358 AN AFFECTING INCIDENT. 



The caiman never attacks man if his intended victim is on 

 his guard, but he is cunning enough to know when this may be done 

 with impunity. Mr. Bates records an affecting instance. The river 

 Amazons at Caigara had sunk one season to a very low point, so that 

 the port and bathing-place of the village now lay at the foot of a long 

 sloping bank, and a large caiman made his appearance in the shallow 

 and muddy water. "We were all obliged," says our traveller,* "to 

 be very careful in taking our bath ; most of the people simply using 

 a calabash, pouring the water over themselves while standing on the 

 brink. A large trading canoe, belonging to a Barra merchant, arrived 

 at this time, and the Indian crew, as usual, spent the first day or two 

 after their coming into port in drunkenness and debaucheiy ashore. 

 One of the men, during the greatest heat of the day, when almost 

 every one was enjoying his afternoon's nap, took it into his head 

 whilst in a tipsy state to go down and bathe. He was seen only by 

 the Suiz de Paz (Justice of Peace), a feeble old man who was lying in 

 his hammock, in the open verandah at the rear of his house on the 

 top of the bank, and who shouted to the besotted Indian to beware 

 of the alligator. Before he could repeat his warning the man stumbled, 

 and a pair of gaping jaws, appearing suddenly above the surface, 

 seized him round the waist and drew him under the water. A cry 

 of agony was the last sign made by the wretched victim. The village 

 was aroused ; the young men, with praiseworthy readiness, seized 

 their harpoons and hurried down to the bank ; but of course it was 

 too late, a winding track of blood on the surface of the water was all 

 that could be seen. They embarked, however, in light boats, deter- 

 mined on vengeance ; the monster was traced, and when, after a short 

 lapse of time, he came up to breathe, one leg sticking out from his 

 jaws, was dispatched with bitter curses." 



In the temperate regions of North America, where crocodiles still 



exist, these animals pass the entire winter in lethargic torpor. In 



the Pampas of tropical America, on the contrary, it is during the hot 



season that they remain inert in the mud of the dried-up marshes. 



* H. W. Bates, " The Naturalist on the Amazons." 



