III ON ANIMAL LIFE 81 
threatened them. We heard the same noises 
repeated durmg the course of whole months 
whenever the forest approached the bed of the 
river. 
“ When the natives are interrogated on the 
causes of the tremendous noise made by 
the beasts of the forest at certain hours of 
the night, the answer is, they are keeping the 
feast of the full moon. I believe this agita- 
tion is most frequently the effect of some con- 
flict that has arisen in the depths of the 
forest. The jaguars, for instance, pursue the 
peccaries and the tapirs, which, having no 
defence, flee in close troops, and break down 
the bushes they find in their way. Terrified 
at this struggle, the timid and distrustful 
monkeys answer, from the tops of the trees, 
the cries of the large animals. They awaken 
the birds that live in society, and by degrees 
the whole assembly is in commotion. It is 
not always in a fine moonlight, but more par- 
ticularly at the time of a storm of violent 
showers, that this tumult takes place among 
the wild beasts. ‘May heaven grant them a 
quiet night and repose, and us also!’ said the 
G 
