RoTH] ANIMAL FOOD 131 
taking the place of the rung of aladder. The call of the agouti can be 
imitated by whistling through a leaf rolled up like a horn (Cr, 205). 
On the way back from making an ascent of Mount Roraima my Pata- 
mona guides ran down an acouri in the open savanna. Each time 
the creature tried to turn into the bush one of the boys intercepted it, 
and thus forcing it out into the open, they kept on chasing it until 
they succeeded in getting near enough to kill it with a stick. Within 
recent times, on the Demerara River at least, the acouri, ete., is hunted 
by lamplight (sec. 158). Acouri andlabba are also trapped (sec. 161). 
165. The armadillo is usually dug out of its underground burrow. 
To prevent disappointment the Indians carefully examine the mouth 
of the hole and put a short stick 
down it. Now, if on intro- 
ducing the stick, a number of 
mosquitoes come out, the In- 
dians know to a certainty that 
the armadillo is in it; wherever 
there are no mosquitoes in the 
hole, there is no armadillo. 
[Strange to say, as I have 
already recorded, the North 
Queensland aborigines practice 
a similar method of determin- 
ing the presence of an opossum 
in a hollow tree.| The Indian, 
having thus satisfied himself 
that the armadillo is there, will 
cut a long and slender withe and 
introduce it into the hole. He 
carefully observes the line the 
stick takes, and then sinks a pit 4 
in the sand to catch the end of what Oe, 
it. This done, he puts it far- 
ther into the hole and digs an- Fic. 59.—An acouri bench in the Patamona 
other pit, and so on, until at last Soret 
he comes up with the armadillo which has been making itself a passage 
in the sand till it has exhausted all its strength through pure exertion 
(W, 212; StC, m, 45-46). It is said that a labaria snake is commonly 
met in the armadillo burrow. Gumilla also refers to this association 
of the two animals from which many misfortunes arise. For instance, 
among the Guajiva and Chiricoa, who live principally on them, there 
is not a tribe (capitania) but has 40 or 50 of its members mutilated 
or lamed. These people are so savage that if, in pulling an armadillo 
out of its hole, one gets his hand bitten by the snake, the others im- 
