THE FRIENDLY PUMA 43 



elephant and the dragon, the deer and the serpent, 

 with many others, that we should hardly expect to see 

 them survive the period of early Jesuit conversion. 

 But, on the contrary, these beliefs, which the Indians 

 held long before they were converted, are now restated 

 in a much more positive form, and with abundance of 

 corroborative evidence. Views only tentatively held, 

 or set down as current, but not confirmed, by Azara, 

 are fully confirmed by Mr. Hudson. Meantime, it is 

 interesting to see exactly what Azara did say, as he is 

 a very intelligent and honourable Spanish gentleman, 

 and * spent twenty years alone with the birds and wild 

 beasts.' When Don Felix d' Azara was making his 

 notes on the natural history of Paraguay, between 1782 

 and 1 80 1, he received a copy of Buffon's * Natural 

 History/ then a new book, and in the acme of its 

 fame. The Spaniard, not dazzled by Buffon's brilliant 

 generalizations, found that his facts as to South 

 American animals were much amiss. ' Vulgar, false, 

 and mistaken,' was Azara's outspoken criticism. He 

 therefore determined to show what a Spaniard could do, 

 working in the field of facts, to do justice to the South 

 American species, or, as he naively calls them, * my 

 animals my cats, my monkeys, my otters/ The 

 puma, * my second species of cat,' then very common 

 in many districts with which Azara was acquainted, 

 though it was almost killed off in Paraguay, was the 



