It was the rare stone from which the blade was carved that added so much to its value. Or so grandfather said.

My grandfather had been an explorer in his younger days and had returned with this knife complete with its leather sheath.

He was always vague about where it actually acquired it and would always say somewhere in South America.

It didn’t really matter at the time as the story he told in finding it was always as tall as he was.

He was on an old steamer on the Amazon River, just having fought off a tribe of cannibals, when he and his companion Oneup had decided to make their way to the ancient city of Cadaris deep in the Amazonian jungle.

They arrived there to be greeted by the chief, Arturor a gentle man and one who had met grandfather on a previous visit.

A night of feasting occurred and the next morning he was awoken to the sounds of screams from within the chief’’s house.

He rushed down; pulling his pants on as he went for grandfather never wore pants when he slept.

In the chief’s tent the chief’s head wife, Mauriar was struggling with a giant anaconda. The snake had wrapped itself around the woman’s body and was slowly crushing her.

Grandfather jumped onto the snake and with his knife began hacking at the snake until it released its grip.

Grandfather was attributed with the woman’s survival and another feast followed during which he was presented with the knife in question.

Grandfather said he never used the knife as he treasured it always. He loved to tell this stories and I used to see grandmother roll her eyes every time he told this one, which I know he had embellished over the years, but he was my grandfather and who was I to say otherwise, even though the knife did have a small mark on it suggesting it was made in a place far from the Amazon.

Written for: https://ermiliablog.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/__picture-it-write-107/