444 



THE ADVENTURES OF 



tuning guitars and preventing the strings from break- 

 ing. 



A shot fired by the Indian led us back to the bivouac ; 

 our companion had just killed an ocelot, called by the In- 

 dians ocotchotli. 



" You see this animal, Chanito ?" cried 1'Encuerado, who 

 was stroking its black and brown spotted fur; "well, its 

 tongue is poisonous. When it kills a stag or peccary, it 

 buries its prey under some leaves, then climbs the nearest 

 tre^e, and howls until it attracts all the carnivorous animals 

 near. When they have feasted, it comes down and devours 

 what is left." 



" But why does it call the animals ?" I asked. 



"Didn't I tell you its tongue is poisonous? If it ate 

 first, the venom would be communicated to the food, and 

 the animals that feasted on the remains would die." 



This fable narrated by Hernandez, and still told by the 

 Indians, must have originated in some as yet unobserved 

 habit of the ocotchotli. 



