102 HEADWATERS OF THE PARAGUAY 



we came on the black howler monkey. The place smelt 

 almost like a menagerie. Not watching with sufficient 

 care I brushed against a sapling on which the venomous 

 fire-ants swarmed. They burnt the skin like red-hot 

 cinders, and left httle sores. More than once in the 

 drier parts of the marsh we met small caymans making 

 their way from one pool to another. My horse stepped 

 over one before I saw it. The dead carcasses of others 

 showed that on their wanderings they had encountered 

 jaguars or human foes. 



We had been out about three hours when one of the 

 dogs gave tongue in a large belt of woodland and jungle 

 to the left of our line of march through the marsh. The 

 other dogs ran to the sound, and after a while the long 

 barking told that the thing, whatever it was, was at bay 

 or else in some refuge. We made our way toward the 

 place on foot. The dogs were baying excitedly at the 

 mouth of a huge hollow log, and very short examination 

 showed us that there were two peccaries within, doubt- 

 less a boar and sow. However, just at this moment the 

 peccaries bolted from an unsuspected opening at the 

 other end of the log, dove into the tangle, and instantly 

 disappeared with the hoimds in fuU cry after them. It 

 was twenty minutes later before we again heard the 

 pack baying. With much difficulty, and by the inces- 

 sant swinging of the machetes, we opened a traU through 

 the network of vines and branches. This time there 

 was only one peccary, the boar. He was at bay in a 

 half-hollow stump. The dogs were about his head, 

 raving with excitement, and it was not possible to use 

 the rifle ; so I borrowed the spear of Dom Joao the 

 younger, and killed the fierce httle boar therewith. 



This was an animal akin to our collared peccary, 

 smaller and less fierce than its white-jawed kinsfolk. 



