanation is that once the wolves had pulled down their quarry, they fled, startled by noises, voices, shots or some other difficult-to-imagine circumstance.
On the basis of this autopsic examination we may hereby reach the following medico-legal conclusions:
1.) That the cause of death was due to profuse external hemorrhaging from the right carotid-jugular area.
2.) That in the said cause of death, it is highly plausible that vagal inhibition mechanisms played a part through stimulus of the carotid glomus (Amusant’s sign observed).
3.) That the wounds inflicted appear to have been incurred by wolves and to be bites.
4.) That the time of death is calculated to be about seven o’clock yesterday evening.
5.) That, in the absence of human intervention and in the absence of signs of a struggle or human aggression, the cause of death, from a medico-legal point of view, may be said to be accidental.
Forensic surgeon: Marcial Méndez Santos (signature and stamp).
Palma de Mallorca, summer 1983
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Camilo José Cela, winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize, was born in Galicia in 1916. His father was Spanish; his mother, English. He studied law, medicine, and philosophy in London and Madrid and in his younger years worked as a journalist and an actor. He has been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 1957 and has been awarded numerous literary prizes and honorary degrees. Initially on the side of Franco in the Spanish civil war, he later became a radical opponent. Cela has published fifty books including eighteen novels and novellas as well as collections of stories, essays, and a number of travel books. His novel Mazurka for Two Dead Men was first published in Spain in 1983 and next to his first novel, The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942), is his most widely translated work.
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