Adventures of a Young Naturalist
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"He would far more likely retreat; but we shall want our ammunition to-morrow."
For an hour the animal kept prowling round, every now and then bounding off. At last it came and sat down about twenty paces from the fire, then stretched itself on the ground and rolled about as if in play; but if we made the slightest movement it immediately got up, and, laying back its ears, showed its formidable teeth. Suddenly a noise as if of breaking branches was heard, followed by reports like those of guns; then came a horrible roar. Lucien, frightened, rushed into my arms.
"What!" said I to him; "don't you remember the noise made by the fall of a tree?"
"Oh papa! I have heard nothing like it since the day of the hurricane."
"That is quite true; but it is an incident to which you will soon be accustomed, for the first storm will probably overthrow many of these formidable giants. The tiger is frightened too, for he has made off, you see. Try and go to sleep, my dear boy, for to-morrow we may perhaps have to walk a long way."
I leaned my head against that of the child, who soon dropped asleep. The forest had resumed its majestic silence, which was only disturbed by the distant fall of another and another colossus.
My anxiety was extreme, and though I knew our friends would range every way in quest of us, we might so readily wander in opposite directions, as we had no ammunition to signal with should they come near.
Towards morning, exhausted with fatigue, I fell asleep, and dreamt, in my feverishness, that we were nearly at the end of our journey, and close to Orizava, in sight of home. A slender thread of light announcing the dawn of day awoke us, and we arose.
The clearness of day now broke upon us. For a quarter of an hour I kept my ear to the earth, listening in the hopes of hearing some signal.
Again and again I cocked my gun with the intention of firing, and as regularly I laid it down, when I reflected I might only be throwing away my ammunition.
At length I took observations of the bearings of the ground, and followed, as far as possible, our trail of the day before.
In this operation we fortunately came upon a pool of water, at which we quenched our thirst; but though our hunger was excessive, and game plentiful we dared not discharge at it a single shot.
We hastened forward, and came upon some creeping plants, indications that we were approaching a glade. Some birds were singing in the branches as we hurried on, but I had made up my mind to shoot the first one large enough to make a meal for my brave little companion and self.
In spite of my efforts, I could not succeed in hiding my grave presentiments; but my son's prattle, which was even gayer than usual, quite justified the name of "Sunbeam" given him by Sumichrast.
"Don't be so serious," said he to me, suddenly; "you need not be distressed about me. I have already guessed that we are lost; but I am with you, and I am not a bit afraid but that we shall soon find our way again."
The poor child had not the least suspicion of the danger. Every moment, too, tears came into my eyes, and I felt my courage getting weaker; I made a strong effort to dispel my thoughts, and vowed that I would strive on with faith and energy to the last hour.
"L'Encuerado will be sure to find us," said Lucien, with such an air of conviction that I could not help sharing his confidence.
"Yes," I answered; "Sumichrast and l'Encuerado will find us or die in the attempt. It can not be possible – " I had not courage to finish my sentence.
We commenced our march again with increased energy.
"Look out!" cried Lucien, suddenly; "it seems to me as if some one were moving the branches close by."
"It is a monkey," said I; and off I went in pursuit of the animal, which, leaping from branch to branch, seemed to set us at defiance. Suddenly it uttered a guttural cry, and was answered by twenty more. I hid behind a tree, and told Lucien to keep silent. Two or three times the active creatures moved farther away, but at last they came so close that I could fire safely. I never, I think, took more pains with my aim; the gun went off, and the band scattered in every direction in a most precipitous flight. The monkey I had aimed at seemed only wounded, when, as I was going to fire a second time, it slid down and fell dead at our feet; its young one, which we had not at first perceived, was sitting upon a limb about ten feet from the ground, uttering low, and almost inaudible, plaintive cries.
In a quarter of an hour the animal was skinned and hung in front of a large fire. While I was superintending the cookery, the young one moaned incessantly, and my companion tried every persuasion to coax it down. Urged by Lucien, I ascended the tree, and tried to catch hold of the motherless little creature. No doubt it was paralyzed by fear, for it only showed its teeth, and allowed me to place it on my shoulder. It clung to my hair and wound its tail round my neck, as I descended, and I was in fear every moment of feeling one of my ears bitten. Nothing of the sort happened, for the poor brute's teeth chattered with fear; I placed it close to the fire, where it immediately resumed its lamentations. Then, by means of a flexible creeper, I secured it round the middle of the body and tied it to a bush.
