Puma
When Carol Tregorran gave Elizabeth a thank-you gift for arranging John’s wake, she refers to the Argentine folk-tale The Girl and the Puma. She was about to tell Elizabeth the full story, when Shula interrupted with some pressing horse-related matters and the moment was lost.
We are luckier. As long as Shula doesn’t hack the blog with tempting discount offers on riding lessons, here is a complete, uninterrupted version of the popular legend.
In the 1500s, when the Spanish were trying to conquer Argentina, a group of the local Querandi people laid siege to one of their settlements. As the Spanish faced death from starvation, a girl called Maldonada asked permission from their captain to go in search of food. The captain forbade her to leave, but the fiercely independent girl escaped anyway and went foraging in the jungle.
As night fell, she heard cries of pain from a cave. There she found a puma, which had just given birth. Intrigued, the girl helped clean the cubs and watched over them, as the mother left the cave to hunt.
After a few days of helping the puma and her cubs, Maldonada was collecting food herself, when some of the Querandi people seized her and took her back to their own village. She expected to be killed, but instead the Querandi were thoughtful and kind. They showed her how they lived and tried to involve her in all aspects of village life, including the pantomime and Flower and Produce show.
Some time later, the Querandi village was attacked by a group of Spaniards. Recognising Maldonada as one of their own, they returned her to her settlement. The captain was still outraged that she’d disobeyed him and decided to make an example of her. He ordered her to be tied to a tree in the jungle and left for wild animals to find and eat.
A few days afterwards, the sad Querandi people went to the tree, expecting to find their former companion dead. To their delight, they discovered she was alive and well. Maldonada explained that the mother puma had come back each day to feed her, and protect her from the other animals.
The girl was quickly released and went on to live a full and happy life.
In the light of Elizabeth’s kindness and independent spirit, it’s easy to see why Carol was reminded of Maldonada, and gave her the small ceramic figure of a puma. But if Hayley ever discovers what Elizabeth and Roy got up to at Greenbury Fields, she may well think a better ending would be for the puma to eat the girl. Very slowly.
Adrian Flynn is an Archers scriptwriter.
Learn more aboutCarol Tregorran, Elizabeth Pargetter and Shula Hebden Lloyd – and the actors who play them – in our Who’s Who.
