212 WILD HOGS — MONKEYS. 



CHAP.. Will, flowed with violence. Tlic little girl then took up a 

 — branch of a tree and struck the animal, which fled before 

 her. The Indians hearing the cries of the children, ran 

 up and saw the jaguar, whicli bounded off^ without 

 neflections of showing any disposition to defend itself." "What," 

 Humboldt. ^]^.g nu,„i3o"i(jt, " meant this fit of playfulness in an ani- 

 mal which, although not difficult to be tamed in our 

 menageries, is always so ferocious and cruel in the state 

 of freedom ] If we chose to admit that, being sure of 

 its prey, it played with the young Indian as the domestic 

 cat plays with a bird, the wings of which have been 

 clipped, how can we account for the forbearance of a 

 large jaguar wlien pursued by a little girl ] If the 

 jaguar was not pressed by hunger, why should it have 

 gone up to the children ? There are mysteries in the 

 affections and hatreds of animals. We have seen lions 

 kill three or four dogs which were put into their cage, 

 and instantly caress another which had the courage to 

 seize the royal beast l)y the mane. Man is ignorant of 

 the sources of these instincts. It would seem that 

 weakness inspii'es more interest the more confiding it is." 

 American The cattle introduced by the Jesuits had entirely dis- 



^°fi* appeared ; but the Indians rear the common pig and 



another kind peculiar to America, and known in Europe 

 by the name of pccari. A third species of hog, the 

 Apidii, which is of a dark-brown colour, wanders in 

 large herds composed of several hundreds. M. Bonpland, 

 when upon a botanical excursion, saw a drove of these 

 animals pass near him. It marched in a close body ; 

 the males before, and each sow accompanied by her 

 young. The natives kill thein with small lances tied to 

 cords. At the mission they saw a monkey of a new 

 species, wliich hud been brought up in captivity, and 

 whicli every day seized a pig in the court-yard, and 

 remained upon it from morning to night, in all its 

 wanderings in tlie savannahs. Here, for tlie first time, 

 they lic.ird of tiie hairy man of the woods, a large ani- 

 mal of the apo kind, whicli, according to report, carries 

 off women, buills huts, and sometimes eats human flesh. 



