NOCIUBNAL DISTURBANCES. lt>3 



parraka, and other gallinaceous birds. When the jaguaru 

 approached the skirt of the forest, our dog, which till then 

 had never ceased barking, began to howl and seek for 

 shelter beneath our hammocks. Sometimes, after a long 

 silence, the cry of the tiger came from the tops of the trees ; 

 and then it was followed by the sharp and long whistling 

 of the monkeys, which appeared to flee from the danger 

 that threatened them. We heard the same noises repeated, 

 during the course of whole months, whenever the forest 

 approached the bed of the river. The security evinced by 

 the Indians inspires confidence in the minds of travellers, 

 who readily persuade themselves that the tigers are afraid of 

 fire, and that they do not attack a man lying in his ham- 

 mock. These attacks are in fact extremely rare; and, 

 during a long abode in South America, I remember only 

 one example, of a llanero, who was found mutilated in his 

 hammock opposite the island of Achaguas. 



When the natives are interrogated on the causes of the 

 tremendous noise made by the beasts of the forest at certain 

 hours of the night, the answer is, " They are keeping the 

 feast of the full moon." 



I believe this agitation is most frequently the effect of 

 some conflict that has arisen in the depths of the forest. 

 The jaguars, for instance, pursue the peccaries and the 

 tapirs, which, having no defence but in their numbers, flee 

 in close troops, and break down the bushes they find in their 

 way. Terrified at this struggle, the timid and mistrustful 

 monkies answer, from the tops of the trees, the cries of the 

 large animals. They awaken the birds that live in society, 

 and by degrees the whole assembly is in commotion. It is 

 not always in a fine moonlight, but more particularly at the 

 time of a storm and violent showers, that this tumult takes 

 place among the wild beasts. " May Heaven grant them a 

 quiet night and repose, and us also !" said the monk who 

 accompanied us to the Rio Negro, when, sinking with 

 fatigue, he assisted in arranging our accommodations for the 

 night. It was indeed strange, to find no silence in the 

 solitude of woods. In the inns of Spain we dread the scund 

 of guitars from the next apartment ; on the Orinoco, where 

 the traveller's resting-place is- the open beach, or beneath 



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