When we had satisfied our appetite on the dark and tough monkey's flesh, I proposed to Lucien a fresh start.
"Shall we take our little captive with us?" he asked.
"Yes, certainly. It will be a resource for our supper, in case we do not fall in with our friends."
"Oh no," cried the boy; "let us at least put off killing it till to-morrow."
I hastened my pace, carrying on my shoulder our new companion, whom we at once dubbed "Master Job."
I examined more carefully than ever the ground and the bark of the trees, seeking for any thing which might direct our course. With a sickly feeling at my heart, I saw the sun approach the horizon. The boy, quite broken down with fatigue, looked at me, with his eyes full of tears. At last I halted, and the dear little fellow stretched himself beside me and fell asleep.
While listening with ear and eye alike on the watch, I fancied I heard the distant report of a gun. I jumped up – was it the fall of a tree? or was it a signal from one of our companions? I seized my gun, but I hesitated before expending my last cartridge but one. At length I pressed the trigger, and I listened anxiously as the sound of my shot died away, alas! without echo. Lucien did not move.
"Jump up! jump up!" I cried; for a dull barking moved the air. Suddenly I fired my last barrel; then, with eyes shut, mouth open, and nostrils dilated, I listened intently, almost forgetting to breathe. Minutes – they seemed ages – elapsed without any thing more interrupting the silence. Lucien looked at me with a scared face; I pressed my weapon to me in despair at having expended my last charge, when a gunshot was heard ringing out clear and close.
"It is l'Encuerado!" cried Lucien.
"Yes, my boy," I said, almost frantic.
"Reply to your friend!" I exclaimed; "one of the barrels of your gun is still loaded."
Lucien fired, and was answered almost immediately.
"Call out, so as to guide them," said I to the boy; "for we have no more powder left."
"Ohé, ohé, ohé!" called Lucien.
"Hiou, hiou, hiou!" replied a still distant voice.
At the same moment Gringalet rushed to us as swiftly as an arrow, and jumped upon his young master. After having overwhelmed us with caresses, the dog made off again, and ten minutes later the Indian made his appearance, and, running to the boy, clasped him in his arms, and rolled with him on the ground in the excess of his wild emotion. I, too, heartily greeted Sumichrast, but was almost too affected to speak.
All my companion's efforts to discover our trail had been ineffectual; and Gringalet himself, when put to the task, had hunted in vain round the thickets. The fact was, they looked for us on the right, while we had gone to the left; for Sumichrast could not bring his mind to the idea that we had turned our backs to the stream.
L'Encuerado, after cooking, spread out on the spot his stock of provisions, to which every one did justice. Master Job was lodged safely under the shelter of a large branch, and deep sleep took possession of the whole party.
CHAPTER XXX
WE BUILD A RAFT. – THE HORNED SERPENT. – GOOD-BYE TO "PALM-TREE VILLA." – MOSQUITOES AND HORSE-FLIES. – THE RATTLESNAKE. – AN OCELOTThe next day found us at work building our raft, and l'Encuerado went off with Lucien in quest of some flexible creepers, to be used for binding together the various portions of it. When our companions joined us, Sumichrast was squaring out the last trunks. Lucien, laden with creepers wound all round his body, carried besides, at the end of his stick, the carcass of a horned snake —Atropos Mexicanus– which has scales standing erect behind its eyebrows, like little horns, which have obtained for it its Indian name of mazacoatl. The reptile was nearly two feet long, and of a grayish color, and gaped with formidable jaws, more than usually dilated by the blows, I suppose, which l'Encuerado had given it.
Sumichrast, with infinite precaution, showed to his pupil the tubular fangs, by means of which serpents inoculate the terrible venom with which some of them have been endowed by nature.
"When the reptile bites," said my friend, "its two fangs press on a small bladder at their base, and the poison is thus injected into the wound."
Our naturalist rendered his explanation still clearer by pressing on one of the fangs, from the end of which oozed out an almost imperceptible drop of liquid.
"How is it that the serpent does not poison itself?" asked Lucien.
