STRANGE GAME. 219 



good account of him had we met him, and got between him 

 and the deep water. But our valour was superfluous. The 

 enemy was nowhere to be seen ; and we rode on, looking 

 back wistfully, but in vain, for a grey fin among the 

 ripples. 



So we rode back, along the Cocal and along that won- 

 derful green glade, where I, staring at Xoranteas in tree-tops, 

 instead of at the ground beneath my horse's feet, had the 

 pleasure of being swallowed up my horse's hind-quarters 

 at least in the very same slough which had engulfed 



M 's mule three days before, and got a roll in much 



soft mud. Then up to 's camp, where we expected 



breakfast, not with greediness, though we had been nigh 

 six hours in the saddle, but with curiosity. For he had 

 promised to send out the hunters for all game that could 

 be found, and give us a true forest meal ; and we w^ere 

 curious to taste what lapo, quenco, guazupita-deer, and other 

 strange meats might be like. Xay, some of us agreed, that 

 if the hunters had but brought in a tender young red mon- 

 key,^ we would surely eat liim too, if it were but to say that 

 we had done it. But the hunters had had no luck. They 

 had brought in only a Pajui,^ an excellent game bird; an 

 Ant-eater,"^ and a great Cachicame, or nine-banded Armadillo. 

 The ant-eater the foolish fellows had eaten themselves I 



^ Mycetes ursinus. ^ Pent'lope. ^ Myrraecopliaga tiulactyla. 



