A HERD OF PECCARIES 143 



badly wounded by them, while almost every man who 

 hunts them often is occasionally forced to scramble up 

 a tree to avoid a charge. But I have never heard of a 

 man being killed by them. They sometimes surround 

 the tree in which the man has taken refuge, and keep 

 him up it. Cherrie, on one occasion in Costa Rica, was 

 thus kept up a tree for several hours by a great herd of 

 three or four hundred of these peccaries ; and this 

 although he killed several of them. Ordinarily, how- 

 ever, after making their charge, they do not turn, but 

 pass on out of sight. Their great foe is the jaguar, but 

 unless he exercises much caution they will turn the 

 tables on him. Cherrie, also, in Costa Rica, came on 

 the body of a jaguar, which had evidently been killed 

 by a herd of peccaries some twenty-four hours pre- 

 viously. The ground was trampled up by their hoofs, 

 and the carcass was rent and slit into pieces. 



Benedetto, as soon as we discovered the tracks, 

 slipped oiF his horse, changed his leggings for sandals, 

 threw his rifle over his arm, and took the trail of the 

 herd, followed by the only dog which would accompany 

 him. The peccaries had gone into a broad belt of 

 forest, with a marsh on the farther side. At first 

 Antonio led the Colonel and me, all of us on horseback, 

 at a canter round this belt to the marsh side, thinking 

 the peccaries had gone almost through it. But we 

 could hear nothing. The dog only occasionally barked, 

 and then not loudly. Finally we heard a shot. 

 Benedetto had found the herd, which showed no fear of 

 him ; he had backed out and fired a signal shot. We 

 all three went into the forest on foot toward where the 

 shot had been fired. It was dense jungle and stiflingly 

 hot. We could not see clearly for more than a few 

 feet, or move easily without free use of the machetes. 