"In the first place, it does not chew its prey; and, secondly, its venom is only dangerous when it penetrates direct into the blood; and a man, if there is no scratch in his mouth or in the digestive tube, can swallow the poison with impunity, although a very small quantity introduced into his veins would cause immediate death."
After our meal, which consisted of turtle and some palm cabbage, which in flavor resembles an artichoke, I set the example of commencing work. In less than two hours the materials for the raft had been carried to the edge of the stream, and the frail bark which was to carry us down to the plains was constructed and afloat. A little before sunset, l'Encuerado, provided with a long pole for a boat-hook, pushed it out on the water to ascertain its powers of buoyancy; and the trial having been judged satisfactory, the raft was moored, and we all lay down in front of our "Villa" to enjoy a siesta.
At last, when every thing was arranged for the voyage, l'Encuerado, naked down to his waist, went behind as pilot. We gave a farewell salute to the "Villa," by a loud hurrah, which seemed to frighten our menagerie, and with a last look at the forest in which I had spent so many miserable hours the mooring was cut, and the raft floated slowly and silently down the current.
The raft soon drifted into a lagoon, covered with waders and web-footed birds, which scarcely moved as we passed them, and some time was lost before we could regain the course of the stream. At length, guided by the palm-trees, our skiff glided between two banks bordered by trees, the high tops of which sheltered us with their shade.
Every thing was calm around us, and we remained silent, awed by the majesty of nature. The stream flowed on in one single sheet; creepers hanging from the tree-tops drooped down into the water; while kingfishers skimmed from one shore to the other, and humming-birds, with their varied and shining plumage, fluttered about the flowers. Every now and then a low-hanging tree impeded our passage, and we had to bend down on the raft to avoid being struck by such obstacles. A mass of under-wood often hid the interior of the woods from our view; but here and there a break in the foliage allowed us a glimpse into its depths. Ebony-trees, cotton-wood, pepper-trees, and palms, were intermixed with tree-ferns, magnolias, white oaks, and willows. Here and there, too, a sunbeam marked out a vast circle of light upon the dark water, and myriads of aquatic insects, gnats, dragon-flies, and butterflies sported in the air or swam over the glittering surface.
After a time, the state of inaction to which we were doomed, aggravated by the stings of mosquitoes and large green-eyed flies, became a perfect torture.
"Those are horse-flies," said Sumichrast to Lucien; "they are very fond of blood, and are a misery to all kinds of mammals from one end of America to the other."
"Their bite is more painful than that of the mosquitoes," answered the boy, from whose hand a drop of blood was trickling.
"That is because their proboscis is armed with lancets which are sharp enough to pierce the hides of bulls and horses."
During this voyage, Lucien amused himself by teaching the two parrots to repeat the names of his brother and sister; but the birds, with one foot held up and their heads bent down, although they paid great attention to the words repeated by the boy, as yet did not profit much by the lesson.
In the course of our voyage we were constantly losing trace of the current in some vast lagoon, and had often a long search till we found it. In one of these searches, I caught sight of such a picturesque bay that I proposed a halt. In front of us opened a tolerably deep glade, bordered by tall palm-trees. L'Encuerado pushed the raft to land over the aquatic plants, and I jumped ashore to moor our craft.
A fallen tree tempted us into the forest, and on the damp ground Lucien caught sight of a magnificent rattlesnake, seemingly torpid. Sumichrast discharged his gun at the reptile, which reared itself up, and then fell down dead. A noise immediately resounded in several directions, and two or three snakes of the same family appeared, one of them followed by three young ones. The snake killed by my friend measured more than a yard in length. Its skin was speckled with black, brown, and gray spots, and its flat, triangular head had a very repulsive look. Lucien, with a blow from his machete, cut off the rattles which give to the reptile its name. These horny appendages, of which there were seven, were given to l'Encuerado, who, like all his fellow-countrymen, believed them to be endued with miraculous virtues – among others, that of tuning guitars and preventing the strings from breaking.
A shot fired by the Indian led us back to the bivouac; our companion had just killed an ocelot, called by the Indians ocotchotli.
"You see this animal, Chanito?" cried l'Encuerado, who was stroking its black and brown spotted fur; "well, its tongue is poisonous. When it kills a stag or peccary, it buries its prey under some leaves, then climbs the nearest tree, and howls until it attracts all the carnivorous animals near. When they have feasted, it comes down and devours what is left."
