HUNTING OF WILD BEASTS. 273 



cient argument to see, that the Indians in their tongue LlB&amp;lt; 

 have no proper words to signifie these beasts,, but they vse 

 the same Spanish names, although they be corrupted : for, } 

 being ignorant of the thing, they tooke the word common 

 to those places from whence they came. I have found this 

 a good rule, to discerne what things the Indians had before 

 the Spaniardes came there, and what they had not : for they 

 gave names to those they had and knew before,, and have 

 given new names to these that are newly corne vnto them, 

 which commonly are the same Spanish names, although they 

 pronounce them after their maner, as for a horse, wine,, and 

 wheate. LThey found of some sortes of beasts that are also 

 in Europe, and were not carried thither by the Spaniards. 

 These are lions, tigres, beares, boares, foxes, and other 

 fierce and wilde beasts, whereof we have treated in the first 

 booke, so as it was not likely they should passe to the Indies 

 by sea, being impossible to swimme the ocean : and it were 

 a follie to imagine that men had imbarked them with them. 

 It followes therefore that this worlde ioynes with the new in 

 some part : by which these beasts might passe, and so by Genes, 

 little and little multiplied this new world. [For, in accord 

 ance with the Holy Scripture, all these animals were saved 

 in the ark of Noah, and have thence been spread over the 

 world.pj The lions which I have seene are not red, neither 

 have they such haire as they vsually paint them with. They 

 are grey, and not so furious as they seeme in pictures. The 

 Indians assemble in troupes to hunt the lion, and make as it 

 were a circle, which they do call Chacu^ wherewith they in- 

 viron them, and after they kil them with stones, staves, and 

 other weapons. These lions vse to climbe trees, where being 

 mounted, the Indians kil them with launces and crosse- 

 bowes, but more easily with harquebuzes. The tygres are 

 more fierce and cruell, and are more dangerous to meete, 



1 Omitted in the old translation. 



2 For an account of the Chacu, see G. de in Vega, ii, p. 115. 



T 



