A JAGUAR-HUNT ON THE TAQUARY 63 



whereas they rarely attacked anything that was motionless 

 unless it was bloody. Dead birds and mammals, thrown 

 whole and unskinned into the water were permitted to 

 float off unmolested, whereas the skinned carcass of a 

 good-sized monkey was at once seized, pulled under the 

 water, and completely devoured by the blood-crazy fish. 

 A man who had dropped something of value waded in after it 

 to above the knees, but went very slowly and quietly, avoid- 

 ing every possibility of disturbance, and not venturing to 

 put his hands into the water. But nobody could bathe, 

 and even the slightest disturbance in the water, such as 

 that made by scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap, 

 immediately attracted the attention of the savage little 

 creatures, who darted to the place, evidently hoping to 

 find some animal in difficulties. Once, while Miller and 

 some Indians were attempting to launch a boat, and were 

 making a great commotion in the water, a piranha attacked 

 a naked Indian who belonged to the party and mutilated 

 him as he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream. 

 Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely 

 attacked; but if one is attacked by any chance, the blood 

 in the water maddens the piranhas, and they assail the 

 man with frightful ferocity. 



At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of 

 the comfortable little hotel we heard the cicadas; but I 

 did not hear the extraordinary screaming whistle of the 

 locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the gardens of 

 the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as re- 

 markable a sound as any animal sound to which I have 

 listened, except only the batrachian-like wailing of the tree 

 hyrax in East Africa; and like the East African mammal 



