228 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



otherwise sores would have ensued. I imme- 

 diately got into the hammock, and there passed 

 a painful and sleepless night, and for two days 

 after I was disabled from walking. 



About midnight, as I was lying awake, and in 

 great pain, I heard the Indian say, ^'Massa, 

 massa, you no hear tiger?'* I listened atten- 

 tively, and heard the softly sounding tread of his 

 feet as he approached us. The moon had gone 

 down; but every now and then we could get a 

 glance of him by the light of our fire : he was the 

 jaguar, for I could see the spots on his body. 

 Had I wished to have fired at him, I was not able 

 to take a sure aim, for I was in such pain that I 

 could not turn myself in my hammock. The 

 Indian would have fired, but I would not allow 

 him to do so, as I wanted to see a little more of 

 our new visitor; for it is not every day or night 

 that the traveller is favoured with an undisturbed 

 sight of the juguar in his own forests. 



Whenever the fire got low, the jaguar came a 

 little nearer, and when the Indian renewed it, he 

 retired abruptly ; sometimes he would come within 

 twenty yards, and then we had a view of him, 

 sitting on his hind legs like a dog; sometimes he 

 moved slowly to and fro, and at other times we 

 could hear him mend his pace, as if impatient. 

 At last the Indian, not relishing the idea of hav- 

 ing such company in the neighbourhood, could 

 contain himself no longer, and set up a most 

 tremendous yell. The jaguar bounded off like a 

 racehorse, and returned no more ; it appeared by 

 the print of his feet the next morning that he was 

 a full-grown jaguar. 



