THE JAGUAR, OR AMERICAN PANTHER. 189 



a Llanera who was found torn in his hammock op- 

 posite the island of Achaguas. * In another part of 

 the Narrative of this accomplished traveller, we have 

 the following anecdote, which shows the jaguar to 

 be very easily frightened ; we doubt, however, if the 

 forbearance of the animal would have been very 

 long continued. " Two Indian children, a girl and 

 a boy? the one about seven, the other about nine 

 years old, were at play on the outskirts of the same 

 village, when a large jaguar, about two o'clock in 

 the afternoon, came out of the woods and made to- 

 wards them, playfully bounding along, his head down 

 and his back arched, in the manner of a cat. He 

 approached the boy in this way, and began to play 

 with him ; nor was the latter even sensible of his 

 danger, until the jaguar struck him so hard on the 

 head with his paw, as to draw blood, whereupon the 

 little girl, with a small switch which she had in her 

 hand, struck him, and he was already bounding back 

 again, not at all irritated, to his retreat, when the 

 Indians of the village, alarmed by her cries, came up 

 to them." 



The jaguar is generally hunted with dogs, which 

 run him to bay, or make him take refuge in a tree, 

 where he is kept till the coming up of the hunters, 

 who shoot him or disable him with their long 

 spears. He is also said to be hunted singly, the 

 huntsman having his left arm defended by a sheep's 



* Humboldt's Pers. Nar. iv. 436. Azara mentions more 

 Crequent attacks on man. 