"But why does it call the animals?" I asked.
"Didn't I tell you its tongue is poisonous? If it ate first, the venom would be communicated to the food, and the animals that feasted on the remains would die."
This fable narrated by Hernandez, and still told by the Indians, must have originated in some as yet unobserved habit of the ocotchotli.
After dinner, when Lucien was going towards his pets to give them some fruit, he saw an unfortunate tortoise between Master Job's paws. The monkey was turning it over, smelling at it, and then depositing it on the ground, persistently poking his fingers into its shell, a proceeding which by no means tended to enliven the melancholy animal. According to l'Encuerado's advice, Lucien stuck up some branches near the water, and put the tortoise into this miniature inclosure.
Night came on, and Lucien was still teaching the birds to say "Hortense" and "Emile." To our great astonishment, Gringalet went and stretched himself close to Master Job, who, without hesitation, commenced freeing him from the vermin which were lodged among his hair; then the two friends went to sleep side by side. About nine o'clock, when I was making up the fire before going to rest myself, Janet opened one of her eyes and chattered a short sentence; but l'Encuerado was much too fast asleep to answer her.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE HUNTERS HUNTED. – ESCAPE FROM PECCARIES. – A JAGUAR-HUNT. – AN IBIS. – THE CAYMANS. – THE WILD BULLSAfter we had finished our breakfast next morning, we embarked our baggage and menagerie, and prepared to depart. I was just going on board the raft when a noise attracted our attention to the forest, and two peccaries rushed past us, pursuing one another. L'Encuerado, taken by surprise, shot at one of the animals without killing it, and we all gave chase. Hardly had we gone a hundred paces, when the Indian, who was in front of us, turned right about, shouting out, "To the raft! to the raft!"
A noise like the gallop of a troop of horses seemed to shake the ground. A band of peccaries was pursuing us; and as my two companions halted to fire, I succeeded in gaining the raft, on which I placed Lucien. The peccaries, about a hundred in number, rushed on in a furious crowd. Sumichrast, who was closely pressed by them, leaped upon the frail bark, almost capsizing it, while l'Encuerado ran along the shore.
"Cut the mooring and push off!" he cried out to me as he disappeared in the jungle.
Some of the peccaries rushed after the Indian; the others, chasing and hustling one another, deafened us with their gruntings. I cut the mooring-line; and, seizing hold of the boat-hook, directed the raft towards the right bank, whence the uproar seemed to proceed.
"Hiou! hiou! Chanito!"
"Ohé! ohé!" I answered.
I was just going to spring off, when the Indian came in sight, followed by Gringalet, and plunged into the water, holding his gun above his head.
L'Encuerado, instead of coming to us on the raft, turned towards a peccary which in its eagerness had fallen into the water and was endeavoring to reach the bank. He seized it by an ear and dragged it towards the raft, assisted by Gringalet, who swam, barking, behind, and biting it when opportunity offered.
"Fire your gun at this poor wretch's head," called l'Encuerado to Sumichrast.
This was no sooner said than done, and l'Encuerado leaped on board, dragging his victim after him.
The peccaries collected on the shore continued to utter loud grunts of rage; but we were beyond their reach, for the raft was soon carried past them by the current.
"Are peccaries carnivorous?" asked Lucien.
"Yes, indeed, Chanito. If one of us had been knocked down by the band, there wouldn't be much left now but bones."
"Isn't the peccary a wild boar, M. Sumichrast?"
"It is a pachyderm – consequently, a relation of the pig," answered my friend. "The wild boar is solitary, while the peccaries always go in flocks; this makes them formidable enemies in spite of their small size."
"What, small! this one is larger than Gringalet!"
"The wild boar is twice as big. A characteristic of the peccary is, that its tail is rudimentary, and the bristles spotted with black and white; moreover, only its legs are eatable."
L'Encuerado went round the edge of the lake in order to trace the course of the stream. We lost more than an hour in false channels, and the raft ran aground in a shallow.
When the sun had set, and all the birds were flying over us to their retreats, we landed to bivouac for the night.
