WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 241 



the rope, whicli was thirty yards long, being fas- 

 tened to a tree), the more he pulled, the faster 

 the barbs would stick into his stomach. This 

 wooden hook, if you may so call it, was well baited 

 with the flesh of the acouri, and the entrails were 

 twisted round the rope for about a foot above it. 



Nearly a mile from where we had our ham- 

 mocks, the sand-bank was steep and abrupt, and 

 the river very still and deep; there the Indian 

 pricked a stick into the sand. It was two feet 

 long, and on its extremity was fixed the machine ; 

 it hung suspended about a foot from the water, 

 and the end of the rope was made fast to a stake 

 driven well into the sand. 



The Indian then took the empty shell of a land 

 tortoise and gave it some heavy blows with an 

 axe. I asked him why he did that. He said it 

 was to let the cajTuan hear that something was 

 going on. In fact the Indian meant it as the 

 cayman's dinner-bell. 



Having done this, we went back to the ham- 

 mocks, not intending to visit it again till morning. 

 During the night, the jaguars roared and grum- 

 bled in the forest, as though the world was going 

 wrong with them, and at intervals we could hear 

 the distant cayman. The roaring of the jaguars 

 was awful ; but it was music to the dismal noise 

 of these hideous and malicious reptiles. 



About half -past five in the morning, the Indian 

 stole off silently to take a look at the bait. On 

 arriving at the place he set up a tremendous 

 shout. We all jumped out of our hammocks, and 

 ran to him. The Indians got there before me, for 

 they had no clothes to put on, and I lost two 



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