A Jaguar-Hunt on the Taquary 65 



experience, the direct contrary of which we had been 

 told, that splashing and a commotion in the water at- 

 tracted the piranhas, whereas they rarely attacked any- 

 thing that was motionless unless it was bloody. Dead 

 birds and mammals, thrown whole and unskinned into 

 the water were permitted to float off unmolested, whereas 

 the skinned carcass of a good-sized monkey was at once 

 seized, pulled under the water, and completely devoured 

 by the blood-crazy fish. A man who had dropped some- 

 thing of value waded in after it to above the knees, but 

 went very slowly and quietly, avoiding every possibility 

 of disturbance, and not venturing to put his hands into 

 the water. But nobody could bathe, and even the slight- 

 est disturbance in the water, such as that made by scrub- 

 bing the hands vigorously with soap, immediately at- 

 tracted the attention of the savage little creatures, who 

 darted to the place, evidently hoping to find some ani- 

 mal in difficulties. Once, while Miller and some Indians 

 were attempting to launch a boat, and were making a 

 great commotion in the water, a piranha attacked a naked 

 Indian who belonged to the party and mutilated him as 

 he struggled and splashed, waist-deep in the stream. 

 Men not making a splashing and struggling are rarely 

 attacked ; but if one is attacked by any chance, the blood 

 in the water maddens the piranhas, and they assail the 

 man with frightful ferocity. 



At Corumba the weather was hot. In the patio of 

 the comfortable little hotel we heard the cicadas; but I 

 did not hear the extraordinary screaming whistle of the 

 locomotive cicada, which I had heard in the gardens of 

 the house in which I stayed at Asuncion. This was as 