A deep-toned roaring sound awoke me up with a start; the first thing I saw was Lucien, with his gun in his hand, crouching down close to Sumichrast. On the shore, about sixty yards from us, I saw a long tawny form, and two shining eyes. A second roar told me the name of our nocturnal visitor, whose voice I fancied I had heard in a dream.
"And where is l'Encuerado?" I asked my companion.
"He is crawling away to the other side."
A shot cut these words short; the animal gave another roar, and rushed into the jungle. We heard a noise like a scuffle, and then the jaguar again came in sight; it ran round and round, roaring with rage. A final bound brought it to within twenty paces of our camp fire, when it fell never to rise again.
"Hiou! hiou! Chanito."
This sound took a weight off my mind, for I could not but feel alarmed for the safety of l'Encuerado.
"Ohé! ohé!" was responded.
Gringalet, who was let loose, ran towards the enormous creature, and barked at it from a safe distance. The Indian came up, with his gun upon his shoulder.
"The beast is justly mine, isn't it, Tatita, and I am still the tiger-hunter?"
"Yes," I replied; "but let the tigers alone, if they will allow you, and let us go to rest."
We were all going to lie down, when the roar of a tiger again shook the air.
"Hallo!" cried my friend; "is your beast come to life again?"
"No, Tatita Sumichrast; but my tiger is a tigress, and her mate is come to see after her."
I told the Indian not to move.
"Let him do as he likes," said my companion; "he will only disobey you."
Half an hour elapsed; all was profound silence, and we could hear the slightest-rustling of the leaves. Suddenly there was the report of a gun, and, five minutes afterwards, we greeted with "bravos" the triumphant "Hiou! hiou!" of the Indian, who, streaming with water, came to dry himself at the fire.
"I was obliged to ford the stream," he said; "but his lordship has got the ball between his two eyes this time."
"You are a brave fellow," responded Sumichrast, shaking hands with him.
"Now I shall sleep quietly," the Indian whispered to Lucien.
Master Job, Gringalet, Janet, and Verdet, all had their eyes wide open when I awoke at day-break. Lucien rose just as I was starting for the water's edge and accompanied me.
An elegant bird with a long curved bill came and settled down on the bank; the boy remarked the beautiful bronze-colored plumage of the wader. I informed him it was an ibis.
"The Egyptian bird which devours serpents?"
"One of its kinsfolk," I replied; "the ibis feeds, generally speaking, on worms, mollusks, and even on sea-weed or aquatic plants. It may, perhaps, sometimes eat water-snakes; but as to feeding exclusively on reptiles, or destroying them systematically, that's quite another story."
We now reached the bivouac, and found my companions up, and l'Encuerado in a state of high excitement over his exploit.
Having drunk our coffee, we all turned up our sleeves, and set to work to skin our magnificent prizes. This difficult operation employed us all the morning, and was scarcely finished when I carried our baggage on board the raft, which was soon pushed off from the bank.
Our way lay through walls of the densest foliage, which often met overhead, while such was the awful stillness of the solitude, that we felt oppressed, and only spoke in a low voice.
The hour for rest had long passed, and yet no one proposed to land. The fact was, we wished some more animated resting-place; and though l'Encuerado, with his pole, shoved us onward with energy, the numerous bends hindered our progress, and it seemed as if night would surprise us still afloat. At last the palm-trees became more crowded, and the stream emerged from the forest, to cross a prairie; here the raft was moored under a canopy of creepers.
Our first care was to stretch the tigers' skins on the heated ground, and, while I was helping l'Encuerado, Sumichrast and Lucien went off in quest of our dinners. The fire had been for some time burning, when we heard a distant gunshot.
Sumichrast returned laden with a green iguana, and Lucien was dragging by a string a little alligator about thirty inches long.
"Look, M. L'Encuerado!" cried the boy; "here is an alligator or cayman, a relation of the lizards, and an enemy of man. This ugly young beast has only baby-teeth, so can not bite much. It feeds on fish, otters, calves, and many other animals. It is an amphibious being, M. L'Encuerado, a creature that lays eggs like fowls, but buries them in the sand, where the sun has to hatch them; it is a brute, too, which is so fond of man that it eats him whenever it has a chance."
"Take care it does not bite you," said I to the boy; "how did you manage to catch it?"
"I pursued it, thinking it was a big lizard; M. Sumichrast called out to me not to handle it, and then tied this creeper round its neck."