i8o Wild Beasts 



which it is known among the natives is more conclusive 

 with regard to character than a host of witnesses. Ac- 

 cording to Burton the word jaguar is composed of the 

 Indian ( Tiipi)ja, we or us, and gitara, an eater or devourer ; 

 and it may be assumed that when tribes of savages con- 

 ferred such a designation as this, they had very good 

 reason for doing so. It may be said, however, that other 

 etymologies of the word have been given. 



In the olden days of exploration, both Gonzalo Pizarro 

 and Orellana spoke of the loss of human life from the 

 depredations of jaguars ; but, strange to relate, their suc- 

 cessors, the accomplished missionary priests, Artiega and 

 Acuna, have nothing to say about them in their sketch 

 of the natural history of Northern Brazil. 



Like tigers, lions, and panthers, the jaguar, no doubt, 

 finds it easier to kill a man than almost any other animal 

 that will afford him a full meal, and under favorable con- 

 ditions he acts accordingly. Hence along the Brazilian 

 frontier of Guiana where these beasts are very numerous, 

 E. F. im Thurn relates that he found the forest tribes 

 sleeping in hammocks swung high enough above the 

 ground to be out of reach of a spring. J. W. Wells and 

 the distinguished Waterton describe the way in which 

 their tents were beset by jaguars. Humboldt tells how 

 his mastiff was carried off from within his camp on the 

 Rio Negro. Darwin mentions that " many woodcutters 

 are killed by them on the Parana," and that they "have 

 even entered vessels at night," and Von Tschudi recounts 

 how one broke into an Englishman's hut, seized his boy, 

 and bore him off into the forest. 



