90 CARIPI AND THE BAY OF MARAJO. Cuap. V. 
expansion on the tip of the nose. I was never attacked by bats except 
on this occasion. The fact of their sucking the blood of persons 
sleeping, from wounds which they make in the toes, is now well estab- 
lished ; but it is only a few persons who are subject to this blood-letting. 
According to the negroes, the Phyllostoma is the only kind which 
attacks man. Those which I caught crawling over me were Dysopes, 
and I am inclined to think many different kinds of bats have this 
propensity. 
One day I was occupied searching for insects in the bark of a fallen 
tree, when I saw a large cat-like animal advancing towards the spot. It 
came within a dozen yards before perceiving me. I had no weapon 
with me but an old chisel, and was getting ready to defend myself if it 
should make a spring, when it turned round hastily and trotted off. I 
did not obtain a very distinct view of it, but I could see its colour was 
that of the Puma, or American Lion, although it was much too small 
for that species. The Puma is not a common animal in the Amazons 
forests. I did not see altogether more than a dozen skins in the 
possession of the natives. The fur is of a fawn colour. On account of 
its hue resembling that of a deer common in the forests, the natives call 
it the Sassu-ardna,* or the false deer ; that is, an animal which deceives 
one at first sight by its superficial resemblance to a deer. The hunters 
are not at all afraid of it, and speak always in disparaging terms of its 
courage. Of the Jaguar they give a very different account. 
The only species of monkey I met with at Caripi was the same dark- 
coloured little Midas already mentioned as found near Parad. The great 
Ant-eater, Taamandua of the natives (Myrmecophaga jubata), was not 
uncommon here. After the first few weeks of residence I ran short of 
fresh provisions. ‘The people of the neighbourhood had sold me all the 
fowls they could spare; I had not yet learned to eat the stale and 
stringy salt-fish which is the staple food in these places, and for several 
days I had lived on rice-porridge, roasted bananas, and farinha. Florinda 
asked me whether I could eat Tamandua. I told her almost anything 
in the shape of flesh would be acceptable ; so the same day she went 
with an old negro named Antonio and the dogs, and in the evening 
brought one of the animals. The meat was stewed, and turned out 
very good, something like goose in flavour. The people at Caripi 
would not touch a morsel, saying it was not considered fit to eat in 
these parts ; I had read, however, that it was an article of food in other 
countries of South America. During the next two or three weeks, 
when we were short of fresh meat, Antonio was always ready, for a 
small reward, to get me a Tamandua. But one day he came to me in 
great distress, with the news that his favourite dog, Atrevido, had been 
caught in the grip of an ant-eater, and was killed. We hastened to the 
place, and found the dog was not dead, but severely torn by the claws 
of the animal, which itself was mortally wounded, and was now relaxing 
its grasp. 
The habits of the Myrmecophaga jubata are now pretty well known. 
* The old zoclogist Marcgrave called the Puma the Cuguacuarana, probably (the 
c’s being soft) a misspelling of SassG-arana ; hence the name Cougouar employed by 
French zoologists, and copied in most works on natural history. 
