CHAP. III.] HABITS OF THE PIRANHA 61 



Moreover, it was Miller's experience, the direct con- 

 trary of what we had been told, that splashing and a 

 commotion in the water attracted the piranhas, whereas 

 they rarely attacked anything that was motionless 

 unless it was bloody. Dead birds and mamni^ls, 

 thrown whole and unskinned into the water, were 

 permitted to float off unmolested, whereas the skinne;d 

 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 

 slightest disturbance in the water, such as that made by 

 scrubbing the hands vigorously with soap, immediately 

 attracted the attention of the savage little creatures, 

 who darted to the place, evidently hoping to fiud some 

 animal in difficulties. Once, while MUler 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 remarkable a sound as any animal sound to which I 

 have listened, except only the batrachian-like wailing 



