50 UP THE PARAGUAY [chap, ii 



story after story to tell of them. Only three weeks 

 previously a twelve-year-old boy who had gone in 

 swimming near Corumba was attacked, and literally 

 devoured alive by them. Colonel Rondon during his 

 exploring trips had met with more than one unpleasant 

 experience in connection with them. He had lost one 

 of his toes by the bite of a piranha. He was about 

 to bathe, and had chosen a shallow pool at the edge of 

 the river, which he carefully inspected until he was 

 satisfied that none of the man-eating fish were in it ; 

 yet as soon as he put his foot into the water one of 

 them attacked him and bit off a toe. On another 

 occasion, while wading across a narrow stream, one of 

 his party was attacked ; the fish bit him on the thighs 

 and buttocks, and, when he put down his hands, tore 

 them also ; he was near the bank, and by a rush reached 

 it and swung himself out of the water by means of an 

 overhanging hmb of a tree ; but he was terribly injured, 

 and it took him six months before his wounds healed 

 and he recovered. An extraordinary incident occurred 

 on another trip. The party were without food and very 

 hungry. On reaching a stream they dynamited it, and 

 waded in to seize the stunned fish as they floated on the 

 surface. One man. Lieutenant Pyrineus, having his 

 hands full, tried to hold one fish by putting its head 

 into his mouth ; it was a piranha, and seemingly stunned, 

 but in a moment it recovered, and bit a big section out 

 of his tongue. Such a haemorrhage followed that his life 

 was saved with the utmost difficulty. On another 

 occasion a member of the party was off by himself on 

 a mule. The mule came into camp alone. Following 

 his track back, they came to a ford, where in the water 

 they found the skeleton of the dead man, his clothes 

 uninjured, but every particle of flesh stripped from his 



