148 Through the Brazilian Wilderness 



although the direct reverse was occurring in North Amer- 

 ica and in the Old World. It is one of the innumerable 

 and at present insoluble problems in the history of life 

 on our planet. 



I spent a couple of days of hard work in getting the 

 big white-lipped peccaries — white-lipped being rather a 

 misnomer, as the entire under jaw and lower cheek are 

 white. They were said to be found on the other side of, 

 and some distance back from, the river. Colonel Rondon 

 had sent out one of our attendants, an old follower of his, 

 a full-blood Parecis Indian, to look for tracks. This was 

 an excellent man, who dressed and behaved just like the 

 other good men we had, and was called Antonio Parecis, 

 He found the tracks of a herd of thirty or forty cashadas, 

 and the following morning we started after them. 



On the first day we killed nothing. We were rather 

 too large a party, for one or two of the visiting fazen- 

 deiros came along with their dogs. I doubt whether these 

 men very much wished to overtake our game, for the big 

 peccary is a murderous foe of dogs (and is sometimes 

 dangerous to men). One of their number frankly refused 

 to come or to let his dogs come, explaining that the fierce 

 wild swine were "very badly brought up" (a literal trans- 

 lation of his words) and that respectable dogs and men 

 ought not to go near them. The other f azendeiros merely 

 feared for their dogs ; a groundless fear, I believe, as I do 

 not think that the dogs could by any exertion have been 

 dragged into dangerous proximity with such foes. The 

 ranch foreman, Benedetto, came with us, and two or three 

 other camaradas, including Antonio, the Parecis Indian. 

 The horses were swum across the river, each being led 



