208 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



around them, fastening their tails around their legs, and drown them ; 

 but the Indians, knowing the ways of these animals, go forearmed ; 

 they usually carry machetes — large cleavers — because the country is 

 wooded and full of brush, and when these creatures try to pin their 

 legs together with their tails, they chop them off with these machetes 

 and so escape from this danger. These diabolical simians do not eat 

 flesh but simply like to make trouble; they have not been seen any- 

 where else, but they are said to exist among the Peruvian mountains, 

 far inland. 



585. In this country they have another animal, called tacuazin, the 

 size of a fox ; its snout is like a sucking pig's, and in its belly it has 

 a pouch in which it carries its young ; its tail is naked and very long. 

 It is a great thief and seizes poultry and other eatables, which it 

 scents or comes upon. 



There is another animal the size of a greyhound, black all over 

 except for white head and neck ; the Indians call it white lion ; it is 

 likewise a great thief and destructive to poultry and whatever it 

 comes upon. 



There is another the size of a rabbit but built like a dormouse ; 

 it bears three or four young, and when it goes out after food, its 

 young climb up on its back, so as not to get pilfered in their mother's 

 absence, and she carries them along. There is another they call 

 armadillo ; it has the form and snout of a small sucking pig, and is 

 all covered with scales ; it is found in all damp hot regions in the 

 Indies, and is good to eat. 



Another animal which lives in this country looks like a dark gray 

 polecat ; they are very light and slender and climb trees after birds ; 

 they eat the eggs in the nests ; their skins are very good for linings 

 and muffs. 



They have very attractive squirrels of numerous sorts ; they fly from 

 one tree to another with extraordinary swiftness ; it seems impossible 

 for them to do this without wings. 



586. There are quantities of ferocious tigers, lions, ounces, striped 

 wildcats, jackals, i.e., wolves, coyotes (the same), skunks striped 

 black, white, and gray, which smell very bad and the stench lasts a 

 long time ; mountain cats which are gray with long snouts, hedgehogs 

 and other hogs which go in troops and have their navel on their 

 backbone ; they have their captain and follow him wherever he goes ; 

 he is the lankiest and meanest of the lot ; they all obey him and while 

 he is still alive, they never desert one another, but if he gets killed 

 they all run away like sheep without a shepherd, until they choose 

 another to lead and govern them. They have large bears and quan- 



