The Puma, or Lion of America. 47 



from his cheek, laying the bone bare. After in- 

 flicting this terrible punishment and eyeing its 

 fallen foe for a few seconds it trotted quietly away. 

 The wounded man succeeded in getting on to his 

 horse and reaching his home. The hanging flesh was 

 restored to its place and the ghastly rents sewn 

 up, and in the end he recovered : but he was dis- 

 figured for life ; his temper also completely changed ; 

 he became morose and morbidly sensitive to the 

 ridicule of his neighbours, and he never again 

 ventured to join them in their hunting expeditions. 

 I inquired of the comandante, and of others, 

 whether any case had come to their knowledge in 

 that district in which the puma had shown anything 

 beyond a mere passive friendliness towards man ; in 

 reply they related the following incident, which had 

 occurred at the Saladillo a few years before my 

 visit : The men all went out one day beyond the 

 frontier to form a cerco, as it is called, to hunt 

 ostriches and other game. The hunters, number- 

 ing about thirty, spread themselves round in a vast 

 ring and, advancing towards the centre, drove the 

 animals before them. During the excitement of the 

 chase which followed, while they were all engaged 

 in preventing the ostriches, deer, &c., from doubling 

 back and escaping, it was not noticed that one of 

 the hunters had disappeared ; his horse, however, re- 

 turned to its home during the evening, and on the 

 next morning a fresh hunt for the lost man was 

 organized. He was eventually found lying on the 

 ground with a broken leg, where he had been thrown 

 at the beginning of the hunt. He related that 

 about an hour after it had become dark a puma 



